Originally Posted by Leon (Post 2225201)

Please don't become a financial planner.
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Originally Posted by G1911 (Post 2225236)

Ever spent money on a vacation? Ever gone out for drinks? Bought a non-collectible book? I'm sure some people do not spend any money on things that are just for fun, money that they will not get back out of what they spent on that fun, but there are not many of them.

One can spend a little money on the things they enjoy sometimes without being financially irresponsible. Far, far more of my income goes into savings and investment than it does into hobbies. It's okay to enjoy life a little bit along the way; not everything is an investment.

I understand most of you here are investing via cards, and that's awesome. More power to you. Enjoy it. I've never once criticized anyone for taking this approach.

Originally Posted by G1911 (Post 2224605)

I would pay $200 for a 1989 Fleer common, if it's resell value was $0, I collected 1989 Fleer, and I could not readily buy it for one penny.

There's not caring about value, in that I do not care (actually I do care, I actively wish for it to happen) if my collection becomes worth $0 and I 'lose' (I've already budgeted it as a 100% loss) all the money I've put into it. Being a complete idiot and buying something from seller A for $200 when seller B has it available for a penny is a separate thing from caring about the value of my collection. That's being a complete idiot, because it is easily available for less basically free.

I want my collection to lose value. I want it to become worth nothing. Then my $200 could buy me more cards that I derive personal enjoyment from collecting. I don't care about the monetary value, cards are where my beer money goes. I'm not selling, so my collection's value is meaningless to me.

And yes, I have done trades where I have lost a lot of monetary value. If I can swap $$$ cards for cards that I would enjoy more and are not readily available for less, I'll do it. I've swapped much more expensive baseball cards for tougher boxing cards that don't come to market much but are worth little.

It's a hobby for me. My approach is no better than anyone else's, nor have I ever stated or insinuated it is. In fact, in measurable ways, my method is worse than other peoples; I'm sure to take a 100% loss on every purchase. But it quite obviously does exist as an approach, I find it weird people are saying that what I am doing simply does not exist at all as an approach. It quite evidently does.

Originally Posted by Leon (Post 2225312)

Actually, I was just joking around. I do go on vacations.
As long as you are having fun, in whatever way you are collecting, then it's all good.
I do other things for entertainment too. I have lots of dogs and they are entertaining. I am sure I spend way too much on them.

Originally Posted by homerunhitter (Post 2224183)

Has anyone ever got to a point in their collecting where they thought, why even collect all this cardboard because in the end you can’t take it with you! So why collect? Just curious to everyone’s thoughts on this.