Is anyone here only in it for the $$$?
I know you from a discord, lets not pretend 
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Yes. My collection is “cost free” because I have recouped my money spent. Excess money will be reserved for next chase card. However, this practice stills irks collectors because I buy sealed products in bulk to sell.
Which discord?
A cost free collection sounds cool
Any % no nice SS speedrun
This matter will literally never be settled. It can’t be, thermodynamics won’t allow it.
Let me quote El Capitan: “I think people forget we’re competing”
Threads like these are a part of that competition, whether intentional or not. And to the bitter ones, keep this in mind: for every minute you spend formulating a response, someone else in this thread made money. That’s what this whole thing is all about.
Hi c0ll3ct0r 
Nice!
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I think that the ‘investor’ type collectors out there can be both good and bad for the hobby depending on how you look at it. With the recent influx of people returning to the hobby trying to just unload cards or collections, we’re now seeing a lot of supply hit the market and drive down prices for a lot of cards/sets as a side effect. If we didn’t have some big investors or popular people come in and influencing a wider audience, a lot of people would have just left those Pokemon cards in binders in a closet for years and years for all we know.
All though I wish we could just go on eBay or other sites and just buy the best cards at low prices and be done with it, it’s never going to be that simple because we’re dealing with rare and in demand collectibles that don’t always move hands or become permanent collection pieces. That is why people out there will ask a big price and many out there are willing to pay a big price for certain cards.
The good news is, if your goal is solely to collect, you can still get just about any card you want at a very reasonable price (with exceptions). This actually can’t be said for every collecting hobby out there or even other TCGs. I have some MTG cards that are in the single digits in graded population which are some of my favourite collectibles but they were extremely hard to obtain. Even the ungraded copies you’ll be lucky to find 1 or 2 copies for sale. With most of my Pokemon cards I can still easily find 100s if not 1000s of ungraded copies all at mostly affordable price levels.
The last thing to consider right now is, look how much cheaper on average cards are selling for now compared to this time last year. Many cards that people love have basically crashed in terms of price, especially the PSA 9s or less. I think right now and over the next couple years will be a great time to build sets and collections. Take advantage of the overall price drops and supply hitting the market. That’s what I’m doing and over the past couple months I’ve gotten some cards I didn’t think I would ever get my hands on, including some very nice PSA 10s. I too don’t really care about the monetary value, I’m just happy I’m actually getting some cards that I never thought I would get a year ago.
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It would be really hard to buy cards that are now over 20 years old if someone wasn’t selling them for money.
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I’m only in it for the taxes
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As in evading them
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1 Timothy 6:10
King James Version
10 For the love of money is the root of all evil
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I don’t mind so much what percentage of your motivation is from pure enjoyment of the cards and what percentage is from your personal benefit. As long as people are good to each other and consider each other’s opinions 
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I do not! They sound adorable. Here are a few of my favorite items (Meowth for scale).
The backpack is zippered and fully functional.
The space item is a sealed deck of mini playing poker cards.
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I need that prismacolor eraser
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@qwachansey, I love that teeny ketchup!! I kind of want one for myself now.
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I understand the frustration of being priced out of certain items you want to buy for your collection. In feeling this frustration there’s a strong desire to place blame somewhere. I have often seen this sentiment of “oh if it weren’t for those flippers/scalpers/people in it only for the money then I could afford the things I want”. I think that’s a bit of a false narrative. While scalping sucks for “true collectors” it’s a temporary inconvenience. Most of the items that were being scalped have come down significantly in price in less than a year, so, if a “true collector” is truly in it for the long haul, it shouldn’t be difficult to just exercise some patience and wait for the right time to buy. In the grand scheme of things does it really matter if you complete your vivid voltage master set in 2020 vs 2022? I don’t think it does. Just focus your energy into other areas of the hobby (of which there are many) and before you know it, you’ll be able to get the things you want.
I simply don’t agree with this boogeyman narrative of a group of bad actors jacking up the price of the hobby as a whole and if only they would go away things would be better. Prices increased because demand increased for Pokemon in general. That’s a good thing. Call me crazy, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say this increase in prices across the hobby is almost completely due to genuine demand from people who genuinely enjoy Pokemon.
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@qwachansey, this is one of the coolest collections I’ve seen.
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