Because I’m not a guy
I don’t have to justify…
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Sell anything that you don’t need to get your #1 priority cards. Selling is going to be a lot of work, but it’ll be worth it. If you’re anything like me, you probably have a lot of value tied up in cards you don’t care about. Put in the work to get rid of them.
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You suck it up and realize you can’t. Until you make it, then you can come back and swoop up whatever you need without worrying about justification.
There is no justification for an obsession. Never has been.
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@octaane, my brain works the same way, I can’t spend spend large sums of money on cards. Instead I put in some seed money to start my collection. I was able to pull that seed money out pretty quickly. Now the collection runs itself for free.
I also wanted a t17, I settled for a Japanese version which is a way cheaper alternative and better quality. Its a cheap way to substitute expensive English cards.
Firstly by only buying cards that bring me joy.
Secondly cards that I know will sufficiently hold there value as I hold them.
Thirdly by not having any other debt apart from home loan and having a safety net fund in case something goes wrong.
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Take a 10 year view for completion rather than a 1 year view I.e. going slower is an option
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Tell yourself that the cards are investment 
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These could go to zero. If the market crashes a Charizord is still a Charizord.
It’s a good question, and I’m going to post my take which is probably different from most people on the forum.
Prior to last year, I justified it as a hobby essentially, where I would spend a couple hundred dollars a month to enjoy my hobby and slowly accumulate over time.
After looking at the price increases in the last year, the value of my collection, and how much I would have had to spend to complete my goals… I decided that it isn’t worth it to me right now. With the amount I could comfortably spend per month on cards, my goals were no longer realistic to complete, even though I was more than halfway there. I was uncomfortable with keeping everything in the house due to the value, but also felt like I couldn’t fully enjoy my cards if they were off in the PWCC vault. I decided I would rather lock in the gains and have sold off about 2/3 of my collection off over the last ~8 months. My strategy has been to sell anything I feel I can replace in the future, and keep things that are truly scarce. It may be expensive, but let’s be real I can go buy base set for market price any time. If I sell a card with pop<10, I will probably never have an opportunity to buy it again.
I hope/plan to get back into collecting again in the future, but at this stage of my life I have other goals that are a higher priority. Selling all these cards has been bittersweet - on the one had the money is nice and it allows me to pursue other life goals, but on the other I miss being able to look through them.
You have to make your own decision about how much you are willing to spend, and how much money you are willing to tie up in Pokemon cards.
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My justification is that I purchase stock. Something that has no physical or emotional value outside of the realized gains. At least with pokemon I get a physical object. Im not too concerned about the fluctuating value of the cards simply because I like them.
I just want to chime in because through 5 pages of this thread only a few others seem to have echoed my feeling, which I personally think is the most important reason.
Becuase it’s fun
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If i can buy something for $100, put some time and a bit of money into it (maybe 10-20-% of the value, for grading, travel to get it, sleeves or whatever else) and have a $300 result, i then buy something for $300, put another 10-20% and get a $1000 result, next a $5000 result, next a $20,000 result, ect ect ect, it will take my time and knowledge and being tactical but with $100 and 10-20% of the value of my cash, i ended up with say a $20,000 for $100+ $2640-$5280 roughly, which is ok with me, because thats what ive been doing for the last few years. Aside from maybe 20% of my purchases which are made not with the intention of profiting to repurchase items, i buy the majority of my cards in collections for a price where my 3x strategy works. Theres been some small failures along the way, but also some massive successes where i turned 4000 into 50,000. I know when i reach a certain point i will take all of my money back out, and just sell the occasional item i dont feel like holding, in order to buy better items. When i set my collection goal (to have my collection pay for a better collection) i knew it would take being flexible and putting in lots of work, but ive loved it. I have had so many cards from so many different releases and in all types of conditions, i kept very little of them though, because the next better deal required me selling. At first it was tough, i mustve made my first 100 turn into $50, and that made me want to try harder, so i put more money in… after a while i realized that buying singles was never going to work aside from the rare low price or lack of exposure for certain cards.
I justify it by knowing if it failed i had fun, got the bills paid first, and met some great people who trust me with their items and money. I also put money into stocks, but they are less fun and im better at buying cards to sell anyway.
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The hobby isn’t enjoyable if you don’t buy what you like. The hobby isn’t enjoyable if you also spend money that affect your immediate livelihood.
Plan within your means for cards you genuinely enjoy so that you minimize any stress involved.
I just buy what I like and over the long term the I’ve never taken a loss on anything I’ll say that at least, much more enjoyable to collect things I enjoy and gives a much better return than an ETF that’s for sure a win win in my books
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YOLO is a solid justifier here.
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It’s super hard for me to justify as I’m approaching retainment and feeling is it worth the cost now to complete some of 1st edition and promo sets?
Could I use the proceeds of my collections to feed into a pension fund before I start to drawdown from it?
I love the hobby too much to let any of my collection go but at the same time what will happen to it when I’m gone. I guess my emotional justification is to pass the collection onto my children for them to do what they like with it and hopefully give them a boost in life’s finance. My intellectual justification is investing and sell when I retire in about 6 years (maybe). I started collecting in 2000 and I consider a 27 year investment an okay period.
But at the end of the day I just get a buzz out of the chase, research, physically looking and touching my collection, sharing & hearing other people’s experiences. All this gives me the drive to justify the expense. 
Wife is coming to the realisation there might be method in my madness.
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only use your play money on pokemon lol
max out your roth 401k to IRS limit
max our your roth IRA to IRS limit
have no debt, no mortgage, no car loan, no college debt
then use all money after that on pokemon because you have nothing left to spend your money on