I’m in the midst of sorting around 20,000 Magic cards. They’re in a kinda-sorta order, but nothing cohesive. I’m finding small pockets of sets across all three 5,000-count boxes, and the sets that are together aren’t stored by any obvious order.
I’m getting all our ducks (or decks, heh heh) in a row because we’re cleaning house on Magic the Gathering. Tim and I took a break starting last fall. Tim wasn’t happy with the recent sets, and he’d become disenchanted with the local scene. Mainly some of the shop owners, but also some players.
We planned on his resuming play in October, when the next set came out. He misses Magic, but he doesn’t miss the shops themselves and a few of the key players. So he’s decided to play online.
While online still isn’t as cheap as, say, not playing Magic, it is cheaper. Online tournaments can be a couple bucks (or more) cheaper than in-store ones. We’ll also save a lot on gas. And neither of us will mind getting rid of the clutter. If we didn’t stack the boxes, they’d easily cover a coffee table… and then some.
For my time and efforts, I’ll get a third of whatever we get from selling the cards. The rest will go to Tim so that he can start paying for an online deck. He’ll then use his monthly allotment to pay for whatever else he needs. It’ll be a good way to keep our budget safe.
I am a little bummed that Tim won’t be seeing so many of his friends. But as he’s quick to point out, they rarely saw one another outside of tournaments. And since he’s taken the break, we haven’t heard anything from them except on Facebook. So, I guess “friends” might be stretching it a bit.
Meanwhile, we’re trying to reconnect with a friend of mine from college. She lives in town, but we almost never see her. We went to her birthday party on Thursday, and it was the first time we’d seen her since last summer. Oops.
She’s part of the local improv scene, so she knows a lot of fun people through that. We need to stop hermiting (my natural inclination) so maybe we’ll just start piggybacking on her get-togethers. It might be nice to have a social life that didn’t revolve around decks that cost hundreds of dollars.
Do you have any expensive hobbies? How do you keep costs under control? For example, I used to do some reselling to help me afford my own collection.
imawindycitygal says
One of my hobbies is knitting, and yarn and knitting tools can be quite expensive. When I first got active in the local knitting group, I splurged heavily on yarns. I'd go to fiber festivals and knitting events like Stitches Midwest and buy yarns made from funky types of fibers for the sake of having them. I had no plan for these yarns, and I never even tried to research the properties of the fibers. I wound up with a lot of yarn that isn't practical for me. Back then I was a DINK and it wasn't a big deal for me drop hundreds of dollars on yarn several times a year.
Now I'm much more selective about what I spend on yarn and knitting supplies. Partly it's because I'm no longer married and am supporting myself. I still splurge, but I know my knitting style much better now so I don't waste my money on things I'll never use, like soy yarn. It is nice to have a large stash of yarn, though. I started referring to it as my "yarn 401(k)" to my friends years ago. And bit by bit I'm selling off the stuff I won't use, as well.
Abigail says
I went through a knit and crochet phase, m'self. And it's so easy to get carried away with the various yarns, isn't it? I got on eBay and ended up with a bunch of random stuff that I barely/never used. We sold it and my beads (another phase) for pennies on the dollar when we moved. It felt good to get rid of it all — but that's because I rarely even bother knitting anymore. (I did save most of my needles just in case.)
Kat says
I have a few expensive hobbies. One is crochet- great for ADD fidgets. The way I control my expense on that one is keeping really close track of my hooks, and only buying yarn for planned projects. I also plan my projects so that I'm only going into the expensive yarns once a year or so. The rest is mid grade yarn bought in bulk on Amazon or at really good sales when Michaels wants to move stock (thicker yarns in the summer, thinner in the winter).
The second hobby, and this is the "ouch" one, is I tabletop game. Warhammer 40k, Warhammer, and I'm even starting out a Hobbit/ LoTR/ WoTR army. This one is a kicker because there's the model kits, the tools, the paints, and other effect products. Fortunately, I have most of the start up costs chipped away at. I own most of the paints I need, and I stick to one army per game- so I don't a have to take a massive dent to the wallet every 6 months or so. Since my favorite part is the hobby, not the game, I often will pick up scenery and work on that. The prices aren't great, but it takes longer, and more skill, so it stretches the time.
Abigail says
Tabletop gaming will hurt from time to time, but with the painting you do get hours of enjoyment pretty easily. So I think it works out in the end.
As for crocheting for fidgets, I used to use it to avoid snacking and/or biting my nails to the quick. The bipolar swings would make both pretty common.
funny about money says
My only expensive hobby is the dog.
I can't imagine collecting stacks and stacks of inanimate objects. Even if you can afford it, who wants to take care of all that stuff?
Abigail says
Well, it depends on the inanimate objects, I suppose. Some Magic players keep all of their stuff to play the extended formats. Those are ones that use most older sets. We play the formats with smaller sets of options. Which means we'd sell off whatever we could before it rotated out and was unusable. But not everything is sellable, so things accumulate over time. Though from time to time a card gets reprinted, so having a backlog does (once in a great while) help. Mainly, though, the boxes are the result of accumulation. Tim's been playing for many years, and I've been going through and selling what I can for most of the time we've been together. Since different cards become wanted at different times, it made sense to hang onto the rest until the next sell-off. At least now we don't have to worry about it that anymore. Well, once this current effort is done.