I do not freakin' believe this!

[El Chuxter]

I've got too many toys, mostly Star Wars stuff. I want to trim down my collection; I don't need two Malakilis, I simply don't have room for 75%+ of my vehicles and probably never will, and I have no desire to display much of anything from AOTC or ROTS. I've made a couple of false starts in clearing out this mass over the past two or three years, and had finally gotten myself ready to get rid of this stuff.

For a few years after we met, my wife aided and abetted me in gathering crap. "Don't pass on that R2-D2 with the string feature. You'll regret it later." Then, she started complaining about the amount of crap. I honestly can't say I blame her.

So, now that I'm finally psyched to clear out some junk and properly display whatever I keep (which is still likely to be a lot, but a manageable lot), I've been pretty much forbidden to sell, trade, or donate it. "You bought that, so you shouldn't get rid of it. I'd rather you not buy anything now than get rid of stuff you have." I've so far been unable to convince her that, given my likes and interests, a new Dewback means far, far more to me than four extra General Grievouses.

I can't even get rid of the Imperial Shuttle that's been gathering dust on an entire shelf in the garage for years, and which at least one person here asked me about.

Any advice? Honestly, I want to clear out this stuff. Someone here or a kid could appreciate it more than I can. I could get rid of a few small things without her knowing, but stuff like the aforementioned Shuttle would be bloody obvious when they're suddenly missing.

[Darth Jax]

if you can't sell, donate or trade it - i'm thinking the only other option is to keep it.

[sith_killer_99]

Okay, so I had a whole long post about this, but then I thought better of it...

I'm not touching this one with a 10 foot pole.

[Old Fossil]

Guess we know Who Wears the Pants in that family.

[NerfTW]

I find just breaking up with them works. Now I have a whole wall to put my figures on.....




OH GOD I'M GONNA DIE ALONE!!!!


(Joking, honestly)

[Rocketboy]

Tell her since she's the one that wants it, it's her job to take care of it all.

Or just dump a bunch of it in a Toys For Tots box and tell her she can't yell at you or that'll make her a bad person.

[bobafrett]

Give them to Bobafrett, I hear he's an upstanding gentleman, or so I've heard.

[JediTricks]

Put your foot down. Try explaining to her that you don't keep that old Ford Pinto once it's gone out of fashion, you buy a new Ford Focus and wait until it becomes another Pinto, then get rid of it.

Explain it to her this way: for the previous years you owned this stuff, it satiated your needs. Extras fueled your imagination on future uses, even when you didn't actually put them to that use. However, as time passes, technology has kept a brisk pace and created replacements of those items that are of vastly superior quality. As this is one of your chief hobbies, it is important that you not let it merely stagnate in the past, lest it really become just a pile of dust-collectors, which is why you need to buy new figures and get rid of the old ones that are replaced by them. Donating them can result in a warm feeling and perhaps some level of tax write-off, trading can result in helping out BOTH parties, and selling can result in at least seeing some level of return on your consumer goods.

Or, you know, just grow a dynamic duo.

Give them to Bobafrett, I hear he's an upstanding gentleman, or so I've heard.

Oh yeah, right, so he can end up having the EXACT same argument with Robin.

[El Chuxter]

Oh, I've not been told not to buy new toys. She's just made it clear she's going to complain about them. Her argument seems to be "if we have another kid, and it's a boy, and he wants those toys, what are you going to do?" I'm just going to wait until tomorrow and bring it up again.

I could get rid of everything, but, well, I don't want to listen to it.

Seriously, man, I cannot believe that, after complaining for years (and not understanding that limiting myself to OT figures and the very occasional prequel figure or OT vehicle is a serious scaling back to begin with), she's going to suddenly try to keep things like the ARC-170 or the Shuttle, stuff I know other people would love to have.

[JediTricks]

You're the one who said "I'd rather you not buy anything now than get rid of stuff you have." That's why I got the impression it'd be a sticking point.

Ok, use my argument above minus the buying thing. Or how about this analogy: "is our son really going to want to play with those old things? We didn't save our Pong machines just in case fantastic, richly-detailed, 3D graphics ever went back out of style and the next generation needed to learn how to use paddle controllers. Our parents didn't save their old black & white TVs in the hopes that we'd want to use 75-ohm dual-prong antenna leads and manual potentiometer dial controls that can't even get modern broadcast frequencies anymore."

Maybe she secretly wants to build dioramas like Tycho does, and doesn't have the nerve to tell you.