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How do!

So here’s a topical topic as we head into 10th Ed.

Old Codexes. What to do with them. See, I’ve a number of codexes from across various editions. Whilst there’s the odd one I’d keep hold of for background reasons, or until they’re formally replaced, what to do with the others?

There are two open options which make sense.

1. Donate to a charity shop.

2. Stick them in the recycling.

Both have potential drawbacks. Charity Shops? Are they going to sell? I kind of suspect not. And I don’t want some poor sod shelling out, only to find it’s a defunct edition and of little use. Recycling? Whilst not Glossy Mags, I’m not entirely convinced they are recyclable.

Thoughts?

Why not hold on to them to play previous editions with?

Barring that, sell it on ebay, or try on say the miniswap reddit and get a few bucks for them. I know I've shelled out for old codices before. Won't be amazing money but it means someone who wants it can get a hold of it, your bookshelf is a touch lighter, and you have a few bucks on hand.

I keep em - artwork, lore, style of writing can all be fun things to revisit in the future. Not to mention the power of nostalgia.


Donating to a charity shop or selling in a box at an auction could be quick ways to get rid of them and hope someone interested in historical gaming material picks them up.

Another is ebay or facebook or dakka - some old codex can be popular at the right price (heck I keep casually looking for an affordable 2nd edition Tyranid Codex)

Oh my 1st and 2nd Ed collection is sacrosanct, even if the 2nd Ed remains incomplete!

I’m mostly looking to free up shelf space. The background books (Arks of Omen, Paycheck Awakening et al) are staying. In fact, if anyone has a handy dandy release order list of those that would be ace.

But a bunch of said books? I couldn’t even tell you which Edition they’re from.

Maybe I’ll take them down the Charity Shop.

I'd put them up online on something like ebay or facebook marketplace.
You don't even need to charge for them, just put them up for collection only, or to pay P&P if you're not worried about making some money from them.

I'm sure somebody will give them a good home, more likely than if they go to a charity shop where, as you say, they might be bought by somebody misinformed, thinking they are valid in the current edition.

I kept all of mine. But honsetly, some of the newer ones have no sentimental value in my taste. I think the best is to keep the good ones and trash the ones you dont like.

Thankfully I bought very few books this edition. Will probably keep what I have in the closet with the 8th books till I decide to spring clean them.

Sticking them in the closet for now, then eventually into a box in the crawlspace. The used prices for recent, but obsolete, 40K books is pretty dire - so not worthwhile trying to move them.

With Codexes no longer being necessary to get army rules in 10th, I'm planning on repurposing that shelf in my games room as a place to store dice trays, dice, measuring tools and tape measures and objectives.

I normally donate mine, in the hopes that someone with no real knowledge of gaming may pick one up and be inspired to investigate our hobby.

I keep them so I can be right about old stuff on dakka

On a more serious note, it depends on how valuable the fluff in those books is. I'm most likely going to toss out 9th edition codices just like I did with 7th, but 5th and 8th will stick around, as will the campaign books.

Old codexes go on the shelf. Where they will remain as a reference/resource until the heat death of the universe. Any other answer is a lie spread by the mutant, xenos, or heretic.

Available space, use, or desire are irrelevant.

Definitely take them to a charity shop rather than recycle them. There are folks out there (including myself) who specifically hunt in charity shops for old GW books.

Depends. I kept the 4th Ed Ork Codex and 6th Ed CSM books for a long time until it became necessary to do a big cleanout at which point I recycled them. I wasn't ever going to go back and use them and their reading value wasn't as great as a novel.
For everything post? Recycling as soon as the new edition rolled around and honestly I'll not be doing more than one army for 40k ever again. I got all the Crusade books and ended up sorely disappointed because the missions were all exactly the same even if the book-specific Crusade rules were quite neat.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
I’m mostly looking to free up shelf space.

I feel your pain, but my solution was 'start filling up another shelf'.

It was fine, until the 2000AD Ultimate Collection increased from 140 volumes to 180.

I could move my cook books to the bedroom shelving though. That’d free up space.

When I had to move I dumped most of the old codexes and rulebook at the local gaming club, and kept a few of my favorites (3rd edition Ork, 3.5 Chaos, and Traitor Legions 8th).

Have any of the previous edition Genestealers or Sisters of Battle codices hit the aforementioned rock bottom prices yet?

 Overread wrote:
I keep em - artwork, lore, style of writing can all be fun things to revisit in the future. Not to mention the power of nostalgia.

Same here. Older printings usually had more fluff, and often the older paint schemes are more to my taste than the new ones.

However, since I've stopped staying current with any GW game system, old codices are no longer a problem. Between their three year edition churn, the yearly price increases, and the monopose models, their products have little to no value for me. I've having more fun kit-bashing with Northstar, Wargames Atlantic, and assorted 3d party bits than with GW product

It’s weird that you haven’t used them up already

In mine the pages are all stuck together

This will probably shock some folks, but when I decided to go retro and return to 2nd ed., the problem arose of what to do with my 3rd ed. books.

The obvious solution was to sell them online, but they simply weren't selling. I held onto them for years, waiting for some sort of appreciation in value. Nothing. You could sell them for a penny plus shipping. Total glut on the market.

During that period I moved. Our old house we retained as a rental. We offered the books to to the renters. They refused, wanted them removed. I said they could sell/donate them. They said it wasn't worth the trouble.

The lot of them are now in Granger Landfill, slowly decomposing and producing gas which is being reclaimed by the local utility. So at least there's that.

At some point I lost all of my gaming related books to a breakup so that's an easy solution

Later on, out of nostalgia, I wanted to get some of them again and they were very cheap to get indeed, even in the Netherlands where availability is lower than in some other countries. The main expense was the postal service really. So if I wanted to get rid of them again I wouldn't bother trying to sell because te effort of making listings, packing, and taking them to a shipper just isn't worth the measly amount you could get for them.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:


Old Codexes. What to do with them. See, I’ve a number of codexes from across various editions. Whilst there’s the odd one I’d keep hold of for background reasons, or until they’re formally replaced, what to do with the others?

In case of w40k and AoS books for me the procedur looks like this. Lift the bed lay down the book next to other books already there. Put the bed down. The method has yet to fail me.

 kurhanik wrote:
Why not hold on to them to play previous editions with?

Barring that, sell it on ebay, or try on say the miniswap reddit and get a few bucks for them. I know I've shelled out for old codices before. Won't be amazing money but it means someone who wants it can get a hold of it, your bookshelf is a touch lighter, and you have a few bucks on hand.

Indeed i have a fine collection of the best codexes from 3rd-7th we use in our retro 5th ed games. some are harder to find but most are still available. i keep them on hand for the "on the fly" army list building for our local game group.

 Asmodai wrote:
Sticking them in the closet for now, then eventually into a box in the crawlspace. The used prices for recent, but obsolete, 40K books is pretty dire - so not worthwhile trying to move them.

With Codexes no longer being necessary to get army rules in 10th, I'm planning on repurposing that shelf in my games room as a place to store dice trays, dice, measuring tools and tape measures and objectives.

Well. Until new codexes comes. 10e won't be free rule edition either.

If you don't want them, I'd be interested in any 7th ed codexes, the space marine 6th codex, or any Warhammer fantasy 8th ed books

tneva82 wrote:

 Asmodai wrote:
Sticking them in the closet for now, then eventually into a box in the crawlspace. The used prices for recent, but obsolete, 40K books is pretty dire - so not worthwhile trying to move them.

With Codexes no longer being necessary to get army rules in 10th, I'm planning on repurposing that shelf in my games room as a place to store dice trays, dice, measuring tools and tape measures and objectives.

Well. Until new codexes comes. 10e won't be free rule edition either.

The datacards will cover all the game rules - Codexes are only necessary for art/fluff. Not free - but won't need a big pile of books (just a big box of cards instead).

What are the books you are looking to get rid of?

 Asmodai wrote:

tneva82 wrote:

 Asmodai wrote:
Sticking them in the closet for now, then eventually into a box in the crawlspace. The used prices for recent, but obsolete, 40K books is pretty dire - so not worthwhile trying to move them.

With Codexes no longer being necessary to get army rules in 10th, I'm planning on repurposing that shelf in my games room as a place to store dice trays, dice, measuring tools and tape measures and objectives.

Well. Until new codexes comes. 10e won't be free rule edition either.

The datacards will cover all the game rules - Codexes are only necessary for art/fluff. Not free - but won't need a big pile of books (just a big box of cards instead).

You will need the codex for your army specific sets of Stratagems/Detachment Rules/Enhancements. At least until GW corporate starts complaining about the new strategy not selling sufficient amounts of codices.

In any case, I'd be very surprised if codex launches don't invalidate index datacards.

You must purge yourself of old product, in order to make space for new product.

If you've successfully removed the old product, you're less likely to notice how much of the new product is copy-pasted.

If selling old codices is too much of a hassle, try dropping them off at a local library with a note "Free" next to them. Perhaps some one will get into gaming that way. I've done this with assorted comic books from Free Comic Book days in the past.