Amiga.org
Amiga computer related discussion => General chat about Amiga topics => Topic started by: gertsy on August 27, 2012, 01:25:44 PM
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I just watched an episode of hoarders and I thought to myself, hmm, I have some of those tendencies. Although I keep my activities to a discreet list of machines (and associated products) I’ve owned previously.
What about everyone else? Are there some feelings of "my stuff is encroaching on my living space?"
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I just watched an episode of hoarders and I thought to myself, hmm, I have some of those tendencies. Although I keep my activities to a discreet list of machines (and associated products) I’ve owned previously.
What about everyone else? Are there some feelings of "my stuff is encroaching on my living space?"
Hmm, I got a room for my computers and some consoles, but I got tons of old and new hardware in my basement, can't throw it away when it works and I keep thinking I will need it sometime.
I also save some broken things, but mainly because when I have time I desolder connectors/chips and other good parts for saving.
Tho often I really need it in the future when doing a project and then I save time not hunting ebay for some strange thingmagog.
But even if I have quite some stuff I don't just save it in a big burning pile on the floor, I know where my stuff are and i categorize all quite good :)
If im a hoarder? Nah, ill say im a tech junkie/geek :)
Edit: Outside my computer room I mostly have HTPC's and some consoles hooked up to my big TV in the living room, but sure when I work with something it can takes space in my living room for a few days ^^ If i could I would replace the x86 HTPC with my RaspberryPI board or a beagleboard but the x86 machine is a great emulator machine so it stays a bit more.
My biggest problem must be that I can't leave anything alone, if I get my hands on a console or obscure hardware or even ARM based boards I have to get Linux running on it and have to make hardware mods just because it's fun.
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For the most part I stopped collecting a few years ago, and resolved instead to put together and play with what I already have. I'm the type that would rather have one nice example of a particular model, than 10 tatty ones. All of my stuff is neatly organized within one closet. I'll cycle a few machines out at a time, so I don't have it strewn all over the house anymore. If something makes its way to the kitchen table, I try to have the project wrapped up within a few days (I'd like to keep my family around, heh :-))
In the garage there's an organized stash of random parts, motherboards, cases, etc, which I keep around for spares. I also bought spares of most of the Zorro cards and other things I used to use regularly... not so much from a hoarding drive, but to have an extra in case something I really enjoy using breaks.
Nowadays I don't have as much time to tinker, and I'd rather sit down and play a few games of Arcade Pool than scout ebay or hunt around for more doo-dads. :-) Only things that continue to elude my grasp are the Delfina Plus and DKB 2060... but I'm happy enough without them for now :-P
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I am, apparently.
http://businessjournalism.org/2010/01/07/hoarders-makes-us-think-of-organizing-a-de-cluttering-story/
My poor daughter...
bp
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I just watched an episode of hoarders and I thought to myself, hmm, I have some of those tendencies. Although I keep my activities to a discreet list of machines (and associated products) I’ve owned previously.
What about everyone else? Are there some feelings of "my stuff is encroaching on my living space?"
My wife thinks I am.
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No I'm a good boy, only have the one retro computer although I do also have a PC and a 360 and would love to get a tablet ;)
I don't like having stuff I don't actually use, if I had say a A3000 and a A1200 then one of them wouldn't get used much.
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Well, as I look at it, there are more Commodore & Amiga computers out there than people who actually want to own one. The reason they seem so rare is that not all those computers have been matched up with people desirous of them yet. There are probably several thousand Amiga users out there, but probably tens of thousands (maybe hundreds of thousands) of surviving Amigas still stashed in closets, garages and warehouses (like Petro's recent find of 500 A1200's new in box). Commodore 64s are even worse!
So, even if you try not to be a hoarder, you can end up with multiple machines unintentionally.
Somehow I ended up with seven VIC-20s, seven Intellivisions, two A500s, two A2000s, five Atari 2600s, several ColecoVisions, etc. etc. etc. not because I was actively collecting, but because people knew I liked the stuff and just wanted to get rid of it themselves.
Also, in the early days (like the mid 1990s) people really wanted to get rid of this "junk" as it was seen as totally obsolete and hadn't developed any retro "chic" yet. How could I resist going into my local thrift store and seeing several nice clean Intellivision consoles for $2.99 each. I just had to pick up one.
Being in my late 20s and early 30s in the 1990s and early 2000s, I finally had the income to buy all the consoles and retro computers I could never have owned in my childhood, and all for dirt cheap as nobody wanted them....I could buy handfuls of cartridges for only ten bucks....so I might have been a little enthusiastic.
Now that a few years have gone by, I'm mellowing out on the retro stuff and starting to pare down. I've sold some nice Amigas to other interested parties, sold off a few Vectrexes, etc. etc. and plan to sell off more of the stuff I never use. I'll only really focus on the main systems I enjoy, like VIC-20 and Amiga, and not even actively collect more for them....sure if I stumble across something unintentionally I might buy it, but I won't actively hunt for stuff.
Emulation has also gotten a LOT better - they even emulate the television blur, floppy drive sounds, etc, etc. Sure it's not the same as a real, physical device, but for those systems not in my main field of interest - like the C64 - it's great to fire up an emulator and play a quick game once in a while than have a whole system set up all the time.
I'll probably keep one of each system I really like...and maybe a few backup parts. But it's time to pare down to a useable level (but still not throw out the baby with the bathwater).
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I've said it before, I'm a rescuer. ;) I haven't stumbled into any Amigas that were in peril for a while, though.
One of my projects is to combine my Amigas physically into a retro cabinet that is always set up and available.
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Well.. if you happen to have enough Amiga gear to cover all the floor space in your home and you can't easily navigate from one room to the next, then, YES, you are a hoarder! :razz:
On the other hand, if you selectively seek out, evaluate, and acquire certain Amiga products for your personal pleasure then, you are a collector! :)
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I am, apparently.
http://businessjournalism.org/2010/01/07/hoarders-makes-us-think-of-organizing-a-de-cluttering-story/
My poor daughter...
bp
She looks happy as...!
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I used to be, but then I got married! :D
Now I have to buy anything I need to add or replace to what few computers I have left. :(
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I am not a hoarder. It took me decades to get my collection started. I would throw away some of my stuff, or give it to somebody, but financially it is more plausible and much more convenient to keep it. I have a small room where I keep most of my collection. The rest of the house looks pretty normal.
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More like a collector/user.. in need of more space. :)
Rich
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I'm certainly not a hoarder in principle, but in reality it appears that I am a hoarder.
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I just watched an episode of hoarders and I thought to myself, hmm, I have some of those tendencies. Although I keep my activities to a discreet list of machines (and associated products) I’ve owned previously.
What about everyone else? Are there some feelings of "my stuff is encroaching on my living space?"
I throw things out, but I never throw out the AC adapters (the little wall wart things), so now I'm sure I have over 100...
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I'm certainly not a hoarder in principle, but in reality it appears that I am a hoarder.
I have not seen the tv show..are these people hoarding junk?, old newspapers etc? At lease we hoard good stuff!! Keeping the Amiga alive. Are there people hoarding Atari computers?? Is the Atari community very active?
Rich
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I have not seen the tv show..are these people hoarding junk?, old newspapers etc? At lease we hoard good stuff!! Keeping the Amiga alive. Are there people hoarding Atari computers?? Is the Atari community very active?
Rich
The Atari community is very active and there is a lot of interesting hardware hacking of old Atari STs happening. Atarians are much more inclined to do surgery on motherboards than Amigans. It might be because there is much less add on hardware for the ST and what there is is not as well documented as for the Amiga. There is nothing like the Amiga Hardware Database and Big Book of Amiga Hardware for the Atari ST, TT and Falcon. You have to google Atari hardware piece by piece and having a collection of old Atari magizines helps.
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I'm not a hoarder, most Amigas here 'collect dust' differently, because of each model having unique shape.
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There are a few people on this board and EAB I would definitely call hoarders. You can easely spot them.
-Always braging about new/old stuff they bought (Check this out... wow... look here..)
-Describing stuff they got with emotions to justify their actions (My brothers friends friend sisters friend had one when I was a kid... etc)
-Ordering backup systems/parts when new stuff gets released and pointing it out so everyone notice it (I just ordered two of those, one spare for my xxxx..).
-Preorder stuff all the time (I need to preorder two of those...).
A nice comment to you, any dumba*s with para in is hand can buy old stuff, it takes some serious dedication to use the stuff in this age where you f'n mobile phone from 2005 is more powerful than an A500.
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Well, as I look at it, there are more Commodore & Amiga computers out there than people who actually want to own one.
I think that more people would want to use them if they weren't so difficult to come by, or so obscenely over-priced in markets like ebay.
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I think that more people would want to use them if they weren't so difficult to come by, or so obscenely over-priced in markets like ebay.
Well, that's the issue, isn't? There are probably still several million C64s out there, not yet matched up with the remaining people who could actually use them. Same with Amigas - although the number is probably more like tens of thousands of unused Amigas. They are sitting in lofts, garages, closets all over the world. Every year some get matched up with people who like this stuff, but it is probably easier for people to just put them out with the trash instead. There are a lot of people out there who still can't imagine that anyone would actually WANT to use an old computer.
If there was an easy way to magically match all these Amigas with the remaining Amiga users, then probably every person who wanted a real hardware Amiga could have several - and the value wouldn't be so inflated.
With the advent of electronics recycling laws, etc. many people probably think they are doing a good thing by bringing their ancient Amiga out of the garage to be stripped down and recycled.
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More like a collector/user.. in need of more space. :)
Rich
+1 lol
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There are a few people on this board and EAB I would definitely call hoarders. You can easely spot them.
-Always braging about new/old stuff they bought (Check this out... wow... look here..)
-Describing stuff they got with emotions to justify their actions (My brothers friends friend sisters friend had one when I was a kid... etc)
-Ordering backup systems/parts when new stuff gets released and pointing it out so everyone notice it (I just ordered two of those, one spare for my xxxx..).
-Preorder stuff all the time (I need to preorder two of those...).
A nice comment to you, any dumba*s with para in is hand can buy old stuff, it takes some serious dedication to use the stuff in this age where you f'n mobile phone from 2005 is more powerful than an A500.
Gloating over old computer hardware looks silly, I agree (not to be confused with healthy enthusiasm, ofc). If someone has a large collection, I'm sure most of us would rather see it cataloged with nice pics on a website somewhere, than read random forum blowharding. I also know a few folks with massive collections that never mention it publicly. That said, if someone finds a bit of old gear and wants to post pics, I'm definitely game!
Speaking of phones, I think my wife's S3 would annihilate my entire stash of retro-gear all combined...
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It wasn't a poll. But the general concensus is No.
At worst collectors.
I think the problem of hoarding is that it gets in the way of living; Health risk, Impared function, economic impact. So I guess we can generally get away with one or two of those without risking classification. :)