[gustomania]

First and foremost because its sooo much fun, but wasnt always that way for me TBH.

I collected as a kid in the mid 80s up to about 1991. Loved it, was cheap and had a huge worthless collection. Then in 2012 picked it up again and it was about value, grading and totally stressed me out.

It took me until about Nov/Dec of 2019 to scale back my approach to something now where I pick up a few cards here and there and focus only on Koufax...............

The silver lining is I now found my nitch where I usually am just enjoying the cards I have and add a few here and there but no stress, just the love of collecting.

I used to think I had to have everything, now I'm content with simply having fun and keeping a modest budget. Actually the budget is so modest I dont even pay attention to it anymore.

So, I now I'm back to having fun and honestly appreciating what I do have rather than what is next and what I need (which was a vicious cycle of not really caring what I already had, hence no enjoyment).

The hardest part of my lessons above was scaling back and selling, because everything I had trouble letting go of. Now I know I did the right thing, its no longer about value or not buying a card because its $5 too high, I simply buy what I want when I want and just enjoy what I have.

My two cents anyway............the hobby for many years was a crutch and found a way to enjoy collecting again.