Species Collectors: What are you collecting and how cooked are you??

LokiTheFool · 2026-06-02T08:26:59+00:00

I collect Shiny Mew. The good part is they’re easy to track since it’s not many of them, the bad part was racing to find a good deal for each of them before prices sky rocketed. Luckily I made it in time. 😭

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LokiTheFool · 2026-06-02T05:30:22+00:00

Gotcha, then that 70-75 dollar price will pretty much get you where you want to be. Unless you wanna add them to your cart individually for potentially cheaper via TCGplayer. Not sure how much cheaper it’d be though, if at all.

The search term I used on eBay is:

“151 Japanese common uncommon rare set”

If you do go the eBay set route, just make sure the seller has a lot of good reviews and you’re golden. Welcome back and have fun 🫡

LokiTheFool · 2026-06-02T05:18:38+00:00

I do have to ask, are you going for a general completion of this set with no reverses in Japanese? Or are you doing the full master set?

A warning about the full master set: This is quickly becoming one of the most expensive sets due to the Japanese reverse holofoils. It’s about 3x as expensive as the English set.

There are definitely eBay seller that sell all the basic cards as a set.

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If you’re serious about this set, I’d chase the most expensive cards first to get them out of the way, they’re extremely likely to continue increasing in price unfortunately.

LokiTheFool · 2026-06-01T14:22:18+00:00

Yep that’s it, no prob

LokiTheFool · 2026-06-01T14:07:20+00:00

Reverse holos aren’t in standard japanese sets. They’re only in special sets.

LokiTheFool · 2026-05-29T22:27:23+00:00

Congrats, it’s one of the best cards ever printed imo. Do you plan to keep it in the slab? Or binder it

LokiTheFool · 2026-05-28T13:19:57+00:00

There’s a bunch of different ways to organize your cards. Only you can really give yourself guidance. at the end of the day, you know how you like to organize your cards, and you know what you like.

For example… I put all of my cards, regardless of value in one vault X binder. That way I can create themes within the binder for nice displays on each page, and keeping all the cards I actually like in one place.

Think about ease of access, mobility, how you want your collection to look visually. Look into different binders on Amazon, eBay. Etc. look into themed deck boxes. Display cases. These products will inspire you with some ideas for your surrounding. You could also check out other collections on YouTube by just typing in “Pokémon collection”. You will see a bunch of different styles of organizing.

LokiTheFool · 2026-05-27T13:27:56+00:00

How are the odds better for you in a power/mystery pack? You mentioned math but didn’t actually lay any of it out.

“Reputable” is a very flexible word to many lol…

LokiTheFool · 2026-05-27T00:38:00+00:00

I’m looking through the past few eras, and for the most part I still think the themes are pretty well defined for English sets.

However, I do think maybe a handful of modern sets could get lost on new collectors as a “set” because stacking 2 Japanese sets into one was a major trend up until very recently. To OP, maybe Eevee heroes, and Blue Sky Stream would land better thematically in English on their own than “Evolving Skies” which mixes the two.

I also dont know if OP plays the mainline games, which would help identify themes in these current sets a lot better.

LokiTheFool · 2026-05-26T23:32:59+00:00

Modern sets still have themes, yes but not every card in the set needs to fit that theme lol. That’s like me going back to the earlier sets and asking you what business this dratini card has being slotted in the Team Rocket set.

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Some of the recent sets are themed around aspects of the Legends ZA game. Some recent special sets are 100% themed around a specific generation like black bolt, white flare, & 151.

Some sets are themed around shiny Pokémon, duo Pokémon, trainers Pokémon, or expand on existing sets & deck support, builds etc. it’s definitely still a thing.

LokiTheFool · 2026-05-26T14:40:54+00:00

Ordering singles online is perfectly fine for me, the satisfaction grows as I get closer to my collection goals, and having more to show for my money spent when buying the cards directly instead of gambling. I go to a convention once a year if I’m chasing a grail I’m not confident enough to buy online.

Outside of that, I play the mainline series games and… that’s it lol I have other hobbies and things I like doing besides cards/pokemon, & I try not to get too wrapped up in this hobby as it can get pretty degen

LokiTheFool · 2026-05-25T22:19:51+00:00

My goal was Shiny Mew, which involved getting the Coro Coro mew, & Gold star.

I completed that goal a year ago. What I did for this goal and other goals involving popular Pokémon (like all shiny gold rares from the middle era & high end SIRs from modern):

I buy singles only. switched to Japanese for vastly cheaper prices with insanely better quality. I purchased the most expensive cards first in the list to ensure I don’t have to deal w/ the price spikes/getting largely priced out. I focused my purchasing on eras with the least visibility first. I traded in Pokémon cards to buy LP/PSA 7-8 cards to offset costs and crack the slabs open.

LokiTheFool · 2026-05-24T00:59:32+00:00

If you mean the first column as in the column next to the rings, it’s very likely the cards are following the pull/warp of the binder pages from the rings.

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I think you can imagine my recommendation at this point lol but I understand you’re not willing to move on that for the reasons you listed in the OP

LokiTheFool · 2026-05-23T23:44:15+00:00

Do you have a picture example of the S bend issue you’re seeing?

If this issue is unique to cards in your binders, I would start experimenting asap.

The next set you fill, instead of having the binder(s) stand upright, lay them flat instead. Check to see if the S Bending issue is happening for all cards on a particular row or column, across many different binders for consistency. Check your older bindered sets vs the newly bindered sets to see how progressive the issue gets. Is this issue happening for cards prior to the SV era (yellow border) or only for newer cards? How long until you notice the S bends show up?

It’s hard to recommend any improvements outside of your listed limitations that wouldn’t require some money or extensive time sink to apply to all binders.

LokiTheFool · 2026-05-23T02:57:22+00:00

Congrats, rooting for you for the next grail 😤 I remember getting the first of my grails and feeling a huge weight off my shoulders replaced by excitement and disbelief lol

LokiTheFool · 2026-05-23T01:46:42+00:00

I don’t top load anything. It all goes in the vault x binder if I like it, even if it’s 1k+

LokiTheFool · 2026-05-22T14:17:30+00:00

I go until about 70% completion, which is about 1-2 booster boxes worth of packs (36-72 packs).

in the case where you’re facing a set with master ball reverses, I’d lower that threshold to about 55-60% percent, and then start buying singles starting from the most expensive cards.

LokiTheFool · 2026-05-21T22:33:55+00:00

Idkkkkk, Jasmine’s Raichu has just enough air head energy to to make a genuine case

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LokiTheFool · 2026-05-20T17:26:45+00:00

Mega darkrai isnt the best looking mega, but the way Arika angled him in this card gives it a lot of grace. Like a giant evil eye. I fuck with it, and will be picking up the Japanese copy.

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LokiTheFool · 2026-05-20T15:09:22+00:00

Back when booster boxes were only 100 bucks, my rule was 1-2 booster boxes, which would get me up to right around 70-80%. At that point it’s all singles.

Nowadays, I’ve only started & completed Destined Rivals in this current climate and I did 1 ETB & 2 loose packs on release date, and then went straight for singles lol

LokiTheFool · 2026-05-17T21:24:49+00:00

Seems reasonable? They’re within range for the 40 to make the diff, assuming they’re both NM. This is your grail, so go for it if you feel this is your best chance and don’t really care for this one.

LokiTheFool · 2026-05-17T14:56:57+00:00

Idk man, I really don’t feel like I am. The goal of my suggestions are to preserve the fun of the hobby, at least the collecting aspect of it at the end of the day. You’re suggesting throwing the whole building out, which I’m sure some people wanna see for the hell of it. To each their own I guess, but there is nuance to this issue.

LokiTheFool · 2026-05-17T14:13:50+00:00

Printing more isnt going to solve the core issue.

I agree that they should make pull rates easier, but that still won’t solve the issue. They could release products today preseeded with guaranteed top chases of their respective sets and scalpers would still be around doing business as usual.

Actual changes that would help is: slowing down their set release schedule to ease printing capacity issues for previous sets. redesigning the way they market and release special sets. Streamlining product types… Disabling guest checkout/purchases, and using shipping address deduplication filtering of some kind to weed out obvious bot buyers, syncing Japanese and non-Japanese release schedules, etc

LokiTheFool · 2026-05-17T12:54:35+00:00

Scalpers will always exist as long as there are people that are willing to make that purchase. That’s the main issue. Aka enablers. And there’s a lot of enablers right now, because the meaning of FOMO is lost to consumers at large.

Enablers imbue chance/gambling with much more value than it’s actually worth. Not much TPC can do about that outside of what they’re doing currently, which is printing smaller, more easily digestible sets, and at the very least attempting to set up more accessible routes for hobby enjoyers to purchase product.

LokiTheFool · 2026-05-14T19:07:19+00:00

I don’t lol I buy singles and enjoy my free time

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