Being a collector is often synonymous with sacrifice.
We may:
How has Pokemon collecting forced you to make sacrifices in your own life? Are you happy with these choices?
I think I’ve sacrificed a lot of “hobby legibility” with my IRL friends. For example when I was studying Japanese or learning to sew, I could talk about it with friends, and they were super interested. If I try to do the same thing with Pokémon cards it’s mostly blank stares lol.
I work a lot less at my 9-5 job to collect Pokémon. Corporate America - where you bust your ass for 2 hours and outperform others that spend 10 hours doing the same job
The only sacrifices I make are money, time, and sanity… and i wasnt doing much with any of them anyways.
I prefer to have an enriching collecting experience so i avoid physical sacrifice or struggle as much as i can. Pretty happy with my current levels of sacrifice
Parting ways with cards to fuel larger purchases is hard. Get too emotional selling but such is life.
At the end of day, our collections are no where near important to things like health or peace of mind. I once had a near death experience a long time ago, when I stress about collecting, it puts things into perspective.
I feel like if something meant to be enjoyable use of my resources began to feel like a sacrifice, I would change things. And in some ways, it has, and I’ve changed my behavior. The current market has also essentially chosen for me what I can no longer afford, and so my scope has been forced to narrow.
The one burden I’ve felt is I realized I was giving up physical space for cards, both in messy piles and storage that has overwhelmed me. And that will be changing too.
Being a Cardboard collector (Pokémon/Yu-Gi-Oh) while I’m a university student in a third-world country forced me to do some sacrifices …
Honestly yes … I’ve to admit that I’ve learnt a lot … I’m very optimistic about future …
I’m not saying I’ll leave collecting cardboard … I’ve been around 10 years collecting Pokémon/Yu-Gi-Oh and that’s what makes me happy …
I don’t mention IRL people that I collect cardboard … Most of them might think I’m throwing away money and I should be investing in better things (according to them) … tbh I don’t care what people think, but it’s an awkward situation …
@Dyl you always ask very insightful questions.
I spend too long on ebay refreshing, checking sites - especially considering how infrequent I find new cards. That’s something I am changing.
The mess of bulk sorting is very real but once SV era is over I don’t intend to collect a full set or era again.
Everything else I think i’m pretty on top of. Retirement plans are on course for 50-55.
So yes very happy with where I am at!
Having to deal with other people, either in the hahbee or as a result of it, has always been and will always be a sacrifice.
Other than that, I have on several occasions prioritized buying another booster box over pretty important life upgrades. Of course, my only regret is not selling vital body parts to buy more boxes. My whole mode of collecting is, or rather was, sacrificial. Booster boxes were never the economy option but they were the fun option and a whole lot of card goals had to make way for the experience and joy of self-pulled ungraded cards. It’s the polar opposite of optimizing “collecting” for financial gain.
I tend to not consider the majority of necessary steps as “sacrifice”, since it’s just how it works unfortunately if you’re into a moderately expensive hobby without much steady income.
Some example:
-Taking the train alone at 6:00 AM to meet with weird dudes and buy vintage bulk
-extreme budgeting, like eating only beans and mackerel for 2 weeks lol
-selling part of my console collection, to fund a graded card
-going to sleep after 5:00 AM, to follow fanatics auctions
What I consider sacrifice, for myself, is taking hard collecting choices, like not buying certain cards or giving priority to others. Even if I knew they were good deals or potentially smart purchases. Being financially responsible while saving money for long term goals was definitely hard, especially considering all the fomo and temptations around
As a primarily error collector, I could discuss miscuts and print quirks endlessly, but most of my real-life friends (many of whom are in the performance industry) tend to glaze over when I do. It creates a strange illusion that I’m one-dimensional, when it’s just that they’re not as deep in this particular rabbit hole as I am.
I’ve been collecting since Pokémon first hit English-speaking countries and have seen it go through many cycles of being cool and then not. When it’s trending, my friends get it and even love it, but once the hype fades, even mentioning it feels like too much for them.
I’ve also had to make hard calls like many of us do, letting go of beloved cards to fund something new. That’s part of the cycle, too.
Still, I find a lot of value in helping newer collectors and sellers, and I try to share the kind of info that took me a long time to learn. I wouldn’t say I’ve suffered for it, but it’s shaped how I connect with people through collecting.
I honestly don’t think I’ve made any sacrifices. I’ve always viewed Pokemon collecting as a hobby and treated it as such. I don’t think I’d enjoy it much if I was making sacrifices. Maybe that’s because I’ve viewed it as a hobby. Hobbies are supposed to be fun. If it isn’t fun, it turns into work.
I’d say this is a good description of myself too.
One thing I’ve “sacrificed” is a youthful mentality of ‘having to have it now’ and instead, making educated purchases and waiting for the right opportunity as there will ALWAYS be another opportunity to buy a specific card.
+1, me too. Also known as ‘dirty casual privilege’. If buying Pokemon cards feels like it’s getting to the point where I’m compromising financial goals, I just stop for a while until it doesn’t. If I was a more serious colllector I wouldn’t feel that way though, it would be a bigger part of my life and the money/time invested would feel much less like a compromise.
I’ve always been pretty frugal in regards to the things I don’t care about too much, which allows me to spend more heavily on the things I do care about.
I’m a very budget, coupon savvy shopper when it comes to things like groceries, gas, eating out and the like. This frugality gives me much more leeway for my collectibles.
It’s honestly gotten easier as I’ve gotten older. As an example, going out with friends on weekends used to be an expensive affair when I was in my late teens and earlier 20’s, but these days it’s pretty easy for me to go out, enjoy a light dinner and a couple of drinks and be content for the rest of the evening. I don’t mind being the “most sober” or DD amongst my group. My bank accounts and liver both thank me.
I can also feel confident in a lot of my high-end card purchases, as they are just as much investments as they are a collectible hobby. I don’t have any intent on selling my collection, but it’s good to know that they’re a pretty solid asset to fall back on if life ever rears its ugly head. So long as Millennials and early Gen Z are alive, vintage Pokemon cards will hold value.
I’d like to think I’ve struck a healthy balance between living expenses/hobbies/fun with friends & family.
I feel like I’ve found a pretty good balance. I don’t do anything that’s financially irresponsible but at the same time I do yolo it on occasion. I dunno. As I’ve gotten a little older I’m realizing I can’t take it with me. Like my buddy says, “you’ve never seen a hearse pulling a trailer” 
Since I hate being around people, I have sacrificed little and regret nothing.
sacrifices. too many
Edit: Oops, meant to reply to topic and not to specifically to Kijamon
I haven’t really had to make any sacrifices budget-wise, as I basically have a separate purse of money set aside purely for Pokemon collecting. I currently don’t contribute to this budget through any allocations from my income, but since I’ve decided to handle my collecting budget this way, I basically have needed to figure out some small-time selling to allow my budget to grow. This has led to the biggest sacrifice for me in this hobby: time.
Similar to what @Kijamon mentioned, I have spent (or wasted) a lot of time looking for lines for profit or ways of zero-sum collecting (where you can sell off parts of a lot to offset the cost of other cards). It’s something I generally enjoy and love spending my time doing, but it’s definitely not cost effective and has resulted in Pokemon collecting taking up the lion’s share of my very limited free time, disallowing me from engaging in other hobbies. This is something I’ve started to weigh more frequently, and I think I may end up needing to take some hybrid approach, where I just dedicate a few months in a year to primarily one hobby and rotate that hobby throughout the year. I haven’t tried and don’t currently have any plans to execute this yet, but I think I might soon take a small break after I complete a major collecting goal (Expedition reverse holo set).