[slufan83]

I've decided that I need to take an extended leave for awhile. I've had zero luck finding work lately and it's really starting to stress me out. Luckily stuff like my car is paid off and my only bills are small ones currently. What little money I did have to use for bills has pretty much all but dried up. I've been using cards to keep me busy, but it's just starting to lose interest with me. I know my trading here has been little to none lately, as I haven't had the money to buy any packs/boxes for quite a long time. I was buying & selling in a cycle to keep new PC cards coming in while also making money as well to fund more purchases. It's gotten to the point where some of my purchases have been bad ones and I'm forced to take a loss on quite a bit of stuff because I need the money. I'm once again forced to start selling off my PC cards so I can pay bills. Hopefully by early fall I will have heard back from a potential "career" job and I can jump back in. But right now, I don't even feel like thinking about cards because I know I'll ending up spending money that I don't have and I'll be kicking myself since I know I'll never get my original money spent back. Most of my stuff is/was on eBay and I have a little more that I haven't done anything with yet. If any of you are interested in any nice stuff of Oshie, let me know as I'd rather deal some of my stuff to people I "know." Thanks and take care!

[doug8788]

I've decided that I need to take an extended leave for awhile. I've had zero luck finding work lately and it's really starting to stress me out. Luckily stuff like my car is paid off and my only bills are small ones currently. What little money I did have to use for bills has pretty much all but dried up. I've been using cards to keep me busy, but it's just starting to lose interest with me. I know my trading here has been little to none lately, as I haven't had the money to buy any packs/boxes for quite a long time. I was buying & selling in a cycle to keep new PC cards coming in while also making money as well to fund more purchases. It's gotten to the point where some of my purchases have been bad ones and I'm forced to take a loss on quite a bit of stuff because I need the money. I'm once again forced to start selling off my PC cards so I can pay bills. Hopefully by early fall I will have heard back from a potential "career" job and I can jump back in. But right now, I don't even feel like thinking about cards because I know I'll ending up spending money that I don't have and I'll be kicking myself since I know I'll never get my original money spent back. Most of my stuff is/was on eBay and I have a little more that I haven't done anything with yet. If any of you are interested in any nice stuff of Oshie, let me know as I'd rather deal some of my stuff to people I "know." Thanks and take care!

Hang in there and don't dispair. Make sure to keep some of your good Oshie stuff and hope to see you back soon.

[swjrp10]

I feel for you bro, you better not leave the boards tho bro! I NEED A BLUES FAN TO RIP ON

[phildo37]

hope you find something good soon!

If you have an Oshie SP FW, I'd be interested in that. PM me, if you've got one to move

[dam1057]

I know you will bounce back soon. As fun as the cards are, paying bills and eating come first. See you around in the near future.

[mrwildcat]

another sad post indeed! hopefully i didn't start this nasty trend when i came back. hopefully everything will work out soon for you, and i second you not leaving the boards. take care of yourself.

[bluefrozencanuck]

Good luck with your job search, hope it doesn't take too long.

[gmccarth]

Good luck, keep the faith and you will find something soon. You'll be back...

[slufan83]

Thanks for the replies guys. I'll def. stick around, I probably just won't be posting as much as I used to. I know if I start checking out some box breaks and such, I'll get an itch to buy something, and I just need to distance myself from that right now. Cards have been the biggest money trap for me, and as a compulsive spender I always have a hard time saying no. Heck just a few months ago I had plenty of extra money saved up to use for this type of situation. I ended up stopping by a card shop that I used to frequent one Saturday when me and a friend went to a Blues game and I ended up buying a few boxes of card....which of course set me back a few hundred....and of course I didn't get a single thing of any value. I have a real passion for collecting, and I feel I know the ends and outs of the hobby pretty well. But more often than not lately, I keep thinking about how much it has hurt me financially and those thoughts have been outweighing any of the fun that I've been having lately. I clearly don't have the funds available to finance the hobby, but I find ways to blow more money on it and that really needs to stop.

I have a new idea in mind for the future of my collecting. I'm HOPING that the job interview that I had earlier this month pays off near the end of summer, so I'm going to hold off the best I can from here until then on buying anything at all. Supercollecting a single player is an absolute money stealer. I see something new that I needed on eBay and my stupid trigger finger always fired in more bids. It feels like I overpaid on almost everything. It seems like when I wanted to buy it, I had to pay top dollar....but when I go to sell it, I take a big hit. I think my future collection will just be obtaining signature cards of top superstar players....maybe like 1 card of as many as many players as I like. At least that way I not out there going above and beyond my means trying to get something new. If I don't get that autograph card of X player, then I can just move on to some other autograph card of that player. I'm trying to figure something out that I really enjoy, and as of now, all I can think about is how dumb I've been with my spending.

[rayeates]

Best luck to you in the job search, Mike. I know that feeling of despair all to well and I would not wish it on anyone. Please keep yourself on top and know that this community will be here for you, should you need us. Al the best and God Bless!

Randi