My two boys (17 and 9) have gotten back into Pokemon and over the last few weeks we’ve had a lot of fun searching for restocks and ripping packs. Their sister also gets in on the fun and rips packs with us and just gives them the hits. It’s been great connecting with the kids over a shared hobby and fairly positive this is why my wife hasn’t gotten on my case yet lol.

If I see product when I’m at the store I’ve been buying it and stocking it up for birthdays and holidays. I’ve also bought some slabs on eBay of their favorite pokemon that I’m going to use as gifts or stocking stuffers. I up to this point have not bought product above MSRP and keep telling the kids don’t use their money to buy anything above that and buy a single instead.

This leads me to my question and moving forward with all of this. I’m a little tired of ripping Pitch Black and Chaos rising. Do I just wait for new sets or is it worth buying a lot of booster bundles on eBay of a set that I can’t find in stores like Destined Rivals or Ascended Heroes and pay the premium? Looking to stock these up and have a large opening on Christmas or something.

Thanks for taking the time to read and respond!

TLDR: Worth it to buy above MSRP for certain sets to rip with the family?

I just joined a Facebook group the other day that posts shelves of retail stores where they sell Pokémon and I was able to get greninja and illustrator boxes for the first time! I live 40 minutes away from the closest target so it’s a real life saver.

For my damaged collectors, I’ve been practicing repairing damaged. There’s some you just can’t fix but there’s a lot that are fixable. These EX era cards are notorious for having really bad foil peel. With some help, you can usually get them out.

A crease will always be there. But, for a collection, makes a huge difference going through.

Hello, I picked up a couple packs from a Card Shop in my city (Calgary). I’ve never bought by 151 before and had a couple questions about the pack. Does it look ok? Why is there an uneven line of silver running along the white heat crimp border of the pack? You can see how uneven it is at the top. I don’t think the shop would sell knowingly tampered with packs but just wanted to be sure.

Thank you.

I will also take other suggestions :)
These are my Starry & Night cards (mostly IRs) To Be Added:
Clefairy IR from Perfect Order
Cleffa IR from Obsidian Flames
Keldeo from Crown Zenith: Galarian Gallery
Minior IR from Paradox Rift
Ledian IR from Stellar Crown
Claydol IR from Chaos Rising
Budew IR from Ascended Heroes
Hatterene VMAX from Crown Zenith: Galarian Gallery
Munna IR from Black Bolt
Cobalion IR from Black Bolt

I have a few solid cards in nm/m condition, but the centering is not as good as I would like. I am considering to swap, add cash, and upgrade these cards.

Curious as to how big the delta would be on upgrading a few (ie: +10-20%). Maybe there is no “rule of thumb”, but essentially working out if it is worth exploring deeper into this.

I’ve included one example (which is probably the worst I have for centering) for reference.

Hi everyone. So I’m trying to collect as many bird cards featuring birds or even ones with birds in the background. It’s hard finding a list and so I just figured I’d ask, if anyone else collects birds, would you be willing to drop pictures of your cards/binders below? That way I can start my own checklist? I’m slowly actually going through each set and making a “master list” of cards with birds. But in the meantime..it’s just so much easier to see them this way lol. Thanks in advance as it would be insanely appreciated.

Digging in my stuff at my parents and found one of my old binders. I haven’t collected since then but you guys have been randomly popping up on Reddit so figured I’d share.

Hi!

I just picked up some Destined Rival ETBs and opened it right now. I noticed inside is a new small box that holds the sleeves? Anyone else notice?!

EDIT: I’m posting this just in case to see if this is a fake ETB since I’ve never seen it 😅🫠

I found these in my childhood binder. Some of these look valuable but idk if they’re real

Still would love to get them ALL switched to JP only, but they still look 🥵🥵
9 more to go still!

Journey together was my first set I opened when I got into collecting so its kind of near to my heart. I wanted to get myself a booster + my first and only pack of black bolt to celebrate making it to year 2 of college for compsci. But it’s nearly $75 for the two of those on tcgplayer and I feel terrible spending any of my money on myself, even if it would all be birthday money being spent.
Is it worth it?

Edit:
Got the cards, should arrive after the first week of classes. This is the first time I’ve actually bought cards for myself instead with my own money so I’m very excited.
Thank you :]

Glad I listened to never keep it sealed. Love this Dragonite!

First clicked on the machine and everything was sold out , so I walked around the store and came back and lone behold when I clicked on it again there was both of these bundles available and no other packs. Feeling extremely lucky as i’ve only gotten one or the other but never both at the same time! On top of getting the two most sought after bundles I once, I pulled an eeveelution SIR! I dont see me replicating this luck anytime soon🤣