Pikachu Boundaries Crossed Checklane Blister Pack

Hi all!

The Amateur Collector here.
Today I open a hard to come by product. The Raichu Boundaries Crossed Checklane Blister Pack. Ok, it's not the rarest of items, but it's not easy to come-by either. I found only one in stock at Card Team for £6.95 (the only blister pack they had at this price).

The blister pack with two promotional cards, a booster pack and a sample pack (both for Boundaries Crossed)

Lets see what I got in this then!
Click here for the video or scroll down bellow to see what I pulled.

Here are the two promotional cards. The Pikachu is part of the Black & White Black Star Promos collection.

The Raichu is simply a reprint of a card from the Next Destinies set with an alternate holographic pattern (the original is an uncommon that doesn't even have a holo background!)

These are the pulls I got from the booster pack. A rare Keldeo and a reverse-holo rare Whimsicott!

Both are cards I did not possess.

So this blister pack was a little pricy, but at least all the cards I got were ones I did not previously have. I am especially happy with that promo Pikachu, would you believe I've seen it sometimes go for £7 or more??

Thanks for reading/watching. Stay tuned for the next episode of my Pokémon TCG Adventures! Bye!

Lucario Plasma Blast Triple Blister Pack

Hi all!

The Amateur Collector here, continuing my Pokémon TCG Opening Adventures!

This adventure we open up the Lucario blister pack for the Plasma Blast extension. I bought it along with the Genesect blister pack for £17.45 from Chaos Cards.

This cool looking pack comes with one promotional card, a coin and three Plasma Blast booster packs.

As usual, click here to check out the video opening of this blister pack or simply scroll down to see what pulls I got in more details. Or do both. Your choice really! =D

Lets start off with the promotional card you are guaranteed to get... providing you choose the Lucario pack of course... Lucario!

It's number BW85 of the BW Black Star Collection set.

I got four pulls out of the three booster packs. The least interesting of which is this Reuniclus.

I have about three of these already, so another one was not really welcomed! (something I hate saying because I try to appreciate all cards for their artwork and collectibility) 

I got two holographic cards. The Machamp I have already, but it looks really cool so I don't mind a second one.

I also got this lovely Blastoise. I LOVE the artwork on this one. The soft light blue colouring, the cool pose that highlights dinosaurian features, the splashes of water everywhere and that soft looking textured skin that makes it seem like a vinyl toy. I've wanted this one for so long and now I have it!

The Blastoise made me very happy, but arguably the best pull was this ace spec card!

For the uninitiated, ace specs are ultra rare Trainer cards that are very powerful, so much so that you can only have one in a deck. They are a short lived mechanic in the TCG scene, but look visually very striking. I quite enjoy them for that reason.

So yeah, an overall very good opening. I may own half of these cards already, but the ones I didn't have more than make up for the others.

Guys and girls, thanks for watching/reading! Stay tuned for my next adventure!

Pokémon TCG Opening Adventures 2 - The Lost Episodes - Xerneas Collection, Ampharos Triple Blister Pack & the Delphox-EX Tin

Hi all!

Today I bring you an opening of three different TCG merchandise! These openings will be exclusive to my blog... mostly because the video recordings were corrupted =/

Let me list what I opened up:

- The Ampharos Plasma Storm Triple Blister Pack, bought for £6.51 on ebay over a year ago. A VERY good price for a triple blister pack. It comes with a promo card, a coin and three Plasma Storm booster packs.

- The Xerneas Collection Box, bought in combination with the Yveltal Collection box from Card Team for £25.45.

- The Delphox-EX Kalos Power Trio tin from Summer 2014, bought together with the Chesnaught-EX and Greninja-EX tins for £28.75, also bought from Card Team.

Unlike usual - no youtube video this time round sadly! Simply scroll bellow to see what goodies I got in these products!

The Black Star Promo BW67 Ampharos and a coin of what appears to be either Black Kyurem or White Kyurem (I'm really not sure which it is!)

In this blister pack I managed to get two rares and a holo. This Manaphy looks so cute!

Delphox-EX looks really cool. It's not one of my favourite starters design wise, but this image looks really cool. It came in the Delphox-EX tin and is promo XY19

This tin of four booster packs came with five rares. One a normal rare (Azelf) and a reverse-holo rare (Staraptor)

The three other rares were holographics. A Team Plasma Kyurem, a Dusknoir and a Greninja from Plasma Freeze, XY and Flashfire respectively.

The promotional cards in the Xerneas Collection box were this XY05 Xerneas card and a Jumbo card of the exact same card.

The three booster packs in the Xerneas Collection box had these goodies. 

Sadly no holos or ultra rares, but it was four rares out of three packs.

Altogether the pull rate out of ten booster packs was pretty average (4 holos out of ten packs). They were all holographic cards that I needed too so I'm happy. I'm especially happy with the promos of course, the cards I generally aim to have when buying these kind of products. The Ampharos card stock quality isn't great but at least it wasn't damaged. 

I apologise for not having a video of these openings, I try to keep Pokémon TCG Opening Adventures at the bare minimum consistent and hate how many errors and such have already occurred over the span of the adventure so far. But I'll keep trying to to make it entertaining and bring you all fun and suspenseful pack openings. I hope you can bear with the hiccups that have occurred already or may occur in the future and continue enjoying and supporting my contents. 

And with that said, stay tuned for the next adventure and further fun! Thanks for watching =)
Bye!

2 Flashfire Checklane Blister Packs: Honedge & Skiddo

Hi all!

The Amateur Collector here!

Today I have not one but two checklane blister packs to open from the Flashfire series. Both packs come with a booster pack, a coin and an exclusive promo card; a Skiddo and a Honedge.
Individually they cost me £3.45 from Card Team.

If you look at the picture bellow you will see that one of the blister packs (and the promo card within it) got damaged. I am not sure when this occurred. I very much doubt Card Team would send out damaged goods, so I believe it got damaged either during transport (curse you Royal Mail!), by being forcefully shoved through the letter box (curse you again Royal Mail!!) and/or by being badly stored by those to which the package was delivered to (I was abroad when this package was delivered).
Well whatever happened, it means I'm going to have to purchase myself another copy of the damaged card (the Honedge). Thankfully, it does not seem to be expensive to buy individually at all.

Anyways, as usual click here to check out the video or scroll down to view the pulls I got.

It might not be immediately evident, but the blister pack on the right hand side is quite bent on the bottom left. This sadly also affected the promo card inside.

Two awesome coins. My favourite of the two has to be Chespin. Not necessarily just because Chespin is my favourite of the Kalos starters, but also because this green reflective colour goes very well with the coin and image.

Promo card XY11 Skiddo! 

This image does not do justice to just how sparkly that holofoil is!

My damaged Honedge, Black Star Promo XY12

As you can see, this card has been bent quite severely bent at the bottom =(

And these are the rare cards I pulled from both blister packs. A Snorlax and a Durant.

Again, I am disappointed that the promo card was damaged, especially since they are the main reason I purchase these kind of blister packs in the first place, but I am lucky that it does not cost much to buy separately. 

Well, not the most amazing of openings. But I can garantee you that the next adventure will be epic ;)

Stay tuned to see exactly how epic it is! 

Trevenant - Furious Fists Triple Blister Pack

Hi all!

The Amateur Collector here with an opening for my PTCGOpA series!

This time round I've opened up a Trevenant blister pack for the Furious Fists expansion. I bought this one along with the Slurpuff blister pack for altogether £17.31 from Chaos Cards.

Click here if you want to see the video opening of this blister pack or simply scroll down below if you want to see the pulls I got.

The pack itself

The promo card, Trevenant XY14. I like the dark imagery, it goes well with the Pokémon's design and typing.

And here are the pulls I obtained. A Jynx, Pangoro and Gothitelle - all rares.

So sadly nothing special but they are all cards I needed to further my collection (even the Gothitelle that I originally thought I had already).

I do like the artwork where you see the Pokémon battling, they are very dynamic and a great homage to the overall franchise, cause you know, that's pretty much the point of it; monsters beating each other up!

I look forward to opening up more packs from this set and checking out more of the dynamic artwork.

And that's it for today's opening. A fairly straightforward one. 

Tune in next time to see if I open up anything more exciting!

Opening 24 XY Base Set Blister Packs

Hi all!

The Amateur Collector here with another exciting opening of Pokémon TCG  merchandise. And I'm very excited for this one. I'm opening up an entire box of blister packs! Specifically, 24 blister packs for the XY Base Set.

I bought the box from iguk.co.uk for £43.59. It was originally £46.59 (already half the retail price) and I got a further £3 reduction which IGUK were kind enough to give to me due to a previous failed order.

Naturally due to the large amount of blister packs I opened I have LOADS of pictures to share with you guys, and had to break the opening into four separate videos, all of which you can watch here:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

And here comes the swag!
Rares, reverse-holo rares, holos and ultra rares, there is a lot to show off!

These are all the rares I got. As you can tell I got a few repeats, but that's to be expected from an entire box of packs! I didn't actually have most of these though, so overall I'm happy with these ones.

I got 6 reverse-holo rares. Although I don't focus on completing reverse-holo sets, I'm always happy to get rares none the less!

Only four holographic cards sadly, but they are good ones! I'm especially fond of the Vivillon! I'm eager to get the alternate pattern Vivillon.

I got 4 ultra rare cards in this box. One of them, this Venusaur EX, was a double! Indeed I already pulled this guy not long ago.

(excuse the poor quality, just check the other picture in my other opening in the link above, it's the same type of card)

Here's an ultra I was happy to pull, Emolga-EX! Yes I know it is not worth much, but I love the rodent! One of my favourite electric types in the video game.

I got this wonderful card. This Yveltal-EX will compliment my Xerneas-EX nicely.

And last but not least...

Mega Blastoise-EX! With this card, I have both the Mega cards from this set. I'm very happy.

So although I got a few doubles in this box, I ended up getting many cards that I needed for my collection, putting me quite a few steps closer to completing this set. 

I was shocked to get so few holographic cards, even though I know the ratio for holos is low in XY, I didn't think I'd end up with only four - the EXACT same amount of ultra rares that I got. Which begs the question; what are their actual collectable value?

Either way, I'm very happy with what I got and look forward to opening up a whole booster box for this set! I wonder when that'll be? Stay tuned to find out =D

Pokémon TCG Opening Adventures 2: Luxray - Dark Explorers Triple Blister Pack

Hi all!

The Amateur Collector with an other PTCGOpA s02 update!
This time I've opened up a Luxray blister pack. It is from Dark Explorers; a set from the Black & White series which is actually quite hard to come-by now (individual booster packs go for £4 or more now!)
I bought this blister pack - along with another from the same series - for £8.95 each (the other blister pack will be opened at a later date) from online card game retailer cardteam.co.uk

I'll apologies beforehand, I forgot to take pictures of some of the content. The coin that comes with the blister pack and one of the rare cards from the opening.

If you want to see the opening click here (you'll be able to see all the swag I got from the blister)

First off, the promo:

The exckusive card that comes with the blister is not a BW Black Star Promo but in fact an alternate holographic of a card that is usually found in the Next Destinies set. This one in particular has the "Shard" pattern (you can see the triangles in the background that sparkle like shards of glass, hence the name for the pattern)

[this is a stock picture found online]

The rare I got was an Excadrill.

Out of three booster packs, I managed to get two holos, this is a very good pull!

Volcarona and Klinklang.

Out of the two I prefer Volcarona, but honestly I do find the artwork for both rather static, but I guess these mons are not exactly the most dynamic (they barely have any appendages!) 

I am very happy with these pulls, I have very few cards from the Dark Explorers collection and owned none of these ones, so they're all new to me!

I really look forward to opening up the next blister pack for Dark Explorers, hopefully I get an EX. But who knows when it'll be that I get to open it up, since all these openings are chosen through a raffle.

So tune in next time to see exactly which piece of merchandise I pick from the raffle. Bye!

Pokémon TCG Opening Adventures 2: Slurpuff - Furious Fists Triple Blister Pack

Hi all!

The Amateur Collector here bringing you the next episode of PTCGOpA 2!

Today I open up a Slurpuff Blister Pack. I bought this pack in combination with another pack from chaoscards.co.uk. Together they cost me about £17.31 since I bought them in combination and got a discount from Chaos Cards' then loyalty scheme.

This'll be my first opening of Furious Fists booster packs!

Now lets get straight into it! Scroll down for images of the cards or check out the opening on youtube here: clickity click!

First the promo card:

Slurpuff! This one is Promo XY15. The picture up above does not do justice to the holographic pattern which makes it appear as if Slurpuff is being surrounded by glittering pollen as it walks through a patch of flowers. Very beautiful. 

A rare Golurk and reverse-holo Hariyama. I love how dynamic they look! This seems to be a theme for a lot of the Furious Fists artwork.

And the two holos! Slaking and Landorus, both keeping up the trend of looking dynamic, as if they're halfway through an attack charge.

 Overall a great blister pack opening. I got myself four rare cards in all, two of which were holographic cards, which definitely beats the ratio you usually get for XY sets. I'm happy ^^

Thanks for watching/reading. See you guys in the next adventure!
M'bye bye for now!

Pokémon TCG Opening Adventures 2: Eevee - Legendary Treasures Triple Blister Pack

Hi all!

The Amateur Collector here with my first episode of PTCGOpA season 2!!

First off, a little explanation of the format for this adventure. Each episode I will randomly choose a product to open from a raffle that has the names to all the merchandise I have to open. This way it guarantees that each adventure will be unpredictable and varied. It's more fun that way!
I will film a few openings in one go due to time restraints in real life, but I'll upload the opening individually throughout the months (I'll aim for about 2 to 3 videos a week), this way there will be a steady stream of videos for PTCGOpA 2 for a long while, even if I end up going to live abroad again!

So with that little explanation out of the way, lets get cracking.

We start off this adventure with none other than the Eevee Legendary Treasures Blister Pack (rather apt considering Eevee can sometimes be a starter Pokémon!)

This Eevee was purchased at chaoscards.co.uk for £8.95 last year. I think the Eevee blister pack is still available, but prices for blister packs overall have since risen on the website.

If you'd like to check out the blister pack opening without any spoilers, avoid scrolling down and just click here instead for the video.

Now then, here is what I had to open:

This blister pack contained 3 booster packs, a coin and of course the Eevee promotional card

Eevee promo card BW97 with the Zekrom/Reshiram coin.

Here is what I got in the booster packs:

Three rare cards; Gallade, Toxicroak and Empoleon. And one Zapdos reverse-holo (ordinarily a holographic card).

I did manage to get one holographic card. This Samurott, looking really cool with its battle stance.

Now Legendary Treasures has a bit of a quirk you see. Not only do you get ordinary cards and reverse holos, but you also get two cards that are part of a subset known as Radiant Collection. There are 25 of them to collect, some of them even EXs and Full Arts. All the RC cards I got in these packs were commons and uncommons, but the chances of pulling an "Ultra Rare" is actually quite high for this subset. Anyways, here is a look at the RC cards I pulled:

Each card has a special holographic foil going across the whole card. Check out the video for this pack opening to see the foil in better detail.

So this was a great opening for  the first episode of the adventure. I got 5 rares out of 3 booster packs, that's a good ratio! My favourites so far have to be the RC Serperior and the rare Toxicroak (it just looks so cool).

I look forward to opening more Legendary Treasures booster packs, this is a great set for collectors with lots of unique artwork, a cool subset and a high chance to get Ultra Rare cards. I admit I have to learn the shuffling trick for this pack though, it's different to all the other BW sets so far and I got very easily muddled up haha.

I would like to apologise for the quality of these pictures, sadly my scanner is currently not functional, so we're gonna have to make do with photo pictures instead!

Thanks for reading! Feel free to follow me, to leave a comment and/or to check out my youtube channel.

See you next time!

Pokémon TCG Opening Adventures 2 - Teaser of what's to come!

Hi all!

The Amateur Collector here and - oh my! What's this? Another post so soon after the last one?

Yup, I'm just going to do a tease of some of the Pokémon TCG merchandise that I'll be opening for the upcoming PTCGOpA.

Woo! That's a lot!

Which one catches your eye? Which one are you most excited to see open? Let me know in the comments bellow!

See you soon!