Question 1

Who are you ? And what do you do for a living ?

Accepted Answer

Hello ! My name is Dominic Dearlove, I was born in 1996. I'm currently working as a technical writer and live in France. In my free time, I'm a Pokemon collector / nerd.
I've been collecting lots of different Pokemon stuff seriously since February 2015.

Question 2

What's your collecting timeline, what did you start with, where are you now ?

Accepted Answer

2015 : I started off with WotC era TCG sets. Later that year I started collecting all Nidoking, nidorino and male nidoran cards in every language / edition + all items.
2016-2020: Collecting and finishing more and more TCG sets. My Nidoking collection is very full. I discovered a lot of nice vintage Japanese items that I like, but I had to sell to financially be capable to afford the rest of the stuff for my collection. Also started collecting vintage bootleg TCG cards because they are funky. 
2020-2024: I was finding less and less things to add to my Nidoking collection and TCG sets. Also I started earning money since I had finished my studies, that's I went crazyyyyyy into vintage pokemon items including stickers, postcards, rare pokemon center sets (Pokemon cooking club, Search for the red gyarados), magazines, stamps, coins, pokemon channel nice cards....

Question 3

When did you start collecting sticker sets ? and why ?

Accepted Answer

I started collecting sticker sets in 2019, and opened up to all sticker sets I could get my hands on in 2020.

When I started, I was already collecting all Nidoking, Nidorino and Nidoran stickers and selling all the other ones I didn't need to fund my collection as a student. I often regretted selling some stickers and other stuff that I found cool, but couldn't afford to keep. As I got my diploma and started working, my pokemon budget got way bigger, so in 2020 I was able to buy anything I wanted.

What made me go so deep into collect misc. stuff included stickers is that I was fed up with collecting regular TCG sets. I felt trapped into TCG for a long time. As the prices for TCG from 2016 until now spiked, I felt like I was rushing and recklessly spending to try not to miss out on cards I was missing. Starting Early 2021 I decided to dedicate myself to misc. Pokemon stuff and set my TCG collection to the side, so I could collect stuff that I was really attracted to.

Question 4

Why did you start cataloguing the stickers from each set ?

Accepted Answer

The complete set lists hardly even exist unfortunately (and those don't contain the promos etc.). You can find official lists on the back of the Japanese sticker albums (in japanese), they have never been translated and a lot of the sets don't even have official albums. So basically during my collecting, I created an Excel database with all the sets I started collecting over time and discovered 1 by 1 the missing stickers I found. I'm still discovering some stickers even today.

Question 5

What inspired you to create this website ?

Accepted Answer

I've been collecting stickers and random sets of non-tcg pokemon stuff for a few years for my Nidoking collection and seriously during 2020. There's hardly any information on the internet about the basic stickers sets that exist, let alone information about some sets at all !
I've arrived at a point in my sticker collecting where I can actually build this website, so why not give back to the community ?

Question 6

How do you find all these stickers ?

Accepted Answer

I find all my stickers online on random japanese websites. I import them using middleman or personal shoppers services online.

Question 7

How do you complete sticker sets ? in there a specific method ?

Accepted Answer

I would say it's a bit different than collecting TCG sets, as the offer is really random.

Here's my motto : Start big and finish small (don't go taking this out of context now...)
Basically find huge lots of one specific set and start from there.
If you plan on collecting multiple sets it will be easier, as huge sticker lots most of the time contains many different sets !
Unfortunately it will to a point where you'll stop finding new stickers that you're missing in the set/s. It's normal, once you get 90% of the set, the last 10% comes at random times with some luck and perseverance. (You might have to buy a pretty expensive lot just for ONE sticker if you're really determined).

Question 8

How do you store your Sticker collection ?

Accepted Answer

I store my stickers in regular hard cover binders and I use this specific brand of Sticker pages : Hobby Base - 20 Pocket refill pages - Item Code : CAC-BDn82 (You can find those on Amazon.jp and many other websites worldwide. Price average : 5-6 bucks per 12 pages.)
Update 2024 : Unfortunately that brand of 20 pocket pages has been discontinued. I wish to find another good japanese brand. However you can find some pretty good 20 pocket binder pages from a brand called BCW.

I like to use binders that can be customized easily with pocket on the front. That way I can store random sticker sheets or empty booster packs.

Question 9

What scanner do you use ?

Accepted Answer

I use a Epson Perfection V330 Photo. It does the job ! I'd also recommand any other Flatbed Epson Perfection scanners (V550 and V660 are great for PSA slabs by the way).

Question 10

Am I still looking for some stickers or have I completed all sticker sets ?

Accepted Answer

Unfortunately there's probably over 7000 stickers to collect (excluding the pan sticker sets) I'm still missing quite a lot. Also some weird variants, first print runs and single stickers are hard to find sometimes.

In the vintage sets I've completed most sets up until 2001 with a few exceptions in the topsuns sets and 2 stickers missing in the World hobby Fair part 3 set. For the Advanced generation sets i've completed all parts, except for the DX set where I'm missing only a dozen. In the DP era I'm missing about forty stickers to finish the DX set and the +1200 sticker set (Ensky part1 to part13)

If you have any stickers for trade or for sale feel free to send me a message and some pictures !

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