Card Budget

[nat]

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.

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by nat

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.

[BleedinBlue]

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.

[abothebear]

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).