Baseball cards and Addiction

[GrayGhost]

There is help available. Partake of it.

[Wesley]

He should collect E cards instead. There are only 25-30 cards in most of those sets.

[barrysloate]

Very well written, kind of like a short story.

Here's my advice: don't look at this in such black and white terms. Instead of buying everything in sight and then quitting cold turkey, pace yourself. Buy a few cards each month so it won't kill your budget. You will enjoy it more.

[Matt]

Well written and a nice twist at the end. I thought for certain we were heading towards the "so, that is why none of you have gotten paid for the cards I bought" finish.

[Anthony S.]

I'm tempted to send him an Old Judge, just to see what happens...

[wolterse]

I would say lean on your wife for support, but if yours is any like mine (if indeed you have one), you'd lean over, she'd move right out of the way, and gladly watch you smash your face right into the ground.

Good luck with the therapy.

[iggyman]

Dude, there is not much we can do for you now. Perhaps, if you came to us earlier??? But with 90 cards in, you have no hope of a recovery and will soon relapse. My condolences to your family...

By the way, I have a "sweet" T206 Cobb bat on shoulder for sale .

Lovely Day...

[Jacklitsch]

Great story that I can relate to. Back in the day, and I mean way back in the day, when I started the monster, it was equally, if not more so, the addiction you describe today.

I'd hurry home every day after work to be thrilled by what had just come in the mail. While it was a different time, no ebay, no grading companies, everything raw, it was exciting. Oh, and the anguish if my SCD hadn't arrived on time.

I went from 0 to the 520 in about a year and had another 1,500 dups to boot.

Boy, was it fun!!!

[Jacklitsch]

Steve Y.

Nice to see you posting again. You ave been sorely missed.

[yawie99]

Thanks, Steve M. The "take a break" aspect of this thread was very relevant for me. I have picked up a few cards this year, but have generally been in hibernation for most of '09. Slowly emerging from my slumber, though.

Just in time to see Matt Holliday become the Cardinals answer to Bill Buckner. Well, maybe not that bad, but unless the Cards can come back, which I seriously doubt, that will be an epic error in franchise history.

[V117collector]

My advice for the cardboard addict is simple, try collecting scans for your fix. I rarely pull out my Maples and others to view them, my photobucket page is satisfying enough. I find this way of collecting cheap and efficient besides you can save up for the card you really want.

[yawie99]

Originally Posted by barrysloate

Very well written, kind of like a short story.

Here's my advice: don't look at this in such black and white terms. Instead of buying everything in sight and then quitting cold turkey, pace yourself. Buy a few cards each month so it won't kill your budget. You will enjoy it more.

Sage advice. I can't pinpoint a single reason why I finally threw in the towel about halfway into the set, but burnout was certainly a factor. The Monster is a massive undertaking, especially if you're meticulous about keeping up with Super Set-style checklists, scans and so on. As I was, and as you probably are judging from your post. I don't think my pace ever approached yours - except for the few times I was able to buy large groups of T206s - but even adding a couple cards a week on average just got to be too much. Time. Money. Energy.

So take a break, recharge your batteries and your checking account and come back when the playoffs are over. Or even in 2010. The cards you seek will still be out there.

[Doug]

I've learned not to use credit cards to fund card purchases for this very reason. One late night eBay card binge can get pretty expensive (and shocking) when the bill comes. My best advice from experience is to use a debit card for your purchases. The worst case scenario is that you might end up emptying your bank account, but that's better than getting yourself so deep in credit card debt that you can't get out all because of collecting cards. The best solution is to pace yourself, but I'm sure most of the people here can say that's easier said than done.