I'm very proud of my Pokémon Trading Card collection. Its something I started when I was very young, and I have been able to hold onto almost all of it throughout the years. My collection contains cards I was given or pulled as a child. Unlike many collectors these days, I have absolutely no intention of selling my cards, or grading them. For many years they were inside a ring binder, or inside a cardboard box in the bottom of my wardrobe.

In terms of completed sets, I have completed the following (as of October 2025)

Base, Jungle, Fossil, Team Rocket, and Neo Discovery

There is one set that I have always wanted ever since I was a kid: Southern Islands Collection. Anyone who knows me will know that it is my holy grail item. It isn't a fancy and out of reach grail like a Pikachu Illustrator card, nor is it going to cost tens of thousands to obtain. But ever since I saw it on Serebii and Pokémon Elite 2000 back in the day, I knew I wanted it. I loved the artwork so much! This year I was fortunate enough to pick up an empty folder with its original box and post cards. Everything except the cards!

I always imagined I would just buy the thing 100% complete, but nope! It had to be this way, I had to slowly crawl my way to its completion. At the time of writing I have over half of the cards required to complete it. I am crossing my fingers its something I am able to do before the year is out!

For anyone interested, here's a link to my collection online

Here are some pictures:

The very first holo Pokémon card I remember owning, a Nidoqueen from the Jungle set

I was so happy to pull this Dragonite card in a Fossil booster when I was a kid, and I have always loved it. Such a colourful background!

I pulled this first edition Slowking card (Neo Genesis) from a booster!

The same for this Ampharos

If you told little Darren that he would one day own all three of these Base set cards, he never would have believed you. The Charizard and Blastoise are quite meaningful to me in particular.

In terms of value, this Shining Mewtwo is probably the one

Delta Species Charmander, Charmeleon, and Charizard from EX Crystal Guardians

This was the same Unown J card that I got from the third Pokémon movie on VHS. While it isn't a very valuable card, the striking orange background always stuck with me