Anybody Else not Ever Bothered to See What they Really Have?
This question might be a bit odd, but has anybody else not ever really had all of their stuff in one place, and therefore has not ever really been able to see it all at once? I know what I have, for instance, if I see a game or hear about one, but I do not have a regular awareness of having it since I cannot see it, if that makes sense. If I want to play something I know where to find it, but outside of that it's in a box or cupboard somewhere. Very rarely I have ended up with doubles, and that is usually due to garage sale or thrift store lots.
Displaying is my least favorite part of collecting (for my own stuff, I like looking at other's!), so that is a big piece of the puzzle as to why this situation exists, but it has never stopped me from adding more things to my collection. I'm guessing that once we finally get a permanent place that will change, but ever since I moved out at seventeen I've always had stuff in multiple places and usually in boxes at that.
Just curious if anybody else has an invisible collection, or had one for many years.
Displaying is my least favorite part of collecting (for my own stuff, I like looking at other's!), so that is a big piece of the puzzle as to why this situation exists, but it has never stopped me from adding more things to my collection. I'm guessing that once we finally get a permanent place that will change, but ever since I moved out at seventeen I've always had stuff in multiple places and usually in boxes at that.
Just curious if anybody else has an invisible collection, or had one for many years.
Comments
One thing I will be interested in seeing is how much room this stuff will take up once it's all in one place. This includes a full set of Smash/SMB amiibos and pretty much every World Of Nintendo figure that been released in the last 2-3 years on top of my gaming collection.
Then a couple years ago I bought a new house, and for a while everything was in a ton of boxes in various rooms. Within the past year I finally moved all the boxes up to the new game-room, and have been slowly going through everything, unpacking, deciding what I want, how to display, etc. I'm getting there, but it's definitely an overwhelming feeling. And in deciding what I really want to keep and get rid of, I really needed to get everything out in the open to see what all I have and process.
I'm currently trying to trim down my collection a bit and sell or disperse items to people who will enjoy them more than me. I still will be keeping a lot of stuff, but more and more I'm getting to the point of wanting things to go to people who will truly enjoy them more than I will. So while still adding things, my focus is actually more on finding good homes for some of the stuff. I know I could just throw it all on ebay and be done with it, but I'd rather go through the slower process of getting things to friends, people on NA, specific collectors, etc.
Now, in my home office, I have most of the important stuff in my collection displayed. Maybe a quarter of my collection is still in boxes and totes in a different room. I love the accessibility, but it's also much more of a pain if I must dig something out of storage.
I have all my modern stuff (component/hdmi) in the front room, made a single cabinet with custom height shelves. Then my retro stuff is in office with the PVMs in its on cabinet.
You can build a fairly nice custom shelves unit for very cheap, I'd assume that a majority of peoples game collections here would fit in a 8 foot tall x 4 foot wide space if shelves were spaced ideally.
Dragging everything out into my living room and segregating games that I had definitely accounted for in my collection/inventory program from those I hadn't definitely helped. Now I keep my lists constantly updated (and with me thanks to the miracle of smart phones), so I'm not safe from not actually knowing what I have. And thanks to very large Rubbermaid tubs, moving boxes, etc., I can see everything in one place...even if it's not displayed in a pretty manner.
My nes stuff is stacked up 3 deep in a cabinet next to the tv. I don't display shit. Most everything else is accessible in the opposite cabinet but N64 and 2600 are boxed up in the closet. Seriously thinking about downsizing and getting rid of a lot of it. Too damn lazy to offer it all up though.
yeah I know what you're saying. I'm just taking the last of it to the local shop and trading it in for one nice thing. Tired of selling everything individually
My nes stuff is stacked up 3 deep in a cabinet next to the tv. I don't display shit. Most everything else is accessible in the opposite cabinet but N64 and 2600 are boxed up in the closet. Seriously thinking about downsizing and getting rid of a lot of it. Too damn lazy to offer it all up though.
yeah I know what you're saying. I'm just taking the last of it to the local shop and trading it in for one nice thing. Tired of selling everything individually
I never really sell anything. It just seems like too much of a hassle. Would love to flip a bunch and go CIB for the NES though. I just don't have the patience. It would also undermine my collecting habits of the past 5-ish years.
So I guess the moral of this story is: buy a house, finally display things. I'll work on that this year .
^ This. Because, space.
Just finished building my first set of shelves for my console games that are DVD sized cases. Was a bit shocked to see how massive my collection was all in one place for these consoles (pic below). Sad thing is I have well over 300 PC games so the second set of shelves will be almost as full once I add those and my PSX/Saturn/3DO cd jewel cases and longboxes.
This question might be a bit odd, but has anybody else not ever really had all of their stuff in one place, and therefore has not ever really been able to see it all at once?
Dude, yes, and it blows!
Not my games, those have always had a dedicated space (when I lived alone in a 2 room apartment they adorned my living room, now in our house I have a game room), but my Christmas light collection is scattered to the winds and it drives me nuts. I've got one set of shelves, and it's CRAMMED full. I've got totes and boxes full of stuff in our basement, in our carport, in my parent's shed... it's madness. Considering I try to use them every year, and when I get a string out and think "I know I have more of these... but where?" is very annoying. I'm hoping so hard to get things organized in some fashion, but it's a daunting task.
While I've rarely bought accidental doubles of games, I held off buying a couple of books today due to the fear that I might already have them. Going through the boxes of books usually yields some genuine thrift store surprises.
But, to answer the question, I have a small nook in my office with two half-size, non matching book shelves. Game systems are on the top of each, and underneath are most of my games stacked top to bottom on each shelf. Beside that is a CD rack which could probably hold 800-1000 CDs. It's hard to say because each column is divided into 8 shelves. Anyway, it houses my most notable NES, DS and 3DS game. Between the bookshelves and the CD rack that, oh, 50% of my collection. Of the remaining 50%, 30% is Game Boy games, alphabetized in a large, flat box from Amazon, 15% is in boxes because I have no place for them and the last 5% is stacked up on a table right behind my desk because they need to be cleaned, sold or compared against a dump in my collection to determine which is the better copy.
It doesn't really bother me because I don't get many visitors who play video games. If anything, I want to cut some of my collection down to get rid of games I don't or won't play. I could easily sell a good chunk and then use the money to pay bills or buy a guitar. As I get older I'm learning that sometimes less is more.