When you do something long enough, when you engage in a hobby for years it is both modern, fresh and familiar, but it also brings with it a certain amount of nostalgia.

The nostalgia is a great feeling, and one that should be cherished. I love to have something physical when it comes to Pokémon. The smell of new blister packs. The sensation of opening something that it filled with a little bit of wonder. It is great. The online game and Go are both good. But the physical game, that is where I find myself having the most fun. Don' get me wrong, collecting your sixth lvl 100 in the video game, catching the 280th Rattata in Go or playing the card game online is definitely fun.

But for me it's not the same as with the TCG.

Every card is a small piece of art.

Collecting now as an adult also reduces my deep sadness that comes up when I think what happened to my shoebox full of cards.

Collecting is something that keeps the game interesting. When I started there were only 151 Pokémon. Today…

I have completed the Goldstars, Shinings, both Black & White secret rares, full arts, Breaks, Legends, Primes, first 4 sets, 95% of all Charizards including a 1st edition base Charizard, own 5 crystal holo cards including Charizard. My collecting now contains more than 29,000 cards and out of that number, over 900 are Ultra rare/ secret rare cards.

As a kid I dreamed of having an awesome collection.

You know the kind, the one that my parents would never buy for me because they thought it was a waste of money.

Now that I'm older I get to collect the holographic cards that came out when I was little, I look forward to the end of each month to buy another!

People still tell me that this is a waste of money, but it isn't their money, nor do I tell them what they should spend theirs on. I simply love collecting and if it fulfills me then it is none of their business.