How to Start Collecting Pokemon Cards as an Adult

I collected Pokemon cards as a kid. About a year ago, after a 25-year break, a good friend got back into the hobby, and seeing his cards brought the nostalgia back hard. I just love it. I love Pokemon.

Coming back to the hobby as an adult, or starting fresh? Start here.

The first mistake I see: paying too much

The first mistake I see new collectors make is paying too much for cards they could have found online for less. It's easy to do. You find the card you've wanted since you were a kid, the listing is right there, and you buy it.

Three habits stop most of it:

• Check sold listings first. An asking price is what a seller hopes for. What the same card, number and grade actually sold for is what buyers paid. Look it up before you pay; the method is in How to Check Pokemon Card Value: Sold Listings.

• Compare like with like. A different print, foil or grade is a different card. Match the card number before you compare prices (see Card number (set number)).

• Don't buy in a rush. If a listing feels too good, slow down and check it twice. I once rushed a cheap-looking 1st Edition Vaporeon and got the non-holo print instead of the holo (the full story).

Step 1: Choose what to collect

"Pokemon cards" is too big to collect. Pick a lane, and your budget and your attention go to cards you'll actually enjoy. The usual lanes:

• A set. Every card in one expansion, or a master set with every version of every card (see Master set). Most of my own collection is vintage, and I'm close to finishing Base Set in Unlimited, every card number (How to Complete a Pokemon Master Set covers how to set your own rules). Modern sets are big: with its secret rares, Surging Sparks runs to 252 cards.

• One Pokemon. Every printing of a favorite, across sets and eras.

• An era. The original Wizards of the Coast sets, or one modern series.

• A few chase cards. A short list of the cards you want most (see Chase card and Grail card).

Before you commit, open Pokemon's official card database. You can search by card name and filter by expansion, so you can see everything in a set, or every printing of one Pokemon, and know what you're signing up for.

You'll also decide whether you want raw cards, graded cards or both. I collect raw, for fun. The trade-offs are in Raw or Graded Pokemon Cards: Which to Buy?.

Step 2: Learn the words before you spend

Listings are written in collector shorthand, and a misread term is how you end up with the wrong card. Learn these before your first purchase:

To tell which card you're holding, read the card number and find the set symbol. Every English set except the original Base Set has an expansion symbol, TCGplayer's help center notes. On recent cards, the set is a short code in a box at the bottom left.

Step 3: Set a budget, and decide on singles or packs

Pick a monthly amount you're comfortable with and keep to it. Collecting has no finish line, so the budget is what keeps it fun.

Then decide what you spend it on:

• Packs are a surprise. A booster pack in a recent set is 10 cards plus a Basic Energy, Pokemon's product page says, and you don't choose which cards you get. Opening them is part of the fun, so budget for them as fun, not as a way to find one card.

• Singles are how you get a specific card. If you want one card, buy that card.

Write down the cards you want, with a top price for each. Set each top price from sold listings, not from the listing in front of you, so the decision is made before the temptation shows up.

Step 4: Know where to buy

• Sealed product (booster packs, boxes, Elite Trainer Boxes) is sold at the Pokemon Center and wherever Pokemon TCG products are sold, Pokemon says, including local game stores. Pokemon's support page warns that a pack priced far below its suggested retail price is a near-certain sign of a counterfeit. If the deal looks impossible, walk away.

• Singles come from marketplaces such as eBay and TCGplayer, from local game stores and from other collectors.

If I could tell myself one thing on day one, it would be this: buy your cards on eBay. It's where I've paid the least for mine.

Online, you're judging a photo, not a card. Read How to Spot a Fake Pokemon Card Before You Buy before your first purchase, and Verify a Graded Pokemon Card Before You Buy before your first slab. On eBay, pay only through eBay's checkout. Its Money Back Guarantee doesn't cover a purchase paid partly outside eBay, so a seller who asks you to pay another way is asking you to give up that protection.

Step 5: Protect what you buy

Wear comes from play, handling and storage, TCGplayer's condition guide says. My rule is simple: every card I care about goes in a sleeve and then a toploader, a rigid plastic holder that keeps it flat. Pokemon's Elite Trainer Boxes, such as the Pitch Black one, come with card sleeves, so you may already have some.

Buy sleeves and toploaders before your first card arrives.

Step 6: Keep track of what you have and what you want

Two lists get long fast: the cards you own and the cards you want.

For the cards you own, use a collection app. Collectr, which I use, describes itself as a place to catalog a collection, with card scanning and value tracking.

For the cards you want, the hard part is noticing when one is listed at your price. That's the problem I built ChaseBoard for. On ChaseBoard, each card you want becomes a tile on a board with your price range, and you get an alert when a listing lands in it. You can start a board without making an account.

A day-one checklist

• One lane chosen: a set, a Pokemon, an era or a short chase list

• A monthly budget

• A written want list with a top price per card, set from sold listings

• The condition scale and grading basics learned

• Sleeves and toploaders for the cards you care about

• Payment only through a marketplace's own checkout