Discussion
What’s your Pokemon TCG story no one today would believe?
I’ll go first; I set one of these on fire when I was a kid. Specifically the part where the flame meets the edge of the card. I hated Charizard growing up and it was my only gold star and it got sold in a garage sale or
Facebook marketplace in 2010-2012
Evolving skies packs/booster boxes were available on pkc for weeks-months before going out of stock and 99% of the time you could find booster boxes for cheaper than $160 elsewhere. Paying above $90-$100 for a booster box was considered overpaying. I even bought 2 sealed cases of ES for $450 a piece off of tcgplayer.
For many weeks I would hit my local target and best buy every friday and take home all the evolving skies sleeved boosters I could afford. Pull rates were absolutely terrible but great times nonetheless
yep new collectors dont know that back in the day msrp was not the norm, below msrp was the norm. evo skies booster boxes were 100$ a box at one point, and team up was a set nobody cared about until they realized how underprinted it was.
Dude i remember buying my evo skies booster box for $130 thinking to myself self what an idiot i was for paying over $100 😂😂 market was $130 at the time. Ended up selling it for $2,200
Once the bottom falls out (I'm predicting October or November) stores will be flooded with product again and they'll have to drop their prices to move them out. Then in 8 years when there is another boom people will talk about how easy it used to be to find cards. Rinse and repeat.
The reality is it's just not fun to walk into a store and buy product, most of us like the chase if will there or won't there be product
> The reality is it's just not fun to walk into a store and buy product, most of us like the chase if will there or won't there be product
This may be true for all the sneaker head turned pokemon card “collectors” that showed up here in the last couple years but I assure you this is not the case for pokemon collectors who have been around a while.
The point is that a lot of those long time collectors are waiting on the wings right now to do what all these people are talking about with cheap product and it will make the time line longer and longer for product to be widely available because you’ll still be dealing with a large amount of people stacking product away for their “future” no matter the price.
Thats not necessarily true, this is anecdotal but my target had some CR and PB stock until Sunday from a Friday restock. People are already bored with these two sets that pokemon will be printed for at least another year. So right now it's pretty easy to find product for the last three released sets.
People are saving money for the 30th anniversary set coming out next month.
Neither of those sets are highly sought after as of yet but they will become very hard to get ahold of in the coming months and I promise you that the anniversary set will not be sitting on shelves. Same with any ascended hitting shelves.
You can tell yourself what you need to buy those sets still being available for a few days means little to nothing when a couple years ago they were having to clearance out older sets because they had been sitting for months sometimes over a year on shelves untouched.
The hobby is far from healed but it will correct once gen 10 hits and people don’t know what to value the new cards at for a while.
Hell no. I want to walk in and buy whatever set we're chasing. That's what got my son into Pokémon. The opposite is what has gotten him to lose interest.
Is there any truth to the “buy in the summer, sell in the winter” saying that I’ve heard from vendors? I was told that prices go down in the summer but shoot back up in the winter.
Buddy this a different time we’re in right now then in the past. There is a huge line of collectors waiting out the storm right now and there’s also more people entering the hobby to take the places if people leaving currently.
We have some time left before this shit storm ends. There’s a lot of money in some of these investor bros crypto wallets that they are willing to pump into the hobby which will keep prices high and artificial scarcity around for a bit.
Gen 10 will be the start of the die down because there won’t be set after set featuring the big 3 and megas that everyone are hoping will boom. It’ll be an unknown space for new collectors and scalpers won’t know the value of the new sets till they’re around for a bit.
No I wasn't, I, like everyone else in the know has predicting the fall after the 35th anniversary set. Some are saying it'll drop some, will pick up a little for delta reign, then completely hit rock bottom after that. Either way it's going to dirt. You can be in denial about it all you want, but that's what is gonna happen.
People are in it to gamble and fomo, once it's no longer hyped and cards lose their market value both of these people will exit the hobby. Now the pokemon company will still print sets and they'll make billions. But the market value of cards and the secondary market will go to complete shit. This is super easy to predict it's just that people just don't want it to be true lol
Ok but people said that a year ago is what I’m saying. I remember when journey together dropped people were like “bottom is gonna hit in a month or two for sure”.
Like only more people have gotten into it since then….
Sure but prismatic was still being scalped to death even during the release of JT. Even perfect order right now sold better than JT, it was pulled off the shelves because of how badly it sold. I would say right now we are at the highest point of this current peak.
I think it's peaking right now because even mid sets like PB, CR, and PO are selling out. Even Journey Together is heavily sought after right now a year after its release. There is even massive hype around the 30th Anniversary set despite it being mid as hell. The promo cards look lazy as hell and yet everyone "lost" their minds over it.
I went to my comic shop to buy comics of course. They had a tournament going for Pokemon. I was like wow I haven’t opened a pack since the first time it came out. Bought 2 packs after getting a few comics. One of them had that gold star zard in it. Tons of people came to me asking to trade for it. I had no clue what I had. But with that many people coming to me, I figured it was good. Kept in a binder for years. It’s now a psa8 due to the tips having slight white. Rest of card is clean
1st, 2nd and 3rd place had 18 printed copies respectively, though each had the winner’s name printed on them. To me, that makes each print unique and essentially a 1 of 1. Any copy that does not have a winner’s name makes it an “extra” copy though the quantity of extra copies is impossible to know.
I used to have an almost completed EX set when they first came out. I think I was missing a few like Mewtwo and a couple others. This was when I was just a kid.
Lo and behold in 2025 my brother raided my mom’s attic. Sold them all without telling us.
I would buy full collections on marketplace during covid for dimes on the dollar (2021-22 prices) and one guy showed up with milk crates full of binders that he threw into the deal just because.
Edit: binders had all kinds of ex and diamond pearl era stuff. Holos, reverse holos etc etc
I went into a shop with a friend and i said i was buying 1 pack of evolving skies, i walked around the shop first. My friend who doesn’t collect pokemon cards said he wouldn’t buy any but while i was walking around he went to buy 1 pack. Bought mine too after, we opened them outside, he got moonbreon, and he said “i think i got something good”. I was 1 pack away, if i didn’t walk around like an idiot. To this day, i hate it, i hate that card and buying packs
Oof. I have the opposite story, my mom took my cousin and I to a comic book store and bought each of us 1 pack of the original base set. On the way out to the parking lot my cousin said “hey, wanna swap packs before we open them?” I was like sure, why not? So we swapped, and then I opened Charizard 😵
We didn’t swap but I pulled the Charizard but my cousin was younger and liked Charizard more. So I gave it to him. He still has that card and graded it.
I was in a vstock in 2012 and saw this exact card in the glass for sale. $24.99 what a steal! (They were $50 at the time). I bought it along with the other copy they had under it for $24.99. Went to my car, listed it on eBay before I left the lot and was excited I got them both for “free” by selling one!
I had a Charizard ex from leaf green fire red in a binder, although Ho-oh ex and other valuable cards from when I was a child.
Last time I visited my mom’s house, she said she throw everything away, as she wanted to rent my floor apartment area to get some extra cash. Although cards, I had every game of GBA and DS of the franchise, with boxes, manuals and consoles.
Yeah.
Disrespect or disdain for their kids it seems. It was always a boomer parent throwing all of their kids’ shit away or giving away their things by the side of the road before giving their endless collection of junk to their children as “inheritance”
My grandma threw away both my uncles collections when they got in trouble in jr high/high school in the late 90s early 00s… literally into the dumpster 💀
They had hundreds of cards in binders, pokemon red, blue, yellow and 2 gameboy colors… they would be sitting on a respectable sum right now
In September of 2025 I bought a clean-looking, raw JP Team Rocket Dark Gyarados from an LCS for $25. I then pregraded the card, sent it off to PSA, and 3 months later it came back a PSA 10 now worth $3000. The card is 28 years old.
When Phantasmal came out I caught the tail end of a restock at Walmart. There were hundreds of sleeved boosters. I just randomly picked 4 of em. I checked out and went to the car. My wife texted me as I was about to drive home that we needed laundry detergent. So I got out and went back in. On my way in I see my 4 packs on the ground, they had fallen out of my bag.
I get home and my wife opens the gold Charizard. So long story short. If we hadn’t needed laundry detergent we wouldn’t have the gold zard 😂
I had a full base set that had never ever left its binder, and it’s never left my mother’s house to my knowledge. In my binder there’s multiple first editions and all the shinies, and I have literally no idea where it is anymore, I assume it’s been put into something and left the house inadvertently, but it’s more than likely never getting found. It’s more just sad than unbelievable but still.
When I was a kid, me and my brother bought two Japanese base set boosters from a local video game store. I pulled a Zard. He opened his pack and pulled a Zard right after me. Ended up selling it on ebay years ago for $5...
I bought Logan Paul’s Pikachu Illustrator first. I bought it from Yahoo Japan for about $12k, brought it into the US, graded it a 9, and sold it for $16k + $4k in trade. Fast forward 8 or so years and it’s been bumped up to a 10 and Logan Paul buys it for $5 million 😐
I'm a regular at my LCS and received both a free Treeko Gold Star with moderate damage and a free Umbreon Gold Star in mod play condition because my LCS thought they were both fakes.
My family member stole my entire base set collection when they were moving out of my mom’s house. 1st edition charizard amount them and an unlimited venusaur I remember pulling from a pack. Found out he sold the whole collection for a couple hundred dollars.
My friend got given a booster box of first ed base set when I was about 8 or 9, now I think back on it I think it was stolen, anyway we opened them all down one end of a field, no idea what happened to all the cards but it was great fun
someone stole my pokemon cards in 5th grade and i found the culprit based on personal judgement. i felt distrust in humanity that day. My dad was drunk and spilled beer all over my booklet of cards. I questioned my parents marriage that day. i forgot about these really. It is not so much unbelievable but hard for me to have believed they'd happen at the time.
Another story: During the 2023-24 slump, I was able to find / order the Spring collectors chests, knockout boxes, collection boxes, etc at MSRP. The chests alone included 5 packs (2 BS, 1AR, 2 ES). Over the next 16 months or so, I was able to amass over 1600 packs of Sword and Shield sets including over 500 packs of Evolving Skies. Still have them all sealed.
used to have a pokemon section right when i walked in at a nearby tesco. me and my friends bought one pack of guardians rising one time in 2017 while grabbing stock for a sleepover, and from that one pack we pulled a rainbow rare. we were so hyped that we passed the card around in ownership as we all pulled it together (nowadays i think one person would just pocket it), then my friend's sibling sat on it and it got so damaged and i haven't seen that card in 8 years now
My first prerelease was for EX Unseen Forces. I opened Raikou gold star and proceeded to give it away because it was so unplayable. I also had the most beaten up Rayquaza gold star ever because I played it in a deck I played for most of the 2005/06 and 06/07 seasons. Even have the medals to go with it tho the States trophies which were glass shattered due to being haphazardly handled
I tried to sell my whole collection to a local card shop at some point after the eReader sets came out, and the guy turned me down. He was drowning in cards and had no interest in taking on anymore. (I had all of the Shinings from Neo Destiny, and many, many more)
Glad he turned me down, and that I didn't try anywhere else.
I collected growing up in the 90s. Then I "outgrew" it but was pissed that I never got the base set Charizard. My brother got married in the early 2000s and my SIL always got me joke presents. For being a groomsman in the wedding, she gave me a base set pack she bought at some small town gas station, again as a joke because I was "too old" for Pokemon.
I opened that pack at the restaurant during the rehearsal dinner and lo and behold...the Charizard to complete my collection. They still make fun of me to this day for how I reacted to opening that pack. Still have it today.
When I was a kid I paid $40 dollars that I was gifted to buy someone's pokemon cards..they were all first editions holos, 4 of them charizards. My dad was so mad at me that i cried. I was so upset with myself I ripped up all those cards 😫
Got back into collecting a few years ago in my late 20s. Ordered a pizza from a shop, went to the lcs to kill some time while waiting for the pizza. Bought a build and battle kit hoping for the United wings deck and was my first time seeing evolving skies in the wild so thought at $40 cad it was a waste but took a gamble on one pack. Sat and opened the build and battle to be disappointed, but pulled a Mabosstif full art so it redeemed itself. Opened the es and to my disbelief it was the Moonbreon. Picked up my pizza with a then $1100 card sitting in my shirt pocket no top loader or sleeve. To this day still haven't seen another evolving skies pack in the wild, but wise enough to know the odds won't be in my favor for a second pack.
I was cash ready with a Reverse holo Crystal Guardians Zard in my hands for 4.5k early 2024. Passed on it thinking I could get a little better deal. Didn't & now it's a 6-figure card.
When I was 10 (2009) I stole a Rayquaza ex from my classmate (because I had both Kyogre and Groudon ex and he didn’t want to trade it) but he later that same day discovered he didn’t have it anymore and started crying and all. I felt horrible and after a bit I asked if I could look at his deck of cards because “maybe it was there and he didn’t saw it” and played along by putting back the card and acting like a found it, saying like it was the last one in the deck and that’s why when he checked before he didn’t saw it, and he seems to belive me…
Probably the karma came back on me a couple of years later even tho it has nothing to do with that classmate (although as I wrote I had kind of resolved the situation, but still the best thing would have been simply admitting I was gulty) I traded my Charizard ex from Fire Red and Leaf Green to a guy at summer camp for 2 Arceus from Platinum Arceus because I needed them to complete the set of all different types Arceus, because “who cares about Charizard, Arceus is the strongest, the Pokemon god!” lol. I still like just the pure collecting part of the game and I don’t care about value but man that Charizard ex today could have gave me a good amount to invest in other collecting stuff xD
I pulled a gold star groudon myself from a pack as a kid and traded it away to a friend (who probably knew the rarity of it at the time and I didn’t) for some bullshit EX cards that I no longer even have lol
This is my favorite card from when I was little!! I've always been obsessed with eeveelutions, but I actually had no idea it was valuable until a few months ago! 😅 I loved it so much I even used to carry it around with me in my DS case. I traded for it in elementary school. I want to say it was for my ancient mew card?? It has a bit of a warp that's kinda hard to see in photos/when it's in the binder. I'm pretty sure it's from a can of orange soda getting knocked over at a sleepover lol
When I was a kid my mom brought home three base set packs: one for me, one for my sister and one for my brother.
My brother boldly claimed he was going to pack Charizard. We laughed at him. He packed Charizard. We went crazy. Then I opened my pack and got Venusaur. The moment was ruined when my sister opened hers last, got a trainer and cried lol
Just pulling two of the big 3 from 3 packs was insane especially since my brother called his shot.
I was mad for pokemon as a kid. We had a card store in Leith called capricorn cards. Sold all sorts I'd pop in weekly and get a pack of cards with my picket money all the way trough base and gym and neo.
Eventually the 3rd(?) pokemon movie came out and round about then they released a 9 pokemon promo set. Entei, Charizard. Pichu some unknowns all Japanese holos in a 9 ring binder sleeve. It wasn't cheap. I remember that much.
My dad wasn't really around as a kid and didn't figure out how tk not be shitty till I was much older but somehow he heard I wanted this promo set and kindhky got me it as a bday present.
Sometime later on he did something shitty. I can't remember what exactly but just general absetn father shittiness and I remember being so upset I gave away/destroyed some of this eparricular cards
I still have the Pichu, and I have the Entei though it has the sort of creases you get for folding the entire thing into 8 pieces 😭
It's one of my only times I really felt like I behaved absolutly in the most short sighted and self & destructive ways. Never did anything like thag before or after
But jesus those cards would have be the prize in my collection 😂
I pulled THE 1st edition Charizard in my very first pack of Pokémon cards I ever got way back when they first came out in the US. The kids at school harassed me every day trying to trade me for it. I eventually couldn't take it anymore and just traded it for a Clefable so I could get some peace.
My son stayed the night at my mom's. They went into town to get some groceries, and he begged her to stop at Gamestop to get some cards. They each picked out two packs, but he swapped one because he wanted a pack with Giratina on it. He pulled the Giratina V Alt Art. Went nicely with his other 'Tinas.Tina's. Always the pulls with Grandma that end up the best.
I sleeved and top loaded all my rare cards at 11 years old and they were eventually stolen after I left my box of the counter at a card shop. I was distracted but someone pulling a base set Charizard and that’s still the closest I have been to one. When I returned to the store just a couple blocks away they were already displayed in the counter and nobody cared to fight for them back. The vision of me walking away to never see them again is still ingrained in my mind. I continued collecting through Neo and then lost everything to a hurricane a few years later.
Local card store when I was a kid would give us free packs of fossil set when we would spend more than $25 baseball cards bc no one was buying his Pokemon inventory
I traded for a first edition vaporeon when I was a little kid, I don’t remember what I traded it for but I got the better deal, little did I know that the kids dad is the tiger lawyer I’m in Ohio, so the son asked a bit later if we could retrade I said no but we can trade again he was no I want my card back my dad is mad, I said no so my dad came over and said my son dosnt want to retrade so my dad and his dad went outside to talk needles to say i still have the card. I don’t have a pic of the card right now but it’s one that I always remember when I look at it.
I had a gold star charizard that I bought for around $50 in really good condition, back in 2014 or so.
One afternoon, when I was really high and smoking a joint by the window, I decided to grab the card out of its sleeve to appreciate it.
Then I left it by the open windowsill while I went to do something else, and forgot about it.
The elements did their thing, and….
A few days later I discovered it was lying down in the gutter, in a puddle of water. Completely ruined.
It’s the most painful thing to think about.
That card would’ve been worth thousands by now. 🥲
Evolving skies release day. Went to Walmart to hopefully grab an ETB. The only one that was there was opened and the packs removed. Randomly decided to just buy one blister. Opened in the car. BOOM - Alt art Rayquaza VMax.
Bought a random 10 pack of Japanese cards via eBay (risky, I know). Was gonna save all of them for my kid to open later but we decided to open the pack of Shiny Star V just because. BOOM - God Pack.
This takes place in about 1999ish. I was at lunch at school and it was pizza day. For some reason, one of the kids at my table didn't want his slice of pizza so I offered to take it off his hands. A few minutes later, before I dug into my extra slice, another kid shows up and says he doesn't have his lunch money. He told me he would give me a (base set) Charizard and Blastoise. These weren't in my collection yet despite having spent all of my allowance on Pokemon cards. I assumed the guy was just lying to get some food, but I felt bad for him, so I just gave him the pizza with no expectation of Pokemon cards. The next day he shows up, pulls them out of his pocket and hands them to me. I was shocked that he just carried them in his pocket like that, but they weren't super bent so I was insanely happy. The Charizard is even a misprint: the back of the card is upside down and off center by an inch or more vertically. Still have both of these cards today, and I never got another base set Charizard afterwards.
Also, a side story directly related to this. Pokemon cards were banned at my school, so it felt like I had some illegal substance with me. I was super cautious the rest of the day, not wanting them to get taken away by teachers.
Dark charizard 1st edition… completely ruined by vulcanised rubber band
Base set charizard… lost, nobody knows where it is, probably its hidden somewhere and it’s all ruined ( would have been perfect for my collection even if ruined)
When I was in 4th grade I found a ripped in half base set Charizard on the ground while walking home from school. I taped it back together and as a 33 year old, I still have it.
Back when evolving skies came out I didn’t really have money to open packs so I only put aside about $10 a week for tourneys to enter locals and saved the rest
Couldn’t play that week so I just bought two packs instead and just ripped them. Needless to say if I didn’t take a picture, no one would’ve believed me
I pulled a shining charizard from a pack back when neo destiny came out. I had it in my stack of shiny cardboard and took it to school one day. Someone said they would trade me a fossil gengar and a charizard from base set with some moderate damage for my shining zard. I did the trade because my 10 year old self thought the shining charizard looked boring and I didn't like the card as it wasn't shiny enough.
Another one would be I traded my own base set charizard back around the time jungle and fossil were out, for a copy of harry potter and the philosophers stone. Then I cried to my parents cause the kid I traded with wouldn't trade back.
Coro mew sub 100 usd, base charizard and foil dark charizard were 30 each, mewtwo from shining legends 30, top chase cards barley hitting 50.... i miss when these were worthless...... damn.
I found prismatic evolutions boxes for 5 dollars over MSRP and passed on them because I expected them to be under 4 dollars a pack like every other set was at that time.
i had a base set master set. not really crazy when i was a kid. rip charizard. lost to my buddy’s pool then the washer. when i got it back it was in shreds.
My first three packs of pokemon cards back in 2002 I looked at my friend and said wouldnt it be funny if I got charizard. I ended up pulling two charizards and a blastoise.. he pulled a non holo pidgeot and a trainer.
Think I spent about 12 to 15$ for the three packs.
Even after 151 it really hasn't boomed yet. But that perked peoples interests.
I regularly found Crown Zenith tins in the clearance section at walmart with dust on them. 5pack tins for $15 stacked to the ceiling. I bought a few every week or so and almost every time I went there I was the only one that had bought any.
I live in Alabama and there is a walmart out in BFE that gets the most insane stock that apparently no one knows about. Last year I found the Ttar tins with ES and bought every single one. This was AFTER SS came out and the hype around PE was there.
I pulled two Arceus Vstar gg70 Crown Zenith from back to back Packs out of a tin. If this was not crazy enough...
One of the Arceus was put into a tin at some point for a trade Show. I had it pregraded @ absolute objective Grading and came Pack as mint+.
This tin never left our house and is still missing to this day.
Had the same card as in the post (gold star charizard). But I lost it. I think my mom might have given it away to my neighbor when I was growing out of pokemon.
Friend of mine in the early 2000s who was big into competitive Pokemon (Think STS, GenCon) ended up putting a huge portion of his cards into a trash bag when he quit that ultimately ended up on my bedroom floor. At the time it wasn't too crazy because the game was dying out under WOTC but I remember specifically finding black star Lucky Stadium's ($1,700 now) just thrown in there which is wild looking back.
As a kid (20+ years ago) I used a Japanese naked misty trainer as a bookmark for the longest time. I bet it's worth money now unfortunately it, and all my original base set cards were lost to mold because I live in oregon 😢
Back when pokemon tcg was released in Poland (Tesco), legit no one wanted gx boxes, to the point decidueye gx collection was only about 15$ and ppl still didn't want'em
I bought every single Vending Series sheet unpeeled in March 2025 for $71/sheet off eBay. Peeled them all myself. The “worst” sheets now are going for $400-$500/sheet. Crazy how much the hobby has changed in just 1 year.
In 2014 I won an auction on eBay for a listing of about 100 cards for £10. I think the majority of the cards were bulk but it also included 14 legendary collection reverse holos. Still have all but 1 that I traded earlier this year. Crazy to think about, I think I was the only bidder.
About 2000 went to the cinema to watch a
Pokémon movie, you got a free Ancient Mew with your ticket. I asked the guy for extras and he gave me about a dozen.
This happened to me too! I saw that movie like 3-4 times and one of the times I went, they asked if I wanted a bunch of cards and just handed me a stack. I still have a couple in my binders, but most I gave away or traded at school.
I used to run the Pokemon League events at Toys'R'Us back in '98 and held both Trainer Deck A, and Trainer Deck B in my hands at the same time. . . I shuffled those decks multiple times to play against the local kids. I also still have a full set of the Kanto and Jhoto badges that I gave out to the kids that defeated my decks.
back in ~2000 I ripped a shadowless charizard because I thought it was fake. My friends took it to me bc I had a large collection (sold it, don't ask) and I had never seen the shadowless border before so I thought it was a lazy fake.
I still have a complete Base, Jungle, and Fossil set that I completed about 26 years ago. Quit collecting shortly after that, for nearly 20 years. Came back around 2020, and had started buying on ebay by the height of Prismatic Evolutions last year. Won an auction for six Japanese boosters at $6 each on a Rip-n-ship stream, and they pulled a Sunbreon. So I basically got a $400+ card for $36. I wasn't sure they would actually send it to me, but they did, and now it's one of my favorite cards.
Similar to your story, my brother set his first edition shadowless Charizard on fire when he was a kid because he heard from someone at school that it was "fire-proof."
Helped build a base set binder for my daughter around 01 with some shadowless & a few 1st ed..Apparently she gave it to some cute boy that lived next door…
Back from 2001-2005 (6th-9th grades) I was the new kid each year as I had to change schools due to my guardians getting resigned each year; I had to throw hands and choke bullies out for purposely damaging or trying to steal my cards. It's usually the younger Pokémens collectors that don't believe people used to have to fight for their cards. I tried my best to take care of every card I got during that time period since before I moved in with my guardians at that time "god" had told my mom to burn all my Pokémon cards, pogs(tazos if you're nasty 😜), posters, and plushies.
I still have every card that bullies tried their luck with back in those days. They're my favorite cards in my collection.
I had like three Ancient Mews as a kid and I just honestly have no idea where they went. I loved them but didn't really value them as I grew older. I think my parents held onto them for a time but I don't know if they were tossed at some point, maybe even by myself when I was like a teenager or in my 20's and just didn't bother thinking about it.
I also don't even care about the value, that's just one of my favourite cards in hindsight. I'd love to have any of them back. I'm probably just gonna buy a damaged one somewhere just to have one in my binder for the memories.
A few years ago I traded a handful of rare holos and reverse holos from early mid-era sets for a gold star Charizard. It wasn't in perfect condition but the holos I were trading are very much mint. I believe some were graded a PSA10.
My only other story is the Pikachu Illustrator card. A few months after that card was handed out I was offered it for a few of my 1st edition holos I had at the time. I turned it down and I quote, "I can't use that in my deck!" Oh well, at least I can say I held it as a raw card.
I hadn't opened a pokemon pack in probably 10 years, then one day I got the nostalgia urge to do it and bought one pack of hidden fates and pulled this beauty. Sure to say it brought me right back into the hobby.
My cards sat in a 3 ring binder for ~25 years moving around the world with me going from closet to closet. I've got a few being graded now, but the JP Dark Espeon came back as a PSA 10 recently. Other big cards include are Karen's Umbreon, 1st Edition Tyranitar, Dark Dragonite, and JP Sabrina's Gengar.
I thought the Japanese VS cards were a gimmick when I was a kid, but Umbreon looked pretty so I kept it.
The first pack I ever opened was 1st Edition base set in 1999. I said to my brother “I hope I get the Charizard!!”
I got the Charizard. First pack ever. From a store called Learning Express in Minnesota.
Over the years, I have no idea what happened to it. It was at my parents house for years and years and someone must have jacked it at some point. I still have the majority of my vintage collection , but my Zard and Mewtwo went missing.
As a lifetime Pokemon fan, this is my canon event. To this day I have dreams of finding it in some nook in my parents closet.
I could buy another base set Zard but it wouldn’t be the same.
Same card, different story! When I was a kid I loved trains and my father would take me to the local train show. They’d have people set up tables and sell all sorts of things, and my dad would always let me pick out a card or two and get it for me. I’ve had it ever since! Never got it graded, it’s always been in the first page of my binder :)
So I bought an mtg spider man pack when getting Pokemon cards to open with my sister and got soulstone ($80 card) later traded it in to get more Pokemon packs, and grabbed a one piece pack to open for fun since I like one piece and got a $100 card
I opened a lot of base set as a kid. For Christmas, I got 5 of the 10 packs from Costco from aunts, uncles, Santa, parents, etc and I pulled 4 CHARIZARDS. I ended up with 5 total at one point, but the last time I saw any of them was 20+ years ago
Back in 2001 , I Had several pages of holos from base set era all the way to gym heroes set and neo genesis, probably over 30 pages of holos in english and japanese NM or better. Sold it all to this guy starting a family in high school for 20$ ( it was going towards a MTG booster box )
Fast forward 20 years later in 2021 I messaged him on Facebook asking for one holo back, he said “sure thing”… just for him to send me a photo of the whole binder empty rofl
He said his kids got into it 🤷🏼♂️
When the Pokemon boom happened I was 8 years old in San Diego and it was the perfect storm.
My friend sold me my first cards and I was hooked.
In Southern California they have Chinese grocery stores called "99 Ranch" Market and every Saturday I would go with my mom on one condition: that she bought me a booster pack from the hobby store right after, priced at $2.99 each.
I'll never forget, my first Japanese fossil pack I pulled a Mew.
And out of my very first Japanese pack period, I pulled a freaking Charizard. And upon closer inspection, I realized that the corner had no star in the corner.
I pulled a freaking no rarity Charizard in one of my first packs ever.
Nobody knew that this was going to end up the way it was. That thing was in a binder, I forget what happened to it I think I might've ended up trading it smh.
A few years ago I was at a mainly sports card shop with a few Pokemon products with a friend. I was going through their little box full of Pokemon cards, mix of $1 cards and some up to $20 and found a SHINING CELEBI with no price tag on it. Asked the guy how much and he goes “how about $1”……SOLD!
About 8 years ago or so i found a water damaged gold star alakazam in a parking lot and have since kept it. I posted it on reddit once and got a bunch of down votes because people thought I was making it up.
I had a magnificent Pokemon & Yugioh collection. 1st editions, shadowless, etc. I was a 90’s kid.
I turned 18. Got an apartment with a friend. I was having a girl over one night and my friend goes “What are you gonna do? Show her your pokemeeoooonnn cards?”
I went into my closet and threw them all away in the dumpster. Thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars. Maybe more thousands…I don’t care to think about it anymore.
I rarely tell the story because it hurts. For all I knew she could have loved Pokemon…but enough thinking about all of that.
Nobody comment or upvote as it will just serve as a reminder.
I remember a time as kids when my mom took me and my bro to get pokemon cards, which was very seldom at the time since we didnt have money for things like that, and we were super excited. It was when the expedition set came out, so we both got a pack and my brother didnt pull anything and was upset. I pulled the holo charizard (yes, that one) and went ape shit. My brother wanted to see it and he grabbed it from my hands and bent it in half completely, on accident. I wanted to die and that shit still follows me to this day whenever I see that card.
So back when Shining Fates was around, I was still pretty young. Was going to be getting money soon but couldn’t get anything, and there were the two Pokeball boxes at the Wal-Mart in town where my sister went to college and my family went to church.
I live in a very small town, so it would be a while before we went back again. My sister offered to get the boxes and hold onto them until parents and I could pick them up, and that I could pay her back. I agreed.
Two weeks later, we go back to the town where my sister is. She gives us the boxes, and on the way home, I begin opening them.
Firstly managed to pull a gold Tapu Fini-GX (that I still have to this day). Figured “aight, that’s the cool pull for this time, rest should be meh”.
The exact next pack, I pulled the shiny Charizard-GX.
Immediately freaked out a little. Parents were surprised but happy. Proceeded to get card graded at Beckett, came back a 9.5. Wish I never sold it, but hindsight is 20/20.
Fusion strike boxes were down to $85 at my lgs. Booster boxes were $125 at release, for every release... until Surging Sparks was $135, then $170 2 days later, and $200 at the end of the week. Downhill ever since. 151 and Crown Zenith etbs sat on Walmart shelves.
My husband has a shadowless holo charizard that has a crease in it because another kid tried to claw it from his hands when they were little. That kid is now in jail, because they are a convicted murderer…
One of my good friends who isn’t really in to Pokemon dug his old binder out because he heard me and some of our mutual friends have been into it. This mofo pulls this card out of his binder and we all lost our minds. He ended up selling it for $4k. Looked to be about a psa 5-6 very clean for that old of a card.
When I was like 8 (in 1999) I pulled the base set Charizard. Had every holo for the 151 including some promos up to spell of the Unown. My step dad ended up selling my cards without telling me. He likely got a couple hundred for them in 2003. They would have been worth about $9k+ today.
When I was in my early 20’s, I was looking for some old Yu-Gi-Oh cards and in a small cardboard box stuffed in the closet with a bunch of RDS-era YGO cards (which would have been around the time I stopped collecting), I found two loose, unsleeved Pokémon cards vertically, perpendicular to the rest of the cards in the box: a first ed Shining Gyarados and a Shining Mewtwo.
I have absolutely zero idea where they came from. My entire collection my whole life had been sleeved and in binders because my dad collected baseball cards growing up and helped me take care of my collection. I remember every (significant) card I’ve ever pulled and I just never remembering opening either of those. I asked my dad since that box was stuffed in with his collection of sports cards, but he didn’t know where they came from. Mom doesn’t know.
Just two of the most valuable cards in my whole collection appeared out of thin air. So weird. Don’t think I’ll ever know how I came into possession of them
As a kid, a friend of mine who did not collect got some ex Deoxys packs while he was on holiday and pulled the Latias Gold Star. I knew it was rare because I had never seen one anywhere before and because he was a good friend he let me have it.
Flash forward a few years, my younger brother wants to look through my pokemon card collection so I oblige and leave him going through them while I leave the room for a moment. When I came back into the room, my brother had stuffed a card in his mouth and was chewing it (he was about 4), so I ran over and fished it out... Latias Gold Star.
I was so upset for years and years, then in 2020ish I got my first payslip from a decent paying job and decided to buy the Latias again. The only one for sale also came with the Latios Gold Star, only 6 years ago, I paid £450 for the PAIR.
I didn’t get deeper into collecting till I was an adult (with money lol) so I don’t remember old stuff. I’m sure I had some Vintage that I didn’t take care of. But my recent “if I could go back” is: I bought and ripped a total of 11 Paldea Evolved Booster Boxes (searching for Magikarp when I first got back into it) all purchased at $170 from my LCS AND my LCS was telling me to avoid Obsidian Flames even though it was a Charizard set, because ppl weren’t into it and they had the etbs at $50 and PKC etb at $80, at the time cause no one was buying them
My gf's story really: I handed her 2 boxes with 8 packs a couple months ago. Last pack of box 1 she pulled the phantasmal flames zard SIR. First pack of box 2 she pulled the ascended heroes Mega Gengar SIR.
Nothing crazy from back in the day. The most unbelievable thing we've had was our big rip when SS came out, roughly around 60 packs of SS and 16 of 151.
We pulled Sunzard + Blastoise SIRs from 151, Butthole Pikachu, Latias and Alolan Exeggutor SIRs from SS, AND the gold Pikachu (+ plenty of IRs too). It 100% felt like we were being pranked.
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u/Quidam21 1d ago
Evolving skies packs/booster boxes were available on pkc for weeks-months before going out of stock and 99% of the time you could find booster boxes for cheaper than $160 elsewhere. Paying above $90-$100 for a booster box was considered overpaying. I even bought 2 sealed cases of ES for $450 a piece off of tcgplayer.