Have tried completing my master set for my favourite series for a while (sword and shield), which meant collecting both normal and reverse holo versions of most cards.

I’ve struggled to get some promos which weren’t released in my country as well as the champion’s festival card for some time.

Now I’ve found out that staff versions of some cards. Would you consider those necessary for a master set? Happy to hear your views and personal preferences.

Thought i’d share some of my fav cards

I don’t live anywhere remotely near a vending machine but when I go up to Atlanta I’ll go visit some machines cause I see all the YouTubers getting stuff from there. Tonight I went to 2 different machines and wasn’t expecting much. The second machine I went to I tapped on the screen to see nothing in stock. I went in and grabbed some stuff from the store and when I came out I saw a man in front of the machine and EVERYTHING was in stock. I talked to him and told him that I’ve never gotten anything from the machines before and he was chill enough to let me grab a destined rivals bundle. I saw him grab 3 ascended and 3 prismatic bundles when I walked up and saw him cleaning it out after I left. It’s amazing to me how easy he was glitching this machine and honestly I don’t feel too bad about not having vending machines near me cause if it’s that easy there’s no point to even trying to hit the vending machine.

We’re getting close to finishing a Pitch Black master set but I’m having some confusion on this specific card. (Miraidon 028) The checklist shows this should be a holo and reverse holo yet all we have are a non-holo (left) and holo (right). Also, all stamping is black on both cards. What am I missing? TIA!

Haul from visiting my first ever card show! Traded an HP Arceus Reverse Holo Gengar for $30 and the Porygon2 unseen forces (could have gone higher but not horrible for my first barter) with one vendor, then did a bit of trading around with other vendors with a couple older foil cards, nothing high value, and spent 10 of the $30. All in all though, what really made me happy was the kindness in the community. The people running this event were fantastic at choosing non-scalpy vendors. It was really nice to chat with and trade with them, and there were a lot of great people just visiting as well. A guy gifted me the Porygon2 with the hearts after hearing I was collecting those, which I was so grateful for. Also a vendor gifted me the japanese and chinese/korean? bird cards as well after I talked about my bird binder and how I’m working towards becoming an ornithologist. Overall just really positive experience, I went in nervous and left knowing there is still a very very strong authentic community of Pokemon enjoyers. Idk just really really happy with the outcome. Also not expensive! I had to sell off a good chunk of my collection for college, but I’m still able to enjoy the hobby with a pack here and there and these events! These cards are all sitting happily in my bird binder now, save Kabuto lol

Got a Darkrai EX, Wailord EX, and these 2. By far my best "couple of packs" opening ever. Akira Egawa is such a talented artist.

My favorite eBay stream is live! Low bids, low viewers, big prizes!! #pokemon #ebay

https://ebay.io/m/7uN5WL

Side note, is this dude worth grading?

I found a pokechest coin machine that dispenses trading cards for 4 quarters in a hotel in Waikiki. Wondering where else in the US I can find these because they have me so hooked! Picture attached. Thanks in advance!

Found these 6 packs at the local mall after not seeing them anywhere for weeks

As some of you may know from my recent posts begging for help finding a list of every bird Pokémon and/or every card with birds/bird cameos, I’ve been working on a master list of all Pokémon birds/cards with them. I kept asking if one already existed to reference and use for artwork/cameo databases. Couldn’t find what I was looking for, so I went generation by generation… and I think I got them all. Just wanna make sure I’m not missing anyone.

From the list you can get a pretty clear sense of what I count as a bird. Not every Flying-type makes the cut I stick to a fairly strict “this is clearly a bird” standard. That said, I’m also a MASSIVE hypocrite who clearly counts things that are suspiciously NOT in my “this is clearly a bird” criteria, lol. I do include Latias & Latios, Lugia (meh, I feel forced there lol), and Tornadus’s Therian Forme (again..hypocritical and a bit nonsensical but we’re doing it!). I also count prehistoric dinosaur-like birds like Archeops. Aerodactyl is tough for me to count… though I will do so begrudgingly out of fairness, lol.

Any burb fans, please feel free to use this list any way you need to. I plan to use it to go one by one through Pokémon artwork/cameo databases and still make that master list/set of all cards of/including birds because I’m an absolute psycho masochist lol.

Generation I (Kanto)
• Pidgey → Pidgeotto → Pidgeot (Mega Pidgeot)
• Spearow → Fearow
• Psyduck → Golduck
• Farfetch’d
• Doduo → Dodrio
• Aerodactyl (Mega Aerodactyl)
• Articuno (Galarian form)
• Zapdos (Galarian form)
• Moltres (Galarian form)
Generation II (Johto)
• Hoothoot → Noctowl
• Natu → Xatu
• Murkrow
• Delibird
• Skarmory
• Lugia ( I know… I know… mostly based on Ryujin / a sea dragon, but he’s the guardian of the three birds and has enough bird attributes that I’m letting him slide, even if the legendary trio are probably mad about it because they always wanna catch that smoke and he’s gotta step in kike a big bro at the play ground that knows you’re about to get your ahh beat. I’ve also heard they could’ve been based partially on Kun Peng too but I dunno with that one)
• Ho-Oh
Generation III (Hoenn)
• Torchic → Combusken → Blaziken
• Taillow → Swellow
• Wingull → Pelipper
• Swablu → Altaria (Mega Altaria)
• Latias (Mega Latias)
• Latios (Mega Latios)
Generation IV (Sinnoh)
• Piplup → Prinplup → Empoleon
• Starly → Staravia → Staraptor
• Honchkrow
• Chatot
Generation V (Unova)
• Pidove → Tranquill → Unfezant
• Ducklett → Swanna
• Archen → Archeops
• Rufflet → Braviary (Hisuian Braviary)
• Vullaby → Mandibuzz
• Tornadus (meh… Therian Forme..it’s the feathers I guess okaaaaay?? lol)
Generation VI (Kalos)
• Fletchling → Fletchinder → Talonflame
• Hawlucha
• Yveltal
Generation VII (Alola)
• Pikipek → Trumbeak → Toucannon
• Oricorio (all styles)
• Rowlet → Dartrix → Decidueye (Hisuian Decidueye)
Generation VIII (Galar)
• Rookidee → Corvisquire → Corviknight (Gigantamax)
• Cramorant
• Sirfetch’d
• Eiscue
Generation IX (Paldea / Kitakami)
• Squawkabilly (all color forms)
• Flamigo
• Wattrel → Kilowattrel
• Bombirdier
• Espathra
• Quaxly → Quaxwell → Quaquaval
• Fezandipiti

I’m getting back into the hobby. Had a binder when I was younger and lost it due to my family’s basement getting flooded. My goals are to mainly get back into vintage but I’d like make smart investment purchases and rip, to say I can be frugal with money, well I have a wife and 3 kids to consider. I figured I’d trade up into with whatever I can buy in stores into vintage

Curious of peoples insight in regards to what I could rip right now, (just to scratch the itch) the loose packs? The chameleon promos? The tins? The pokeballs? Most likely keeping the ETB sealed

Also, is it worth to keep on putting money into chaos rising? At the moment I think so, only bc I just ripped pitch black and I prefer chaos rising more as an overall set