Do You Want the Card or the Purchase?

This topic is one that has been percolating for a while, and it's coming from my own experience.

I'm thinking about how do you get better at collecting, and I think there's a lot of that, a lot of, uh, maturation that we go through as collectors.

We're all on our own individualized journeys.

Collections evolve, mindsets evolve, process evolves, strategy evolves, and you reach this point where taste, experience is refined so much that the way you buy isn't the same as how you've bought before, and I find that very interesting.

As a personal use case, I've been reflecting on that myself.

I've added about 10 cards to my collection this year.

I've sold around 150 to get there.

I was thinking about this.

A couple years ago, I was getting cards in the mail, like, every other day.

There was always something new coming in, always another purchase to look forward to.

I would see a card I thought was cool.

I would buy it and get that hit when it arrived.

I enjoyed that feeling.

I think many of you enjoy mail days.

I don't know if I've ever met a collector who doesn't enjoy mail days.

But those purchases weren't sustaining my interest in the collection I wanted to build.

But this year, 2026 has felt very different, and perhaps it's the nature of the circumstances I am in in my life.

I've got three young daughters.

I'm spending a lot of money on groceries, a lot of money on their schools, a lot of money on my house, car payments, a lot of money on my business, and it's been a very, very interesting year just trying to figure out the financial side of things.

And then also while this is happening, my taste and maturity within my own collecting has reached new heights.

Buying has gotten harder for me.

Collecting has become something I enjoy more.

I wanna sit with that today because I think those two things get confused.

When you buy fewer cards, it's easy to assume something is missing.

You aren't participating the way you used to.

This topic is one that has been percolating for a while, and it's coming from my own experience.

I'm thinking about how do you get better at collecting, and I think there's a lot of that, a lot of, uh, maturation that we go through as collectors.

We're all on our own individualized journeys.

Collections evolve, mindsets evolve, process evolves, strategy evolves, and you reach this point where taste, experience is refined so much that the way you buy isn't the same as how you've bought before, and I find that very interesting.

As a personal use case, I've been reflecting on that myself.

I've added about 10 cards to my collection this year.

I've sold around 150 to get there.

I was thinking about this.

A couple years ago, I was getting cards in the mail, like, every other day.

There was always something new coming in, always another purchase to look forward to.

I would see a card I thought was cool.

I would buy it and get that hit when it arrived.

I enjoyed that feeling.

I think many of you enjoy mail days.

I don't know if I've ever met a collector who doesn't enjoy mail days.

But those purchases weren't sustaining my interest in the collection I wanted to build.

But this year, 2026 has felt very different, and perhaps it's the nature of the circumstances I am in in my life.

I've got three young daughters.

I'm spending a lot of money on groceries, a lot of money on their schools, a lot of money on my house, car payments, a lot of money on my business, and it's been a very, very interesting year just trying to figure out the financial side of things.

And then also while this is happening, my taste and maturity within my own collecting has reached new heights.

Buying has gotten harder for me.

Collecting has become something I enjoy more.

I wanna sit with that today because I think those two things get confused.

When you buy fewer cards, it's easy to assume something is missing.

You aren't participating the way you used to.