Running Numbers
PREMISE: I’m starting to question my spend on books, games, and related material that I don’t actually consume or spend time on. I’m buying them in the hopes that sometime in the future I will read, review, or use these products. But I’ve clearly haven’t had the time to.
The fact that my bill at Western Sky Books is high, that I’m a Super-Backer on Kickstarter, and I have a shelf of board games, of which I’ve played two in the last eight months (one of which I gave away to B.B.)… tells me that there is no actual emotional/spiritual ROI on these products. Not in any truly satisfying way.
Do I enjoy the games and books I do consume? Yes, of course. Celles was a wonderful H&C game. I’m actually studying Renaissance history books to push towards fiction. WW2 books are great. But the quantity of acquisition is superceding consumption by margins I can’t even begin to fathom. Let’s look at the numbers
Books/Shipping (last twelve months)
| Month | Spend |
|---|---|
| June 2022: | 314.97 |
| July 2022: | $908.96 |
| August 2022: | $186.43 |
| September 2022: | $403.84 |
| October 2022: | $1215.76 |
| November 2022: | $127.62 |
| December 2022: | $54.80 |
| January 2023: | $243.31 |
| February 2023: | $308.23 |
| March 2023: | $695.06 |
| April 2023: | $700.81 |
| May 2023: | $316.14 |
In other words…
TOTAL SPEND: $5,476.93
AVERAGE MONTHLY SPEND: $456.41
So almost $500 each month on books, shipping, and RPG games. And in terms of actual books read in 2022? Ten. Ten books. That’s all I read in 2022. 2021 was 23. So far in 2023? Seven.
OK, shipping is a proxy for the selling of board games, which relates to the purchase of board games. Oath, Pax Pamir, Pax Renaissance, The Underground Railroad, John Company 2e are just the Eurogames of the past twelve to eighteen months. Wargames is far worse. Next War Korea. Enemy Action. Battle of Britain. Those were the first. Then rebought MBT. Bought MMP games, ASL Beyond Valor. Stonewall’s Way. The BCS game Final Blitz? Thunderbolt Apache. Cruel Necessity. Men of Iron. And I’ve only played Celles, Race to the Volga, and a couple games of Here I Stand, which I don’t even own? Oh and USCW with Beau I guess. This is a money sunk hobby.
Finally RPG books. I can’t stop backing DCC products. I have way too many OSR modules now. I have practically everything Mothership has ever made… and Delta Green. Got them all too. And I’ve played three sessions of Delta Green with E’s group with little to no chance of it reviving. Well, that’s messed up. Yes, I play Hunter with Matt Seagle and the Glausers now… but again, using a ruleset I don’t even own. In other words… why am I buying this stuff if I’m not even consuming them?
It’s not even the money, really. But what would reducing this expense really mean? It would deprive me of the “joy of consumption”. The hunt. The collector’s mentality.
Maybe let’s set a budget. Let’s see if we can reduce to $200/month. No more RPG books. Knave is the last one. No more wargames except those already in the GMT P500… but even then, maybe I should delete some? I dunno. Leave them for now. What am I going to do with all those board games. Books only. And maybe in the hyper-focused manner of zeroing in on “does it help me with fiction?” only? I have many books I haven’t read. Too many.