Selling it all...

[KidA]

I think having financial woes, major or minor, forces you to view your collection through the eyes of a non-collector.  For me at least, I sometimes fail to see the my love for collecting, and instead see the money spent.  As selfish as it may be, you have to realize that its something that you truly loved doing at one point, and attempt to consider whether its some other factor that's afflicting that love.

[wildbil52]

Streamlining seems to be a great way to re energize. 

[Sirgin]

I guess this is a point many collectors reach when their collections gets too big. The collection gets so big it becomes a hassle to manage, store, display, clean, ... and the joy of every additional game purchase diminishes greatly.

Slightly unrelated: but I remember seeing a clip on TV about a guy who collected Panini stickers (stickers you buy in little packs of 5 that you can collect and stick in albums) and the guy's entire house was filled with stickers. And this was a guy in his 50ies or 60ies. He spent so much time organising his collection he didn't even seem to enjoy the process. What struck me the most was he kept all stickers faced upside down, because sorting by numbers is faster than by pictures. So, in effect, he spent all his time sorting a bunch of numbers.

Most of us probably got into collecting because we enjoy playing games. When a collection gets so big it gets in the way of actually playing games, I think it's time to reevaluate where your priorities truly lie.

[blcklblskt]

I'm in the same boat as you bickman.  I've been killing off my collection over the past year and a half, simply because I don't have any desire to play certain things anymore.  I became fed up with all the space that everything took up, and the fact that I wasn't enjoying the stuff, either.  Since then, I've managed to cut my collection down by probably 1000 games or so, but the process is long and arduous.  Although, I still feel the need to trim a bit more from my collection (even some of my N64 stuff).

Recently, I have only been buying games that interest me enough to actually want to play them, or games that I can resell to fuel my collecting habits.  I find this approach to be more fun than collecting itself, as I get to make money and have a collection of the greatest games for each console.

Whatever you do, take a few weeks to imagine how everything will play out.  For me, it was simply better to get rid of a ton of stuff.

[techwizard]

i agree with the trimming too, get rid of variants and duplicates, and games you know are bad but you got just to have (unless they're super rare). you don't necessarily have to keep only games you know you'll be able to play, but keep the ones you know you'd be interested in playing someday...it's good to have it small enough to know you'll be able to play them all, but it's also nice to have some choice too.

[Tynstar]

By selling off a lot of my stuff it has made my collecting more focused.

[Hungrymoose]

By selling off a lot of my stuff it has made my collecting more focused.

Pshh.  Focus is for Jedi. lol

[bickman2k]

OK, I think I'll be heading to storage tomorrow morning so I can grab a few tubs of stuff to start testing and listing. Keep an eye out in the Buy/Sell forum for updates!

[bombatomba]

...I think that I'm at the point where I'd rather buy what I want to play and keep around only things that I really enjoy having, not just having everything to have everything.

I think I've been in that mode since 2010, so I can sympathize.  I mean, I still feel the need to dig through crap looking for PC games, but for the most part piles of games for anything else doesn't phase me (unless it's on The List). 

Are you sure that you don't have the Collecting Blues?

[techwizard]

this thread inspired me to go through my games and get rid of some duplicates and old pc games that i don't want anymore. i only managed to get rid of about 20 or so games though XD

[Zing]

OK, I think I'll be heading to storage tomorrow morning so I can grab a few tubs of stuff to start testing and listing. Keep an eye out in the Buy/Sell forum for updates!

Wow. I can't imagine having so much stuff that I have to keep it in storage. At that point, why even continue owning it? It obviously isn't getting played, or even looked at!

[Razor Knuckles]

OK, I think I'll be heading to storage tomorrow morning so I can grab a few tubs of stuff to start testing and listing. Keep an eye out in the Buy/Sell forum for updates!

Wow. I can't imagine having so much stuff that I have to keep it in storage. At that point, why even continue owning it? It obviously isn't getting played, or even looked at!

Eh, I'm starting to do the same thing. Gonna be moving out of state pretty soon. I may sell a few things myself to make for some space and some $$$.

[bickman2k]

OK, I think I'll be heading to storage tomorrow morning so I can grab a few tubs of stuff to start testing and listing. Keep an eye out in the Buy/Sell forum for updates!

Wow. I can't imagine having so much stuff that I have to keep it in storage. At that point, why even continue owning it? It obviously isn't getting played, or even looked at!

The reason is that we have a small house. If I had a larger house, I'd have it all here and set up. That's not the case and also may be part of the reason I'm choosing to slim down now.