Well, it has been fun.

[Touch'EmAll]

Good luck. I hear ya - tough to be hard at it 24/7 all year...year after year. Are you selling? Or just keeping what you have and let them be?

Right now I am not chasing any safe deposit box material. However, I am collecting Pokemon cards along with my 9 yr. old son - a lot less expensive and it fills the "need".

[Orioles1954]

Although I still work in the hobby, I left the collecting end of it a couple years back. Much more happy and relaxed.

[Snapolit1]

I haven't been at this very long at all . . . only a few years . . . but wonder what the source of all the stress is you fellas are talking about. Every part of my life EXCEPT card collecting seems to be stress. If I miss a card, so what, another's coming along. I could see getting tired and needing a change of course.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by Snapolit1

I haven't been at this very long at all . . . only a few years . . . but wonder what the source of all the stress is you fellas are talking about. Every part of my life EXCEPT card collecting seems to be stress. If I miss a card, so what, another's coming along. I could see getting tired and needing a change of course.

I had more money into my collection than I should have relative to my other assets. So that was stressful for me. I am more balanced (still off center though) now. I had a nice collection and no cash. Now I have a few nice cards and a little bit of cash and am much less stressed with that aspect. Collecting, in general, is still a ton of fun for me. It's just different.

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by Snapolit1

Every part of my life EXCEPT card collecting seems to be stress.

+1. As I explain to my wife when she questions my collecting, I don't drink or play golf or pursue any other of the 'manly' diversions that some of my colleagues do, I collect cards and play with them. I'm more ten year old than fifty year old.

Brian, sometimes it is just a good idea to step away for a while and explore other stuff, especially if you fall prey to focusing on the folly and negativity inherent in the hobby and its personalities. That's I go to the National every year, even when it is somewhere shitty (like AC); it reminds me of the fun of the hobby. Just don't do anything hasty with your collection while you are in a funk. It will be there if you decide to come back to it and you will be glad not to have sold it off during a period of burnout. If you are intent on getting rid of it, my suggestion is that you retain the pieces that were really, really hard to locate, because once those are gone you will have a hell of a time putting them back together if you decide to come back.

Leon, I completely understand the position you were in and hope to be closer to where you are right now. I have been in a net unwinding and repositioning mode myself for the last few years, and will be for several more. I guess I prefer to peel off the band-aid slowly rather than give it a good rip...

[ls7plus]

+1--great advice from Adam. I have a 625 horsepower, 540 cubic inch big block '72 Corvette that I have owned for 36 years, through different drivetrain configurations (the 540 motor replaced a more radical solid roller-cammed 454 with high compression requiring racing gas in 2004), and my interest with it has been up and down. Twice I had it sold, but took it for a last drive, and just couldn't do it. Good thing, since the interest has returned with significant zeal, and it would cost too much to duplicate (probably around 70 grand). Now I know to keep it around.

Regards,

Larry

[tschock]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

+1. As I explain to my wife when she questions my collecting, I don't drink or play golf or pursue any other of the 'manly' diversions that some of my colleagues do, I collect cards and play with them. I'm more ten year old than fifty year old.

This, basically. Though she tells me that. LOL

When you are 10 and act 10, it's because you don't know any different. When you are 50 and act 10, it's because you don't give a sh*t. And I should know.