Tell me! You're nerds, right? And you have stuff?

[thebitterguy]

I'm gonna start with a generalization that we, as geeks, will accumulate stuff. Our hobbies tend to be based around things, whether books of some kinds (periodical graphic novels and collections and rpg books and paperback novels and old pulp magazines)

I'm also going to state that we tend to let them out to like-minded folk. Can I borrow your copy of X? is a common question.

So, I have questions.

[Poll #1179185]

And I would like to just state right now, if I've fucked conjugating the word "to lend/loan/let" repeatedly, I am sorry.

Comments

[indefatigable42.livejournal.com]

I think maybe my only criteria for deciding what to loan out would be whether or not I could label it. If it's something collectible, I therefore probably wouldn't. But I don't own much like that.

I have at least one book that is a loan from someone, I haven't seen him since university, and while I can picture his face I can't remember his name. I wish he'd put a label in his book. It's just a paperback and a fairly easy one to find at that, but still.

[mhari.livejournal.com]

Generally I only lend stuff to friends I trust.

[spiletta42.livejournal.com]

I barely let anyone else touch collectible stuff -- figures, ships, comics, and art. I'll loan dvds to my closest friends (geographically close, actually), since I have keys to their homes anyway, and I keep extra copies of paperbacks so I don't have to fret at loaning them out. I'm very crabby about loaning books otherwise, although my friends are welcome to hang out in my habitat and read to their heart's content.

I used to loan things out more generously, but that's why I had to buy two seasons of TNG a second time (and before the price decrease!) and am now missing several paperbacks from a series. No more!

I've borrowed video games, but I don't loan them on account of the fact that I'm not enough of a gamer to have anything current anyway.

[waiwode.livejournal.com]

I try to remember things I loaned out. I fail, almost universally. Thus, when things are returned it's like they are presents!

Cases in point:

a) My ex-Brother-in-Law returned a couple books a month ago ... books he borrowed when he was married to my sister, and they've been divorced for almost a decade now. Sweet! The books went right into my Reading Queue.

b) A couple years ago four copies of The Black Company were returned to me inside one week. I'd loaned those out every couple of years, and ended up replacing each of them with a copy from the used book store. One positive thing came out of this: at least I hadn't been buying my own book from the FUBS again and again!

Doug.

[missyvortexdv.livejournal.com]

I don't mind lending out common easily replaceable items so much to acquaintances, a book or a couple of DVD's, though I really much prefer to lending to people I've met a few times at conventions or have built up a reasonable rapport with and to those I tend to lend quite a few things out at once if I've watched/read already/recently.

I tend to be of the opinion I can't consume all the items I own at once, wouldn't want to either there's only so much playing/reading/watching of an item to do in one period of time and it doesn't hurt to lend them even if they might get a litle scuffed/bashed in the post. I kind of have to be willing to maybe lose the itmes if I lend that way, on the offchance Royal Mail will stuff up and lose it, but thee's worse stuff than losing a boxset or a couple of dvd's.

I like the fact that my stuff gets extra enjoyment for others and I don't necessarily think it means the friend will never buy it or anything, they just got a taster with the loan. I wouldn't loan out anythin irreplaceable mind you, nothing collectible but that's just plain common sense I'd say.

[dreamflower]

I will almost *always* loan out a book. Someone, somewhere, said the only books we will be allowed to have in Heaven will be the ones we shared with other people.

So I intend to have quite a library in the afterlife.

[zenten.livejournal.com]

I used to let people borrow RPG books, but I stopped after a number of them were never returned, and in fact no one knew (including me) who had them. I decided I could either develop a good tracking system, or just not loan them out, and not loaning them out would be much simpler.

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

Yes, this. If I'm not expecting to see this person in the next few months, I probably won't lend them anything. But I can go to good friends' houses and say, "Are those my copies of X series?" and they'll say yes, they're about to start them, and that's that, because I know where they are.

[malnpudl.livejournal.com]

I call my collection the North Coast Lending Library, my stuff is in and out so often. I keep extra copies of a handful of books, movies, and DVD box sets just for that purpose, so I can pimp my favorite media. (An flist friend even made me an icon in honor of my efforts.) I've never had anything fail to come back, though some have been on walkabout for extended periods of time. Occasionally people will just buy me replacements because they've had the old ones for so long. Which, hey, cool. Everybody wins.

[srhall79.livejournal.com]

I don't seek out collateral, but sometimes it happens that way. My friend's Miniature's Handbook had been nesting at my house because it was one of the few D&D books I don't own, and we usually game at my place. I then lent him Firefly and Serenity. Since he has those, he had no qualms at my borrowing the first season of Buffy.

Other loans go to people who don't self-identify as geeks, but who I'm trying to nurture. One of my coworkers was reading Stardust around the time the movie came out. Since she liked it, I lent her my copy of Neverwhere; once she finishes that, I'll start parceling out Sandman. My sister-in-law is big into anime and manga. I've started showing her the wonders of western comics with V for Vendetta, The Watchmen, and the Hedge Knight (creating an opening for A Song of Fire and Ice). For Christmas, I bought her the first hardcover Runaways collection.

[thebitterguy]

I continue to loan out books, even though this one guy totally destroyed my copy of the Shadow Player's guide and the Guide to the Traditions.

[shara.livejournal.com]

I tend to view all my things as being universally communal. I'll lend anything to anyone, and am not very posessive about getting them back. I have enough general faith in people that I figure most of it will be returned, and I don't care enough about anything to let the rare occasion when something goes AWOL deter me from the project as a whole. So I'll lose some stuff. No biggie. Small price to pay for rampant sharing!

[absinthe-dot-ca.livejournal.com]

Something that seems to resonate here among the comments is the need for a good tracking system. I've been looking at one of those myself, except that they all have a lot of up-front labour (especially if you have as many books, etc. as we do) and you have to remember to "sign" items in and out. A near-ideal system using RFID suggests itself (at least in terms of picking up when your stuff enters and leaves), but the initial labour is quite high, and now you have to pay for the RFID stuff.

Yep, I'm a geek, don't bother telling me.

[thebitterguy]

There's actually a piece of software that uses that Mac camera as a UPS code scanner and can be used to track your books, cds & dvds, and you can track what's be loaned to whom.

We constantly quibble about getting it.

[absinthe-dot-ca.livejournal.com]

Not just for the Mac - Libra (http://www.getlibra.com) supposedly does the same thing. The software is pretty easy to use, but I haven't tried the webcam bar code scanning functionality yet.

[yubsie]

My friends and I had a giant lending ring. As far as we were concerned, mooching is sharing the love. :p So conversations frequently went "Okay, I finished volume four of Sandman. You can borrow it if I can borrow the next volume of Blade of the Immortal" or the priceless "I'll lend you volume one of Fables if you come change our lightbulb!" (None of my roommates could reach the light in our kitchen, so we'd bribe taller people with pretty shinies :p)

[doc-mystery.livejournal.com]

I have this, the Delicious Library (it came with a Mac Heist shareware package I got). The bar code reader only works for some items where the UPS code 1) was assigned and 2) matches the item I have. While many RPG/SF items are included, not all are, making hand entry a grumpy requirement (which is why I don't use it much).

I've also noted trying to scan some stuff in just doesn't work very well all the time.

::B::

[yttrai.livejournal.com]

I read the "what won't you loan" section and a lot of people won't loan anything over a certain dollar value, or is irreplaceable. I didn't mention that since i don't own anything over $10-20 in value, so it didn't occur to me. (As i mentioned in another post today, i'm a bad gamer/consumer in that i own practically nothing of value ;) )

[otoselkie.livejournal.com]

I generally only buy comic collections if I intend to loan them out. I am also very good at extracting blood money for lost or damaged books, but fortunately that hasn't been necessary in a long, long time. Back when manga was rare and expensive I lent a few that came back with spines cracked in two – oy.

[redeem147.livejournal.com]

Wow. You know 124 people.

[moondispatches.livejournal.com]

There was a point where I seriously considered issuing library cards and having folks actually check stuff out, so much traffic did my collections have. But then I decided to not be that guy.

[moondispatches.livejournal.com]

Those are great cases in point!

[putana.livejournal.com]

I think there is a big question about WHO you lend things out to. I don't mind lending out some of my more "precious" or favourite things to close friends. But general acquaintances or friends of my friends I'd probably be more picky (or not at all).

[thebitterguy]

A lot of the respondants are actually from fanthropology.

[notmonica.livejournal.com]

We cosplayers tend to lend costuming stuff. Just FYI.

[thebitterguy]

Excellent point. I had not thought about that.

[thebitterguy]

Definitely true.

[thebitterguy]

Good idea. That guy, he can get a little crazy sometimes.

[thebitterguy]

So by label you mean just write your name inside the front cover, or put in a "from the library of" type thing?

[thebitterguy]

Christmas in March. Not bad.

So, can I borrow a copy of The Black Company from you?

[thebitterguy]

True, all good points. I tend to only lend things to people who are in my immediate vicinity (within an hour or two drive, at the outside) who I know from meatspace.

I don't think I've ever mailed something to someone I expected back.

[thebitterguy]

That is a very awesome quote, and an awesome attitude to have.

[thebitterguy]

Nurturing is a good thing. I've tried to encourage a few people to watch Firefly, with varying amounts of success.

[thebitterguy]

Is it mostly the older/esoteric stuff you have problems with?

[coaldustcanary.livejournal.com]

In high school, I was actually part of a "Fantasy Literary Society" (*sigh* so nerdy) that kept paper lists of every book/comic/graphic novel that members owned and were okay with lending - mine included pretty much everything I owned at the time. I'm still very free with my nerdstuff, even to people I only know vaguely.

[aizjanika.livejournal.com]

I loan things out to my family, but I no longer like to loan things out to friends. I've found that the closer the friends are, the harder it is to get stuff back, because they tend to impose on the friendship to keep it longer, and I tend not to ask for it back with strong enough wording.

I prefer not to borrow things, but I have in the past--usually just people giving me stuff saying, "You'll like this. Check it out." I don't think I've ever asked to borrow anything.

Years ago, I didn't keep track of what I loaned out, so I know there are many things I probably forgot about. If I loaned anything out now, I'd put my name on it and keep a list--probably a computerized list/database/something. *g*

ETA: I'm also quite attached to many of my things, and there are some things I'd never loan to anyone. Also, there are some things I'd prefer not to have out of my sight--usually DVDs, because I think I might want to watch them. I only have a few DVD sets like that, though.

And when I said I loaned to family, I mostly meant my immediate family. If I'm sharing with the rest of my family, I'd rather make it a gift than worry about getting it back.

[uniquecrash5.livejournal.com]

While many RPG/SF items are included, not all are, making hand entry a grumpy requirement (which is why I don't use it much).

I am stunned a public repository of barcodes does not exist. Whyfor not?