Interview / exchange between collectors #3: Pokémon japanese card game

Prelude:

Today, we meet again to talk about our collector of the day! It's Sueli, a Pokémon license customer at Cardotaku and we want to let her speak and enter her world.

"I have always been passionate about Pokémon video games, I discovered them as soon as they were released and that's when this world and its stories conquered me. Since then, I have been able to discover each region and each generation through time and games. In fact, I can't wait to discover the Paldea region.

When I was younger, I also have fond memories of my mom giving me a few boosters, and like many growing up, I gave my cards to relatives. However, being quite conservative, I still kept all my favorite cards like my beautiful Draco from the basic set.

The recovery of the collection :

In the years 2015/2016, I came across content from a Youtuber who shared her passion for cards. At that time, there was still little content on this theme and I was happy to be able to re-discover cards and the joy of collecting through this Youtuber.

This young girl had eyes that shone when she showed us her cards and especially the Japanese Pokémon cards that I discovered at the same time. The beauty of the cards, their quality, the emotion shared gave me a crazy desire to dive back into them.

In 2016, Japanese Pokémon cards were not as popular as they are today: it was still quite rare to find other collectors and stores.

How did you organize the recovery of your Pokémon collection?

At the beginning, like many collectors, I wanted to "have it all" and look for all possible and existing cards. For that, there were "Mystery cubes" and I bought a lot of them! It was great for someone like me who was starting from scratch in his Pokémon collection: there were some "beautiful cards" and then it was bulk! I was extremely happy because the bulk inside was old cards like the ones in the base set or "newer" ones like the ones from the Legendary collection.
This really helped me to build a very good base for my Japanese card collection.

What have you learned to help by taking over your collection?

I've learned that I tend to like "old" cards, those that aren't necessarily "mint" and those that have had a life before. I like to imagine that they belonged to children and played with them, or find an initial written in marker on the back of the card.
I find that we tend to forget that they are playing cards... As you can see, I am not a big fan of graded cards, I understand the principle, but it adds a "cold" side and a certain distance. I like to take my cards in hand and handle them, even if I am aware of their value and I take precautions.

Which cards do you like?

I love cards that tell a story and I pay close attention to the illustrations and what they convey. For example, the Gloom card released in 2002 and the card released 20 years later, tell us something...
Same illustrator, same story but 20 years of waiting to discover the continuation: Gloom finally fell from his tree.

What would you like to see in Pokémon?

I'd like to get back to the magic of Pokémon collecting: when there wasn't that big monetary value and there was just the fun of cards, opening and trading. The time when we were still happy to have a holographic card and the secret card was really exceptional.

Nowadays, everyone is looking for the "banger" of the expansion and not enjoying the rest. I think it's important to simply share this passion and enjoy all the cards.
That's what I try to pass on to the children of my relatives: I make them their own "Mystery Box" and let them enjoy it.

What are your next goals? 

I'd like to get into the Vstar Universe Master set: the announced cards all look great and as I said: beautiful illustrations, that's really what I'm looking for. Also, with the Japanese displays like the S12a "Vstar Universe", "you get what you pay for": every deck is bound to have interesting cards!

Can you give me a Top 3 of your favorite items in your collection?

It's hard to pick just 3 cards but I would say:

• The Noctali prime card from "HS Indomitable": this is my favorite Pokémon and this card is really amazing. I have it in German because the advantage of living in my country is that I have access to cards in many different languages.

• Then I love my Mimikyu from the "Munch" collection. It's a Japanese Pokémon card that is really beautiful and I really like it.

• Finally, I will add in the ranking a card whose illustration is clearly one of my favorites: I love the Pokémon represented and it is so soft with its pastel colors! It's the card of the SM9a expansion with Nymphali and Gardevoir.

I also collect especially the alternative Pokémon cards in Japanese language. In fact, I have all the alternative cards from the Sword and Shield block without any exception (except Lugia which I haven't acquired yet). I really like the alternative Noctali Vmax from Eevee Heroes that I bought from Cardotaku (like many others).

What's the one card you'd absolutely love to have one day?

One of my dream cards would be the Japanese version of Suicune's Star card (and Star cards in general). 

Do you have an anecdote to share with us?

Ahah, so yes! For the record, I don't like Charizard very much (yes, it happens), but I pull it absolutely all the time: as soon as an expansion comes out with one or more secret Charizard cards, you can be sure I'll pull it!

"Thank you again Sueli for this interview and thank you for this great dose of passion you shared with us and our readers/customers at Cardotaku".
To find the Japanese Pokémon cards, just go here.

Article written by Manon.