I gave away my AD&D novels collection.

It was taking up space and while most of it was competently written, they are not works of literary genius as much as works of ok authors hired to capitalise on a successful franchise and their teenage appeal have worn off by now. I don't even have the time anymore to read novels that are actually worth my time, so I wouldn't have read them again.

With unlimited space, I might have held on to them, but for me at least, the older I get, the more I learn to let go. I will die and my life experiences will die with me. They are not worth that much. No sense in holding on to what has no present or future value.

I always used to laugh at people with big collections of things...

... and then a friend sold a Star Wars toy collection for more than the price of some modest houses...

... and I ate my words.

I have an extensive collection of movies and books... but none that I would consider investments.

Have I gotten rid of collections?

Yes, I've gotten rid of almost everything more than once... and some I regret once-in-awhile... but... IMO it makes sense not to become too attached to stuff outside of remembrances and family heirlooms. You never know when you might need to take the-show-on-the-road.

I don't like flea markets, therefore I throw stuff away rather than sell it. Besides, selling might take a lot of time.
Yea, I should sleep more instead of posting on forums at night. ;D

This is a very deep question so any short answer would either be superficial or cryptic. Can't say I found the answer yet. I can observe the mechanics of compulsive procrastination, the constant need for distraction from discomfort via quick and easy fixes but it's much harder to dig to the deepest roots of it all. When one isn't in the present, there's the risk of drifting into the past (nostalgia) or the future (craving for new excitement).

Perhaps the void is created when one can't accept and deal with the present moment and tries to remove oneself from that. When Superego and Id are duking it out in an epic battle, the Ego probably says "I'm out of here , let's go check what's on sale at GOG..."

Adding free games to the collection doesn't seem to have a noticeable affect on my mental state. Usually, the free games aren't games I would feel a need to buy. Adding free games indiscriminately is needless hoarding but It doesn't trigger the same crave/resist/regret loops in my mind. There's no dopamine rush or anything like that when adding a free game. I can accept those freebies in my collection without regret even if I never play them. Still, the question is very legit.

If it were allowed, I wouldn't resell but give it all away for free. Still have a long list of game codes I need to give away as part of my "penance" but it's become such a logistic burden that I've been procrastinating on that self-imposed obligation for years. Sometimes, I just want to quickly dump all my codes in a community giveaway thread but I'd prefer to give them to people who actually play the games and that takes a little extra work to setup.

No worries, I'm not up to date about current forum rules so I might as well answer here hoping that's alright. After all, it's very much in line with the topic of this thread.

Personally, getting rid of junk only makes me feel hollow, like there is a part of me missing. I can in no way relate to this simple living ideal.

Anyhows, I can recommend taking a photo of your discarded stuff, so you still have the rememberence, without it taking up space.

Related: I'd love to toss most of my fiction books [yes, I do reread -- or plan to -- the ones I've kept]... If only I could buy them DRM-free. I'm okay reading on an eink screen.

Striking the balance of not keeping junk while getting rid of things I'll never use and avoiding regret down the line is an ongoing process for me certainly.

Yes.It would be nice if there were some archivist club for these situations or when someone dies leaving behind obscure but valuable collections so they can be saved or put to good use instead of going in the bin.

Automatic document scanners could digitise the magazines but you would need to cut the magazine into pages to put into its hopper unless you wanted to do each page step by step or use a page turning robot.


Disc wallets or spindles are a way of saving space with discs.

I prefer not to throw things away if possible. I'd rather sell or give away things, putting the items in circulation or a home of someone who will enjoy it, rather than adding more to the landfill. Heck, many of the books and games I acquired were second-hand.

I got rid of most of my magazines. I don't have it in me to part with most of my console games though, especially since many of them are part of my backlog.

Reading that multiple posters just throw away collections increase my credulity on those A&E/History Channel TV shows :)

Thanks a lot awalterj for your detailed reply! I appreciate it.
Definitely a very interesting topic, let me read your entire thread to post there :)