Less than twice per year at this point.
I think my buying comes in waves. There may be a long time without a purchase and then one day three items come up in auction/BIN.
I also have to manage collecting MTG as well, so it’s sometimes a tradeoff. If I’m not buying MTG, I might be buying Pokemon and vice versa.
I don’t have a problem
1 every 3 months is a good estimate.
I’m probably not the typical pokemon card buyer, especially for this site standards. Considering my limited resources I prefer now to consolidate my savings and to purchase 1 “big” item every now and then, when I can afford it.
I’m not going to make the same mistakes again (buying commons or cheap holos too often lol), but it requires for me a lot of saving money and budgeting my expenses.
A couple of times per month. Just the odd purchase of sealed stuff to open every now and then. Twilight Masquerade is a beautiful set so I’ve been buying more than I have since 151.
If I see a deal for a vintage card or happen to find a show near me I’ll bite but that hasn’t happened in a while.
Just took a quick look at my purchases for this year, and it’s definitely slowed down a bit for TCG since last year. I probably do roughly 3-6 purchases a month for cards. I’ve been focusing a lot more non-TCG purchases from Japan given the weak yen.
When the vibes are right
Currently the longest period without buying a card for myself sitting around 2 weeks but over the past 6 months I was consistently buying 3-5 times a week. There would’ve been a fair few weeks of buying everyday sprinkled in.
on average, i’d say i make about 6 big groups of purchases a year through proxy services. sometimes it’ll be back to back months, sometimes there will be a 3-4 month gap
I’ll usually buy myself some cheaper singles or packs at the end of a week as a reward for getting all the adult stuff done.
If I pick up something more expensive though, I’ll try to limit that to once a month.
I haven’t been buying much at all this year, mainly a couple times every 2-3 months. I’ve been looking at ways of boosting my income more. So far I’ve increased it quite a bit the past while, so I expect I’ll be collecting more later this year and into next year. I spent a ton in 2022/2023 since there was a good amount of volatility during that time (mainly downward) and so I’ve gotten some good deals I haven’t seen since then.
I’m also re-assessing some of my collecting goals a bit, so I think taking things slower has been helpful this year.
Sometimes I’m winning 3-5 auctions a week. Sometimes I’m winning 1-2. Every week is a new adventure. Just have to keep grinding and eventually you will find some good deals when you don’t expect to.
Twice per month sounds about right, I’m actually glad there aren’t too many goals left because in past making up to 10 purchases in week happened occasionally.
Same. Just don’t have the funds any more. Jealous of all these ppl buying once a week.
I’m young in the hobby so started off buying a lot cheap holos, but as I slowly refine my tastes, the purchases slow down as well. Seems like a lot of people have a similar experience
Since I’m working on a range of sets which are well available and mostly affordable, quite often.
It will thin out when items are more expensive or less commonly available but for now, frequently ticking off binder slots.
Checking ebay, discord and fb groups regularly and making purchases.
I think with a lot more limited time now twice per month is the closest one, it might be slightly more if some new slime items pop up on my saved searches on ebay but that doesn’t happen very often anymore. Usually i just try to take some time 1-2 times per month to go through cardmarket or buyee and then occasional single purchases from ebay on top of that
Much less than the last several years, which is ironic, now is probably the best time to buy, im just not rly in the financial position to ball out like i want to lol
That being said, i definitely just spent like triple my budget for one card, buts its gonna be the only expensive/ graded card i buy this year
