Hobby Education: The Art of Knowing Yourself
I got my collecting gene from my father, who, as a product of his time, was all in on comic books and similarly popular things. As someone who was easily influenced by what he saw and thought was cool, I naturally became a collector myself, and growing up, he imparted a few words to me that have been more impactful than anything else I've learned in the Hobby: control your greed.
Now, greed is a strong word, but if you really think about it, every single one of us in this niche world of collecting has a definitive level of greed ingrained in ourselves. That's why we're always in the pursuit of something new, something more, or something better.
But my father wasn't talking about the spirit of collecting. He meant to control greed from a monetary perspective. To know my outs, know when to take wins, and not pour everything you have into fancy cardboard. But how, and why, would anyone even do that?
That's why you have to know yourself and your financial situation.
Turn Your Wins Into New Pieces
Spending money is inevitable in any hobby, especially this one. People gravitate towards things they deem nice, and of course, nice things never come for free. Where collectors tend to get it wrong is always in putting out fresh money instead of recycling some of it.
It's quick to lose yourself in a hobby or lose interest in something because it's too expensive. That's happened to so many people across all walks of life, but there is a way to mitigate a bit of that feeling, and that's to take some wins where you can.
Say you bought a card for your personal collection way back, in my case it was a PSA 9 Shohei Ohtani #US285 from 2018 Topps Update, and the price has jumped a significant amount since you first got it.
Now, as is the nature of the Hobby, there are a couple more pieces or even just one in particular that catches your eye and really pulls you in. Shelling out a whole new stack of bills would definitely hurt since it's the kind of value you count every single day, and the numbers will instantly reflect any deduction. But that's where your original purchase comes into play.
Now selling might be a challenge, especially if there's some kind of sentimental value attached to a card, but everything comes and goes at some point. Letting go of an older piece to keep your collecting journey going (and possibly even giving yourself a little payday from an investment you never saw coming) has kept lots of people going, myself included.
Theoretically Up Is Not Equal To Being Up
Everyone's got a tracker for their collection of some sort, be it a spreadsheet or an app designed for that very purpose, and most people in the Hobby are aware of how much their cards are worth on a regular basis.
There will always be those lucky individuals, myself included, who have a gold mine of a collection from years past when certain cards weren't fetching the same prices they are today. One look at CardLadder or Collectr, and you'd easily see that not only are you up from when you first bought the card, but in your mind you're rich too.
Spoiler alert: you're not.
A collectible's value really only factors into your assets once you sell it. The liquidity of what you have, meaning how fast you can actually sell something should you really need the money, is highly irrelevant because, at the end of the day, cash is king. That piece of cardboard is not cash yet.
If you need it for something important like a major life decision, a monthly payment, medicine, or anything else in this world that's bigger than collecting cards, don't leave it to chance any longer.
Don't develop the mindset of "I'll sell once it goes up some more so I get more" because what if it doesn't?
There's a quote that Matthew McConaughey's character in The Wolf of Wall Street says about the stock market, which is easily translatable to the world of collecting; it's that no one really knows if something's going to go up, down, sideways, or in circles.
Don't Forget Why You're In The Hobby In The First Place
This part is no longer a lesson imparted by my father, but something everyone should remember in this Hobby: don't make it all about numbers.
Of course, they're unavoidable, but they should not be the only thing that matters. The monetary value of a card is not what defines your collection or the actual value of anything you hold. If anything, the sentimental value or intrinsic value should always exceed the monetary value of anything you collect.
At the end of the day, everyone started in this Hobby for reasons outside of purely monetary value. There's nothing wrong with having a "cheap" collection, and there's also nothing wrong with one worth multiple millions if your budget allows it, as long as you never forget the number one principles of collecting. Buy what you like.
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Joaqin is a journalist with a strong passion for the Hobby. He has published work for HLTV.org, Rappler.com, and DLSU Sports. A decade-long Pokémon TCG collector, he recently shifted into sports cards to collect Lakers, Dodgers and Chargers players with growing PCs of Shohei Ohtani and Justin Herbert.