Have you ever been really interested in a card, researched, hunted it down, finally purchased it, and then felt kinda apathetic looking at it in hand? This has happened to me quite a few times, most noticeably with graded cards.
How do you connect with your collection? Does owning a card make it less special? Sometimes i feel like clicking a button on eBay, or paying money, isnt a special or unique thing— i didnt really have to do anything exceptional to acquire this card. All i can really do with it is look at it. And you can kind of already do that to your heart’s content on the internet. Personal ownership of the card isnt really required to appreciate and enjoy it. So does owning it make you enjoy it less or more?
Anyway, if anyone has thoughts about this, please share!
Some cards yes but some cards no. I think cards that are surprisingly better in person end up being more magical after buying them and cards that are more lack luster in person can lose their magic.
I echo the sentiment of for some yes others no. There are cards that I still take out and love to just look at them, for others I am aphathetic towards even though at the time I was updating ebay everday waiting for a listing to show up. For the latter ones I honestly think if at the time I had taken even a few days not thinking about them at all I probably would’ve ended up not buying them.
100%
You can sometimes get addicted to the chase and future “Goal-settings”. I know I have caught myself in the act of doing so multiple times. After my latest “Goal” arrives to the door step, I open the package, admire it for a bit, and right back to Facebook or ebay I go. It’s definitely something I think we all struggle with and it is easy to let that desire take control.
Idk how @smpratte has any dopamine releases left after chasing the rainbow and getting to the other side lol
But I would say just keep a checks and balances on it all and don’t be afraid to step away for a while. Pokemon isn’t going anywhere.
Honestly, and this will prob be an unpopular statement, but I feel SEVERELY underwhelmed with 95% of modern cards after getting them in hand. I rarely feel this way with WOTC cards. May be the boomer showing, idk.
I’ve been in this boat many times. Mostly happens with cards I’m not too interested in owning individually, but since they’re a part of a set, they have to be bought if I’m shooting for completion.
The other half of my collection goals are “High end” cards I play with in cube drafts. Think stuff like gold Exeggcute or full art Professor Sycamore. I’ve found as I add premium versions of cards to my cube, I develop an ever greater appreciation for them as I build decks and play. There’s something to be said for nice cards that have a competitive aspect. They almost never lose my interest.
I found putting a lot of attention and time into cards before they even arrive at your doorstep to be quite draining. It’s like watching trailers and/or reading source material right before a movie, some elements of surprise are chipped off by the time you get to properly experience it. Ironically, purchasing with long shipping periods helped me forget and rediscover my interest in those cards
It goes without saying, but if the dopamine hit comes from winning/finding the card and not from actually owning it and spending time looking at it, you may be battling a collecting/shopping addiction. There is a very fine line between having goals and feeling drawn to completing them and pathological behavior that will drain your excitement and finances.
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I would also recommend taking a one-month hiatus from purchasing. It was a breath of fresh air for me. Renewed my interests, helped me to appreciate what I have, saved me money and time, etc.
Yea this is a big one… i think its difficult for multiple reasons. When i buy a game, its easy to understand how to enjoy it. I get to flip through the manual, enjoy the box art, and then play through the actual game. My favourite aspects of my video game collection are the memories i have playing and enjoying those immersive experiences; the music, the feel, the controller, etc. With a card its kinda like… what do i do with this? I have already seen what it looks like. I can view it at some different angles. Its quicker to kinda just end and then stick it in a box. And then on top of that, theres so many damn cards! Theyre like these little bite sized experiences— its easy to just kinda look at it, be like okay, and then just kinda move on.
This is a good point. Ive tried to be more careful about not looking at JPEGs too much before i have a card, its almost like a spoiler lol. The internet has kinda taken away a lot of the mystique in life. Anything you could ever want to know or see is <10 seconds away. Any card. You have to actively avoid these things now!
I feel like a big part of the TCG for me as a kid was imagination. It was exciting to wonder about the world of Pokemon, and the cards were glimpses into that surrealness. As an adult, im far less imaginative. In fact, ive become acutely aware of the fact that ive grown rather cold and cynical over some not so amazing experiences. Maybe it would be nice to have more positive imagination experiences. As random as this is, ive realized ive become more of a squidward as an adult, and i much prefer being a spongebob lol
@Dyl ive not purchased any cards in several months and took a pretty decent break from cards overall. I guess im just unsure of the best way to re-enter the hobby for me!
Without knowing any other details, I’d assume it’s the nostalgia that is doing the heavy lifting.
Not sure if you open packs, but if you don’t, another way to ‘chase’ or journey along to reach the card would be via trading or buying singles physically in shops etc. Basically tying the card to an experience/memory that isn’t just clicking a button on the Internet.
There have been plenty of times where I should be arrested for EUI and impulsively Buy It Now at 2 in the morning, only to be like “meh, join the pile” once I receive it in the mail. If it’s something I have had my eye on for weeks, months, or years, though, I’m usually hyped every time I see it.
How do you connect with your collection? Does owning a card make it less special? Sometimes i feel like clicking a button on eBay, or paying money, isnt a special or unique thing— i didnt really have to do anything exceptional to acquire this card. All i can really do with it is look at it. And you can kind of already do that to your heart’s content on the internet. Personal ownership of the card isnt really required to appreciate and enjoy it. So does owning it make you enjoy it less or more?
This reason was one of the reasons I was hesitant to start collecting in the first place, because I feel like I am quite happy to enjoy things vicariously (e.g. watching streams of people gaming) and, personally, don’t quite see the value of some experiences, like attending a concert over just listening to a song on Youtube. Extrapolating this frame of mind to collecting: yes, there are a ton of cool cards out there, but I feel like just knowing they exist and being able to see them in other people’s collections or on Ebay is sometimes enough for me. Because of this, I think the breadth of my collection will probably never be that large.
I also think this transactional feeling of just exchanging money for cards also weighs on me a bit too. I finished my Sekio artist collection by just mass buying most of the cards on TCGplayer (I think >80% of the cards), and while it was nice to have them all together, it just felt too… easy–like just buying a complete set outright without having to put any real effort. I’d like to try out trading or buying singles at card shops like @bk2021 pointed out, but I feel like I don’t have that many desirable cards to trade and card shops/LGS’s are often too marked up for me to ignore (because I’m very money conscious ). Especially for bulk, TCGplayer is just way too efficient. But it’s also so boring. Thus, a conundrum.
To answer the main question also, I definitely relate to that feeling of just admiring a new acquisition for a short bit, then squirreling it away and just feeling happy that that box has been checked for whatever collection goal I’m pursuing. I’ve also thought about whether this is normal for others, or if I’ve set the wrong collection goals for myself, or if maybe collecting just isn’t a super emotional thing for me.
Only card was this, owned it a year and got rid of it. I know this comes off as if i’m an ungrateful brat but I get just as much happiness from My $50 Aerodactyl V alt art. Once you attach big figures to a card it gets stressful for me.
There are lots of things that go into an individual enjoyment of the hobby. I think the best mantra I hear over and over on this site is “Collect what you like” . Also stay within your means. The cards I connect least with are often cards I chase because of hype; external or even self created hype. Currently I have one small collection goal (Charizard 276/xy-p) I have been sitting on this goal for awhile now, I sometimes find it hard to be ok with that and content with just being still. When I stay still I often find clarity in why I want a particular card. Then when I finally own it. It means more.
lol
). Especially for bulk, TCGplayer is just way too efficient. But it’s also so boring. Thus, a conundrum.