I have been there. I sold everything in 2011 due to medical bills and because I was getting frustrated with the tinkering.

There is no easy answer to whether "to keep" or "sell/scrap/donate". I agree that it takes up a lot of time, space and money though.

I've found myself running through any classic coding projects within emulators. VICE and AppleWin have been very helpful in taking care of quick ideas and testing versus pulling a machine out of storage, hoping it works when I turn it on, loading up whatever programming language I was going to use etc.

I picked up a lot of Atari computer hardware just a few days ago. Half of it was dead on arrival. I just don't have the time, space, or patience to rip stuff apart and fix it to hopefully get another year or of life out of it anymore.

It is so much simpler to just emulate and be done with it for whatever quick fixes I find myself in the mood for.

I understand where you're coming from 😀

I also played more games in DOSBox than on real machines. My hobby has shifted quite a bit from wanting to play old games to working with old hardware. And then of course my YT channel which keeps me busy. I sold things in the past but the money you get is little considering the time it took to obtain the parts. So these days I just put everything in boxes, bag and tag them. Because you never know when you want to pull something out again.

I recently packed away all my retro gear and I will get rid of some of my CRT monitors and other large pieces but I'm holding onto the lot. One day I will want to get back into it and start tinkering again.

Yea just pack it away properly. I put all my gear in static bags, then in plastic containers. All labelled for easy retrieval. I also stopped building whole computers and just have three test benches (PSUs with old motherboard boxes 😀 ) as that's really what I do all the time. Test this part, benchmark something else, capture a game with a certain sound card. So for me building computers didn't work out for me...

I'm now more interested in documenting, recording, capturing, helping others, spreading the retro bug and preserving knowledge for the future.

Everything in moderation I say - it sounds like you have heaps of hardware, and that can get you down. I've recently made an effort to cull my collection back to just those machines which a) work, and b) which there is some chance I'll actually use. Then I gathered together any relevant spares for those systems and everything else went.

It felt good to cut the collection back, but I still have enough stuff to tinker with when I get the urge.

After you give up on an obsession you will feel great and most likely never look back 😉

badmojo wrote:

Everything in moderation I say

This. :B

For me, I have what I like to call a "functional" collection: I ONLY collect retro stuff I'm personally interested in, that works properly, and would be willing to actually use every so often, even if only through emulation. (The idea being to legally own something so that I don't feel like I'm freeloading off of the hard work of other people when I pull the emulators out.) I do not collect things which are merely interesting because of what they are or represent. This is why I don't own a Sega CD or a 32X, a TG-16, any of the early computers like the C64, Atari ST, Amiga, etc. They're interesting things for sure, but I have no interest in using them on a regular basis.

To that end, my retro games collection doesn't actually take up all that much space and if something stops working (which is a very rare occurrence), or I pick up something that I don't want to ever use because it sucks, I get rid of it in some manner.

There's actually only two more retro consoles I'm looking to pick up eventually: An Odyssey 2 and a Vectrex, the former of which isn't too challenging to find and not very expensive, the latter I probably won't be able to pick up unless I ever have a ton of disposable income. :P

I have what people would call "too much junk" but that dosnt really bother me.
I am single so I can fill my apartment with stuff without someone complaining.

If that changes I might have to move much stuff to cold storage but I do not think I will ever throw everything away.
With luck some stuff will be very rare and worth money in 30 years or so, then I will consider selling.

Dominus is probably right but if you do decide to keep some stuff:

Focus on what is actually important to you and understand why - that can be the core of your collection.

Be realistic - you can't play everything or use every bit of hardware, but there may be rainy days when you will want to try something out, so keep a few bits in reserve for that.

Limit the machines you have built, ones you really won't use can be dismantled, the parts can go in the rainy day pile.

Don't try to have 1 of everything, it really doesn't matter what the differences are between a lot of this gear. Focus on what works best for you. Don't be pedantic about every, once you start playing you may not notice the difference between an mt32 and an sb2.

When you sell bits, remember that you kept things you considered better, so there's no need to chase down those parts again for your core collection. I like the phrase "I will not pass this way again". Life is short, don't waste it.

If you have stuff that's not spares and that you never used and have no clear plans to, get rid of it.

Allow room for manoeuvre: it doesn't matter if you buy a few bits or even systems now and again to play with and then sell/recycle/whatever. That interaction may be something you enjoy for it's own sake. Just limit the extent of these explorations, eg only have 1 tinkering machine.

Keep it focused, don't buy stuff just because it's there, but for a specific purpose. When you're done: if it isn't part of your core collection, get rid of it, let someone else have the pleasure, you were just passing through.

I made the mistake of getting rid of all my retro gear back when I was a teen. I know one shouldn't live in regret but goddamn I still wish I had some of the parts I had back then.

If you lose interest, I can only say NEVER get rid of it if at all possible.

I am pretty much done with the stuff i wanted to do. I know somebody will say: You'll never get done!, but to tell you the truth i feel pretty satisfied with what i achieved. I'm waiting for some stuff to arrive and it will probably take me a couple of months more to gather everything.

I don't have heaps of hardware that takes me a lot of space and i don't have heaps of games, i'm pretty self counscious about what i'm doing and i don't feel any regret about what i've been doing. I've been actually playing a bit, mostly arcadish stuff so i don't get too burned on the hardware side.

Would like to gather some of the classic and historic boxed sound cards, like the AdLib, a Sound Blaster Pro and a GUS.

2014 will be less of a hardware year for me, it will be mostly organize stuff, and try to gather the little stuff i'm missing.

I don't think i can live my life without the stuff that made me so happy when i was a kid.