Totally agree. You echo a main part of my point above, to have a shot at all you’re looking to get you have to dig deeper to optimize and think about what should be bought when. There are way more eyes in the market today
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As someone who joined the hobby in late 2019 (right when things started to get heated), fomo has been a continuous companion. And at its worst, it took a heavy toll on my mental health.
However, it’s not all bad. I hate to admit it, but without the fomo, my collection wouldn’t be what it is today. There are so many cards that would take many years to get if I hadn’t bought them when I had the chance, and some are already out of reach if I wouldn’t own them right now. For older Pokemon cards, there certainly is something as warranted fomo.
In my experience, this also separates an actual collector’s hobby like Pokemon from a money-driven hobby like many NFT collections I’ve invested in. There was also fomo in the latter, but it was temporary and hence unwarranted because just a few months later, you could have bought the NFTs for a fraction of the price. On the other hand, the prices for 95% of my collected PSA10 cards have never retraced since I got them, all while the market is supposed to be in a cool-down phase. It scares me tbh.
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Me too, there was certainly an element of fomo when I bought a lot of boxes over a decade ago. I knew it was now or never, probably wouldn’t get the chance later on, which I was certainly right about. I had expected to have more money in the future, but other things to spend them on. The way it played out, didn’t have that much more money and I had even more things I needed money for than I previously imagined. And Pokemon became a lot more expensive than I had dared to dream of.
It was also…tohmo? Trauma of having missed out 
I wanted to have the experience of opening an entire box, not just buying 3-4 packs with a pit in my stomach i.e the childhood experience.
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Like everyone my fomo took place during covid. It was a black swan event and im not too concerned anymore. Stuff moves more slowly now which means fomo does not happen.
But a thread on the biggest fomo decisions during 2020-2021 would be interesting. I bet every single person here has a crazy story or 2
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100%. I think modern is worse today than 2020. If there is a silver lining, the 2020 new wave of demand was more spread through vintage and modern, where today modern is such a crazy bottleneck. I’ve never been so turned off from something I like (English modern).
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The Giant 2020-21 FOMO thread needs to happen…
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You know, 2020 WAS a traumatic experience, not necessarily in a bad way, but it was shocking, and upsetting, and created a sense of potential loss in many ways. Just like any jolt to the system, it would be natural if it DID create for most of us, some irrational instinct to jump at perceived opportunities.
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