A card forum huh? Well then, here's a good question I love to hear answers on. What got you into collecting or playing with the cards of your choice?

For me it was a think of trying to blend in. Everyone was collecting cards and I wanted to appear 'normal'. But I grew to love the cards I found, reading the info, comparing, trading to see the smile on others faces while growing my own collection, and most of all organizing my collection. It's a practice that I don't get to try much these days nobody really is interested around me that's not a child (to the point my father is encouraging me to give away my collection to my niece despite my protests) but it is still something I love doing. Alot of times if I need a destresser I'll grab my box and start sorting.

I guess I could be considered a poser? I collect cards, mainly Yugioh and Pokemon, but I have never actually played the card games. I know how to play older Yugioh somewhat but not newer stuff, and I have no idea how to play Pokemon on the energy card side of things.

Mainly I collect because I like looking at all the card art. 

pokemon x : Nah man you ain't a poser some people just like collecting, some like playing, some are more casual, some are for profit ect.. That's the beauty of it there is no one way to be a card collector. Liking the art is a valid reason heck that's kinda a basis on part of my organization I collect different cards of different eras because of the card art. Where did you start?

thetruemasterofgames : I honestly can't tell you since I don't fully remember.

I just randomly buy a pack every couple months and don't really remember what the pack names are soo.. I would go with probably minimum 4-5 years? Used to have a lot older stuff but they were lost.

I can't remember the exact reason as I was too young, but maybe it had to do with the absolute craze of prints in the mid 90s over here. Then, the Pokemon TCG and Yugioh made its way to my country and I did possess some of their cards on its early days.

However, I was soon aware of how hard would it be to get something that could actually be playable, so I didn't delve deeper into it. I kept an eye open on Yugioh as I followed the anime and always tried to find ways to play the card game in my PC, so I wanted to stay updated on the game and the new cards coming.

Even though I never attempted to actively collect or play any TCG, I'm still heavily influenced by them as I focus on card-based board games and videogames. I've tried several Yugioh videogames, both official and fan-made, and also about the Pokemon TCG, but I never attempted online playing because of the meta game and all the broken tactics used that disrupt playing to win at any price.

For me, I started collecting because I've always been a huge sports fan. Since I always loved baseball, I started buying lots of baseball card packs so that I could get cards of my favorite players growing up. Then over the last 15-20 years there's been a huge increase in rare and valuable card like signed cards and numbered cards so pulling those always felt amazing.

Then the hunt for cards that were rare and valuable seeped over into Pokemon, Yugioh, and Weiss Schwarz over the years.

But I don't actually play any of the games anymore, everything is 100% for collecting only now.

I was always into collecting when I was younger. Reflecting on it with the hindsight given by time and studies, I think an influential part of it was my background. We weren't super well off when I was young (early childhood-adolescence) so I was very careful with and conscious of my things. I would also collect everything, not just cards but regular objects. Rocks, bottle caps, sticks etc. Combine this with having a huge interest in Pokemon (before discovering the games) and the TCG instantly attracted me.

I started out with Pokemon sticker albums since they were relatively cheap. There was something kind of euphoric about opening a new pack. That carried over into the card game. The excitement of not knowing what you were gonna get, the new card smell, the bragging rights you'd get at the school yard. Those were the most fun parts for me, since nobody knew how to actually play the game properly lol. It also appeased the inner gambler in me, which I still have today to some extent.

At some point, it all changed though. A big motivator was likely becoming a broke and financially aware student. Collecting represents a very obvious money sink that becomes harder to motivate. I never got much out of it socially but collected things more in solitude, the money spent quickly =/= the fulfillment I got out of it.

Not long after that, I also started studying sociology, which gave me a more minimalist view on life in terms of physical possessions. I just have a hard time getting attached to physical objects anymore, and that's not me trying to be arrogant. I definitely see how collecting can bring a lot of value to people's lives. My best friend is huge into collecting figurines for example and I've always found his passion for that really cool. It's just not for me, I start to feel too tied down by it.

The only thing I could see myself getting into collecting is non material stuff... Gacha mechanics can be very addictive.

Zlinqx : Are there any gachas that you like?

zanderlex : I've been very deep into plenty of games with lootbox/gacha style mechanics like Smite or Overwatch. Where the gacha mechanic affects gameplay progression though? I tend to be more cautious.

I was heavy into those kinds of gacha games for a while in high school, I got particularly into one called "Heroes Charge" for a bit, even spending quite a bit of money. It's moments like those which made me discover my addictive personality, particularly in relation to gambling. Eventually I burned out though and never returned.

Some others are Shadowverse and Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Links, which I played them for some time. Being card games, the deckbuilding gave the games quite a lot of depth. But it gets repetitive after a while. I also started to find issue with the game balancing. The metas of those kinds of games tend to be very restrictive in what you need to use to stay on top. It kills the fun for me. However, they can definitely be well made in some aspects so I'll sometimes give new ones a try. For example, not long ago I tried "Bleach: Brave Souls" (wanting something to distract me while I was waiting for the new episodes) and I had some fun with that

In the end I have a hard time really sticking to gacha based games though. Guess I'm too burn out on gacha mechanics to really be able to commit. I don't feel like putting in the grind or the money to progress.

Zlinqx : Do you play any of the mobile character gachas like Summoners War, Genshin, Heroes, etc?

zanderlex : Not anymore no. Like I mentioned, I tried Bleach: Brave Souls to soothe my Bleach craving. I was waiting for new episodes so it did a good job of distracting me. I did not really stick to it more than a couple of days though. Overall, I have a hard time sticking to these kinds of games because of the grinding.

I've also found it increasingly difficult to get into games in general. Mostly because of the initial investment (but once I do, I can be quite obsessive).

I have thought about giving Genshin Impact a go. If for no other reason than how popular it is, makes me want to see what all the buzz is about.

I've always been on the outside of the trading card world. I played a lot of YuGiOh when I was a kid but ended up losing interest when 5D's cmae out. Big mistake, the synchros are actually pretty cool, and I really like XYZ monsters, but pendulum and link, in addition to the changes in game meta to make the game a 1-3 turn experience because everybody has using the same overpowwered deck for years.

I tried getting into Magic the Gathering when I was 12-13 but it was hard to know what sets to buy and I ended up opening way too much Magic 13 and never got anything good enough to use. When I'd go to my local collectible shop to learn to play the game, buy cards, and see the games in action, the people that worked there were incredibly rude and other players were also super unpleasant. Ended up losing interest as I had nobody to play with.

I used to watch an edgy youtuber who stopped getting drunk and eating his own vomit on camera and started opening Pokemon cards. I was thinking "yeah that's just gambling, I'd never get into something like that" but kept watching because the cards were really cool and he gave really funny commentary as he opened them. A family member of mine got really into Pokemon cards and I ended up getting him some for Christmas, and got myself a box of Celebrations just to see what it's like. My first pack had a Charizard from the classic collection which is worth more than the whole box. I got hooked and have been buying packs and boxes on discount as it's a very expensive hobby. In the past 2 years I have doubled the amount of money I have spent by opening packs, and have a lot of rare cards that I plan on getting framed on my wall.

After getting into Pokemon cards, I started to feel kinda burned by the fact that few people actually play the game, and the pull rates for some of the cards are astoundingly low, so I started buying Magic around the release of Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, as there was a card done by Yoji Shinkawa of Metal Gear Solid fame, and the cyborg ninja theme was sick looking and incredible, completely unaware of the game's decline in the eyes of the community. I was really surprised at the variety in booster packs. The draft boosters are like Pokemon cards with a bunch of common cards with one foil card, then set boosters with cooler cards of higher rarity, and collector boosters that are 5x the cards that are all foil and guaranteed even higher rarity with exclusive cards. I was even more surprised that each card had several different artworks and you're super unlikely to get the cool ones, alongside the guarantee the foil card is almost always a common rarity that has such a curve it would never fit into a deck. It seemed like every set that came after Neon Dynasty was more expensive. The one right after was twice the price for one pack, the one after that was twice that price, and not available in set boosters, then everything after that was either a disappointment. Hopefully the Junji Ito and Yoji Shinkawa Secret Lair collections end up cheap on the secondary market, as I have little interest in returning to opening Magic until the Doctor Who set and those were the only products that struck my interest.

Now I'm back into YuGiOh, grinding out a better deck in Master Duel so I can stand a small chance against the One-Turn-Kill decks you'll find in every game, including the casual matches. Once you finish the tutorials the only way to get more credits for gacha booster packs is by logging in or ranking up in the online mode, which is not just a slog, but super predatory. I've been buying a few packs of Magnificent Mavens and Brothers of Legend: Crystal Revenge, as I really dig the cards in those sets, they contain a lot of the cards that make up current meta decks for cheap, and have more noted pull rates than Pokemon, allowing me to rip packs for a piece of Exodia, just like the old days.