spending habits

digdug

What % of your monthly net income do you spend on cards?

I would not like to know anyone's $ amount, just curious what everyone else does.

Thanks

mikeschmidt

See you thought the answer would be somewhere between 0 and 100%.

I'm sure I'm over 100%

I especially was when I was getting my MBA...!

Dallas88

...whenI got back into the hobby around '98, I was spending about 50-100/wk on boxes....maybe 20 weeks a year.

Not anymore - not much newer stuff for me, unless I like a particular insert or something.

Now maybe $10 per week on cheap ebay things

Stone193

dig

Mine varied - at one point my wife had me on a budget which was about 3% of my income.

There was a moment in time when I was probably in the 30% range!!!!

Then I went on the Stone193 9.5 Step Program for Ebay Addicts.

I'm at Step 8.75 right now - have spent almost zero of my own money since the end of October on ebay. Did buy some Heritage and got some for my birthday and father's day.

Ebay is a killer!
mike

itzagoner

percentage of monthly net income spent on hobby needs = 0.5%
percentage of monthly net income spent on food for teenage son = 99.5%

we are encouraging said child to seek a job at the local supermarket and to take long lunches, then his father might be able to afford to be a hobbyist!

80sJunkie

Heck I spend about 500 a week and can't even get near some of the big dogs around the registry. But im ready for national this year . For the first time in my life i stuck to a budget for 9 mnths now i got 20k saved for national and i hope to find enough to spend every bit. I'm gonna be like a 12 year old kid buying ripping buying ripping buying more ripping more. Oh I cant wait only 16 more days

montanafan

about 200%

ralstonpurina

Average around 2%. I come and go, some months nothing (for months at a time), then a few months later alot

NewJerseyMeatHook

45-50% of my yearly earnings is wrapped up in cards/memorablilia. Nowhere near the black in terms of credit card payments.

I am very ashamed of myself, but having a ball! An expensive ball in terms of interest rates.

Bosox1976

About 5%. Although I buy & flip which gives me some latitude and allows me to "trade up" or leverage my initial investment.

gregm13

Probably around 5% - and thank god I've laid off the credit cards for the most part

Greg M.

TheVon

I spend about 5% of my income on cards . . . in addition to @ 20% of my wife's considerably larger income.

zef204

It used to be a lot - %120?

I paid off all the cc;s and will not use them.

Now I have started to sell and will only buy new stuff with funds that came from selling stuff I don't want.

iamthegreatcornholio

while in school, my income was 0 so i was spending an infinite % on cards...

soon i'll be making money, but i'll be selling some cards so it'll be a (-)%...

so much for a number between 0-100

hardcorehockeyfan

I never looked at what % of my income I spend on this hobby. Basically, I pay my bills, and if I see something I want, whether I get a deal or may slightly overpay, then I do it, I am not in this hobby to necessarily make money, I am in it because I just want to see my collection grow with players that I like, mainly Al Kaline and Steve Yzerman. And I also do not try to collect every single card of either player, every year they come out. I probably have two dozen 1955 Topps Kaline cards, and by the time I am dead, I will probably accumulate another 2-3 dozen! Only one Kaline rookie that I picked up running a table in the early 90s, and one day, I may add another! My unborn kids will one day decide if my AUTOs and cards someday make them hit paydirt!!!!

ToppsCo1lector

I got a lil addicted to EBay real recentlike. But I basically said screw that and now at most I'm buying off the boards. I'm selling a lot of things that I accumulated that I really don't want so I figure I'll lay off any buys except maybe the big pack busts we've been having on here and the Random Mark Mulder for my set. Other than that I'm going cold turkey for a while lol. % of monthly income....Maybe 10-20% for a couple of months this spring/summer. I'm cutting back to 3% or so(one nice card a month I figure). Which will hopefully be funded strictly from sales of what I have.

hardcorehockeyfan

Sometimes I would buy a lot off the Bay, take a card or two that I wanted, and flip the other ones back on the Bay. Stuff I do not want that I have accumulated, I put up or get rid of somehow. But basically, I do not put a % of my income into the hobby, I can go a 1-6 months without buying anything, then another month, drop $1000, or drop $50, so I never really looked at a %.

onlyanumber

<< <i>Sometimes I would buy a lot off the Bay, take a card or two that I wanted, and flip the other ones back on the Bay. Stuff I do not want that I have accumulated, I put up or get rid of somehow. But basically, I do not put a % of my income into the hobby, I can go a 1-6 months without buying anything, then another month, drop $1000, or drop $50, so I never really looked at a %. >>



This is pretty much the way I operate. I buy to flip, buy to resubmit, buy for the sets I'm building, and if I get an itch to rip I'll buy packs/boxes on occasion. The number always varies on my mood that month. I've calmed down considerably this month as I'm still waiting on a bunch of cards to come in...

RichG

Even though I spend quite a bit, I never really figured out an overall precentage. All I'm concerned about is that my overall income on a monthly/yearly basis exceeds my overall spending (I generally like to increase my overall wealth ((savings, bonds, stocks, etc..)) by a minimum of $1,000 per month).
Rich

larryallen73

About 2-3% of gross I would estimate. I am upping it today though with "special" money. I recently spent 10 weeks teaching a class at a local university. I got a whopping $1,575 check in the mail yesterday which, including prep time, grading exams, etc... is just a tad below my normal hourly billing rate. Anyway, I plan to spend the entire $1,575 (gross - not worried about taxes) on cards... and my wife has approved this masterful plan!