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I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. Pokemon was huge here even before the media took notice.
The first pack was from a Japanese grocery store. It was the only place I could find after talking with friends. I paid seven dollars in singles.
After that, prices went insane. There was a huge demand. My local comic shop was selling them for 12 dollars. They also had single cards for sale.
Prices started to drop once big box retailers started carrying them. After that, I think the most I paid was 8 bucks for a Japanese Rocket set booster. I was the first kid in school with Rocket cards. Everybody else had Japanese Jungle and Fossil.
There was another shitstorm when the Jungle set came out. The comic and card shops would only sell people two packs at a time.
The only other crazy things that happened after that were the Southern Islands cards and the Gashapon 4-card-sheets showing up in random places.
It was a crazy and cool time to be alive.
