Have you been called a Horder or Collector?

[digitpress Jim]

Was watching an episode of Horders last night and the guy on there had a hording problem as they call it, in this case I call it collecting =) Anyway, he has all these bad ass antique pinball machines, arcade games and more that he got set up and turned into an arcade. Which leads to my question, has any one called you a horder for collecting video games or do they recognize that it is a passion and love for collecting video games and not just hording junk like broken furniture, empty kitty litter bags and banana peels?

[Tempest]

To me it's not hording if it's well organized and not junk (which is a matter of opinion I suppose).

[jb143]

If people don't understand your collection then they could mistake collecting for hording, which may or may not be the case here, but I think hoarders in the sense that show usually portrays have a deep psychological (rather than just a sentimental) attachment to the stuff cluttering up their lives.

[Collector_Gaming]

Anyone who collects on a large scale would be fallen under the category of hoarding sadly. To us its collecting. To people as stated above who don't get it.. Its hording.

Thing is when i explain to people who don't get why I collect what I collect. Its because I personally am trying to preserve our history.
I got all these old video games to show kids these days. This is what most of us on this forum played back when we were their age.

Collect antiques. Shows history. Why did this item exist. who made it. The stories this item could tell if it could talk. Ya know thats what i explain.

For instance my medical battery home shock therapy device from 1938 (i posted awhile back in the finds). Its strange its bizarre which i love. But could imagine the story of the guy who bought this thing brand new back in 1938 or perhaps 1939 and thought he was gonna cure something by shocking himself with this device.

That is history.

Or the atari 2600 you buy at a goodwill or whatever. Imagine the story that could come from that. year 1982 for instance. Christmas morning. 8 year old timmy sees a package with his name on it under the tree... From santa... he opens it up and and the delight in his eyes when he finds out its the Atari 2600 home gaming device he saw on tv that he wanted.

That is history.

So if you call me hoarder so be it... I look at it as a personal museum.

[jb143]

Yeah, hoarders could possibly claim that as well, or justify it in some other way, but the difference is in parting with the stuff. A true collector could easily part with items from his collection if the price was right. A hoarder isn't going to give up their garbage without some massive panic attack.

[Collector_Gaming]

well yea i agree with that notion

i mean if one of you guys came up to me and asked 5 grand for all the video game stuff i own straight out. I would be like
here you go hope you bring a truck with ya!

[Shulamana]

It's a matter of degrees, as said above. If you put your collection before everything else your life, you're a compulsive hoarder. It's fine to have certain items that you would never want to part with under reasonable circumstances, but if you'd never want to give up anything for any reason and you feel like it would literally kill you to do so, then yeah, you have a problem.

I was sort of half-watching this episode but I missed the part about the arcade collector. I wondered if it would get mentioned here or somewhere else, but I missed enough of the important details to not be able to form an opinion on it.

[98PaceCar]

If you put your collection before everything else your life, you're a compulsive hoarder.

I think the above is at least part of the clinical definition of what makes a hoarder. As with anything, if it takes over or negatively affects your life or health, it's an issue. But there are plenty of folks here with massive collections of video games that still manage to lead very healthy, productive, and "normal" lives away from video games.

That said, I've never personally had anybody call me a hoarder other than myself (and even that was in jest). Most people that visit my house don't even know that I collect both console and arcade games.

[Slate]

No, I haven't. I may consider myself to have been a hoarder though, I was still attached to collecting even after my uncle died and I realized it was just a hobby. I didn't want to get rid of it even though I wasn't into it near as much - I didn't have the collection on proud display, It was in storage. Now its mostly in the garage, Waiting to be sold.

Austin

[treismac]

While I would say that there is almost certainly something more going on psychologically than me simply just buying old video games, I don't think I'm a hoarder in a technical sense. I do, however, "hoard" duplicates of the original NES controller (7 with one of their pcbs stuffed into the shell of a Famicom controller) as well as the dogbone controller (5) in addition to picking up an extra NES when the price is right (I have three toasters and one top loader). The reason is practical, I think (justify). Old electronics can break. It happens- tragically sometimes. Why not have some extra lying around just in case?

Yeah... perhaps I'm a borderline hoarder/collector.

[synbiosfan]

Yes I've been called a hoarder and I refer to myself as a collector.

People have to label things so whatever

[leatherrebel5150]

My girlfriend calls me a hoarder all the time. But I like to point out a couple of distinctions between hoarding and collecting to her, maybe I'm right, maybe I'm just trying to justify my habits.

But I tell her I'm collecting because I'm focused on one thing or category (video games) not just grabbing random crap that interests me and everything I have is neat and organized unlike most hoarders who think their cat ran away when its dead under a pile of stuff. Secondly I don't just grab anything video game related as soon as I see it. If its too expensive or not an actual game (like a t shirt or stickers or something) I don't get it. I used to do the same thing with guitars. Probbaly the biggest distintion I make is that alot of collectors have phases. At one time I collected model cars, the plastic kind you build yourself, than it was guitars, now it is video games. Once I was done with the old collections I moved on, Except on the guitars they look awesome hanging in my room.

[SpaceFlea]

Yeah, it always pisses me off when someone calls a collector a hoarder. Hoarding is a disease; collecting is a passion. I consider being called a hoarder by the general public a derogatory remark meant to diminish the accomplishment to a level they can understand.

[madman77]

Beyond the obvious psychological differences between collecting and hoarding I think there are also the organizational differences. I've never seen anyone on Hoarders who has their stuff together. It's largely in poor condition and randomly scattered in piles throughout their house with absolutely no rhyme or reason, nor a single focus. Video game collecting for anyone on here, I assume, also hasn't gotten to the point where our homes are falling apart and we are pooping in the corner of our bedrooms.

[Duke.Togo]

The difference to me is quantity. A collector (which is what I consider myself) attempts to secure certain items, or a single copy (sometimes a couple in the case of variants) of a game. A hoarder will keep as many copies of a game as they can without purpose.

[Casati]

The difference is a collector has his stuff organized so he knows where most of it is located, and will get rid of anything when it becomes apparent that he doesn't value it. A hoarder does not keep his stuff organized but rather in piles all over the house, and doesn't want to get rid of any of it no matter how useless. Quality over quantity.

[xelement5x]

The difference is a collector has his stuff organized so he knows where most of it is located, and will get rid of anything when it becomes apparent that he doesn't value it. A hoarder does not keep his stuff organized but rather in piles all over the house, and doesn't want to get rid of any of it no matter how useless. Quality over quantity.

Interesting distinction. I wonder where that puts me since I've got a bunch of stuff I want to sell, but haven't had the time or inclination to get rid of, so it just sits there in boxes waiting for that Forum thread that never comes. I've also got piles of stuff right now, but I'd say that it's only because I'm doing renovation and need to fix up certain areas of the house before I want to move stuff into them.

[jonebone]

When I hear hoarder, I think of someone that only buys. As in once they get it, it is never leaving. A collector has more defined goals and sometimes sells off items to fund new ones.

Also agreed with the organization aspect. Look at the houses of those families on the hoarder shows. They can't find ANYTHING and the entire house is filled from floor to ceiling with items strewn everywhere. A collector usually knows exactly what they own and has stuff ordered by sections even if it isn't alphabetized or anything.

[goatdan]

A true collector could easily part with items from his collection if the price was right. A hoarder isn't going to give up their garbage without some massive panic attack.

I kind of disagree with this. I wouldn't give up my crummy labeled copy of Earthbound for a perfect one because it was *my* copy, even if I was getting paid to do so. I wouldn't give up my copy of Super Mario Bros 3 because it is the first game that I ever saved up to buy.

There aren't tons of things like that, but those are two of them that I have for sure. I don't fancy myself a "hoarder" and I think most people would agree with me for those.

To me, the difference is that a collector doesn't allow the "stuff" to take over their lives, while a hoarder does. My game collection is nicely put away in a couple pretty specific areas. I don't have games lying everywhere throughout my house that I have no idea where to put them because I bought them without thinking of how I could store them. That's the main difference -- if you buy more than you have a plan for what to do with, then you're hoarding.

Sometimes, I buy extra stuff for the GOAT Store, and it sits in boxes in a room or whatever until it sells -- but I'm not "hoarding" it because I already have a plan to get rid of it when I get it. The stuff I keep has a spot that I already know of before I buy it. I don't buy more than I can store, unless I intend on selling it through the GOAT Store.

So, yeah. That's my opinion.

[Casati]

I've been accused of being a hoarder by someone who watches that show but they don't get the difference between quality and quantity. Those hoarders often will not even throw away garbage or wornout clothing. They can have a house piled with stuff so they can't move around, but the total monetary worth of their piles is maybe $400.

A collector can have $400 worth in just one of their organized stacks of boxes. If you count all of the stacks' worth and add future appreciation, they may have enough to retire sometime. But your average House Hoarders viewer would probably "get rid of the junk" if it's not being guarded against idiocy. My family got rid of my boxes of 1970s comics when I went to college, and I hate to think how much they're worth now. That show is a bad influence.

Here's what compulsive hoarding looks like:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsive_hoarding