Yeah, I also do this, to the extreme. Collect everything, hardly ever use anything. :/ And in reality, it only ever happened to me once in my gaming life that I could not finish a game because I ran out of required resources near the end, and it wasn't even potions but ammo that I ran out of (in Albion). But then again, who knows, maybe it never happened to me again because I've become such a hoarder. ;P

Although, now that I think about it, another bad thing once happened to me in Vampire the Masquerade: Redemption, when I let a party member learn a spell by making them consume a spellbook, and then that spell turned out to be important, but the party member left the party, shortly before I needed it ...

I really disliked how in Knights of the Chalice it seems you're supposed to craft and use consumables in order to survive in some dungeons, and on top of consuming the items, crafting them also consumes XP ... That was the worst.

. Apparently I'm one of only few here to whom your XP reward idea sounds rather appealing (like the opposite of KotC), that would definitely encourage me to make use of consumables more often. And I actually like it more when using consumables is encouraged and I don't feel like I have to hoard them. So far only two things have been able to encourage me to ease up on my hoarding habits: straightforward game design that presents me with situations that I think would call for using the consumables I've picked up, or, like you said, an abundance of those consumables (if I've collected 115 healing herbs, I guess using up a couple of them is still okay, right? As long as I keep more than a 100! XD).

That being said, IMO finite resources should never be made necessary for beating a game. (Well, that's an exaggeration, of course, as some games are all about resource management, but those tend to be the games I don't really enjoy that much.)

ofc , as most games dont tell when you should use em , current battle or later maybe for a harder one

oh yes , prices in most games are way too high and many ruins it with npc-s only buy it for 10% base price and then sell it for 200% base price , and maybe give you a lame haggle skill which when is maxed make it to 50% sell and 150% buy...
I always end up with buying skills and some op artifacts and nearly never consumables

Arriving at the final battle with a truckload of "potions of minor healing" (which at that point heal maybe a broken fingernail), and among them the first I ever picked up?

Yeah, that's me. ;-)

Lol, I'm glad I'm not the only one, sometimes I end up just using my fists to kill enemies because I don't want to waste bullets, I probably made some world records without knowing it.
The unwritten rule of hoarders is that you can't use a consumable until you've reached the maximum amount that you can carry around with you. U_U

Too often for my liking do I find consumables in my fridge that I need to throw out because I didn't use them before they went bad. Does that count?

Vendor trash, but now a bit more literal.

OP - This thread is not what I thought it was going to be ... twice.

First off, I thought you probably meant perishables, and then I also discovered it was not about the real world ... I lost my interest after that ... except I wanted to be a part and join in ... however I couldn't think of anything to say, other than what I have just said ... and no I haven't consumed anything ... yet ... beer's not cold.

It might be due to the fact that games just throw out so many of these obscure items without putting any thought into whether those items will take up space or annoy the players who hoard them and detract from the playing experience.

I have the general rule that an item must meet a certain threshold of usefulness to be useful as a consumable, and it it can't be bought (or can only be bought in limited quantities), the threshold is higher.

In particular, if the supply of an item is finite, said item must be especially useful either in boss fights, or for getting through dangerous dungeons (and not just for helping win a single random battle; it needs to do something like revive or restore MP, assuming such effects are rare in the game).

Related question:
* Do you hoard items that are actually useless (like "sell for money" items, or if you're playing SaGa 1 or 2 with an all-monster party and have nobody who can equip anything that you find)?

Depends on whether:
a) It might be possible to sell them for more later (vendors offering different prices, skills or attributes affecting sale price that I believe I might increase);
b) Storage space is available;
c) I need the money.
If a) and b) are true and c) false, I'll likely hoard and just go on a selling spree at the end, to see how much I can amass before finishing. If a) is false and I know I won't be able to get more, no matter what, I'll likely do an occasional declutter, but not necessarily, if inventory is unlimited and I don't need the money I might just leave them there until the end and only do that same selling spree anyway, but depends. If b) is false then of course I'll need to get rid of stuff regularly, and what couldn't even potentially be of some use goes first.

In the case of SaGa 1 or 2 with an all-monster party, all 3 of them are false (except for SaGa 2 DS where there *is* storage space available).
* The sell price is the same regardless (not that it matters).
* Your party can carry 8 items in SaGa 1 or 16 in SaGa 2. More items could be carried in the inventory of individual characters, but not if they're monsters. (Humans can carry 8 items, espers 4 (though SaGa 2 espers can carry more before they've learned their 4th skill), and Robots 7 (but note that durability is halved on equip and unequip)).
* None of your party members can use any items (except for healing items used out of battle), hence there's no need for money with this particular party.

So yes, this is a silly case. Perhaps it might be more interesting if inventory were infinite? (You have a situation where there's plenty of equipment in the game, you can carry it all, but you will never be able to use it (and you know this), and you don't need money because you can't use any of the equipment found in stores.)

In my case, I'm referring to things like unique one-of-a-kind items that nobody in your party can actually use, and there is no way that a character will start being able to use such items.

(In the all-monster party example, there isn't even anything to spend money on, except maybe elixirs, tents, and inn trips (which in SaGa 1/2 can be reduced to 0 cost by using healing skills before staying).)

I hoard items that have no immediate use for me as long there's a chance that I could meet another companion along the way who might be able to equip it, or it's not 100% clear yet that they are just junk (might be crafting components or optional quest items, things that some NPC in the game will need or value). In this regard, I very much appreciate it, if item descriptions tell you that this particular thing is only good for selling.

Really? So they did not boost strength above 18?

My understanding is that it sets strength *to* a certain amount, rather than increasing it by an amount.