I think as gamers and probably anime fans, a lot of us can say that we have a collection of either or both. Whatever the size of our collections, I think it's safe to say that it's a representation of ourselves, our identity, and that most of us have pride in our collections. We want the collection to be a representation of ourselves, thus a lot of us want to keep what we like most and to drop the weakest links.

My brother and I would once in a while look at our game collection and point out which would probably go once the next purging occurs. We didn't really like selling our games, but sometimes it just felt necessary to raise that overall standard of the collection or if there was a new game out that we really wanted.

I'm sure we all made the mistake in our lives when we decided to buy something and whatever we bought ended up severely failing our expectations; actually, to the point where we kinda wanted to get rid of it. I've had my share of those times when I was younger.

In the late 90's and early 2000's, I was a huge anime nut. There was an explosion of anime popularity in the United States with the airing of Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball on TV followed by localized big hits like Neon Genesis Evangelion and Cowboy Bebop on video. I visited monthly anime club showings, anime conventions, and kept almost every piece of paper I found that had anime art on it. As popular as it was, it was still very expensive; buying individual VHS's and DVD's was a big deal.

Being young, excited, and anime crazed, I admit that I made a number of poor purchases. One particular instance stands out when I bought a box set of an anime, which shall remain nameless at a stall in the local mall. I remember the purchase being a really hard call; I'd never heard of the title, but the box set contained a whole season of twenty-six episodes for about forty-five dollars. That was a really good deal considering that normally I think you only get two or three episodes of an anime for about twenty-five dollars at the time.

The opening theme song was catchy. I watched a slew of episodes over the following week and I'd tell myself "hey, it's pretty good." Once I hit that halfway mark though, I had a sudden realization; it was an epiphany that hit like a pile of bricks "This is really bad." It's not that something happened in the plot that was bad, the anime is just overall terrible! I felt like I knew it for a while because I knew, deep inside, that every time I told myself "it's pretty good," I was trying to convince myself that it was worth buying. The forty-five precious dollars I could have spent on something, anything better.

I was at a loss of what to do with the box set. I can't stand watching it myself. I couldn't just throw it away, that'd be a waste of my poor investment, I couldn't give it away as a gift because it's like giving someone else your burden, I know no one I knew would like it. So… I put it in a box. Now that I'm older, I realize I could donate it to charity, though it'd be a waste of their storage and I'd feel sorry for whoever ends up picking it up.

P.S. I didn't want to name the series in the comic or the blog, because I wanted it to be about the silly things we purchase when we are younger and don't know any better rather than criticizing something specifically. Also, I am mortified by it. If you care about me in any way, please never ask me what "it" was.