An evolution - finding and buying up cardboard on the Internet

While I've used online sources as my personal swap meet over the last 15 years - it has gotten to the point where I don't even bother leaving the house to see if I'd be able to go find the cards I need in-person at a card shop / card show.

I can lazily lounge around with my laptop, browsing and making purchases left and right - when before I HAD to get out of the house, maybe go 30-40 miles somewhere to spend some fruitless hours at a card shop/card show.

I usually wouldn't be able to find what I want but still be compelled to spend $20 on something - just to say my trip wasn't a waste, when I'd mostly end up with redundant extra cards I already had but nothing like 'unique' cards [i.e. minor league cards or parallels from the mainstream sets] that I was really looking for.

When I'm on a 'shiny card' kick, there are more options online for me to find a card - like a 2013 Bowman Silver Ice parallel of Gregory Polanco.

Or perhaps an obscure 2012 Bowman Chrome Blue Wave parallel of Cam Maron - a catcher in the New York Mets system ticketed for the Arizona Fall League.

Besides the variety of cards I can find online, maybe the reason I'm more active was learning how to finally work a Paypal account - for several years my online purchases were slowed down because I'm a luddite who had Paypal but still tried to pay for cards using money orders or even cash.

I had to go back to the drawing board and figure out what I exactly had to do such as link my bank account, so I would be able to use Paypal as a payment option - over the last year, I've been ramping up purchases using Paypal, not having to worry about not following through on purchases made.

Stuff does cost actual money and at times, I maybe I have to slow down - to make sure I'm not going overboard with any online purchases.