Curse of the Bits Box

As a result of Good Life Gaming, I have been going through the apparently endless boxes and figures cases I have stashed in the house and garage.  Sorting out the stuff that I will never use and selling it; panning for hobby gold, I have to do a fair bit of rummaging through the boxes to find the things I think are worth selling.  It is this process that has encouraged me to reconsider the sense of bits boxes. 

When I first started this hobby innumerable people, and articles, advised me to start a bits box.  The message was everything would find a use eventually and I did just that.  When I first started I had a large pot with odd bits and on occasion I would find the extra bit I needed or wanted for a conversion or replacement for an error or miscast.   As I purchased more figures I generated more bits and when the pot was full I would start another one. And another one, and another, eventually upgrading to a storage box.   I in turn passed on the sanctity of the bits box to others like a gaming gospel.

 

What I now realise is I have boxes and boxes of bits that I couldn’t possibly or ever use and when I urgently require a bit rarely can I find it.  I have little hope of selling much of it on eBay or elsewhere at least for any worthwhile money.  Then there is the time, it and money continue to fight for premier complaint in my hobby, to spend looking for the left arm of a blah blah blah, often it can’t be found and I ask clubmate for help or, shamefully I admit, buy another one. 

After twenty years I realise they aren’t worth the space they get or the time they take out of my hobby.  Overall I think I have been misled if not downright fooled.  What I will be doing and advise you to is pick a small pot or box that can live near your hobby area and when it is full sort through and sell, donate or discard what is probably not going to get used.

Bits boxes and I have fallen out, made up and agree to make a fresh start.