I fall victim to this a lot. I find myself spending quite a lot of money on cards that I personally don’t really like just to finish a set that I do like. Pokemon is all about “collecting them all” (plus I have OCD), but I feel like I cant be the only one who does this.
For example, the gyarados gold star does nothing for me at all. But I want the gold star set in matching grades… $2.5K in the toilet basically.
In my ever evolving quest to complete and edit goals, parts of me want to change it up and define sets differently, ie: all Hoenn species gold stars would probably be more fun for me personally. etc. etc.
What cards have you bought just to finish a set? Have you altered set goals to avoid buying cards you don’t care for and if so how did you alter them?
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Very interesting. But i dont think i can relate
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Im still fighting against having to pay anywhere close to retail for the Classic Collection. I need it sealed for my deck collection but even marked down at $300, I do not view it as worth it. I strongly dislike everything about it as an idea. Of course, to your point, I will eventually cave so that I can have a complete deck collection once I find my last few decks.
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It is quite possible I am alone in this lol
About 3 years ago I decided to avoid chasing Japanese unlimited since they were hard to find and way more expensive. Then shortly after that I completed all 1st edition and started back up on unlimited.
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Dyl
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I collect what I like and leave the rest. Sure, I complete some sets where I like the majority of the art, but I would never be happy being a set collector for the reasons you stated above.
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I even love/hate my stakataka, poor ugly fella.
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You’re not alone. I unfortunately have done this in the past. Granted I’ve only done it to complete some of my fav sets ever. I have compromised in the past with picking up CGC 10 to take the place of the PSA version if it’s cheaper and the card is clean.
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Definitely can’t relate to dropping $2.5k solely to complete a set. If I’m spending thousands it’s because I want the card.
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I’ve just begun collecting my first set and can relate completely. There’s a bunch of cards I’ll have to purchase in order to complete the goal that will add nothing to my happiness and will very likely be viewed a handful of times at most before remaining in darkness. Fortunately none will be as pricey as gold stars which I guess would add another layer of pain.
As an example, I paid $15 for nightmares:
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Lucky, some people would pay a lot more for Komiya nightmares
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i’ve gotten close a few times, but luckily always ended up realizing it wasn’t worth the money.
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These are nice cards but I paid around $250-$300 each for them; if they were not part of a set I definitely would’ve spent the money on something else.
Bonus set pics, it’s actually quite affordable except for those two!
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I feel like buying a card you don’t like is the same as buying a card for your card. I feel like there’s some Japanese promos that have awesome release history but the art isn’t there
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Big fan of Komiya, nothing he could do. A bird is nightmare fuel no matter the artist.
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Well to be honest I didn’t buy the card. It’s just something I’m struggling with. I am considering it but I haven’t done it
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Can’t really relate, but there are a lot of cards in the future that I will end up buying because they get me closer towards specific goals. None of these goals are at that point however, so I can still focus mostly on what I like.
I will say that I have bought cards that I felt were a good deal that I am not very attached to. I feel thats a bit different from what you were getting at, but maybe not?
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Can relate a lot.
Happened with Shining Raichu, Kabutops and Charizard. Was collecting the other shinings and then i realized i was missing just 3 of them to get the complete set, sadly charizard is the most expensive one 
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I enjoy complete sets, or at least complete sets of certain classes of cards. So while there may be cards I wouldn’t buy if I wasn’t completing a set, I still enjoy buying them nonetheless because they add to the set.
Some examples:
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Yeah this is a struggle. Well, when it’s cheap cards like ARs, it doesn’t matter but it gets expensive quick for higher rarity cards.
I don’t collect sets as TPC/TPCi prescribes which for eg in the SM/SWSH era would save me all the money from needing to get rainbows, but then when you set a goal like tag team special arts or SWSH alts, it’s still expensive when I don’t really like some of them like Harada’s Mimikyu/Gengar, OOYAMA’s Magikarp/Wailord, Rayquaza VMAX etc
Supporter full arts are another thing, though they got out of hand so fast, I didn’t get most of the pricey waifus and cannot justify that now. It just feels like they should be collected together and it’s incomplete without getting them all.
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