Paring down
As someone who has a slightly addictive character, collecting pretty much anything comes quite easy to me. "You never know when you might need it again," is what I tend to say. The same is true for board games, of course. "We might play this again at some point," is how I justify not letting a board game go that I haven't played in months. So, in this article, I want to talk about how I overcome my own excuses to keep my board game collection to a manageable size.
For me, the biggest driving force behind getting rid of board games is space. I have intentionally limited myself to only a certain amount of shelf space. It's a physical limit to how much volume of board games I can store. It also means that I have quite a large collection of small box games, mint tin games, mini mint tin games and wallet games. So even though I have quite a lot of games, many of them are small.
Yet, there are also a good few games that come in bigger boxes. No, not Gloomhaven size, but what others would probably call standard size. Think Wingspan, Quacks of Quedlinburg or even Brass: Birmingham. To me, these boxes are still large and there is probably only room for about 15 of them on my games shelf.
So you'd think it would be easy to just sell a game when I run out of shelf space, but of course, I've got another trick up my sleeve so that I can keep more games. I also have some "overflow" storage: under the bed and at the bottom of the cupboard. It's not a huge amount of volume, but enough to store a few extra standard-sized boxes.
I even have put some games into the loft, but these are games that have a certain nostalgic value to me, even if I'm unlikely to play them again any time soon. For example, On the Underground London/Berlin is close to my heart and so is The Cost. These will stay in the loft nice and clean in a plastic box and may come out again on special occasions.
So, as you can see, I'm making it hard for myself to keep my collection at a manageable size. Even setting physical limits of how many games I can keep doesn't quite work.
Yet, I have given some of my games to friends, some to charity shops and others have been passed on to other people. I know, now you wonder how I managed to let go of these games. Well, if you've learned anything from this article at all, then you'll realize that these games weren't actually my games - they were review copies I was sent by a publisher.
Sometimes publishers tell you that you can keep the review copy they sent you. In those cases, I tend to give the game to a friend or to a charity shop, at least once I've played it often enough to write my review. There are occasions, where I do keep the review copies though, but only if I know for certain that they will get played.
When publishers don't want you to keep the game, which is usually when they are prototypes or there is a crowd-funding campaign involved, then I will send the review copy to the next person or back to the publisher. That's actually what I always offer to do anyway. I never expect to be able to keep the games publishers send me for review, but some of the bigger publishers are happy for you to keep the game.
Anyway, sending a game to the next reviewer or back to the publisher is, by far, the strongest reason for me to keep my collection at a manageable size. After all, I have no choice in the matter.
There is another motivator for me to sell games though and it's not so much space, even though that plays a part. I still buy a fair few games myself, so that I don't completely rely on review copies from publishers. I do have wonderful Patreon supporters and Ko-Fi contributors, but the money I receive that way only just about covers my hosting and other running costs. So by selling games from my collection, I can offset the cost of new ones, at least to some degree.
Even though it's tough to do, it does feel quite cathartic and satisfying when I do finally sell a game, box it up and post it off. I never sell games that we still actively play, of course, but as you probably know yourself, once your collection grows, you end up having several games that do something very similar. So you can just keep the game that works best for you and the people you play with and get rid of the others.
Also, some games rarely see the day of light, so I tend to earmark anything that hasn't made it to the board game table in a year. These are likely to be put up for sale, except those that have some sort of nostalgic value, of course, as mentioned above.
I try and buy deluxe editions of games, when I can afford to, because these often keep their value better than standard versions of games. That means, when I do finally decide to sell these games, I'm more likely to get my money back, or as close to as possible. That's not always possible, but something I try to do.
That's about it for me. As you can tell, I find it hard to keep my collection at a reasonable size, but I think I still have way fewer games than many in our hobby.
So how about you? How do you keep your board game collection in control? Do you do a regular spring clean and get rid of games? Do you maybe trade to ensure that you keep the number of games you own roughly the same? Please share your experiences and suggestions in the comments below. Maybe there are some tips I can learn from for myself.
I think it's worth always reflecting on why you (I'm speaking generally here) want to get rid of stuff (as much as why you want the new stuff). Why do we (often after a few years collecting) feel that urge to get rid of stuff, especially if we DO have room? Partly I guess it's because the more games we have the less likely they are to get played. Partly, for me at least, it's kind of a reminder of mindless consumption. Like, I love games, but I feel uncomfortable thinking about just buying these things that sit there. People say "hey, there's no harm" - and there isn't, but I shouldn't need to buy all of these things to have fun, should I, especially if they don't get used, new box smell dopamine rush complete. Another part, again for me, is that I feel like there's a bit of an emperor's new clothes thing with games. Oh sure, they are all different in their own ways, and there are certainly ones that really grab you and you enjoy a lot more, when they combine their elements to really do something you like. But the majority are not that different from each other in any major meaningful way. No, I don't need Isle of Skye or whatever, I've got Carcassonne, you know?I don't care if it's "better" - the difference is actually marginal. And I feel we kind of kid ourselves about that a bit. Most people go through life with one or two games in the cupboard and a pack of cards, if that. All those things kind of combine to be - far out, I have too many games.
The truth is that left to my own devices I am inclined to be rather prodigal with my funds. I do better now than I did when I was young, and I've managed to rein it in quite a bit. (It helps to have a thrifty spouse.)
One thing I've had to accept is that sometimes it's okay for a game to have sentimental value for you, even if the chances of getting it played are pretty remote. The two examples I always have are Duel of Ages II and Dune, neither of which get played nearly as often as I'd like and both of which have kind of big boxes. But I love both games dearly, and they aren't going anywhere. It's okay to have a couple games that are there just because they mean a lot to you. New games with incremental improvements are nice sometimes, because some games really do have irritating issues that are just waiting to be addressed by later games. But otherwise I'm fine playing the same stuff I played back in, say, 2015.
I love TWBG, but there has been in the past an undercurrent of trying to see who can get the most minimalist collection. It's been driven by a couple of prominent users, including myself. While I think it's admirable to only keep stuff you actually play, the truth is that not everyone has the same priorities, and not everyone moves as often as I do. (It's looking like January will bring our fifth "transition" since 2014.) I don't understand the appeal of lots of unplayed games, but I don't need to.
san il defanso wrote: I love TWBG, but there has been in the past an undercurrent of trying to see who can get the most minimalist collection.
This is a feature for me, not a bug. There aren't many hobby spaces (for any hobby, not just boardgaming) where this is actually a core value of a significant chunk of the userbase. Mostly it's about cult of the new, "ironically" complaining about the size of one's Steam library, chasing the next Kickstarter, etc.
I sometimes struggle to resist that mentality myself -- I have a distressingly normal primate brain that likes new shiny stuff just fine -- so having a regular, low-level drumbeat to help counteract that is really helpful to me.
We would play games with a number of seminary students near us from a variety of places, like Korea and Japan. Usually they spoke decent English, but I tended to stick to simpler games that were more social. That usually went really well.
But if I'm honest the vast majority of my gaming time overseas was with other expats, mainly through my kids' school. How easy that is depends a lot on what country you live in, since some places have way more expats from various countries, depending on wherever you're from. I kind of lucked out with the Philippines, since there are a lot of Americans there. We'll see what the future holds though.
That said, Carcassonne was 50% at Meijer (local grocery chain) and I totally picked it up this week, because “it’s a classic.” I hardly even like it and I’m pretty bad at it, but I feel it’s accessible and interesting enough.
Moscow was okay if I just wanted to play Magic the Gathering. Ouagadougou it was just the people at the Embassy. Frankfurt was good. Malta (despite being English speaking) was a dead zone, Guangzhou theoretically possible but too much effort and unsustainable.n815e wrote: How have those of you who have moved to non-English speaking countries fared in finding people to play with?
mtagge wrote: Moscow was okay if I just wanted to play Magic the Gathering.
Ha. One of my favorite MTG stories was from back in the 90s. We used to play on an app (we called it a "program", then) called Apprentice. You'd find someone in the various rooms on ICQ and link up on Apprentice and play a few rounds. One night, I got a few games in with someone and he asked where I was and I told him and I asked him the same and he said "Bucharest." I was like: "Oh. I guess I didn't even think of how Magic might have spread to Romania since Ceaucescu was overthrown."
He responded: "????"
I was all: "What?"
He said: "You know Romania?"
I said: "Sure. I know about the country."
He was like: "Usually when I play Americans and tell them I'm from Romania, they ask if I can see the Colosseum from my house."
n815e wrote: How have those of you who have moved to non-English speaking countries fared in finding people to play with?
Not so great tbh
Dubai - absolutely nothing going on except some expat kids playing Warhammer at the cities (then) only hobby store, although this was back before gaming websites were a thing and even widespread internet was still something of a new-fangled novelty. Monopoly was a huge deal, copies of it were everywhere and on the shelves in some of the most unlikely places, to the point it was almost a literal translation for "game".
Hungary - very lively scene in Budapest, unfortunately I was in a fairly remote location at the other end of the country so couldn't find anyone to game with, or at least anyone with enough English given that my handle on the native tongue is poor.
Cyprus - I found a single willing partner and together we made enough noise for a handful of others to come creeping out to join us. Pretty much all the action was in Nicosia and, again, I was too far away from it. Enjoyed a couple of game nights and I'm pleased to see that there remains a core group that are still connecting with game nights and even math trades nearly a decade later.
France - over the past few years I've been sporadically spending a few days at a time in Paris where there is an active gaming scene, but not one that is easy to find on English-speaking media (i.e. you won't get anywhere looking for clubs or meets on BGG). I tried but admittedly not very hard as I was always preoccupied with work and wanting to get back home as quickly as possible. I should have made more effort learning French I guess!
mezike wrote: Dubai - absolutely nothing going on except some expat kids playing Warhammer at the cities (then) only hobby store, although this was back before gaming websites were a thing and even widespread internet was still something of a new-fangled novelty. Monopoly was a huge deal, copies of it were everywhere and on the shelves in some of the most unlikely places, to the point it was almost a literal translation for "game".
Monopoly was actually a plot point in Comrade Detective.
Two things hold me back from a fire sale, though. One, I don’t want to go to the trouble of selling. If I could donate to the library or something, they’d be gone this weekend. Two, my oldest son is almost six. He’s really enjoying simplified Carcassonne right now. Hope springs eternal that in another five years he and his brothers might want to play Imperial Assault or SEAL Team Flix or K2 or whatever. So, since space isn’t an issue for me, I hold on to them, waiting and hoping and preparing.