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Just out of morbid curiousity, how many of you have stamps that you never use? How many do you have that you don't use? I have been cleaning out my stamp stuff and getting rid of a few things that I haven't used in a long time and I was feeling guilty. Maybe you've heard that little vioce too. Ohh! I've got to get this one too (this usually happens to me at a convention) and then I never use it. After I cleaned them out, I kept one set that I've never put to ink - the Kanji set. I need to go to the gallery and get some inspiration to go! But in my clean out pile were three big zip locks of stamps that for one reason or another, had not been inked up for a long time. I have tried to give myself a pep talk by telling myself that styes and tastes change; I'm not wearing the same type of clothes I was in the 80's either. 'Fess up fellow stampers! ;)
Location: Buffering.... Buffering...next to Okiechic :)
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too many ;)
No really, I have no idea, but there are a lot, just like you said, that I "had to have" and then do absolutely NOTHING with!
This year I was a little better...I went through the catalog 5 or six times with my little tabs, and ordered 3sets that absolutely had to have, and already had ideas on how to use...then I go back through from time to time, and sometimes I say to myself, "Why on earth would I have tabbed that?" so it pays to hold off now and then (for my bank account too!)
I go through my stamp sets once a year. If I haven't used a set at least once I get rid of it. Or sometimes I've gotten sets and just couldn't make them work for me. Those go too.
I have a "waiting period" for myself because I have so many I don't use. By this I mean that I see a set I want, I write it down, then I wait at least a month or two. If I still want it after a couple of months, I will plan on getting it, but often, I don't want it anymore! My issue was impulse buying!
In my defense, I feel I need a lot of stamps so that when I am making something, I have lots of choices. Maybe that's just rationalization-- but this hobby actually has 3 parts to it, 1 is this site -- I am on here just about every day. 2 is buying. I love having the stamps, paper and ribbon. In all honesty, I hardly ever use ribbon but I have TONS of it. The 3rd part is creating. I spend lots more time on 1 and 2 than on 3. So yes, I have lots of unused stamps.
I find that I do that too, the tabbing the pages and waiting to buy. It always surprises me how much I will change my mind over the course of a month. I used to sew al the time for me and my three kids, but now that they are older, hardly at all. I went through my pattern stash and got rid of some old patterns that I had and a few of them, more then I care to admit, were unused. So this buying and not using is not limited to rubber stampers!
so many, i have so many sets that i just dont use or that i look at and say what was i thinking or they are cute but i just cant do a thing with them. I wish i could get rid of them. My upline thinks i am nuts when i told her the sets i dislike. but it is MHO... i just wish i could get rid of them for new sets i know i would get use of
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I too have hundreds of stamp sets. I have gotten better latley . There is alot I love and think I can do something with and by the time I get to them I can't think of a thing. I tried getting rid of them but that was a pain and I actully got ripped off on the p& h- so I learned the hard way . I justify it buy saying , they will never go bad or spoil or be out of style. I just came ot the conclusion I am a professional collector!
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Wow! Why ya gotta hit below the belt like that?!?! Hee, hee! I'm SURE I've used EVERY ONE of my stamps! Okay, I think I have....okay, maybe I have....ALRIGHT, I haven't used them all! Sheesh.....now you've gone and made me admit it! ;)
Count me among the guilty. I'm working on getting better organized in general, but my craft space is where I *REALLY* need some help. I have way more stamps than I'll ever use (my SU collection alone numbers over 300), and I don't even want to talk about the box full of UM sheets (yes, I said a box.) How many images can one person truly use?
My impulse purchases coming soon to an auction site near you :mrgreen:
I have WAY too many that havent ever been touched ... I NEED to start using them ... I want to challenge myself to make at least one card from every single set I have BEFORE I buy anything else new ... but I never get around to making that challenge!!!!
and I don't even want to talk about the box full of UM sheets (yes, I said a box.) How many images can one person truly use?
My impulse purchases coming soon to an auction site near you :mrgreen:
I don't think stamps that you bought UM count! Especially ones you got by the sheet or in a grab bag! (Not that I have bags of UM rubber dies floating around here, but I am sorely tempted by all the great deals I see!) Please feel free to PM me a link to your auctions or your eBay userid when you get up the gumption to part with all that rubber!
I recently did a major reorganisation of my craft space and find the number of unused stamps I have has gone down drastically. I think now the only unused sets of stamps I have are a few cheapie foam-mounted rubber ones that a friend gave me. I unmounted them but they just aren't my style at the moment. Plus one set from TAC that I just got and haven't had a chance to use yet.
My New Year's resolution is to start using up all my supplies and using the tools I have before I buy more. Well, with the exception of my CB that I got with my Christmas gift cards. Last week I started unmounting all my sets, because of lack of storage, and realized how many sets I've never used. So now as I unmount a set I make at least one card with it.
I remember reading on SCS a long time ago what someone did and I liked it... she said that when she gets a new set, she always makes enough stuff with it to cover the cost. Let me explain. Say a set costs $15. If you estimate that a tag COULD sell for $1 and a card for $1 (not that you're selling, but it's just the concept), you make that much to add up to the cost of the set .... send them out, trade them, etc.... you're just USING them to that total, so you've at least recovered your "investment." I said I'd do this but I don't!!!! I have several NICE sets that I've used one stamp in, or probably 15 that I haven't used at all. Now that's BAD!
I'll be glad to send you all my snail mail address if you want to get rid of your stamps...:-D
I don't have that large of a collection. The few stamps that I haven't used were not purchased by me (with one exception). They were stamps on sale that my kind and generous sister in another state has bought for me. She and I don't share the same taste, so it makes it a little difficult. But I'll never complain about free stamps--besides, she once found an unused SU! hostess set at a garage sale that she bought for me!
The only set I bought and haven't used is one I bought when my SU! demo was quitting. It is an older, used Halloween set. I tried to give it to my niece, but she didn't want it, either.
I would have to go with the majority here. I have way to many, and I am still buying. It's crazy. I sold 80 sets on Ebay to make room for newer one's I would use, and you can't tell that there is any gone. I can't pass up Michaels $1.00 stamps, and SU come's out with too many cute ones.
I told my DH that my New Year's resolution ws to learn how to use the multi funtion gizmo I gave him for Christmas (afax/copier/printer/scanner) to sell some of my stamps. Man o man, couldn't we have some kind of super cyber yard sale with all of the stuff we don't use! :-D
Hi!
I too am in this group. I have way more stamps than I can use. If I divide the number of stamps I have, but the number of days in a year, I could use one stamp per day for 17-3/4 years before I went back to the first stamp. Allowing that I'd only use one stamp on a card, how dull would that be, LOL!!!
Seriously I came to this realization almost 2 years ago and I've been working really hard at buying less (haven't purchased in a year) and using more. And I have been doing a lot more.
It's fun to go back and use some of the stamps I haven't used in a long time, they're like visiting old friends.
I have a small handful of stamps that I don't use. Mostly the 1st ones I bought when I didn't know what I was doing!
If any of you would like to give those stamps you don't use a new home though, I'd be happy to take them off your hands and give them a nice home here. LOL
I have been trying hard the past few weekends to actually drag out a set that has been mounted and never used. Each weekend, I find yet another in my hoard. So far 3 sets I bought last spring (2006) and mounted, have FINALLY been stamped! I did Artifacts one weekend, Simply Circles another weekend, and Island Blossoms last weekend. I have Touch of Nature awaiting me the next time I can play.... yet, another set I bought last year....lol...
Now that I'm back to work, I don't get to stamp nearly as much as I used too. But I have many that I haven't used in a long time. Esspecially a lot of those Dollar stamps that I have to have just because there so cute. Plus that fact that so many othes collect them.
I thought stamps were to collect, not necessarily to use. Just like all the cards I have stashed away. I thought those were all for ideas only not to actuallt send out to people.
__________________ WHAT IS A STAMPPIN ADDICT!
It's someone who buys stamps they didn't normally like at first,only to see it in Split Coast Stampers gallery in a different perspective.
I have used all my stamps at least once, but I like to keep them so that I have a wide choice of images to use. I'll often rediscover an old set that has been on the shelf for years, and it's like getting reacquainted with an old friend![IMG]//www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/images/icons/icon7.gif[/IMG]
__________________ "Life is much too important to be taken seriously." Oscar Wilde Proud to be a member of Mo's Digital Pencil Challenge DT! My BlogMy Gallery
"It's fun to go back and use some of the stamps I haven't used in a long time, they're like visiting old friends."
Ha! I didn't read any of the other posts before I replied. Looks like ladybugstamper2 and I feel the same way about our well-loved old stamps!
__________________ "Life is much too important to be taken seriously." Oscar Wilde Proud to be a member of Mo's Digital Pencil Challenge DT! My BlogMy Gallery
Before I became an SU demo I bought stamps from 2 of my local stamp stores, AC Moore and Michaels. I have been doing this for a number of years.I have way too many single stamps to count. I have not used them all but I have used most of them. As for the stamps that I have purchased from SU for the past year and a half.............I have 136 sets. I have not used them all but hope to.I also have acrylic stamps and I have way too many of those. Since joining SCS I not only get my stamps from the above places I mentioned but I now also buy on-line from Addicted to Rubber Stamping, A Muse, and just recently I purchased stanps on-line from Stamping Bella and Gina K. Whew! I am out of control. I will not be parting with any of my stamps. Someday, my daughter will have them all. I am trying to cut back on my stamp buying. It's not easy though becuase there are so many companies with great stamp designs and great designers.
Like everyone else I have way too many stamps but still keeping buying. I had the good fortune of being able to participate in a rubber stamping and scrapbooking garage sale recently. I got rid of many things that I had not used in ages. That's the up side. The down side is that I have part of it spent again!! LOL...
Thats FUNNY!!!!!! I have sets I've never even bothered to mount.I have more that I've never used than I do ones that I do use.But...I'm online everyday ordering stamps that I just can't live without!!!!
I have a compulsive collector deep down inside of me. I try to never let her out, but it has happened. I have gotten a lot of stamps... and then never used them. I still love them, I have ideas for them, just no time to stamp. My hope.... my PRAYER is that when my little ones are a bit bigger, I will have more time to stamp.
The problem with that reasoning?... by then I will most likely have thousands of stamps, and even if I live to be 200 years-old, I will never have enough time to make cards to use them all.... Oh, well. I am happy
Location: Somewhere in the middle...closer to there, nearer to here...
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Oh My!
Hmm, I have only been a stamping fiend for the last year or so, but I must admit that I have quite a few sets (that I just had to have) that I haven't used even once. It's funny as I love to stamp and create, but a huge part of the draw of stamping for me is owning the images. I hadn't really thought about it until this thread...thanks for starting the thread as I feel a lot better about my addiction. I always remind my DH, "stamping is good clean fun and a lot better addiction than some other things I could be addicted to.."
I have quite a few that I don't use. But I bought many of them when I was new to stamping. Now that I know my style and what type of stamp I could get the most use out of, I do a much better job of choosing. It's hard though. I mean, you want to get the "most for your money" but some of them are so stinkin cute you just have to have them but don't really have a use for them. KWIM?
I have been pulling out some of the stamp sets that I don't use much - or have never used. I thought if I "made" myself use them it would help.....don't do it! I made myself use "Simply the Best" tonight because I "had" to have that set (hostess- but I made sure my workshop was in that time frame....sick, huh?) and I made my second item with it tonight. I don't like it at all. I should probably just get rid of it (and a few others) to get money and room for stamp sets that I want now- but I am too stubborn. That's how I ended up making an ugly card for this week's color challenge. I am just too stubborn to give up.....
:( Ouch - this could be convicting. . . . . my first purchases went in to the bone pile but I'm certain they are someone else's treasure. Hope to post a swap soon! Thank you SCS that we have the swap/sale forum available to use!:-D :-D :-D
__________________ christine m.aka summer and weekend stalker DOT INK (My yadda yadda) Don't magnify your problem . . .Magnify your God
PROUD MEMBER OF THE REDDIVAS!
vwilson"at"gmail.com. I will send my address for free, as part of a stamp orphanage program I have decided to start. Send me your abandoned sets, cute ones preferred, and I will give them a good home. I will not let guilt stop me from housing these poor, unwanted sets. I will let them take up my room, and will promise to try to cuddle with them while I surf SCS.
Victoria
I definitely don't use all my stamps all the time, but I think I am very honest with myself about the stamps I have and my lkelyhood of using them. I have gotten rid of many over the years, and I am a much smarter buyer now.
__________________ Kristina Wife, Mommy, Stamper, Nurse Laura 6yo Jack 5yo, James 4/20/08 Megan arrived 3/16/09
How many stamps do you have that you don't use?
