My Warhammer 40K “Pile of Shame” Taught Me a Valuable Lesson

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The Meaning of “Pile of Shame?”

The meaning of “Pile of Shame” refers to a hobby that has gotten out of hand. An example would be a gamer who has a collection of unplayed videogames. For a fashionista, it would be clothes that were bought but never worn. For a miniature painter, it would be the pile of unpainted miniatures.

This pile of shame is what happened to me. I found myself spending a lot of money on models that I knew I would never use.

How my Pile of Shame Started

Once the pandemic became real, I found myself trapped in my house, not being able to run Dungeons & Dragons games with my friends. Not having that led to me discovering new ways to express my creativity. Painting miniatures was one of them. Some time into quarantine, I had painted every single model that I would be using in my Dungeons and Dragons campaign for the next three years.

I needed to find another creative outlet.

Warhammer 40K was a game that I had wanted to learn to play for a while. What better time than quarantine to start building and painting an army? I purchased a few models and quickly fell in love with their details.

As I was just getting into this hobby, Games Workshop, (The company that owns Warhammer 40K) announced that they would be doing a price increase on their models in one week. “Buy them while they’re still cheap!” everyone said.

Thinking that I’m going to be financially smart, I went ahead and purchased myself about 2,000 dollars worth of miniatures for three different armies that I wanted to play.

The Reality of the Pile of Shame Hit Me

One by one, the boxes eventually started arriving at my house. Rather than being happy and excited about these models, I began feeling a sense of dread. This pile of shame was too many models for me to build and paint. What if I end up not enjoying Warhammer 40K as much as I enjoyed Dungeons and Dragons. I began regretting my decision.

The only reason I ended up in this position is that for once in my life, I had a surplus of money due to my new high paying corporate job. I had nothing to spend my money on during quarantine, so the moment a company pulled out a marketing tactic. I fell for it.

One all my Warhammer 40K models came in, the company announced their official price increases. The models I had bought increased anywhere between 1 to 3 dollars. This change was not as drastic as I thought it was going to be. I felt like an idiot for putting myself in this position. I was sitting on a pile of boxes that would probably take me years to paint. The dreaded pile of shame.

Why years to paint? Because my “high paying corporate job” was taking away all my time and energy. I would come home miserable from work and end up sleeping all day to recover. Only able to paint on the weekends. I couldn’t imagine ever getting through my newfound pile of shame.

I thought to myself, “Is this what my life has become, working a job I despise to spend all my money on a hobby I don’t have time to enjoy? Is this the start of the endless rabbit hole? I’ll have to purchase more paint, glue, and storage containers.” I knew something had to change.

What I learned from my Pile of Shame

This pile of shame planted a thought in my head that I needed to change something in my life. I was thankful that this was only a pile of shame of Warhammer 40K miniatures. Some people work a job they hate and end up drowning themselves with bills. Bills of things like the latest phone, the newest car, and the biggest home. All items that now fit their new budget but end up trapping them in their jobs, because now they need to pay those bills.

I didn’t buy any extreme items like a new car since I got my corporate job, but I did buy a lot of Warhammer 40K models. This pile of shame that was sitting in the corner of my room made me realize I’d rather not have it. If not having it meant I didn’t have to work a job that makes me feel miserable. I’d rather have a small handful of models for a tiny army than having three full armies with no time to play them.

So I returned all the boxes and only kept about 80 bucks worth of models that I could enjoy at my leisure. I did lose some money due to shipping costs and restocking fee’s but the weight lifted off of my chest felt great. It was a price I paid to learn this lesson.

I spent the next few months learning how to be frugal and how to invest my money property. Having a Warhammer pile of shame pushed me to the edge and taught me a valuable lesson about life. I’m okay with not having the latest phone, car, or most massive Warhammer 40K army if it means I have the freedom to pursue something meaningful to me.