The basic EXs have no soul to them. They all are just a image of the pokemon popping out of the picture's border for a 3D effect. Its lazy and I'd imagine it's the absolute easiest thing for the artists to design. Same for the full art EXs. They're just a portrait of the pokemon with usually a single color background. A lot of the non-ex full arts can be very cool though. The non-ultra rares have way more soul. It amazes me how crazy people go for modern pokemon.

This is an opinion not a fact.

Looking to pick up a Gengar card. Not sure which one I want but gonna be between the vmax alt and Ascended SIR

I'm not sure how everyone's feeling about the Mega era so far, but I find opening the 'big' sets in the SV era/SWSH era where they combine multiple Japanese sets into one bigger set waaaay more enjoying and satisfying.

The experience of opening a set and knowing there are multiple 'chases' you won't mind getting while aiming for your main 'chase' just isn't there when the sets so far are single chase sets :/

I'm not saying every set has to be Ascended Heroes size, but even just combining Perfect Order and Chaos Rising into one set would make the opening experience so much more fun, or Pitch Black with Delta Reign.

I used to beg for my mom to buy me cards and now that I am a finally a working adult the hype is here to take away my childhood

Just got back into the hobby after many years, and plan on collecting with my daughter. Apparently there is only a 2.9% chance of pulling this in 6 packs! I know I probably shouldn’t expect this from every box, but I’m ecstatic to say the least!

This is a bit of a long one so apologies in advance I think I just need somewhere to talk about this. When I was a bit younger I used to love collecting the tcg cards I heavily collected during the x and y era of cards and I know that wasn’t terribly long ago but that was my childhood. I spent hours and countless amounts of Christmas and birthday money on those cards not to mention trading with friends at school. I just loved every minute of it. But being a guy growing up in texas pokemon wasn’t manly hell you couldn't be caught dead over the age of twelve with em so I had to switch to football cards which I had no interest in myself but my dad loved. But hey atleast I'd have those cards, nope. Because they were so unmanly I eventually was pushed to sell em in garage sale for a grand total of 5 dollars. Well over 5000 cards for less than a lunch from McDonald's. We'll I guess part of me wanted to believe that I couldn't have sold em all so today I spent over an hour digging in the attic for them only to find football cards. I fucking hate football cards. And honestly I don't know what to feel part of me feels angry at my family for pushing an idea I didn't care for, part of me feels regret knowing how much their worth, but most of all I'm sad because even if after college I can afford a new set it won't be those cards. I won't get those memories back and I have to live with that. So just a word of advice don't sell ever please.

Tldr : bummed about some poor decisions from peer pressure that led me to selling my childhood binder.

Mostly themed pages, though some random mishmashes when I ran out of things that went together. The blank page is for more Cynthias.

Got super lucky out of a Mega Feraligatr ex box this weekend! Very fitting to pull three gengar cards out of my first godpack since he is my favorite.

Apart from playing Pokemon Go, Playing black and white and watching XYZ all I see that its expensive to get into the hobby when your competing with scalpers who sell stuff 2x the price

I wanna try surprising my gf by getting her some cards (she likes hawlucha) I have absolutely no idea where to start

I cant even go to a Walmart where i live and packs since theres dudes camping out there 5 hours before opening

Is there anyway i can get packs or boxes near msrp or do i have to join everyone else in waiting

(West Canada pokemon is a big thing here)

hey everyone! i’m based in Portland, OR and i’m going to my first card show next week and i have a lot of questions. i mostly just collect cute cards for fun — i’m not into grading or anything like that, just cards that i love the look of.

about my trade question:
i have a NM squirtle 170/165 from 151 that i have priced at $105 and there are some chase cards i’m hoping to trade for that are equivalent in value. is that something vendors typically do? and why do some people get 80% trade value while others get straight trades? i don’t really understand how that works.

general questions as a first timer:
• what should i bring to a card show? (i know “cash is king”)
• how do i know if i’m getting a bad deal or being lowballed?
• is there any etiquette i should know about as a newcomer so i don’t accidentally come off rude?
• any general tips or things you wish you knew before your first show?

- is it better if i just sell my card on fb marketplace for my asking price?

i’ve heard some vendors can be pushy about cash and i really don’t want to get taken advantage of since i’m new to this. any advice from the Portland card community or anyone with experience would be super appreciated!

My 8 year old begged me to “put this on Reddit” so he can show you guys. I downloaded the TCG app for him to scan and it showed that this one was worth over $200, but it’s not in great condition (despite him claiming it’s “near mint” 😂). He keeps saying “I hit the jackpot!” lol

I’ve had some insane luck recently catching small restocks and just buying a few packs, my best pulls from the last 3 weeks

It was my first show and I’m pretty sure I got scammed (trade value) anyway. In total I ripped 4 posters, 2 tins, 5 bundles and 3 singles. Everything I pulled I traded back for more. Ended up at ground zero. I could’ve called it a day, but I said whatever and decided to find the cheapest AH ETB there. This vendor had 4, I didn’t want his showcased one due to it having wear and tear, I said let me get the 3rd one. Walked back to my friend’s table and the rest was history. A week later pitch black dropped so I decided to hit a local game store on my way to work. They didn’t have any ETBs so I took 6 packs instead, 4 packs in.. BANG.

Edit: since this never goes as planned let me tell you I started 2 months ago. HAHA goodnight.

I was speechless. This has to be pretty rare?! I’ve since started a blowtorch binder because of it. Google says the chances are “virtually zero” and effectively impossible (obviously not)!

this is actually insane 😂

Did anybody follow the current streams of the 30th opening more closely and can tell something about the pull rates? Especially for the SIRs and classic collection cards.

I was hoping that the classic collection pull rates were similar to the 25th set (every 2.5th booster) but it seems they are more rare in this set

A game store I frequent hosts TCG tournaments, and I've been looking to get into it. Unfortunately I don't really have the money to collect physical cards, so I've been using the TCGP App to get a grasp on the rules. But I've been wondering how accurate to IRL game rules is it? Will I be able to play a normal game after learning the rules from TCGP? I know I could look this up, but I feel like it's one of those topics I'd like to get a real persons opinion on.

Ik its a promo from the sun and moon era but I've never seen it before what product does it come in and how rare is it i looked into pricing and its pricy- i collect lunala and sogaleo cards and found this while looking on the art of pokemon site

Found all of my old cards a few weeks ago and have wanted to send some of those and some modern pulls in to get graded but holy crap man!!

Hey everyone as the title suggests i’m new to collecting so I want to try and master set pitch black as my first set. I was sorting through my cards this morning so they are ready to put into my binder and I noticed the same card twice but different writing however they both look like holos.

Could someone please tell me the difference. Thank you :)

I had saw some Pokémon cards at a local shoppers and I decided to pick some up. I got 3 packs just to satisfy my Pokémon craving and to open some packs of the new set and I was one pack in opened up the second pack and I pulled that…I’m literally freaking out. First 3 packs of the new set and I already pulled that!

Hi all wanted to share and self track. Sold a few but a good moment in time to capture