Things aren’t that dire yet, but I have been making plans to sell off a portion of my hoard of comics and DVDs, more for the space issues (especially now that I’ve been ramping up merch in the BOTshop and need a place to store it) than for the money. I do find it somewhat maddening that now that I’m unemployed, I actually have less time to enjoy all my games, movies and books, but what are you gonna do? I’m just glad I have something to occupy most of my waking hours; I think I’d go somewhat crazy if my mind was allowed to wander all day.
How ’bout you BOTreaders? Have you ever donated or sold off some of your geek loot for cash or space?
*Looks around* first?
yep! the strip went up late today so i was wondering who would get the first comment, Satoshieyes, and you got it, which means you just achieved the Shades of Firsting! wear them well: these will let you watch, read and play all your geeky loot, right from the lenses:
😎
Wooo hoo! I’ll wear them on stage tonight
You would love this… We’re the band for a party that an engineering club from a local college is hosting.. Lots of JoCo tonight!
yeah, sounds awesome: i LOVE me some JoCo! hope you had a great gig! 😀
I tend to donate lots of things, but only because I like to give to those that don’t have much of anything to call their own. I know what it’s like to have nothing, since my family when I was kid lived on my mothers paycheck and we were close to living in our car.
I however have had people steal my things, including two ps2s, an Xbox 360 and a number of books. The people that stole these things were friends who forgot to ask if they could borrow. Most things have been returned.
I haven’t sold anything yet, but if it ever becomes popular enough I might sell nintendo( I have two), as well about 100 of the games I own for it… I have way more then that though.. I loved the NES
yeah, donating’s awesome, Sato; i always feel good feeling like some of my stuff will be enjoyed by someone else. unfortunately, the Goodwill down the street will only take certain stuff, which has put a crimp in some of my past spring cleanings.
having your stuff stolen is the exact opposite of awesome, though! that sucks. i rarely ever let friends borrow stuff now because i’ve had so much stuff never returned. buh.
and, yes: the NES was amazing. have so much love for that little system. (of course the SNES was amazing, too.) 🙂
Nooooo that’s stuff you don’t sell stuff you sell things not stuff. I have thought about selling parts of my vast Pokemon collection but it makes me sad thinkin about it :/
i know! there are some things i can easily part with but some of it just has too much sentimental value. and that includes most pokéthings.
Welcome to the next level in the game of life. Finally parting with stuff you once assiduously and obsessively collected, fingered, read, loaded, reloaded, boxed, unboxed, etc., can make you feel mature and responsible and at the same time old and sad. Making money from your swag will greatly enhance the experience.
Case in point: Magic the Gathering. My love of the game led to me a spend quite a bit of money on it right out of the gate. But, after a few years, my love faded and I sold the vast majority of the collection for far far more than I paid for it. This success so impressed my spouse that she ceased complaining about the growth of my comic book collection for quite some time.
Eventually the value I was receiving from comics was exceeded by their ever-rising price, but it was perhaps 10 years later that I finally sold my 30+ boxes to a younger collector for not nearly what I paid but I felt good giving this guy (a new MD) a boost and many many hours of “enjoyment” lugging the boxes to wherever he was going to store them.
Mass market paperbacks: that has been the most painful, but perhaps also the most rewarding. I have donated thousands of them, representing a reasonable fraction of SF-fantasy published in the US for almost 20 years, to my local library system. I feel good about that.
“mature and responsible” = “old and sad” pretty much sums up my feelings on the topic of today’s strip, Ohmi.
and the experience you had with your M:TG stash is one i’ve been considering myself – i have a couple boxes stored away and i never play the game anymore (except virtually on the iPad, occasionally) and would like to sell it off. glad to hear you came out ahead on that, both personally and financially. as for my comic stash, we’ll be covering that in the next strip. (hint: it does not go well.)
and i have no idea what to do with my paperbacks and hardcovers; my original video game consoles and books are the objects i have the most attachment to so find it hard to get rid of them. but, yes: donating might be the way to go. or i can always just continue to hoard them. 🙂
Never sold anything, mostly because the biggest part of what I own is composed of books, the kind that wouldn’t sell well, if at all.
If I ever need room for something more important (I can’t imagine what, to be honest), I’d give them to a public library. Seriously, I could fill up a not so small teen/young adults section by myself.
i feel the same way, dralou – if a library needs an instant sci fi/fantasy section, they should give me a call.
Ah, yes. My adult owned and pet free collection (through Ebay) has made it’s way to someone else’s house. A tear came to my eye when I saw my stuff on the post office’s pallette on it’s way to someone else…
and how do you feel about selling it now, Bill? do you feel set free or do you have regrets?
actually, i’m not sure if i want to know the answer.
I went through a bunch of that when I moved across the country. Was able to save a bunch of money by not renting a moving van and instead just loading up my SUV with everything that could fit. The extra money I got from selling off the old stuff helped too.
i’ve heard this a lot from friends, Nuurgle: that they got rid of a ton of stuff before moving to where they ended up. being an L.A. native and staying here means i didn’t go through this process so i have ALL THE STUFF from ALL THE YEARS.
so maybe the answer is to move far away? 😉
Dude,
You are not out of work, if you are an entrepreneur. You’re working for yourself, and until you have the cash flow to hire help, you are going to be short on time.
BTW, don’t forget to do your taxes four times a year, and take out 30 – 40 % for income tax of your earnings. However, make note of the spaces that you’re using, and document all bot related expenses as business related expenses so that you can deduct those off of your income taxes. Including the person who does your taxes.
yeah, JEFbot is my full-time job now, W.D. Pat, and (unlike jefbot) i do find myself without as much time as i had at the office job! now i just need to get that cash flow you mentioned…
and thanks for the tips! i definitely need to take some small business classes to beef up my knowledge of how to make my business work more effectively. also need a business manager, methinks.
University outreach extension classes are a plus. Also, business plan templates can be downloaded for Microsoft word. A business manager can be obtained through your local university for exchange of an internship for the short term. However, you would be the ultimate business manager/owner. Also, check to see if your income from jefbot the comic necessitates you to get a business license, tax identification number from the IRS. But check with some of the following: Brad Guigar of Evil, Inc. and Day by Day Cartoon by Chris Muir.
You’ve already had yourself established as JefBot for some time, along with the marketable side. I suppose another to look at would be some of the artists/webcomics at Hiveworks.
thanks again, W.D. Pat! once again: great info. 😀
I’ve sold furniture before that I didn’t need. Now I uh… need a new bed ^_^;; Shoulda thought about that one before I sold it last time I moved.
ha! yeah, sleeping on couches is only bearable for so long, Psynapse. hope you find a new bed soon!
I currently have a futon mattress on the floor haha. Rockin’ it Japanese style even though I’m not even remotely Japanese…
i’m all about rockin’ it japanese style, Psy! 🙂
I trade in some of my games after I’ve beaten them and want some thing new. Other than that no.
i don’t think i’ve ever traded in my used games, 52pickup! i guess now that media’s going more and more digital, things like “used games” won’t be a factor after the next console generation, tho.
I have plenty of books cluttering up my apartment. The same used to be true of DVD’s as well. However, I watched all of my DVD’s and sold them including the boxed sets. The books take longer to get through and that’s why I still have quite a few. I read my books then I put them in a pile to be sold. When I have enough of them to fill a backpack, I take that backpack to a used books and DVD’s store and sell them. I’ll keep doing this until I get through each and every one of my books. Then it’ll be time to buy instead of sell. It’s tempting to sell all of them right away to make space in my apartment. However, I shouldn’t do that because books are a waste of my money until I read them.
Also, my “Reaper’s Legacy” comic is now online on my tumblr page.(Pops champagne cork). My tumblr page is at http://zerogravityquicksand.tumblr.com/ . This tumblr page will not only contain “Reaper’s Legacy” but also the short stories I’ve been working on and anything else I feel like putting on it. The page is named Parallel Bones and my user name is Zerogravityquicksand. I decided to start this comic off with a bang and I plan to add a new comic weekly. Let me know if you were able to get onto my page and what you think of my strip.
i wish i had your discipline and non-attachment to inanimate objects, Rainey! one of the things that has made it easier (emotionally speaking) to sell off a bunch of my DVDs is that services like Netflix make it so much easier to watch those movies at the touch of a button. and now that i’ve started to read comics and books on my iPad, it’s only a matter of time before i can get rid of those without pangs of guilt, either. *fingers crossed*
and congrats on getting Reaper’s Legacy launched! i checked out your page but i couldn’t read the comic as it was too small on my screen. i tried opening it in a separate window to enlarge it but the native size was still too small. try publishing it to about 900 – 1000 pixels wide, and let me know and i’ll check it again.
I used to be into the whole ICP/Psychopathic Records thing back in my dumber days. I didn’t particularly need the money, but I’d decided all of them, their music, and the so-called community could take a hike. Plus, their CDs were taking up too much space on my shelf. So, I sold the whole set on eBay. Some 19 or 20 discs for a little over $100.
Other than that, I usually donate plasma when I’m short on money. It doesn’t matter what it is, whenever I try to sell something on eBay, I get no bids at all. (That CD collection being the exception.) If I try to sell something on craigslist, with one exception so far, I’ll have a few people contact me interested in buying, only to have them stop returning my calls/emails.
glad to hear you had some success on eBay, E. A. Setser. i remember when it seemed like people would buy anything on that site! still, that doesn’t bode too well for jefbot (or me!) in the future.
No! At least play/watch/read them all once! Keep in mind that I have no clue how much you have that you haven’t played/watched/read yet. Though if it takes up a good portion of a room then I can understand a little.
well, my comic collection takes up an entire wall of my bedroom, GB, and my hardcovers/paperbacks take up about 4 bookshelves and several boxes stacked in my closet. DVDs/Blu-rays/CDs take several more boxes/bookshelves as does my video game collection. now that i have mountains of JEFbot books, shirts and other misc. merch, i’m starting to run out of living space!
Wow, I vastly underestimated how much you had then.
“How ’bout you BOTreaders? Have you ever donated or sold off some of your geek loot for cash or space?”
NEVER!!! Well; not my model kits, anyway. Generally when I don’t want something anymore I’ll either give it to someone that I think might either enjoy it or be able to use it, or I’ll sell it. Once in a while I’ll donate it if it’s in decent enough shape. (Though I usually have a “use to destruction” mentality about clothing, electronics and the like.) I’m not quite a hoarder (no eight-foot-high stacks of old newspapers or boxes of unusual food wrappers or things like that), but I do tend to try to keep stuff related to my various hobbies.
i used to keep stacks of magazines and some old newspapers but fortunately, i got rid of those a couple moves ago, r61. and, yeah, donating feels pretty good. i gave a bunch of old toys and clothes to a couple donation places around town the last time i moved and have no regrets.
Only if tamagotchis count as tech. And technically didnt sell it. I just lost it, and now I want it back!
i still have a few tamagotchis packed away somewhere, DAS! sadly, i’m sure they croaked and/or their batteries ran out of juice long ago. i hear there’s an iOS version coming out soon, tho! (not that i really need something else to occupy my free time.)
I just installed the free Android version. According to the reviews, you have to pay to upgrade it when your pet grows into a teenager 🙁 no good to be poor. Even 99 cents, plus its my parents money…
If you change your mind, it’s name is Hatchi!
hmm. as long as it’s a one-time fee, i’d probably get it for 99 cents, but if there are a bunch of other hidden payments, forget it. i’ll just get a new battery for my old ones. 😉
also, I would like to point out the butterfly. A new form of The Butterfly Effect perhaps?!
Generally, the only thing I can rotate through is clothes and books. If the clothes stop being flattering or useful, I get rid of them. If I enjoyed the book, I keep it; otherwise, it goes to the secondhand bookstore. But if I’ve taken the time and money to order something relating to a fandom, it’s mine forever, precious…
i rarely get rid of clothes, T, but seeing as how my fashion sense has almost always been “t-shirt and jeans” and i can still (well, until recently. heheh.) fit in most of my clothes from the past 15 years, so that’s not surprising. but yes, cherished books and fanmerch is almost impossible to part with, ever.
Those items, will be worth more, unopened.
so true, Amber Thompson. fortunately, so much of my stuff has been unopened or sealed and stored away for years.
Most of the geekattude that crosses my hands I’ve made myself, (art, clothing, toys) so… Yes kinda? Aside from drawing I like to crochet a lot now, testing new stitches and patterns often. I sell and donate most hats and scarves to friends and family, hottest item being the scootie: a scarf and hood combo. A lot of people ask for cartoon and video game mascots like Mario’s hat or Finn’s hat from Adventure Time. If I feel something is super awesome though I’ll keep that bad boy for myself because I am selfish and am not afraid to admit it!
arrrghhh!!! i SO want to start crocheting so i can make cool stuff, too, Foxmouse! between you and Shanna making awesome things, i’ve really got the itch. unfortunately, i barely have enough time to do the stuff i’m already doing, so picking up another hobby isn’t something i can think about right now. still: arrrghhh!!!
I pick what I hoard so its not that much of variety and those few things I do hoard I keep.
So far.
i’m much pickier about what i buy and hoard these days, Maryz. unfortunately, i wasn’t so discriminating in the ’90s and ’00s…
Indeed I have. I sold some anime box sets on eBay to pay for the trip to the San Diego Comic-Con one year, and I sold my Gamecube and Dreamcast years back to buy a 360. Now, I sometimes regret selling the Dreamcast.
i’m glad to hear you made money on those anime box sets, Striker! i have a ton of those, but i’m not sure which ones i’d actually sell. unfortunately, the ones i want to hold onto are probably the ones with the most value. hrrrm.
Hmmm…I think the first things to go if I needed money would be some of my books (take them to Half-Price Books), then probably some old DVDs. But I haven’t had to just yet.
for me, the order for selling is: DVDs, comics, video games, books. BUT, each of those categories has some items i’d have a hard time letting go of, so we’ll see how it goes once i start getting organized enough to get these things on eBay, GG11.
Sersly, Bot? Sersly???
at that moment, he’s serious, Anime fan! whether he’ll follow through on it or not, you’ll have to check out the next strip…
How did I miss this on Friday? 😛
I have never sold stuff on Ebay, but I’ve bought it. I tend to do more donating of my cast offs because it takes more time and energy than I’ve got to see it. I just don’t have stuff that is worth enough to make it worth the effort!
I’ve given away a bunch of stuff, usually during a move. Always seems like a great time to get rid of stuff. Last time I got rid of a bunch of older tech books, some unopened toys, and VHS tapes (I can’t believe Goodwill still accepts them, not even the local church would take them).
However, since I’ve moved to London I put a lot of stuff up my parents garage back in Los Angeles. All my books, movies, and what not, that is probably taking up unnecessary space, but I just can’t bring myself to get rid of that stuff.
NOoooooooOOOOO!!!! Oh well, out with the old… Thankfully we still get to enjoy the Jefbot strip!!!