I really have no reason to be telling this story, and it’s probably not the greatest thing to be associated with my name on the internet, but I find it amusing so I’m going to tell it.

It started during quarantine, when like everyone else, I was stuck at home with little to do. Since I didn’t want to completely waste all the time I had, I started looking for a new hobby. It didn’t take long as I found sport cards which was a combination of two of my favorite things: collecting and sports.

My stepbrother had shown me the cards he was collecting, and I was instantly sucked in. I spent hours browsing eBay and other resale sites, looking for cards that I wanted. Soon enough, I had my very own collection.

There are two main approaches to collecting sport cards:

1. Purchase specific cards online. This method ensures you know what card you are going to get. It is the calculated (and much safer) approach. It’s like being able to pick out specific stocks that you like and believe will improve in value over time.

2) Purchase packs of cards. You can open up packs and get a random mix of cards. It’s essentially gambling and obviously carries greater risk.

Since entering the world of sports cards, I stuck with the first approach. I used my sports knowledge to pick out specific players who I thought would improve, thus increasing the value of their cards over time. It was going really well, and I made a lot of good decisions.

After building out my personal collection, I realized there was an opportunity to make some money along the way. To compare to the stock market again, in the case of sport cards, players are the companies, and their cards are the stocks. As a player’s performance and popularity improves, the value of their card increases. It’s a simple concept in its most basic form.

Once I discovered the business side of it, I became even more obsessed. For a period, I was waiting for the mailman every day, so I could receive the new cards I had ordered and ship off the ones I had sold. I even purchased a photography lightbox so I could professionally photograph my cards.

It was one of my first real experiences in the business world, as I was constantly negotiating prices and deals with other sellers and buyers. I learned about the value of strong customer service and took pride in getting a 5-star review for every transaction. Everything was going smooth, and I was loving it.

I then decided to give the second approach a go. Up to that point, I hadn’t bought a single pack of cards. It felt too reckless for my liking, so I stayed away for as long as I could. But my impulsive decision making took over one night, and I went off the deep-end and spent all my previous card earnings for a box (a box contains packs) of football cards.

I spent $3,000 for that one box. Yes, $3,000 for paper-thin pieces of cardboard. I know the value of money is relative to everyone, so spending $3,000 does not hold the same weight to each person, but that was a lot of money for me. In fact, it was pretty much my entire net worth at the time. It was reckless. It was impulsive. It was exhilarating.

Here’s how the decision unfolded:

My roommate, who definitely would’ve talked me out of the decision, was gone for the night. I was alone in the dorm room, feeling a bit bored with nothing to do. I went on Instagram and saw an account that I followed was doing a livestream pack opening.

This process works by buying packs from the account, having them then open your packs on livestream to an audience, then they ship all the cards from the packs to you. It removes the fun of opening the packs yourself but adds in additional excitement from having a live audience.

I watched for about half an hour as people were opening up new Select NFL packs. The host of the livestream mentioned there were extra boxes left, and upon hearing that I got the gut feeling that I had to buy one. At that point, I had only a few minutes to decide if I was actually going to buy one before they sold out.

I had such a rush of adrenaline and started pacing the room wondering if it was going to be a dumb decision that would hang over my head forever. In my mind I was leaning towards yes, but I wanted to hear another person either tell me I was being an idiot or that I should go for it.

In that moment, the person I decided to get advice from was my older sister.

I was ready to follow whatever she advised. She answered my call, laughed at my situation, then basically told me “YOLO”. With that I quickly hung up, punched in my credit card info, and sent $3,000 to a guy named lilpullman on Instagram.

As soon as I hit submit on the payment my adrenaline turned to nerves. There was no going back from that point and all I could hope for was some good luck. I was placed in a queue among other people, so I stood by myself all amped up in my dorm room waiting for my turn (it was about 11:30 pm at this point).

The time finally came, and my name was announced on the livestream. I mentioned it was my first every pack, which increased the energy of the 150 people watching the stream. The cards were revealed one by one while I was trying to calculate in my head with each card if I was going to make my money back.

Halfway through it was pretty average, then the pack opener had a burst of excitement and yelled out “Baanggg” like he was Mike Breen announcing the NBA finals. At that time, he flipped over a gold Chase Young rookie card that was numbered out of 10 (meaning only 10 versions of that card were made). At the time, Chase Young had just been drafted #2 in the NFL draft and was viewed as one of the best rookies in the league. In the moment I had no idea how much the card was worth, but it provided a huge sense of relief. There were a few other cool cards that came up from the rest of the packs, but the Chase Young gold card was certainly the highlight.

By the end of it, I still had no idea if I lost money with my decision. There was then a 10-day waiting period until I could get my hands on the cards due to shipping times. As soon as I got them, I took pictures of each card and posted them for auction on eBay, to see if I made any money.

I did not. The Chase Young card got $700 which is a lot for a single card, but the rest of the pack fell short. In total I probably lost half my money.

It appears to be an obvious case of throwing money away, but I wouldn’t say it’s a decision I regret. It did provide one of the more memorable nights of my life and taught me some lessons about being impulsive along the way. Actually, as I’m writing this, I’m trying to deduct the lessons I took away from that night and I can’t really think of anything that’s not already super obvious. So maybe it’s just a case of paying for a fun experience, albeit a really expensive one that I overpaid for, but still a fun experience. I do think it’s important to have those fun experiences every once in a while, without thinking about it in terms of money (within reason of course). Who knows, either way there’s nothing I can do now about my decision other than appreciate it.

Advice to my future self: Find a balance between being impulsive and being smart.