Showcasing my Pokemon collection! (Part 1)

Yo. I decided to post about something a bit different today than my normal content. Partially because I thought it would be fun, and partially because I'm feeling lazy today and it's 110 degrees on the heat index here today, so my brain is not fully turned on right now for trying to review content or do something complicated. So, I figured why not make a post showing my small collection of Pokemon cards. I'm sure if you've been following me for awhile, you've probably seen my degeneracy of ripping open packs a few times. I definitely get a dopamine rush from doing so, and I just find it to be a fun time. The majority of the time I'm only after a few specific cards from a set, I realized awhile ago trying to do full on master sets is literally impossible to do on your own by opening packs unless you're omega rich. There are people who have spent upwards of $10000 on new modern packs and still are missing a handful of cards to finish out their sets. Most people buy singles and just piece them together themselves. I just gave up on that shit entirely and just sell my bulk cards to a card shop for store credit to get more packs later on, and collect a few cards here and there that I like from whatever sets I'm opening at the time.

This first post will just be going over some of the low end singles and promos worth less than $10 each that I decided to keep for my collection. These are mostly cards that I just have loaded together in sleeves and put into a team bag and stashed away, almost none of them are big display pieces for me. I figured I'd start at the bottom value wise of my collection and work my way up. However, value doesn't mean shit when it comes to cool artwork/designs for cards, so don't worry. You're gonna have a wet spot in your panties in no time, my doods.

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One of my favorite sword and shield promo cards that has been released thus far. It features the legendary bird Moltres, and has one of my favorite artworks I've seen for the Pokemon in a hot minute. It has a holographic stamp on the card due to only being available to get through opening Brilliant Stars build and battle kits. There were 4 promos that you could pull out of the boxes in total. I opened up a fair amount of them, around 12, and I was only able to get one. So, I'd say it was probably the rarest of the bunch of them. Speaking of the rest of themmm.

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These were the other 3 promos available through the battle kits. I figured I'd keep these so that I had a full set of the promos, though I'm not super keen on any of these 3 cards in comparison to the Moltres. I mean, Bibarel do be kind of dank doe, to be fair. Value wise, each of these promos is around $3-5 each, so nothing too crazy. These kind of promos typically do go up in value after a handful of years. But, we'll see.

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This was a promo card for the launch of Astral Radiance I got recently from an event that ran at Gamestop, which I didn't even know about. I believe it was just that you had to spend $15 to get a copy of the card, which isn't really too hard if you're an addict like me. Definitely not the most pricey promo card or overly sought after, but, I figured I'd keep it since I enjoy the artwork they used and Typhlosion was hands down my favorite starter from Gen 2. I do think this new form they've given him is a bit goofy though, to be honest. Mans out here looking like a ferret that stumbled into a weed dispensary.

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This is the most recent card to be released from this post, and it's a brand new type of card being introduced into the Pokemon TCG. They're called radiant cards, and they come in the reverse holo slot inside packs. These radiant cards are the shiny version of the normal Pokemon designs, and come with a special foil pattern on the cards. You can only have one of them in your deck if you're some kind of sick fucking masochist who actually plays the card game, because they're typically OP as fuck. I really dig the artwork on this one in particular, and enjoy Greninja as a Pokemon. So, I had to keep it after pulling it. Value wise, it's a fairly cheap card raw. That's because there's only 3 in an entire set, and on average you get 1-2 from a booster box. It's about $4-5 on average currently, though I'm sure graded it will sell for a more stupid amount.

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I'm bunching these three together as they all came together inside of the same tin. These were released inside of a specific product for the Celebrations set that was dropped in celebration of the 25th anniversary of Pokemon. These are all callbacks to either old cards specifically, or to the style of card. Delta species was a wacky/weird time in Pokemon where they turned into the same type that they're weak to. This Mimikyu card has some goofy lore to it though which was a bonus. So, I was super stoked to see that be brought back with one of my favorite newer gen Pokemon. The light cards were just symbols of good pokemon versus dark evil ones that twirl their moustaches and throw women onto train tracks, you know, like old timey incels. None of these cards are crazy value wise, but, I like the holo pattern on them and just the design and artwork in general.

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This was another celebrations promo, and it's probably my favorite one. This is a callback to a long time ago when they did gold star cards, which signified that a Pokemon was shiny. Those cards are usually worth a fuck ton if they're in good condition and graded high, and even raw they're usually worth a few hundred dollars. I wasn't lucky enough to be into Pokemon when those released back in the day, since I was too busy being an emo kid around that time period. This Greninja is the shiny version again, and has a pretty cool holo pattern with a nice swirl. These are again something not worth a ton, I think around $5 on average. This is because there's a stupid amount of these floating around, since they came from celebrations ETB's, which there's heaps of. I've got two of these in my collection, and I'm sure I may end up with a 3rd or 4th if I ever get some more ETB's to open.

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My final celebrations card in this post is a Dark Gyarados reprint that was included in the classic collection part of the set. I absolutely love Gyarados, and it's been one of my top favorite Pokemon since I was a kid. Who doesn't love dragons and shit, bruh. We all know you guys were milking your nipples over the dragons in Game of Thrones. I mean, before it got all dog shitty. But, yeah. The original dark gyarados card goes for a pretty penny, especially in 1st edition. Getting one of those in NM/M shape isn't affordable for me right now, so I'll gladly settle for this reprint with a different holo pattern. While it is one of my favorite cards from the set, it's one of the absolute cheapest. I think this sells for around $2-3 on average, so, nothing that I'll be rubbing my nutsack all over out of pure joy or anything. Still a cool card though.

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My final addition to this post is the most expensive card in this post, and hands down the coolest one, in my opinion at least. This is a promo card that was released a few months ago inside a collection box. It features Arceus and it's an alternate art, which is a new art style of card they've been doing in modern sets. You'll see them more in my future posts for sure, as they're normally the chase cards for everyone. My bitch ass included. Arceus is an interesting/fun Pokemon, though it's not my absolute favorite. He's basically the Jesus Christ of Pokemon, to give you an idea. Though, I don't think Pikachu was nailing him to a cross or anything like that. There's another alt art of this guy from Brilliant Stars that goes for around $45-50 that is pretty cool. This one just goes for around $9 on average, so now we're talking about big fucking money, dawg. I have special magnetic cases for specific cards, and I normally don't toss a card into one if it's under $10. But, I just love the artwork on this card. I mean, just look at it. You fuck.

You'd have to be a filthy charlatan to not like this artwork. Well, or I guess just not be a crusty man child like 99.9 percent of the Pokemon fan base, I guess.

But, yeah, that'll about do it for the low end part of my collection. I'm going to go back to laying underneath the AC so I don't burst into flames. Stay hydrated out there, my doods.

Later!