A Knockdown and Rebuild of My Game Collection

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Thurn and taxis AND an expansion? *whispered* Do the other members know?
I totally want shadows over Camelot though why does no one in my area ever sell that for a decent price?

Yeah, the wife insisted that we put board games inside canvas buckets.

Yeah, I've been going through this process, too. It's complicated, because I've got a few titles that are half-painted but unplayed, like a Battleore 1st edition with Call to Arms, etc. It would have fetched more if I had just not started the painting process at all.

In all, so far I've brought my collection from about 150 games down to around 60. Hoping to make the final push on a few last titles. It's hard. I feel like I'm getting into the cream of my collection.

Yep. Started this process a couple years ago (hey, it's a long, sometimes agonizing process...) when I kinda needed the money and realized that the bulk of my collection pretty much stayed in the spare bedroom downstairs and never saw the light of day. I made some good money on sales and then we moved to a much larger space and suddenly I had room again... but didn't really have the impulse to buy. We have some Ikea shelves that occupy the opposite corner from the TV in the family room, so I don't have the visual noise problem that you do. They're noisy, but they're in a back corner, so no one cares. Plus, the shelf system had a cool cabinet attachment (Don't all things IKEA have cabinets attached?) that we use to store the chicken stuff, since they're right out the back door in that room.

Of course, recently, I've been getting back into "regular play" mode and I've been picking up a few new things or trading instead of selling, which means that the shelves have gotten more crowded (My girlfriend had a half-dozen or so that she brought with her, like Samurai and Pharaoh and Power Grid, too.) But then I realized that a couple significant space takers (Descent 1st Ed, Arkham Horror, etc.) are stuff that I've had on the sale/trade list for years. Since they're never going to get played and we now have a basement, I made some space by shuffling them down there.

Man, I'd love to still have a copy of Robo Rally...

We're in the process of culling over half of our games. I say process because the cuts are going to a sale next weekend, then we're likely donating/giving away the rest. Looking at what we're going to be left with, I'll be much happier to have a shelf where nearly every game is "oh hell yeah let's play THAT".

You are an inspiration.

WadeMonnig wrote: Thurn and taxis AND an expansion? *whispered* Do the other members know?
I totally want shadows over Camelot though why does no one in my area ever sell that for a decent price?

I'm an omnigamer, and I'll tell you what, Thurns & Taxis may be the prettiest game you'll ever see on the table. I got it for play with my family (and my buddy sold me the expansion for a couple of bucks) but it didn't stick.

So yeah, but that's kind of the point of the article. This is stuff taking up space, that's providing no value-add.

There's a guy on the Internet saying "don't buy any games in 2019, focus on what you already have" which of course will be ignored, because buying games IS the hobby. As it stands I don't think there will be a contraction until the economy turns.

Frankly, at my house I'm putting myself into a position to buy again, by making space. I'll be choosy, but at least I won't come to the web page or the game store and sigh, where the minute I feel interest in a game my first instinct is to internally ask myself where the hell I'm going to put it.

S.

I took the hatchet to my pile of games a few years back and it was such a wonderful release from the bad habits I had picked from fellow ‘hobbyists’ Then I tried to make a rule of selling before buying but the reality is that if there is a game I really want to get then I’m not going to stop myself. So instead I just make sure that I regularly cull what we have and make a determined effort to play some stuff intensively in order to move it on when it’s done. For example we recently buckled down to finish off Mechs v Minions, which we enjoyed but not enough to go all the way through a second time. But making the effort to get through the last couple of scenarios meant that I could then chuck it on eBay to get another box out of the house.
I have two shelves with games and I do love to see the boxes on there, ugly or not. It’s my hobby and part of my identity so I flaunt it.

I think the only advantage to limiting your owned games by a hard number is that it gives you less wiggle room. If 150 or whatever is your number, and you hit it, it's a lot harder to figure out ways that the thing you want doesn't count. Same with space. It either fits or it doesn't, and you can't really say, "okay but this one KIND of fits in this shelf".

I'm with you on the visual clutter. Anyone here remember CDs? We have two bookcases full of CDS in our TV room and it drives me up the fucking wall. I want those things out of there so bad, but my wife isn't up for it. My games are up on shelves in my office, out of sight, which is fine by me.

I'd make you an offer for Thurn & Taxis, but it won't get any play at home. My wife saw me playing it on Yucata and her eyes glazed over before my game explanation was complete.

I have all of my games in a closet, guarded by a mirrored door. In front of that mirrored door is my guitar studio area. So, it's basically like My Bodyguard...a cool kid guarding the nerds.

Haha, that's very good Superfly.

Man, the visual noise bugs me. I love my games, but I don’t love my living space looking like a free for all bachelor pad or hoarder nest and piles of games have that look. I am 100 percent a kid at heart but I like for my living spaces to look stylish and adult.

One of the best things I’ve done in terms of storage lately is to get the big Sterlite drawers and put them on my main shelf. All my Warhammer goes into them, and they are big enough to hold large models and terrain pieces. This, along with getting the small stacking drawers for painting and modeling stuff, has tremendously reduces the look of hobby clutter. For years I didn’t get it, but now I see why my wife was always pushing for closed storage.

The absolute biggest game collectors I’ve ever met- we are talking thousands of games between them- both had designated areas in their houses where games were allowed and they were forbidden elsewhere.

I would really like to get down to 25 games not including miniatures stuff. I’m at like 50 and most of the cuts are pretty deep now.

I'm with the "super collectors" opinion. I don't have thousands -- probably a couple of hundred accrued over 35 years, but that is because everything is stored in an unfinished area of the house (an excavated spot under the garage) where the hot water heater and the furnace live. Right now there is room for storage; however, I have little to zero desire to have games out in the actual part of the house where I would be looking at them.

And some culling is getting ready to happen -- probably a few AH titles and some other bullshit that pains me to know that it is in my house.

As for the OP, I hate Thurn and Taxis so much, I want to go buy it just so I can cull it.