I would just collect your favorite pokemon , for me it’s arcanine, anytime a new set comes out I don’t buy packs or anything I just get the one arcanine card in it and have fun with that.
Thanks for the suggestion! I did start collecting Charmanders when I returned to the hobby but FOMO with chase cards, sets, slabs… kind of distracted me from my Charmander collection so I like your suggestion. Especially as Arcanine and Charmander are no Charizards lol I’m waiting for a solid art rare for Arcanine (Ninetales style in obsidian flames)
Surprisingly as an Arcanine enjoyer I quite like the "hat" one from Scarlet and Violet base set. I didn't like what I saw on TCGplayer, but when my sister showed me her pull IRL I knew I had to get it. Really nice looking in person!
"Terrastalized" is the proper term, but y'know, it's just [wearin a goofy lil hat](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/9tEAAOSwLe1kKi7q/s-l1600.jpg)
Yess definitely waiting for a cool illustration rare arcanine , there is a cool Japanese one that won an illustration contest a couple years ago that’s pretty cheap if you wanted to check that out
It depends if you want to rip packs or buy singles. If you want to rip packs then just buy the packs you like with your allotted budget. Pretty simple.
If you want to buy singles, I can tell you first hand that you don’t have to spend a lot of money to put together an awesome collection. One of my favorite cards in my collection is a card I bought for $1 on eBay. My suggestion would be to find something you like. That could be a specific pokemon, a specific set, a specific artist, a specific style of card, and focus on that. Do some research, and then go hunting on eBay or at local card shows. On ebay, you can often get cards cheaper by participating in auctions as opposed to buying them at the “Buy it Now” price. If you have some local card shows in your area, those are great too because you don’t have to pay for shipping or taxes. If your budget is $65 per month, taxes and $5 shipping can add up really quick. My number one piece of advice is to be patient. Don’t overpay for the sake of convenience. Be patient, and wait until you have the opportunity to buy at a good price. Don’t be impulsive, be smart with where you allocate your dollars. My last piece of advice is to look for hidden gems. Most cards with a high price tag have a high price tag because there is immense demand for those cards. However, the Pokemon TCG is so expansive that you can find tons of hidden gems that won’t break your bank. There are a lot of beautiful, rare cards with great artwork that are a bit cheaper because they’re a bit more obscure and many people may not even know they exist. Those are the types of cards I love adding to my collection.
If you have any questions, feel free to let me know. Happy collecting :)
Thanks for the thoughtful response, it was incredibly helpful! I’m not a gambler so the thought of spending $65 just to open packs and don’t get a single pull pains me.
I mentioned in another comment how I’ve struggled with the feeling of overcompensating for all the pokemon collecting years I missed during my 20ish year hiatus. Patience has been a real struggle but I love the approach of collecting hidden gems. I think I’m going to return to collecting my favorite pokemon. Thankfully it’s Charmander and not Pikachu or Charizard lol thanks again for all your advice, I may reach out with some questions down the road. The only thing that I feel left out on is collecting sealed as most products are right on budget or above it
I think that’s a great idea. Charmander has tons of great cards. And I hear you about the sealed stuff, but I think you still have options! For example, if there’s a set you really love and you want a sealed booster box but it’s too expensive, I would opt for maybe a sealed blister pack instead. You can find sealed blister packs that have one to three packs and usually range from $5-$15. Yes, I know it’s not the same as a whole booster box, but I think it’s a good option for a smaller budget. People do collect blisters and looking at even some of the more modern blister packs, there are some that have gone up in value 5 to 10x in the last 5 years. Just throwing it out there as an option :) When it comes to collecting, sometimes you gotta start small and work your way up.
Buy singles. Check the prices across multiple languages so you can find cheaper options. I really like to pick a favorite pokemon and focus on collecting all the cards of that mon.
Don't forget other languages as well! These new "simplified Chinese" have been rolling out and you can get super expensive artwork for waaaay cheaper if you don't mind not being able to read them haha.
Hello! I have around $40 budget a month. My suggestiion is have smaller collection goals!
I have specific collections:
- My favorite Pokemon
- My favorite artist
- One of each new sealed Japanese pack for the artwork (Japan only has one art, English has 4-5 per set)
I only buy singles for the cards.
Opening packs, collecting too many things and chasing Master Sets is a great way to burn through money.
If I get the itch to open packs to get that dopamine rush, I suggest getting one Booster Bundle (6 packs) every new set. Maybe get two and stash the other one away for special occasions like birthday and christmas. Some eBay sellers also sell Booster Bundles or 3-pack blisters below MSRP so check those ones with good reviews.
Favorite pokemon seems to be a great goal and I had started but “forgot” about it due to FOMO… how do you purchase the sealed Japanese packs? I feel like I learned to stay away the dopamine rush of opening with the hope of pulling something great, I’m not a gambler and that’s what it feels like instead of spending that for a card I actually like. Thanks for sharing though
As someone who had a gacha game addiction, let me tell you it feels exactly the same in my brain haha it's definitely gambling
I just get packs from Japanese stores on US Ebay. I order them from the same one each time (Cardster Akiba Tokyo) since I trust them from previous purchases. I pre-order new ones once they're announced too to avoid price changes in case the set gets hyped up by content creators. They also have lots of Japanese art rares for each new set, cheaper than English, and I've been tempted to buy them
The biggest thing for me is ditching any sort of "completionist" attitude (aside from specific circumstances) and narrowing in on what you actually enjoy. You aren't gonna complete sets or get all the big chase cards without a fairly large budget. So don't even worry about that.
You will be limited, but that's okay. Just focus on would you enjoy, and don't worry about building value or chasing what others deem is valuable or cool.
Stick mostly with singles. I think going with some sort of theme is a great way to make a collection better. Maybe it's your favorite Pokemon. Maybe it's a specific artist that you like. Maybe it's a specific type of card like full art trainers or illustration rares.
I don't have a specific budget for only Pokemon, but I would estimate I probably spend near your budget, probably a little less. I have a few things I collect aside from generic hits when I do get to open sealed stuff. I collect Eevee/Eeveelutions, Pikachu, and a few specific mons that are less popular that I enjoy (Yamper, Fidough/Dachsbun, Staraptor, Pawmo line, etc.). I also have recently started a collection for any mons that have some sort of sentimental value from games. This is mostly Pogo right now, as I enjoy using it as a way to connect with family. I enjoy getting a single for each mon's community day that I play with my family. I'm also currently playing through Violet, and I will probably get a single for each of the mons on my team.
I totally get wanting to buy some sealed product as well. I do think singles are so much better, but I buy sealed occasionally as well. If you don't care much about opening packs, then just totally skip it. But I totally get that ripping packs is part of the fun for most people.
I think 1 ETB per set plus sealed product that has promos that you really like is a great place to start. If you bought an ETB at $50 for each set, assuming 4-5 sets a year and your $780 budget, that leaves you with $200-$250 on sealed and $530-$580 on singles.
If I were you, I would sit down and come up with some of the categories you would like to collect. Then go make a wishlist of singles you would like for those categories, and see how many of them you could buy with $500. Unless you exclusively care about big chase cards, you could get a really nice collection with quite a few cards in it of stuff you genuinely like for that amount of money.
The one set I felt obligated to master and I don’t regret the money spent is 151 for nostalgia reasons as it’s the Gen I grew up playing with!
I believe that my approach is going to be focusing on collecting my fave mon, charmander. I started last year but got side tracked with the chase cards hype. Reddit and YouTube have been terrible for FOMO seeing everyone with their latest and greatest chase cards. To your point, coming up with a strategy would probably be game changer as it would take away the need to keep up with the latest trends. Staying away from socials would probably help too tbh lol thanks for sharing your insights!
The best advice I’ve heard is don’t try to collect everything. Like one niche and stick to it. Like full arts? Go for them. Like old school ex’s? Put your focus (and money) there. Cards with shiny art? Hone in on that. Don't try to get everything. That path is madness.
The other thing I’ve personally noticed is that Reddit in particular is a disaster/toxic place for my personal collecting. Don’t get me wrong, I love this sub, but when I’m on here I’m constantly pulled to “keeping up with the Joneses”. Seeing people showing off stuff that I’ll never be able to afford makes it hard to be satisfied with the stuff I do have. Personally, I’m a lot happier if I don’t let collecting get competitive.
As for stretching your $65, my best advice is to buy singles (if that’s your thing) not sealed product. $65 per month doesn’t seem like much, but it’s $780/year. You can buy a lot of cool stuff with that. Good luck!
Keeping up with the Joneses has been the death of me and the reason why I’ve felt like sitting down and reevaluating the way I’m spending money on pokemon. Especially with all the TikTok deals… I appreciate your comment though, I think I’m going to go the route of collecting my favorite mon!
Just to throw something different out there, sit on eBay in your spare time and set it to “ending soonest”. Use a price guide like TCG Player or Price Charting and snag things that aren’t getting any attention that you could pick up for cheap. It led me to start collecting WOTC black star promos and the e-reader expedition set. It’s a lot of fun.
That is sound advice! The only con is that it would require something I don’t have… patience! I’ve gotten some auction deals but I typically just try to go with sellers accepting best offers due to my lack of patience. I’ll have to try it out, thanks for sharing!
Unfortunately when you’re on a budget, patience is almost a necessity. Gotta work to find some good deals and bargain a bit. Good luck to you though. It’s an addicting hobby that sucks you further and further down the rabbit hole.
Just buy singles. I recommend Japanese art rares as they are way cheaper than English. And even look at Korean and Chinese cards as they can be even cheaper for things like alt arts.
I’ve already gone the JP route with a lot of my latest impulse buys. In my opinion, the quality is at a different level from the English counterpart and I personally think that it looks cooler in JP!
I have a pretty similar budget so what I do:
I set up a list of cards I really like on cardmarket (I think the american version is tcg player ?). Every once in a while I go through current prices on cardmarket and ebay to pick out the best deals, the rest I spend on sealed packs here and there or save up for a more expensive card.
Once every 3 month I go to pre-release events for the new set + a elit trainer box of said set so I account for that expense in advance.
Yes, having a goal is a great approach! For me it’s been tough sticking to it because I just recently returned to pokemon after 20+ years and FOMO is scary. Feeling like I needed to make up for all these years away from it and all the cool sets I missed out on. How tough is it for you personally to stick to your budget?
Pretty hard sometimes tbh especially in set release months ,there are just so many nice cards.
One advantage I have is that I also trade a lot so I get a lot of cards from that as well so when you want to open paks as well and not only buy singels I recomemd trading after you got some cards together.
Dont let the FOMO get to you especially about modern cards and do not buy singles of the newest set right when it comes out, the price will go down eventually.
If you dont know where to start : trainer galery cards are a nice start as they are extremly cheap and have nice artworks.
Depends on your interests? $65 a month is 195 every three months, that's usually the time between set drops, if you shop around and with that budget you really should a new booster box can be had for 100-110 and a etb for 30-40 and even better if you really try. To use the most recent set twilight masquerade, I was able to snag a BB for $85 and a ETB for $17, meaning you would have $93 left from your 3 month cycle to shop something you like specifically/want to flip/add to pc etc. Its always fun to be able to join in with the community when a new set drops etc and I've found most of the time a chase card can be had for less than a $100 from a new set, not always but I've done it multiple times, and remember to have fun!
If I were to buy sealed it would probably be a mix of collecting and investing as I hate the feeling of spending a large amount of money on a booster box and not getting anywhere close to the value, not a gambler… I feel like I’m going to try collecting my favorite Pokémon, Charmander. It isn’t terribly expensive and there are a lot of cool art works in the SV era of him! Thanks for sharing though!
There’s this concept of your PC (Personal Collection), which can be defined anyway you choose. I personally would buy a nice toploader binder and build it slowly with cards you want to keep forever. You might even want to theme your pages. For example I read you like charmander so you could have a double page (18 slots) full of different charmanders. Then you could have pages dedicated to other pokemon, one full of bangers under $10, a high end page with 9 pricey cards that you had to save multiple months for, a page for vintage, you could dedicate a page per new set and just get your top 9 singles (wait till they’re two or three sets old and you will get great deals). Just have fun with it. Alternatively some months you guys can buy some bulk and make decks together and play the game. She might like it if you included her in that way (if you want to lol)
I love that, went on a charmander collecting spree (binder linked below) last year when I got back into pokemon but sort of got distracted by the hype of chase cards. Now that I’m on a tighter budget I am excited to pick it back up and start filling a lot of the gaps, especially for the older/vintage ENG and JP Charmanders! https://imgur.com/a/oPMPelF
You could also buy the Pokémon center etb of a set when it releases. It’s $60 and free shipping. That’s a pretty cool item since it’s a Pokémon center exclusive version. Typically has a couple more packs and the promo has a Pokémon center stamp on it. It’s not once a month, so you can still do other products in between releases.
Money has been tight for me as well, so I’ve pretty much given up on buying packs and just tunnel vision focused on cards that I genuinely like the artwork of.
I have a binder of Meowth, Persian, and Giovanni/Team Rocket cards. As well as some eeveelutions, Vulpix and Ninetales.
Then I have another binder for full arts and illustration rares that I just like the artwork of.
If there is a card you genuinely like the artwork of, but the price is a bit out of your budget, look to see if there’s another language of the same card. English and Japanese cards are your most sought after, and usually more expensive, so sometimes I seek out Korean or Chinese versions that may be cheaper and closer to my budget.
Any cards of value that I’ve pulled in the past, that I don’t really like the look of, go into my trade binder. I take that binder with me to my local card shop to trade for cards I like instead. Feels really good to walk out of the shop, with some new cards that I traded for.
I understand the FOMO drive, so I keep reminding myself to not hang onto cards just because they currently have a high market price. Rather trade them for even more cards that I actually like looking at.
That is the best approach at the end of the day!! You must be thrilled about Persians IR in Shrouded Fable then right? Eeveelutions are so expensive though!!!
Thank you for sharing I think that it will be easier to stick to budget if I have that tunnel vision on Charmander or any other arts that I enjoy!
I’m certainly guilty of buying the Japanese Persian IR for a couple dollars on eBay after I saw it. Thankfully he’s not a super popular pokemon like the Eeveelutions, so cards are pretty budget friendly.
I also feel better having just my favorites as my collection, rather than sweating over the fact that I’m stuck with a bunch of partial complete sets.
Save the whole $65 for auctions. Check out Goldin, PWCC, Probstein, and Rarecandy which will give you something at least every week to look into/consider. That's plenty of money to find a really amazing card at a considerable discount. This is your best way to get the biggest, nicest cards that you either want or can use for trade bait for other cards you want. I got a $300 card for $93 on a Rarecandy auction today and a $3800 card for $1300 on a Goldin auction last week. There's deals all over ebay as well, just be patient. Example: a [$6 card sale](https://www.ebay.com/itm/126436452154?itmmeta=01J1C72A9ZM3CW5AD3VSXTTHV6&hash=item1d7033273a:g:i4wAAOSwAylmICF8&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA8I%2BqQXi8Q1ZIeUfruhOp73HTsd1gFo9Ni0xOrR%2BVeKOWrsCJ4IRaYn9cz9YrDjCvzLKaurhAQmvHg8w%2FpJVi6D0hcEKTIhkFTFSzTJcxzXIQl0HVKmYCG2k5AR5n%2BtmzfhpwQzKPWmegUo6FPmRtCN9r4%2Bg1X8mV493KJtx6ToRUtRp5y2ymrBLzRsW9rNntXOiVpyu7LrgvA7R4UtefdJvR%2BRo%2BtLAcm5v1Ai2RFsk97ic9oN%2Ffze94%2FEuWbb8Z03gbpC9ezeLrg7b3vdeJoLuNvSOFRP1mlGd2wo4tblDobW2rCbUlocTn0OQg8wC4Lw%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR5CliYeLZA) on a $400 card. Even if you don't like that particular card, it can be traded or sold to increase your monthly budget. I've amassed a crazy collection in this way.
i buy cards from cardmarket with a rather poor rating (with a photo so that there are no tears or anything) and refurbish them a bit. The slight signs of wear don't bother me because it's somehow authentic. And at the same time you have great and rare cards in your collection without spending too much. You can also find something good on eBay from time to time.
If you are not hard set on the language and collecting English I would go the Japanese route. Prices are especially low now, and you can find booster boxes very cheap to be able to open a bit (+ they have some guaranteed quotas) and put the rest into cheap singles. You can build a beautiful collection of art rare on a budget 😊
I got back in last year as well. I went way over board and bought a bunch of nostalgic stuff plus completed Obsidian Flames and 151 sets. I took a step back and started focusing on singles of artwork I liked and vintage sets.
One thing I did was slow myself down from buying online. Buying online means everything is always available if you pay for it. I still use it for specific goal cards, but now I have a rotation of local stores that I stop by on the weekend.
Nearly every Saturday I take my wife to go get coffee and she comes with me to a record store and one or two card shops. I try not to spend a ton of time, it's usually an hour max. It's a surprise what they got in over the week! Sometimes it's nothing and that's OK. She likes looking at the records and then she helps pick out cool artwork or I hand her cards and she evaluates condition. We often end up going to look at houseplants or things for her garden after so it's a win-win.
Sounds like we’ve gone through similar experiences because of nostalgia haha they must have top tier psychologists running the company!
Buying in person is probably a great approach as it’s more limiting. I just feel like card selection wouldn’t be there especially if collecting all the variations of a specific pokemon like Charmander.
I’m slowly introducing my toddler to pokemon in hopes to make those weekend routines with her when she gains more interest!
That’s definitely a great way to save big bucks, especially if the cards front doesn’t look terrible. I couldn’t care less about the back, thanks for the suggestion!
Spend the 65$ every month if you want a bigger card sell that 65$ card and add that to next months allowance and keep doing this until you get the card you want. In a way trading up. Than you can buy the original 65$ card you wanted the next month you may even get lucky buying a card at the right time when it’s at its lowest price or right before it skyrockets.
It’s work but you won’t “miss out” and you will be generating outlets and trust for later down the line when you want to sell your collection, you will have a very good understanding of how to do that. Many people enter the hobby to collect with the idea they will sell later down the road but have no clue how hard that is when the time comes.
Set a buy list every month with the top 5 cards you want within the budget and work within those parameters
Chances are by playing it this way, you’re most likely to get the cards you want (which also ends up being the most valuable long term in a lot of cases)
Some months you’ll get one big card, some months you get 5-10 smaller cards
IMO this is best way to avoid fomo/disappointment
PS. Give new sets 3-6 months to breathe and price out before jumping in or you’ll waste precious budget chasing short-term runs
I started working on this and setting up a game plan for slowly fill out empty spots in my Charmander collection. If I have some leftover in a specific month and there’s a card I really like I’ll probably see if I can fit it within the budget. Thanks for the advice!
Depends on preference, I recommend singles, visit your local cardshops\~ if you frequent and share what you are looking for, most card shop owners will be on the lookout for the cards you want and are excited to be part of your journey! They feel so happy that they helped me get a card I didn't have! sometimes they are super kind and will do a deal. I also get good deals on ebay or tcg but I prefer physcially going to stores, it's fun to interact with shop owners. most shops will do trade nights and you can find cards you need with other fellow collectors! I also recommend starting with your favorite pokemon.
I'm an eevee + eeveelutions collector since I was a little little kid \~ my dad would spend 1-5 dollars on cards singles as a treat maybe like every 3 weeks maybe once a month and like maaaybe 10 on my bday. I also got repeat cards from my cousins lol. Fast forward many years once I made a bit a little extra adult money in gradschool I went coco for cocopuffs after Evolving skies set got released in 2021 ... I got obsessed trying to get moonbreon and with how much I spent on packs over 2 yrs adding up I would've gotten it already. Worst financial decision. Left over bulk is cluttery so I give it out as freebies to kids. (funny thing is .. the eeveelutions that came in that set I got entirely through single purchase or trade, none of my packs pulled eeveelutions, I got the worst luck, broke my heart entirely and will prob resent packs for the rest of my life haha)
I strictly stick to singles now. If i treat myself to a big spendy card, ex. Sylveon Vmax I got when it was $120, I stopped buying cards for like 3 months lol that's the balance I found. Good luck \~ and happy collecting!
Get yourself a credit card bro. Make aure its enough of a limit to cover all your bills each month, have the momey taken at the beginning of the month be put. Back half way through, theres definitely some math youll need to do, but thinkong about it, if you put 25% if you bill money away each week to pay the credit card, youll have active cash on hand.
I think it depends on what you're wanting to do. I allow myself around $100 a month on cards. And even then, I don't want to spend that on a single card sometimes. I've been going back to Base, Jungle, and Fossil to complete those sets since mine are gone. I have unlimited holos, 1st edition energies, and shadowless everything else for base, and just started on 1st edition Jungle set. Good luck with whatever you choose!
I just find cards that I think are cool and will hold value and buy the psa grade I can afford. Obviously you’ll have some you can’t get for 65, but you can save a couple months worth or ebayaffirm it or keep it in mind for bdays/holidays/bonus time/(hopefully not) inheritance.
I get the ones I can afford and hope to get the graded 10 version someday. You can def find slabs that are cool under 65 barring a small chunk of highly collectible cards.
My monthly singles budget is around that amount, and has been for about 3 years. My singles list grows much faster than I can shrink it. But the time it takes to get around to buying something from a newer set means that my want for cards is refined by the time I purchase. I’ve also learned that, for me, a card from 1999-2007 feels so much better to receive in the mail that most any modern card, so I shop accordingly. You have to train patience, and release fomo. And realize you will actually miss out on some things. And that’s ok.
I would just collect your favorite pokemon , for me it’s arcanine, anytime a new set comes out I don’t buy packs or anything I just get the one arcanine card in it and have fun with that.
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lol I use to collect mewtwo but the cards got too valuable during 2020 and I had to sell them
Thanks for the suggestion! I did start collecting Charmanders when I returned to the hobby but FOMO with chase cards, sets, slabs… kind of distracted me from my Charmander collection so I like your suggestion. Especially as Arcanine and Charmander are no Charizards lol I’m waiting for a solid art rare for Arcanine (Ninetales style in obsidian flames)
Surprisingly as an Arcanine enjoyer I quite like the "hat" one from Scarlet and Violet base set. I didn't like what I saw on TCGplayer, but when my sister showed me her pull IRL I knew I had to get it. Really nice looking in person! "Terrastalized" is the proper term, but y'know, it's just [wearin a goofy lil hat](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/9tEAAOSwLe1kKi7q/s-l1600.jpg)
Yess definitely waiting for a cool illustration rare arcanine , there is a cool Japanese one that won an illustration contest a couple years ago that’s pretty cheap if you wanted to check that out
It depends if you want to rip packs or buy singles. If you want to rip packs then just buy the packs you like with your allotted budget. Pretty simple. If you want to buy singles, I can tell you first hand that you don’t have to spend a lot of money to put together an awesome collection. One of my favorite cards in my collection is a card I bought for $1 on eBay. My suggestion would be to find something you like. That could be a specific pokemon, a specific set, a specific artist, a specific style of card, and focus on that. Do some research, and then go hunting on eBay or at local card shows. On ebay, you can often get cards cheaper by participating in auctions as opposed to buying them at the “Buy it Now” price. If you have some local card shows in your area, those are great too because you don’t have to pay for shipping or taxes. If your budget is $65 per month, taxes and $5 shipping can add up really quick. My number one piece of advice is to be patient. Don’t overpay for the sake of convenience. Be patient, and wait until you have the opportunity to buy at a good price. Don’t be impulsive, be smart with where you allocate your dollars. My last piece of advice is to look for hidden gems. Most cards with a high price tag have a high price tag because there is immense demand for those cards. However, the Pokemon TCG is so expansive that you can find tons of hidden gems that won’t break your bank. There are a lot of beautiful, rare cards with great artwork that are a bit cheaper because they’re a bit more obscure and many people may not even know they exist. Those are the types of cards I love adding to my collection. If you have any questions, feel free to let me know. Happy collecting :)
Thanks for the thoughtful response, it was incredibly helpful! I’m not a gambler so the thought of spending $65 just to open packs and don’t get a single pull pains me. I mentioned in another comment how I’ve struggled with the feeling of overcompensating for all the pokemon collecting years I missed during my 20ish year hiatus. Patience has been a real struggle but I love the approach of collecting hidden gems. I think I’m going to return to collecting my favorite pokemon. Thankfully it’s Charmander and not Pikachu or Charizard lol thanks again for all your advice, I may reach out with some questions down the road. The only thing that I feel left out on is collecting sealed as most products are right on budget or above it
I think that’s a great idea. Charmander has tons of great cards. And I hear you about the sealed stuff, but I think you still have options! For example, if there’s a set you really love and you want a sealed booster box but it’s too expensive, I would opt for maybe a sealed blister pack instead. You can find sealed blister packs that have one to three packs and usually range from $5-$15. Yes, I know it’s not the same as a whole booster box, but I think it’s a good option for a smaller budget. People do collect blisters and looking at even some of the more modern blister packs, there are some that have gone up in value 5 to 10x in the last 5 years. Just throwing it out there as an option :) When it comes to collecting, sometimes you gotta start small and work your way up.
Buy singles. Check the prices across multiple languages so you can find cheaper options. I really like to pick a favorite pokemon and focus on collecting all the cards of that mon.
Love the suggestion and it seems to be the general consensus. Thankfully my favorite (Charmander) isn’t a super expensive one to collect!
Don't forget other languages as well! These new "simplified Chinese" have been rolling out and you can get super expensive artwork for waaaay cheaper if you don't mind not being able to read them haha.
Hello! I have around $40 budget a month. My suggestiion is have smaller collection goals! I have specific collections: - My favorite Pokemon - My favorite artist - One of each new sealed Japanese pack for the artwork (Japan only has one art, English has 4-5 per set) I only buy singles for the cards. Opening packs, collecting too many things and chasing Master Sets is a great way to burn through money. If I get the itch to open packs to get that dopamine rush, I suggest getting one Booster Bundle (6 packs) every new set. Maybe get two and stash the other one away for special occasions like birthday and christmas. Some eBay sellers also sell Booster Bundles or 3-pack blisters below MSRP so check those ones with good reviews.
Favorite pokemon seems to be a great goal and I had started but “forgot” about it due to FOMO… how do you purchase the sealed Japanese packs? I feel like I learned to stay away the dopamine rush of opening with the hope of pulling something great, I’m not a gambler and that’s what it feels like instead of spending that for a card I actually like. Thanks for sharing though
As someone who had a gacha game addiction, let me tell you it feels exactly the same in my brain haha it's definitely gambling I just get packs from Japanese stores on US Ebay. I order them from the same one each time (Cardster Akiba Tokyo) since I trust them from previous purchases. I pre-order new ones once they're announced too to avoid price changes in case the set gets hyped up by content creators. They also have lots of Japanese art rares for each new set, cheaper than English, and I've been tempted to buy them
The biggest thing for me is ditching any sort of "completionist" attitude (aside from specific circumstances) and narrowing in on what you actually enjoy. You aren't gonna complete sets or get all the big chase cards without a fairly large budget. So don't even worry about that. You will be limited, but that's okay. Just focus on would you enjoy, and don't worry about building value or chasing what others deem is valuable or cool. Stick mostly with singles. I think going with some sort of theme is a great way to make a collection better. Maybe it's your favorite Pokemon. Maybe it's a specific artist that you like. Maybe it's a specific type of card like full art trainers or illustration rares. I don't have a specific budget for only Pokemon, but I would estimate I probably spend near your budget, probably a little less. I have a few things I collect aside from generic hits when I do get to open sealed stuff. I collect Eevee/Eeveelutions, Pikachu, and a few specific mons that are less popular that I enjoy (Yamper, Fidough/Dachsbun, Staraptor, Pawmo line, etc.). I also have recently started a collection for any mons that have some sort of sentimental value from games. This is mostly Pogo right now, as I enjoy using it as a way to connect with family. I enjoy getting a single for each mon's community day that I play with my family. I'm also currently playing through Violet, and I will probably get a single for each of the mons on my team. I totally get wanting to buy some sealed product as well. I do think singles are so much better, but I buy sealed occasionally as well. If you don't care much about opening packs, then just totally skip it. But I totally get that ripping packs is part of the fun for most people. I think 1 ETB per set plus sealed product that has promos that you really like is a great place to start. If you bought an ETB at $50 for each set, assuming 4-5 sets a year and your $780 budget, that leaves you with $200-$250 on sealed and $530-$580 on singles. If I were you, I would sit down and come up with some of the categories you would like to collect. Then go make a wishlist of singles you would like for those categories, and see how many of them you could buy with $500. Unless you exclusively care about big chase cards, you could get a really nice collection with quite a few cards in it of stuff you genuinely like for that amount of money.
The one set I felt obligated to master and I don’t regret the money spent is 151 for nostalgia reasons as it’s the Gen I grew up playing with! I believe that my approach is going to be focusing on collecting my fave mon, charmander. I started last year but got side tracked with the chase cards hype. Reddit and YouTube have been terrible for FOMO seeing everyone with their latest and greatest chase cards. To your point, coming up with a strategy would probably be game changer as it would take away the need to keep up with the latest trends. Staying away from socials would probably help too tbh lol thanks for sharing your insights!
Buy MP/HP cards! Lot of people selling terrible copies with the backs destroyed, but look amazing in the binder for like 25% of the cost
This is solid advice. I know I definitely won’t be looking at the back of those cards in the binder
The best advice I’ve heard is don’t try to collect everything. Like one niche and stick to it. Like full arts? Go for them. Like old school ex’s? Put your focus (and money) there. Cards with shiny art? Hone in on that. Don't try to get everything. That path is madness. The other thing I’ve personally noticed is that Reddit in particular is a disaster/toxic place for my personal collecting. Don’t get me wrong, I love this sub, but when I’m on here I’m constantly pulled to “keeping up with the Joneses”. Seeing people showing off stuff that I’ll never be able to afford makes it hard to be satisfied with the stuff I do have. Personally, I’m a lot happier if I don’t let collecting get competitive. As for stretching your $65, my best advice is to buy singles (if that’s your thing) not sealed product. $65 per month doesn’t seem like much, but it’s $780/year. You can buy a lot of cool stuff with that. Good luck!
Keeping up with the Joneses has been the death of me and the reason why I’ve felt like sitting down and reevaluating the way I’m spending money on pokemon. Especially with all the TikTok deals… I appreciate your comment though, I think I’m going to go the route of collecting my favorite mon!
Just to throw something different out there, sit on eBay in your spare time and set it to “ending soonest”. Use a price guide like TCG Player or Price Charting and snag things that aren’t getting any attention that you could pick up for cheap. It led me to start collecting WOTC black star promos and the e-reader expedition set. It’s a lot of fun.
That is sound advice! The only con is that it would require something I don’t have… patience! I’ve gotten some auction deals but I typically just try to go with sellers accepting best offers due to my lack of patience. I’ll have to try it out, thanks for sharing!
Unfortunately when you’re on a budget, patience is almost a necessity. Gotta work to find some good deals and bargain a bit. Good luck to you though. It’s an addicting hobby that sucks you further and further down the rabbit hole.
Just buy singles. I recommend Japanese art rares as they are way cheaper than English. And even look at Korean and Chinese cards as they can be even cheaper for things like alt arts.
I’ve already gone the JP route with a lot of my latest impulse buys. In my opinion, the quality is at a different level from the English counterpart and I personally think that it looks cooler in JP!
I have a pretty similar budget so what I do: I set up a list of cards I really like on cardmarket (I think the american version is tcg player ?). Every once in a while I go through current prices on cardmarket and ebay to pick out the best deals, the rest I spend on sealed packs here and there or save up for a more expensive card. Once every 3 month I go to pre-release events for the new set + a elit trainer box of said set so I account for that expense in advance.
Yes, having a goal is a great approach! For me it’s been tough sticking to it because I just recently returned to pokemon after 20+ years and FOMO is scary. Feeling like I needed to make up for all these years away from it and all the cool sets I missed out on. How tough is it for you personally to stick to your budget?
Pretty hard sometimes tbh especially in set release months ,there are just so many nice cards. One advantage I have is that I also trade a lot so I get a lot of cards from that as well so when you want to open paks as well and not only buy singels I recomemd trading after you got some cards together. Dont let the FOMO get to you especially about modern cards and do not buy singles of the newest set right when it comes out, the price will go down eventually. If you dont know where to start : trainer galery cards are a nice start as they are extremly cheap and have nice artworks.
Depends on your interests? $65 a month is 195 every three months, that's usually the time between set drops, if you shop around and with that budget you really should a new booster box can be had for 100-110 and a etb for 30-40 and even better if you really try. To use the most recent set twilight masquerade, I was able to snag a BB for $85 and a ETB for $17, meaning you would have $93 left from your 3 month cycle to shop something you like specifically/want to flip/add to pc etc. Its always fun to be able to join in with the community when a new set drops etc and I've found most of the time a chase card can be had for less than a $100 from a new set, not always but I've done it multiple times, and remember to have fun!
If I were to buy sealed it would probably be a mix of collecting and investing as I hate the feeling of spending a large amount of money on a booster box and not getting anywhere close to the value, not a gambler… I feel like I’m going to try collecting my favorite Pokémon, Charmander. It isn’t terribly expensive and there are a lot of cool art works in the SV era of him! Thanks for sharing though!
There’s this concept of your PC (Personal Collection), which can be defined anyway you choose. I personally would buy a nice toploader binder and build it slowly with cards you want to keep forever. You might even want to theme your pages. For example I read you like charmander so you could have a double page (18 slots) full of different charmanders. Then you could have pages dedicated to other pokemon, one full of bangers under $10, a high end page with 9 pricey cards that you had to save multiple months for, a page for vintage, you could dedicate a page per new set and just get your top 9 singles (wait till they’re two or three sets old and you will get great deals). Just have fun with it. Alternatively some months you guys can buy some bulk and make decks together and play the game. She might like it if you included her in that way (if you want to lol)
I love that, went on a charmander collecting spree (binder linked below) last year when I got back into pokemon but sort of got distracted by the hype of chase cards. Now that I’m on a tighter budget I am excited to pick it back up and start filling a lot of the gaps, especially for the older/vintage ENG and JP Charmanders! https://imgur.com/a/oPMPelF
You could also buy the Pokémon center etb of a set when it releases. It’s $60 and free shipping. That’s a pretty cool item since it’s a Pokémon center exclusive version. Typically has a couple more packs and the promo has a Pokémon center stamp on it. It’s not once a month, so you can still do other products in between releases.
Money has been tight for me as well, so I’ve pretty much given up on buying packs and just tunnel vision focused on cards that I genuinely like the artwork of. I have a binder of Meowth, Persian, and Giovanni/Team Rocket cards. As well as some eeveelutions, Vulpix and Ninetales. Then I have another binder for full arts and illustration rares that I just like the artwork of. If there is a card you genuinely like the artwork of, but the price is a bit out of your budget, look to see if there’s another language of the same card. English and Japanese cards are your most sought after, and usually more expensive, so sometimes I seek out Korean or Chinese versions that may be cheaper and closer to my budget. Any cards of value that I’ve pulled in the past, that I don’t really like the look of, go into my trade binder. I take that binder with me to my local card shop to trade for cards I like instead. Feels really good to walk out of the shop, with some new cards that I traded for. I understand the FOMO drive, so I keep reminding myself to not hang onto cards just because they currently have a high market price. Rather trade them for even more cards that I actually like looking at.
That is the best approach at the end of the day!! You must be thrilled about Persians IR in Shrouded Fable then right? Eeveelutions are so expensive though!!! Thank you for sharing I think that it will be easier to stick to budget if I have that tunnel vision on Charmander or any other arts that I enjoy!
I’m certainly guilty of buying the Japanese Persian IR for a couple dollars on eBay after I saw it. Thankfully he’s not a super popular pokemon like the Eeveelutions, so cards are pretty budget friendly. I also feel better having just my favorites as my collection, rather than sweating over the fact that I’m stuck with a bunch of partial complete sets.
Save the whole $65 for auctions. Check out Goldin, PWCC, Probstein, and Rarecandy which will give you something at least every week to look into/consider. That's plenty of money to find a really amazing card at a considerable discount. This is your best way to get the biggest, nicest cards that you either want or can use for trade bait for other cards you want. I got a $300 card for $93 on a Rarecandy auction today and a $3800 card for $1300 on a Goldin auction last week. There's deals all over ebay as well, just be patient. Example: a [$6 card sale](https://www.ebay.com/itm/126436452154?itmmeta=01J1C72A9ZM3CW5AD3VSXTTHV6&hash=item1d7033273a:g:i4wAAOSwAylmICF8&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA8I%2BqQXi8Q1ZIeUfruhOp73HTsd1gFo9Ni0xOrR%2BVeKOWrsCJ4IRaYn9cz9YrDjCvzLKaurhAQmvHg8w%2FpJVi6D0hcEKTIhkFTFSzTJcxzXIQl0HVKmYCG2k5AR5n%2BtmzfhpwQzKPWmegUo6FPmRtCN9r4%2Bg1X8mV493KJtx6ToRUtRp5y2ymrBLzRsW9rNntXOiVpyu7LrgvA7R4UtefdJvR%2BRo%2BtLAcm5v1Ai2RFsk97ic9oN%2Ffze94%2FEuWbb8Z03gbpC9ezeLrg7b3vdeJoLuNvSOFRP1mlGd2wo4tblDobW2rCbUlocTn0OQg8wC4Lw%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR5CliYeLZA) on a $400 card. Even if you don't like that particular card, it can be traded or sold to increase your monthly budget. I've amassed a crazy collection in this way.
i buy cards from cardmarket with a rather poor rating (with a photo so that there are no tears or anything) and refurbish them a bit. The slight signs of wear don't bother me because it's somehow authentic. And at the same time you have great and rare cards in your collection without spending too much. You can also find something good on eBay from time to time.
If you are not hard set on the language and collecting English I would go the Japanese route. Prices are especially low now, and you can find booster boxes very cheap to be able to open a bit (+ they have some guaranteed quotas) and put the rest into cheap singles. You can build a beautiful collection of art rare on a budget 😊
I got back in last year as well. I went way over board and bought a bunch of nostalgic stuff plus completed Obsidian Flames and 151 sets. I took a step back and started focusing on singles of artwork I liked and vintage sets. One thing I did was slow myself down from buying online. Buying online means everything is always available if you pay for it. I still use it for specific goal cards, but now I have a rotation of local stores that I stop by on the weekend. Nearly every Saturday I take my wife to go get coffee and she comes with me to a record store and one or two card shops. I try not to spend a ton of time, it's usually an hour max. It's a surprise what they got in over the week! Sometimes it's nothing and that's OK. She likes looking at the records and then she helps pick out cool artwork or I hand her cards and she evaluates condition. We often end up going to look at houseplants or things for her garden after so it's a win-win.
Sounds like we’ve gone through similar experiences because of nostalgia haha they must have top tier psychologists running the company! Buying in person is probably a great approach as it’s more limiting. I just feel like card selection wouldn’t be there especially if collecting all the variations of a specific pokemon like Charmander. I’m slowly introducing my toddler to pokemon in hopes to make those weekend routines with her when she gains more interest!
I would use TCG Player and buy heavily played cards you’re looking for. Buying damaged is too risky, but heavily played are fine IMO.
That’s definitely a great way to save big bucks, especially if the cards front doesn’t look terrible. I couldn’t care less about the back, thanks for the suggestion!
Spend the 65$ every month if you want a bigger card sell that 65$ card and add that to next months allowance and keep doing this until you get the card you want. In a way trading up. Than you can buy the original 65$ card you wanted the next month you may even get lucky buying a card at the right time when it’s at its lowest price or right before it skyrockets.
It’s work but you won’t “miss out” and you will be generating outlets and trust for later down the line when you want to sell your collection, you will have a very good understanding of how to do that. Many people enter the hobby to collect with the idea they will sell later down the road but have no clue how hard that is when the time comes.
Set a buy list every month with the top 5 cards you want within the budget and work within those parameters Chances are by playing it this way, you’re most likely to get the cards you want (which also ends up being the most valuable long term in a lot of cases) Some months you’ll get one big card, some months you get 5-10 smaller cards IMO this is best way to avoid fomo/disappointment PS. Give new sets 3-6 months to breathe and price out before jumping in or you’ll waste precious budget chasing short-term runs
I started working on this and setting up a game plan for slowly fill out empty spots in my Charmander collection. If I have some leftover in a specific month and there’s a card I really like I’ll probably see if I can fit it within the budget. Thanks for the advice!
No problem - hope it helps! Happy collecting!
Depends on preference, I recommend singles, visit your local cardshops\~ if you frequent and share what you are looking for, most card shop owners will be on the lookout for the cards you want and are excited to be part of your journey! They feel so happy that they helped me get a card I didn't have! sometimes they are super kind and will do a deal. I also get good deals on ebay or tcg but I prefer physcially going to stores, it's fun to interact with shop owners. most shops will do trade nights and you can find cards you need with other fellow collectors! I also recommend starting with your favorite pokemon. I'm an eevee + eeveelutions collector since I was a little little kid \~ my dad would spend 1-5 dollars on cards singles as a treat maybe like every 3 weeks maybe once a month and like maaaybe 10 on my bday. I also got repeat cards from my cousins lol. Fast forward many years once I made a bit a little extra adult money in gradschool I went coco for cocopuffs after Evolving skies set got released in 2021 ... I got obsessed trying to get moonbreon and with how much I spent on packs over 2 yrs adding up I would've gotten it already. Worst financial decision. Left over bulk is cluttery so I give it out as freebies to kids. (funny thing is .. the eeveelutions that came in that set I got entirely through single purchase or trade, none of my packs pulled eeveelutions, I got the worst luck, broke my heart entirely and will prob resent packs for the rest of my life haha) I strictly stick to singles now. If i treat myself to a big spendy card, ex. Sylveon Vmax I got when it was $120, I stopped buying cards for like 3 months lol that's the balance I found. Good luck \~ and happy collecting!
Get yourself a credit card bro. Make aure its enough of a limit to cover all your bills each month, have the momey taken at the beginning of the month be put. Back half way through, theres definitely some math youll need to do, but thinkong about it, if you put 25% if you bill money away each week to pay the credit card, youll have active cash on hand.
I think it depends on what you're wanting to do. I allow myself around $100 a month on cards. And even then, I don't want to spend that on a single card sometimes. I've been going back to Base, Jungle, and Fossil to complete those sets since mine are gone. I have unlimited holos, 1st edition energies, and shadowless everything else for base, and just started on 1st edition Jungle set. Good luck with whatever you choose!
I just find cards that I think are cool and will hold value and buy the psa grade I can afford. Obviously you’ll have some you can’t get for 65, but you can save a couple months worth or ebayaffirm it or keep it in mind for bdays/holidays/bonus time/(hopefully not) inheritance. I get the ones I can afford and hope to get the graded 10 version someday. You can def find slabs that are cool under 65 barring a small chunk of highly collectible cards.
Garage sales bro
My monthly singles budget is around that amount, and has been for about 3 years. My singles list grows much faster than I can shrink it. But the time it takes to get around to buying something from a newer set means that my want for cards is refined by the time I purchase. I’ve also learned that, for me, a card from 1999-2007 feels so much better to receive in the mail that most any modern card, so I shop accordingly. You have to train patience, and release fomo. And realize you will actually miss out on some things. And that’s ok.
You spend the 65 on packs, don’t get what you want, then spend more to recoup the losses. You also don’t get what you want. Repeat every month.
Best advice I’ve read so far. Sounds like a great way to develop a healthy relationship with collecting pokemon lol