Does anyone ever feel addicted?

[legaleagle92481]

Do any of you guys ever feel addicted to the hobby? Like you buy stuff you really do not want just to buy something or that you really cannot afford? I think I am going through this and I was just wondering if anyone else had the same feelings.

[Fnazxc0114]

Nope, i dont feel addicted at all. I never buy anything i cant afford. I also quit buying equipment from random rangers players. I only collect the rangers so other than a few fielding gloves and jerseys ive bought there isnt too much expensive stuff out there. I generally save my money for buying at the fanfest, and the pink bat auctions. ONce i sold all my random player bats and equipment i felt a lot better about my collection, and now for the most part i only own items that i really want. Everyonce in a while i get the itch to sell my duplicates, because i dont see the point in owning two bats or jerseys of the same player.

[mbenga28]

you can afford anything, it just takes time. I'd rather be in debt now but have a piece I really love at a high price, then letting it go and later on spending countless hours hunting it down again with no guarantees I will ever find it again.

[Tay1038]

I think were all addicted to this hobby in some way; no matter what people claim. That's why its our hobby, right? Back in my teen days I was like you. I would just buy something, just to have something new every week. It turned out my collection had no flow and was just a mess. Someone once told me to enjoy what you collect but to narrow it down by choosing a theme. By doing this I ultimately reconstructed my collection as there was only one common goal and now I no longer impulse buy just to have or feed my addiction to my hobby. I have the opportunity now to save for months at a time to afford that one hall-of-fame caliber piece that fits just right.

[Dewey2007]

you can afford anything, it just takes time. I'd rather be in debt now but have a piece I really love at a high price, then letting it go and later on spending countless hours hunting it down again with no guarantees I will ever find it again.

I agree with this perspective. Depending on what you collect there might be one of a kind pieces that you do not want to pass on and you can work on paying them off. This can get tricky though because if you collect HOFers or Star players only it seems there is always something available and it can become a problem if you are buying up everything in sight. I think one has to have some perspective on what is a piece they really want/need as opposed to waiting for something that might become available later on. I'll use the Jimmy Rollins World Series jersey as my example. I knew that it would come with a high price tag but I wasn't sure if it was an item I would ever have a chance at again. It might go into someone's collection who wasn't willing to part with it, possibly Rollins never makes it back to another WS, or it has a price tag later on that is much more then what I could have originally gotten it. With that said there are a few items I probably could and should have passed on but didn't and look back and say to myself "did you really need that"?

Now, if you are buying stuff just to buy it and you don't really want it then that is an issue. It has been proven that resale values on lots of items are not what can be expected and taking a big loss on items is not a good thing.

In any case, very good question because I imagine at some point all collectors contemplate this or their significant others question this when packages are arriving all the time.

[CampWest]

I would not say "addicted", but I do feel withdrawal symptoms on occassion when I go a while without finding anything worth adding, get a little antsy to add something (aka money burning a hole in the pocket). Thats when I tend to pay a little more than I would like for an item, but its still items that I want in my collection. I used to have a "junk" problem with baseball & football cards. That was an addiction - a gambling addiction largely. It was fun to rip wax and get that big pull and I'd open packs just for the chase of a big hit. Since my switch to game used memorabilia, I don't have that sort of urge anymore. Though if they ever came out with a packaged game used bat box (each bat GU not 1 in 30 or 1 in 60 like Just Minors Mystery bats), then maybe I'd have an issue.

[yankees24]

I used to but now I am just concentrating on one player, I do get very paranoid that my items might get lost in a fire or burgulary and can never never be replaced again because they are one of a kind collectibles.

[SWPY]

you can afford anything, it just takes time. I'd rather be in debt now but have a piece I really love at a high price, then letting it go and later on spending countless hours hunting it down again with no guarantees I will ever find it again.

I feel this way too. Sometimes I wonder whether I'm in the hobby only for the thrill of hunting. Once I get what I want, I kept it for a while, sell it, and try to hunt for something similar or something better. It looks like an un-healthy cycle. I'm thinking of quitting the hobby, but I have been a collector for over half of my life and it's tough! You can say I'm addicted!

[JasonBanz]

It is safe to say I am addicted! My daily routine is normally checking GUU, checking ebay(saved seaches are Dolphins game used, game used helmets, and game used NFL jerseys), checking auction houses, and repeat. I am lucky enough to have a job to where I can surf the web while I am at work(like I am now). This hobby has got to be the greatest. Much better than coin collecting, stamp collecting, and knitting....combined!

[gingi79]

Addicted? Me? Nah...... it's normal to check 3 different boards, eBay and other game worn jersey websites everyday for the same 5 players right?

Of course I'm an addict. Just like I'm a fan-atic. I go through withdrawl when my teams season ends and patience has never been one of my virtues. So when I type "Salo jersey" into eBay, I sit back and pray one of his shirts comes up. Thanks to board member Lokee who PM'd me today to say the NHLPA posted Team Finland's 2010 Vancouver Olympic whites, I saw a game used salo jersey come up for the first time since January 24th 2009 (I checked another site to see when I posted that I won the last Salo gamer listed in eBay. Addiction? HA!)

That's like 18 months between the last 2 times my favorite players' shirts became available. It hurts sometimes to realize how hard it is to obtain the items we crave. But man oh man! When one pops up for sale? Holy jumpin jack flash, what a rush. I just pray no one decides to drop retarded money on this jersey as the blue one sold for $1500. If I was truly an addict, I would have found the money for it. But I can't validate spending that kind of money on one of Sami's shirts especially since it was a one game wonder. Normal eBay/Classic Auctions/gwj.com resale price for a Salo jersey is $225. MeiGray sells them for $450 and if you wait for the Summer Sale, they drop as low as $225. That means with shipping, I could buy 6 Canucks/Senators shirts for the price of 1 Olympic. Considering his previous 2006 sold for $775 and couldn't resell near that price, I just can't see spending it. Of course if I was a REAL addicted fan, I wouldn't have thought all this trough, I just would have whipped out the credit card and got hiiiiiiigh (bidder )