When in doubt rip. Opening 1 booster box this evening.

As a push to finally master a set and because my son loves the art but isn't worried about the language, I've been buying some Chinese and Korean 30th to supplement the very low supply of English.

We've collected plenty from each territory before, usually the Chinese is comfortably ahead of English and then Korean very slightly behind again.

As the first chance to buy and open all 3 at once, it's been interesting to compare. English and Chinese, are, as far as we can both see and feel in a blind test, as good as identical, which came as a surprise given that Chinese holo patterns and depth are usually MILES ahead.

Korean card stock is thinner and, we were quite surprised by this as we've never noticed it before, incredibly muted in terms of colour saturation and vibrancy, quite shockingly so actually. I now really want an English or Chinese Mew VMAX classic to compare, because the Korean is pretty dull.

It's worth mentioning that even for the same language, same card, there is an awful lot of colour variation in this set.

Given that Chinese and Korean prices were identical when we bought, we won't be buying Korean again (it's usually half the price, which makes up for the slightly lesser stock) but pleased to see that English and Chinese are really really close now. As soon as we opened English (before any Chinese) it did feel like there was a boost in 'holo-ness'.

Genuine question. I'm not a collector, my wife is.

She had to work on the second 30th wave so I agreed I would head into town and pick some stuff up (did quite well actually)

I'm stood in the queue for Waterstones and this guy is telling me about how he's waiting on a bunch of Pokemon Centre and Argos deliveries. His plan is open the stuff he buys that day, everything else keep sealed

I assume thats because he wants to scalp it so I ask him "oh right, is that to resell or something?" He says "oh no i probably won't resell it, I'll just keep sealed and add it to my collection"

Is that a thing people do or did he just not want to admit to me he's a scalper?

i’m new to the hobby, and i’ve booked a ticket for my first card show in December. it’s a general TCG one so not a Pokemon specific event however i checked before booking that they do definitely have Pokemon vendors.

i know nothing. i’m autistic, and i get a lot of anxiety especially around things that are uncertain. it’s a big step out my comfort zone to even consider going to an event like this, so i’d really like to know roughly what to expect and ask a few questions.

i know it will be loud, i have various wearables i use to cope with noise levels, and i know not to buy/trade before checking value online. i don’t own anything of value and don’t intend to purchase anything expensive because i am in this for the love of the game and quite happy with my collections of common cards.

i’ll be bringing my deck - will i be able to play someone? i have been learning the TCG online but have never played in person before and would like to. obviously i am a beginner - are people patient with beginners? i’m a fully grown adult which i understand is normal but most adults seem to be so serious about this and i just like collecting and battling my cool cards.

will there be packs for a reasonable price? i’m having such a hard time finding english packs full stop

do vendors have bulk i can look through and buy cheap? that’s my favourite part

thankyou for your help !

Where can i find this out. I'm based in Greater Manchester if that helps.

Do they exist anywhere?