Unless you have collected old lures and spent something equal to your net worth doing it, you are not going to understand what I'm about to explain.

Lure collecting is addictive.  It's a little like a treasure hunt where you frequently find valuable 'nuggets' in strange places like garages and attics.  Having an addictive personality is conducive to being effected by this problem, but anyone who becomes 'hooked' on buying or finding the next lure has a problem as sure as any drug or alcohol addict.

• If you get a craving to buy or find a lure after a few days; you are an addict.

• If you attend every lure show within a thousand miles of your home; you might be an addict.

• If you spend more on lures a month than your home mortgage payment on lures; you ARE a lure addict.

• If you visit Joe's bulletin board more than once a day; you are more than likely an addict or headed that way.

• If you feel like you need a 'fix' when you have not found or bought a lure in a while... you are definitely an addict.

All joking aside, lure addiction is a serious problem for some people and it can disrupt your life or ruin you with severe financial problems.  If you can afford to buy anything you want and it just occupies your free time, then who cares.   But if lure collecting is harming you or your family because you can't control your spending money or time doing it, then you have a serious problem and you need to do something about it.

Want to do something about your problem?  Then take it from someone who decided he needed to quit collecting and go cold turkey.  Sell your collection.  Sell every single lure you own.  Quit going to shows.  Quit visiting Joe's bulletin board on-line.  Explain the problem to your collecting friends and don't contact them again...ever.  None of them.  You have to get a way from anything and anyone associated with lure collecting.  If they are really friends, they will understand.  If they are just using you, who cares. 

It's an addiction just like drugs or alcohol.  The only way to control the urge to collect and buy is to get completely away from the hobby and anyone associated with it because more than likely they have the same problem as you.  If you hang out with lure junkies, you become one.  It's that simple.

If you assume you are just like a 'drug junkie' or an 'alcoholic', then you have to do the same thing they do to get away from their addiction.  Stay away from the addictive material.  Stay away from people who you associated with when you participated in the addiction behavior.  It's tough love, but  it works.

If you don't, you are going to go broke and you might lose your family.