In 2025 it’s very common for people to be spending 6 figures with a month or two experience in Pokemon.
Back in my day you had to build up the nerve, even if you had the money, to spend a thousand dollars on a piece of cardboard.
How much time did it take you to build up a spending tolerance before you bought your main goal item?
Wheres the still waiting option🫡
5 years for me, buying the English gold star Umbreon and Espeon in 2021 for way more than the prices when I started 
It’s for those who have completed it…
Sorry to rub salt in the wound
I’ve been collecting for 8 years now and haven’t bought a card over 1k lol
I haven’t had to spend tens of thousands (yet) on a single card just because of the nature of my collection, but I do remember back in college picking $5 and $10 cards out of claim sales and feeling like I spent too much. I used to pine after shining gyarados because a couple hundred felt like too much back then! spending over 1k on a card for the first time in my mid 20s was an interesting feeling.
I think employment and life stability changed most of it, I’m comfortable paying more now to get rarer things I want. I don’t spend a ton consistently on Pokemon because I try to balance my hobbies, but I’m glad I got what I did pre-covid. I’m much more selective about what I choose to get these days since I can’t just mass buy multiples of what I like anymore for cheap 
Although the dollar amount is small by today’s standards, I still consider my biggest purchase, the one that required the most nerve, to be my Base Unlimited Booster Box, which I’ve held for almost a decade.
It only took me 3 months of being back in the hobby as an adult before I made that purchase.
That was 2016, and it was only $1500. But that $1500 felt a lot different then, especially as a mid-20s graduate student.
I’m not sure how/why I got the nerve so quickly. It might have been FOMO, because I had a feeling it might get out of reach if I didn’t buy it quickly. Glad it worked out but it definitely felt high risk for me at that time in life.
For me, it mainly took getting an adult job with an adult paycheck. After that I gradually increased my spending tolerance from 50 to 100 to 500 to 1000+ USD. My first “expensive card” was a PSA 9 1st edition base Mewtwo for about 300 USD. Less than a year later I had gotten the Charizard as well. 
Imho at least 2 years of continuous engagement in the hobby.
I started collecting again in 2015/16 and I bought my first “expensive” card (50$ charizord) after more than a year; definitely spending more than a few bucks felt huge for me, back then. So I remember it took a lot before pulling the trigger for some shiny cardboard.
I had never touched >100$ cards until covid, when I finally decided I was serious about it and I accepted the new price floor.
I was born ready.
Didn’t help that I was a vertimmy back then
Ten years and counting. Will update iff I one day get my hands on the SNAP Pikachu. 
Greetz,
Quuador
Your original threshold for buying cards was under $50. At some point you upped that limit. How long did it take to up the limit to let’s say $500? That is probably more what Wise’s poll is asking in terms of progression from where you started.
I was hesitant to spend over $25 on a single card my first year or so. Slowly upping that as I gained more knowledge and understanding of why the expensive cards are expensive (justify the purchase then)
My main goals are large and expensive so I’m still waiting. One of my initial main goals of a Grand Party took a few years but compared to an Art Academy, it’s a fraction of the price and difficulty of obtaining. I also try to pace myself and be patient so I don’t get burned out and still enjoy the hobby/learning.
Trust fund and silver spoon in hand, no less.
They made credit cards for this very reason. Buy it and regret your debts later.
Weird flex, but ok.
Not to derail this thread, but is this actually true?
Is 6 figures a lot to you?
I can’t fathom that much, but I’m probably just not in those rooms or even in the ball park