Collect bugs

Film "When I was six or seven years old, my mother married a man who, a week or two into their short-lived marriage, sold every toy and comic book I owned in a yard sale and used the money to get drunk. When I was sixteen years old, I made the decision to leave home and, for various reasons, I could take with me only what I could carry. Aside from clothes and other essentials I could fit into two suitcases, I had to leave all my belongings behind -- my FAMOUS MONSTERS collection, my movie posters, and some complete runs of numerous Marvel Comics titles, not to mention family photos. So, twice in my early life, I suffered the loss of everything I ever owned. Once it was taken from me, the other time I had to marshal the strength to walk away from it all voluntarily. I don't need a psychiatrist to tell me that therein lies a good deal of my compulsion to have and to hoard from this day forward." -- Tim Lucas

Although that's a tragic story it spins off into a discussion the need to own dvds or the compulsion some of us have for buying or hoarding these things. I'm guilty. I look across at my complete Woody Allen collection and everything else. I have a backlog of things I've recorded from tv which could take years to work through, and I'm wondering when I'll have time to watch those, let alone rewatch anything else I have around here. Will I really be wanting to sit down to Mickey Blue Eyes again (probably -- 'Git the heel outtaaa heeer' etc.) It really is the collecting bug, the need to own every film which has meant something to me and loads which haven't but seem purposeful somehow. I'm assuming the fact I'm on a film course and want to go into the industry is some excuse. But is there any excuse for owning a copy of Down To You (where the hell did that come from)? [other responses]