The Dreaded Lull

[paulcarek]

Card budget has been cut way back for the foreseeable future (two kids starting private school this year). Trade bait has dried up (sold the bulk of my HOF collection to afford a much smaller group of "marquee" cards). Yet the urge to buy (particularly after seeing all the great acquisitions in the monthly pick up threads) is stronger than ever.

The question is, how do you deal with down times like these, when your collecting appetite is bigger than your wallet?

Me, I've been hitting the occasional garage sale, hoping to get real lucky...

[Kawika]

Methadone gets me through the rough patches.

[Oldtix]

To paraphrase the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers: "Cards will get you through periods of no money better than money will get you through periods of no cards."

[Doug]

I usually just try to focus my attention elsewhere. If you have some other hobby or interest, just devote more time to those to distract you until your budget is replenished. You should probably avoid looking at ebay and auction catalogs. Window shopping with no money is basically like dangling a steak in front of a caged animal.

[Exhibitman]

Porn. Lots of porn.

J/K. Try a different avenue of collecting. There are lots of fun nonsports or other sports cards that are a heck of a lot cheaper.

[Jason Carota]

Try researching the players from the cards in your collection. Focus on the more obscure players, if possible.

[tinkertoeverstochance]

I switched set interests and started set collecting. Instead of bidding on a whole bunch of OJ's and t206 rare backs that I seem to no longer be able to afford, I started collecting equally appealing sets (to me, anyway) that are cheaper (still pre-war baseball). The set hunt makes it challenging, but easier on the budget. I still pickup t206 rare backs and nice n172's when I can, though.

Lee

[paulcarek]

Exhibitman, your post reminded me of a sort of "baseball card porn" I recently discovered. YouTube has many videos of vintage-ish wax being busted. It's pretty riveting, albeit in a very sad way.