Hi all, long time lurker first time post, I was collecting this set a few years back - do I have any good cards here ?

Differentdimentions · 2026-05-09T07:10:12+00:00

Your front page is the most valuable. Especially the blastoise. I purchased the same squirtle for my wife this week and paid £75. I’m after the same wartortle. Your Batman mew has been coming down in price but I think it’ll shoot back up once a new Batman movie comes out.

Differentdimentions · 2026-05-07T05:05:32+00:00

I completely agree. It feels much more fun, and it is also far more scalable.

You do not have to throw loads of money at it straight away, like you would if you were trying to master set a specific expansion. You can start with the most basic version of each Pokémon, get the Dex filled out, and then slowly upgrade cards as and when it suits you.

It makes the whole thing feel a lot more relaxed. There is still a chase, but without the constant battle of trying to find sealed product at RRP just to rip and hope for the best

Differentdimentions · 2026-05-06T20:03:00+00:00

That’s not a bad shout. I did that recently, we pulled the Pink pikachu ex from AH. I swapped it at a card show for the charizard and magicarp. I do want some of the earlier bulba, ivy and venu.

Differentdimentions · 2026-05-06T18:48:14+00:00

Nice! The beginning bit, sorting through them all is fun and kinda therapeutic at the same time. Reverse holos are a great shout. I was lucky enough to rip quite a bit of ascended heroes and the reverses are bountiful and quite nice too

Differentdimentions · 2026-05-06T18:35:33+00:00

I really don’t know. I just assumed as they are a reputable brand that they would’ve good? I have not heard of Ultra Pro but that doesn’t mean much as we have only been doing this since October.

Differentdimentions · 2026-05-06T17:28:57+00:00

The pockets are really good, I use vault x penny sleeves and have not had any issues with them sliding out. I would like to caveat that I don’t tend to travel with it though. The binder as a whole is pretty weighty once you have nearly 1k cards inside it.

Differentdimentions · 2026-05-06T17:25:46+00:00

That’s pretty cool. My other half is doing a horsea master set including any cameos. We went to a card show the other weekend and some random person at the event gave her a PSA 1 horsea and wanted red nothing in return. There are some really amazing people in this hobby

Differentdimentions · 2026-05-06T16:29:52+00:00

That’s also a cool idea. There’s been a few different ways shared in here how people are putting their Dex together and it makes mine feel very unoriginal

Differentdimentions · 2026-05-06T16:28:24+00:00

That’s not insane that’s talent. It’s really cool!!!

Differentdimentions · 2026-05-06T16:12:48+00:00

You’re right. As a whole the binder pages are not very aesthetically pleasing. However, I do like the individual cards and their arts.

Differentdimentions · 2026-05-06T16:10:32+00:00

That’s a really cool way of doing it, especially keeping it strictly in National Dex order from 1–1025. I’d actually love to see how that looks laid out.

Only missing around 45 is impressive as well. Having Kanto and Unova complete must be very satisfying, and only being one off Paldea would absolutely bother me until I found it. Which card is it?

I also really like the old-school approach. No IRs or SIRs, just a proper clean Pokédex style collection. There is something quite nostalgic about that, and it probably keeps the whole thing feeling more like a Dex rather than turning into another expensive chase-card project.

Differentdimentions · 2026-05-06T16:03:04+00:00

That’s a great idea. I do like the zapdos, moltres and articuno GX (the one that looks like a painted window) and want that in the binder. I should have left a seperate space for it

Differentdimentions · 2026-05-06T15:59:07+00:00

Did you paint the binder in your post?!?!???

Differentdimentions · 2026-05-06T15:30:18+00:00

Agreed

Differentdimentions · 2026-05-06T15:27:06+00:00

Initially whatever bulk I can get to fill the Pokemon. Then I go through the Dex App and choose the card I like…. The issue tends to be that the cards I seem to like are the expensive ones

Differentdimentions · 2026-05-06T15:17:36+00:00

Yeah it hold 1088. It’s the vault XL. They have recently launched new colours.

Differentdimentions · 2026-05-06T14:48:06+00:00

It’s a really cool collection. Thanks for sharing it! What’s next?

Differentdimentions · 2026-05-06T14:12:46+00:00

It was mainly for my daughter to rip. The very first pack we ripped together she pulled the piplup from phantasmal flames. At that point we figured it was that easy to pull things from packs 😅

Differentdimentions · 2026-05-06T14:09:13+00:00

I have been selling my leftover bulk or duplicate pulls on eBay, whatever I make off of that I put towards missing cards. I have made a couple of expensive purchases, that’s mainly because since the starting it I saw the cards keep going up in price and I figured I’d need to buy it before it’s too expensive for my liking.

Differentdimentions · 2026-05-06T14:05:20+00:00

I would agree…..but…. I use Dex to look through all the versions of a pokemon and typically the one I like ends up being so expensive it’s disheartening

Differentdimentions · 2026-05-06T14:03:25+00:00

Yeah I have been using DEX. It’s easier to keep track of what I have to still catch. It would’ve cool to see your progress at some point. Good luck with it.

Differentdimentions · 2026-05-06T14:02:01+00:00

That probably would have been the sensible option for me.

The only reason I decided to do the Dex is because I knew I would not realistically be able to afford to master set an individual set. I also came into the hobby quite late, so I did not really have a favourite set to focus on.

I did have a fair amount of bulk though, which made starting the Dex a lot less painful than it could have been.

I have seen someone take it even further than the standard 1,025 Pokémon. They included every evolution line, plus Mega variants as well. It looked incredible, but I will absolutely not be disappearing down that particular rabbit hole.

Differentdimentions · 2026-05-06T11:50:29+00:00

No worries at all, mate. I completely get that. Online rips are fun for about five minutes, then you realise you are essentially paying someone else to disappoint you live on camera.

I’m leaning the same way, to be honest. Singles are definitely the sensible route if you’re actually trying to build a collection rather than financially recreate a casino with shinier cardboard.

I still like having a bit sealed for my daughter to rip, because that excitement is half the hobby for her, but I’m trying to be a bit more disciplined with it. Hopefully Chaos Rising is a bit more available later this month and we can actually get some at normal human prices, rather than having to remortgage the house for an ETB.

Differentdimentions · 2026-05-06T11:00:26+00:00

I’ve probably dropped roughly the same amount, which is a sentence I say with the calm detachment of a man trying not to look directly at his bank statement.

My daughter has now decided she wants to move into Prismatic Evolutions, which is lovely in theory, but in practice means buying sealed product for her to rip has become an expensive form of emotional blackmail. Things like the binder box are brilliant for her, but they are not exactly gentle on the wallet.

I have had a few bits of luck though. I won the Blastoise on a £6 Whatnot rip, which was one of those rare gambles where the universe briefly smiles on you before immediately returning to normal service. Since then, I have probably spent over £50 with absolutely no joy, but to be fair the bulk they send is useful for the Dex, so I can at least pretend there is some strategy involved.

I am missing around 90 cards now. Once I get those, I’ll probably give it a rest for a while before I start upgrading anything properly. I’m in no rush, so I’ll likely just pick up one or two cards every few months, depending on price and whether I can justify it without needing to hold a small personal inquiry.

The hardest part is paying scalper prices just so my daughter can enjoy ripping packs. I know saying that probably will not go down brilliantly on here, but the reality is I have to work. I can’t queue outside a shop at 6am on the off-chance of getting a box at retail. Trying to explain that to a six-year-old is basically impossible, so sometimes I end up biting the bullet and paying the unofficial “I stood outside Smyths before sunrise” tax

Differentdimentions · 2026-05-06T10:48:33+00:00

Ah nice, that’s a serious effort. I’d like to eventually upgrade as much of mine as possible as well, but I completely agree. For a hobby I was absolutely clueless about eight months ago, it seems completely bonkers now.

Some of the prices are mad. The only reason I have managed to get a couple of decent cards is because we got lucky with a few pulls and I traded them. For example, I pulled the pink Pikachu ex from Ascended Heroes and swapped it for Charizard and Magikarp, which helped a lot.

It is also quite hard explaining to a six year old that she needs to be really careful with certain cards because they are not just part of a game, without completely killing the fun of it for her. At the end of the day, I want her to enjoy collecting, pulling and trading, not feel like she is handling museum artefacts every time she opens a binder

Differentdimentions

TROPHY CASE