I had already graduated high school before Pokemon became a thing.
this post was submitted on 01 Aug 2025
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Trippin' Through Time
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What was it like inventing dirt?
I was just starting university when Magic: The Gathering came out.
Wow, you must be ancient!
I hate that they actually became valuable over the years. I gave all my Pokémon cards (and my crystal game boy color) to some kid in my neighborhood when I out grew them. I at least hope he had fun with that stuff.
Everyone did that, that's why they're valuable now
That's the fate pokemon cards were created to have. To be played with and loved until they're a fuzzy faded piece of trash in their 4th kid's closet.
Nowadays far more people seem to collect to sell then to play, its why graded cards are so common. Sucks MTG is heading there too.
Marjorie Taylor Greene is absolutely a fuzzy faded piece of trash
What Pokémon is she
Muk Trubbish Garbodor
Haha, normally I see her and think magic the gathering and get confused. Makes for some great headlines though
I knew a bunch of dudes that did that with Magic cards back during revised. They would collect alpha, beta, and unlimited cards only to sell.
Always has and always will be people only to collect, in anything. Right now I rarely see a graded magic card, even in card shops. Magic is to play, not collect imo, but as hasbro tries to woo collectors, the game gets more expensive and harder to just play.
I had a friend who sleeved and foldered all his cards even back in fourth grade, some 20+ years ago.
He did well anyway, but I'm sure he still has that collection and it must be worth a fucking fortune.
That’s the opposite of me… when I was in my early 20s and worked retail, a lady at my store saw my Pokémon hoodie and was like “my kids outgrew Pokémon, do you wanna buy their stuff for cheap?”
I go over there and there’s four containers (two of them Pokémon themed backpacks) full of minis, plushies, and more. I asked her how much and she’s like “ehhh fifty bucks?” I have never said yes so quickly in my life.
As I’m leaving, she’s like “oh do you want their cards for another forty?” And busts out three albums, complete sets of base, jungle, and fossil, with some other sets at the end. Base set had a bunch of first editions (not Charizard, unfortunately… just regular foil.)
I still have everything she sold me, 18 years later. I dunno if I can ever sell them.
Yup, gave mine to a neighbourhood kid that I babysat.
Honestly, over the years I think I've come to sour on the whole notion of collecting things as a hobby.
It's one thing if you're collecting stuff that no one wants and will be junked otherwise, or are collecting things to restore them and get rid of them again, but collecting stuff that is either highly desired or potentially used, just to collect it and have it sit there, feels really wasteful and self indulgent.
That's how I feel about things that are created specifically to be collectables.
Personally I collect cameras, some of them in order to use, some because they are nice to look at, or have interesting history.
Mine were stolen at church camp. I had planned on keeping them until they were worth something.
i had a first edition Charizard that was stolen at a sleepover (dumb ten year old me wanted to show it off). then the rest were stolen by my sister when I was in college where she cut them up to decorate her binder.
don't know how many still survive but I'm pretty pissed
Charizard that was stolen at a sleepover (dumb ten year old me wanted to show it off)
I don't think you were the dumb one to trust people who you were at a sleepover with.
Learning that some people don't have morals or empathy was a bitch as a kid. Egoistic fucks.
That first edition charizard though, so universally contentious. A core childhood memory was battling a neighborhood kid, he wagered his charizard and I put up machamp + gyarados holos. Winner gets the pot. We do the battle, I won, then immediately this kid snatches the charizard off the table and took off running all the way down the street back home with it.
I never got the card, and that's how I learned there is no justice in this world. Was way before they were worth anything more than sentimental value.
My mother THREW THEM IN THE TRASH as a punishment. 25 years later and I’m still pissed.
Now this is what the older generations called a Pikachu - it is some sort of electric rat and a symbol of surprise, or that's what some almost forgotten memes tend to show. And this is a Vaporeon, it was a common fertility deity in the pre-AI times, according to ancient copypastas.
What the archeologists saw in the ancient caves:
My wife still has her 1st gen through 3rd releases. Small collection but some fairly valuable ones. She said if I did the work of researching, I could do what I wanted with them. I checked prices and immediately took them out of the janky binder they were in and sleeved/hard cased most.
When I finished pricing, she heard the amount they were potentially worth, she decided she didn't want to part with them.
But they're just worth nostalgia if you don't sell your paper bits for other paper bits!
I have a complete set of base through Fossil, with lots of first editions! I have no idea what they’re worth, but I could never part with them.
I looked through my old Pokémon card collection last year to see if there's anything worth like thousands of dollars that would permanently change my life if I sold it.
I have like 300 cards from the early 2000s and none of them are worth shit :'c
Typical!
I always liked the lady who brought in a complete set of beta MTG cards (including the power 9) of her husband.
What is an "Antique Roadshow"?
It's a TV show on PBS. People bring antiques to be appraised, and an expert tells them what they have, what's special about it, and how much it could be worth. The fun ones have someone coming in like "this was my grandmother's cabinet growing up and I haven't thought twice about it" and then the appraiser telling them "this was made by the most famous carpenter in 1890's Massachusetts, it's worth $20,000" or similar stories.
A show on PBS, they look at old stuff like paintings, pottery and collectables people found or inherited, and have appraisers explain the backstory of the item and estimate how much it could be worth at auction. It's great.
Edit - I think BBC has a version too
Where can I possibly watch it?
There's some episodes and clips on youtube to get a feel, but all the episodes are part of PBS Passport streaming service
Where can I possibly watch it?
The original is on whatever your BBC access would be, in my case BBC America. The US version is wherever you'd access Public Broadcasting.
Which may not be anywhere anymore soon, because Trump's Congress cut their funding!
Ever heard of google?
Pokemon was after my time and all D:
Mine too...
I feel so lucky, it came out right around when I was Ash’s age!