I know it's not really answering your question, but might I recommend
Dominion? It's got really simple rules, yet has great strategic depth.
The gist is, you each start with a deck of 10 cards; 7 copper coins and 3 "estates" (worth 1 victory point each, but otherwise useless). You spend coins to buy new cards, which are added to your deck.
Besides buying more coins (including silver and gold) and more victory points, there's also 10 different action cards available for purchase, chosen at the beginning of the game from a pool of 25. The game plays very differently depending on which cards are in it, so there's a lot of variety and replayability.
And the best part is, it's not collectible. For $50 (MSRP; not hard to find it for less), you get the whole thing, all 500 cards.
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