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Running out of shelf-space is something that you will definitely run in to if you are an active Boardgamer.  It is inevitable that you will, at some point, by that x+1th game that now no longer fits in the space you have.  What to do?  There are 2 obvious solutions : keep your collection fresh by getting rid of old or common games, don’t buy games everyone in your game club is also likely to own.

Keeping the collection fresh

Whatever your magic number of games might be, once you go over it you know you’re now a slippery-slope from ending up on Hoarders.  Boardgame collecting isn’t quite the same as other types of collecting because: boardgames take up a fair amount of space each, new boardgames are constantly coming out, collecting boardgames itself is in-fact a game,  any given collection of boardgames contains at least 10% unplayed games, and last but not least, the larger your game collection the more likely it is someone in your game group also owns the same game.

My collection has a pretty good one-in one-out requirement: I literally have no space for new games.  If there’s a hot new release that comes out I have to gauge purchasing it against the time and effort involved in taking out an older unused game.  This isn’t a bad thing if you think about it.  You have probably purchased a few games that were popular at the time but for whatever reason never got played.  Now is the time to get that old cruft off your shelves to make space for shiny new cruft ;)

The recommended method for disposing of old games?  eBay, Math Trades (if you trade more than you get), sell them on local gaming sites, the BGG marketplace.  My preferred method was always to try and sell to someone local; there’s no shipping and you can feel good about keeping the game in your local gaming ecosystem.

Watch what you buy

There was a time when I loved being the first guy on the block to have a boardgame.  It makes you the center of attention for a while and you can get in a few good plays before moving on to the next game.  I never went so far as to buy Imports, but often shopped on U.S. websites to get games shipped to me before they appeared in local stores.  That stopped when I realized that not only was I paying a premium for these games, but often a week later everyone seems to own a copy of this game.  There really is no reason to own a game you know someone else owns when you know you’re always going to playing it with that person.

Unlike video games, only one person in a given group needs to own a game (unless it’s 2-player).  Once you figure that out you could even plan with your group who is going to own what game.  I’m not suggesting this as a hardfast rule however, if you really love a game you should probably own a copy.  You just might need to enact part 1 of this post and get rid of an older game to do it.