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When I was about 22 I had close to 40 longboxes, maybe 15 short boxes and around 100 trades and hardcovers. On top of that I had around 80 Bowen Busts and some full size statues (which also take up a stack of room including their boxes, as any statue collector would know).

The turning point for me was when I had to leave the family home and move into a rental. One bedroom was almost entirely taken up by my collection and the move was a major pain in the rear. Out of everything that needed to be moved - from couches to whitegoods to whatever else - the transport of the comics was the most annoying. I ended up having to make about a dozen single car trips between houses as I didn't want them in a truck or a trailer.

By the time everything was there and all settled in, I was still buying a hideous amount of new floppies each week and this feeling of the collection being overbearing started. Although I still enjoyed comics, I felt like I was buying out of habit more than anything, and while other people my age were saving for house deposits or traveling, here I was blowing too much money on comics. So in one foul swoop (well, not really, since I sold everything individually or in sets on ebay and to other collectors), I offloaded the lot except for about 5 longboxes of Disney comics from when I was a kid and Aussie-release Phantoms (which I still collect). On top of that I got rid of the statues and busts too. It was a few months work and a struggle to keep up with postage and all that each day, but in the end I had all this room back and a hefty sum of cash, which I later used as a house deposit.

Since then I've still been buying hardcovers, but fairly modestly. I have a couple of hundred and although I thought I would never have the same problems again pertaining to space and what I collect, suddenly the bloody collected editions seem like they're taking up too much room! There's also a baby running around and if he has a little brother/sister someday I daresay the room where the collected editions are kept will be taken over.

So anyway, after being long-winded, to answer OP's question, the point came when I felt like I was not buying out of enjoyment anymore, but because I 'had to'. The thought of dropping books mid-run or getting rid of back issues made me feel, for a while, like I'd be giving up on the collection I spent years (and far too much money) gathering. Call it minor OCD or whatever you want, but I felt like there was no choice but to keep buying. I always thought I'd become an old man with a dungeon somewhere filled with 1000 long boxes.

There was a massive feeling of relief when it was all gone though. There are tinges of sadness when I see pics or videos online of other people's floppy collections (like that Don Rosa comic vault video posted here somewhere last week), but that's just the nostalgia in me.