Collecting Finding it Hard to Keep Collecting

I have 104 pages just for the basic card dex binder. That includes official alternate types and Mega Pokemon. Unofficial ones like water Lugia and fighting Torkoal are not in there...at least not yet. I've debated adding those too. I pushed a step further and made everything holo/reverse holo if it can be. So far the only exceptions are water Surskit, fairy Granbull, colorless Ho-oh, and fighting Omanyte/Omastar.

I would suggest a page spacing between each generation. That way when you add cards, and trust me you will be doing this after most sets release, you're only moving one generations worth in space rather than up to six. You can imagine how fun it was to get Primal Clash Tentacool/Tentacruel would be if the gens weren't seperated.

Sometimes I change my cards too. I want the grass Ludicolo from Primal Clash for it, right now it's the Platinum one I have.
 
I don't really care about alternate types or anything; I'd just pick my favourite card for each Pokémon and go with that. If I put them back to back for space conservation (which I would probably do), that's only 41 pages including all known Pokémon but not including Megas, 43 if I include them, and even more to separate them out. Still a lot, but a bit more manageable.

I definitely feel you with adding space between sets, though. :p When I first started collecting again I was fond of buying packs, promo sets, and singles of a lot of the sets I missed out on (mostly E-Series, EX era, and DPPt), and everytime I bought something new, I was shuffling my cards around.
 
I guess for me I prefer to have those alternate types. Not that this should surprise anyone who has seen my alternate type thread on this site.

The hardest part is that the 'best card' is subjective. That's one reason I do the alternates, I have at least one less to worry about comparing.
 
For me, I'm getting back into play so I've been buying some of the recent sets just to try and put a deck together but I've always been into collecting however I prefer to collect the Japanese cards. After living out in Japan for 3 year it really brought that feeling back and I miss not having to pay higher prices for Japanese cards haha.
 
Representing both types of each Pokemon is just something I can't concern myself with until the unlikely day that they release both types of cards for every single dual-typed Pokemon. Even with Roaring Skies/Emerald Break they've seemed really hesitant to include the vast majority of Flying-types as Colorless cards. Then there's Pokemon like Corsola that get stuck in a certain type over and over... I mean, isn't it pretty sad that we've had Fighting-type Torkoal cards before Fighting-type Corsola cards?
 
Even sadder because Torkoal shouldn't have a fighting card, Torkoal is only a fire type. No different than Lugia never should have had a water card. Others that are big for me is a fighting (ground) Garchomp line and a non-Magma fighting (rock) Aggron line.
 
The problem is I have nearly 4,000 cards That is not 400 but 4000. Anyway I still don't have a complete base set starter trio. I have the basic and stage 1's but never ever did get the stage 2 cards for these Pokemon. I only have about 2/3 of the dex completed. I have a hard time getting good rares. Always have. If I do get a good rare I am very lucky because a lot of my cards are irreplaceable.:)
 
I have two strategies:
I limit my collecting by only buying products (like, three-pack blisters and stuff--no individual packs, singles extremely rarely).
I only purchase cards from XY onwards, and won't buy any more when the XY series is done (although I do have the original 102, plus a fat stack of Smeargles).

Maybe try completing the sets from your favorite era of the videogame or something? Display them, grade them, play with them? Make a fort maybe? Just let it come naturally... if something is holding you back now, stop, but don't prematurely ditch anything. The lust will strike you again.
 
I will admit that there is a part of me that is tempted to use my ~9k bulk cards to make a cosplay outfit or something. :p
 
If your passion for collecting dies down, take a break. give it a few months or even years. I was hardcore into collecting in 2012, spent a few thousand dollars on the old wizards of the coast stuff, the passion escaped me a little while after, but i kept my collection. 2 months ago a feeling hit me out of no where, there was the lust to collect pokemon cards again, i'm hooked and getting cards in the mail after weeks of waiting for them is a very satisfactory feeling.

so like i said, enjoy the cards, but dont force the enjoyment, let it come naturally.

I did the same thing but it took a 14 year hiatus instead! And now I can only find packs in the collector sets on Amazon that are a reasonable price. But good for you getting back into the spirit ;)
 
Only real issue I have with collecting cards is the money. I can spend a lot of money when I'm buying a new item, but after an hour or so I start to think about if it's really worth it. I've justified the hobby by thinking that I might be able to sell the cards at a later date if I grow tired of collecting, but I'm starting to doubt if I can. I've seen the same booster box/card being listed on eBay for months, and it will probably get harder to sell things in the future. There's also a lot of other things I'd like to spend money on, and much of excitement is gone because I've completed my main collectible goals. I'll phase out of card collecting in a couple of years or so, no more.

My suggestion (if you're looking to collect more) is to find a nice set/group of cards that you would enjoy collecting. It's a bonus if the cards doesn't cost a fortune either. I personally had a lot of fun by collecting Japanese gold stars, and I also have some friends that have collected all the original EX's. If you have some sort of "relationship" towards the cards you want to collect it becomes much easier. Nostalgia has always been a big factor for me at least, as I grew up with Gen II/III (the sets I've focused on collecting). Always set yourself a specific goal, collecting becomes much easier if you do so.

Might be a little off-topic, but I was bored and wanted to share my thoughts. Good luck :)
 
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