General Forum

Hey all, as much as I do enjoy trading on this site I find myself thumbing through the Ebay listings every day (or at least every other day) as an enjoyable activity. There's something in me that can't resist a deal and/or a curiosity, so I probably end up buying more cards than intended over the course of a week or month. Admittedly, seeing a package arrive, opening its contents and sorting them is something I look forward to, which I can certainly say works with trades as well. However, I know that this is adding up financially and is probably taking up more space than I intended when I got back into the hobby in August '20.

Has anyone here set a budget for him or herself? Is there a cap on how many cards you take in per week/month? Anybody else look at their collection and think 'ahhh, maybe I should ease up a bit'?

I definitely have a card budget and I am also guilty of exceeding it for similar reasons as you mentioned above.  I'm taking October off from buying and it's been a healthy decision. It was pretty hard the first week but now it's not difficult.  I don't have a cap on trades per se but my stamps and other packing materaisl I need do factor into my budget.  

best of luck to you!

I usually stay pretty focused on PC when searching ebay, and so have a good sense of worth for cards I'm watching.  FOMO will tend to stretch my budget a bit if several cards I'm looking for pop up at once, but I make sure to keep myself in check on things that are regularly available.

PS - Group breaks are fun, but dangerously addictive. Watch your spending if you ever go down that path!

No budget, but no real desire to go out and break the bank for anything. I started in the hobby as a (relatively) poor 8-year-old, whi was simply thrilled to get a pack here and there. When I became a teen and started going to card shows, I learned the art of price negotiation (more or less out of necessity - if I wanted something, I had to get it at the lowest possible price). Plus, since I worked for a card shop starting at age 11, I was used to getting pretty good deals there.

The hobby has remained a "budget collection" for me. Do I spend some cash here and there? Of course. But do I drop scads ever? No. I am the one who will buy three cards from a seller on Sportlots individually because I can use seller loot on purchases 2 & 3 and because the single card shipping was 60 cents, while 2-4 cards was $2.50 - and I sat I figured all that out before buying three 18-cent cards. So, there are no worries from the the other potentially-affected members of the household that I'll spend too much if I do decide to spend some money on cards. (I guess, in other words, you could call me cheap - or frugal - with my purchases.)

My collecting is pretty self-fundng.  I'll buy lots and flip the duplicates or cards I don't want to make my money back (or more) and keep the extras.  My real investment is the time I put into collecting, not the money.  It helps that I don't collect expensive cards.

No real budget but I do watch what I spend.  Fortunately with trading on this site, I don't have to go to ebay to get cards.  I also watch local online auctions, marketplace and online classifieds for possible deals.  If vintage comes available then I do spend more but on the new stuff, it really has to be a good deal. And yes, the cost of postage is part of the consideration but at least for that, I am getting specific cards I need for my collection instead of bulk cards I may or may not need.

My basic rule is only one buy at a time in process on Ebay, etc. Until the mail arrives, I can't buy again. My only stretch would be a couple cards or lots from the same seller.

I do work with a budget, but I try to only buy for my specific, obscure obsession collection.  If I try to buy every card out there for my PC, that would be unrealistic.  If I stick to buying the 'Hard to find', then I think I am saving money.   I think...

I seem to be allergic to budgets...something I should remedy. I don't cruise Ebay mostly because I'm more of a bargain shopper. I buy collections from online auctions...those 5 row boxes of randomness and shoeboxes of cards. Then I spend weeks digging through it all looking for cards I don't have or improvements on ones I do. I love the mystery of not knowing exactly what's inside. I rarely buy just one card. If I do it's something super special like my '65 Yaz or '72 Mays. I do run out of shelf space in the basement every time I get a big shipment so there's an obstacle course of boxes and binders and supplies all over the place.

The longer I have been collecting the less likely I am to feel the need to go and spend. I pick up a lot of local collections and probably have years worth of cards to sort through. I have very little desire to collect anything new so that helps.I focus mainly on junk era and back. Maybe part of why that works is I'm nearing 54 years old so I have plenty of old stuff to fill my collecting desires.