I moved overseas for 5 years (what was supposed to only be 6 months). In that time I regained my love for painting miniatures and painted quite a bit. Despite never playing, most of it was 40K (most of which I had already bought years ago).

When I moved I sold it all for a measly $100. There as easily $1000+ worth of models, hobby supplies, paint, etc. The rational was: I'm going to be a parent soon and probably won't have time, it has destroyed my ability to focus quickly with my eyes and it's not worth paying for the shipping to send it home.

I kept some of the select pieces. These were ForgeWorld models and more detailed projects. I regrettably threw away about $300 of incredible painted models when I returned (Whirlwind tanks, biker squad, etc) because I thought they had no value.

Last night I listed the last of my 40K stuff on ebay (I'm not promoting the sale here, but send me a PM if you want links).

It was interesting because I felt a huge rush of sadness and nostalgia for it all. I never even thought about them until I put them up for sale and I found myself admiring them all over again, taking pictures and almost putting them back in their place so as not to be sold.

Did anyone find this unexpected attachment to unused hubby stuff? Why does it happen? What did you experience?

It makes sense really. Hobbies are a part of you. It's normal if you feel sad when you loose a part of you. I mean, you put time and effort in them, painting them, making them your own. They are good memories. Money is just money (they print more of it every day) but good memories... those are a bit harder to come by.*

* sorry if I'm going a bit sappy dramatic heart-of-the-cards here. I've been listening to 40k audio drama for hours.

It's the Universe saying "what the heck are you doing!"

Never sell.....it's like dieting...you'll only buy it all back......and 20% more.

It's not just the miniatures, it's also saying goodbye to an entire period.

Oh yeah, don't get me started on nostalgia! I got a small stained glass window that was once part of my grandparents house, lying in my attic because I wanted a memento of that place...

More or less 8 years ago I sell a huge collection of Vampire the masquerade and Werewolf RPGs. Perhaps 250+ sourcebooks, adventures, narratives, etc. Simply the time to play this game was ended, not enought time, much more interesated in wargaming and fantasy / Sci Fi RPGs. It was a relief, a long time ago I loved these games, but it was like moving towards other games ( vampires out, Traveller in ). Relief, plus 1.200 euros...

Last weekend I sold off my Heroclix collection. I had not played in a year, but it was a sad day but also a positive one.

The real hurt was selling off my comic collection. It was a total of 8932 comics. I had a run of Uncanny X-Men from ('63) issue 17 to current. I also had 1,5,7-9, 11 & 12.

Those first 7 X-Men comics sold for more than the rest combined.

I hated to do it, and still some days regret it, but there were lingering medical expenses and there was no other way...

I miss my old games, like Battlefront 2, Timesplitters 2, Armored Core Silent Line.

I've kept most of my old board games. I think the only one I sold was advanced space crusade because it had carboard tiles instead of a proper deck of cards and I built several tyranid warriors with deathspitter in such a pose that they were prone to tipping over. I had also discovered Magic the gathering, and addictions cost money, so ASC had to go.

I did sell and trade quite a lot of my comics for magic money. Come to think of it, I traded a lot of stuff for magic cards. (Other magic cards, comics, dragon dice, star wars action figures, photo's, warhammer army book, food,...)

Food? Yeah, MTG is a true expensive adiction.

Food? Yeah, MTG is a true expensive adiction.

Pretty much the way my mind worked back then: "I got some spare change, should I get a hamburger or buy a pack of 4the edition?" of course the answer was always " take the magic, leave the fast food." (and go eat a health meal at home)

I get it all the time.

Before i joined GW head office i had huge painted warhammer dark elf and 40k imp guard armies.

Because you sort of get it cheap or free in some jobs i ended up selling those armies when the newer plastics (new and shiny stuff came out) and at the time i thought it was a good move... now i totally regret selling 200 or 300 well painted metal eldar, guard and dark elves in exchange for not a lot (sold to mates as you cant really sell GW stuff on ebay if you work there) and ended up with tons of plastics i never ever got round to fully painting

Roll on five years later when i left GW and 3000 point armies for tau, guard, dark elves etc , loads of necromunda and bloodbwl. Most of it not painted but undercoated and assembled.

I absolutely hated GW when i left so sold nearly all of it. I kept my BFG stuff

I've spent the last ten years rebuying all my old 80s models and repainting them!

Wierdly i sold my BFG off recently as xwing scratched my 'space war' itch, got a lot of money for my fleet, bought a new PS4

Few months later get interviewed for writing the new BFG stuff and really regret selling it all off.

These days i try and never sell painted models. It easy to replace an unpainted model, replacing the time it takes to paint it less so.

Like i've got tons of inquisitor scale models (one or two were in the main rulebook colour sections) and im *never* going to play that game again as its fun but i've no scenery for it anymore and dont know anyone else who plays it but i know i'll regret selling 'inquisitor hoth' or any of the others!

If I've painted a model, I'm keeping it. There's too much attachment for me at that point. Then again, I don't have so much stuff that it fills a room.

I did keep the shifter knob from my first car after a tree fell on it. I had that car fromantic high school through college and grad school. I cried. Might have hurt less than selling it, though.

I regret that I sold Talisman with all the add ons when I moved to Texas for a few years.

I haven't sold all my OnG WHFB stuff. I'm told I still have the largest painted OnG army in the state (or possibly several). I can't ever really sell them. I've put years of work into them.

I can't part with my 40k stuff.

I've covered my reasons in the past.

I never got into 40k, so I don't have quite as much to part with.

But I definitely regret selling off old GameBoys and Pokemon games to buy the latest version. Now that I've grown up, I'd love to have those back.

This is pretty much why I've never sold any of my hobby stuff; doing commission work is a slightly different matter,as that model is never 'mine', I just make it look cool, but if I were to get rid of any of my stuff, there would be a gap on the shelf that no other mini could fill... Especially if it's a conversion or custom paintscheme or diorama or something like that, that both a lot of time and a lot of thought have gone into and that is pretty much unique; worthless to anyone else, priceless to me.

Which means I've got some tough decisions coming up at some point; I have a ridiculous amount of 40k stuff (6-7 armies' worth), only one of which is game-worthy and painted to a quality I'm happy with (a Horus Heresy force I just finished). The plan is to chuck all the older stuff in something to strip the paint off and see what I can salvage, if I can get most of them cleaned up and prepped to start over then I basically don't need to buy Space Marines ever again (not that it'll stop me! ), but those that can't be, things like early paintjobs and 12-year-old 'would it be cool if this guy had ALL the guns' conversions are basically of no use to me, they're going to have to get binned... Now that's not as bad as seeing nicely painted stuff go, but depending on the amount of minis that are beyond saving could be pretty stressful!

Same goes for stuff I had as a kid, Star Wars figures, LotR figures, all just sitting jumbled up in boxes (no matter how much they'd be worth sealed, the enjoyment I got out of bashing them together as a kid is worth more!), at some point most of those will probably end up getting fixed up and stuck on a shelf, but again there will be a few that are too broken or just not good in the first place that'll probably end up going. Likewise, old comics and books I can never make myself get rid of, just in case I might want to read one issue of a comic I didn't even like at the time again one day!

*looks at 40k Bits Box with several dozen identical Bolters in* I may have Hobby Hoarding issues...

This is pretty much why I've never sold any of my hobby stuff; doing commission work is a slightly different matter,as that model is never 'mine', I just make it look cool, but if I were to get rid of any of my stuff, there would be a gap on the shelf that no other mini could fill... Especially if it's a conversion or custom paintscheme or diorama or something like that, that both a lot of time and a lot of thought have gone into and that is pretty much unique; worthless to anyone else, priceless to me.

Which means I've got some tough decisions coming up at some point; I have a ridiculous amount of 40k stuff (6-7 armies' worth), only one of which is game-worthy and painted to a quality I'm happy with (a Horus Heresy force I just finished). The plan is to chuck all the older stuff in something to strip the paint off and see what I can salvage, if I can get most of them cleaned up and prepped to start over then I basically don't need to buy Space Marines ever again (not that it'll stop me! ), but those that can't be, things like early paintjobs and 12-year-old 'would it be cool if this guy had ALL the guns' conversions are basically of no use to me, they're going to have to get binned... Now that's not as bad as seeing nicely painted stuff go, but depending on the amount of minis that are beyond saving could be pretty stressful!

Same goes for stuff I had as a kid, Star Wars figures, LotR figures, all just sitting jumbled up in boxes (no matter how much they'd be worth sealed, the enjoyment I got out of bashing them together as a kid is worth more!), at some point most of those will probably end up getting fixed up and stuck on a shelf, but again there will be a few that are too broken or just not good in the first place that'll probably end up going. Likewise, old comics and books I can never make myself get rid of, just in case I might want to read one issue of a comic I didn't even like at the time again one day!

*looks at 40k Bits Box with several dozen identical Bolters in* I may have Hobby Hoarding issues...

Lotr figures... man you must be young.

As for the bolded bit. Considering how they've changed the new sets, no. you'll get use of those old bolters for customs way more now.

Lotr figures... man you must be young.

Growing up in our generation had some perks

It does and it doesn't.

You as a generation have access to so, so much cool stuff but in the same sense so much less.

I suppose every generation can say that.

Speaking of LOTR though. For each of my best friends 30th birthdays, i got them a sword. One, wise, intelligent. intellectual got Glamdring. Sword of Gandalf. Another, stalwart, loyal, stout.. Aragorn's Ranger sword.

They got me the Sword of the Witch King for mine.

conclusion: I am not the nicest of my friends.

It does and it doesn't.

You as a generation have access to so, so much cool stuff but in the same sense so much less.

I suppose every generation can say that.

I'm glad I grew up during the 80s. truley the best timle to be a kid. Then the 90's: If you're gonna be an obnoxious teenager might aswell be one in the era of nu-metal; grunge and XTREEEEEME!!! And nowadays we have the internet to look up all the cool stuff from before (like mortal kombat fatalities ) I'm glad i can look at a smartphone and go, wow this is actually pretty cool. I remember when this was all sci-fi. Kids nowadays grow up without realising that. and that seems a bit sad to me.

I moved overseas for 5 years (what was supposed to only be 6 months). In that time I regained my love for painting miniatures and painted quite a bit. Despite never playing, most of it was 40K (most of which I had already bought years ago).

When I moved I sold it all for a measly $100. There as easily $1000+ worth of models, hobby supplies, paint, etc. The rational was: I'm going to be a parent soon and probably won't have time, it has destroyed my ability to focus quickly with my eyes and it's not worth paying for the shipping to send it home.

I kept some of the select pieces. These were ForgeWorld models and more detailed projects. I regrettably threw away about $300 of incredible painted models when I returned (Whirlwind tanks, biker squad, etc) because I thought they had no value.

Last night I listed the last of my 40K stuff on ebay (I'm not promoting the sale here, but send me a PM if you want links).

It was interesting because I felt a huge rush of sadness and nostalgia for it all. I never even thought about them until I put them up for sale and I found myself admiring them all over again, taking pictures and almost putting them back in their place so as not to be sold.

Did anyone find this unexpected attachment to unused hubby stuff? Why does it happen? What did you experience?

I totally get you. I would never sell my High Elves, even though I haven't play for couple years now.

Lotr figures... man you must be young.

Growing up in our generation had some perks

Yep, it does! I'm 19 now, so about 4-8 in the LotR/SW Prequels years, and I have to say, I think that was the golden age for action figures. LotR and Star Wars had so many fantastic figures, both for playing with as a kid and being cool things to have on a shelf later, and I must admit, I was more than a little crushed to see that the Force Awakens figures really didn't hold up in terms of articulation, detail or general quality (and were way more expensive to boot). Some of the Black Series ones are all right, though about twice the price of the Prequel-era ones, and the 'main' line is just poor. 5 joints, minimal detail, appalling paintjobs...

Suffice to say, had they been good I'd probably have a fair few by now! Same goes for the Hobbit stuff, pretty rubbish in comparison to the amazing LotR figures.

Yep, it does! I'm 19 now, so about 4-8 in the LotR/SW Prequels years, and I have to say, I think that was the golden age for action figures. LotR and Star Wars had so many fantastic figures, both for playing with as a kid and being cool things to have on a shelf later, and I must admit, I was more than a little crushed to see that the Force Awakens figures really didn't hold up in terms of articulation, detail or general quality (and were way more expensive to boot). Some of the Black Series ones are all right, though about twice the price of the Prequel-era ones, and the 'main' line is just poor. 5 joints, minimal detail, appalling paintjobs...

Hmpf! 5 joints is the way I like 'em, whippersnapper!

They have a sort of primitive streamlinedness.

The 80s also had highly articulated action figures, altough that was mostly Microman/nauts and to a lesser extent G.I.Joe .