To quote my college pastor, “if you’re not happy with what you already have, what makes you think that by getting more of it it will make you more happy?”
Collecting fatigue has happened with me on and off since the beginning of this year. I found myself getting into a really bad habit of always wanting more than what i had. i cared more about looking at ebay for cards that i didn’t have than looking at cards in my own binders!
i have gotten into a good headspace about collecting lately, and i think that stems from me coming to terms that my “collection” or “status amongst other collectors” is not going to fill me up/satisfy my desires.
Whenever I feel particularly apathetic toward my collection, I take a moment to revisit it. I try to comb through my entire collection monthly or quarterly to remind myself what I value about it, to determine what I am willing to part with, and to set new goals and expectations.
The “ebb and flow” of collecting also keeps me levelheaded. Some weeks are busier than others due to the nature of rare/scarce items coming to market.
I’ve had to admit to myself that I’ve felt some collecting fatigue in the past few years but probably not the same way as most. I’m not worried about completing collecting goals at all because I’ve set the reality to myself that some cards are out of my reach because I won’t pay x amount of money for some cardboard. Which is why my Rayquaza collection will never be completed, lol. But I’ll get what I can and what I feel is good to me.
I just kinda took a step back and started losing interest in sharing everything. Updating my collection thread or posting on Instagram started to feel like a shore instead of being something spontaneous that I enjoyed doing so I just stopped it and haven’t updated them for a long time.
I also feel super weird about my graded collection. Between 2015-2019 I built quite a big collection of graded cards from scratch. Most of them I graded myself through middle men. While I’m happy with the cards that I own, now that I look at them I often think why didn’t I just stay in binder collecting only. During the pandemic I stopped buying graded almost completely when things got crazy and I started to appreciate binder much more again. I’ve stored the graded cards away from my sight because there are too many to be displayed. I really don’t know what to do. Part of me thinks maybe sell the ones I also have in binder and keep the ones I don’t. But it does annoy me let’s say to have some Rays graded but at the same time those exact cards are missing from my binder. You get what I’m trying to say? Like I’m on this debate and idk what to do. Should I crack some to move them to binders? No, that would be insane too and basically the same as flush money down the toilet.
I’m very much enjoying binders again like I said. My Salamence binder collection is complete atm (all English and Japanese variants) and I’m doing great process with Flygon too. I’ve just been doing this by myself and not really sharing. I haven’t stopped at any time, but the pandemic has really shifted things for me. Not just that but changes in import tax in EU (pay tax for everything that comes outside the continent), Japan Post not sending anything to Finland because of the war in Ucraine so having to ship stuff from Japan with DHL or Fedex… everything is just more complicated now. Lately I’ve been discovering CardMarket and it has helped a lot but of course some things are just harder to find there. Plus Europeans tend to put a premium on Japanese cards too, probably because everyone knows it’s harder to import them over these days.
I’ve only bought one card this year, the collectors fatigue has been real but i’ve had lots of real life stuff happen too, got married and that kind of things so prioritizes have been elsewhere.
I’m personally getting tired of modern. The sets are too big, so many cards that are valuable and terrible pull rates. Too much $ to invest in cards that just came out for my taste. Don’t get me wrong, I do like opening packs and buying some modern singles still but to a much lesser extent now.
The majority of the Youtube content is getting super boring, stale, and redundant. Every channel is either a 2-6 hour long podcast-style discussion with 2-4 guys live discussing the same two topics (Moonbreon and Charizard UPC) while also picking questions out of the Live Chat, or PSA returns flashing up dollar signs for every grade reveal.
This year has been exceptionally slow/boring for me, buying additions for binder collections has been really unfrequent and I do believe only 3 graded cards have made their way to graded card case during summer ( maybe I should finally update collection thread with them ).
That’s a really bad sign when great events like Secret Santa won’t turn around your mood, been in it since the beginning yet somehow I feel I haven’t deserved a spot this year. Luckily there’s still couple days to decide about participating.
Also it simply feels like there’s so much to do irl and whenever I sit on computer I’m stuck reading updates about war in Ukraine.
Really sorry to hear that you’re feeling this way about collecting. I hope that you decide to join Secret Santa 2022 - who knows, it might improve your mood and reignite the collecting fire.
I don’t watch much tcg-related Youtube anymore either. The podcast stuff is pretty much unendurable, don’t care about modern and the “museum” videos have all been watched to death.
Except breaks of very special things I can’t stomach those either. I’d rather watch some of the old classics of the same sets, but again those have all been watched to death.
Aww man, I am sorry that you have these feelings. I know things get better eventually. I also hope you do decide to join the Secret Santa event, simply because I feel that just trying to put a gift together for someone else can be a form of catharsis. There is no collection to fill in, no list to check etc.
As @Dyl mentioned, it could possibly reignite the passion since you are trying to make someone else day / season / year and get a new perspective on things.
Ive experienced build up/burn out a few times and there is nothing wrong wirh stepping away for awhile when you need to. I collect a few cards here and there but ive found a real love for reselling. For me reselling allows you to psuedo collect cards you like but dont need to own. Even for a short amount of time its nice to just get your hands on some fresh cardboard.
I definitely go through periods of collecting fatigue.
When that happens I usually do a combination of things:
I set a specific objective for collecting in a certain period of time to narrow down the scope of my collection.
I turn my attention to other activities or hobbies I have, many times it means making something or playing a new video game I wouldn’t play otherwise.
Doing these other activities usually converges with not adding new items to the collection but I do a lot of reorganizing, sorting and cataloging during that period and that also helps with putting everything in perspective.
Having an objective and doing something I wouldn’t normally do usually has this effect of de-stress, and helps a lot with clearing my mind off these overwhelming feelings that don’t belong to the hobby.
I swap back and forth between pokemon collecting and sports cards. When one market is becoming too noisy or difficult i usually find enjoyment in the other. Also still a smaller pokemon collector I sometimes have the opposite of fatigue where I want to get all sorts of sets started or finished and then never make a purchase because i can’t decide which one to go with on limited budget
I recently moved into a new apartment and the best part is that I probably have the largest personal space I’ve ever had. I was able to buy and build 5 bookcases in addition to the wire rack I already had in order to display most of the figures I’ve had to keep in boxes over the years due to limited space.
It’s really helped me see what I have, maybe where I went wrong, and is keeping me on track to finish out my favorite figure sets, or obtaining those one-off figures I’ve been wanting. Putting together a “wants list” for Christmas was so much easier this year too!
I guess where I’m going with this is that properly displaying what I have has gone a long way towards combating collecting fatigue. For cards, I keep my binders close by so I can flip through them on a moment’s notice. If anything, I probably need to create even more binders or lists or something of everything I have. Knowing where I’ve been helps me better decide where I want to go.