My story--part 2 The Middle and very nearly the end

This post won't be long and drawn out like the beginning post. Basically I started buying cards again in 1998. I was married, no kids...plenty of money. Or so I thought. I bought everything. I bought high end (for the time) as well as middle and low end. I bought baseball, some football and basketball, even some hockey. If it was new, I wanted it. I started selling on Ebay, trying to sell the hits to recoup some of the money. I sold my one and only 1/1 pull, a Purple Masterpiece Shawn Green from Fleer Focus for $350. I kept trying for that elusive big "hit". Between 1998 and 2002 I spent nearly $30,000 dollars on cards. Almost all on credit cards. And all of it hidden from my wife. It pains me even now to type it. I stopped buying in 2002 but kept juggling the credit cards until early 2004 before she discovered it. That was one of the worst and best days of my life. It was eating me alive and I had even contemplated suicide...not over the cards, but because of the lying and betrayal. Hiding the mail, answering every call from creditors so she wouldn't know...it was terrible. When she found out she was angry, which is much too mild a word for how mad she really was. As much as the wasted money hurt her, it was the lying about it that was worse. The only thing she wanted was for me to own the situation and tell our parents. Despite her father's demands, she stuck by her Christian views and didn't divorce me. I wouldn't have been surprised if she had wanted a divorce. She forgave me almost immediately, but it took a LONG, LONG time for her to trust me again. We're stronger now, we've long since paid off the debt and moved into our dream house (which was a few years delayed due to my addiction). This is getting longer than I intended so I'll finish with this lesson. I've learned that while cards can be fun (if collected responsibly), there are far more important things in life.