Vegas Showdown
Cluzzle
Oasis
Monsters Menace America
Return of the Heroes
Die Macher
Under the Shadow of the Dragon
Notre Dame
Hoity Toity
What do all these games have in common? They are all games I picked up from Tanga. For those just joining us, Tanga is a site that offers a daily sale special of somewhat random things. Of special interest to the boardgame community is the fact that often the daily sale is a boardgame. Of all these, Vegas Showdown, Die Macher, Notre Dame and Cluzzle would have likely been purchased at some point, regardless. Possibly Return of the Heroes and the expansion. So why the others? They were fairly cheap. Oasis looked decent, MMA fit my AH/Hasbro collection, Hoity Toity might play ok with family.
What it really boils down to though is that I like buying games. I like my game collection. I like when non-gamers come to my house and see my wall of games. I don’t feel a crazy urge to own every game out there, but there are still games I desire to own. I feel “comfortable” with my collection. I have some good gamer games and good non-gamer “gateway” games. I have a few children games. I have abstract games and theme games. Near-wargames and Eurogames and Ameritrash games. I have dexterity games and card games and dice games (no, I don’t have Bunco, which is not a game at any rate). I have games that are good for 2-8 players (and a few that probably qualify as solo).
Despite my continued acquisition of games, my collection growth has slowed down quite a bit in the last 6-8 months. There was a point where I felt like there was a lot of gaps in what I owned. Now I don’t quite have the same compulsion. I have a lot of really good games in my collection. At one point, I started getting a lot of games that sounded good, without playing them. A lot of those have been traded away in math trades (to the point that I have very little I feel like parting with anymore). I still have some games that are only in my collection because they were on clearance – Niagra, Roborally, Who’s the Boss, etc that I plan to rid myself of at some point. My buying now seems more aimed at completing the gaps in my collection (a few Alea big box games are still missing from my collection), grabbing the really hot games that have gotten good feedback., grabbing things that are not likely to get printed again (Railroad Tycoon, Conquest of Empires, Formula De), and getting expansions (Age of Steam maps, Battlelore, Heroscape, etc) – my list of Games Acquired in 2007 supports this.
So why bother blogging about this? There currently is Tangathon going on. Normally, Tanga lists a single item each day and when it sells out, you wait till the next day. During the Tangathon, they appear to try and get rid of excess inventory by running multiple listings – when an item sells out, a new one appears (it also looks like a new one appears if a listing sits for a long time). Us game collectors love bargains – have no fear, we will usually spend the dough for a hard to get item or really nice game, but in the end we love bargains. That’s why there are so many thrift store lists on the BGG. Now, the argument goes that Tanga is not a bargain (at least its not cheaper than any of the other deep-discount online sellers), because you can’t get free shipping like you can with some online stores. True, but the online stores require you to purchase (typically) over $125 worth of merchandise to get the free shipping. At any rate, I’ve been spending too much time watching the listings at Tanga, trying to get a bargain or two. I was one of about 4 people to snag Notre Dame. I’ll be the first to admit I wouldn’t have normally grabbed this (despite it being an Alea /RG big box game), but I had spent the time and I felt obligated to myself to get something out of this
.The funny part about the whole Tangathon is that a lot of folks are just waiting for the primo listing – Age of Empires III. Apparently, the site “borked” up just prior to the Tangathon kicking off and a few folks got a glimpse at some of what was coming and the prices. Now everyone is waiting to see it (and I’m sure, getting a few things that they wouldn’t normally grab). Hopefully, I don’t give in and grab a few things I don’t really need.
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