Man, don't give that treasure away! I also own a dozen video consoles and piles of cartridges. Playing these classics was really fun. I'd never give them away unless I have no spare room left for it. J.

:-D One supporter! Problem is I've had the real parts to these stored, some out in a barn, some in an attic. I have no idea if they would still work and if I even have the attachements, wires, joystiks, etc. Oh hell, I'm OC of course I would have all that stuff, unless someone else got rid of them. My husband used to give away my stuff without telling me, till I went looking for it.

OMG THOSE ARE CLASSICS!!! :) drac

I still have my Commodore64 and Amiga2000. And to answer your question, Ang: We all need professional help. :^) John

Hey I can beat that, somewhere around the house there is a spectrum (and some games to go with it), I think its probably under my younger son's bed. Mind you he left home 6 years ago, so I wouldn't promise.

I used to have Pong. And I really think I still have the game somewhere in the barn. Of course I could just be delusional.

Last winter I had a big job done on my house, and moved all sorts of stuff out into the garden to store, up on pallets and well wrapped in plastic. It was a huge mound, maybe 15ft x 15ft x 5ft high. Youngest daughter decided that she HAD TO HAVE something from the enormous pile, ripped open the plastic, rooted round, didn't seal it properly, damp got in, yadda yadda yadda. Months later, when I went to bring the stuff back into the house it was all mouldy and eaten by snails, slugs etc. I had to get a skip (dumpster) and throw it all out. Now I can't even remember what the heck was in there, and don't miss any of it. I wonder what the heck I was keeping it all for, if it can be dumped and not even missed!!!!

About 10 years ago we went to Arkansas to clean out Teresas grandparents house. We grabbed boxes of her grandfathers records (he was a Lawyer). There was everything from letters when he was an army captain chasing Pancho Villa back and forth across the boarder to PX posters from WWII to the entire financial records of the southern Baptist convention from the 1940s. He kept hundreds of little brown books with his appointment dates and times, when and what he bought at the store and his leaving and arrival times from the office/home. Teresas father had the same thing. Every magazine he ever got from Nuclear News and National Geographic to the parade that came in the Sunday paper. He had contracts for roof repairs that were done 20 years ago. Im going through boxes of Teresas stuff now and getting rid of Park Brothers Seed and Sharper Image catalogs from 1976. Im throwing out that Henridon Couch she was going to refinish for ten years. For the future Im trying to persuade the 14year old to get rid of her 2year old clothes and the GeoSafari that has no cards left. I love the memories our wedding pictures give me. At the same time, I dont know what an old brown sock with a hole in the heel or the pearl button disco shirt I wore in High School could possibly remind me of. It's nice to have things to cherish. I'll keep Teresa's French Cape and the Irish Shawl. The 20 empty coffee cans have to go however. Sign me -Recovering Hoardoholic-

I finally parted with the tons of car repair bills on a car I haven't had for over 6 yrs. Wasn't easy but I did it. I'm slowly working my way up to the 20 yrs of old paid bills I have. I've also got loads of old paycheck stubs. And a huge box full of ..well you get the picture. In some ways I wish I'd taken before pics. I've gotten rid of 3 trash bags full of crap. And a fourth bag is getting close to being full. LOL, I haven't even begun to work on non-paper junk. I spotted an atari 2600 in the attic and I've got a box of memorex 5 1/4 floppies, I want to scan that and throw it away. So much junk, its no wonder I feel so good in a hotel room, separated from the clutter of home.

This is what Ebay was invented for. There are people out there who will buy anything. I used to have a VIC-20. 3.5k memory, those were the days. I still have TWO! atari ST's somewhere. 4 TV's 2 which don't work. 3 Video recorders. 5 mobile phones. A box of cables for devices I don't have. The list goes on. SO, you're perfectly normal. Or as perfectly normal as the rest of us.

My mom hoards everything, too, and a few months later my dad will come along and throw everything away without asking her, whether it's actually useful or not. I've always had to be wary about setting things down in the kitchen or the living room if I ever wanted to see them again, either mom would spirit it away somewhere never to be seen or heard from again, or dad would throw it away. We used to have a fake christmas tree, and one year my dad accidentally threw away the central pole that all the branches attached to, so we had to go by a new one at the last minute. He blames the missing tent poles on me, but I'm pretty sure he threw those away, to, and doesn't remember. My mom has this "office" that she puts everything into. She calls it an office, but my sister and I have just started calling it "the Room." It used to be just a normal room, you could walk through it, there was a desk and some crowded shelves off to one side--but the clutter has slowly grown over the years, flowing off the shelves and desk onto the floor, accumulating in towering, waist-high piles, filling the room. There used to be a sewing machine under there, but there's no trace of it now, it's been swallowed by the clutter. I've never seen the desk entirely free of clutter, my sister says it's really pretty, it used to be my grandmother's, but that's been swallowed up, too. The lightswitch by the door goes to her "office" number answering machine, which she has to keep by the door so she can actually get to it easily, the rest of the room being so difficult to navigate. The light is across the room, and you actually have to walk across the room to turn it on, but since there's no safe way to cross that room in the dark it's on all the time. I didn't really mind all of the clutter until it started overflowing into my room. Then I decided to go through everything with my mom, making her justify keeping everything she had in there. If she didn't have a good reason, it went in the bin. What confused me most were the old empty shoeboxes. Her response to my inquiry: "Well, you never know." Maybe you don't ever know, but sometimes you can make a pretty good guess. They went in the bin. My sister had a similar problem with her father-in-law and his books. He and his wife had been divorced years ago, but they still got along pretty well and she let him continue to keep his books in her house. My sister and her husband inherited the house when Ruth moved out, and with it the books. I don't know how many books were there, but it was an amazing sight. Picture bookshelves, 16 feet across and 11 feet high, with neat rows of leather-bound physics and math books and encyclopedias, etc. Now add some more books in the gaps between the tops of the rows of books and the bottom of the next shelf. Now shove a few more books in all the cracks that could possibly hold a book, and a few more on top of the bookshelf. Add a few papers sticking out and some more piles of books next to the shelves on the floor. Now make it look a lot more cluttered and dusty, and you have Alan's bookshelf. They've been sitting there gathering dust for 30 years, which isn't good for my sister's asthma, so she gave him an ultimatum that they had to go, one way or another. He said ok, she can sell them on ebay if the money goes to his grandkids education, and she's been slowly auctioning them off for the last several years (the rest have moved to the garage). Some of them she even gets quite a bit of money for, I think one sold for about $500.

I love that shoebox story. I've still got a few old empty envelopes that I will very soon toss, because they are just that "you never know" items. And I've got a box of clean envelopes that I use. So I will go force myself to toss them as soon as I get done writing this, LOL. I'm glad to know that I'm not alone and that I'm not actually as bad as some. I can navigate most every part of my house. there are just a few clutter spots.

My advice if you're determined to 'clean house' get a collectibles book, price them out, then put them up for auction on e-bay, they don't have to work, just be in good condition. You might be surprised at what they will bring, you might even 'clean up' as it were! Stuff like that is always a rough gem, I just sold some of my Mother Oats, Furry Freak Bros. and Wonder Wart Hog comics. One of the Mother Oats sold for $850. So you see everything is worth something....

I agree with Zhann, that was my first thought. Great collectibles!!

btw, there are software emulators out there for all the above, even mainframes like the 360. I downloaded the Atari 800 emulator (my first 'pc'), and promptly discovered I didn't remember how to load 'star raiders'..;) but I know the Commodore 64 is out there for sure..
The only thing worse than keeping them is cataloging them..dang Microsoft Access, ruination of my life..;)

You are by no means alone in your compulsion. Its just the past can crowd out the future till there is no room left. I watched Teresas parents scrimp and save for the rainy day that was going to come. They always kept the house at 80 in the summer and 60 in the winter. They hung the clothes on the line because, If you use the appliances they will wear out. Ed retired and the time to go on the big Mediterranean vacation came and went with his health. I told my oldest daughter, If I ever start acting like that, kill me. I have multiple copies of Conan 1-100, Killraven, New Gods, Cerebus the Aardvark, American Flagg, Frank Miller Ronin, Dark Night, Electra, Etc. I havent looked at them in 20m years and have three girls going to college. The first starts this fall. Her future is not going to be held prisoner to my past.

Yeah, but your past could possibly 'pay' for your childrens future, just consider collectibles as 'assets' that are for immediate liquidation when the need arises....we wouldn't have been able to buy our house if I hadn't liquidated half my comic collection, it gave us the extra 2K we needed to close.... I save everything that might be of value in the future, first edition books, comics, scifi stuff, believe it or not 'promotional' figures are really big, I have 2 of the Cocoa Cola Polar bears, and several Beany Babies(one that was recued from the highway was worth $300!) So the past, present and future are all compatible in our house....:)

BTW, my husband threatened to throw the boxes with my collectibles away, with the "I'm not hauling those gd dmn boxes to another house, get rid of them", he's changed his tune since we closed on the house to, "are you sure that stuff is okay in the garage? maybe we should bring it in the house...", although I can't blame him, all the Heavy Metal magazines from the first premier issue is like hauling around National Geographics, (which I dumped on the local library and elementary school, they were delighted to get them)....

I'm a sufferer too, my house has so much of what others might call junk lying around but I just can't bring myself to get rid of it. One of my friends always tries to make a date with me to go through all this junk and throw it out, but as of now I have managed to talk her out of actually doing it. Maybe one day I'll be able to let these old, useless, items, go, but not a this time. 8) Catlin

'Asteriods'had game instructions!-technical stuff!-Start a museum with these treasures. 8^)

catlin_mc, nothing is worthless, everything has some type of worth to somebody, you the saying, 'one man's trash is another man's treasure...' we had a garage sale and put out every oddball piece of stuff we had (and after 30 years of collecting I had some weird sh*t). When we opened the garage door at 5am there were people waiting, and this is , to see what we had, sold everything but some china, would you believe I actually sold a decorated coffee can full of pencils for $5?

I have a Commodore Vic 20, mint condition. Lol...with an audio tabe backup "drive". AgentSmith

EBay

I used to peek and poke myself but my parts slowly wore out. There are actually Commidore user clubs out there and people who manufacture spare parts.

Great and funny stories all and reminiscent of my hoarding habits. Yup Ang, Im a packrat also. My obsession is old cloths, somehow I think Ill be able to fit into something I bought 15 years ago and only wore twiceyeah right, books, electronic equipment useful or useless, and paper (envelopes, documents, receipts, old bills, postcards, greeting cardsthat kind of stationary stuff). I was watching a news segment on clutter cleaning a couple weeks ago and the woman there said that if you havent used an item in more than 6 months, you should consider getting rid of it. Selling your stuff on Ebay sounds like a great idea as long as you dont start saving the receipts. ;)

I once sat down with the determination to get rid of everything in the house that was old and useless. Then I realized that the thing at the top of that list would be me. So I've decided to let whoever inherits my crap worry about it. :^)

Perk, did someone say OCD? I save everything too, including all the boxes the software hardware I've bought came in. I don't need the boxes, but I can't get myself to throw em away. It's that nagging feeling that you might "need" em someday. So you aren't alone :-) Doug

I can't get rid of what's old, most of my stuff is antique to begin with, furniture, china, fabrics etc. I picked up alot of antique furniture working for an Antiques Dealer, she would clean out entire estates from Hunt Valley, a very wealthy area of Maryland countryside...some of the mourning jewelry was to die for, just couldn't afford it, but I managed some nice pieces of furntiure, and china. When I go Todd can do what he wants with everything that's left...hmmmmm, looks like we all need professional help...:)

My ex-husband was a hoarder - once when we were moving house a removal guy came and glanced around, gave us a quote. Then on moving day, when everything had come out from under beds, behind cupboards, under couches, down the sides of shelves, on top of bookcases etc. etc. etc......we needed 2 more enormous trucks, and they refused to move anything unless we paid them triple up front. Now (warning - amateur psychology on the way) I kinda associate hoarders with insecure childhoods??? Maybe??? There's a great feeling of lightness and relief when you get rid of junk, though. Nowadays I love the fact that I can look under a bed and see nothing but dustballs!

LOL...Even dustballs can become collectables, especially with bachelors. Sort of like molds growing in the fridge.

"Even dustballs can become collectables, especially with bachelors." Guilty as charged, Quest, and I am a bachelor. When my dustbunnies get large enough that I begin to consider giving them names, that's when I get out the vacuum cleaner, LOL.

Vic 20?! Bah.. I still have my Vexctex.. from 1982! :)

Yep, insecure childhood. Had to walk on eggshells till I was 12, my dad was an alcholic. He became a sober one when I was 12 so things weren't so bad after that. But I remember even as a kid, I'd save pieces of cut up paper. Don't know what for. We also weren't well to do, so we were taught to take care of what we did get. So I hoarded. Not so bad as a kid because I didn't have a lot to begin with. But I still keep broken things. Drives me nuts! ps, I've got a crush on Quest, but it'll never work out - no room for two hoarders, LOL.

I still have my kid's Acorn Electron, and some of the games that went with it. Quite by chance I recently found a site that has an Acorn emulator and all the games. So now my grandkids play Acorn games on my pc. Nothing changes! LOL.

(<--- Blushing) LOLAng, you mean you wouldnt like to see me walking around in my disco suit with bell-bottom pants? And you wouldnt allow me to bring my collection of dust bunnies or my multi-colored fridge mold set with me? (Sigh)youre making me feel unwanted and orphaned. I thought surely you'd have room for me in the barn. Was it something I said? :(

LOL, ok you can keep your stuff in the barn. But nothing except your body can enter the house. I still remember the only pair of bell bottoms I owned (no I don't still have them), they were real red! I was in highschool. I loved those pants. I did however, and still do, hate polyester. Other than that the 70's rocked! I think the oldest piece of clothing I have goes back to 1981 or 82. Don't know if my daughter got rid of it after trying it on, but I know I still had it when I moved into this house which was a few years ago.

Nothing could be more embarrassing than my shirt with the "Nehru" collar that I had to have when I saw the Beatles wearing them. No, I don't still have it, thank goodness!

Not a pretty picture AngHow far is it from your barn to the house? I can see the news headlines now; Man freezes to death while running from a barn naked across a snow covered field in one of upper New Yorks coldest winters and dies face down on the front steps of the main house with his frostbitten, goose bumpy, white butt sticking up in the air and a disco mirrored dance ball under his arm. Not exactly my idea of a dignified death. What would you tell the children? ;)

The trouble with the cold is that is makes things shrink to a very very small size..........

LOL...Like a chewed up shriveled stick of gum? 8/ Some things may shrink while others become perky. :]

ROFLMAO!!!! This thread has me laughing so hard right now! I see Quest didn't miss the intentional, "body only" allowed. And as far as the gum reference - boy thats one I'd never heard of before. Good news is, if I ever become rich enough, I'd have a heated swimming pool, no worries of shrinkage happening there. :-D

Oh and Winter's almost over here. Might get snow tonight but it shouldn't stick to the ground. Well if it does, I've got my digital camera ready and I'll be sure to take a pic. I'm so sick of winter!

Snow tonight!?!?!?!?!? It's not often I see the advantage to living in a 'temperate climate', except when I see a post like that :( We may have rotten summers in Ireland, with the temperature seldom rising above 70 degrees F., but at least if we get snow it's only for a day or so, in mid-winter. Ah hate that dang cold!!!

I just got up ...looked out my window... and its beautifully green and sunny out! No snow! I think sometimes they like to mess with our heads and they just make up that crap to tell us. However, we have had snow in the past all the way into the beginning of May. So it wasn't impossible.