Why are you holding onto or collecting ?

[gustomania]

First and foremost because its sooo much fun, but wasnt always that way for me TBH.

I collected as a kid in the mid 80s up to about 1991. Loved it, was cheap and had a huge worthless collection. Then in 2012 picked it up again and it was about value, grading and totally stressed me out.

It took me until about Nov/Dec of 2019 to scale back my approach to something now where I pick up a few cards here and there and focus only on Koufax...............

The silver lining is I now found my nitch where I usually am just enjoying the cards I have and add a few here and there but no stress, just the love of collecting.

I used to think I had to have everything, now I'm content with simply having fun and keeping a modest budget. Actually the budget is so modest I dont even pay attention to it anymore.

So, I now I'm back to having fun and honestly appreciating what I do have rather than what is next and what I need (which was a vicious cycle of not really caring what I already had, hence no enjoyment).

The hardest part of my lessons above was scaling back and selling, because everything I had trouble letting go of. Now I know I did the right thing, its no longer about value or not buying a card because its $5 too high, I simply buy what I want when I want and just enjoy what I have.

My two cents anyway............the hobby for many years was a crutch and found a way to enjoy collecting again.

[egri]

I collect because I enjoy the history of the game, and it's a way for me to connect with players I never saw in person. While I'm glad that the rising prices over the past year mean that my collection is worth several times what I paid for it, I won't complain if a correction means I can pick up the ones I still need at more reasonable prices.

[JollyElm]

Collecting baseball cards is in my blood. There is no other way to explain it. My older brothers got me started, so a lot of it takes me back to the 'good old days,' but if I was ever asked, "Why, specifically, do you collect cards?" I wouldn't have a concrete answer. It is just a part of my DNA. Perhaps one day Ancestry.com will be able to isolate this cardboard gene.

Like everyone else, the crazy upsurge in pricing has (in theory, because I rarely sell anything) benefitted me while also kicking me in the ass. Were I to sell some stuff (which I'm debating), I could make a nice piece of change, but on the flipside, the stupid runaway prices have made it impossible to pick up anything 'new' unless I sold something else (that I don't want to get rid of) to be able to pay for it. This saddens me. And then you gotta throw in the ole "Why sell my Mantles today, when next week they'll be worth twice as much??" scenario.