PokéPortal was started in 2024 from a love of everything Pokémon. 

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I’m Stew, the owner of PokéPortal and along with my partner, Beth and Daughter, Amelia we wanted to start making content and a full time living from something we love and enjoy. 

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I started collecting Pokémon in 1999 along with everyone else and was hooked from the word go! 

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I remember being on holiday to Disney Land, Florida, and picking up my first booster packs of base set unlimited thinking I was all that and that none of my friends would have any when I got back to school a few weeks later. Little did I know that Pokemon fever had officially hit the UK at that time, and by the time I returned, everyone had some.

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Over the coming years, I would continue to collect cards and take part in local TCG competitions, meeting new and likeminded kids that were also obsessed with the hobby. This was my first glimpse into the community that came with the card game, something I’d again years later. 

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Fast forward to 2023, just after lock down as everyone was coming back into the office. One of my colleagues had started collecting Pokemon cards after seeing how much the prices had sky rocketed during the covid pandemic. After almost 20 years away from the hobby, I was sold straight away and rekindled the excitement I had years ago. 

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I got straight over to my parents that evening, found all my old Wizards of the Coast cards packed at the back of the attic. All still in great condition! So I bought more. I started researching new sets and what was hot and what wasn’t. And the hobby started again. ​

This time, was with my daughter Amelia. We’d been playing Pokemon go for a while together, and now we had a new hobby we could work on together. We both love organising, cataloging our collections, and waiting to see what we’ll pull next. ​

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As with all collectors in the trading card space, duplicates and bulk are a nightmare. I decided to start selling and trading anything I could to be able to get more cards. I started our eBay store and picked up some traction. I really enjoyed the communication between other collectors in the space. What they wanted, what they needed and how I could help them. The feeling of getting people the cards they wanted was as good of a feeling as it was collecting myself. 

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So I thought why not take this a step further and take my day job working for an e-commerce business selling construction materials and put the knowledge I’ve learnt there and apply it to Pokémon?

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So here we are. 25 years later after picking up a tiny pack of shiny cardboard in Florida, to opening a Pokémon TCG business with my family!

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I hope we’re able to bring you as much joy as collecting the Pokémon TCG has brought us over the years! 

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Stew

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PokéPortal