as for pokemon, the shit hit when i was a super youth. like 3rd grade, and 4th grade, also when we were super poor. at that time i lived on the border of the worst schools in the county, and the best most whitest rich schools in the county, and we used my neighbors address to get me in the good schools.
so all my rich white kid friends had everything. binders of pokemon cards, holographic shits everything. i would steal cards, and games and feel shame, playing pokemon blue/red in a giant 1st gen gameboy while they had gameboy colors and shit. i remember at one kids bday party they actually gave out booster packs of cards and i remember thinking wtf this is awesome
but yea they played the show before school as well, so all the stars aligned in that time.
its really just an "I missed out" scenario where i want to buy card packs and shit again. i stopped caring about it when i hit middle school and shit and then later on they added pokemon and other gay shit like wtf there is 151 whats all these extra shits.
but yea i also put this knowledge in the back of my mind @
Fart for if i ever get a time machine. i remember the packs on packs in the checkout of toys are us. just have a little scale and buy all the heavier ones. i wonder if others figured it out back then as well.