CGC Cards Collectorverse: Collector Origin Stories – alexyoung27

We're bringing the CGC "Origin Story" Collectorverse newsletter to cards! Our first edition of the newsletter highlights collector alexyoung27, a long-time user of the CGC Cards Registry. Their impressive collection of third-generation Pokémon cards won the 2025 Best Set of the Year award, and they shared with us some of the moments that inspired them to start collecting.

Thanks for chatting with us! Tell us how you got started collecting Pokémon cards?

I fell in love with Pokémon when my cousin brought his Game Boy and Pokémon Blue to my house at Christmas in 1999, just after the game was released in the UK. I used the money I got for Christmas to buy a Game Boy and Pokémon Red and was hooked. It was the first video game that properly gripped me and I fell in love with the world of Pokémon.

In 2004 Nintendo released Pokémon Fire Red on the Game Boy Advance. It was a chance to relive that amazing first experience in Kanto. The Pokémon Company released the EX FireRed & LeafGreen TCG set as a tie in for the release of the game. 

I was in a store after school one day and saw a box of packs on the bottom shelf. I never had Pokémon cards when kids were going crazy for the base set and always wanted some. I had enough change in my pocket for a pack so I bought one. After that I would save my lunch money every day and buy a pack in the store on my way home from school!

All of your sets on the Trading Cards Registry are exclusively EX FireRed & LeafGreen. What drew you to collecting this set specifically? 

EX FireRed & LeafGreen was my gateway into the world of Pokémon cards. After I ripped the packs, I kept the cards in their foil for protection and stored them in a tin. Fast forward 20 years to June 2024 and I found my old tin in my parents’ attic! 

I now have kids of my own and my son’s big into Pokémon cards. I told him about my cards as a kid and he asked if I still had them. After I found the tin, it was magical opening it together. It was like finding a time capsule of pristine condition cards, still in their foil pack sleeves. 

I learned that CGC had an office in London and decided to get some graded. My first submission came back all Gem Mint 10 and Pristine 10, my son and I went nuts together in our lounge as we looked at what each grade got! 

I made more and more submissions and got amazing grades so decided to try and complete a graded master set of all 225 cards in Gem Mint 10 or above.

Your EX FireRed & LeafGreen won the 2025 Best Set of the Year award. It’s very close to complete now. What cards would you most like to add to this set and why?

I was so pleased to win a Best Set of the Year award. I now have 207 cards and am 18 away from completing the Master Set. I’m missing a reverse holo copy of 54 Bulbasaur, 83 Squirtle and 74 Pikachu and would love to add them as they’re three of the best artworks in the set.

I’ve had a few chances to get these cards but I’ve been prioritizing lower pop cards that come on the market less frequently.

Were there any cards that were particularly difficult to find? If so, do you have a story about how you were finally able to locate those cards?

The rarest card in the set is 67 Magikarp reverse holo error rarity. CGC has only graded 17 total with one Pristine 10 and one Gem Mint 10.

The Pokémon Company made an error when they printed Magikarp. It was supposed to be a common card with a black circle in the bottom right corner, but they initially printed it as an uncommon card with a black diamond instead. A subtle but important detail for collectors! 

Print run data is hard to come by for the EX era so it’s not known how many uncommon Magikarp were printed but they fixed the error and reprinted the card as a common like it was supposed to be. 

As a result, you need four Magikarp for the master set: the error rarity and its reverse holo variation, plus the corrected rarity and its reverse holo. When I saw the population report, I was convinced it would be the card that might escape me!

I have a bunch of different app alerts set up on my phone to tell me when new high grade EX FireRed & LeafGreen cards become available. I’d been out one night and was travelling home; I opened my alerts to see what new cards were available and a seller had listed both the Pristine 10 and the Gem Mint for sale! I couldn’t believe they both entered the market at the same time!

I immediately bought the Gem Mint copy and told a fellow EX FireRed & LeafGreen collector about the Pristine copy who snapped it up. It was great to tick off the rarest card so unexpectedly. 

How has the CGC Cards Registry helped with your collecting goals? 

I love the CGC Cards Registry; it’s really driven me in my quest to complete the EX FireRed & LeafGreen Master Set. 

I’m a competitive person and when I first began adding my submission returns and saw my set climbing up the leaderboard, that’s when I set myself the goal of having the best Ex FireRed & LeafGreen collection.

The Registry has also put me in contact with fellow collectors. I was able to buy some of the previous best set owners’ collection when he sold it. There is another collector on the Registry who is my competition for slabs, trying to get Pristine 10 copies of everything that enters the market. I’ve made contact with him and he’s someone that drives my pursuit to finish the master set.

And finally, if money was no object, what cards would you most like to add to your collection? 

No doubt, it would be the Pop 1 Pristine 10 copy of 108 Ex Gengar. It came on the market last year and was sold privately. It was valued at $15k, which is way out of my price range!

The Ex era gave us our first Ex cards which have become a staple of Pokémon TCG. Way before Secret Illustration Rares and Illustration Rares and Ultra Rares, these were the chase cards everyone wanted. There are 12 Ex Holo cards in the Ex FireRed & LeafGreen set including the iconic Charizard, Blastoise, Venusaur — I’d ultimately love all of them in Pristine 10!

About CGC

Since revolutionizing comic book grading in 2000, CGC has grown to include certification services for a vast variety of pop culture collectibles. These divisions include CGC Cards, CGC Video Games and CGC Home Video. CGC Cards provides expert card grading for sports cards, TCGs and non-sports cards. CGC Video Games is dedicated to video game grading for the most popular consoles, including Nintendo, Sega, Atari, PlayStation and more. CGC Home Video provides expert VHS grading in addition to other types of videocassettes, DVD, Blu-ray and more. CGC also offers seamless solutions for autograph collectors with CGC Signature Series and JSA Authentic Autograph services.

CGC is part of the Certified Collectibles Group, a global provider of expert and impartial authentication and grading services for collectibles. Since 1987, the Certified Collectibles Group companies have certified more than 100 million collectibles, including coins, banknotes, comic books, cards, autographs and stamps.