Many things about collecting Pokemon cards can either be stressful or a hassle. Buying cards, primarily through sealed products, is not always the most accessible option. However, there is usually a golden alternative in buying single cards. More specifically, the therapeutic nature of sifting through card bulk bins at a local card shop.
Card Bulk Bins Are Therapy
Experiencing peace and quiet, or finding a place where the mind can wander and rest,is absolutely mandatory. Life is often stressful enough as it is, regardless of what is going on specifically. As a Pokemon collector, the refuge into our cardboard collection often checks a lot of stress relief boxes. It is soothing, fun, allows us to lose hours of our time, et cetera.
Filling up that Pokemon TCG collection, however, can be a different matter. Sealed products can be very expensive – especially close to the release date – pricing a lot of people out of the market. That is why so many people resort to buying single packs or foreign sets. Japanese sets, while vastly superior, have gone up in price tremendously too.
Thankfully, there are other alternatives. Cheaper foreign sets, like Chinese, Korean, or even Indonesian, are all good examples. However, nothing compares to sorting through Pokemon card bulk bins at your card store. There is such a vast supply of cards, spanning different sets, years, and languages.
Going through my local card shop’s bulk bins taught me something important. Not only is this fun to do, but it is also hours of free entertainment. But that is not all, you learn more about cards you may have missed or forgotten about. Artist patterns began to emerge, allowing you to look at a bin differently. It is very therapeutic, for various reasons.
Free Entertainment and Lots of Fun
Even though I have been standing up for 2 hours straight, I don’t even feel tired. This is probably not related to Pokemon itself, but rather doing something you enjoy with low cognitive load required. Although you see a lot of names and images, these things are fairly easy to process for the brain. As such, it is a lot more relaxing than one might think at first.
To me, sorting through Pokemon bulk bins is very entertaining. I rarely look for specific pocket monsters or artists. Heck, I’m not even sticking to one set or one language either. If I see a cool card, I buy it, and I turn it into content involving my personal collection. There is a lot you can do with “bulk”, whether your own or someone else’s.
Having gone through the ones in top loaders in sleeves, I now have a second major boss to face. More specifically, this shop has a seated area where there are moving boxes full of cards. They are not sleeved nor top loaded, but start at 25 cents.
I am eager to see what gems I can uncover here. The shop is open for another 2.5 hours, and I have nowhere to be…..
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