Second Australian Math Trade

The second Australian Math Trade is currently being run by Friendless via BoardGameGeek. The geeklist where games can be added is located here. I participated in the first Australian Math Trade back in May this year and had a lot of fun. I managed to trade away 12 games and was very happy with the results.

Since then, I've been eagerly waiting for the next Australian Math Trade to commence. However, now that it's arrived, I'm finding it difficult to get myself motivated to get involved.

I've been wondering why I lack the enthusiasm I had in the first Math Trade six months ago. I thought at first that it's because I haven't yet played all the games I received in the first Math Trade.

Here's a list of what I received and if it has either been played or unplayed.

Wings of War - Burning Drachens - Unplayed
San Juan - Played
Dungeonquest - Well, this was a second copy of an already owned and played game. I wanted it to replace some bits in my original game.
King Me! - Played
Um Reifenbreite - Unplayed
Die Mauer - Unplayed
Tutankhamen - Played
Tigris & Euphrates - Played
Metro - Played
Clash of the Gladiators - Unplayed
Carcassonne: Hunters & Gatherers - Played

But when I look closely at it, not counting Dungeonquest, I've played 60% of the games I received in the last Math Trade. That's a pretty good play rate I guess. I still want to play these games and there are none, at this point in time, that I really want to sell or trade away.

I then thought that the reason for my lack of motivation was because I don't have any games that I want to trade away. However, when I had a look at my trade list on BGG I noticed I had quite a number (50!) listed. I noticed I'd put up for trade some games that I'd received in the last math trade as well as games that I really wasn't overly interested in immediately getting rid of. Thinking about it, these games were listed simply as games I'd potentially be willing to trade away if I received a good enough trade offer for games on my want list. So lack of games to trade wasn't necessarily the reason for finding it hard to get involved in the current Australian Math Trade.

Could it be that the games listed on the current Math Trade are not as interesting as on the last Math Trade? Well, for a start there were 576 game lots listed in the first Math Trade. The listing for the second Math Trade closes in 24 hours and so far only just over 300 game lots have been listed. So there's definitely less games on offer this time around. However, having gone through the list, not many of the games up for trade have really grabbed my attention. That's obviously a big part of the reason for my lack of motivation.

Maybe it's because my want list has decreased over time as well. I'm at a position now, after five or so years of being into boardgames, where I've pretty much been able to locate and possess the vast majority of games I originally desired. I'm at a point where I'm pretty satisfied where my boardgame collection is at, relative to the amount of free time I have to play, and the number of people I have to play with.

Could it be (GASP!) that I've reached a level of total boardgame saturation?!?

Say it ain't so!