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I'm on team Compulsive Hoarder, myself. I'd gladly sell or even give my old codexes to people who would actually like to read them, but I'm too lazy, so they just end up taking up space in my bookshelves.

IMO, what every local Warhammer community needs is some kind of shared codex library that runs on the honor system. Leave your 6th-edition Imperial Guard codex, grab a 4th-edition Tau codex. Sounds like it would be complicated to arrange, though, unless a hobby store volunteers to dedicate some shelves just for this.

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All on the shelf, back to RT. Occasionally I’ll look up stuff in old books. Old paint schemes, fiction from the 2nd ed ones, or just look up what things were when for when talking about changes/updates to the game over the years.

Recycling with the hope that waste management does not turn them down for that and throw them in the regular trash. My only hard copy 40k book is an old collectors edition with coins, etc. Any other old editions are electronic or gone.

Recycling. I haven't seen a Codex I liked enough to keep when it wasn't a current rules reference since 4e.

Oh, I definielty hoard them, but i am a bit of a bibliophile.

I also re-read them fairly regularly (for example, last weekend I was having a bit of fun reading and making lists out of the 3rd ed dark eldar codex (version 2.0 with the extra wargear) just for old times sake...also i was sobering up after a darts tournament.

I've always liked seeing a well ordered line of codexes (codicies?) on my bookshelf (in edition order obviously).

Build a fort!

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Build a fort!

Ahh yes, this is also an option, right next door to the admech observation platform "Pringlestube10011011"

princeyg wrote:
Oh, I definielty hoard them, but i am a bit of a bibliophile.

I also re-read them fairly regularly (for example, last weekend I was having a bit of fun reading and making lists out of the 3rd ed dark eldar codex (version 2.0 with the extra wargear) just for old times sake...also i was sobering up after a darts tournament.

I've always liked seeing a well ordered line of codexes (codicies?) on my bookshelf (in edition order obviously).

There is a question: should books be organized by edition first, then by rules/codex, or should all books be grouped by type first?

So do you have a row or core books, followed by a row of marine codexes, followed by a row of eldar codexes? Or all the RT stuff together, followed by all the 2nd, etc, etc…. I can see the pros/cons to both, but personally organize the later.

Voted "other" because I only got a few codices when I started 40k back in the late aughts, sold/lost a few, and have been on a bit of a retro-codex kick buying/rebuying older stuff. I'll read them cover-to-cover at least once, sometimes more.

I sell when I hear rumors that another edition is coming soon, unless I have a tournament and plan on using that army. I can get by with that Russian website until the new one comes out and get maximum return on my old one. I get 10% off plus 10% back in store credit at my FLGS and sometimes get $30-35 for my used codex on ebay. I'm basically paying $5-10 to rent a codex for an entire edition.

I just moved and had to unload *18* fully painted 3000-5000 point armies (each) and 25 years of army books.

I will never do that again.

I keep them and do re-read them. It can be fun seeing little snippets of original lore that hooked me or the old artwork or such that never gets reprinted. Sometimes with the way lore evolves and its presented bits of it are left in older books and not repeated. Heck the current crop of 40K codex are cutting a LOT of the old unit profiles which is a huge shame in my view, so the edition before alone is worth it for that page of unit lore per model/group of models.

I voted other because I still mine them for narrative content. I might use info from older books to build campaign maps or custom missions

In my experience, the vast majority of players want to play the most recent edition as soon as it's available, so old books aren't really worth keeping around.

I have considered playing Oldhammer though, so we'll see how well that goes.

 Nevelon wrote:
All on the shelf, back to RT. Occasionally I’ll look up stuff in old books. Old paint schemes, fiction from the 2nd ed ones, or just look up what things were when for when talking about changes/updates to the game over the years.

Same as Nevelon, but for WHFB, and not in the number of codices as seem to be implied above. Did play 40k in 3rd ed, and kept all of those (Marine, Blood Angels, Guard, Eldar), and briefly played again around 7th(?) (The one that came out and GW replaced immediately), but Necrons that time. Also bought a discounted 6th ed. Eldar codex for reading material at the LGS ($5 or $10 US).

Mind, I've rulebooks from other companies as well, and they stay on the shelf too. Deep Wars for example, or Daisho (samurai skirmish rules).

Eventually my old stuff is thrown away in the garbage.

I voted other because I have stopped buying books and use "other" sources to get my rules.

If the books were worth buying, I wouldn't be doing that, but I play over 14 factions across AoS and 40K and I will not spend 600$ on books every two years for that.

Aside from the books that I lost in a breakup, I keep all of them on my gaming shelf, together with various rpg books and the like. I mostly have them for inspiration, paint schemes, and things like that.

I had way too many old Codexes cluttering up space I needed for general storage so I did a big clearout and only kept books that I actually wanted to needed/used i.e. my Imperial Armours for R&H referencing and for rules for LoW in HH.

I still have all of them and occasionally look through them from time to time. I love books, and the idea of throwing them away/destroying them just doesn't feel right to me.

I hoard them, but it's reached critical mass. I have nearly every book (definitely every codex) going back to and including 5th edition.

Thankfully I got so fed up with the DLC model of 8th edition I haven't bought anything more than the 9th rulebook and the 9th codexes for the armies I actually paly.

I keep old WD's too. Have every WD going back to... ~June 2008. I did stop buying WD ~6 months ago because the current editor is absolutely terrible; like needs to be terminated immediately and banned from the publishing industry levels of awful.

If I like the art and lore snippets? I'll keep it on the shelf. Otherwise it goes straight into the recycling bin.

Some I keep for various reasons, the others I give away/sell.
Any that I can't give away/sell get tossed in the local recycle bin.

 Nevelon wrote:

princeyg wrote:
Oh, I definielty hoard them, but i am a bit of a bibliophile.

I also re-read them fairly regularly (for example, last weekend I was having a bit of fun reading and making lists out of the 3rd ed dark eldar codex (version 2.0 with the extra wargear) just for old times sake...also i was sobering up after a darts tournament.

I've always liked seeing a well ordered line of codexes (codicies?) on my bookshelf (in edition order obviously).

There is a question: should books be organized by edition first, then by rules/codex, or should all books be grouped by type first?

So do you have a row or core books, followed by a row of marine codexes, followed by a row of eldar codexes? Or all the RT stuff together, followed by all the 2nd, etc, etc…. I can see the pros/cons to both, but personally organize the later.

Depends on your use requirements /puts professional hat on/
Access and use should always depend on the user(s). If your primary goal with your collection is to play a specific editions, you should organize around that. If you primary goal is instead to have a lore library base on subject, you should organize by topic (marines, eldar, etc).

I keep them as a reminder that the lifespan of a codex is brief.

 Gadzilla666 wrote:
I still have all of them and occasionally look through them from time to time. I love books, and the idea of throwing them away/destroying them just doesn't feel right to me.

Agreed. When I worked for the now defunct Border bookstore chain, one task was stripping the front covers off books, then destroying the books. It did not sit well with me. Our store destroyed about 400 paperbacks per month, and we were a small mall store, not one of the large free-standing flagship stores.

As for GW continually raising prices on codices that obsolete in three years of less. At least for me, it means I spend less than I once did. In 5th edition WHFB, when the books for $20, I'd buy the ones I needed, and a few more either for intel on opponents' forces, or because I was curious. But when they hit $30, I stopped, and only bought what I need for the armies I owned and played.

I still have all my codexes dating back to 3rd edition. I enjoy going back to read the lore or compare rules.

Keep them, reread them, sometimes just for fun, sometimes to get Inspiration for a scenario. I bought some CAs for 5€ when 8th ended, good investment. I also bought some pretty old whfb Chaos and Orks books for cheap despite never playing the game. I was just interested in the fluff.

I've got the old ones in storage, but I've contemplated selling them or otherwise getting rid of them. All the more likely since I have electronic copies of the old ones that take up a heck of a lot less space.

The core rulebooks I have are in storage as well, but I intend to keep those. Mostly just because, but also because I like to read through them and may decide to use the rules one day.

There's a used book fair to support a local old folks home held once a month. I donate them, and many, many other books there. My hope is that someone who knows nothing about 40K sees them, picks them up and gets into the hobby that way.