Posted on by Andrew

Fighting the urge to acquire “stuff”

Every once in a while I catch myself wanting to buy some particular item for no good reason. A while back it was Star Wars books. I felt I needed the entire 9 book Rogue Squadron series and other books to fill in gaps in my collection. I read through the Rogue Squadron series and now those books are sitting on the shelf with little hope of being read again. I’m probably going to put them up on eBay and get some money out of them. The heart of the problem is why did I even have to buy them in the first place when the library probably had them for free.

I guess owning the books brought me some sort of satisfaction. This satisfaction wears off quickly once the usefulness of an item has been fully realized and then you’re left with “stuff”. I read the books and know I’ll never read them again, but I’m still reluctant to part with them. Maybe we all have a pack rat inside of us telling us to hold onto stuff.

I think my urge to collect comes from a young age where advertisements encouraged us to be good little consumers and spend money on anything and everything. Anyone remember pogs? They were just cardboard circles, but I had to collect the stupid things. I think they’re out in my parent’s garage now taking up space. Some items might have real collectible value, but my pogs are probably worth a cent or two each.

Anyone else have stuff that’s ripe for listing on eBay or Craigslist?

8 Replies to “Fighting the urge to acquire “stuff””

  1. I’m not a terrible hoarder, and I think having a smaller house helps with that. I remember at one point swearing I’d never sell another videogame system and I would collect them all, but that went out the window. I still have all the baseball cards I collected when I was in elementary school, but those fit nicely in a box on the shelf. I do find myself buying gadgets, but I’d like to think they’re good investments that will bring me years of use. I’ll use my digital cameras, video camera, mp3 player, gps, etc until they break! Hopefully I can get super long lifespans out of them all, and they turn into money well spent.

  2. i’m not a hoarder (anymore). i used to be, and then when i started to travel more i began to “need” less stuff. but the one thing i just can’t seem to do is get rid of books. even like the old college textbooks that i know i’m never going to crack open again…i can’t bring myself to get rid of them. they are currently in boxes in storage. i don’t know what i plan to ever do with them but there they are if i decide i should ever want to review a german lesson or a sociology chapter or something. haha

  3. Yeah textbooks are hard. I luckily sold all my non-math/science/programming books, but they ones I do have hardly ever get used. Who knows when I’ll need to review some obscure Calculus theorem.

  5. I have a cache of about 30 classic SNES games that I’m going to hold on to. I’ve got all the big RPGs (FF, Chrono Trigger, Earthbound, etc…) which will hopefully increase in value overtime. Also have some of the accompanying strategy guides which seem to be worth a bit too.

  6. Those are downright investments (assuming they never get put on the virtual console). Nobody will pay $75+ for Chrono Trigger if it’s on the virtual console for $8. But yeah, that kind of stuff is ok.

  7. Speaking of stuff… no one has or had more STUFF than our Nana. So, please say a prayer for us on Friday because that’s when we clean out her house.

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