Could somebody please explain Pokemon to me??

[muttleydosomething]

OK, I have reluctantly agreed to buy my son a Pokemon sun and moon pack (as it turns out he's already "trading" at school using god knows what to trade with, as he is only 7 and does not get pocket money).

I am just about persuaded that it will be good for his brain and trading skills, and because he is obsessed already with other people's pokemon, this will not be replacing any prospective obsession with the periodic table or learning Mandarin.

Me and the DF have no idea what it is about because we're too old to have caught it first time round. Do I get him one of those £12 packs off Amazon, or are they a bad deal because they're just full of duplicates and energy thingies? Or do I just buy him booster packs? Do they all have to be from the same series to work together? Where's the best place to get the cards decent value and legit, or doesn't it matter? And how many pokemon decks is too much??

Your kids may be best placed to answer all these questions - except the last one...

Asked my DH for you (he was very excited for his time to shine and utilise two decades of Pokemon card knowledge), his response below ....

In response to the last question, in my experience there doesn't seem to be an enough is enough scenario but on the plus side they're an easy gift add on and they don't take up much space so swings and roundabouts.

If he's 7 and doesn't care about playing the game and just wants cool cards then the £12 will be alright but they will be random and from old sets most likely.

If he really wants to collect sun and moon cards then a sun and moon elite trainer box is probably the coolest present as it comes with sleeves and coins as well as multiple packs. The pull rates from elite trainer boxes are pretty good generally and you get a cool box to keep your cards in too.

Elite Trainer Boxes: www.magicmadhouse.co.uk/pokemon-c1250/elite-trainer-box-t1045

Thankyou Cassiopeia, and so glad your DH could help. This is all really useful info, just what I needed. I'm ordering him one of those boxes for Christmas...

Chaos cards is another good place to get boxes from. Ds doesn't really trade cards but has a really big collection

Trading is simply trading cards, nothing to do with money. Pokemon as a card game has been very popular since the 90s, very family-friendly and good for children.

(Cracks knuckles) Finally years of absorbing DPs love of Pokemon (he’s a grown ass man and still my house is covered in children’s card games) has come in handy!

Magic madhouse and chaos cards are wonderful online shops for booster packs and singles (if DS is wanting to build up his collection singles are the better option). They also tend to be much better priced than Waterstones though the best option is always going to be a nerdy type shop such as Travelling Man or Geek Retreat or something similar if you have one near by (just about any nerdy comic book cafe or such will most likely sell them) as they tend to see booster packs on deals such as 3 for £10 and that goes for older and brand new packs. If DS does get multiples from trainer boxes and such, if they’re shiny check the price on eBay, if they are an EX monster (says so in big letters on the corner of the card) definitely check on eBay as some of those goes for £10/20 each. And if he gets bored...Chuck then on eBay as a bundle and get your hard earned cash back!

If you are lucky enough to have a nerdy cafe near by see if they have a junior league so that he can learn to play the ACTUAL card game rather than just trading amongst friends as it requires maths and strategy much like chess and then the cards are played with not just traded and left to clutter your house

There’s no such thing as too many card game decks, I’ve asked, I would show you a picture of DPs card game shelf but I’m too embarrassed as there are too many...

Good luck

Thankyou people. This has been great stuff! It's good to find out that Pokemon is much more sophisticated than the usual trading card game, SailorBean. (And there seem to be all sorts of Sun and Moon elite trainer packs out there, so presumably we will have the same issues we've had with lego, but, as has been noted, taking up less space...)