The purge (collection talk)

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Bunch said:
I know who's getting coal this Xmas....
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That was in 2016. Planning to sell my GW (and other) stuff this time. (Edited to GW, my phone autocorrected to GE first time. LOL )
 
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Can't do shelfies. My gamer burial pyramid is comprised of Sterilite plastic storage boxes filled with RPG books and incense, with minor gas exchange by the lids so as to not ruin the books. Like Ozymandius, come marvel at my works and despair. You may make ablutions in chips and soda.

:gooseshades:::honkhonk:
 
I've binged and purged many times over the past 35 years. Sometimes I have sorely regretted purging after the fact - like when I jettisoned all of my AD&D 1e books when I was 20; thinking I was done with the hobby. But, for the most part, it's been a way to keep some sense of order in my household and realize what I really 'need' and what I'm actually going to use.

Over the past 20 years I've used eBay, Noble Knight, and Wayne's Books to 'drop the chaff'. In fact, yesterday I shipped off 3 boxes of Rpgs to Wayne's Books. eBay generally requires the most work, and there's usually very little 'return' on your investment. I've had far more success selling miniatures on eBay than Rpgs.
 
Most of what's left of my collection after my last Purge is in storage, but I keep one shelf in my closet for the essentials

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Armchair Gamer said:
I've had good experience selling materials off to Noble Knight Games. Which reminds me, I really need to get around to my own purging, either here or with NKG.
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Since I live less than two hours from Madison, I've gone to a couple of NKG's in-person trade days. The first time I did it, I made about $1500. At the one a couple of months ago, I sold off a bunch of old RPG books and my entire ASL collection. Made about $2800 for ten banker boxes, which is about what I can fit easily in my car.

I suppose I could have gotten more for some of the stuff on eBay, but can you imagine the pain in the ass of trying to sell and ship all of it?
 
Doctor Wombat said:
Since I live less than two hours from Madison, I've gone to a couple of NKG's in-person trade days. The first time I did it, I made about $1500. At the one a couple of months ago, I sold off a bunch of old RPG books and my entire ASL collection. Made about $2800 for ten banker boxes, which is about what I can fit easily in my car.

I suppose I could have gotten more for some of the stuff on eBay, but can you imagine the pain in the ass of trying to sell and ship all of it?
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I have considered contacting them with the list of stuff and shipping off to them.
 
Neon said:
So with all that being said, has anyone had success reducing their collection? Preferably I'd like to sell rather than donate (to buy more dumb shit). As opposed to board gaming, rpg gamers are ridiculously cheap! Lol Most players have never even bought a single phb, so is there even a secondary market for rpg? What can I expect in terms of cost recovery ? Is it even worth it to sell, or should I just line my coffin with these crisp manuals and have us all set on fire like a nerd viking funeral?

Enquiring minds want to know.

I WANT TO KNOW!
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Um . . . not so much. I still have my Gamma World, and my White Box 0D&D books.

I did give a bunch of my old Atari computers & stuff away to a collector, twice, though I still have a lot of that.

What I have succeeded at, so far, is not really buying all that much physical RPG stuff.

I recently did get tempted by a "store closing" that listed their inventory, and I went through putting almost 100 game items in my shopping cart that might be of interest, but then as I went through looking at what they were, I was pretty sure that about 90+% of them, I wouldn't use and just had mild curiosity to see. And I was pretty sure most of them would annoy me, too. Not to mention all the hundreds of things I didn't even click on, but could tell I would hate. And dang, are there an annoying amount of RPG products which have an obnoxious number of variant and additional books, all of which are expensive! It's like there's some formula telling them to have a Core Rulebook, a hardcover of that (maybe in various cover variants), a player book, a GM book, and then as many flavored expansions as they can think of. The Aliens and Star Wars RPGs, for example, and also the Star Wars miniatures boardgames are hilariously excessive. There's like an extra rulebook expansion for every catch phrase in the one good Aliens film! Seriously, there's the "We're in the pipe - five by five!" book, and a several others like that. The Star Wars minis pack with Obi-Wan is called the "Hello there!" set.

It was pretty souring looking at all that crap - made me way more salty than I already was toward recent trends in boardgames and RPGs. Ugh city.
 
If it's a real clunker, to the recycle bin.

Have donated rpgs and wargames in the past. Have used Nobleknight and ebay to offload for money, as well as forums. Nobleknight is the easiest to sell in one fell swoop.

These days I try to stay away from games that I know won't have a chance to get to the table.
 
RunningLaser said:
If it's a real clunker, to the recycle bin.
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Yeah, the only reason I haven't yet exchanged the D&D 5e book I was gifted is exactly "I don't want to inflict 5e on nobody"...:thumbsup:

(I've been using it to keep my character sheets between the pages and the cover, it's got hard cover:shade:).

Though I might still exchange it, if someone wants it.

RunningLaser said:
Have donated rpgs and wargames in the past. Have used Nobleknight and ebay to offload for money, as well as forums. Nobleknight is the easiest to sell in one fell swoop.

These days I try to stay away from games that I know won't have a chance to get to the table.
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Sounds like a good rule in general! After all, you can use the money to buy books you can and want to get to the table...:grin:
 
AsenRG said:
Yeah, the only reason I haven't yet exchanged the D&D 5e book I was gifted is exactly "I don't want to inflict 5e on nobody"...:thumbsup:

(I've been using it to keep my character sheets between the pages and the cover, it's got hard cover:shade:).

Though I might still exchange it, if someone wants it.


Sounds like a good rule in general! After all, you can use the money to buy books you can and want to get to the table...:grin:
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I have found that, over the years, the time between acquiring something and using it can be pretty long. I just painted a 3 headed giant mini that I purchased back in 1990 a couple weeks ago. I will read throughs I get then put it on the shelf until an opportunity to use it comes up. Anything that I have purged in the past I usually end up regretting. If I still had my Star Wars toy collection now I could probably retire in comfort.
 
Exploderwizard said:
I didn't sell them. I gave them to a kid I knew who would enjoy them. It is the only thing that lets me feel kind of ok for letting them go.
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I was just messing with you. :smile:

I think many of us baby boomers or Gen-X have tossed or given away tons of stuff that would have a monetary value today. Lets face it, when we were growing up there was no market based on nostalgia like we've seen in the past few years.

You used stuff, and when you were done with it you got rid of it. Grandpa and pa never pined about the trinkets they had as kids because at the time it wasn't the norm for adults to play with toys and chances are they probably didn't grow up having many toys to begin with.
 
Neon said:
I was just messing with you. :smile:

I think many of us baby boomers or Gen-X have tossed or given away tons of stuff that would have a monetary value today. Lets face it, when we were growing up there was no market based on nostalgia like we've seen in the past few years.

You used stuff, and when you were done with it you got rid of it. Grandpa and pa never pined about the trinkets they had as kids because at the time it wasn't the norm for adults to play with toys and chances are they probably didn't grow up having many toys to begin with.
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Yeah I was at that age, where I was trying to be more adult. It was 1982 and I was 13 years old and attempting to be more grown up. It was later, as an adult when I wanted to be a kid again that I missed them for the first time.
 
Exploderwizard said:
Yeah I was at that age, where I was trying to be more adult. It was 1982 and I was 13 years old and attempting to be more grown up. It was later, as an adult when I wanted to be a kid again that I missed them for the first time.
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So, when you're even older and decide you want to be a respectable senior, proud of what you have done, you'd be glad you gave them to a kid, and made that kid happy. That would be something to be proud of, right:grin:?

Those things, they are cyclical:shade:!
 
AsenRG said:
So, when you're even older and decide you want to be a respectable senior, proud of what you have done, you'd be glad you gave them to a kid, and made that kid happy. That would be something to be proud of, right:grin:?

Those things, they are cyclical:shade:!
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Heh. While I do occasionally kick myself I realize that I would probably not have taken good care of them over the years and at the end of the day bringing happiness to a kid is one of the best rewards one can hope for.
 
I just sold the rest of my DCC stuff on eBay via 9 auctions. I made $470.50. Ebay took $82.60. I spent $58.83 on shipping supplies. I admit I do overpack. My final earnings are $329.07, or about 70% of what I sold the items for. If I sell a little more (over $600 for the year) I will have to pay some taxes (I'm not sure how much). It took a lot of time to post and ship everything, as well. I wonder if selling to Noble Knight or Waynes would yield equivalent gains, once I subtract the value of the time I put into selling.

I sold items in groups. Going forward I think I'll try to streamline. I'll buy bulk boxes like 12"x10"x2" and some packing material, post everything individually with a buy it now price rather than an auction, and then box everything up ahead of time, marking on the box what's in it. I have about 24 sq ft. of rpg books, and I'm trying to get down to 12 sq ft. I've already sold a lot of stuff over the past couple of years.
 
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Ossian said:
I just sold the rest of my DCC stuff on eBay via 9 auctions. I made $470.50. Ebay took $82.60. I spent $58.83 on shipping supplies. I admit I do overpack. My final earnings are $329.07, or about 70% of what I was I sold the items for. If I sell a little more (over $600 for the year) I will have to pay some taxes (I'm not sure how much). It took a lot of time to post and ship everything, as well. I wonder if selling to Noble Knight or Waynes would yield equivalent gains, once I subtract the time I put into selling.
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Any idea how much you paid for the dcc stuff you just sold?
 
Neon said:
Any idea how much you paid for the dcc stuff you just sold?
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Unfortunately, I don't know. I'll likely figure out what retail cost was for all those items when I get a chance and post it here.
 
Ossian said:
Unfortunately, I don't know. I'll likely figure out what retail cost was for all those items when I get a chance and post it here.
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No need to trouble yourself if you don't already have the number handy.
 
Gabriel said:
I have legit offered to PAY people to take brand new, nearly untouched RPG books and they have refused. So I can say that once I have them, it's hard to get rid of them by any route other than dumpster.

Another factor is that I've learned I need to get rid of stuff quickly. If I don't, I tend to start to justify keeping the item.
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Imaginos said:
I have considered contacting them with the list of stuff and shipping off to them.
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I'd suggest compiling your list, and sending it to them. They are super easy to deal with, and will send you a quote pretty quickly. Then, if you want to sell it to them, you decide whether you want cash or store credit (they pay more when you choose credit) and they'll send you shipping labels to send them to them (no cost to you.)

If the price they quote isn't good enough in your opinion, then you say no thanks, and sell them a different way.
 
Ok. 10 Banker boxes didn't quite contain what I unshelved or collected from tables and such. Ended up using an Amazon box as well. There is still more I plan to pull off the shelves, but for today, that was enough. In the meantime, I posted 5 auctions on the RPG Auctions facebook page.

Werewolf the Wild West Poker deck
Tomb of Immolation OSR Module (limited cover)
Marvel SAGA collection
GURPS New Sun
Carcosa RPG - and this one is already a buyout.

I will likely take some of the boxes to the local used store Friday, just to get rid of some of this. No way I want to try to sell and mail all this separately.
 
Imaginos said:
Ok. 10 Banker boxes didn't quite contain what I unshelved or collected from tables and such. Ended up using an Amazon box as well. There is still more I plan to pull off the shelves, but for today, that was enough. In the meantime, I posted 5 auctions on the RPG Auctions facebook page.

Werewolf the Wild West Poker deck
Tomb of Immolation OSR Module (limited cover)
Marvel SAGA collection
GURPS New Sun
Carcosa RPG - and this one is already a buyout.

I will likely take some of the boxes to the local used store Friday, just to get rid of some of this. No way I want to try to sell and mail all this separately.
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Oh man, that's a lot. I'd definitely suggest (again, I know) to send that list to Noble Knight and see if they want it. They'll give you shipping labels for free, and money or credit as you prefer...
 
bleys21 said:
Oh man, that's a lot. I'd definitely suggest (again, I know) to send that list to Noble Knight and see if they want it. They'll give you shipping labels for free, and money or credit as you prefer...
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Pretty sure that's where a lot will end up. I don't like to take too many games at a time to the local store, just because they have a limit on how many they price out the same day.
 
TristramEvans said:
Most of what's left of my collection after my last Purge is in storage, but I keep one shelf in my closet for the essentials

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That's right! You best hide that Amazing Spider-Man Happy Family poster in your closet lest Modern Marvel (tm) comes on over to shame you to burn it in the penance bonfire along with all other past vanities. :madgoose: Spidey's only allowed to feel miserable and guilty now, because it's all his fault (they currently never name what he is at fault for, but that is unimportant: guilt first, accusation and trial later)!

:madgoose:Cobra la la la la la la la! There are five lights, not four!
 
Neon said:
I was just messing with you. :smile:

I think many of us baby boomers or Gen-X have tossed or given away tons of stuff that would have a monetary value today. Lets face it, when we were growing up there was no market based on nostalgia like we've seen in the past few years.

You used stuff, and when you were done with it you got rid of it. Grandpa and pa never pined about the trinkets they had as kids because at the time it wasn't the norm for adults to play with toys and chances are they probably didn't grow up having many toys to begin with.
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No vroom-vroom for grandpa.:cry:

(However the sports card, collectible yo-yo, comics, and die cast model car secondhand nostalgia market were big business in our youth... for our dads and granddads. I mean Becketts, magazine "stock exchange" for collectibles, was definitely a thing on newsstands before CCGs got their own magazines. :hmmm: Hard to fund a regular magazine, in glossy color!, if no one was buying.)

But yes, grandpa had to put away his vroom-vroom to go fight the war for us. :weep:
 
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