Ok, we can do this.
Here's probably 75-80% of the $2300 or so I spent on M:TG (not counting a lot of what I gave away, mostly lands) before I had enough and slammed my wallet shut in WotC's face.
Here's our living room in 2007 after gathering together probably somewhere between three and four
thousand books that we donated to the local library.
As I always point out to people, there is no couch in this picture, that pile is solid boxes all the way back to the window.
Here we are donating again in 2009, after finally culling any of the remaining duplicates.
This time it's probably only 1500 or so. We did not donate the cat. Also you can get a better look at how there was no couch under the other picture (instead it's in the foreground with a sheet/pillow on it acting like a proper futon).
Here's a better shot of the bookcase behind everything above, from the same 2009 photo shoot:
Note that most of those shelves are 2 layers deep. Also notice the hallway, where we keep the reference, CDs, DVDs, and VHS.
All of the previous pictures were pre-move. Post-move, here is the living room I now inhabit (limited by lack of good light):
Note that NONE of the books, etc from the previous pics are duplicated here. About a third of the CD/DVD you see on those shelves came from that hallway in the background before the move, but the remaining 2/3 (and the books on the bookcase, the vinyl, etc) are things you can't see in any of the above pictures. Yes, that
is a skull on the far right shelves.
And all of this is
not counting the two walls covered with books on the ground floor, the (vast) cookbook collection in the kitchen, the two 3-level barrister bookcases in our bedroom, the wall of computer and other reference manuals (DOS 6, Win2k, Mac OS 7.6, computer animation, hardware references, etc) over my computer bench in the basement, or what I estimate to be the 60+* milk crate-ish-sized boxes of books, movies, board games, software, and vinyl that I haven't even unpacked yet.
Also, Cranky has his own room with two walls of his
own books, and both he and my father-in-law belong to the local library organization that does the periodic book sales, so any conceivable estimate you could make of our current total would probably need to be revised upwards on a weekly basis.
--Patrick
*yes, really. That's not hyperbole.