Excellent advice! Alas, the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.

Finally a really useful geeklist, which nevertheless made me feel guilty . I confess being infected by the buy-virus, thus hoarding quite a number of games which will be rarely played because 1. I'm the only one at the table who likes these or 2. my group only wants to play games they've played a zillion times before or 3. someelse thinks it's his turn to select the next game or 4. they're too tired too learn something new etc.
But still I can't convince myself to get rid of (at least in my opinion) excellent games, which get rarely or never played. After all, it's not the poor game's fault, is it? And so I'm afraid, I'll continue to look for new storage space in our house (big cellar, lucky me!) for these wonderful new boxes of GAMES... ("What is it? Not another game, I hope?" "No darling, just some b-b-big b-books..." Arrggh!)

Sometimes you -need- expansions; I almost never play Ticket to Ride without 1910, and of course the Age of Steam expansions are what makes the game.

On Carcassone, though, I tried various ones on BSW, got the two best, and ignored the rest :-)

You say "if what you want is a HUGE game collection, full of games you are unlikely ever to play, go for it!"

Logically, and in my opinion, that's a poor and flawed definition of a large game collection - no one would purposefully want something they won't ever use or need, so saying "go for it!" is mockery. It's the wide range of choices, the potential and possibilities that you're keeping. A large collection of anything means you can choose something to match your mood, or to share with someone new, or to play with a kid when they're old enough. To try as a two-player or solo. To play when you're tired out, to play when you only have a few minutes. To play on a long, dull Sunday evening. To play to be silly, to play for nostalgia, or with an old friend. To play because something about the game intrigues you at that moment. To play out of curiosity, to compare with another game, to revisit now that you've played more games.

Some get played more, some occasionally. I don't think "unlikely to ever play" even comes up -- how do you know?? A game only lasts an hour, it's not like that 7-hour novel that's taking up shelf space. Does one keep only a shelf of books, a dozen or even a hundred CD's you enjoy and no more because more might not get used "enough?" You can rent movies, listen to the radio or use libraries, but you can't rent boardgames. So a nice selection is just that: nice. Does a person keep one mug, one pet, one toy, one chair, one spice, one tool, one musical instrument, one shirt? Or do you have plenty to choose from? Do you get rid of a friend because you met someone new and they're not worth having if you don't see them all the time? I don't mean you personally, and I'm exaggerating. I'm just making the opposite argument, refuting your supposition in the sentence I quoted. You (hypothetical person) can roll your eyes at a woman with a hundred pairs of shoes, but you shouldn't tell her she'll never wear those boots/pumps/sandals/sneakers, that she's foolish for keeping things that in your opinion she'll most likely never, ever use. And that X-number is the proper and intelligent amount. Maybe she should pass a certain pair on to someone that will wear them often, maybe those flip flops are only worn once a year at the beach. But there's a real enjoyment and satisfaction in having things available at a moment's notice. I buy games to play them, and I keep them to play them.

Of course we're all selective to different degrees, and of course we all have different ideas of "enough" and "plenty." But the quoted sentence with its built-in assumption is like saying, "If you want to waste good time and money on a HUGE collection that I know will just sit and rot in your closet uselessly taking up space and you'll never ever even use, go for it! Be my guest!! I buy things to use them, unlike some people around here." But maybe it's just 'cause I'm around pre-teens a lot that I heard it in a sassy, judgmental tone of voice.

And yes, this whole (too long? what is too long??) post is just a justification for my hoarding habits; rationalizing having a a cluttered house full of (what I think is) good stuff. I do have a "ridiculous" number of games (and books and guitars), most people would agree. I probably should start selling them off, or trading instead of buying, or stop buying altogether. I look forward to re-reading these guidelines - though I don't know if they'll "take" -- I have a big stack of of de-cluttering books -- I once had a friend point out that my book entitled File, Don't Pile was under a big stack of books and papers. And he laughed and pointed and while I agreed and it was funny, it stung. I do appreciate the list's helpful hints, I just felt adding my own flawed point of view to an old list that probably won't get used anymore, ever, or at least not often (so should be got rid of?)