If you were conscious in 1999, you undoubtedly had a Pokemon card collection. I was a feverish fan of the card game from 1999 all the way to the year... 2000. I started post-1st edition of the Base Set, and quit after the Rocket set. According to Google, the Rocket set came out in April 2000 and the next set was Gym Heroes in August 2000, so I quit sometime around then.
I was mostly a collector. I did play a bit, but none of my friends were seriously into it (though I did love the GBC game). But the real joy of Pokemon cards was selling cards for cash. My friends and I would bring our cards to school and basically had a black market going. My biggest haul in one day was $35. Dude, that's like the price of a Game Boy game. Pokemon inexplicably got banned from my school, but I doubt that ban still stands today.
ANYWAYS, although I only collected the cards for about a year, I never thought about getting rid of them. Never sold them in any yard sales, never gave them away. After I moved out for college, I entrusted my priceless binder to my mom. I forgot about them for the longest time until Pokemon Go, where my mom said she still had my cards and was interested in selling them. She insists that they are worth something, but doesn't understand my thorough explanation about first edition shadowless cards and how I don't have any. I made it so clear! Earlier this year she once again reminded me that she had them, and gave them to me the last time we met up.
So after nearly twenty years of barely seeing them, I now have in possession my PRICELESS collection. Is this collection amazing? Not at all, I'm sure many have better collections on this very forum. But it is a quirky time capsule.
Opening up the binder greets you with a page of holographics and a Pokemon Neo card file my grandma bought me off of QVC. These Pokemon didn't even exist yet in the states, do you understand how CRAZY this shit was? I specifically put holographics in the first page to show people I was selling them too, but other holographics are scattered across the binder. Notice the 1st edition Machamp holographic I thought was badass until I learned that literally everyone had it. My mom actually won the Clefairy card for me in a story too long to tell, and I'm glad I never sold it.
The Neo card file. Out of the blue, my grandma, an avid QVC watcher, told me that they were going to have a Pokemon segment and that she would buy me something. Nothing caught my eye until this, cards of the new starters. Hard to see, but the final evos are all holographic. Although I hawked a lot of my holos, these were not for sale. I find it pretty crazy that I can now read them.
Although originally I organized cards by type, it got too much of a hassle to rearrange them so I just shoved them wherever. You can see a mix of Jungle, Fossil, and Rocket type cards here. Rocket introduced DARK versions of Pokemon. While the TCG has a ton of these altered Pokemon nowadays, it was very novel at the time.
Although I remember ordering the Gold/Silver starters from QVC, I have ZERO idea that I had other Japanese cards. I guess I ordered them from QVC at the same time? I have no English Gen II Pokemon cards. Up in the top is a Mew promo card, from something, and the Pokemon Breeder is actually from the Base Set reprints hence the 2.
The hell is a "Pocket Monster"????
Bill, the GOAT card. Also a huge fan of late 90s CGI card design. Ignore that Moo Moo Milk card you saw nothing moving on
I typically stacked Pokemon like this, with the most interesting card on top and other versions in the back. I do have some Pokemon split up by sets for seemingly no reason. It's hard to know what I was thinking, if anything.
Some of the original cards are more prominent here. As you can see this was my weak attempt to organize them by type and number until my collection spun out of control. Ivysaur evolves into Butterfree, right?
Some promo cards, the first two were handed out during the first Pokemon movie. I have no idea what that other Mewtwo promo is from, but it is SICK.
Top row features holos that were apparently not good enough to be on the first page.
BRING BACK IMPOSTER OAK
I call this the HALL OF ENERGY
Just a few pages of my collection. I don't have that many holos because, well, I sold them. You think I was going to turn away $15 for my holo Zapdos? I was just a child ok, A CHILD. Also I have no idea where my Ancient Mew card is. Did I sell it? How dumb can one person be?
I do kind of feel the urge to complete my collection, at least Base-Rocket. With online shopping it's easier than ever I suppose. I'm sure if I googled "Pokemon Base Set Complete Collection" I would have more than a few hits, but it wouldn't be the same. It feels like cheating just to buy the cards straight up from a faceless website. The fun was trading with friends, trying to figure out which cards you really wanted, and hoping that with each pack you had some huge get that you could flip for even more cards.
Anyways, share your Pokemon card collection/memories/million dollar offers.
I was mostly a collector. I did play a bit, but none of my friends were seriously into it (though I did love the GBC game). But the real joy of Pokemon cards was selling cards for cash. My friends and I would bring our cards to school and basically had a black market going. My biggest haul in one day was $35. Dude, that's like the price of a Game Boy game. Pokemon inexplicably got banned from my school, but I doubt that ban still stands today.
ANYWAYS, although I only collected the cards for about a year, I never thought about getting rid of them. Never sold them in any yard sales, never gave them away. After I moved out for college, I entrusted my priceless binder to my mom. I forgot about them for the longest time until Pokemon Go, where my mom said she still had my cards and was interested in selling them. She insists that they are worth something, but doesn't understand my thorough explanation about first edition shadowless cards and how I don't have any. I made it so clear! Earlier this year she once again reminded me that she had them, and gave them to me the last time we met up.
So after nearly twenty years of barely seeing them, I now have in possession my PRICELESS collection. Is this collection amazing? Not at all, I'm sure many have better collections on this very forum. But it is a quirky time capsule.
Opening up the binder greets you with a page of holographics and a Pokemon Neo card file my grandma bought me off of QVC. These Pokemon didn't even exist yet in the states, do you understand how CRAZY this shit was? I specifically put holographics in the first page to show people I was selling them too, but other holographics are scattered across the binder. Notice the 1st edition Machamp holographic I thought was badass until I learned that literally everyone had it. My mom actually won the Clefairy card for me in a story too long to tell, and I'm glad I never sold it.
The Neo card file. Out of the blue, my grandma, an avid QVC watcher, told me that they were going to have a Pokemon segment and that she would buy me something. Nothing caught my eye until this, cards of the new starters. Hard to see, but the final evos are all holographic. Although I hawked a lot of my holos, these were not for sale. I find it pretty crazy that I can now read them.
Although originally I organized cards by type, it got too much of a hassle to rearrange them so I just shoved them wherever. You can see a mix of Jungle, Fossil, and Rocket type cards here. Rocket introduced DARK versions of Pokemon. While the TCG has a ton of these altered Pokemon nowadays, it was very novel at the time.
Although I remember ordering the Gold/Silver starters from QVC, I have ZERO idea that I had other Japanese cards. I guess I ordered them from QVC at the same time? I have no English Gen II Pokemon cards. Up in the top is a Mew promo card, from something, and the Pokemon Breeder is actually from the Base Set reprints hence the 2.
The hell is a "Pocket Monster"????
Bill, the GOAT card. Also a huge fan of late 90s CGI card design. Ignore that Moo Moo Milk card you saw nothing moving on
I typically stacked Pokemon like this, with the most interesting card on top and other versions in the back. I do have some Pokemon split up by sets for seemingly no reason. It's hard to know what I was thinking, if anything.
Some of the original cards are more prominent here. As you can see this was my weak attempt to organize them by type and number until my collection spun out of control. Ivysaur evolves into Butterfree, right?
Some promo cards, the first two were handed out during the first Pokemon movie. I have no idea what that other Mewtwo promo is from, but it is SICK.
Top row features holos that were apparently not good enough to be on the first page.
BRING BACK IMPOSTER OAK
I call this the HALL OF ENERGY
Just a few pages of my collection. I don't have that many holos because, well, I sold them. You think I was going to turn away $15 for my holo Zapdos? I was just a child ok, A CHILD. Also I have no idea where my Ancient Mew card is. Did I sell it? How dumb can one person be?
I do kind of feel the urge to complete my collection, at least Base-Rocket. With online shopping it's easier than ever I suppose. I'm sure if I googled "Pokemon Base Set Complete Collection" I would have more than a few hits, but it wouldn't be the same. It feels like cheating just to buy the cards straight up from a faceless website. The fun was trading with friends, trying to figure out which cards you really wanted, and hoping that with each pack you had some huge get that you could flip for even more cards.
Anyways, share your Pokemon card collection/memories/million dollar offers.
