Is Pokémon My Shining Fate... Or Should I Remain Hidden?

You'll probably know this unless you've had your head buried like some kind of Dodrio... but Pokémon cards have been all the rage again this weekend.

You can now purchase your cards directly from us!

It's funny isn't it how cyclical trends are. It seems that nerd culture will invariably pull itself back around and drag the 90's kids back into the fray. Myself included. The past few weeks I have been thinking back to playing Pokémon Blue on the Gameboy Color and my subsequent journey into the TGC (Trading Card Game). I remember being enthralled by those little booster packs, right from the first time spending £2.50 on my first one and insanely... pulling a shiny Blastoise that I still have today.

I ventured out this weekend into Manchester and stepped back inside Travelling Man for the first time in over a year and found that even with the scalping that seems to be rife online they still had a supply of the hard to come by Pokemon Shining Fate Expansions at a better price than anywhere we could see. The staff in their Manchester store are absolute gems and the community of people they attract are just as lovely. I grabbed myself a Dragapult V expansion which included not only the shiny Dragapult V, Dragapult VMAX, a giant Dragapult V Card (which I will be framing) but also 7 of the new Booster Packs!

If that wasn't enough I decided to pick up a Booster Tin from the Hidden Fates Expansion which included a guaranteed shiny of Gyarados but also 4 more boosters! Now the amazing thing is I managed to pull a total of 11 shinies from these packs which you can see over on our Nerdy Pickups Highlights on our Instagram!

I was genuinely surprised to get some of the ones I did, a Vaporeon Shiny from Hidden Fates (which all seem to Generation 1 much to my surprise and happiness) was a particular highlight as was the Rainbow Amazing Rare Grade Kyorge! A legendary from Pokemon Sapphire back on the Gameboy Advance. This has made me a little scared that I'll go overboard and get back into full on collecting mode but I'm going to try my hardest to refrain from it. I've seen the people rushing into shop online and that's someone I don't want to be! I don't want to buy up all the stock so other people can't enjoy it like we did this weekend because it was a genuinely lovely experience reliving a little bit of my childhood. The rest of the boxes actually sold out while we were stood there... which was insane to see!

So remember Pokemasters, buy responsibly, let others get in there too and most of all... Support your little comic book and card shops like Travelling Man. Small businesses are hurting right now still and they need you. Now the world is slowly opening up again take a visit when you feel safe to do so, I'm sure they'll be happy to see you!

Hazz

If you want to buy pokemon cards too, we're now officially a pokemon card stockist! Head to our shop and you can buy yours today