My involvement for the next 6 months market wise is going to be solely passively waiting on a bulk return. When it comes, I’ll take a look and see how happy or unhappy it makes me haha
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I used to collect and play then quit in 2001 and came back near the end of 2020. In 2001 my LGS closed. I didn’t have anywhere I could get to by bike to buy/play anymore. I was always into video games and so I didn’t miss Pokemon that much. I still played the Pokemon games and filled the TCG hole with video games that had trading cards (a ps2 yugioh game, lost kingdom, wagic, hearthstone, slay the spire, magic arena, monster train). I promised myself I wouldn’t spend any money on trading cards ever again because I felt like I wasted my money (I feel very different now lol). Now I feel stupid for forcing myself to stop in 2001. I still don’t feel as passionate as I did in 1996 when I was a kid, but it’s my current most loved hobby.
I’ve taken big breaks sometimes but I always come back lol
extended breaks are definitely healthy when life feels like Pokemon 24/7. this is a hobby, not a job, so burnouts happen when every media feed becomes the same thing.
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I sold my “collection” in 2009 to get money and yugioh cards after that, I hated myself, so I didn’t allow myself to buy pokemon.
Have bought some cards in the between, just one or two random boosters and random packs.
I kept collecting yugioh and some magic.
Until 2019/2020, when I could let go of some stuff, and started buying some small lots and bought some stuff in japan.
It has been fun collecting stuff and just talking to people about it.
I think option B is nicer.
I think Option B is the best course for most people. I think it would be hard for anyone who has invested a lot of time, money, and energy to just reach a point of completion and never engage again. Perhaps that’s not the extreme you had in mind but even so Option B seems the most realistic and rewarding.
I took a break from 2019-2020 (a little more than a calendar year). In this time I considered my collection complete and I focused more on proper storage for it. Premium sleeves, premium binders, a special trunk to keep everything in, etc. Stuff like that allowed me to stay involved with my collection and make minor investments as something caught my interest. At one point I was looking for archival safe dividers for use between my sets and couldn’t find anything adequate, so I ended up buying a book of mixed media art paper stock and having it cut and punched at my local FedEx office. Those little adventures are fun. They help you contribute to your collection in an inexpensive and creative way without requiring you to expand its contents.
I’ve also started “mini collections”. When my primary goals were all complete, I started collection of Starmie cards where I just collected every Starmie card that’s ever been released in English. This meant I always had a reason to look forward to new releases because maybe there would be a Starmie in it and if there was I could pick it up for cheap. These kinds of collections are really low maintenance and low effort but help give current releases some relevance to you.
There’s lots of ways to connect and collect still. You can dial it way down and still feel like you’re participating in a rewarding way. You just have to find what’s best for you.
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This hobby is WAY too addicting lmao what has gotten someone to actually be able to stop buying stuff?