Published September 08, 2025 | By Alyx E, Founder of Collectors MD

Have you ever opened a box of cards—maybe just a blaster or mega box—chasing that one big hit for your PC? By the fifth or sixth box, the thrill begins to fade, and defeat starts creeping in. Then, suddenly—maybe in the very last pack of the final box—something catches your eye. A shimmer peeks out from behind a stack of base cards—a design you haven’t seen yet. You dramatically slow roll it, heart pounding, and reveal a beautiful short print or parallel of a player you genuinely love.

For that brief, fleeting moment, you’re overwhelmed with joy. But almost instantly, instinct takes over—you race to 130point or CardLadder to check the comps. And within just a few moments, the feeling shifts. What you thought might be worth at minimum, a few hundred dollars raw—perhaps even more graded, turns out to be just enough to barely cover the $60 box it came from. And the sting is even sharper knowing you already ripped through several boxes just to get there.

Then the spiral begins. That inner voice starts whispering: Should I keep ripping? Maybe I’ll hit even bigger in the next box.

That’s the trap so many of us fall into—the slow creep from just one more to losing count of how many we’ve opened. The initial joy of pulling a card we genuinely like gets swallowed up by the disappointment of realizing how much we’ve spent chasing it. Suddenly, the math overshadows the moment.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. The real catch-22 is that the joy was there all along—you didn’t need another box, a comp check, or a bigger hit to validate it. When you pull a card that truly belongs in your PC, that deserves to be enough. That’s when intention comes in. If it fits the filters and criteria you set for yourself—whether that’s a favorite team, player, design, subset, or simply something that sparks joy—then it already has value. Maybe not necessarily monetary value, but meaning.

I was reminded of this recently when I let myself rip a few Select Basketball mega boxes and pulled a Stephen Curry Crown Jewels super short print. My heart skipped a beat. The card was stunning. It checked all the boxes: great player, sleek design, desirable set, and a rarity that felt special the moment I saw it.

Then I checked comps—$60–70 at best. That’s when I stopped myself. I realized the number was irrelevant. I wasn’t planning to flip it. I wasn’t even planning to grade it. I reminded myself that I was ripping for passion, not profit.

Even if the market says otherwise, a card holds lasting value because of what it means to you, not what it’s worth.

For me, if I’m going to rip, it has to be mindful and intentional now. It’s not about chasing or proving anything to anyone in my inner circle or on social media. It’s about the purity of the hobby—the joyful moments that make you smile, the cards that make you pause, the pieces that mean something only to you.

And that’s the shift so many of us need. Because it’s easy to forget, in a hobby that constantly tells us to grade, to flip, to chase, to compare—that the real measure of a card isn’t in the dollar amount it commands—it’s in the story it carries. It’s in the way your heart jumps when you pull it, the memory of the moment, and the meaning it holds long after the comps have changed.

At the end of the day, the hobby isn’t supposed to leave you with a pit in your stomach—it’s supposed to give you something to hold, to cherish, and maybe even to pass down one day.

When you let joy outweigh value, you realize that sometimes one card, pulled with intention, can be worth infinitely more than a mountain of empty boxes.

#CollectorsMD
The value of a card isn’t what the market says—it’s the joy it gives you.

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Published August 30, 2025 | By Alan W, Collectors MD Supporter

FOMO—Fear Of Missing Out. It’s the voice inside our head that says, “just one more spin. One more box. One more break.” It’s the anticipation of the next hit—win or lose—that keeps us locked in the chair long after we should have walked away.

The truth? For most of us, the losses add up way faster than the wins ever could. And yet, FOMO whispers that the next hand, the next pack, the next box could finally make it alright. Even though we know deep down it wont.

My last session on Whatnot was a team break for four boxes of 2024 Phoenix International Football. I landed the Raiders, Falcons, Buccaneers, and Cardinals. What could go wrong? 

Welp, my “best” hits after scoring these four top-tier teams? A Darius Robinson rookie /8 and a Brock Bowers rookie /40. Decent cards, sure—but the comps told the real story. A $15 card. A $24 card. Both worth significantly less than what it cost me to get into the break.

That’s when the questions hit me:

• Why am I even breaking?

• Why am I holding onto slabs, hoping they’ll climb in value when trends show they’re more likely to fall?

• Was I holding onto these cards out of passion—or out of fear?

So, without overthinking it, I gathered the cards, took them to my LCS, and cashed out for 70% of their current market “value”. And in doing so, I realized something: I wasn’t losing. What I sold off was actually the weight that had been holding me down.

This isn’t advice for everyone—it’s just my story. But for me, letting go was the antidote to FOMO. Sometimes, the most freeing thing you can do is intentionally miss out.

And for the first time in years, I genuinely feel free.

#CollectorsMD
Sometimes missing out is exactly how you win in the long run.

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What’s up guys, I have some original toys from my childhood and yes they’ve been played with but how do I find the value and also what should I be doing to keep them preserved? How do you all store or display them? Sorry lots of questions, I know I’m a newb. I can post pics soon, just wanted to throw the questions out first.

Do y’all think an AD game worn patch from the Lakers will go up in price with the “big trade” occurring last month or will it go down in price?