A few years back, there were these cards...

 

That's my ordinary "playing deck"out in front.  The book is open to Charizard.  The collection has grown since that photo.

As of the later part of 1999 and throughout much of 2000, I built a large collection of Pokemon Trading Cards--U.S. Basic, Jungle and Fossil from Wizards of the Coast.  The card count as of 15 July 2001 was 3365 (W.O.T.C.), with 503 in a collection binder and the rest in 7 Pokémon Cardboxes and 2 playing decks.  The whole set weighs about 20 pounds.  I have completed my sets of the 3 series of trading card game cards sold in 1999, plus accumulated a random assortment of 1st Edition, Japanese, and Topps Chewing Gum cards.  I have found a great many on ebay.com auctions, since my encounters with traders in real life are somewhat rare.  I have not had much interest in collecting any of the newer cards, since I invariably end up wanting to "catch them all".  Now comes the period of careful storage that makes for a real collectible, such as the stack of 225 Wacky Packages stickers I found a few years back.  I've also given a few hundred away as gifts; there were once about 3700 in my set.

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My personally-built Pokémon Deck 

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Characters:

3--Charmander 46/102
2--Charmeleon 24/102
3--Ponyta 60/102
3--Rhyhorn 61/64
3--Machop 52/102
1--Machoke 34/102
2--Diglett 47/102
2--Eevee 51/64
1--Pidgey 57/102
1--Doduo 48/102
1--Tauros 47/64
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22 Character cards

Trainers:

2--Switch 95/102
2--Potion 94/102
1--Gust of Wind 93/102
1--Bill 91/102
1--Energy Removal 92/102
1--Energy Retrieval 81/102
1--Pokédex 87/102
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9 Trainer cards

Energy:

14--Fighting Energy 97/102
13--Fire Energy 98/102
2--Double Colorless Energy 96/102
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29 Energy cards