Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

If, like me, you've been collecting wargames for a long time, no doubt you will have acquired countless versions of rulebooks, codexes, battletomes and much more besides! But what do you do with them when a new version comes out?

It's hard to justify sending them to a charity shop I find, especially if the rules are out of date. But then equally, someone might find some use for them. What do you think?

One thing I did do fairly recently was spend a day sorting through my old books with my sister (a fellow gamer), and cutting out all of our favourite artwork. We then covered some old folders with imagery to make for slightly more exciting looking folders.

Anyone with any other ideas?

varies, had some in a garage that got wet, they got binned, others tend to end up in a box with other junk

mostly because over the years I've regretted ditching things so now only do so when there is a lack of actual space.

about a decade ago yoof brought home a space marine he had painted, I had a dig in the cellar and found a load of first edition stuff I had which he spent the weekend going through

Kept them. One for each army. They’re not even the same editions!

I’ve actually been getting most of mine from charity stores lately, so the end result is a myriad of codexes of different armies from different editions. There can be 4e Chaos fighting 5e Eldar alongside 6e Tau. It’s an unbalanced mess, but the variety is still nice.

I keep them on the shelf. Sometimes when discussing rules, it can be nice to have a historical citation for when things started, or how things were done. Also the artwork/fluff is still good, and not necessarily included in the new books.

Occasionally people who do play older editions have questions. Or people looking to try out the retro. Good to have the source material on hand for reference.

My new game acquisition has slowed to the point I don’t need to make more room on my game shelf. Eventaully I might have to box up some of the stuff I never touch and stick it in the closet. I don’t want to though. I’ve been gaming all my life, a lot of me is on that shelf.

This is where GW has the edge I feel.

Most of their rule books are not just rules, they are lore, artwork, stories, rules, painting. So even when the rules are outdated the lore and art can be well worth keeping them around for; especially as secondhand they don't sell for vast amounts. So I keep mine.

I will pass them on though if I'm selling up a whole game - I've sold my BFG along with all the tokens and such; and I'm still trying to sell my Epic stuff along the same way. Basically if I'm selling the game then I see it as passing it all along to another to play with. But by and large for 40K and such I keep them

I keep them, I even actually buy older codices and rulebooks on purpose just to read them and appreciate the artworks and lore in it. I often rskim through a few pages of one of them when. I also use them very often to spice our campagin games and scenarios with adaptated rules and units from older books.

Oh yeah, I mean, I try and keep as many as I can, but then space is limited! How do you choose which ones to keep?

Thus far, I've narrowed it down to one of each edition rulebook, plus some of my 'all-time favourite' codexes, such as the Codex Catachan booklet, and some of the old IG ones. Oh, and I also definitely kept my first ever codex SM (the one with the Crimson fists on the front cover).

Still got 3rd Edition and the codices for Eldar, Craftworlds and Tyranids, and still play it as I haven't bought into modern 40K beyond casual core download rules and Kill Team.

Recent Tyranid and Craftworld purchases were actually bought with 3rd in mind, as the structure of those armies were more...themed back then. For example, with Ulthwe you can have a Seer Council as one HQ choice with 2 Farseers and 3 Warlocks for less points, and compulsory Guardian choices would be upgraded - for free - to Black Guardians, which gave +1 for either Weapon or Ballistic skill, depending if they were Defenders or Stormies. On the Tyranid side, a Warrior brood could count as either an Elite or HQ choice.

Also, still got Rogue Trader, which didn't provide lore-fluff as such, but "expressions" of the 40K universe. That edition of 40K could be practically anything you wanted it to be; tank war, clash-of-units, skirmish or even gang warfare. It was up to the players what game they played and I honestly do not remember all this "You need the correct GW approved binoculars for your Imperial Guardsman" crap you get today. Lets just say the Blue Peter was strong with Rogue Trader! Had a glance at the rules for Necromunda, and Rogue Trader immediately came to mind.

 MJRyder wrote:
Oh yeah, I mean, I try and keep as many as I can, but then space is limited! How do you choose which ones to keep?

Thus far, I've narrowed it down to one of each edition rulebook, plus some of my 'all-time favourite' codexes, such as the Codex Catachan booklet, and some of the old IG ones. Oh, and I also definitely kept my first ever codex SM (the one with the Crimson fists on the front cover).

If I were forced to throuw some away, i'd naturaly get rid of those not likned to a game I actually play (have a few Warhammer old world army books for example), then factions I don't play, then rulebooks. Note that one of my pals had the idea to scan some of the books' passages at his workplace to keep what's interesting rulewise on his computer.

For now as a young man most are still stored in my childhood house, they'd not fit in the barrack's room, so I still can stock loads of them!

I keep all mine as I quite often play different versions and editions depending on how the mood takes me.

Like most, they simply become additional library fodder. I likes to look at the pictures!!

 MJRyder wrote:


It's hard to justify sending them to a charity shop I find, especially if the rules are out of date. But then equally, someone might find some use for them. What do you think?

Charity shop for the most part. Yes it won't appeal to the keen gamers that have and play the latest editions of everything, but I think there is also a population of casual players that use whatever they have in their collections. Lots of young kids, grandparents buying for them, people that can't afford the latest and greatest etc as well.

That being said I do keep a few of the favourites - all of the old Specialist Games stuff, 1st and 2nd edition 40k, 4th edition Chaos Codex etc.

I kept all of minm from 3rd-5th, and had even collected most of the second, when we ended up moving cross country to a smaller apartment. They stayed at my club, and when they lost the space abs broke up, they probably got sold.

I certainly sort of wish I had kept them, but we didn’t really have room for yet another book shelf, and storage would have added up.

We’ve since moved again, this time to a house, and I am slowly buying old codices back.

Until recently, I had been keeping all my old versions on the shelf for reference or nostalgic browsing. They’ve lately been moved to storage as I’m trying to get decluttered.

Electronic versions take even less space, and I have migrated the majority of my (extensive) D&D collection to PDFs.

Minis on the other hand, are hard to give up, but and Occulus and Tabletop simulator are finally starting to pay off in that arena.

I bought a bunch of older codices for $2-$5 a pop for the artwork and lore. I don’t believe I’m the first or last to do so. A charity shop would likely be able to sell off the old codices to happy customers.

Keep them. Latest edition I use (7th) in the study/paint room.

Older editions in the bookcase by the gaming table in the mancave.

Mine just stay on a bookshelf to be flicked through once in a while.

Add them to the pile of Old codexes/armybooks I have in my collection of past editions.

Much like Pokemon, I long to catch them all.

I just gave away my collection of 3rd ed stuff.

Rulebook, codices (apart from the Eldar ones, which I'm keeping) a couple of the "chapter approved" books. I scanned the others that had stuff I wanted to keep.

Some guys in my club wanted to get back into 3rd ed (where they started).

I've kept every codex and rulebook that I've ever owned - and every mini for that matter (aside from a few things on sprue that I traded).

I've also spent a decent amount of time trawling ebay for old rulebooks and codexes for my favourite factions, to complete the set as it were. Like my Eldar for example - I've always been a fan but didn't get around to actually building an army until 8th. I tracked down and eventually bought their codexes for every edition when I found them going suitably cheap.

The stuff I still have some active use for are kept in one of the bookshelves.
The rest is placed into watertight storage totes & live on a shelf in the basement.

Stuff I've truly decided I'm done with gets given/traded/sold/thrown away.

 Pacific wrote:

 MJRyder wrote:


It's hard to justify sending them to a charity shop I find, especially if the rules are out of date. But then equally, someone might find some use for them. What do you think?

Charity shop for the most part. Yes it won't appeal to the keen gamers that have and play the latest editions of everything, but I think there is also a population of casual players that use whatever they have in their collections. Lots of young kids, grandparents buying for them, people that can't afford the latest and greatest etc as well.

That being said I do keep a few of the favourites - all of the old Specialist Games stuff, 1st and 2nd edition 40k, 4th edition Chaos Codex etc.

My local GW is bracketed by charity shops.

All my old books tend to go to those and they don't last long either.

The only exception are the Imperial Guard books. I do keep those. If only Stumper Muckstart could come back in 9th....

I tend to save all of them. I just love books, and rulebooks fit into that love. I've got all of my older books on a shelf alongside the newer ones. I still like to open them all up and flip through, so they still see use too.

It's not really a "collecting" thing for me, i don't think, because like i said, i still use them.

Yeah, I'm completely with you on that ^. Just, I've found over the years that I'm getting to a point now where I just don't have the space! I mean, I've obviously kept all of the Imperial Armour books and original lore books, but at some stage it just gets too much. I think I've just about narrowed it down to 2-3 shelves now, instead of boxes and boxes that I couldn't even get out all at once

I've started to run out of space, so I've started to undertake a long and tedious process of eliminating useless books from my shelf using various methods. Many get binned, some get used as firestarters during the winter months, or a source of disposable paletters and scrap paper when painting.

I’ve found ways around the space issue. First you have to find the crawl spaces where the rats are coming from. Then you shove in your codices, one after another until the squeaking stops.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
I’ve found ways around the space issue. First you have to find the crawl spaces where the rats are coming from. Then you shove in your codices, one after another until the squeaking stops.

I advise against trying that with old Skaven army books unless you want a much bigger rat problem.

As for me... I love the old books even more than the minis. The must-keeps for me are the original lines of 2nd ed codexes and 4th/5th ed WFB army books. Those are the bedrock, baseline fluff when the two core settings had finally spent long enough in the oven to be coherent and solid, but hadn't yet been overly remixed and Flanderised by repetition.

Books from later editions I keep for nostalgic reasons (e.g. 3rd ed codexes because I played a lot of 40K back then), and would probably sell off if I had to. But the original books ARE the GW universes to me. The fluff and artwork is just as readable to this day.

Put em on the shelf - have about 100

I tend to keep those for my favourite armies - so I've got every Tyranid codex and Wood Elf army book on my shelf - and then just be selective about the rest. If they've got a particularly good fluff/painting/scenario I'll keep them, otherwise it's either eBay, friends or a charity shop.

Yea I love the old books, I keep them and re-read them every now and then. A particular favourite is the 3rd edition Dark Eldar codex, I never collected them but that Codex is just brilliant!