I've never played the game with cards or Pokemon go, and never collected the cards. However, I did really enjoy watching the old show when I was kid. My brother was really into collecting the cards (first gen) years ago, and had several books. He recently gifted these books to my 8 year old who is really into Pokemon now. My son loves showing these books of "Vintage Pokemon" as he calls them to his friends. This really really cracks me up lol.