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| Someone else's puzzle hoard (from Reddit) |
Seriously. It's a thing. And I'm not the only one!
I follow some jigsaw puzzle groups on Facebook and you would not believe how many puzzles people have stashed away in their homes.
Dozens... no... hundreds!!!
Some people have an entire ROOM devoted to jigsaw puzzles (be still my beating heart). They post pictures of how they have organized their puzzle hoard... by brand... by number of pieces... by box size...
People share different storage options for their puzzles - wire shelving, book cases, etc. (N.B. IKEA bookshelves are a big favourite).
Puzzling Hunting is Half the Fun
Now... I also see a LOT of people selling puzzles... brand new... unopened... never done. There was a post today which shared that puzzling is actually two separate hobbies: (1) finding and buying puzzles and (2) doing puzzles. It is very true.
Hunting for puzzles is a LOT of fun. I'm pretty laid back about it. I don't go out there, actively hunting for a specific puzzle. But some people do that. They have "Puzzle Collections" - they are collecting puzzles like some people collect stamps. They might specialize in Ravensburger, the Van Life series... or the Curiosity Cabinet series... or whatever.
Me? I'm just happy if I find a "good" puzzle - nice brand, nice pic, box in decent shape and... if I shake it... it sounds like it's bagged inside. Because here's a PPP - Puzzlers Pet Peeve... people who put the pieces back in the box... loose... and then the puzzle gets donated to a thrift store and is NOT taped shut. I don't know if you've walked through the puzzle section at Value Village but... they only rubber band the puzzle boxes... which is not enough. The number of orphaned puzzle pieces on the floor is enough to make a puzzler weep.
Anyhow... I'm not THAT bad, I don't "collect" puzzles. I'm not a snooty puzzle collector. I buy all of my puzzles second-hand at thrift stores. I then do them, take a pic of them, bag the pieces in a ziploc, put them back in the box and sell them... if they are complete.
If they are missing a piece or two, I throw a hissy fit and then donate the puzzle back to the thrift store, with the box clearly marked that a piece is missing! (Grumble... Here's another PPP - there is nothing worse than buying a puzzle, opening the box (which is often taped shut) and finding a little note from the previous puzzler that says "one piece missing". GAH!!! Write it on the box!)
Covid Puzzling
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| Some of my puzzle stash... |
Puzzling, as a hobby, really seemed to take off during Covid... and I bought a LOT of excellent puzzles at the thrift stores during Covid.
And squirreled them away in various closets, pantry shelves and in baskets on top of the kitchen cabinets. (I puzzle in the dining room... hence the puzzles in the pantry).
Because, you see... there are always new puzzles showing up in thrift stores.... "Ooooohhh... I love that one!!!" So I buy these newer ones and do them and the older ones languish.
To be honest... some of the ones I bought during Covid... well, they looked good on the shelf but, they are HARD! And so I skitter away and work on the easier ones... the newer, easier ones.
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| A brutal 1000 pc Heye puzzle... all those little people and little bits of rigging a nightmare to sort... took me forever! |
Until January 1... at which point I decided that somebody (me) needed to get a grip. I committed to clearing the puzzle backlog... first!
Enough is Enough
So I went through the house and did an inventory of all of my To-Do puzzles... there were "only" 41. Which isn't bad. I mean... come-on... some people have hundreds! I only have a few dozen... **cough**
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| Some of my completed puzzles |
By January 19, I had churned through a dozen puzzles, which isn't bad! By then, I also knew why I had procrastinated on so many of them. They are almost all 1000 piece puzzles which take me a good 3 to 6 hours to complete. There are also a lot of Cobble Hill puzzles which have the weirdest randomly shaped pieces meaning the puzzling is much harder. And... silly me... I had bought a few 1500 piece puzzles AND even a couple 2000 piece puzzles. Ugh...
But... as long as there is a backlog... I can't get any more puzzles. There's incentive for you!
With one caveat... if I find a still-new puzzle (shrink-wrapped)... I can buy that if the price is reasonable, cause I can just turn around and sell that. I saw a $2.95 shrink-wrapped Cobble Hill in a thrift store the other day and passed on it (oh the pain!)... and when I told my partner, she said I should have bought it! Buy it for $3 and sell for $10... that's a deal!
My Learnings
I have learned a few things during this process:
- Bigger is not Better - I am a 500 to 1000 piece puzzler. Anything bigger and it gets tedious and I lose interest. 500 piece puzzles also sell the best!
- Ravensburger is Best - I am a Ravensburger puzzle person. My favourite brand, hands-down. Plus they are easier to sell.
- Diversity is not Better - I am done with experimenting with other puzzle brands: no more Cobble Hill (I am not a masochist), Heye (ugh), Jumbo, Pomegranate, Bits 'n' Pieces, Wasgij (maybe)... I know what I like and I'll stick with it.
- More is not Better - let's go for quality and puzzling joy over quantity and puzzle slogging...
- Don't buy at Value Village - they try to sell a 1000 piece Cobble Hill for $14.99!!! That is a second-hand puzzle with NO guarantee that all the pieces are there. Plus, it's ridiculously over-priced. 1000 piece puzzles typically go for $10 on Facebook Marketplace. Sometimes, very rarely, on a 30%-off day, I will find a deal at Value Village, but those are getting few and far between.
- How Much is Enough? - I am not a puzzle hoarder. Or maybe I am a reformed puzzle hoarder? My hoard is small... OK... smaller... than others. But I have no desire to hoard puzzles. They nag at me. I am going to limit myself to a hoard of... 5? Max 10? No... 5. That's it. Maybe just one shelf of To-Do puzzles?? That would be more like 10...
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