Reshiram Box

Hi all!

The Amateur Collector here.
For this adventure I opened up a Reshiram [figure] Box! I got it from Infinity Games for the decent price of £17.09.
I very much have been looking forward to opening this box because I friggin love these figures that come with TCG merchandise. They're well sculpted, detailed and very often dynamically posed.

Here is the box! It comes with a Reshiram figure, a Reshiram promo card, a TCGO for that Reshiram promo and four booster packs, all of them Emerging Powers.

 As usual, before we proceed I must warn you that there will be spoilers of what cards I pulled from the booster packs. If you'd rather enjoy the suspense of the openings then check out the video on my youtube channel.
If you're not fussed eitherway, then scroll down to check out my pulls as well as the box's contents.

Lets start off with the promo card:

This is Reshiram BW23 for the BW Black Star Promos collection.

The artwork is different, but it basically a reprint (one of many) of the original Reshiram card that appeared in the Black & White base set.

Here is the figure! I love the mid-flight pose it has and how they use the tail as a base to hold that pose. It's very detailed too! (which is admittedly not very evident in this poor quality picture, sorry!)

I got three rares and one rare reverse-holo. I actually needed most of these cards so this is not necessarily a bad set of pulls.

I did manage to pull one holo though, and one that I needed still. The Beartic looks very ferocious, though I can't help but feel that they could have done more with the artwork. Oh well, early Black & White sets had fairly bland artwork, it can't be helped (though I don't think poor Beartic will ever be a holo again!)

So this wasn't a bad opening at all. I'm not missing many cards for my Emerging Powers collection, and these cards helped shrink my wants list a bit.

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!

Xerneas-EX 2014 Tin

Hi all!

The Amateur Collector here and today I'll just do a quick update for this adventure, because honestly, it wasn't that great!

This adventure I open up a Xerneas-EX 2014 Spring Tin. Bought from Card Team together with the Yveltal-EX tin for £19.75.

Click here for the video opening or just scroll down below to see what swag I got.

The Xerneas-EX 2014 Spring Tin comes with a promo card, 4 booster packs and a TCGO card for this tin.

The beautiful promo card Xerneas-EX XY07.

All the booster packs yielded were rare cards. 

I did manage to get a reverse-holo rare though, one I still needed.

I usually don't complain about getting rares, but I have hit a dry spell for holos and ultra rare openings for a long while now. It'd be nice to get something shiny =P

Still, 5 rares out of 4 booster packs and a beautiful promo that I still needed ain't too bad. Be thankful for what you get ey?

Stay tuned for more openings. Let's cross our fingers for better luck next adventure!

Krookodile-EX Box

Hi all!

I'm the Amateur Collector and I've opened myself up a Krookodile-EX box as part of my Pokémon TCG Opening Adventures 2!

This box cost £13.60 and was purchased from Chaos Cards.

As usual click here to check out the opening on video or/and scroll down to check out the pulls I got!

Here is the box in all its Krookodilian glory!

Here are the promo cards, the Krookodile-EX XY25 with its Jumbo equivalent.

The rares and reverse-holo rare. 

I don't know why, but I'm really digging that Butterfree.

And two holographic cards, wooo!

Rhyperior and Delphox, both from the XY Base Set boosters.

Overall I'm pretty pleased with this box. No ultra rares, but I did get two holos out of four booster packs which is an above average pull rate. 

Krookodile looks really cool too, but I was bound to like it since Krookodile is just an awesome dude-mon anyways!

Well thanks for reading/watching, hopefully this spells out a trend for future good pulls. They are really needed after the dry spell we've had this past week in terms of pulls. Stay tuned to see if things really do get turned around! 

M'bye bye!

Deoxys-EX - 2013 Fall Tin

Hi all!

The Amateur Collector here.

Today I open the Deoxys-EX Tin, I got it on ebay for £11.45. At the time of purchase this was a good price. Now, it's an even better price. These tins go for anywhere between £15-£18.

If you want to check out the video, click here.
Keep scrolling down if you want to see what pulls I got.

The tin itself.

This is the promo, part of the BW Black Star Promo collection.

(This picture was taken from Bulbapedia since I forgot to take a picture of my own like a numpty!) 

As you can see, I did not get the greatest of pulls.

Five rares is good, but none of them were holos or ultra rares.

So I'm not overly happy with my pulls this time round. I don't usually mind pulling rares if I don't have them already, but out of five rares I already own three of them.

Oh well, stick around and lets see if the next opening will be better ey! 

See you!

Garchomp-EX Collection Box

Hi all!

The Amateur Collector here, opening up a Garchomp-EX Collection Box as part of my Pokémon TCG Opening Adventures series!

I ordered this box from Chaos Cards a while back while it was on pre-order special offer (it cost £14.45 and came with a free pack of sleeves!). The price for this box has since jumped up by about £4 from what I can tell.

This box had some fantastic pulls. If you can tolerate my rambling, I'd suggest checking out the box opening on my youtube channel!

If you don't fancy that however, just scroll down and check out the swag I got.

First off, the promotional cards! You get the Black Star Promo Garchomp-EX, number XY09 in the set.

The rares: A reverse-holo Rhyperior, a beautiful card despite featuring a Pokémon I'm not overly fond. I also got a rare Starmie and a holographic Gogoat (my second one in this adventure).

And here are my stars! TWO EXs!  A Venusaur-EX to compliment the M Venusaur-EX I got in the previous opening, and a Full Art Latios-EX! (actually my second one)

This was a great box! What can I say? I may have gotten some doubles, but they are great ones.

CAN'T WAIT FOR THE NEXT OPENING!

See you guys round!

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: Thundurus-EX - 2013 Fall Tin

Hi all!
I'm the Amateur Collector and welcome to my second PTCGOpA S02 episode! (That is as long to type as it is to say!)

Today I open up a Thundurs-EX Fall 2013 tin! It's a great tin filled with 4 Team Plasma related booster packs (one Plasma Blast, one Plasma Freeze and two Plasma Blast packs).
I got it in store at Forbidden Planet for £12.99 (around a little over $19 USD).

This was a great tin that provided me with many cards that I did not have before! Click here if you want to see the video of the opening, otherwise keep scrolling down to see what I pulled.

First off:

Thundurus-EX BW81 Black Star Promo. This Thundurus is in its Therian Form.

As rares I got an Azelf from Plasma Blast, a Keckleon from Plasma Freeze, a reverse-holo Porygon-Z from Plasma Blast and a reverse-holo Beheeyem from Plasma Blast.

Infernape holo!! I know the tinsel holographic pattern isn't peoples' favourite pattern, but it works quite well on this guy.

And finally, the cherry (or egg as it were) on the cake:

A secret rare Exeggcute from Plasma Blast!!!

If I was going to get any of the secret rare cards from any Plasma series booster pack, it would be this one.

I just love how they randomly decided to make Exeggcute a shiny secret rare.

So overall I'm very happy with this opening. I basically got 6 rare cards out of four booster packs (2 rares, 2 rare reverse-holos, 1 holo and a secret rare! Wooo!). 

Lets hope this trend keeps up!

Thanks for watching/reading and see you in the next adventure =)

Pokémon TCG Opening Adventures - Season 2 (starting real soon!)

Hi all!

The Amateur Collector here with an exciting update!

I am back in my home country and have put aside a space and some time to start the next season of Pokémon TCG Opening Adventures (PTCGOpA)!!!

Keep reading for a quick history and explanation of what exactly PTCGOpA, or scroll down straight to the video to see what this next Adventure has in store for you!

In 2013 my love for the collectable card game known as the Pokémon TCG got rekindled due watching many youtube videos of people open up various Pokémon TCG related merchandise. It reminded me of my excitement of doing the same as a child.
I have always been a Pokéfan and have never stopped playing the video games, however I did give up on the TCG due to money, change of environment and also simply that I had no one else to play and trade with as I got older.
But youtube showed that there are many people from all sorts of demographics still playing and/or collecting the card game. I loved sharing in the excitement as they'd open up booster boxes, packs, etc and ultra-rare card and such.
So I decided to buy some of the recent TCG merchandise and chronicle myself getting reacquainted with this TCG franchise, and sharing it with the Internet. And so Pokémon TCG Opening Adventures was born.

I enjoyed doing it so much that I have decided to do it again. This time with far more merchandise and a better understanding of where to buy them, how to video the openings, etc.

I won't ramble on anymore, here's the trailer to tease what kind of stuff I'll be opening:

I'll go into some more details in the next post.

Hope you're as excited as I am for this!
Stay tuned and see you soon!

Opening 4 Flashfire Booster Packs

Hi all!

Welcome back to another blog post, this one being a Pokemon booster pack opening!
I'm still in China, so as usual these are booster packs I found in Hong Kong at a good price of 30 HKD (i.e. £2.50).

This time round I found some XY Flashfire booster packs! It was my first time opening up any boosters from this set, so I was pretty excited.

Enough chit-chat, wanna see what I got? Check out my opening video on my youtube channel; here.

OR

Scroll bellow to see pictures of what I ended up pulling.

Out of four packets I got two rare cards, the dynamic Lopunny and the sour looking Qwilfish.

My holo is a Carbink. The holographic pattern is not very obvious on the card due to the picture's dark background as well as the sleeve. It looks good though.

And an Ultra Rare Full Art Kangaskhan-EX! So glad to have gotten this one!

I'm not going to rant on in this post, I'm just glad to have gotten these cool new cards. Out of 4 packs I got a really good ratio, a holo and an ultra rare? Thanks Hong Kong! You're booster packs have been giving me great pulls all these months!

Anyways, that's the end of this post and of any future booster pack openings in China. Next time I do a Pokemon related update it is hopefully when I'm back in the U.K. Once there I'll start the next series of Pokemon TCG Opening Adventures. I'm excited and I hope y'all are too.

This doesn't mean I'll (completely) neglect this blog until then though. I have at the very least one more post to make. 

So hang around! Till next time.

Opening 4 XY Booster Packs

Hi all!

Amateur Collector here with the last batch of Pokémon booster packs I bought from Hong Kong to open up. These were slightly more expensive than the previous ones, at 30 HKD each (making them roughly £2.50). These are the first XY Base Set TCG merchandise I'll be opening up, months behind the rest of the world, but well, what can I do about that? I'm excited about this anyways. So, without further ado lets get to it!

As usual, if you want to see the video of these pack openings click here to go to my youtube channel.

Now, I've heard (and seen via other youtube videos) that the holo-to-rare ratio in this set is not great, so unsurprisingly I ended up with many rares:

A Rhydon, a Tauros and a Grumping. The Reverse-Holo is a Furfrou, usually a holo, I actually quite like it, it is one of my favourite mons from the 6th Gen.

No holographics after this lot sadly, buuuuuuuuuuut I did get this guy:

A beautiful Xerneas-EX. I'm glad this is the EX I got, as cool as Yveltal is, Xerneas is my favourite of the two.

I have to admit, I'm not too fond of the artwork of the XY Base Set. From what I can tell, compared to Flashfire and Furious Fists it looks somewhat underwhelming. And although I'm not usually one to poo-poo rare cards (especially if I haven't already got them) these ones don't look great and I know I'll be getting many of these as doubles in the future (yup, that's a hint to having some XY merchandise to open up for Pokémon TCG Opening Adventures 2). The Xerneas-EX is a fantastic pull though! I'm pleased with that.

Overall, good pulls for the price I got them at! Thanks for reading and look forward to my next update!

Till next time!

Opening 4 Plasma Storm Booster Packs

Hi all!

The Amateur Collector here, and first thing's first; sorry for the long absence!
This video/blog post was meant to go up a month ago, but both work life and computer problems made that very difficult to do. I have currently found a temporary solution to the computer problem allowing me, for now, to finally upload some stuff.

So here is the long overdue booster pack opening filmed some time ago; 4 Plasma Storm booster packs!
Check the video opening here if you want.

First off, the rares:

Two Team Plasma cards, a Garbodor and a Bouffalant. Thankfully I have these two already, because these cards are slightly damaged on the bottom right hand side. A fate most the old cards I purchased in Hong Kong have suffered (damaged due poor storage or delivery, I don't know, oh well!)

The Holo I got is a Team Plasma's Klinklang. Not the most visually stunning picture I must admit, not to mention a card I believe I own already. But still, a good pull.

And for my EX... *pause for dramatic effect*... a Team Plasma's Zapdos-EX!

Zapdos was never my favourite of the legendary birds, but this card is very handsome nonetheless, with a great lightning effect surrounding the borders of the card, very cool. The card is slightly damaged at the bottom like all the others, but a N/M card is still a good card. I'll gladly put it in my collection =)

And that's it for this week's update. Next week I'll attempt to upload the XY Booster Pack opening! I've already done the video and I can guarantee some good pulls, so come back to check it out ;)

(yes I know XY Base Set is a little old now, but I'm in China, I was surprised to have even found these out here in the first place! Hopefully you can join in the excitement with me anyways~)

M'bye bye for now!

Opening 4 Emerging Powers Booster Packs

Hi all!

Amateur Collector here and as my very boring but straightforward post title implies, I'm opening up four Pokémon Black & White Emerging Powers booster packs.

Just like my last Pokémon TCG related update, I purchased these booster packs, along with 8 others, in Kowloon - Hong Kong in a small shop at In's Point.
They cost me 25 HKD, which is roughly 1.90 GBP or 3 USD. Not bad at all! In fact, a very good price considering the pulls I got. Lets check them out, shall we? (scroll bellow to see pictures or click here for the video)

First off, here are the rares. 

I pulled a Darmanitan, a Leavanny and a reverse Gigalith.

I'm pretty sure I have this Darmanitan already, but I think I may still need the Leavanny.

A Holo Gothitelle. I'm sure I have at least two of these already. But glad to have pulled a holo nonetheless. 

And here is the gem of the bunch:

A Full Art Tornadus. This card may not be worth much at all, but I'm very happy to have gotten it, it is an Ultra Rare after all. It's interesting to see that it's not in this set that they started leaving "finger print" like patterns on Full Art cards.

Overall this was an okay bunch of booster packs. Emerging Powers is the smallest set from the BW era of Pokémon TCG with only 98 cards, only 2 of which are Full Arts and 10 holos- so I'm pretty glad that I managed to get a Full Art. 

Well, I'll leave you here. My next Pokémon TCG update will be soon. I'll be opening up four Plasma Storm booster packs. Looks forward to that! 

See ya next time!

Catching' em again! Pokemon TCG opening in China!

Hi all!

Amateur Collector here and yes you've read that title right; I have found some Pokémon TCG booster packs to open in China, and they're not fakes!!

These booster packs were found in Hong Kong in a small shop inside the In's Point shopping centre in Yau Ma Tei (which as a side note, is a great shopping area for collectables!) At first I thought they were perhaps fakes so I only bought one booster pack to see what they were like. Lo and behold, not only are they legit, but I get myself an awesome full art Articuno-EX!! Sooooooo naturally the next day I go back and buy myself a fist full of booster packs. They were very cheap in fact, only 25HKD (that's about £1.90 in GBP and $3.20 USD) and there was a nice diversity of boosters from different series (no Dark Explorers sadly!).

I ended up buying 4 Emerging Powers, 4 Plasma Storm, 3 Plasma Blast and a Plasma Freeze booster pack.
If you want the suspense of opening up these booster packs not knowing what comes out as I open them, then avoid scrolling down and just click here to watch my Pokémon TCG Booster Pack Opening video.

Before I reveal the cards I got in those twelve booster packs, here's the Articuno-EX I got from that one previous pack:

The card is slightly damaged on the bottom right hand corner, the booster pack it was inside must have been moved around quite a bit. But still a very handsome card.

Here are the booster packs!

The first lot of boosters I opened were from Emerging Powers. This is a set I have rarely opened, so I was eager to rip them open. Sadly I only got non-holo rares, most of which I already own. From left to right: Gigalith, Gothitelle, Mandibuzz and Beartic.

Things get better with the next few boosters however!

Some of the rares:  a Team Plasma's Garbodor from Plasma Storm, and a Reuniclus and Carracosta from Plasma Blast.

Two rare reverse-holos! A Magnezone and a Team Plasma's Watchog. That Magnezone looks particularly cool.

Four wonderful holographics. The artwork on them is great and dynamic, but I must admit I find the "Tinsel Holofoil" a little bland, it just doesn't go with them so well. But I'm super glad to have gotten these none the less, especially that Lucario I didn't even know existed. The Lucario, Gallade and Togekiss are from Plasma Storm and the Haxorus is from Plasma Blast.

And Now for the cherry on the cake:

A Team Plasma's Tornadus-EX (Therian Form). Not my favourite of the Exs, but a card I'm overjoyed to have gotten anyways.

So out of 12 packs I got 4 holos, an ultra rare and 7 'normal' rares. That is about an average pull ratio for rare cards, and I mean that as a good thing. These booster packs were really worth their money. Next time I'm in Hong Kong I'll definitely stop by that store and purchase more.

Be sure to comment, subscribe and 'like' my youtube AND/OR blog if you like what you see and be sure to check out any other blog or video posts I have done or will do - Pokémon related or otherwise!

Until then, cheerio!