How do I thin my collection? How do YOU thin your collection?

[Ulrick]

I'm wrestling with this issue right now. As I've said before, "I love my collection of RPG books, until I have to move."

After moving about 50 Banker's Boxes of books (RPG and non-RPG), its really gotten me to think about trimming down my book collection. My only problem is that I just don't want to regret it later.

I have every 2e Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Book published. Yet, I haven't played it in years. But I don't really want to sell the collection. The same goes with my Planescape collection, and my Star Wars d6 collection. I just think all of it is cool and great to mine ideas from, but is it worth keeping around? That's hard to decide.

One thing I can't recommend is selling them at Half Price Books. They used to pay fairly good. But the last two times I've gone they've low-balled me to the point where its just not worth hauling a box or two to the store.

 

[Mark CMG]

One thing I can't recommend is selling them at Half Price Books. They used to pay fairly good. But the last two times I've gone they've low-balled me to the point where its just not worth hauling a box or two to the store.

I've noticed that decline as well.

 

[Mr. Greengoat]

Good advice folks. It's nice to know I am not the only one who has to deal with this "collection" in some way.
I think I like the idea of setting a hard limitation on the physical space that it takes up and then giving up the lesser desired item.
Personally I think boxing the games is a bad way to go. I have had game stuff in boxes for about two decades and it does two things:
It gets it out of view so it enables buying more.
It gets it out of view so it is hard to access and use for play.

Now that I have slight room for bookshelves, I might use these as my limiting factors. Minis will probably still be boxed up.

I really want to start reading PDFs on a 10" tablet but I haven't had the cash for one. I wonder how much of the collection I would have to sell off to get a Nexus 10?

A side-thought on seller's remorse: most of my remorse happened around or a little after college. My later sell-offs have been less painful. Maybe I am wiser about the process.

 

[Mr. Greengoat]

It wasn't entirely voluntary. I was in a huge financial crunch. My wife couldn't find a job, my active duty orders were over, and my civilian job was paying only a little over half what I had been making on active duty.

Dude, that sucks. Games for groceries.
It's not as if RPGs are a *bling* hobby either. It's probably one of the cheapest intensive hobbies you can pick. The high cost of using your imagination.

I found Wraith 1st edition and Werewolf wild west in my basement if you want it?

 

[jasper]

My gun-totin' buddies will probably raid my house to take my minis to make bullets if civilization collapses.

But will they shoot you dead with the bullet made of your plastic minis or lead minis, or your pewter minis. Mine wouldn't shoot me. Just tell me I can't join their real life Mad Max group and let me die of embarrasment.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I'm pretty useless in an apocalypse, by my own estimation. I'm thinking I'd be shot, looted and then- depending on the nature of the apocalypse- used for meat. I AM finely marbled.

 

[Jeff Carlsen]

I came to the conclusion a few years back that I only have room in my life for about three games. I've chosen Shadowrun, Savage Worlds, and D&D or Pathfinder (I've yet to settle on an edition). I have a few Savage Worlds settings and almost everything involving the Iron Kingdoms.

I do keep the core books of a handful of other games (such as Star Wars Saga Edition and Burning Wheel), not so much to play them, but to reference them when discussion RPG design.

Then there are the D&D 4E books that are weighing down my filing cabinet, and the d20 Modern books that hold up my monitor.

You know what. I'm not the best person to ask about this, so forget I said anything.

 

[scourger]

...keep the basic rules system books and purge the splatbooks...Only keep those spatbooks (and adventures) that you feel really add to the game and you would use more than 2% of the content (i.e., one class, feat, ability, monster, etc.)

Finally, if you've reached your maximum storage, when you're tempted to buy a new RPG or book, make a pact with yourself to get rid of TWO books that you currently own to make room for it.

Good advice. Keep to the core. Out with the old when in with the new.

 

[DM Howard]

After moving about 50 Banker's Boxes of books (RPG and non-RPG), its really gotten me to think about trimming down my book collection. My only problem is that I just don't want to regret it later.

This is about where I'm at right now. I'm just about to finish my last semester of college this spring, getting a job (hopefully), and moving into an apartment with my fiance. I will say that my room in my parents house isn't so much messy, but I have two large book cases and so many things crammed everywhere it's cluttered. My fiance and I took a day to clean/organize my closet into "keep" (into a rubber maid), "don't care" (store in closet for parental perusal), "sell" (ebay and the like) and "trash". Moving is going to be a pain in the rear, so I've decided to sell off a large portion of my 40k Blood Angels, Mechwarrior miniatures, and a large portion of my my gaming and reading books. The wonderful thing is I have a kindle now and I enjoy reading regular books on there so I will save a lot of space that way. The majority of my gaming collection I don't use, I've gotten rid of most of my pathfinder and 4th edition stuff all I have left to get rid of is a good sized amount of 2nd edition books and some random pathfinder books etc.

Basically, what I'm trying to say is, I've kind of been given a dose of good old reality to get rid of a bunch of things in my gaming collection, my preferred method is to sell them because we could sure use the money, and in terms of picking what stays it just comes down to what I've even cracked open in the past few years during my short times at home.

 

[Shawn_Kehoe]

My advice is to reduce it in small steps. In the past I've found that if I start gathering stuff to purge, there can be a bit of a snowball effect and the last item or two is something I regret selling later.

I got rid of all my AD&D and World of Darkness stuff after university. I miss a few books now and then, but wouldn't need the whole lot. With 3.5, I knew that I didn't want to DM original adventures in that system anymore, so I kept most of my modules and the one or two player books that would appeal to me if I played a PC.

Of course, my recent purchase of the Vampire 20th has me feeling a bit of regret for those WoD sales...

The other approach is to keep a very strong mental picture of those unplaced books and consider it whenever you are looking at new purchases.