I have some goals, but i also buy other things that just come up. I play old school formats and it’s just fun to horde that stuff in general.
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Do those even do anything
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you can trade them in for things 
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My PSA collection is goal oriented, my binder collection is goal-less.
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The only “goal” I really have is to love what I own. That happens to include an English/Japanese Girafarig master set. I usually will see a card that interests me, sit with that feeling for a while to see if I eventually forget that card or it nags at my brain, and then finalize the decision to buy or not after a reasonable amount of time. Usually, the more expensive the card, the longer I’ll give myself to truly decide if I need to have it in the collection or not. It’s a long, yet enjoyable, process.
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I’ve completely managed to stop impulse buying outside my goals a long time ago which i’m very happy about, i do buy without second thought if something in my goal lists appears with a good price but never outside them which i feel gives me good control of my purchases. If i see something i really like but it’s outside my goals i may think if i want a new side goal to include it and after i figure it out i may allow myself to buy what i was considering. Usually the process of thinking of the goal takes long enough for me to figure out what i really want or if i just saw something shiny and thought for a minute that i couldn’t live without it
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Hello !
I love this question !
I have long term goals for my collection but I’ve stopped having short time goals because I never reach them due to the unpredictability of the Japanese vintage merch market. Stuff pops up at random times, usually unluckily all at once, so I have to make hard choices 
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This is a really cool thread! Learning a lot from it. I’ve only just started getting into collecting Pokemon Cards. It’s probably been only about two weeks! I’m so deep into the rabbit hole it is exhausting. (Great thing is I’ve always loved Pokemon - but never had the resources I have now)
In that two weeks I’ve spent somewhat irresponsibly. So I need to have goals and not mortgage my house to buy more vintage sets. 
I need goals to fulfill three things for me. 1) For nostalgia, art and flex. 2) Investment potential 3) My gacha needs.
I have been buying all sorts of stuff to achieve those three things… I will need to narrow it down or be more specific with my goals.
Anyway, this thread resonated with me. The pokemon community can sometimes feel quite daunting/elitist and one can feel a bit lost/leftout at times. Appreciate this forum!
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To be completely honest, when i started i had no goals at all, i was buying whatever i liked and mostly those cards i coudlnt afford when i was younger.
After a couple years (i came back in 2016) i ended up buying some graded cards, at first i bought a couple 1st edition shinings from PWCC on eBay - PSA8s; but after talking to a friend i decided my first goal would be all 1st Edition Shinings from Neo Destiny in PSA10.
Prices were a whole different story back then and i achieved the goal in a short period of time, which made me figure out i really wanted to complete WOTC 1st Edition in PSA10 /Excluding base set due to prices which were already way way too high at that time.
Believe it or not, 5 years later im still chasing that wotc goal; the only sets i ended up completing are 1st Edition Base Set English Holos in PSA9; Gym Challenge (PSA10 excluding Persian -9-); and Team Rockets PSA10 (Excluding Magneton -9-); missing a couple cards in every other set, but the chase never ends and i had to learn to live with that and dont FOMO (yes… those 2021/early 2022 days with overwelming prices were so hard for me as a collector).
I honestly feel like having goals ends up being a Key factor in a collectors perspective.
Regards, PokemonArgentina TCG.
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I definitely have specific long-term goals, specifically completing my 1st Ed WOTC collection which is a combination of slabs and binders. My other goals however are not very organized. Basically this includes everything from vintage/modern Japanese to even modern English and other stuff that I normally don’t actively collect or maintain any real guidelines to approaching it all.
I think that having goals is good though. It keeps you organized and within your boundaries better. I think that because there’s so much to collect, it can take way longer to complete a specific collection if you don’t have some goals and guidelines in place. We’d all like to collect everything, but it’s just not realistic unless you have a lot of money or if you make other compromises on card condition and other purchasing factors.
The main thing though is that I think this hobby should be fun/enjoyable at every point of the way. Don’t just buy or collect something you don’t truly want or enjoy. It should never be something that becomes tedious or anything. I’ve gotten the most satisfaction slowing building up my collection this way and focusing on what I enjoy the most.
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As of right now my goal is to acquire a PSA 10 1st edition neo Lugia. And beyond that not really. I usually go through waves of collecting specific pokemon since I have never been a trophy card fan. Granted I am basically starting over again.
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