Month 1-2: Explore and Learn Buy a few singles of Pokemon you love ($10-20) Open one or two sealed products for the fun of it ($15-50) Get basic supplies (sleeves, top loaders, a binder) Follow Pokemon card content creators to learn about different sets and cards Browse Misprint and TCGplayer to get familiar with pricing Month 3-4: Pick a Direction Decide on a collecting focus (set completion, specific Pokemon, era, etc.) Start working toward your first goal Learn about card conditions and how to assess them Set a monthly collecting budget Month 5-8: Build Momentum Consistently add to your collection each month Start learning about graded cards and what makes them valuable Maybe pick up your first graded card Connect with the collecting community (Reddit's r/PokemonTCG, local card shops, Facebook groups) Month 9-12: Refine Your Approach Evaluate what you've collected so far

For me, I just keep all the Play stamped cards together by Series, and then wait till the list has been worked on a bunch
(6/6/2025) A chapter ability doesn't trigger if a lore counter is put on a Saga that already had a number of lore counters greater than or equal to that chapter's number
Choose Auction for rare cards where bidding competition helps, and Buy It Now for straightforward sales
If the layer is missing, it'll appear as if the watermark is missing, which happened to a lot of FNM Fatal Pushes