For me, I (almost) totally stopped buying new stuff (Topps) around 2012. A few years after that, I got rid of (almost) all of my post 1980 cards and am working on going backwards from there and moving those out. The plan is until I start having a really hard time letting something go. It's hard for a collector to do that, but I found I haven't missed what I moved out so far.
I was always a set builder, and still work on putting vintage sets together, but I'm also a "that looks really cool" collector and buy that way as well, with no 'set' intentions. I found that to keep my toes in the water for modern cards that still have that retro feel, I will put together Giants team sets for each year. My modern cards of choice for this are the Topps Heritage. There are some well designed modern releases out there, but to me it's too much of a good(?) thing, so I keep my focus narrowed to these, with the occasional pack pick-up when I need a fix, or possibly a box buy when it is dirt cheap.
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