When You Stop Giving A Damn

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That's where I'm at.

I think at some point they stop becoming a "lifestyle" and just kind of melt into the background of your existence, no longer in the forefront of your daily thought processes.

Thank God for that.

I just did a big re-org on my "collection" (it's a pile of rando garbage) and put the really good stuff out front, moved the losers to the back, and made a big old box of shit for the library, FLGS, and friends with kids. Good stuff, but not for us anymore. Feels good to clear things out. It's gotten us playing stuff we'd forgotten about.

I definitely had to come to the point where I owned my games, not the other way around.

I used to know what games were worth. KS has messed with all that math in my head too. I was looking at the (now so pretty) collection with my daughter and told her if I croak she needs to disposition these. I said, "Go to the FLGS and ask for Tim. Tell him I died. Tim will say, 'Oh, that's tragic, I am so sorry (beat) what is going to happen to his games?'" Then bring Tim here and let him help you move out some of this weird shit."

Like TITAN. Valley Games ed? Isn't that back to being worth a zillion after being dumpster juice? I am getting unsolicited asks for RUTHENIA. I think my collection-complete ARKHAM HORROR is worth less than shipping it, but my box of jumbled HEROSCAPE stuff is close to a car payment. This is a weird hobby. I am immensely invested in it, but I don't care about my investment in it enough to know the vaguest sense of its worth.

Totally. Like I think this clash of cultures expansion by itself worth hundreds. How fucking random is that?

Gary Sax wrote: Totally. Like I think this clash of cultures expansion by itself worth hundreds. How fucking random is that?

Even more random than your example displays, because it could be reprinted tomorrow and your copy will be worth $2.

For a while I was trying to gauge value, but it's such a moving target. Even the never-played copy of Buffy that I just scored at the thrift store isn't worth what it used to be worth, because the TV series it's based on is getting too far back in history. Won't ever be reprinted, but it's value decreases in spite of its sterling reputation.

Many years ago, I decided that each game was worth exactly how much I felt like playing it or simply keeping it on the shelf. I've traded things any number of times that look like I got robbed in the deal. But they had something I wanted and I had something they wanted that wasn't being played. That's the be-all and end-all to me. If I'm not playing it and can't see myself wanting to play it in the future, it's nothing more than cardboard taking up space on my shelf. If I can make a trade, I make a trade. If I really don't want it and can make a sale, I'll generally make a sale. My "value" was in owning if for years and (hopefully) having fun with it. Beyond that, I don't really care.

Jackwraith wrote: Many years ago, I decided that each game was worth exactly how much I felt like playing it or simply keeping it on the shelf. I've traded things any number of times that look like I got robbed in the deal. But they had something I wanted and I had something they wanted that wasn't being played. That's the be-all and end-all to me. If I'm not playing it and can't see myself wanting to play it in the future, it's nothing more than cardboard taking up space on my shelf. If I can make a trade, I make a trade. If I really don't want it and can make a sale, I'll generally make a sale. My "value" was in owning if for years and (hopefully) having fun with it. Beyond that, I don't really care.

Yeah, I'm kind of weighing that with my copy of TI3 plus expansions. Granted, it's easier to contemplate dumping it when the market is glutted an the game has, for most people, been replaced, but someone's shown some interest in it for a game I at least might get played, so I'd rather focus on that than whether I'm losing value (which I certainly already have in a dollar sense and might lose more still). We've been giving away a few things here and there (Tales of the Arabian Nights, Rampage) and will probably do more of that, too, to people who might actually want this or that.

I remember back when I really started selling games off the shelf...I remember holding a copy of Piratenbucht (the original version of Pirate's Cove) in my hands and I had just sold it and I was thinking "Oh man, I wish I hadn't have done that! I'm going to miss this game! What was I thinking!" But then I sent it off and not once have ever thought "I sure do miss PIratenbucht". There have been any number of other games over the years that I've held in my hands and thought "You know this game is really cool and I like it, but I like $50 more than I like this game". I know you guys all think "how could he be selling that, it was his favorite game of the year" all the time...but the truth of it is that I just do not give a damn myself. There are games I want to own and feel like give me value year after year- like the copy of Catan (my second) that I've had for 12 years. I've owned Catan since 1996. And I would never sell it because I DO give a damn about that game, and...more importantly...I play it pretty regularly. I've even thought about upgrading to a newer edition.

I, as you might have guessed, really like selling games. I like speculating. Part of the fun of the FOMO crisis back in 2016 was that I knew that stuff would skyrocket in value and it was available, briefly, at retail-ish prices. So yeah, I did want both of the BBTM expansions...and I played with them a few times and then made $100 over what I paid for them. Yeeha!I like flipping games. I like getting a hold of something with value and turning it over when I'm done with it and moving on. I like getting good games into the hands of good people, and I like making some money so that if I want something like a $110 Warscryer Citadel, I can buy that without dipping into "real" money.

I am at a place now where, other than some transient stuff from reviews and some dead stock (Piratoons...), I have only games that I give a damn about. I give a damn about all of my GW stuff- at 42, I've realized that my midlife crisis was in fact Games Workshop. But even that stuff is subject to the flip- I funded most of my recent interest in Frostgrave by selling a couple of kits that were still in shrink that I hadn't gotten to yet and the Soulblight Necropolis game mat (which came out last year and went OOP almost right away and I made $40 over retail on it).

Everything games is for sale as far as I'm concerned, because I do not give a damn. It's all a liquid, fluid commodity. If I'm not having fun with it, it's time to go. If it ain't playing, it ain't staying.

I know a supercollector...this guy has more games than you ever will. You seriously would not believe it if you saw it. I am really surprised he's never been on some kind of reality show (or Hoarders) or some kind of human interest news story. The master bedroom of his huge house is bigger than many apartments but...it's not used as a bedroom, it's a game storage warehouse. It is INSANE. You walk in and there are shelves to the ceiling and about a three foot space between each to form an aisle. This dude has THREE copies of Jati, that's how serious it is. But you do have to wonder, how much of it does he really give a damn about?

It is funny how some things just carry about $0 value these days...like Jeb said, I think a full set of Arkham Horror is practically value-less. I did trade a full set for a Wii U a couple of years ago, but I think now you couldn't sell it for half retail.

Everything is crap.

A few years ago we held a garage sale for my wife's parents. It was all crap. I had a vision of a Chinese factory producing it and a conveyer belt taking it directly to the dump.

Unless you spent $5k on it, it's crap and even then its probably gonna be pitched when you die. No one you know wants any of your shit.

I just recently got rid of a slot racing set. It sits around and I drag it out every four or five years. My wife said "oh, you like that!" Yup, I said, and I'll just spend $100 and buy it again if I want it.

Post industrial, and getting more post every day.

I just finished shrink-wrapping my games for the shipping process, after having sold about a third of my collection, maybe a little less. Two things stood out to me.

First of all, I didn't miss a single game. I didn't find myself wistful for games that moved on to others. There were some great games there, but I wasn't playing them, and in some cases I didn't really want to. Better to unload them for a song than lug them across the world.

Second, the games left fall into two categories. Either they are the absolute best games I know, or they have proven themselves to be played frequently. As Barnes said way back in 2009, the collection got a lot leaner, but it got a lot meaner in the process.

In weak moments I wonder what I will do if a box gets lost in transit. But with very few exceptions, I can live with it. It's just stuff.

I stopped giving a damn about games after I acquired a superb example of most of the game types. Most new games are simply derivative of previously released games--and, many of these new ones aren't creative at all. They're simply rehashed games with unnecessarily more expensive and chromed components or new settings. As unique hybrids arrive or truly new and innovative game mechanics are introduced, I become tempted again, enough, to want to try that new experience; this is becoming rarer and rarer. I'm also trending now toward just wanting to play the great games that I've already got. It's like putting on your favorite shirt, shoes, or, just sitting in your favorite chair--it feels right. Likewise, I also like to relive good books, good movies, good company, good food, and great moments--it's comfortable and homey. I'm open to new things, but, it's ok to be comfortable where you are too.