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?

[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.

[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

[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

[hermanotarjeta]

Originally Posted by keenejd

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

LOL, never tell the wife you got a raise at work!

[ScooterD]

This has happened to me in steady increments since around 2014. Back then, I wouldn’t buy boxes above $100 or singles above $50. Nowadays, I don’t use my extra income (relative to 2014) for wax nearly as often because of the precipitous increase in wax prices; however, I target singles that I want with (generally) a print run of 50 or less without too much pause unless the cost is above $1k. I basically went from buying ground hamburger to ground sirloin.

It’s actually kinda funny that you ask this because it made me realize that my spending was higher back in 2014 relative to my contemporaneous salary

[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.

[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.

[hermanotarjeta]

Originally Posted by ScooterD

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

You are a degenerate muppet if your sports cards break spending is starting to impact your personal life and finances in a negative fashion. You are constantly in credit card debt and your personal relationships are falling apart due to your addiction.

If this term doesn’t apply to you and is not directed at you (any BO member), why do some people get triggered by it?

Maybe it’s hitting a bit too close to home for some on here?

[notoriousrmb]

Originally Posted by hermanotarjeta

You are a degenerate muppet if your sports cards break spending is starting to impact your personal life and finances in a negative fashion. You are constantly in credit card debt and your personal relationships are falling apart due to your addiction.

If this term doesn’t apply to you and is not directed at you (any BO member), why do some people get triggered by it?

Maybe it’s hitting a bit too close to home for some on here?

Because, again, you are changing your narrative.

Your agonizingly repetitive rants are against breakers and calling people choosing to buy into breaks, degenerative gamblers.

Originally Posted by hermanotarjeta

Unfortunately, the vast majority of people who get into breaks aren’t “team collectors”.

They are degenerate gamblers, especially those who get into random team breaks

And I wouldn’t necessarily call people who don’t get into breaks “poor” either. It was the poor people who benefited from breaks in the first place.

Originally Posted by hermanotarjeta

Everyone wanted to open NT at $500/box and flawless at $1250/box. That’s how prices on those got driven up to $5000 and $10,000/box respectively.

Breakers and their degenerate customers.

Originally Posted by hermanotarjeta

What does Topps need to learn?

Box flipper bois will continue to flip boxes.

Degenerate gamblers will continue to get in breaks (Two chances at a superfractor of the same guy? SWEET! Double the bang for your team spot!)

Products will continue to be filled with redemptions.

The sheep and lemmings will still buy.

Originally Posted by hermanotarjeta

If so many breakers are losing money on breaks now, how screwed will they be when the degenerate gamblers move on to the next hot product?

Originally Posted by hermanotarjeta

Who DISREGARDS simple math and odds and pays the higher prices?

Who MUST have product opened for them immediately?

Who continues to TRY AGAIN and AGAIN to make money just once on a break?

It’s not fanatics, it’s degenerate gambler.

DON’T BE A DEGENERATE GAMBLER.

Originally Posted by hermanotarjeta

Remember, you always have to see it from the breaker POV. $350/box is $4200 per case. Divide that by 30 and you have a $140 buy-in cost per degenerate gambler per random team per case.

In the degenerate’s mind, that’s $140 to be able to pull a $100k+ superfractor auto redemption - that’s a no-brainer from the gambler’s mind.

Originally Posted by hermanotarjeta

Buying a single card isn’t gambling uncontrolled.

Degenerate breaking is.

And btw, not everyone here is a hobby genius.

Originally Posted by hermanotarjeta

If you know even one person who has dealt with this degenerate addiction, that is all that matters.

Originally Posted by hermanotarjeta

I've given up getting angry at the price fixers. The problem is that they have their Johns (breakers and participants) to sell to at the high price. You are right, they don't care about anyone else. But if they have a group willing to pay high for their contraband, more power to them. Just like in the drug trade, I don't necessarily blame the growers entirely, it's the users who are just as guilty.

It will take time for new wax prices to get fair again. The next step is to target the drug addicts/degenerate gamblers. STOP participating in breaks. STOP your friends from participating in breaks. Get rid of the demand so that the breakers go under. If no one gets in breaks, guess what, the manufacturers will be forced to sell to the rest of us at more reasonable prices. The breakers will pay the high prices because they will profit if the degenerate gamblers come no matter how high the prices are.

You are now changing your narrative after being called out, and saying only people who can't afford what they spend are degenerates. That is NOT what you have been saying. Anyone can do a simple search of your posts and see the name calling of anyone who chooses to enjoy the hobby differently than you.

[hermanotarjeta]

Originally Posted by notoriousrmb

Because, again, you are changing your narrative.

Your agonizingly repetitive rants are against breakers and calling people choosing to buy into breaks, degenerative gamblers.

You are now changing your narrative after being called out, and saying only people who can't afford what they spend are degenerates. That is NOT what you have been saying. Anyone can do a simple search of your posts and see the name calling of anyone who chooses to enjoy the hobby differently than you.

Case in point.

Will I be scrutinized for using the term “poor” now?