It's not everyday that you get to properly coin a term, but I've hit a bit of a soft wall on my primary hobby in a unique phenomenon I like to call "Collector's Entropy"
I've been collecting retro games since I was in middle school, and I'm currently at around roughly 1200 physical games, but I've reached a point where I already have almost anything I could ever want that's actually affordable to buy, leaving only expensive stuff left to get, slowing down new pickups. I'm under no illusion that I'll ever get to playing through all of these things so it's getting harder to justify continued collecting when all of the games I want and don't already have are in the $150+ range.
Mark my words, one day I WILL splurge on that complete copy of Sonic R for the Sega Saturn, but I'd be lying if I said I was looking forward to paying for that pricetag
Something I've been lamenting for a lot longer than this is the general cost of the hobby compared to how much cheaper it was before the pandemic. I was looking back on some ebay purchases and reminiscing about how Pokemon Emerald was a splurge at $75 back in early 2020 despite getting it slightly cheaper due to having a dead clock battery. My biggest regret is honestly not buying more at the time because this stuff is so much harder to get in large quantities nowadays due to residual price inflation from the sealed game craze. I bought all of these games because I love video games and I love having my apartment feel like a little library.
-Kara