I still haven’t purchased my main goal item so I didn’t vote. I got back into collecting in early 2020. A month or two before covid hit the US and the market went nuts. It’s funny thinking about the things I passed on during that time. It’s interesting to me how jaded I’ve become with prices since then.
Life’s a dance.
I selected 0-1 years, but it took me many months after coming back to collecting of agonizing to get myself to spend over a few hundred bucks on a card. Now… well, it’s still agonizing, but the goalposts have shifted a bit lol…
i feel honored to be in the same catagory as smpratte 
Me too, gonna wait forever 
When I started just 6 years ago I didn’t spent more then a couple dollars on cards. I bought a lot of Pikachu Promos from Japan because they were all so cheap. Every item I got felt like a goal card because it was all so new and cute. I loved them and spend hours just looking through them in my binders 
. ( still do) would like to buy the tropical championship promos next year.
In that case:
Before I was collecting Pokémon, I was collecting Yu-Gi-Oh. I remember when I was literally doubting for roughly two weeks about a 28 USD purchase, which I ended up buying in the end after all. Iirc it was a SR Black Rose Dragon, somewhere in 2013/2014.
When I started collecting Pokémon, 50 USD each was indeed my limit for that initial order from TrollAndToad that started my Pikachu collection by impulse. This was mid-2015.
I think I upped that limit to about 100 USD each when I seriously started collecting all English Pikachu cards, just a few months later in Fall/late 2015. Early 2016, I decided to branch out into all languages and just collect everything, and I joined E4 after I came across Justin(ator)'s collection thread and website in February 2016.
I’m pretty sure that the first actually expensive card I bought was my first Art Academy Pikachu, which I bought from a fellow E4 member (the father of the winner, for the Japanese red raincoat Pikachu by Y. Fujishima, whom was active here at the time). That one was 300 USD, in August 2016. I bought the second Art Academy Pikachu on eBay for 320 USD not long after in October 2016 (the Hawaii Dancer one, which I bought from the brother of the Chilean winner).
I’m pretty sure that the first card that went above 1k USD was the MATCHPRINT Pikachu, of which only two copies exist. Before, I thought Rusty wouldn’t want to split up his set, and since he already sold one of the two MATCHPRINT Pikachu to Justin(ator), I didn’t bother to ask. But later on I heard he already broke up his set to sell his last two MATCHPRINT Charizard for 1k USD each, so I matched that offer for the Pikachu as soon as I heard about that, which he accepted. 
Although it’s an unofficial release, I’m still very happy to have it in my collection. This was in June 2017.
Another one that was ~925 USD (so almost 1k) was the Pikachu with YOU Wagon promo, which I won in an Yahoo Japan auction through a middleman service in February 2017. This one dropped to a value of about ~100 USD half a year later, and it wasn’t until two years into the pandemic that its value was roughly what I paid again.. Nowadays it’s worth 1.75k-2.25k, though. 
The first card that passed 2k USD also passed the 3k+ threshold , which was the PSA-10 The Masked Royal promo (for 3.4k USD) to 100% complete my FA Supporter collection (I paid 500 USD each for the PSA-10 Team Rocket Brief Case promos a few months prior, for those wondering).
There have been a few other 1k purchases soon after that, most notably more Art Academy Pikachu (cooking Pikachu by Rhivern for 1k USD and orange raincoat Pikachu by Sayaka Maruyama for 1.2k USD, which I both bought from another collector in January 2019, and the queen of heards Pikachu by Me!, which I bought on eBay from CollectorsCache for 3.1k USD in August 2000).
These days, 1k USD is a pretty normal purchase amount for newly released Pikachu cards, unfortunately.. I honestly lost count on how many 1k+ purchases I’ve already made, ngl.. 
The first card to be above 4k USD is still my second most expensive bought card, which is the German birthday Pikachu promo, for which I paid 3.6k euros (~4.4k USD with the exchange rate at the time) in May 2021.
And the first card to surpass 5k, which even passed 10k, and is still my most expensive bought card thus far: the English Art Academy kabuki Pikachu by Ashley, which I bought from a non-Japanese Art Academy collector (chibicollectables) whom upgraded his BGS-8 (that I bought from him) to a BGS-9. This was the final English Pikachu card I was missing to 100% complete my Pikachu collection in that language, a feat I’m still just one of two in the world to complete (after David Persin, the multimillionaire who used to collect all English cards). I paid 14k USD for it in September 2024. Apart from my house, it’s my most expensive purchase ever, even surpassing what I paid for my latest car (~10.5k euros iirc, which was ~11.5k USD at the time).
Assuming I have the money to spend again, I wouldn’t mind paying 15k USD each for the four missing Art Academy Pikachu or Pikachu SNAP, but considering the Art Academy cards are worth 150k-250k each and SNAP is worth 400k-500k, I doubt that will ever happen. 
So at this point, I’m not sure there are any cards I’d be willing to spend that amount of money on again. Maybe a future English Pikachu release, to at least keep that collection complete. 
Although I honestly hope the prices stay semi-reasonable in the future. Apart from the Art Academy Pikachu cards, the English Pikachu releases overall aren’t too expensive. Then again, I’m not entirely sure. I’m completely out of the loop of values for cards I already own. Two weeks ago someone told me they bought a Rumble Pikachu for 400 USD for example, which I remember buying for ~10 bucks. Should have bought loads of copies for loads of cards in the past… Hindsight is a b*tch. 
Greetz,
Quuador
It took around 11 years and a lot of help from the current market.
I remember building up the nerve just to buy a base set Charizard for £40, It took a while to buy WOTC boosters for £50 each too, thought i was crazy for doing so. If it was not for the recent boom and selling off ‘old’ modern i would never of spent 1k on a single card. It would be irresponsible of me in my position. My income is focused on providing the best i can for my family.
Less than 3 months due to collecting being the very first hobby that makes me smile everyday. Ofc I’m talking about adult stage with spare money. Before was just collecting small cards and ripping packs sometimes
I’ve been in the game almost consistently since 1999 (took a break from proper collecting mid-BW to mid-XY), but I still haven’t cracked £1000 for a purchase. Highest I’ve ever paid is £700 for a PSA 9 in 2023.
My tolerance went up from a sickening ~£100 to ~£700 being reasonable for slabs post-covid, just because the prices went crazy for the bigger stuff I was interested in.
But I feel so lucky to have gotten my grail last weekend (1st ed Zord) through a show trade, so it technically cost me nothing (or just the initial price of the slabs I traded). I probably lost out on a bit of potential “profit” compared to if I’d sold them, but I’m not in it for the money, so who cares?!
Took me 4 months (since october 2024) before splurging on a masaki 10 (machamp ~3500). Looking back it seems a decision i can live with, it would be too much money to consider it now (although there is no comp)
Definitely guided by fomo, it didn’t feel comfortable to spend that sum on one piece of cardboard but i had this intense feeling that if i didn’t get it now, i’d never be able to finish a komiya psa10 set
it’s weird because in all others sets i’m collecting, i didn’t go for the chases first and instead bought the more accessible ones. I guess it tells the komiya set is the only one i truly cared about
I probably shouldn’t have said “very common” but it’s common to the point where it no longer seems extraordinary like it would have a couple years ago
I believe it was you that said “Baby’s first slab is $1,000 now, as opposed to $50” which doesn’t feel like as much of an exaggeration.
To give my formal answer to the question, it took me a good year+ of serious “adult money” collecting before I felt comfortable making purchases that exceeded $1K. Prior to that, the most I’d ever spent on any single item was a few hundred at most with my college hustle money.
It then took me a couple more years before I ever spent multiple thousands on any one item. My spending tolerance grows along with my income and life experience hand in hand. This patience has not only prevented burn out, but assured me that I’m in my hobbies for the long haul. I wonder if a lot of the newer hobbyists are underestimating just how much life and priorities change across your 20’s and presumably, 30’s.
Fair enough! I agree it’s more common to spend more on Pokemon than it’s ever been, I was just thrown by the idea of it being super common to spend $100k+ within two months of collecting Pokemon. I have no doubt there are those people in hobby though!
In terms of the actual poll, I didn’t vote but conveniently there is a high probability I will purchase one of my goal items today in person 
so perhaps then I will vote!
I think it took around 8 or 9 years after starting collecting again as an adult to pay over 1000$ for a single card naturally it was the cosmos foil fossil muk so it was really a grail purchase for me
For me I wouldn’t say it was a spend tolerance moreso than market conditions. With the market being so hot I was able to sell a lot of extraneous items I had and brought in a significant amount of money. This allowed me to expand my normal scope of what I would look at purchasing and I have made a few 4 figure purchases (In the past I would not have done this). Going forward will I be spending this kind of money as well? It all depends on the market. My budget for cards these days comes from what I can create via grading and flipping so if the market crashes, I won’t be able to generate as much capital to spend on my collection.
Not only does it take to time build a spend tolerance, it takes time to learn how to value cards in general and to assure yourself what your “main goal” truly is.
This year, I’ve seen a number of newer collectors go hard on their “goals” only to sell them later in the year…
Still haven’t bought my main goal item…
I chose 0-1 years as I committed to buying my favourite card of all time after only 8 months of getting into graded cards. However, I’d been back into playing and low level pack ripping/collecting for about 4 years before that which gave me the confidence that it was a worthy purchase and I was in it for the long haul.
I’ve been collecting for less than a year and been buying up some new gamestop lunar power-up packs, im hoping to get my grail soon. If I don’t pull it soon, ill sell back my cards to Gamestop.
I remember when I thought this 1k psa10 Gold Star Raikou was going to be the top grail of my collection 
, and then this 6K psa10 GS Rayquaza, and then this +15K PSA8 GS Espeon, and then.. I believe my next step is +50k, and then +100k for my final goal.. but only by selling other cards now. Don’t want to spend more from my personal savings to buy +5k cards.