[jb217676]

You'll never have the worst collection, you'll never have the best collection, we all fall somewhere in the middle. Trying to achieve a collection above your income level is foolish and will lead to financial ruin and lost friendships over broken deals. Sounds like you need to diversify. Instead of just buying cards, sell some too. I have a few things I like to do when my $ is tight: sell a card to buy a card, keeps me in the "action". I also look for groups of cards to buy, keep one, sell the rest. If I make a little bit of $ on the deal I put the profit towards new cards. Heck, I'll sell cards in my driveway if the weather's nice!