Two incidents will forever haunt my memory.

The first one has a silver lining. Many moons ago I decided that I had to quit RPGdom, and threw a pretty substantial RPG collection into the dumpster. Fortunately, my flatmate retrieved it. Years later, I bought a second-hand set of Rolemaster 2nd ed books from an online vendor. They were none other than my own books from 15 years earlier, still in great shape.

Second, and far more recent: a strict budget necessitated trimming down my baggage before moving. After some hasty triage which at least saved a mint 1st ed copy of Swordbearer, a package including some Tunnels and Trolls solos and a Rolemaster Elemental Companion was shoved into the bin of a vending machine outside a Japanese 7-11. Why, oh why? Ridiculous postage costs had a lot to do with it.

Anyone else suffer any losses, stupidly self-inflicted or otherwise?

I've had to cut down several times when I've moved.

I particularly miss:

High Fantasy
Wizard's Realm
Sword Bearer
Lands of Adventure
Warhammer Mass Combat Roleplay First Edition

I also lost a great deal of my Traveller stuff when a friend of mine was murdered.  His anti-gaming family threw all his stuff and lots of mine away

I lost a collection of d6 Star Wars books, Mekton books, and Jovian Chronicles books when the plumbing in my apartment sprung a leak two years ago. About $1000 worth of books gone. That incident just absolutely heartbreakingly sucked for me.

I've essentially ended up regretting, at one moment or another, virtually every RPG book I've ever gotten rid of.

As a result, I've established a firm policy that I would no longer get rid of RPGs under any circumstances if I can at all prevent it.

The one exception I've made of late was to give away the Forgie game Dread (the Jenga one, not the "book of pandemonium" one); since I really couldn't imagine myself EVER using it for anything, and it wasn't really an RPG in any meaningful sense anyways.

RPGPundit

Quote from: David JohansenHigh Fantasy

The one by Jeffrey Dillow? Neat game system--I didn't exactly get rid of it back in the day, but I had only borrowed it and I never got a copy of my own until I found one recently on eBay.

As for regrets, I modestly regret losing my AD&D 1e core books when a schoolmate who was doing me a favor by "storing some of my stuff" at the end of the school year stupidly put them in a box outside his dorm room. It was all stolen. I also lost a copy of Victory in the Pacific and a transforming VF-1 Valkyrie Macross/Robotech toy (although a bootleg, it was very good quality).

It wasn't very hard to replace the games, though. The toy was a lot more trouble, but I did eventually get a version of pretty much the same thing.

I also modestly regret selling my copies of Swordbearer, GW hardback Stormbringer, and Snapshot, but not very much. I've sold lots more stuff that, frankly, good riddance!

House Fire.

Accidentally caused by my sister.


 Just after my senior year of High School.

 Classic TRAVELLER - much gone or went missing.

Really sad.


Re-discover some of it - still with soot damage.


- Ed C.

During my first year as an undergraduate my mum took it upon herself to throw out the bulk of my gaming collection. She then wondered why I promptly moved out.

It's a loss I'm still getting over, especially the early AD&D and Citadel miniatures. The books I've largely replaced, but those figures are rare and expensive.

Quote from: The_ShadowAnyone else suffer any losses, stupidly self-inflicted or otherwise?

I was homeless, and had two backpacks. One had my day-to-day necessities in like clothes and shaving stuff, the other had stuff I valued but could live without, like rpg books, CDs and so on.

I couldn't cart both of them about, so the books bag went into a train station locker. I didn't have spare money until about 10 days later, and by that stage the per-half day locker would have been up to $80 or so. I just couldn't afford it, I had to set some aside for eating.

So I wrote the stuff off.

RuneQuest, Cthulhu, Millenium's End.... lots of stuff gone.

A lot of notes, homemade adventures and characters with years of history were stolen when thieves got my backpack on a railway station ca. 2003. I don't mind they got my 3.0 books, but those notes... I can never regain those notes.

I sold game materials I didn't like at low prices just to be rid of them (Dragon Mountain, From the Ashes, Wraith 2nd edition, Birthright, etc.), and don't regret that one bit.

A whole bunch of WEG Star Wars sourcebooks. Don't Look Back. First ed Forgotten Realms sourcebooks (including the box set). Some RQ sourcebooks - Cults of Prax (?). Top Secret. Star Frontiers (including the NightHawks box set). The FASA Star Trek box set. Boot Hill (?). Chill....there's a lot more, but thinking about them makes me  :mad:...not really I gave/lent them to friends, so I hope they have found a good home

Regards,
David R

Quote from: RPGPunditI've essentially ended up regretting, at one moment or another, virtually every RPG book I've ever gotten rid of.

As a result, I've established a firm policy that I would no longer get rid of RPGs under any circumstances if I can at all prevent it.

I'm not sure where I got my habits, but it's not just with RPGs.  I've always lived light and hate amassing hordes of "stuff".

In any case, I rotate books like crazy, as I have a habit of trying to get "everything" to read just so I don't miss anything important.  I generally get a book, read it (or part of it if it's not doing it for me) and make a decision if I will ever run it, or if it has (proportionately) enough "good stuff" for me to keep.  If not I immediately turn around and trade or sell it.  If I deem it worthy, it goes on my shelf.  If I haven't cracked it open, used it, or played it in 3-6 months after that I generally sell or trade that off too.

In the end, I have a very small collection of games (mostly "classic" ones and a few newer ones I actually play)...despite having read and owned hundreds (I don't even know how many hundred anymore.  Last time I tried to count it was over 500).

In any case, to answer the OP...this habit does have one drawback...sometimes I get re-interested in a game at a later date and must repurchase it.  For example, right now I want to run Justifiers, a game I've owned twice in the past...and now I'm having trouble finding a copy.  I've purchased GURPS in several editions no less than 8 times!  I don't know why I just don't remember that I really don't care for the game.  The list goes on and on.

I've tried Pundits reform and tried to just keep books...but I just can't do it, it's not my nature to horde, and I get irritated just looking at things I'm not using until I have to get rid of them.

So, yeah, some people think I'm nuts...but I'm OK with that.  I generally don't mind re-purchasing something again if I want it.  It actually keeps the excitement up, and makes the old product "new" again.  The only problem is when I'm ready to run something NOW (well, in a week or two anyway) and I don't have the book for it...like Justifiers right now.

I've not regretted a single one of the several hundred game books I've sold off, and I fully intend to sell more.

I do rather regret storing several full boxes of gaming books at my parents when I left home, which during a clearout they forgot belonged to me and chucked in full.

These are the same folk who, on a recent move, found they had boxes unopened from the last move.  To the best of my knowledge, my stuff is among the very few things they ever threw away, and it genuinely wasn't even intentional (they never had any issues with gaming).

But stuff I got rid of on purpose, dead weight every bit of it.

Due to moving and other considerations, I have had to get rid of a large portion of my gaming stuff. I have to admit that I don't regret it; I donated it to a library for a book sale. I figure that most of it has a good chance of getting into the hands of someone who'll be able to use it more than I did.

Quote from: BalbinusI do rather regret storing several full boxes of gaming books at my parents when I left home, which during a clearout they forgot belonged to me and chucked in full.

Funny thing about game books is that I think they have more value, pound for pound, than an average box of stuff.

I mean, game books aren't printed in huge lots, and every one has some "value" for someone.  

Destroying a box of game books isn't like destroying a box of paperbacks, or a box of boardgames, or a box of dishes, ect.  I mean, all those things have value...but for some reason the game books seem to have more value becasue they aren't as common.

Anyone who has come accross a RPG book at a thrift store for $1 knows what I'm talking about.  You just can't understand why someone would get rid of book X...even though it is surrounded by hundreds of other "worthless" books*.  I mean, look at the books in the kids section.  That whole section could burst into flame and the world would never miss it.

ramble

*  I guess I should mention that I think books, in general, are probably the single most valuable thing in the world.

I only made a conscious effort to divest once, after White Wolf pissed me off, appearing to me to have stolen my proposal for New Orleans by Night. Real or imagined, the slight piqued me and I boxed my stuff and traded it to the flgs for used credit.

Aside from that, books and games just sort of come and go. I loan them out and folks loan them to me and sometimes they get redistributed and sometimes they don't.

I don't have any remorse for either of those situations. I mean--I've let go of some cool stuff, but I have more cool stuff than I'll ever really use, so I'm not sad. It will unquestionably be a time of reckoning next time I have to move.