The cards that feel retro to me

I don’t think there is an exact way to define, scientifically speaking, when something becomes retro. When it comes to Pokémon cards, I pretty much think of the ‘yellow border’ era as retro (even though it was only in 2023 when we got our last yellow border set with Crown Zenith!)

After all, the Pokemon TCG did start with yellow borders so there is that connection to the game’s origins.

Furthermore, if you were to look at how things are currently going in the collector’s market, a lot of the yellow-border cards are where there is particular added value, with Common and Uncommon cards as well as the rarer ones.

Since the yellow border era ended and the silver came in, it is a design that no longer gets printed, and that adds to the nostalgia and in turn the retroness.

So which do I prefer: the yellow border or the silver? Well, at first, when they changed over, I still preferred the yellow. I actually don’t think this is necessarily attached to the nostalgia element, but because I think I like how the yellow stands out more. Also, I think it has something to do with the fact that yellow is in the Pokémon logo.

But I do also like the silver borders. It looks good. I wonder if they will change to another border colour at some point? Maybe they should do blue due to the other part of the logo. Or perhaps Pokeball Red.

But yes, the borders are a good way to define an era in the trading cards’ history. I also think that card borders (when they are present, some trading cards have no borders) do make up a distinct part of the design. For example think about Magic: The Gathering’s various borders that have included black, silver and white.

Anyway, yellow or silver it remains a great time to be a Pokemon Card fan (apart from the costs of products and not being able to get any sealed products unless you can prefer somekind of black magic or something!)