pokedexquest

[pokedexquest]

I have the Lugia card! I got a few packs one day while I was out shopping and had no idea at the time they’d had these split cards like these. I opened one pack and got the first half of Lugia, then thought ‘nah there’s no way I’ll get the other half.’

Opened the next pack... and there was Lugia’s other half. Talk about insane luck.

Pokémon Card Game Art Collection

[pokedexquest]

Energies--Vanquished

I’ve now finished sorting the unmarked Energy cards, and I’m not sure what it says when you have over 1,000 of these and you haven’t even hit your main collection yet. I do have a plan for them--they’ll make good placeholders while I determine if my series binders are the right ones I need. I’ll post pics tomorrow, if I’m not beat from doing more cleaning and rearranging in the house.

For those interested in the numbers...

Psychic Energy: 149 Fighting Energy: 124 Darkness Energy: 153 Metal Energy: 123 Fairy Energy: 126

This brings the total number of unmarked Energy cards to... 1,387.

Not entirely sure what the plan for tomorrow is just yet. Possibly the online code cards.

[pokedexquest]

And I have to call it quits for tonight--I underestimated how tired I’d be after assembling some shelving for the garage earlier today. This isn’t as easy as it looks, even if you’re sitting!

For anyone interested in seeing my insanity in numbers...

Grass Energy: 191 Fire Energy: 165 Water Energy: 193 Lightning Energy: 163

Which brings the current total to... 712.

I still have the other Energy types to go through. With any luck, perhaps I can get that tomorrow.

[pokedexquest]

The Journey Continues

So I’m a bit late getting started, at least by my timetable... but now I’m finally getting started on organizing my collection. It’s been a crazy busy week, and I’m slower than molasses in wintertime when it comes to getting things done, apparently. But, better late than never, as they say.

I’m starting off with my spare Energy cards (these are all unmarked, meaning they came from theme decks or Elite Trainer boxes and are not labeled or associated with any particular set), as well as my online code cards (which... I don’t use but have no idea what to do with them), and my reverse holos.

I’ll be updating my progress and counts periodically throughout.

Wish me luck.

[pokedexquest]

The Journey Begins

Or: Holy Crap I am Insane

Or (again, perhaps more accurately): This week, on Hoarders...

Binders with Pokemon cards in them, arranged by series. Not shown: binders for XY or XY BREAK Series, or ‘Binder of Holding’ for currently ongoing series.

About two years ago or so I started organizing my Pokemon card collection, sort of. Previously, I had just one binder, with Pokemon arranged in Pokedex order. Trainer cards and Energy cards were just kinda in the back in no real particular order except by category of what was on the card (Trainers, items, etc.). I was starting to run into problems with duplicates, mostly of Gen 1 Pokemon, because which ones are going to have more cards printed?

Don’t even get me started on Pikachu.

Basically, the more duplicates I got, the more I was stuffing card pages and eventually overstuffing them, to the point where some of them were damaged from having so many cards stuffed in them. I was young and stupid, okay?

I’m still young and stupid, what am I saying?

Anyway, in an effort to alleviate the stuffing problem and relieve my poor, stressed card pages, I started thinking up different ways to reorganize my cards. Then I started getting crazy ideas about having a way to display all the cards so I could see the unique artwork for each card. That’s the main draw to collecting the Pokemon cards for me--the artwork. I love seeing the different styles of art and sometimes I wonder what the full pieces might look like outside the tiny cropped frame on the cards. I also love seeing the different takes on the Pokemon, and I really love it when two or more cards are connected or tell a story. It’s fun to discover the different interpretations over the years.

That was when I decided if I was going to go crazy with this, I may as well go all the way. So I sorted my cards by expansion. At this time, the XY Series had started and was about two or three sets in. Since I’ve been collecting off and on since the beginning, this was a decent amount of cards to go through. Add in the fact that I’m now a grown person with a steady job and some disposable income, and I’d just started to really get back into collecting cards again... and the fact that it took me almost three sets to learn a better way to buy cards in the first place... Needless to say, it took awhile. It was a learning process along the way--mainly learning that you cannot go by how many sheets a binder says it can hold, because that number means nothing when dealing with card sheets, which are slightly thicker than the average sheet of paper, especially once you start putting cards into it. So I splurged on some binders at Staples and got all my sets finally organized--well, more or less, but more on that later.

All well and good, but there were still a large amount of extra cards that I had to deal with, in addition to reverse holos, variants, code cards (which I don’t use), and unmarked Energy cards (that is, Energy cards that aren’t marked as part of a set/expansion). I’ve continued to put off really organizing and sorting and ultimately dealing with these extras, so they’ve ended up shoved into boxes and kind of forgotten about.

Eventually this came back to bite me in the butt.

Collection of Elite Trainer Boxes.

So, these boxes are pretty great. I look forward to the release of a new expansion because of these little babies right here. Twenty-one boxes have been released so far, and I’ve managed to get twenty of them. The only one I’m missing is the very first one from Plasma Storm (and I’m still kicking myself for not getting it four years ago when I saw it in a Toys r Us up north while I was visiting a friend).

What you don’t see is the fact that all these boxes, save for probably two of them, are completely stuffed full of extra cards. You can thank the Flashfire set for this, mostly--I wanted that full art Lysandre card so I went a bit overboard buying single booster packs for that set. No, I never got the full art Lysandre. I did, however, get a boatload of Caterpie and Ponyta.  And full art Pokemon Center Lady, as if the packs weren’t taunting me enough. Needless to say, I learned my lesson. Sort of.

Hello Kitty storage box and Omega Ruby/Alpha Sappire-themed tin.

Yes, there are more cards in these. The tin holds mainly variant cards, so it’s nowhere near full even after all this time. I have three other tins like this that I haven’t even touched yet, but they’re on hand in case I need some extra storage space.

The Hello Kitty box is another story.

Hello Kitty box opened, full of reverse holos, code cards, and unmarked Energy cards, as well as some oversized cards.

This is what’s inside. My reverse holos, the unmarked Energy cards, and code cards. Oh, and also the oversized cards you see in some boxes from time to time. I had a plan for those and unfortunately it fell through. The Hello Kitty box was an impulse buy from Staples but I’m glad I got it, because I think it’ll be the perfect ‘Box of Holding’ while I’m on this journey of sorting through stuff and gradually losing what little bit is left of my sanity. And if push comes to shove, I have this.

Super Premium Collection box, still empty of cards... for now.

I... may have a problem.

But the first step is admitting you have a problem, right?

Right?

[pokedexquest]

So I’m going through my Pokemon on Pokemon Go, because I keep running out of space (transferring only a few at a time really is not a good way to go I keep telling my lazy ass)... and I have forty-two Eevee.

FORTY. TWO.

HOW.

And why have none of you evolved into Espeon or Umbreon?

*glares at handful of Flareon I keep getting instead*

Also, I’m sure there’s a Hitchhiker’s Guide reference or joke just waiting to be said here.

[pokedexquest]

Pokedex Quest is now live!

Like tumblr needed another Pokemon blog. I’m justifying it by saying that I haven’t been able to find any other blogs that quite fulfill my *coughveryspecificcough* needs. I have some ideas for what I want to do with this blog, but nothing quite definitive yet. It’s definitely going to change and evolve as time goes on. For now, my primary goals are to track progress towards a complete living dex in the games, maybe with regional dexes on the side, because I’m insane. I also want to track my Pokemon card collection, and maybe curate images/scans of cards into one place.

About Me Eh, there’s not much to really say. I’m generally uninteresting and tend to keep to myself. Pokemon represents one of my longest-running fandoms/obsessions. I’ve been playing and collecting since the latter days of Gen 1 and I’ve never really stopped since. I may have followed other things for a time, but I always come back to Pokemon. I’ve never actually completed a Pokedex in any of the main series games, mainly due to lack of trading partners. For some reason, me and the neighborhood kids always ended up with the same versions of games. I’m hoping to finally change that and complete a living national dex, all with Pokemon I’ve caught myself. I’m also aiming to have complete sets of English cards, maybe the Japanese-exclusive ones too if it’s not too cost-prohibitive. I play Pokemon Go, but despite being on Team Valor, I don’t go after Gyms, I just want to hatch eggs and catch Pokemon. I gotta be loyal to my Fire-types! That being said, I’m not a competitive player--I have neither the time nor the patience to breed IVs or max out EVs, or put together decks and strategies (seriously, my in-game strategy is ‘hit hard, hit fast, panic when things inevitably go south’). I just love to collect and hoard.

Also: I am a long-winded son of a gun. You have been warned.