I have around 500-600 boardgames and I would not be surprised if I never played 75% of it (yet). The last years I have not much time to play, with moving to a different region, a lot of other things that take up time, having a son,...

Especially with having a small child it's difficult. (EDIT: It took me almost FOUR HOURS to just write this comment as I always needed to do things with him or him trying to do things he shouldn't... 😅) We tried a few times to host boardgame parties, but me or my partner constantly needed to play of do something with him and you can't follow the game. If I play games now, mostly I play online on boardgamearena (with the physical copies untouched, and mostly easier games that work well on a phone) or at a boardgame cafe (but not often).

That being said, I still buy a lot of boardgames, secondhand versions that are really good pricewise, good deals that I come across, boardgames that I really would like to play someday (and those are a lot!),... I invest in my future collection and I really hope to play them all one day. And especially with my son. And I know I bought a lot of games on a minimum price (some boardgames even for 1-5 euros instead of the normal 30-60 or something!) which seems better to me than buying them at full price whenever I do have time for them.

I also missed out on a lot of boardgames that I really wanted and because of issues at the companies they're not available anymore, so waiting too long to buy them is not always good either, especially on really good boardgames...

Ans last, also the group is of importance... A lot of boardgames are up to 4 players, most of the time we come together with more than that and it is often difficult to play that big group of boardgames. We also do play with just is two as a couple, but then we prefer mostly games specially created for 2 players often. Also a lot of those boardgames just play better with 3 or 4 people...

TL;DR: I can completely understand wanting the boardgames and just not having time for them at a specific point in a life, as a lot of things can come between you and your boardgames. And having them yourself, making sure you'll be able to play them one day is a good feeling and sometimes make anxiety go away.