The Card Collab – Issue #21
There are certain things from childhood that stay with you. For me, Pokémon is one of them.
When Pokémon first debuted, I was right there with it. I was the kid who wanted anything and everything Pokémon. It wasn't just the cards. If Pokémon was on the cover of a magazine or there was an exclusive card inside, I wanted it. I remember looking for magazines like Wizards of the Coast and Nintendo Power, along with the Burger King kids meal toys, including the 24-karat gold-plated Pokémon figures. If it had Pokémon on it, there was a good chance I wanted to add it to the collection.
Some of my earliest memories involve Saturday mornings at Books-A-Million, where my father would take me to play games, trade cards, and spend time around other kids who were just as excited about Pokémon as I was. My dad also picked up several starter decks for my sister and me, giving us our own cards to play with and trade.
At the time, I didn't think much about how meaningful those experiences would become. I was just a kid who loved Pokémon, and collecting it felt like a natural part of being a fan.
One trade from that time still stands out. In elementary school, I traded a grape-soda-stained Chansey for a scratched Charizard. It was just an exciting trade between two kids at the time, but it's funny how something so small can stick with you for decades.
My Way Back to the Hobby
My relationship with Pokémon eventually took a back seat as I got older, but I never completely forgot about it. My return to trading card games as an adult actually came through Magic: The Gathering about a year ago. What started with a poker night turned into regular games with friends, Commander nights, prereleases, new decks, and eventually The Card Collab.
Getting back into TCGs as an adult gave me a different perspective on the hobby. When I was a kid, I saw trading cards as something to collect, play with, and trade with friends. Now, I've started to see everything that exists around the cards themselves. There are players, collectors, vendors, shops, event organizers, artists, creators, and entire communities built around these games.
Through The Card Collab, I've had the opportunity to meet people who have been collecting for decades, talk with vendors who have turned their passion into a business, visit local shops, and spend time around players who are just getting started. It's given me a much better understanding of how much bigger the hobby is than the cards sitting in a binder.
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30 Years of Cards
The Pokémon TCG celebrated its 30th anniversary this month, bringing three decades of cards, artwork, collecting, battling, trading, and memories back into the spotlight.