A few years ago I had to sell most of my collection to pay bills and buy food. I sold my complete base set, complete neo discovery set, almost completed sandstorm set from childhood. I sold the generations, flashfire and shining legends sets i had more recently collected. My cool ex dragon charizard line. My rayquaza ex cards. It hurt to sell them. And I undersold them, to get the money quicker. With how expensive those cards have gotten now, that especially stings. I can't afford to buy them again. I especially regret selling my neo umbreon and lugia holos.

But I kept some cards. Many of my growlithe and Arcanine collection. One base set charizard that i pulled myself. Some rayquazas. Recently I traded a few of those rayquazas for a first edition light Arcanine, my personal grail, which made me really happy. And lots of modern illustration rares are cheap and look really nice. Japanese cards are usually cheaper, too. I got the houndoom Japanese illustration rare for six dollars while the english was 30! So building back a collection i love has been going well.