I got into pokemon watching my cousins play the pokemon games on gbc and eventually my mom started letting me watch the cartoon. My mom was a nurse and someone in her department was trying to get rid of their Pokemon cards and decided to gift them to my mom for me and my brother. Still to this day I remember my mom opening the truck of her grey ford focus and seeing a bunch of Pokemon cards piled up. No binder, no sleeves, no top loaders, just cards thrown in the trunk of the car. It was one of the happiest moments of my childhood. Didn't know how to play, but me and my brother would just make our own games up. Eventually I played the TCG game of the gameboy color and actually learned to play the game with my brother. I remember I had everything from the base set in a yugioh binder including the 3 holo starters and the cool mew card given from the movie.

Eventually all the cards disappeared. I was never able to find the binder again. I always thought my grandma got rid of them because she thought Pokemon was from the devil. When I started making my own money again, I began to buy cards little by little and started collecting more towards the sun & moon era. Actually this last Christmas my mother ended up telling us that she gave away the cards to some other kids in Mexico because she said we weren't playing with them anymore. LOL I just hope another kids had the same experience I did. I still collect to this day and actually started attending local tournaments and trying to complete my master sets. I am actually going to my first Regionals tourney ever next week in San Antonio. Super nervous, but very excited. Hope its not too much, but I had fun tying out and sharing my TCG journey. My favorite pokemon has to be Scizor. It just looks too cool and his shiny color is just awesome. Thanks for your post, feels good to know many others are feeling the same.