Published October 04, 2025 | By Michael M, Collectors MD Community Member
Sometimes, addiction comes in a form we don’t expect or recognize.
I thought I was one of the smart ones. I thought I was doing it the right way. I didn’t rip packs and pray for hits. I didn’t go into Whatnot streams and spin the wheel, gambling away my money for nothing.
“Buy singles!” the Reddit community screams at everyone who asks for purchase recommendations. And I would sagely nod along.
I had been addicted to ripping Hearthstone packs before. I learned from that. I cut myself off, locked myself out of my account, deleted all my socials, and stayed away. It worked! I was cured. And now I could safely enjoy basketball cards—because I wasn’t ripping packs, I was buying singles.
What I hadn’t realized was that buying singles could be an addiction too.
My own self-deception should have been the first warning sign.
“Oh, yeah, these are all low value”, I’d convince myself. “I only spend like one dollar on each card.”
Why wouldn’t I tell my wife, whom I love, that I was spending more than that? What about the buzzing anticipation, checking the mailbox days before anything could possibly arrive? The rush of tearing open packages? The way I always bought late at night, or after bad news, just to cheer myself up?
I thought it was just the hobby being fun. But it was something else.
There was shame in admitting it—that I was using singles as retail therapy. I thought, That’s for women, men don’t do that. But no. Men can fall into retail therapy too. And reading an article on Collectors MD was the moment the penny dropped: I was feeding my addictive behavior again.
The hard part is that I did genuinely like the cards I bought. I displayed them, showed them to my kids, talked about them with relatives. There was joy. But hundreds of dollars worth of joy?
I started asking myself different questions: not just, “Do I like this?” but, “Do I like this more than a new board game, a better car, a vacation? Will this card bring me more joy in six months than what I already own?”
When is enough truly enough? What is the purpose of the purchase?
I don’t have all the answers yet. But I do know this: recognizing that addiction was in play was the first, crucial step in my recovery.
#CollectorsMD
Addiction hides in plain sight—and sometimes even in the places we think are safe.
—
Follow us on Instagram: @collectorsmd
Subscribe to our Newsletter & Support Group
Join The Conversation On Mantel
Read More Daily Reflections