What are the different .hack card series

[SSJScygoku]

^_^ Howdy there fellow dothackers! Like a vast number of you i've been following .hack since way back in 2004 (or even longer in some cases) though it wasn't till much later I came across the .hack//GIFT set in Forbidden Planet. After which I tried to get ahold of the .hack//Enemy cards seeing as they were fairly cheap on ebay even for full boxes with exception on the promo cards...depending on the seller ofcourse >.>

After that I came across .hack//LINK Victory Spark cards via Rakuten and managed to obtain afew booster boxes however getting all the cards is a challenge as you get 1 holographic card per box with a total of 16 .-. Following the use of yahoo auctions (and ebay) I found afew other card series some of which I did not know existed.

Which brings us to topic of what are the different .hack card series? From what I've seen .hack//Roots has cards in each DVD.
Here is what I've came across so far:

-.hack//Enemy: 5 booster series, 8 decks, GIFT and promo cards (Elk + Mia decks not shown)

-.hack//LINK Victory Spark: 1 booster series with 4 promo card,trial deck including 1 promotional card (Saika) and signed versions of 2 cards. http://vs-tcg.wikidot.com/series:hack

-.hack//G.U. The Card Battle: 84 cards http://dothack.wikia.com/wiki/Card_Battle

-Carddass Masters: These came from .hack//SIGN dvds and have characters on their backs.

-.hack//TC & TCG (Carddass Masters): Released in the same booster pack with 7 cards from each inside.

-.hack AP cards 1-4 + .hack//SIGN 1-5: Came across these in an auction.

[Vallen]

I had no idea other cards existed aside from ENEMY, GU CARDS, and LINK cards
I am currently in the process of collecting all the ENEMY sets and then plan to move on to GU

[SSJScygoku]

I had no idea other cards existed aside from ENEMY, GU CARDS, and LINK cards
I am currently in the process of collecting all the ENEMY sets and then plan to move on to GU

^^' I'd imagine not many people knew about the other cards,mainly because they are japanese only and released around late 2002..well no clue about the AP and .hack//SIGN cards but I'll assume they came out then.

While searching for a checklist for the .hack//TC & TCG I came across a dothack.org blog talking about its release September 2002 http://www.dothack.org/blogs/entry/13-hacktctcg/ along with random posts on sites. So some people knew about it, must have been a conspiracy to keep the intel on the down low @.@

The other carddass master cards forming the pictures are from the .hack//SIGN dvds or so i'm led to believe from listings with them included bundled with the full .hack//SIGN set but screw paying 11,000+ yen. I can only imagine the shipping cost and custom fees o-0

[Vallen]

Yeah collecting cards is expensive if you're a completionist. I find it easier for popular card games like Yugioh since you can always buy single cards you're missing and be done with it, but these niche cards that are long since discontinued are painful to collect, especially if they're Japanese only :I

(that Japanese SIGN set is pretty nice, I like it better than the cheap Funimation release, but it is quite pricy indeed)

[SSJScygoku]

Yeah collecting cards is expensive

^^' you can say that again, with Yugioh you can buy boxes before release and single cards further down the line to tie up loose ends. Heck even getting ahold of cards to start is a pain, even more so when tracking down the few remaining cards.

I'd say FUNimation were going for cheap seeing as the original boxsets have become pricey so gives people the chance to pick them up fast and it takes up little space. Would be nice if all the sets being released matched the Japanese original so we didn't have an issue where we miss OVAs/Specials unless said US/UK box was rare so needed a cheap re-release ^^' xD its pricy before the deputy service, you'd hope everything arrives in good condition.