Warehouse Firesale

For quite a while now I've been expecting to sell off as much of my accumulated gaming stuff as possible. I've been hoarding wargaming supplies and miniatures for as long as I've been a gamer so I've therefore amassed a sizable collection of hobby items over the last couple of decades. Every time that I have moved I have tried to cull my pile at least a little bit but never to any significant degree, although the last time I did manage to throw out a decent amount. I am happy though to now have a source of hopefully easily liquidated assests as my wife and I are working to relaunch my business after a year and a half of poor investments.

Even though I have sworn off Games Workshop in the recent past, I am not entirely prepared to sell every GW product that I own. I'm pretty confident though that I will be able to find plenty to stock my future eBay store. As for unpainted minis, I plan on keeping my Orks and Imperial Guard collections should I ever get the WH40K bug again (I actually suspect 40k Orks could be a likely project at some point... I absolutely love the plastic Stompa kit!). With regards to Warhammer Fantasy, however, I am not so certain. I think I am going to sell off everything except my Wood Elves and Orcs & Goblins collections. We'll see though, I still am pretty sentimental about my Dwarfs even though I am not too crazy about either their miniatures or their rules in the game, both of which I find kind of boring. If I were however to keep all five of those armies, that would end up being a fairly large mass of unpainted plastic and metal. Hmmm, what to do? Regardless, there is a lot that I know I can sell without hesitation that I should be kept busy enough without having to worry about Dwarfs and Elves for some time.

Let's see what I can think of without having to peek in the warehouse to assist my memory:

40K Eldar 2000+ points
40K Tyrandis 2000+ points
40K Marines 1000ish points
40K Chaos Marines 1000ish points
40K Plague Marines 1000ish points
WFB Empire 2000+ points
WFB Chaos 2000+ points
WFB Skaven 1000ish points

That makes for at least 12,000 points of unassembled and unpainted miniatures, and most of them would still be considered New-In-The-Box as well. I have no idea how much I'll be able to get for all of this... it sucks to be having to do this in the midst of the economic recession. I'm also not sure if I should sell things in big lots or if I am better off trying to sell individual box-sets. I've also got many individual and loose figures that I could sell, including quite a few that are considered rare. Those I am more reluctant to sell as they really do not occupy that much space. There's a lot I can sell before I get around to those oldies.

I'm looking forward to being free of all this clutter. My hobby has been too encumbering for too long. It will be liberating to be rid of those things that I will never get around to painting. I don't need it and I tired of having to cart it all around with me. Libertas!

Road Pains

We're home, and after only fifteen hours in the car too! Yaaayy! We didn't leave yesterday until 3:30pm and promptly had to turn around to pick up the baby-monitor and a few other things we forgot. So at approximately 4:00pm we were once again underway, this time with the VW-bus fully loaded. I got probably four or so hours of sleep while my wife drove for the first eleven hours (thank you Starbucks!!) and then it was my turn as driver for the last four hours. We got home just before 7:00am and right on time for the baby to wake up after getting what seemed to be a full night's sleep. I therefore transfered from driver-duty straight to baby-duty and am currently enjoying the effects of sleep depravity and body aches from being in the car for so long. Fortunately because we were able to keep her on her normal schedule I am at the moment getting this chance to write because the little one is taking her mid-morning nap. Considering my state of mind, maybe I'll watch some crappy sci-fi movies. An episode of MST3K sounds like just the thing for me right now.

It feels so very good to be home! And at some point I will get to sleep in bed as well... sweet!

Going Home

It's been fun, but of course all good things must come to an end. After almost two weeks away from home, it is finally time to get the family bus loaded up. Per our usual efforts at preparing, we left everything to be done on this the morning of our departure. I let my wife get some extra sleep and in the meanwhile I've got the baby feed and spitting-up and ready for the day. I think all of my stuff is packed but that's only a small fraction of the entire amount with which we have to contend. There's still so much more though that it may not be until this afternoon when we are actually ready to get on the road. All I know is that I miss my bed and my cats and yes, I miss my painting too. I want to be home.

Loved In China

Until last night our vacation was going well despite the lack of getting any additional sleep than what I would normally expect. I did however get piss-drunk last night with my brother-in-law while playing Army of Two (great game!!) and as a result I am currently residing in marital purgatory... I feel pretty awful about it and am also more hung-over than I have been in more than a year. As much fun as I had, it's just not worth it.

As a special bonus to what I am feeling I have also been watching CNN's coverage of the Michael Jackson memorial. This hagiography of MJ is really making me sick. There must be something terribly perverse about our culture to so elevate a person such as he. I hope that this is another case of the media existing within it's own bubble but I suspect that there is in fact a significant portion of the world's population which has been genuinely moved by this death of a pop-musician celebrity. It seems to me pathetic. Perhaps I would be more sympathetic if I were not already feeling so bad but as things are now, I really could care less. Unlike many of my peers I never was a fan of Michael Jackson and have instead always seen him as little more than a sad and at times disgusting person. On a human level I feel sorry for him and understand that he was probably in a lot of pain. I believe the primary thing that bothers me is this ridiculous treatment of him. I wouldn't mind if the coverage were at least honest but this attempted apotheosis of the self-styled King of Pop is making me want to puke... well, maybe it's the booze, but still, enough already.

Americans do not have royalty of our own, so we therefore make celebrities our kings. How unfortunate is that? So be it... Requiescat in pace, Michael.