The collectible hobby is full of people telling you what to buy.

It can be overwhelming, especially if you’re new or coming back to the hobby.

So I made a quick guide on how I don’t feel FOMO anymore and started to collect the items I actually love. Well, for most of the time at least.

First things first.

Do not compare your collection with other people (in a negative way).

You never know the personal situation of those people. I’ve heard stories about people spending all their savings on pokémon cards..

So,

Don’t compare your collection with others.

I know, I know, it sounds boring.

And everyone already tells you to do research first.

But it really is important though.

Not only will you learn what a good price point is for certain cards, which card is undervalued and for what reason, or what to look out for so you won’t get scammed.

But the most important reason, in my opinion, is that you will actually find the cards/sets you want to collect.

Let me give you a really dumbed-down example, but I promise you it will stick with you and make sense.

Just imagine you had never eaten fruit before in your life, okay?

And then you eat an apple.

An apple will be your favorite fruit at that moment, of course, since you have no idea what else is out there. But what if you actually like mandarins, bananas or I don’t know, dragon fruit waaaay more than apples?

You will never know.

Unless you try them out.

It’s the same with collecting (and a lot of other things as well). If you don’t educate yourself, or try different things, you will never know what you like the most.

A.k.a. you will have no idea what you actually want to spend your money on.

Good news, you don’t need to buy pokémon cards to be able to know if you like them.

Just use YouTube, pictures, blogs, newsletters (like mine hehe) or any content creator for that matter, to learn more about all kinds of different cards, stickers and other collectible items out there.

And before you know it, you’ll stumble onto something you actually like and want to collect.

Not because someone told you to, but because it’s your favorite for whatever reason you have, based on all the other options you saw out there.

I personally fell in love with the Bandai Carddass 1997 set.

I had no idea these cards existed before.

I saw a few in a card shop in Taiwan when I was there on holiday. I looked into them, found a seller on Whatnot who sold me some singles at auctions for good prices, and now it's my favorite set ever!

I wrote a whole article about these Carddass cards if you’re interested.

Make sure you know what you expect to get out of the hobby.

If you’re here just for the money, that’s fine, but these tips are not for you.

I mean, I also own some slabs of cards I like, or I even own cards with the intent to sell them for a profit sometime in the future.

So you can do both.

But those are just a handful of cards compared to the rest of my collection.

If you focus on collecting cards instead of just investing in them, the hobby becomes much, much easier.

These days, everyone seems obsessed with grading, slabs, near-mint and low-pop cards.

I get it.

But it shouldn’t be the main focus of the whole entire hobby.

If you collect cards because you want to, you know, actually collect them, then you shouldn’t care that much about the resale value, since you’re not planning to resell them.

And IF you decide to sell them at some point, you will indeed get a lower amount of money in return, but you also didn’t spend that much in the first place, so it balances out.

Personally, I often buy (lightly) played cards. So cards that are not in the best condition anymore.

I can still enjoy the artwork of a card but for a fraction of the price of a clean copy.

Besides that, I also like to put my cards in binders instead of toploaders or slabs. And I rearrange my binders from time to time as well.

And since the cards already have some damage, I don’t have to be too scared to get them out of my binder and enjoy them the way I want to.

I’ve also got a few clean cards that are a bit more expensive, but I see those cards way less since I’ve got them in toploaders instead of in my binders.

So it feels a bit off to me personally to spend money on a cleaner copy just to never really “use” it the way I want to because I’m scared to damage it.

Recently, I bought this Skarmory.

It’s in poor condition. Or “schoolyard mint” as I like to call it.

However, the lowest price available for this card right now (28-7-2026) is €9,99 and the average Price Trend is around €30,-.

Meanwhile, I bought this card at an auction for just €4,-.

No one else wanted this played card because: “it’s not worth much in that condition”.

But that’s exactly the point!!

It means YOU can pay less money for the card.

And even IF you wanted to resell it, I’m almost certain I could sell this card for at least €4,-.

Same goes for cards with less damage, a bit of whitening, or even cards with a destroyed back but a good front.

An example is my Moltres. I wanted this card for my master set. On average they sell for around €38,-.

Guess what…

I paid €5,- for this card.

The spot in my binder is filled, and I only saw the damaged back twice in the last couple of months:

These are two pretty harsh examples though, but the same goes for cards that are just a few euros cheaper because of some whitening or something like that.

Sounds like life advice, but it’s also great advice for collecting.

For real, it's not a race so slow down sometimes.

If it were a race, everyone would go on eBay or a different marketplace and buy a complete set or a complete collection so they're done with the hunt.

Nah.

The hunt is part of the hobby.

Looking for the cards you still want.

Getting lucky with a deal or pack you open.

That's the hobby. For me at least.

It doesn't matter if you complete your masterset or buy the card you want within a week, a few months, or even a few years.

And it's also normal that you slow down at a certain point.

Collect cards instead of dust.

Enjoy the cards you already have.

Display them, rearrange your binder, just look at them from time to time, take pictures of your cards, or anything else that makes you appreciate your collection.

Do whatever suits you, but try to enjoy them somehow.

Otherwise, you're collecting cards and artwork you supposedly like, while they collect dust in your closet.

When I first started collecting the Carddass cards I mentioned earlier, it was easy.

I still needed every card in the set.

That included all the cheap cards.

So every week I could add multiple cards to my binder.

Now, almost a year later, that's not the case anymore.

I only need a few more cards, but these are harder to find and getting more expensive.

So I haven't added a card to this set for about two or three months now.

Mainly because I'm picky, and I'm looking for a good deal on some of these cards but I also want to spend my money on some other cards I like.

Just don't lose motivation.

And if you do, it's okay to take a break.

Stop collecting the cards that burn you out, and look for something else you like so you can pivot between them.

Whatever you take away from this, I hope it gave you some direction.

And don’t listen blindly to my advice either. If you don’t agree with me, that’s fine!

It’s good even.

We all collect in our own way, but make sure the way you collect is actually the way you enjoy!

But..

If you do see some truth in these tips, check out my other articles as well! It’s a good place to start with step 1 and start your research.