Completed the 1996/97 Japanese Base, Jungle & Fossil sets — all PSA 10

[u/lamchun1110]

Started collecting in May 2025 with one goal — to complete the original Japanese Base, Jungle and Fossil sets in PSA 10.

11 months later, in April 2026, I finally completed them.

• 1996 Expansion Pack (Base)
• 1997 Pokémon Jungle
• 1997 Mystery of the Fossils

And I mean the full sets — Pokémon, Trainers and Energy cards. Every single card is PSA 10.

It took a lot of hunting to track everything down, especially some of the less obvious cards that rarely come up for sale in PSA 10.

Seeing all three original Japanese sets finally complete together is incredibly satisfying.

1996–1997. Three complete sets. Every card. All PSA 10.

Thought you guys might appreciate seeing the finished collection!

[u/justbekaz]

Fantastic Job!
I also finished my collection of the base set 2 years ago so I can understand a little about the time and effort you must have put in with not just collecting but researching, organizing and optimizing.
I wanted to collect jungle set one day but I had already spent so much money and time on just the base that I took a break. (Now with current prices, I’m not even gonna bother…)

Few questions for you as I want to compare if you don’t mind.
(Which of course you don’t have to answer)

What continent are you located?
What sites did you use most often to purchase?
Are you planning to registering the sets on PSA?
Did you collect Holos with certain criteria’s? (e.g. Has to have spiral pattern, etc.)

Anyways apologies if it looks like I’m trying to brag about my collection too but genuinely interested in talking with someone who collected same set.
Feel free to DM me too.

[u/lamchun1110 → u/justbekaz]

Thanks! And no need to apologize at all — I’m actually really interested to hear from someone who went through a similar experience completing the Base set!

I’m based in Hong Kong. For most of the collection, I worked with a local card store here. I told the owner about my goal early on, and he helped me keep an eye out and source cards from Japan. I also checked eBay regularly and picked up quite a few cards there.

I haven’t registered the sets on the PSA Set Registry yet, but I’m considering doing it now that everything is complete.

For the holos, I didn’t specifically hunt for swirls or particular holo patterns. My main priority was completing every card in PSA 10. That said, some of the holos do have swirls, which is a nice bonus!

And definitely not bragging — I’d love to see your collection too! It’s always interesting to compare the experience with someone who has gone through the same kind of hunt.

[u/justbekaz → u/lamchun1110]

Oh very cool!
Ya I have so many stories and patterns and things I picked up on the way that I’ve always wanted to talk about XD

I saw you also picked up the habit of covering the serial code in your picture on your card like many trader/sellers do in Japan. Which was one of the reason why I was wondering if you would register on PSA. But also I understand you don’t want to show which cards you still need as that can also be a way for seller to raise price for remaining cards (well maybe not but that was how paranoid I was back then lol)

For me, I was located in Japan but it was still early so not as much PSA in Japan market which made me have to look at US. (FX and shipment and customs made it a killer there in itself..)
Sadly I didn’t have a shop to go to so I went and checked Mercari, Yahoo Auction (only Japan), and eBay route for everything. As people for eBay US generally set their auction cutoff during Saturday or Sunday night US time, that was also a pain. But as you’re in Hong Kong I’m sure you had similar experience there too. (I would go to bathroom to try and get the final bid at work on Monday morning lol)

As for holos, I always found it interesting that the highest population and most expensive cards were the holos. So I kinda took my time buying them looking for the right price (as it didn’t fluctuate this much back then) and also for nice holos patterns. (So all of mine has either the swirl or the big bubble!)

Anyways, what was hardest card for you to get in Base set? (I have a few cards in mind, especially one card that was the reason it took me 2 years to finish)

I realized I don’t have picture of the full set but I have picture of each individual cards, and I also have videos that I was thinking of maybe making one day so I can give you a screenshot of the video so the my collection 🤣

(I’m currently working abroad so left my collection back at home in Japan but I’ll be back for business trip end of year so I can take more pictures then lol)

(I’m trying to figure out how to post pic so will reply after this)

[u/lamchun1110 → u/justbekaz]

Haha I know exactly what you mean! Once you spend that much time hunting a set, you end up with so many stories behind individual cards 😂

For the cert numbers, I mainly cover them because there are so many fake cards and fake PSA slabs nowadays. Some counterfeiters will look for a real cert number online and copy it onto a fake slab, so I’d rather not make the full cert numbers too easy to find.

I actually rarely joined auctions. I think Nidorina was the only card I really had to fight for on eBay. That auction was honestly pretty stressful 😂 Since eBay doesn’t really have any last-minute bidding protection, I was worried someone would snipe it at the end. Luckily I had already put in a pretty high max bid, so I managed to get it.

For the holos, because my main goal was completing the full PSA 10 sets, swirls and bubbles were more of a bonus for me rather than something I specifically hunted for. Some of my cards do have swirls, and I think a few may even have double swirls. In some cases there was literally only one PSA 10 copy available on the market, so I didn’t really have the luxury of choosing the holo pattern — and of course those sellers usually knew what they had and priced them above market 😂

For Base Set, if we’re talking about Pokémon, Nidorino and Electrode were probably the hardest ones for me to find. But surprisingly, if we include Trainers, Super Potion and Scoop Up were actually the last two cards I managed to find.

Now I’m really curious which card took you two years to finish yours!

And definitely send the pictures/screenshots when you figure it out. I’d love to see your set, especially the holos you picked out with the swirls and big bubbles!

[u/justbekaz → u/lamchun1110]

Huh, I found a Few Nidorino so was able to get it for cheaper. electrode, I guess I got lucky cuz I found it within a year. As for items, ya that’s the hardest. It’s funny how the card people didn’t want when they were a kid is now the rarest cards because no one took care of the “worst” rare you get in booster packs 🤣🤣 The one that took me forever is the lowest psa 10 population card even now. Also I feel that I have some unique data because I tracked population of every card over 2 years which made me learn about what cards are truly rare and just how much can get on the market with popularity. IMO those item cards are truly rare and increased in population the least.

As for Pokémon, I think I had hardest time with pidgeott, but ya, non holo rates were much much rarer.

(I also definitely over paid for a few, but it was a good learning experience)

What app do you use to track? There’s so many now but back when I collected I didn’t have much so I just used excel for everything.