Card Budget
 

Do you have a set card budget every month? How do you determine how much it is? Do you exhaust your budget every month? If not, does the excess money roll over to the next month? I need idea. Thanks!

My monthly card budget is directly related to the intensity of the wife's scowl.:D I just keep spending until I see the vein on the side of her forehead pulsate sending angry spittle from the corner of her sneer.....

Card budget = (all other fixed and variable monthly costs) x 2

No real budget, but I should have one! :o

I'm streaky, I suppose? When I see cards that I don't own and if they are reasonable, as well as shipping, then I'll bid. Sometimes not much is available so that is obviously my down/slow time.

Guess it all balances out over a period of time.

A budget is necessary if you have cash-flow problems or poor self control. And, if the former, you probably shouldn't be spending money on baseball cards.

If neither of those is true, the way to keep spending down is to assign a very low number to each card that you want, and simply refuse to pay more than that number. The number has got to be low enough that it's hard to find the card at that price. It's what I do, and it means passing on lots of things that I could "afford". I like this strategy better than an actual budget because it means that if several things can be found at my very low number, I can get all of them. On the other hand, it also means that there will sometimes be a month in which I don't buy anything.

Caveat: due to being married, some elements of a budget are necessary. If I spend a lot of money, or if lots of packages show up in the mail all at once (regardless of what they cost), it might be necessary to lie low for a while. But that's a "staying married" strategy, not a "buying cards" strategy, and applies as much to anything else as it does to baseball cards.

+1 on buying cards and staying married. I do almost exactly the same thing.:)

A must hav
 

I have a budget that I religiously adhere to each month. At least until the next auction catalog arrives in the mail or a group of cards I've been seeking all show up on eBay on the same day. When that happens (as it does most months) the budget gets thrown out and next months spending plan reduced accordingly. At least until one of the items above inevitably happen again.

I'm still married. So somehow this plan is working for me.

I had a $5 a week budget and would roll it over if I didn't use it. That was a fun set-up. Kept me from over-doing it, but also freed me up to spend more (when I had built a surplus). And it was a fun challenge to spend so little (getting to the point where I knew I could always find something if I was patient was a key part of this).

That's my approach, too. I think of it as more of a per-card budget. Some months there are 10 cards that I need that come up at my desired prices, some months I don't buy anything. I've got a pretty narrow focus of what I'm looking for, so I have to try to grab what I can when it's available.

I've been think about make myself a budget for every month and sticking to it. I dont make purchases with a credit card or anything, but Id feel better if I had a set budget.

I buy and sell things so I use profits to buy hobby wants. I do this so I don't use any family money on my own collecting.

Unless you're a millionaire with no financial worries in life, you should have a budget. With that being said, sometimes you can get carried away even with a budget. :o

The Revenue Neutral Budget
 

Step 1

Buy $100,000 worth or cards or other stuff.

Step 2

Become immersed in the Forum, catalogs and online sites.

Step 3

Find something you want.

Step 4

Sell something you have from Step 1 to fund the Step 3 purchase.

Step 5

Repeat Steps 3 & 4 over and over again.

Step 6

When you tire of the hobby after 10 years or more, sell everything which then could be worth $200,000 or more at that time, if you're wise and/or lucky.

Staying Married Budget = P.O. Box, then when the "when did you get that?" is sounded, its.......... Oh I always had that...........

Just kidding about the above. I do not have a budget but I should. However, I don't buy much anymore with a daughter in college and a son going in two years.

Robert

My wife and I have a budget for everything!

All of our post tax/retirement money first goes into a joint checking account. Every week my wife and I each transfer X amount of money for ourselves (like an allowance) to separate accounts which we can do with whatever we choose, with zero judgement from the other. We also keep for ourselves any bonuses we each get at work. This is our weekly/yearly "fun money" and my collecting budget. All other money we earn is considered "family money" which is used for bills, vacations, further savings, etc. and is off limits.

I realize this system wouldn't work for everyone but it's served us well for the last ten years. We've never had an argument or even a disagreement about money.

I really like your system.

I had a set amount directly transferred to a separate bank account so I could spend it at will on cards. Now the budget is a little tighter, so all I'm spending is what I'm able to acquire from selling duplicates I already own.

I set annual collecting goals - i.e this year was to get '54 and '55 Bowman as well as the 59-63 Fleers and some Red Man sets.

Over the last 5 years, I have averaged between 10-15k per year.

Bonus comes in February and I set aside a big portion of this during that time. I also feed my "secondary account" $100 a paycheck and I get any mileage and reimbursement from work into that account.

In the last couple of years, I buy 75-85% of my annual purchases between February - April I then have an upgrade list that I work on the rest of the year.

If I put aside 5-7 grand from my bonus and spend 12 grand during those months (driven largely by the spring auctions), I will pull the overage from my savings account and then pay myself back throughout the year with the extra stuff that I described above.

Unfortunately, I have an unhealthy relationship with my cards so I am reticent to sell any doubles from my upgrades, so every purchase is "new money".

As I get deeper into the set run, I find that the up front investment is much higher or the upgrade list is much longer. So far the system has worked with the Mrs, and she did get some things on her want list this spring which helps ease some of the tension. She doesn't love it, however, and it is cause for budget renegotiation during every bonus season.

We have a similar system, but in the other direction. Auto transfers from personal accounts into a joint account for expenses and savings. Whatever is left behind is for personal purchases.

My plan
 

Here is my strategy:

1. Buy $10,000 worth of cards, mostly above market value.

2. Sell them a few at a time, mostly for less than I paid for them, to fund new purchases.

3. Keep adding to my collection by paying more than anyone else is willing to pay.

4. After 10 years, sell the entire collection for $2000.

Then start over.

It works well for me.

Similar for me. No set budget, buy what I like, and often sell things to thin the herd.

I came into my marriage with a collection, and collecting as a hobby. I keep those funds separate, therefore never any questions.

But of course, Mike. How could you be so crass as to actually spend money on baseball cards when surely the house needs some form of improvement?

Happy collecting,

Larry

I ate one of those big $1.19 soft pretzels from Wawa for dinner last night due to going well over my budget last month, so I might be wrong person to give advice...

No budget for me. Some months I may pick up a few cards. I may go a few months between pick ups. If I've been spending too much, or want to go after a big purchase I sell a few cards. It's worked out so far, and I always make sure to leave a comfortable reserve in the bank in case other things come up.

I did sell a few cards I would have rather held on to when I was about to purchase a house. But I felt it necessary at the time due to the money we were putting down. I sure wish I had the green Cobb back with the recent run up.

My collecting activities actually shaped my budget.

Years ago, I set off to complete a defined collection. Early on in the search, there were literally hundreds of options and a wide range of $ values. I had a set monthly budget that I was comfortable with. I spent nearly that amount most every month. At times, a good deal on a pricey card would come up and I would usually dial back my spending in the later months to make up for it. Nowadays, my remaining list is small and purchases are infrequent at all. Many are rare and higher dollar though some are just hard to find but affordable. Scarcity is my budget control. When they come up though....its a matter of whether I can afford it or not.

Pretty much describes me along with is what a seller is asking for a card. If they are way out of the price range, then it's a no go.

There has never been much room in my budget for pricey vintage baseball cards. So therefore I have never had a budget. But I've always had a goal: to eventually take in more money than I have paid out. So while I do look for bargains on cards that I will keep, I also look for deals on cards I intend to flip for a decent profit. I started from scratch, and my collection has been growing for 12 years now. It seems to be working because right now, overall, I'm about $2500 in the hole on a collection that is worth well over $30,000 in strictly vintage cards (1887-1974).

That is sweet and sort of the way I think too.
My card budget is whatever I see I like and can afford. (which isn't a ton nowadays).... But I also KNOW if done correctly it's not spending it's investing :). I can rarely spend but I can invest (it seems almost daily nowadays).

My budget is simple:

Kill = Eat

Whatever I make selling I can spend buying. Above that, I am SOL.

SOL hahah love it :-)