Avery, known to a large Pokemon audience as Avery the Poke Kid, died on 18 September 2026. He was 12. His parents, Christian Garcia and Rebecca Rosa-Valentin, announced his death that evening on the family's Instagram account, where they had shared his collecting alongside his long illness.
We did not know Avery. We are writing about him because a great many people in this hobby did, and because the last thing his family chose to share with them was a pack opening.
A collector first
What came through Avery's videos was ordinary, recognisable enthusiasm: the wait while a pack is fanned out, the hope for one particular card, the hands going to the face when something rare actually turns up. He posted across Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and Facebook, to an audience reported at more than 600,000 people in total.
The clearest sign of what that audience made of him came earlier in September 2026. Avery had talked about wanting 100,000 YouTube subscribers; when people heard he was running out of time, enough of them subscribed that he passed it within days, and YouTube sent the Silver Play Button that goes with it. He got to see it happen.
The final pack
On 22 September, four days after his death, Avery's family posted a video to his Instagram account and titled it Avery's final pack. That is how this article describes it too: the video his family shared as his final pack opening. It is their framing, not a claim of ours about the last card he ever held.
In it he opens 30th Celebration packs, and pulls a Jirachi ex special illustration rare.
Jirachi is the wish Pokemon, which is not lost on anyone who has watched the clip. We would rather leave that where it is than make more of it than his family has.
The artist replied
AKIRA EGAWA, who illustrated that Jirachi ex, saw the video and answered it publicly on X. In remarks reported in English, Egawa wrote, “I want my art to bring happiness to people. That's one of the reasons I draw.” and, in a second post, “I'm so deeply moved. I'm so glad I kept drawing. I've honestly been in tears ever since I saw this.”
It is a rare thing for the person who drew a card to learn what it meant to the person who opened it.
From us
This site exists because people enjoy these cards. Avery enjoyed them as openly as anyone, and shared that enjoyment with a lot of strangers who are now thinking about him. Our condolences to his family and to everyone who watched him open packs.