Should you collect English Pokemon TCG cards?

Unless you live in Japan, most people would have started collecting English Pokemon cards first. They are the most readily available worldwide and in multiple countries.

Some European countries follow the English set and release schedules (German, Italian, French, Spanish, Dutch).

Unlike the Japanese booster boxes, English products do not have guaranteed hits per product.

However based on my experience, there is still a general predictable variance you can expect for booster boxes and cases. Unlike what most people say, it's not entirely random. Though there are fringe cases of unofficial "god boxes" which are on the extremely rare.

When I say variance, I mean for example (based on my data), Phantasmal Flames (ME02) booster boxes contain 4 Illustration Rares (IR), and 2-4 Ultra Rares (UR) and 7-8 Double Rares (RR).

Special Illustration Rares and Hyper Rares are much more unpredictable when it comes to loose boxes, however in a single case you can expect at least 2-3 Special Illustration Rares (SIR) and 1-2 Hyper Rares (HR).

This is not consistent from set to set as card rarity and pull rates differ wildly. For example, Paradox Rift (PAR) had considerably lower pull rates compared to previous sets like Paldea Evolved (PAL), which had a Special Illustration Rare in every booster box.

Generally speaking, English Pokemon cards are harder to filter, but it's not impossible.

English Pokemon TCG also includes many different types of sealed products.

For mainline sets for example Surging Sparks (SSP) or Destined Rivals (DRI), there are usually booster boxes, booster bundles, sleeved booster packs, 1 pack blisters with a promo card, 3 pack blisters with promo cards, elite trainer boxes, and tins.

These are generally the more popular products. There are many other types of products such as special collection boxes, knockout boxes, ultra premium collections, etc which may contain a mix of different sets.

Occasionally, there are Holiday sets, which are the English version of "High Class" sets in Japanese. These sets do not have booster boxes, sleeved booster packs and blisters. Instead they typically have booster bundles, elite trainer boxes, mini tins, poster sets, sticker sets and a series of special collection boxes that are released over a few months.

Holiday sets also tend to have a chance of pulling a "god pack", which is a pack with more than 1 hit in them. For example a god pack in 151 (MEW) would be a booster pack with one of starter's evolution line in it. You can get a Charmander and Charmander IR and a Charizard SIR in a single pack.

(Note that types of sealed products are not consistent from set to set.)

Because it is slightly more difficult to pull hits in English sets, and the quality control is generally worse, English cards tend to have a higher market price than Japanese cards.

Error cards and misprints are relatively common and niche collectors may pay a premium for these.

Also, many people resort to different methods to filter out packs with hits, from weighing to using metal detectors and even CT scanners.

For the more modern sets from Brilliant Stars onwards, The Pokemon Company has used different methods to prevent packs from being weighed to some degree of success. However, because God Packs contain more hits than the average pack, they may be weighable.

For example, a Prismatic Evolutions god pack contains 1 holo energy, 1 Pokeball or Masterball holo, and 8 eeveelution SIRs. That means the god pack is much heavier than the others, and can be easily weighed and filtered.

Because most people don't really care about sealed products and collection boxes, a common tactic from sellers is that they will open these collection boxes, take out the booster packs, and sell them individually. Because the variance on these products are much harder to tell, and therefore much harder to filter, some people don't mind purchasing loose packs.

If you trust your source, purchasing loose packs is an acceptable practice for English Pokemon TCG.

Another benefit of English Pokemon cards is that playable cards can be sold for a premium because some people, believe it or not, actually play the card game competitively or casually.

So even though some cards may not be considered "hits" to collectors, they may still have some value to players of the TCG.

End of the day, there are benefits to collecting English Pokemon cards even if you do not play the game. They are more widely available and have a bigger pool of buyers should you decide to sell your collection.

And if you like being able to read what's on the card (and you don't understand Japanese), then English cards are a plus.

Next: Where to find cards and products in Singapore