Published January 02, 2026 | By Alyx E, Founder of Collectors MD

Over the last few weeks, I’ve found myself doing something I never set out to do—scrolling through Reddit threads late at night, reading post after post from collectors who sound scared, confused, and exhausted. People asking strangers across the internet how to stop spending. How to recover financially after what began as “just a hobby”. How to walk away when the chase no longer feels fun—but compulsive. Spouses asking how to help someone they love who is trapped in the cycle, or how to rebuild trust after savings were depleted overnight. Families trying to make sense of life-altering losses tied to impulsive spending that spiraled faster than anyone could comprehend.

What struck me most wasn’t how rare these stories were. It was how common and public they’ve become.

Across sports cards, TCG, sneakers, memorabilia, luxury goods, and more, the language is eerily consistent. Shame. Secrecy. Escalation. Loss of control. The realization that something once joyful has gradually turned into something harmful. This isn’t a handful of isolated cases—it’s a full-blown epidemic hiding in plain sight.

And yet, these industries continue to operate as if none of this exists.

That’s why #RipResponsibly must become the standard moving forward—not a marketing angle, not a PR checkbox, and not something deployed selectively when it’s convenient. This isn’t about Collectors MD. It’s about acknowledging reality. It’s about creating tangible, visible moments of interruption—messaging that meets people where they are before damage compounds, before fun turns into fixation, before silence turns into shame.

And it’s about holding ourselves and the spaces we participate in accountable for the culture we actively shape.

When everything is engineered for velocity, urgency, and endless engagement, silence isn’t neutral—it’s complicit.

This isn’t about negativity. Responsible messaging doesn’t take the fun away. It creates room for it to exist without collateral damage. It reminds people that pausing is allowed. That support exists. That needing help doesn’t mean you failed—but rather that you’re human, navigating systems designed to exploit emotion and fatigue, and accelerate impulse during moments of vulnerability.

Awareness doesn’t dilute the fun—it preserves the purity and joy that make collecting worth protecting in the first place. It keeps our hobbies rooted in community instead of consumption. In intention instead of impulse. In sustainability instead of burnout.

Our goal is simple but non-negotiable: for this framework to become the baseline. Not someday. Not selectively. But across industries where these dynamics—directly or indirectly—are creating environments where risk is normalized and harm has become an acceptable byproduct of growth.

Our hobbies deserve safeguards that prioritize people over profit and protection over extraction.

#CollectorsMD
Protecting the joy of collecting means being honest about where harm begins—and courageous enough to intervene before it does.

—
Follow us on Instagram: @collectorsmd
Subscribe to our Newsletter & Support Group
Join The Conversation On Mantel
Read More Daily Reflections