Welcome to Vol. 4, issue 6 of Johto Times! Today’s issue focuses on something extremely special to me: the completion of the Southern Islands collection, a Pokémon Trading Card Game set I have wanted since it was first announced in the early 2000s, and what I consider to be the Holy Grail of my collection.

I’m also very happy to announce that Johto Times now has a Links page, listing over 140 different Pokémon fansites, shrines, collections, browser games, resources, and more! It’s something I have wanted to have on our website for a while, and I am thankful to everyone who helped. Many of these websites deserve to be seen, so I hope that our readers will take some time to check each of them out by visiting the Links page, which we will continue to maintain and update. You’re also welcome to suggest some to us through this forum thread.

Finally, we are currently conducting a daily poll to determine our readers’ favourite starter Pokémon. You can follow its progress here! As usual, we also have a recap of the latest Pokémon news.

Pokémon Pokopia has sold over four million units in just six weeks after its release

GENERAL

• Nintendo's annual financial report has provided updated sales figures for recent Pokémon games. Pokémon Pokopia had sold over 4 million units five weeks after release, with 2.41 million units sold outside of Japan, while the Switch 2 versions of FireRed & LeafGreen had sold over 4 million units six weeks after release. Updated sales figures for other recent games include Legends: Z-A at 12.79 million, with 3.94 million being Switch 2 versions, Scarlet & Violet at 28.28 million (up from 27.61 million copies in September 2025), and Sword & Shield at 27.16 million (up from 26.96 million). The report also announced that the price of the Switch 2 console will be increased to ¥59,980 in Japan on May 25th, 2026, and to $499.99 USD in the United States and €499.99 in Europe on September 1st, 2026.

Source: March 2026 Financial Result

• A Nintendo Switch 2 bundle that comes with a full game download of Pokémon Pokopia will be released on June 5th, 2026 in Australia and New Zealand.

Source: Nintendo Store

• The National Trust, a UK-based conservation agency, has announced a Pokémon TCG Mega Evolution Trails event starting on May 23rd, 2026, and running until September 6th, 2026. This event aims to bring people to walking trails around the UK: "Seek out the 10 Mega Evolution Pokémon and complete fun challenges. Each challenge is inspired by the abilities of the Pokémon, whether that's speed, strategy, focus or bravery. You'll get a Trail sheet to help you find your way, showing you all of the trail points, you'll also get to take a photo in front of the Mega Evolution Pokémon backdrop at the end." Several possible Trails are listed.

Source: National Trust

• Pokémon Thailand has announced that Pokémon Center BANGKOK will be opening in the shopping mall centralwOrld in 2026, with an opening ceremony featuring Pikachu dressed in traditional Thai costumes.

Source: Pokémon Thailand

POKÉMON TCG

• The fifth main expansion of the Mega Evolution block, Pitch Black, will be released on July 17th, 2026. Pitch Black primarily consists of the Japanese Abyss Eye expansion and features 84 cards in its base set, including Mega Zeraora ex, Mega Chandelure ex, and Mega Excadrill ex, with Mega Darkrai ex as the headlining Pokémon.

Source: Pokémon

POKÉMON GO

• Mega Mewtwo X and Mega Mewtwo Y have been announced as the featured Super Mega Raid Bosses at GO Fest 2026. It was also announced that Pokémon who have two different Mega Evolutions, such as Mewtwo, will require a different Mega Energy for each Mega Evolution going forward, and that the Mega Level progression for each Mega Evolution will be tracked separately. GO Fest: Tokyo runs May 25th until June 1st, GO Fest: Chicago runs June 4th through June 7th, and GO Fest: Copenhagen runs June 11th through June 14th, with GO Fest: Global taking place on July 11th and 12th, 2026. During GO Fest: Global, Mewtwo caught from Mega Mewtwo X Super Mega raids will know the Fast Attack Counter, while Mewtwo caught from Mega Mewtwo Y Super Mega raids will know the Charged Attack Psystrike.

Source: Pokémon Go Blog

Feature: Southern Islands Collection, My Holy Grail

In 2026, I finally obtained something that I consider to be the Holy Grail item: a complete Pokémon TCG Southern Islands Collection. This is something I have wanted ever since it was announced in the early 2000s, when I first saw it online. Fast forward a quarter of a century later, and that goal has been achieved!

---

I don’t quite remember the website I visited back then, but Serebii (screenshot from 2001) is certainly a possibility! It’s likely one of the places I saw these cards for the first time.

I remember browsing the Internet in school one day back in 2001, visiting various Pokémon websites as usual. I don’t recall if it was on Serebii or Pokémon Elite 2000, but I remember reading about an upcoming Pokémon TCG set called “Southern Islands Collection”. The eighteen-card collection was going to be released in its own binder, bundled with six postcards and three booster packs (two from Neo Discovery and one from Neo Revelation). Around this time I was already heavily collecting the Neo expansions, so I was immediately hooked at the thought of more cards. This set seemed special to me; it had beautiful artwork, great-looking cards, and those Pokémon looked like they were relaxed and having fun! I really don’t know why it appealed to me so much; all I knew is that I wanted it so badly!

Unfortunately, after searching the usual stores where I bought Pokémon cards and many other similar outlets, I couldn’t find one. As the months passed, I eventually gave up on the idea of owning it and forgot about it. After the next expansion, which was Neo Destiny, I gave up on collecting Pokémon cards, at least at the time.

Over the years that followed I would see Southern Islands Collection pop up online in people’s collections, and for sale in various online marketplaces. As a sensible (debatable) adult, and someone who was rather frugal with his spending, I just couldn’t justify it. When I did get tempted to purchase it, there was usually something missing, or badly damaged, such as the outer sleeve. On one occasion, I saw an English folder that had Japanese cards inside it instead!

Despite this, I hoped I would find one cheap in a shop someday, or at a carboot sale (also known as a yard sale). Back in 2024, I attended a toy fair and found a stall which was selling many of the cards individually. It was the first time I had seen the cards up close for real, and it reignited my determination to track down a complete folder with all of the cards at some point. While I was tempted to purchase the cards individually there at the toy fair, ignoring their eye-wateringly inflated prices, I knew that owning the complete product was what I truly wanted the most.

I was so shocked to find any sign of the Southern Islands Collection in the wild, so I couldn’t quite believe my luck when I found its folder with inserts and postcards for just thirty pounds!

On July 24th, 2025, I was visiting a trading card store with a friend, which was selling graded Southern Islands cards for, in my opinion, a ridiculous price. I have made no secret of my distaste for the state of Pokémon TCG collecting in recent years, and I scoffed at the idea of buying them. I expressed my continued disappointment to my friend on how I doubted I could ever afford them. I went on to say that I hadn’t even seen the binder in the wild at this point. Just then, a member of staff overheard the conversation, and I thought to myself that I was going to be given a lecture on why they’ve priced their cards that way. However, I was quite surprised to hear that the staff had taken those cards out of the binder for grading, but had held onto the binder. After overhearing me, they said that the binder itself could be purchased, if I wanted it. I was immediately intrigued and a little excited to see it, so I asked for them to go and get it!

He pulled the binder out from behind the counter, and I was quite surprised to see that it contained everything, including the inserts, sleeves, and all six postcards. Given how much the store was selling the graded cards for, I assumed he was going to ask for £80 or even £100 for the folder alone, so I was quite shocked to hear he would let me purchase the binder for just £30! After thinking it over for a few minutes, I agreed to purchase it.

When I went out that day, I never imagined I would be coming home with a Southern Islands binder, let alone one for such a great price! Considering the climate of Pokémon TCG collecting at that time, it was pretty surreal to only pay that much for it. I think the guy at the store thought I was a complete weirdo when I was getting excited over a binder, and I don’t think it’s a set that is seen to be very exciting by other collectors, or competitively viable by those who played the game back then. But I didn’t care! This was the first step to actually owning the collection for myself, and now the binder was mine!

As soon as I got home, I went straight to eBay to research how much the cards were selling for. As previously stated, given the abhorrent state of Pokémon card collecting and how much trading cards in general were demanding, I knew I would be settling for cards that were less than perfect. I set myself a goal of purchasing the cards for £300, which was about what I had seen the collection sell for about two years prior. I knew I had my work cut out for me if I really wanted to pay that, and knew I would be settling for cards that weren’t in perfect condition. I prayed to almighty Arceus that I could get lucky with a few auctions, and because I enjoy haggling down prices, I hoped I could win some people over.

The challenge to complete the Southern Islands Collection was officially on!

One of my favourite items from this set are the six postcards, which contain all of the artwork present in the eighteen different cards

I acted quite quickly to obtain these cards, which started the following day, July 25th. The holographic Ledyba was the first card I ordered on eBay. This was followed by an Onix on July 27th, and my second holo card Marill on July 28th. Just when I thought I would take a quick break and pace my spending, I saw a few cards from a single seller in great condition. It included Butterfree, Jigglypuff, Ivysaur, Pidgeot, and Mew, the most notable card in the set. I knew that if I wanted to own them, I had to dig deep, and do my best to bring down the price as much as possible.

After a long chat with the seller, and explaining why I wanted to own these cards, he agreed to cut me a deal. The Mew in particular was £80, around half the price it had been selling for at the time in that condition, and was the most I have ever spent on a Pokémon card (at the time of writing).

I slowed things down a little after that, obtaining Lickitung and Slowking in August, Togepi in September, Raticate in October, and Exeggutor in November. In December, I purchased Wartortle and Primeape and obtained the final holographic card from the set, Vileplume.

That left just two cards remaining: Tentacruel and Lapras. By this point, the Southern Islands collection had risen in price across all the cards, and these two remaining cards were becoming unaffordable and out of reach. I decided to extend my search beyond eBay and made an account on Vinted, another online marketplace. There, I discovered both of these cards at a much cheaper price, but unfortunately the Lapras was in extremely poor condition. That being said, the price was exceptionally good, and so I decided to purchase it in the hope that one day I might find one in better condition. On January 17th, the Tentacruel card arrived, and with it, the completion of the Southern Islands Collection!

This Ledyba card was my first step to obtaining the Southern Islands Collection

In total, I spent £329.81 on the individual cards, plus £17.01 in delivery costs. While it is higher than the £300 target, I am very happy, especially due to how much these cards had been increasing in price. I spent more on certain cards, but received deep discounts on others.

Placing the final card into the folder was a great moment, and I spent about fifteen minutes just staring at all the cards together in one place. While I'm sure the cards that were taken from this folder were in a much better condition than the ones I eventually ended up owning, these feel a little more special for some reason. These cards have a history and stories attached to them. For example, the seller who I purchased Mew from told me that he had traded it with a kid in his street, and that he had kept it, along with the other cards I was buying, since he was a kid. Apparently, he was selling them to fund his wedding. I promised him that I would treasure the cards, and he was happy to know they were going to a fellow collector. I even contacted him afterward to confirm that I had completed the collection, and he was happy to hear it!

I can only imagine what happened to the Lapras to cause it to have taken such heavy damage; perhaps it was deliberate? Or maybe it just belonged to a kid who didn’t know better. Either way, it now resides safely inside my folder for many more years to come.

In January 2026, I finally completed the Southern Islands Collection, my holy grail!

It still feels strange to finally own Southern Islands. I occasionally look inside my drawer to remind myself that it is indeed mine. While collectors may seek out some kind of illustrious card worth tens of thousands, or a one-of-a-kind prototype card, this was my holy grail item, one that likely won’t mean much to anyone else except me.

They won’t be sent for grading, and even if they were they wouldn't receive a PSA 10 for their centering. They won’t be going to a reseller who wants to examine them and comment on how much whitening is present on each, and they won’t be put into a slab, within a slab sleeve, within a slab protector, with enhanced protection against ultraviolet rays, so they’ll survive a nuclear explosion. These imperfections are accepted for what they are, and they will simply reside inside their awesome folder, and I'll take them out from time to time and enjoy the pretty art!

For anyone who reads this: I hope you, too, will eventually find the holy grail you seek.