When poor hobbyists get a raise at work, where does your extra hobby money go?

[hermanotarjeta]

Wage increases are happening everywhere around the country. Suddenly we will have more money to spend on the hobby. Where are the main areas you are going to contribute?

[keenejd]

401k

Sent from my moto g stylus (2021) using Tapatalk

[hermanotarjeta]

Originally Posted by keenejd

401k

Sent from my moto g stylus (2021) using Tapatalk

Clearly the wisest decision, but for the sake of this thread, where will any of the extra money you spend in the hobby go?

[keenejd]

Originally Posted by hermanotarjeta

Clearly the wisest decision, but for the sake of this thread, where will any of the extra money you spend in the hobby go?

Singles
Always singles

Sent from my moto g stylus (2021) using Tapatalk

[hermanotarjeta]

Originally Posted by keenejd

Singles
Always singles

Sent from my moto g stylus (2021) using Tapatalk

Will you upgrade the nature of the singles you buy?

[keenejd]

Originally Posted by hermanotarjeta

Will you upgrade the nature of the singles you buy?

Well I certainly won't go from my normal TC xfractors to transcendent cut autos, but I might dip my toes into more $50-$200 items on occasion.

Who knows? As long as my wife doesn't find out, it's all on the table.

Sent from my moto g stylus (2021) using Tapatalk

[JeremyNick]

401k
Bump up the charitable donations
Pay down any debt

My card hobby allocation is and will remain stagnant. I have many other hobbies and currently other things I’m saving for.

[TimBuckTwo]

I got a raise and less and less is going to boxes or anything. It is a real crap shoot hitting anything to even return your money too you. Matter of fact I am considering selling everything and getting out of the hobby. Rich man or fools game.

[jdhaugh11]

Originally Posted by TimBuckTwo

I got a raise and less and less is going to boxes or anything. It is a real crap shoot hitting anything to even return your money too you. Matter of fact I am considering selling everything and getting out of the hobby. Rich man or fools game.

I feel you. While there more high end cards, it seems they are harder than ever to hit, plus there are way too many terrible boxes these days. I miss the days where a bad box would get at least 2/3 back. Sure those days an amazing box was only 2 or 3 times what you paid, but at least you felt like you knew what you were buying.

[MiamiMarlinsFan]

Originally Posted by jdhaugh11

I feel you. While there more high end cards, it seems they are harder than ever to hit, plus there are way too many terrible boxes these days. I miss the days where a bad box would get at least 2/3 back. Sure those days an amazing box was only 2 or 3 times what you paid, but at least you felt like you knew what you were buying.

Sounds like you want the contents of the box to at least sell for the price of the box to give you a net zero hobby? (While keeping a card or two for yourself.)

[anusinha]

Originally Posted by jdhaugh11

I feel you. While there more high end cards, it seems they are harder than ever to hit, plus there are way too many terrible boxes these days. I miss the days where a bad box would get at least 2/3 back. Sure those days an amazing box was only 2 or 3 times what you paid, but at least you felt like you knew what you were buying.

An amazing box still only gets you 2-3 times the price... but a terrible one gets you 5%.

Take Topps Chrome jumbo for example, $400 or so and a nice Rutschman #d auto is barely $1000. But if all your autos are junk, and your parallels are mids, then you might get 20-30 bucks for everything.

[theredmenace]

Raises/bonuses don't change my hobby habits. Usually bonus money gets allocated to holiday gifts/vacations. Raises will just cover inflation these days lol

[oddstuff]

More #/ Acuna singles...wax for gamblers with deeper pockets than me, especially with the price hikes last 5 years.

[anusinha]

Brokerage account.

Hobby money tends to go to ultra low end wax with gradable cards, and the money from there goes to PC cards.

Only fools buy into breaks and high end wax.

[hermanotarjeta]

Originally Posted by anusinha

Brokerage account.

Hobby money tends to go to ultra low end wax with gradable cards, and the money from there goes to PC cards.

Only fools buy into breaks and high end wax.

I pity the fool who gets into breaks and buys high end wax.

[KhalDrogo]

Luxury handbags and jewelry for my wife. Game used memorabilia for me.

[Shadowsonic2004]

Originally Posted by KhalDrogo

Game used memorabilia for me.

I haven't had a raise recently but I've been buying a lot more of this lately. So any extra would likely go to more game used stuff. I already have a mountain of cards.

[ScooterD]

Originally Posted by anusinha

Only fools buy into breaks and high end wax.

Originally Posted by hermanotarjeta

I pity the fool who gets into breaks.

I really wish this narrative would stop or be qualified in some way.

I bought into a group break of 2023 Tier 1 last week. It’s the first group break that I have participated in since COVID in March 2020. I did so because my LCS wasn’t allocated the product and I was able to get the teams that I collect.

I did well, but irrespective of the outcome, I don’t see how my participation in this one activity in 3.5 years unequivocally makes me a fool, muppet, or degenerate gambler. While acknowledging that busting wax on my own or in this format has a gambling element to it, I’m certainly not a degenerate gambler due to this act or any others. I don’t place bets on anything.

Does the group breaking community have unfavorable downstream impacts on the hobby - yes, I 100% agree; however, I don’t think that it’s right to paint everyone who does so with the same brush with the pejoratives listed above.

[hermanotarjeta]

Originally Posted by ScooterD

I really wish this narrative would stop or be qualified in some way.

I bought into a group break of 2023 Tier 1 last week. It’s the first group break that I have participated in since COVID in March 2020. I did so because my LCS wasn’t allocated the product and I was able to get the teams that I collect.

I did well, but irrespective of the outcome, I don’t see how my participation in this one activity in 3.5 years unequivocally makes me a fool, muppet, or degenerate gambler. While acknowledging that busting wax on my own or in this format has a gambling element to it, I’m certainly not a degenerate gambler due to this act or any others. I don’t place bets on anything.

Does the group breaking community have unfavorable downstream impacts on the hobby - yes, I 100% agree; however, I don’t think that it’s right to paint everyone who does so with the same brush with the pejoratives listed above.

Is it ok if I wrote that in my best Mr. T voice?

If you are poor, you really would be foolish to regularly get into breaks.

If you got a raise at work - gamble away!

[ScooterD]

Originally Posted by hermanotarjeta

Is it ok if I wrote that in my best Mr. T voice?

If you are poor, you really would be foolish to regularly get into breaks.

If you got a raise at work - gamble away!

Lol - I completely got and appreciated the implied Mr. T reference! My issue was with the multiple prior posts referring to people getting into group breaks with name calling that doesn’t apply to each situation.

I’m not offended - it’s not personal, but I wish anyone doing that would quantify how often a person must participate in a group break to make them (or disqualify them from being) a muppet, degenerate gambler, or anything else. Those labels don’t apply to each and every person who participates in the activity, but the use of the labels does unless/until qualified. That’s my only point

[cardsin47]

If you’re poor and get a raise, invest in training materials so you can advance and get another raise; get out of the “poor” phase -THEN buy cards

[OhioLawyerF5]

Just stop being poor.

[Promethius88]

Originally Posted by OhioLawyerF5

Just stop being poor.

Modern problems call for modern solutions!

[bigdog2003]

Right now, most of my extra money is going towards a down payment on a lake house. With that said, I am focusing on finishing some PC stuff.

1. Nick Ciuffo - Mainly the 2013 Bowman Draft stuff, but also the 2013 Bowman Sterling autos and the 2019 Topps Series 2 stuff.

2. Billy O'Dell graded stuff - I want 1 of each of his cards graded by either PSA or SGC. I would prefer PSA, but I already have a few from SGC so I'm fine with either for now.

[ThoseBackPages]

why are we shaming the poors?