Gaming with too much baggage…
Stupid Ranger and I have been emptying out old college boxes, closets, etc to offload excess garbage. Several days into the assess and pitch cycle, I have been made painfully aware that I have a lot of baggage. In this case, by baggage I mean “stuff” not “emotional problems.” The latter is a topic for another place and time.
Trapped in the closet
In boxes that have been lodged in my closet for the four years that we have been in our current home I found the likes of gaming magazines, old sourcebooks, promotional HeroClix (which I don’t collect), comic books, DC comic cards, Magic: the Gathering… the list goes on. If anyone has any bright ideas how to archive, accurately price, and sell a large set of Magic: the Gathering I would love to hear it, since that is one of my main collections that I would just as soon do without.
While we were preparing for this year’s GenCon, we even found a few bags which had some items purchased on the sales floor last year, pristine and unused. About the only thing that I have identified that I can’t find and want to are wire blast radii that we purchased from a vendor two or three years ago. With the advent of 4e and its miniature centric battle rules, those would come in handy.
How does everyone else handle the clutter of gaming lives past? Do you give your stuff away, sell it, just keep it on a shelf longingly dreaming of games unfulfilled? Do you go through an internal evaluation process before buying something new to enhance your gaming? Once again, inquiring minds want to know!
I still have a ton of freakin’ Spellfire. I never throw anything away, just ask my wife. I have GenCon goodie bags from the last five years! I just shelve it, but the wife says junk/sell it.
I do however go through an evaluation process before I buy. In fact, I never buy on the first encounter. If I go home and it nags me that I didn’t get it, then I go purchase it.
I sell it on E-BAy or give them as Prizes on blog contests!
I’d chime in, but I am a terrible packrat. I just bought a huge house that is rapidly filling with more crap (now that there’s room, of course).
Magic and heroclix go well on e-bay. Craigslist works well too – or even a paper ad at your FLGS.
I shelve the books and box the junk — er, oddly-shaped stuff. I’m attending a friend’s wedding soon, and my plan is to make him a “gaming goodie bag” full of cool stuff from my closet: sourcebooks, minis, dice, etc. You know, to help him kick-start HIS own game junk collection.
Before I go answer your posts questions I do have to say that your post gave me a good laugh. When I look through the list of bookmarked blogs I read daily, I glance over the titles and subtitles to see what I should read. With the title "Gaming with too much baggage…" followed by the subtitle "Trapped in the closet" I must admit I did crack up.
Anyways, I'm the same way! All of my stuff just kind of piles up, even though I haven't touched over half of my D&D books in the past couple years. I don't even know what to do with them now! God knows when I'll throw another Oriental Adventures campaign…
@Storyteller: Thanks, always happy to provide a laugh!
@Everyone Else:
Thanks for all the great ideas! I stopped by my FLGS this weekend and they agreed to take on any extra stuff I had and mark it for whatever price I thought was good (including free). The lady behind the desk seemed to think I could get $5/book on their used rack, so I might end up doing that.
Cheap gaming is still good gaming, right?