I have seen this question pop up a few times, both on the fourum and on videos, etc, and thought it might be an interesting gauge/tool, especially at the start of a new year. Some might want to compare themselves to the masses for vanity, but if you’re selling as a side or even a main gig, this could be a tool to gauge your own practices. I suppose if you feel you’re addicted, as I have in the past, you can also use this to see how your “hobby time” compares to others’. So…
About how much time do you spend
As a small BUSINESS (or casual seller), buying, selling, prepping?
less than 1hr/day
1 hr/day (7 hr/wk)
10-20 hrs
20-30 hrs
30+ hrs (full time gig)
40+ hrs (selling is life)
0voters
How much time do you spend
Simply COLLECTING, or working on your collection (Specifically NOT investment focused)?
less than 1 hr/day
3-7 hrs/week
10-20 hrs
20-30 hrs
30+ hrs
0voters
How much time do you spend
Actively on the Elite Fourum? Bonus Q
Votes are anonymous, and I don’t plan to close this poll. It’s just a running meter of the E4 community’s engagement in the hobby, if we care to make it that way.
I only sell/trade when I’m at Pokémon tournaments and it’s only usually just trading meta cards I don’t really need anymore for meta cards I currently want so I don’t have to spend if I don’t need to and just keep my costs low as a player.
I do have an eBay of some cards I sell, but I maybe spend less than 1 hour a week listing cards, I’m by no means a business and just selling cards I don’t want in my collection or extra cards.
I do spend 3-7 hours weekly on e4 and maybe 5 hours a week with a mix of goldin/eBay/PWCC auctions. I just watch the items at the start of the block and bid at the final moments of auctions
The moment I started to think of collecting Pokemon cards as a business I would stop having fun and enjoying this as a hobby (albeit one that has by happenstance made me good money). I sometimes will see a product or card that I am not super into and buy it, just because I know I can make some money on it later, but it is such an non-event and a non-regular thing that I do that I wouldn’t even consider it a business decision. I am 100% ok with it never going anywhere in value if I happen to be wrong.
The money I have made from collecting Pokemon cards is because I followed my love of it, and my enjoyment of the community here on E4 and the reverie that we share over the cards. I’d stop being able to enjoy the benefits like that if I saw every interaction as an opportunity to make money.
All I can add is that priorities change when you get older.
When I was a student, spending endless hours on collecting, searching the cards I needed and trade was perfectly fine. Now that I have a family and a house, those cards now worth thousands of dollars could be a new bathroom, trip with the family, paying off student debts.
I have always seen the hobby as a collection that also is worth money. And with all the price spikes of the last 10 years, this has put things in a different perspective for me…
I liquidated a large portion of my bulk this time last year, the only biggish sale I’ve ever done in Pokemon (I have done plenty outside of that.) I did it not only because I needed the money, but because I knew it would never be a part of a future business plan. I don’t have the starting capital, I don’t have the time, I don’t have the interest; I don’t even live in the right hemisphere.
So the only business-related stuff for me is that I have 300+ cards in the back of my mind at all times that are worth anything between a steak dinner and a new Caravelle, and I’m willing to part with most of those if there is a sharp uptick or I get the right offer (which I don’t because I’ve delayed grading them for several years.) I bought them as collectibles, I’ve owned them as collectibles, so I get to appreciate them while they’re still here.
As for collecting, little. There’s just no money to spare on anything secondary because my primary concern requires 110% financial commitment at all times, I made my peace with that years ago. Not only Pokemon, several other things have been sacrificed. I don’t window shop anymore and I think I watched 10 pokemon-related Youtube videos in 2023 at most.
Thus, most of my hobby time (too much in fact, due to a weird 2022 and even weirder 2023) have been spent on this forum interacting with other collectors.
I have a handful of smaller TCG goals that I’m working towards, but most of what I have been collecting of late (maybe the last year or so) is non-TCG. The majority of cards I buy now are business-related, with the aim of working towards a few big goals.
I also realised that I very rarely look at my non-bindered cards. As such, I’m pretty much only holding them as iNvEsTmEnTs (not all, some I just like knowing I have). While I don’t subscribe to the belief that you need to see cards in person to enjoy them, I recently saw some for the first time in months and it almost felt like goodbye.
Maybe this is burnout from focusing too much on chasing the bag in pursuit of the bigger goal.
I find buying, grading and selling cards a fun way to interact with this hobby. It also allows me more funds for actually adding cards to my collection, so in the end all ‘business’ is done to fund my collection.
Therefore I spend more time on the business-side than ‘pure’ collecting (though many things I buy from the business-side also end up in my personal collection, it’s a very fluid boundary). In general the business side also encompasses way more time-intensive things than looking for a couple specific cards for my collection.
Collecting is tied to money/time no matter how you look at, or romanticize it. I have more time than money, so I use my time as an asset.
When I was starting my professional performing career, a mentor said “Once you have to make money at it, it stops being fun.”
Other professional artists I’ve known have talked about the difficulty of balancing fun and finances, however, if you do things for yourself, or in the case of pokemon, buy cards for yourself, you can still balance the two, I think.
It does require a certain mindset, and I can’t speak from experience in PkMn, as I don’t operate a retail business, but I do know that I successfully had a TON of fun on stage for nearly 15 years while making my bux and wearing a tux.
I recently had a similar feeling: I was going through stacks of slabs I’d yet to catalogue and saw several that I forgot I had.
Really started reflecting and realized this this recently. I think when we lose track of what we’ve accomplished, not taking enough time to celebrate the wins, we feel that burnout. I half-quit my theatre career in 2018. Fully in 2020 (for obvious reasons) and then started grad school. MORE studying for certification exams, and improving my skill set, while working full-time… these last 4 years I’ve barely taken a break and certainly not taken time to celebrate the victories (of which I’ve had many). It’s important to do that.
I think everyone starts as a hobby/collector. What i found out is Pokemon is actually one of the only business that is actually fun and can involve the whole family. So i dont really know if it is a business or family activity for me at this point. For me, our family actually has gotten closer and do Pokemon trips now. Everyone really enjoys Pokemon vacations. What is it? Business vs hobby vs activity ? IDK. But it is fun.
I think a lot of people got in because they had an interest in the past but want to just make money now. I do NOT think many if any of those people are visible here, however.
Many people do have passions driven purely by practical gain, and not because they enjoy it, which makes you bitter and selfish, IMO.
A former student of mine is s content creator and has a few partnerships on IG/tik tok. She’s gorgeous, goes to great places on vacation, seems to have a lot of fun in life, BUT she hates the pressure, feels very exposed, and has complained to me about it. I told her my opinion. IDK she took it to heart, but that’s the story, none the less. There are ALL KINDS in this hobby too.
Bonus Q