Would You Sell Your Collection?

[Flack]

I would NOT sell my collection for financial reasons. Selling your $5k collection when you're $30k in debt serves no purpose I can see. If you're $30k in debt, $25k in debt ain't out of the hole. If it would completely get you out of debt then I could see it. I could probably sell my Shinobi cabinet for $200 or so. My wife and I usually spend $15 for lunch and $15 for dinner (we eat out a lot). Would I trade my Shinobi cabinet for 7 days worth of eating out? I'd rather eat peanut butter and jelly for a week and keep the cabinet!

Now, I WOULD sell my collection if I grew tired or bored with it, but only after waiting for several years. I know that myself personally, I often change my opinion about collecting in general. When I first came to DP I wanted to get on some good trader lists and I had some old Atari instruction manuals so I sold them. Boy am I wishing I hadn't -- I miss them already, and will probably have to pay double what I sold them for to get them back.

[Keir]

If someone came to my house and offered me a fair price for my collection I'd sell it in a heartbeat. (And in case anyone with several thousand dollars to spare is interested, yes I'm serious.) For me it's more about finding stuff than having it since I don't have time to play most of it anyway. Starting my collection over from scratch would be a blast! It helps that there's nothing in my collection which can't be replaced.

As for selling it off on eBay or something I probably wouldn't even if I needed the money because it's too much work for little relief (like Flack said).

[Atari7800]

YES.

In a heartbeat. Every single game. But only for the right price. Not having a fire sale here. Then again, if I was broke and about to go bankrupt, I might even have a firesale.

A few years ago, I would have said "NO, NEVER!" A lot can change in life.

[Cmosfm]

Personally, I have been considering a few things. I have a large collection, which is growing all the time....but I'd one day like to get out of the Jewelry buisness and open a game store.

I figured if I plan to do this, I might as well use my collection as inventory. It's a good idea, it would be like mixing buisness with pleasure. I think it just might work!

[YoshiM]

Would I? I have been over time. While my collection has never been very big I did have all the "major" American systems since the Atari VCS at one time or another. Eventually I never got around to playing them and when I did it was few and far between. They didn't mean anything to me so I sold them. Now I'm down to my NES (my original), "THE" Atari VCS (some of you know the story behind that), N64, Saturn (best version of Bust a Move 2 available in my and my wife's opinion), my Gameboys (original, pocket and Advance) and of course the Xbox and the Gamecube with the NES and the N64 having the most games (about 50 and 20 respectively).

Sph1nx: if it crushes you to sell your collection then don't, unless you are going to be out on the street with only the clothes on your back. You've already bought the stuff so why possibly buy it back when you are on your feet? Take it from a guy that knows: I have owned 3 Genesis/Sega CD systems, 3 TG-16's, 2 SNES's and 3 Gameboys and then sold them off (save for the lastest Gameboy) as they no longer held any value or interest to me but then bought them back when I got an itch to play certain games. If you feel the need to sell play those games and evaluate. I'm not talking on the spot evaluate like whether you McNuggets taste better than a Big Mac while waiting in line a MickeyD's but the kind where you ponder on it for a few days.

[tynstar]

If it was sell or not have food or a house for my family I would sell. Start with the stuff I dont play. Then go from there.

[charitycasegreg]

Im still a kid so I dont really need to sell the stuff. But I need a car soon so I may have to sell some stuff unless I get a new job. I already am selling my boxed saturn with all the games for it which is sad because I got it for extremely cheap. I wont ever sell my nes stuff though. I dont care how low I'm doing...I love my nes stuff.

[orrimarrko]

If it's about the coin, start with the high dollar stuff first. Make whatever profit you can, and stop.

Wait a few days, then see if you really need to sell any more. Replacing a couple of items when you can afford to is a HELL of a lot easier than replacing an NES collection.

If after thinking about it, you find yourself not caring - then sell the rest. Take the time to do so on eBay, it will be worth it to you financially, in the end.

I sold all my rarities, and made a bunch of money. Then I sold my sealed games. Then my NES collection - hardest thing I ever had to do. I would have made at least $500 more if I listed it all on eBay individually. However, I needed the quick sell, and didn't have the time.

But I kept the rest, and it made it easier to continue collecting.

My point is, if you truly need the dough - just do it. Don't think about it - it will all be over soon...

If you don't need the money, wait awile, see how you feel. Or sell a couple of things, to see what happens.

Good luck!

[Ed Oscuro]

money come, money go

treasures should be kept

:rocker:

I feel the same way. I'd only sell my stuff in exceptional circumstances -- for example, if I'd walked out of that Goodwill today with my $1.58 (tax included) Genesis game storage bin and somebody had offered to pay $30 for it, I would have declined, even though I wanted to get that old IBM PS/2 Model 25 pretty badly (though it wouldn't have been a good purchase, lol).

I certainly wouldn't sell most of my expensive imported items, not for a loss in any case. I plan on keeping my stuff for the long haul.

[nesman85]

depends what kind of situation i'm in i guess, but i would try to never sell the whole thing. recently i had to sell off about half of my prototype collection, maybe more. it took me a while to convince myself to sell them, but it was pretty much the only thing i could do. no matter how much you like your collection, sometimes you can't choose whether to sell it or not. just depends what position you find yourself in.

[Flack]

....but I'd one day like to get out of the Jewelry buisness and open a game store. I figured if I plan to do this, I might as well use my collection as inventory. It's a good idea, it would be like mixing buisness with pleasure. I think it just might work!

Could you really do this? I always buy Star Wars stuff to resell and then when I get home I always go, "well, I'll just keep this one and buy another ..." I think the same thing would happen to me in the videogame world. My wife kids me and says I'd have the only store in town unwilling to sell anything.

[Tritoch]

Like several others here, I'm already in the process of doing exactly that. My reasoning was a lot like Sph1nx's...the money I make off of games now can be used to pay off high-interest debt. Also, I realized how much unplayed stuff I really had. So, I've spent the last several months slowly weeding out the crap I don't play. I've held onto most cartridge games with battery backups and my save files on them, but everything on CD/DVD/password carts that I don't play (and I know I won't regret selling later) is up for grabs.

I'll never have as much free time as I used to (until I retire and/or strike it rich), so there's no reason to hang on to most of it. And if I do have the free time to play it again some day, that will likely mean that I'll have the money to buy it back too. Of course, paying off interest now makes it a better likelihood that I will be in that kind of financial position later on.

[The Manimal]

I have a tendency to buy excessive number of "backup" systems (talking like 3 of EACH version of a system in some cases), but other than that, I don't think I would sell most of it. I am pretty selective, and to be quite happy to say...



the direction of the gaming industry is making me happy by releasing games i am NOT interested in!~


I like Phantasy Star and Mega Man....however, I DO NOT LIKE CARD BASED GAMES~! I mean, I like Monopoly and those e-Reader things, but I'll take turn-based RPGs and even text-only RPGs over card-based ones, and I like platformers which aren't that big any more. FPS's are uh, not my thing, either. I can play a few. I pretty much only buy continuations of series' of old or games in those vein.

[LazingBlazers]

Such a high priced education should bring in a high priced income.

Am I wrong?

Fuck, Ralph, sell the stuff you don't care about and keep what you do. That's what I did with my collection. I was just looking at some Turbo stuff on eBay. US Might & Magic III is fetching $255.00!??? I paid $75 for mine long ago, and personally thought it was too much. What the hell would it take to get all of my TG-16 stuff back nowadays if I had decided to sell it off? Think about that, and know that I can always make money, but I can't always get paid in TurboGrafx games.

[KirbyStar27]

Nope

[Azazel]

I already sold of most of my stuff a few years and got about $8,000.00 for everything. Bought a fair amount of it back for a lot less than what I paid for it the first time. I think I'm probaly going to sell everything I have again and for good this time. I just have no interest in the stuff anymore or time to play much of anything anymore. The only thing I really play anymore are RPGS and it's generally much easier to just play them on emulators than having the real thing. I mainly just own PC Engine, FM Town Marty, and Saturn stuff and about 98% of it is import stuff that i should still be able to get good prices for. I figure I could still get around $5,000.00 for the stuff I have. I don't really need the money right as I'm debt free but I'm sure I could find plenty of other goods I could spend that money on.

[ClubNinja]

It's interesting that this thread's come up when it has, since recently I was thinking of posting a similar topic but with a different spin.

Lately, I've considered cutting loose several major portions of my collection. I have no desire to get rid of it all, nor do I wish to discontinue my collecting. I've been realizing lately that, with the exceptions of games that I actually enjoy playing on various systems, I only care about collecting stuff that says Sega, SNK, or Mega Man on it. So then, why do I have (for one example) a box of 86 Intellivision games taking up space? The last time I've played an Intv game was over two years ago (Atlantis). Seems silly to have them then, right?

Let's flash back. When I started collecting several years ago, I was one of those "must have everything" types of collectors. If it was a game, then I'd grab it. No questions. After a while, I said to myself "hey, this Colecovision stuff does nothing for me." I never played the games, and certainly had no "attachment" to it. So, I traded off my 25 or so CV games and never looked back. No big deal there. Then came the NES. At its peak, my NES collection was at 308 different titles. Today, I have 7 - Mega Mans 1 through 6 and a Kiwi Kraze prototype. Do I miss the other 301 games? Nope.

So now I'm to this point where I want to just get rid of everything that I don't really care for or play, but this time it's a substancial amount. 86 Intv games, 400+ 2600 carts, etc etc. Of course, I'd keep stuff like Atlantis on the Intv and Enduro for the 2600, but do I need everything else? At our last trademeet, I scored a Hover Force for the Intv only because it wasn't on my list. After obtaining the game, I tossed it into my box-o-goods and just forgot about it. It lists at $25 in the DP guide and I'm sure that I'd be better off with Spiderman for the SMS or anything else worth about the same that's more important to me.

Long story short: I don't need any extra cash. Would it still be regrettable if I cut a ton of stuff loose only to turn the proceeds around on more goods for the collection? Probably not, but I'm always concerned I'll miss stuff once it goes.

[Darth Vader]

Everything is for sale, for the right price, but I don't think anyone in the world is willing to pay the right price for my collection. Until that day comes, I'll be holding on to my collection for quite a while.

A complete, all titles with box, sleeve, styro, manual and cart NES collection doesn't even fetch $10,000. A couple of members on this board can attest to that.

I would have to disagree with this statement, orrimarko. Considering the last parted out set went for over $19,000 (dl_collectibles). A truly complete NES set would easily hit 10K, especially the way some bidders are going crazy over the panesians lately. If you sold it all at once, it would still hit over 10K IMHO.

Danny

[Balloon Fight]

Everything is for sale, for the right price, but I don't think anyone in the world is willing to pay the right price for my collection. Until that day comes, I'll be holding on to my collection for quite a while.

A complete, all titles with box, sleeve, styro, manual and cart NES collection doesn't even fetch $10,000. A couple of members on this board can attest to that.

I would have to disagree with this statement, orrimarko. Considering the last parted out set went for over $19,000 (dl_collectibles). A truly complete NES set would easily hit 10K, especially the way some bidders are going crazy over the panesians lately. If you sold it all at once, it would still hit over 10K IMHO.

Danny

Agreed. I am still a kid so I really don't have to worry to much, but if something happend and someone offered me a good price I would sell.

[Ed Oscuro]

Today, I have 7 - Mega Mans 1 through 6 and a Kiwi Kraze prototype. Do I miss the other 301 games? Nope.

This man possesses great wisdom! Last year I probably would've bought more things than I would actually like to play. I buy stuff right now that I won't play, but I limit such purchases to things I really do want. I'll let other collectors chase prices up on crazy, rare items -- since the crazy, rare items I want are hard to get, diluting my spending power making purchases I would enter in a list and then forget about isn't such a good choice.

Notice what you do first with your games -- if you enter each item onto a checklist or some sort of "collection list" (after cleaning, which isn't necessarily a component of being obsessed, but rather tidy :) you should probably think about how much FUN you get out of your hobby, instead of how much it inflates your ego. If your hobby has started becoming a routine or an obsession, start thinking about everything you do each day that feeds into your hobby (checking eBay listings, checking how much money you have in the bank, time spent posting on forums about games, time wasted staring at your collection drooling out the corner or your mouth, etc.) and ask if it's something you should be doing.

At this point, I have a website (which I haven't updated in a long time) and I have a list of games at GameTZ which I updated for the first time in probably two months yesterday, just to add a couple items. I've stopped adding common games -- I don't care that I have them and nobody else does. I have a mission for my site now: I want to show off some stuff I own and write a couple things, but I realize that few people go there and nobody really gives a damn what my sensibilities are...if they *do,* they're either new to retro gaming or are pathetic. I like getting ahold of promotional materials, but I don't expect Classicgaming to host my crap on that stuff anytime soon.

I don't see myself selling the Atari 2600 I bought (and haven't plugged in yet) in the future unless I have a really strong reason to, but by the same token I don't see myself buying any more 2600 games unless I find one worth getting at the local thrifts (because that doesn't take much extra time for me -- I check the thrifts anyway). I'm also at a critical moment as a collector, because I have a couple computer systems on the way which I'll have to do some major moving around in my (nearly Japanese sized) room to accomodate.

I have no problem with the folks who do collect everything, share information, and PLAY everything. I honestly don't have a problem with folks who drive up prices (because constant inflation in the prices of classic games means that I have a better chance of finding games in the future if there are folks who make good money locating and selling them) -- it's a fact of life and sometimes (in the case of certain game series) I'm part of the bidding-up group. When all is said and done, though, keeping my feet on the ground and my pursestrings drawn tight is helping me become an adult.

Supposedly there'll be a point when I won't want to play games anymore, but that crisis hasn't showed up yet (and likely never will), so I'll be able to keep on rolling as I always have :) and it's not really a part of becoming a "true adult" anyways ;)