To new collectors from an old collector... Don't do this. [Archive]

fishsandwich

12-31-2007, 12:19 PM

I'm 37 years old have been collecting games since I was in my early twenties. I've spent countless thousands of dollars on stuff I hardly played. I would buy anything in years past... and I mean anything! My "collecting" bordered on "sickness" for many years.

Things have changed as I have gotten older and what was so vitally important to me is no longer so important.

My father died this year and my mother has decided to move to a smaller home. This means that the handy storage unit I had (the attic) is about to close so I had to go home for Christmas and sort it all out.

I found four loose intellivisons. A couple of 2600 clones. Two 5200's. Two new steering wheels for PS1 and Saturn. An original Odyssey. An Odyssey 2. An Astrocade. Piles and piles of stuff. And hundreds upon hundreds of magazines. I really hated to let those go but I had no place to store them and they are HEAVY. I sold the whole mess to another DP member and I hope he loves those magazines as much as I did.

This was not the first time I went home to clean. My last trip I brought back home five nes consoles, four Genesis, two Sega CD, two Jags, another 5200, an Intellivision with no power cord, two master systems, an Atari XE, a 7800, a CV with all the attachments, and only God knows how many games and controllers and LOOSE WIRES oh my God.

I have several thousand games sitting in a friends basement. Lots of boxed Saturn, N64, Master System, SNES, Genesis, PSX, and who knows what else. I tried (and failed) to complete the entire Saturn and N64 domestic libraries and came quite close before I just lost interest. God bless my friend for storing them for me. What on earth will I do with them? I HATE selling on Ebay and I'll never get what I paid for them but I hate to see them just sit there until a bomb blows us all up. I have tons of games at home, too... lots of handheld games (why on earth did I feel the need to complete the libraries for the the N-Gage, Zodiac, Gizmondo, and NGPC?)

I have loads of stuff that I never play and am too busy to sell. They have become a great big monkey on my back. Why have 5 Intellivisions? 6 NES? God knows how many Genesis consoles? Why do I have 3 32x's AND a Megadrive 32x AND a Japanese 32x? THIS WAS INSANITY.

My current gaming habits consist of GBA, DC, and emulation on PC. That's it.

Part of my problem lies in the fact that I have no storage space. I live in a small loft in Midtown. Things would be very different if I had a large house with a BASEMENT... or would they?

Do I really want to be a 60 year old man with a basement full of old videogames and tons of duplicate consoles? What will I do with them? Stay in the house until I die and then leaqve my poor relatives to dig through the piles of junk?

Bottom line... this hobby can drive you crazy if you let it. Don't let it own you! It's far too easy to spend lots of money and acquire lots of things that take up lots of physical space. I really wish I'd kept control of myself and tried to see where I would be in 20 years. Don't buy for the sake of buying! Make sure you have space to store your crap! That stuff you buy today will NOT be an investment tomorrow!

Embrace emulation. It's so much neater.

tom

12-31-2007, 12:33 PM

Do I really want to be a 60 year old man with a basement full of old videogames and tons of duplicate consoles? What will I do with them? Stay in the house until I die and then leaqve my poor relatives to dig through the piles of junk?

Yes, and wait til they argue over what is theirs. That's the best part.

Cornelius

12-31-2007, 01:08 PM

I appreciate the advice, as I've already learned a couple of better ways to go about collecting on my own in the short time I've been a 'collector'. Fortunately I've avoided what it sounds to me were your two biggest pitfalls:

1) don't buy new stuff if you aren't going to play it (and if you aren't one of those wacko sealed games collectors). Even if it is a great deal now, say, Mario Galaxy for 30 bucks, in just a few short years it won't cost squat. I've also done well on new stuff buying it, playing it, then selling it while it is still in its prime. You can then play a great game for ~$5 and the pick it up on the cheap when you come across it later.

2. Don't let stuff pile up. Get rid of those extra consoles as you get them. If you are like me, you still can't pass on a working NES system for less than $15, but pick out the games you need and sell the rest. If you didn't pay too much to start with, you can sell it below market value (quickly) and still break even or make a buck.

I'd say if you need to get rid of a bunch of stuff quickly and don't want to get totally boned on the deal, Craigslist is going to be your best option as long as you have at least a bit of a CL scene. Put it up for a good price and it will sell quick, likely to an eBay re-seller, but maybe to someone like me, who'll keep some and sell some.

Jimmy Yakapucci

12-31-2007, 01:11 PM

I have found myself in the same situation, buying stuff because I thought it looked neat or wanted it for some reason. Most of this stuff just sits there once I get it. I then usually wind up selling stuff at a loss to get rid of it so that I can buy more stuff. I am hopefully on the way to recovery, though since I got rid of most of my Genesis and SNES stuff. There will probably be a lot more of my stuff going up for sale in the future.

JY

mailman187666

12-31-2007, 01:15 PM

The way I look at it, anything that I aquire and don't sell in the future are for my kids whenever I have them. I may not be into the oldschool vids in 5-10 or maybe as long as 15+ years, but I'm going to keep them just for the fact that I don't buy many duplicates, nor do I lack the space for them. Whatever lasts until my children are at a certain age, is going to them some day. Whether they decide to sell them, keep them, play them is up to them. Whatever they can gain from it will make me happy that I collected in the first place. Its a part of my history, as well as a part of the world's history.

G-Boobie

12-31-2007, 01:21 PM

Sounds like your video game pack rat urge got the best of you, there.

As long as you can A) Afford your games and B) have a healthy life outside of games, I don't see the problem. Friends and relatives are going to be picking through your crap when you've gone 'post-corpus' anyway... They may as well be picking through good stuff.

DaveD

12-31-2007, 01:23 PM

briskbc

12-31-2007, 02:01 PM

Don't let it own you!

I'm not keen on emulation but this quote right here... LIVE IT!

Dont let it own you!

I've collected many things over the years and all to often I've become almost obsessed with whatever it happened to be at the time. I'm keeping things down to 3 systems and that's it. My demo collecting has slowed considerably and will carry on but in moderation.

Greg2600

12-31-2007, 02:01 PM

I hear you man. I'm too much of a pack rat also, can't throw anything out. Collected sports and non-sports cards for many years, which take up about a third of my closet. Honestly, I doubt the value will go up at all, and if I had the time and patience, I would get rid of almost everything other than the non-sports sets, because they're cool to read and look at. Then it was mini-electric race cars (Tyco, AFX, etc.) which didn't go far because the tracks were a pain to set up. Then it was micro machines Star Wars and Star Trek vehicle models, although luckily Galoob only released 4 or 5 full boxed sets of them, so that's all I have. Tried my hand at Star Wars Kenner figures, which I still have a few unopened I can't even give away for free. When the web opened up, I bought some cheap comic books (mostly adaptains of scifi movies or tv shows), never read them.

Last but not least video games. I saved some of my games and systems over the years, but had traded or given most of them away. So over the last 2 years, I have been quickly reacquiring them. When I say them, I mean games I had, or perhaps borrowed from someone for a while, or rented several times, or even enjoyed on an EMU. I only get games I like. Often I may not even bother with sequels, and only get one of the games. Exceptions would be Mario (still have all my originals) or Sonic. I have also purchased several of those cheasy Sega or Nintendo official game trays, that hold two dozen games or whatever. My personal limit is that I will not get more games that fit in those. I just want to have a good and fair representation of the game systems and the games I like to play. Now my personal preference precludes RPGs, puzzle, and fighting games for the most part, because I don't play them. Plus I simply cannot play any stick and ball sports game produced after the 16-bit era ended. They're just too complicated for me.

guitargary75

12-31-2007, 02:14 PM

Where you went wrong is you should have collected games to play them. That's what I do. Games are like anything else, you don't collect them to make money. So don't bitch that you can't get your money back. These damn things aren't stocks for Gods sake. Plus, like anything else, the older it gets the more it will be worth. If video games continue to be a multi billion dollar a year industry the prices on the older stuff will always rise in price. So when your about 60 and ready to retire, you won't be bitchin then when have to sell them. So just play em and quit your bitchin. I'm sick of all the whiney bastards, I'll never get my money back, well boo freakin hoo. Anyone who collects crap just to collect has a disorder anyway and needs to seek out therapy. I'll give ten fish sandwiches for your collection.

ROTS MKII

12-31-2007, 02:21 PM

You could do a drawing to people on this website where you give out the items as prizes. Remember it is only object and soon I too need an aprentice to pass down my stuff. That is what a family is about. All items attach and merge with each other. IN the begining everything starts out as a idea.

poor relatives

You need to sell off your collection and invest the money into something that
will gain in value that you like and will get you a place for your family.
I have many stuff I want to get rid of also and I will but for the most part it is all worth it in the end and even after the end and new begining.

That stuff you buy today will NOT be an investment tomorrow!

You have to know how to invest your stuff that you have brought over the years. Save and invest is allways the key to fourtune.

Personally I have stopped playing newer systems since I beleive there is barely any creativity in them. The games I admire and that inspired me is on the Saturn and SNES.

I know my limit, I know my likes, and more importantly I know what I am about. Videogames along with other things is like a serpant that is strangling my exsistance and constantly bitting me that prevents me from persuing other activities in life.

However I learned to live with the serpant while shining brighter every day.
You must learn to live with your demon that controls no but demands you to aquire these items.

Life you must live with no vain and go into the future perfecting your abilities. Everybodys life is perfect and you being 30 should know yourself and wants along with needs so well. Rise and live life free with no doubts or fears. You know the junk you consume will be the end of you so you have nothing to fear but fear itself.

I am able to point out things that I could not see before and with that power I am greater then I could ever be. You have all this stuff and call it a mere hobby. There must be something that relates to you that you can do that will allow you to make use of this material.

Be free of your wants and live with your needs.

8-bitNesMan

12-31-2007, 02:51 PM

I know my limit, I know my likes, and more importantly I know what I am about. Videogames along with other things is like a serpant that is strangling my exsistance and constantly bitting me that prevents me from persuing other activities in life.

However I learned to live with the serpant while shining brighter every day.
You must learn to live with your demon that controls no but demands you to aquire these items.

Life you must live with no vain and go into the future perfecting your abilities. Everybodys life is perfect and you being 30 should know yourself and wants along with needs so well. Rise and live life free with no doubts or fears. You know the junk you consume will be the end of you so you have nothing to fear but fear itself.

Man... I don't know what the hell you just said, Little Kid, but you're special man, you reached out, and you touch a brother's heart.

Cambot

12-31-2007, 03:02 PM

I can still fit my entire collection along one wall in my small office.

And a few boxes in the closet.

Thanks for the advice.

ssjlance

12-31-2007, 03:20 PM

I'm 15 and I find myself doing similar things. I never buy new games (unless it's just an amazing game, or one of a series I like) but I have found countless duplicate systems. My collections is miniscule in comparison to many DP members, but any time I have a friend over we always go through the "OMG how long have you been collecting this crap?" I've been in the process of weeding out extra games and consoles, and so far so good.

gepeto

12-31-2007, 03:22 PM

Hey Fish....this is almost the story of my life as well....I did not buy as many duplicate systems as you did but I had some...You can also try listing it here and sell it off piece by piece like I am doing, but it takes alot of time and patience...

The key early on would have been filling that emptiness with establishing better and stronger personal relationships, doing more physical activity, even religion (!)...Today, in retrospect, I can see that amassing huge amounts of "stuff" (not just video games) is at it's core a spiritual issue...now, unfortunately, at age 47, I could really use all that money spent foolishly over the past 27 years, and now I also have alot of "catching up" to do on life-issues and "important" things from all those years spent obsessing over playing and collecting games....

Sound advice to the "next generation" from those of us who have been there...:)...
or just keep playing video games 24/7 and see what happens....

I totally understand. I grew up in the videogame apple atari and commodore era. and it holds a special place with me. around the psx era I was looking around and thinking man I am a official collector and then the hunt started.

Sometimes I start feeling overwhelmed but I would put the total value of money spent on my collection at 25,000. people have a fleet of cars that cost way more. Leno has what 80 cars. Some people are our age and have nothing to show for there money. Some people saved and have millions.

If you don't want to do it slow like darth vader maybe we should this summer have the mother of all NAVA's a fewday event to unload stockpiled stock:)

blissfulnoise

12-31-2007, 03:37 PM

I hear you fish. I'm having a crisis of conscious about my collection now. 4500 games some 50 or so consoles. I haven't even actively buying classic games for some time. Frankly, I've got about 90% of the domestic games I'd ever want to own. There are still quite a few imports that I'd like to pick up at some point, but the hurry is gone. So now it comes down to keeping all these games I'll more than likely never play just for their historical value.

My other big problem was/is arcades. I got the bug bad and ended up with 19 machines at my high point. I've cut back some by selling a few off, but I've got a long way to go. How in the hell would I move across the country with 19 arcades?

A big turning point for me was listening to a story on NPR about a guy in Chicago who made a resolution to live simply. He added up every "thing" he owned and came up with 7500 things. He first strived to cut it in half, then in half again. His current goal is to get down to 500 things in his life. To me, this is an admirable goal.

What I'm strongly leaning towards is boiling the collection down to around 1000 essentials and 5 of my arcades. Games that I'll definitely want to play/replay at some point or games that are particularly interesting or important to me. I'll probably use the money I make from the sale off to take a whirlwind tour of Europe with my wife for 2 weeks.

But where I'll deviate with you is on new games. There are many amazing games coming out now that are well worth the full cost to play immediately.

Sure, you can wait to buy games like Super Mario Galaxy and Mass Effect when they hit $5.00 new but why? Say what you want, but all games lose some degree of magic after their time has passed. I guess if you can live in a gamer bubble and not keep up with anything new and live 5 years behind the curb it can work, but who could do that and truly call themselves a gamer? Rabid sharks riding bears would have to tear me away from buying Fallout 3, Super Smash Brothers Brawl, and No More Heroes on day one.

Besides, most new games drop in price so quickly you can easily jump in at the $20 - $40 mark within weeks (or in the first one if you stay on top of sales) and not have to necessarily break the bank.

NE146

12-31-2007, 03:49 PM

Definitely not me.. I hardly have duplicates of anything. And the majorify of what I have of anything are the exact same ones I bought in their time.

I'm a old videogame packrat, not a retro-collector... and that's the big difference :)

For me to have duplicates of something I'd have to go out now and buy a couple of 360's and 3-4 copies of Call of Duty 4 for example for me to have multiple copies of it 20 years from now :p

Fugu

12-31-2007, 04:34 PM

I've got about 400 games and 17 consoles and no duplicates. I've also played every game I own at least once. I think when you start buying games merely to own them and stop buying them to play them, things begin to go wrong.

Rob2600

12-31-2007, 04:41 PM

I used to have a similar problem. Up until several years ago, I had:

Coleco Telstar
Atari 2600 - around 45 games
Atari 2600 Jr.
NES - around 60 games
Sega Master System - around 10 games
Nintendo Game Boy - around 5 games
Atari Lynx - around 5 games
NEC Turbo Express - around 10 games
SNES - around 30 games
Sega Game Gear - around 5 games
Virtual Boy - around 5 games
Sega Saturn - around 5 games
Nintendo 64 - around 65 games
Nintendo Game Boy Color - around 10 games
Sega Dreamcast - around 10 games
Nintendo Game Boy Advance - around 10 games
Nintendo GameCube - around 10 games
Nintendo DS - around 5 games
various portable LCD games (Donkey Kong Jr. Game and Watch, Tiger Double Dragon, etc.)

I started going overboard when I worked at a video game store for several years in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Customers would come to the store with old game consoles to trade in and if I didn't already own them, I'd buy them myself with cash directly from the customers. That's how I ended up with a Turbo Express, a Sega Game Gear, a Sega Saturn, etc.

I'd also receive free promotional items at the store and had built up a big collection of T-shirts (Oddworld, Falcon 4.0, Star Wars Episode 1 Racer, Donkey Kong 64, Conker's Bad Fur Day, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, etc.), little stuffed animals (Super Mario 64, Pokemon, Donkey Kong, etc.), figurines (Turok 2: Seeds of Evil, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time), pens, pads, stickers, cards, keychains, breath mints (Rayman 2: The Great Escape and Microsoft Windows ME), hats, and toys (a Pocket Pikachu virtual pet, a Pikachu watch, a Super Mario 64 watch, Donkey Kong 64 plastic barrels, etc.).

I also took home a life-size Joanna Dark standee, a Perfect Dark promotional kit, a Conker's Bad Fur Day promotional fake first-aid kit, a Super Smash Bros. standee, some over-sized Kirby 64 boxes, game soundtrack CDs, and free magazines every month (Next Generation, Gamers' Republic, EGM, GamePro, Game Fan, Q64, Tips and Tricks, etc.).

I wrote about my magazine collection in another thread:

http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1275481#post1275481

I also started buying tons of garbage on eBay: more video game T-shirts (Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest, Super Mario 64, Star Fox 64, etc.), The Legend of Zelda wristbands (why?), more video game soundtrack CDs (The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, F-Zero X, 1080 Snowboarding, Perfect Dark, Super Castlevania IV, etc.), unopened boxes of Nintendo trading cards and Donkey Kong trading cards, a Star Fox video game watch, and so on and so forth.

Everything amounted to two bedrooms and two closets full of video game garbage.

When I moved from NJ to NYC, I couldn't take many things with me. My parents threw out the Coleco Telstar and the Atari 2600. I gave the Sega Master System, Game Gear, Saturn, Dreamcast, and Turbo Express away to friends and relatives. I sold the Atari Lynx. I don't remember what happened to the Game Boy and Virtual Boy, but they were probably thrown out. I lost the Donkey Kong Jr. Game and Watch. My brother kept the Game Boy Color and some of the stuffed animals and toys. I sold a few of the shirts and toys and threw the rest in the garbage. I sold the GameCube, the DS, and my 150 lbs. magazine collection.

My problem was I was buying games and taking home free shirts, toys, and magazines just because I was surrounded by them at work 40 hours a week. I didn't need or use 95% of the things I'd bring home, but I'd do it out of habit. It was pointless.

Right now, I have a few game consoles, a Game Boy Advance, and one small bag of collectibles. Everything fits into one box. Much better!

12-31-2007, 04:46 PM

I've said this before here elsewhere (huh?) but here's another good chance to tell my story- hopefully short enough to maintain reading interest!

I've been gaming for 30 yrs, starting w/ the 2600. I've had several systems over time (still do), & did quite a bit of unnecessary(?) buying in the last few yrs, & most recently I've had all my stuff in a bedrm my wife & I call the game room. I tried to give it a recreational feel but basically it's just a place for all my gaming stuff. I realized awhile back I have several games I dont even touch & that bugs me.

We're expecting twin boys in a few months & I know 99% of my gametime wiil be gone- hell, I dont play too often NOW. I want to get them into gaming, but I'm letting stuff go slowly but surely- selling, trading, giving away, etc. Right now I have most of my collections where I want them (~12 games/system). I dont do current-gen (360/Wii/PS3/PSP etc), they dont interest me IN THE LEAST. I feel gaming took a bad turn (not to mention high $$$) in the past few yrs & now I do classic/retro stuff. It sickens me that the latest Time Crisis is almost $100 when Duck Hunt or Hogans Alley are still fun.

Anyhoo, I think in the past yr I realized I should probably stop or at least slow down. I still like game playing/hunting, & still buy the occasional item but I like to think I caught myself before it was too late. I still prob. have too many mags, but there's always recycling or used bookstores if/when the time comes.

Rob2600

12-31-2007, 04:59 PM

It sickens me that the latest Time Crisis is almost $100 when Duck Hunt or Hogans Alley are still fun.

For the Wii, Link's Crossbow Training is only $20 and Ghost Squad is only $30. :)

Borman

12-31-2007, 06:41 PM

And Time Crisis can be easily found for 50-60$ brand new ;)

But I know the feeling of having too much stuff! I had a huge collection a few years ago, and now Im down to basically stuff I want or like.

12-31-2007, 07:52 PM

My point is, the latest stuff costs way too much when similar games just as/even more fun still can be had for much less. Current-gen systems are simply overpriced & underwhelming, which helped me stop the buying/collecting madness.

I'm not going into a whole deal about older vs. newer games. I just know nothing can get me interested in this gen, there are too many factors against it.

digitalpress

12-31-2007, 08:10 PM

Goblin

12-31-2007, 09:51 PM

I came to the same conclusion last year, while preparing for baby #1. Why hang onto 3 variations of the Intelivision when I never liked playing it? Do I really need 6 different 2600's? I sold a great deal, and then gave away a great deal more. I streamlined down to a handful of systems that I really liked. This allowed me for the first time to sit down and enjoy playing what I already had. It was also quite liberating to consciously walk past an EB and not go in. Up until 5 days ago I don't think I bought a game in well over a year. I never really bought games as a long term investment, although I have speculated a bit and bought a few items to resell.

Just tonight it took me 30 minutes to locate a PSP demo I knew I had, and that drove home the fact that I still have way too much on hand. 2008 will see a new wave of cleaning and streamlining. Most importantly a hobby should be something to allow you to relax with, once it begins to overtake your life and turns into an obsession or a side business then it's time to step back. As someone earlier said, it is important to have a life outside of video games.

ncman071

12-31-2007, 10:39 PM

i'm 27 and started collecting around 7 years ago. at the time i was in a very unhappy relationship with a psychotic biatch. it was just too hard to break up because, well, she gave me a few pleasures that were hmmm unavailable other wise, so i stupidly stuck with her. anyway, since i was unhappy with her and she was basically draining my life, i guess i had to find something to make up for what i was losing in my social life. so i started going to funcoland nearly every weekend and spending my small check on snes/genesis/dreamcast games. during that 2 year sick relationship, i managed to buy around 180 games. when we broke up, i still collected some but it was definitly not that important anymore. 2 and 1/2 years ago i got married to a girl that i had been dating for 3 years and for the most part we have a happy marriage. i still collect but it goes in phases. i notice when we do have problems i play games a lot more and buy game a lot. however, when everythings great, i still play the games but am not going out and trying to buy every game i see.

i've tried to be careful with collecting. one thing that i have started doing is trading in ps2/original xbox titles to gamestop when i'm trying to buy new games. i'm a teacher and my wife works at our local hospital, so our income is not that great. i cant afford to go and buy a bunch of games anymore. however, i did take my christmas money and bought mass effect, college hoops 2k8, madden 08, and nba live 08 for the xbox 360 and i bought metroid prime 3 and super mario strikers charged for the nintendo wii. my wife gave me mario galaxy for christmas. i also got an LCD monitor to both replace our old monitor that was going bad and to connect my 360 to. needless to say, i kind of went over the $180 i got for christmas this year which i actually feel bad about. we are not rich by a long shot. but anyway, you guys have a great new year.

btw, i also have in excess of around 400 videogame magazines ranging from 1993 to present. if you want to take a look at my collection:

http://club.ign.com/b/list/custom?lid=100018

Stark

12-31-2007, 10:54 PM

Can I get a hug please?

I need it after reading all these sob stories. This entrie thread is unhealthy.

Steven

01-01-2008, 02:43 AM

Soviet Conscript

01-01-2008, 11:08 AM

Can I get a hug please?

I need it after reading all these sob stories. This entrie thread is unhealthy.

i know...its very depressing. i almost want to give up collecting

i thought about listing all the posatives of haveing a healthy hobby just to state the opposite view a little.....but i'm so depressed now...

i think i'll go on a game buying bing to chear me up!!

Overbite

01-01-2008, 11:58 AM

I was like this with my gaming mags but I finally just gave them away to a DP member so I could have more space.

I don't really collect games so I only have what I play, and my only "duplicates" are 2 copies of Mutant League Football, 2 of Sonic 3, and a model 1 and 2 genesis.

Mangar

01-01-2008, 02:30 PM

Bottom line... this hobby can drive you crazy if you let it. Don't let it own you! It's far too easy to spend lots of money and acquire lots of things that take up lots of physical space. I really wish I'd kept control of myself and tried to see where I would be in 20 years. Don't buy for the sake of buying! Make sure you have space to store your crap! That stuff you buy today will NOT be an investment tomorrow!

Embrace emulation. It's so much neater.

Good advice, and i luckily never fell into this pit. My entire collection was always neatly displayed. Next to my home theater TV, I have two large wooden bookshelves on each side. On each self, was my collection of game consoles, all hooked up into a centralized box/receiver. You hit the button, and thats the system you got to play. All the games themselves were sort of hidden away, and there were no doubles, triples, or variations. The key point being that my entire "collection" so to speak was functional in nature. After I hooked up a PC to my living room TV, and learned that i could essentially place every single game ever made up until the PSX/Dreamcast era on a 1TB drive, and play them all through emulation - I liquidated most of my holdings and original consoles, and moved on.

Emulation is just so far advanced nowadays, that theres almost no need aside from nostalgia purposes to collect older systems. You can configure most emulators to have complete displays of Box Art, Cartridge Pictures, and scans of the original instructions. Not to mention that you are often using superior controls and getting a better picture then you would be with the old Odyssey 2 hooked up with RF cables. This is not to say that I've gotten rid of EVERYTHING, or don't have a couple of "conversation" pieces on display. (Vectrex on an End-Table being a personal favourite) But with no real vested interest or "drive" to own complete collections of this, or 28 different label variations of Atari 2600 Combat - I find that i tend to enjoy what i have left more, and I can also pick and choose from items that I really actually WANT badly. Which when I move to a bigger place will be some arcade cabinets for a dedicated game room :)

Oh - For anyone curious - I use www.gameex.net to manage my emulation collection. If you are talking a large amount of consoles, and HUGE rom collection - It's just a perfect way to have everything centralized and still look nice. Very configurable and user-friendly.

otoko

01-01-2008, 02:45 PM

hmm.. Dunno. I've thought about selling my collection to bring in some money sometimes. I know there's also Emulation. Takes up less space.. but nothing is the same as the original.

I don't think I'll bring myself to selling it in the near future... but I don't know. At least it does not own me yet.. me and my cheap skateness.

suckerpunch5

01-01-2008, 02:53 PM

here it is . . . the post holiday let down. :(

Jumpman Jr.

01-01-2008, 02:55 PM

To me, its only about collecting things that I know I am interested in. Why did you have so many duplicates of consoles? I don't have any duplicates of anything in my entire collection, aside from one bin of NES games that I use to trade (which only consists of 30 or so games). I think walking into my room and seeing 5 NES's would just make me think "what the hell am I doing with all of these "NES's?"

I think its all about collecting what you're interested in, and trimming the fat. Get rid of all of those duplicates and anything that you're not interested in. If you're not interested in anything, well then yeah, you've got a bit of a problem.

Dire 51

01-01-2008, 03:34 PM

I had to sell off my entire collection in 2004, which at the time totalled about 12 consoles and close to 1000 games. I've only gotten a small fraction of it back: 4 consoles and about 150 games, but what I did get back were my absolute favorites (and through a surprising twist, they were my original copies. I'm glad about that, as there was so much history tied up in them).

Despite bemoaning the loss of my collection for the longest time, I finally came to the realization that as long as I had my favorites, they were really all I needed. Out of the many games I did not get back, I can think of exactly four that I will eventually repurchase. The rest I don't miss at all.

(and for those of you wondering what the four are: R-Types, Radiant Silvergun, Ikaruga and Akumajuo Dracula X: Chi no Rondo)

rupert

01-01-2008, 03:36 PM

It seems that some of you lack a focus on what your trying to achive, I think it must be pretty difficult to collect for multiple consoles and I can really imagine it would start taking over your life.

Ive stuck firmly to one format - and beleave me thats enough. It's totally took over one room of the house, and I do have quite abit of leftovers I want to sell and havnt got round to it (20+ loose Master System's from buying bulk lots).

Ive got other systems with games but I don't think I could 'collect' for more than one system.

So my little nugget of advice is just have a clear idea of what you want to collect and not just buy up everything that catches your eye :king: (plus try and keep on top of selling/ trading off what you don't really want)

Fuyukaze

01-02-2008, 12:10 AM

just box it all up and forget you have it.

then come back, go thru it, and enjoy it all over again.

you wont be taking it with you when you die, but you also wont be taking anything else with you either. if your worried about what your family is going to do with all of it when your old and dead, dont. they'll just pick thru it looking for what they want or what they think they can sell for big money, fight among each other over who loved you the most, and say alot of ugly things about each other and yourself about how they were always cheated by you.

you'll be worm food, your precious treasure will be scattered to the corners of the earth (or a landfill close by) and no one will give a rats ass about why that copy of super mario / duck hunt ment all that much to anyone. kids never apreciate the value of their parents posessions unless they know someone else values it in currency.

i'm not being nice but be honest, have you ever seen a funeral where the family didnt look like a pack of waiting vultures looking to pick the flesh off a freash corpse? it's not nice but it's human nature. and besides, if your family doesnt fight over who gets it, the government certainly will.

Emuaust

01-02-2008, 12:26 AM

If it is a major problem you can ship everything to me, pm me for shipping details!
Ill store it and love it for you!

blissfulnoise

01-02-2008, 12:58 AM

grolt

01-02-2008, 12:59 AM

Man...none of this has to be so dramatic. Pick a system you like, go for it, and once you're done collecting, take the time to play each and every game. You'll never run out of games to play, and if you ever get bored, through it up on eBay and make a little profit from a healthy hobby.

I started doing this with the Saturn, and then later with the Master System, and it's been great. I've gotten so many of the games that I always wanted to play, and slowly I'm making my way through playing all of them. I'll be set for years, and no strings attached. If everyone else treats it this way, there's nothing but good.

fishsandwich

01-02-2008, 09:36 AM

Hello all...

I certainly didn't mean to spead doom and gloom (and images of caskets) with my original post! I believe I was a bit overwhelmed when I saw the pile of stuff in front of me in my parent's attic. I'm sure I'll be overwhelmed again when I unpack my Jeep and see my little loft fill up with storage containers. I'll be overwhelmed once again when I realize how much effort I will spend listing all this crap on ebay with all the required pictures and descriptions, followed by the lovely boxing and weighing of items.

Then there's the 8 huge storage boxes sitting in a friend's basement. I can't even look at it right now.

What I meant to convey was my lack of foresight... my parents weren't going to live forever and let me keep my stuff in a house that is being sold to someone else. I didn't give a second thought to where I might be in 15 years or what would be important. How could I? I'm lucky to have a friend with a large basement and I'm lucky to have had the means to buy all this stuff. And I enjoyed getting it all... the hunt through various flea markets and pawn shops, the weekly trips to the independent game shops that no longer exist, the thrill of coming home to a new package waiting for me. But I'm getting older and these hunts and packages no longer bring me joy.

Collect what you want. Play it or save it. If it brings you joy then do it. I must admit I've spent more time gaming in 2007 that I have in many of the years before it. I had a fantastic run on the Shining Force games and the GBA gets an almost daily workout.

The hell if I know anything. Your experiences will be far, far different from my own and the vast majority of you don't have an obsessive-compulsive disorder encouraging you to become an ebay fantatic.

Just don't buy every tired-looking Intellivision, NES, Genesis, SMS, and Colecovision you see at Goodwill. Half of them don't work anyway... there's a reason why Goodwill has them.

Slate

01-02-2008, 10:17 AM

I know what you mean. I think I started collecting in 2003.

I have at least 800 games, Six super nintendos, A lot of genesis systems (Lots of them don't work) Two dreamcasts, Three saturns, Three virtual boys, At least six NES Systsems... I could go on for awhile.

I started to lose interest in collecting last year or the year before, So it has slowed down a bit and I think I'll start selling some of my stuff.

smork

01-02-2008, 10:41 AM

i'm not being nice but be honest, have you ever seen a funeral where the family didnt look like a pack of waiting vultures looking to pick the flesh off a freash corpse? it's not nice but it's human nature. and besides, if your family doesnt fight over who gets it, the government certainly will.

I've never known anybody's family to treat the passing of a relative that way. Where did you get that impression?

When my father died my sister and I went through all his things over a few days, and divvying up "the loot" was the last thing on our mind. You keep the things that are important, pass the valuables to those who'd appreciate them, give the unnecessaries to charity, and drown in the memories of your father as reflected in the things that accompanied him through life.

I think you've never lost anyone close to you else you would understand how impossibly complex the feelings are.

Greg2600

01-02-2008, 11:37 AM

Just wanted to add something to perhaps assuage those who might think they have gone overboard. As I posted earlier, my biggest and most out of control collection was trading cards and sports memorabilia. Similar to my friend Rob2600, I worked in a sports card/memorabilia store, which even worse, my father owned it!

Anyway, here's my point. I often view the Room of Doom pictures posted here on this forum. Most likely due to the size of video games as opposed to trading cards, I will say this, I have yet to see a Room of Doom anywhere in the world which holds a candle to some of the sports card collections I personally saw. Now some people I knew were kind of like compulsive gamblers, and overbought boxes and crates of wax packs of cards just to find chase cards. Such tendencies don't really lend towards video games, although some might be considered addicted in a way. However, I personally knew of people who were such pack rats with the cards, that they had entire basements and storage units full of cards, hundreds of thousands of them. One rather scurvy gentlemen in particular, drove a 25 year old beat up car and wore broken eye glasses. Yet he possessed a then 30 some odd year old card collection we estimated worth at least a million bucks. Some examples included a stack of Nolan Ryan rookie cards worth maybe $300 each at the time, with a stack being like 200 cards...gem mint...that's like 60 Grand. Another lovely story was that he sold one of his 20 or so Mickey Mantle famous 1952 Topps card, probably for like 8G, and shortly after was so compulsive he actually went out and bought another one to replace that one! This is insanity. Whenever that guy croaks, his family (who I heard weren't all that fond of Mr. Benny) are just going to sell it for peanuts, and some guy who has the cash up front and patience, is going to make a bundle off it. No, I have yet to see anything approaching that with a video game collector.

Fuyukaze

01-02-2008, 02:07 PM

I hope you're either a teenager or have never lost anyone because it sounds like your only insight into the loss of a loved one comes from television shows.

When you lose someone really close to you, the furthest thing from your mind is squabling over their property.

TV shows? I'd like to know where the cameras are because so far I've yet to be paid. Also, it's "when you lose someone really close to you, that you actualy care about..." that's most important.

I've never known anybody's family to treat the passing of a relative that way. Where did you get that impression?

When my father died my sister and I went through all his things over a few days, and divvying up "the loot" was the last thing on our mind. You keep the things that are important, pass the valuables to those who'd appreciate them, give the unnecessaries to charity, and drown in the memories of your father as reflected in the things that accompanied him through life.

I think you've never lost anyone close to you else you would understand how impossibly complex the feelings are.

When my Grandfather passed away back in 84, my two uncles and my two aunts came down a couple days before his passing and once the funeral was over they began going thru his and my grand mothers stuff looking for what they could take. They argued over who got the cars, who got his musical insterments, and who got money from his bank account. Once they were done, they fought over what their kids got to keep. Back in 2000 when my Grandmother died, the same family who couldnt be bothered to visit in the sixteen years sense my granfathers death decided a funeral wasnt worth waiting for as they began picking over the remaining contents of her home for anything of the least bit value. During neither time did they feel inclined to bother helping with either the funeral arangements nor with paying for any of her medical expenses. This is one example.

When a friend of the family recently passed away, his daughter in her infinite wisdom convinced her father she would be the one most capable of handling her father's estate in making sure everyone was able to recievie what he wanted them to have. Once he had passed on though, she decided only her and her family alone should be allowed to recieve anything from him. Last of my knowing, her two brothers were still not on speaking terms over how she handled his will as well as how she handled his funeral.

When you loose someone that's not only close to you but someone you care deeply for and spend time with on a daily basis it hurts beyond reason. When you watch family come and pick thru that loved one's personal belongings before they are even in the grave it's outright wrong.

smork

01-02-2008, 02:45 PM

When you loose someone that's not only close to you but someone you care deeply for and spend time with on a daily basis it hurts beyond reason. When you watch family come and pick thru that loved one's personal belongings before they are even in the grave it's outright wrong.

It is; you're right. Sorry to hear some people in your family are that way, I guess its just best to keep them as far away from you as you can, right? I don't think that's the natural reaction of most people, though...

A bit more back on topic, I'm not sure there's a real problem with having an extensive collection, as its for your enjoyment and how the family sees it after you're gone isn't much of a consideration, IMO. My family thinks I have a excessive amount of games and systems (though nothing compared to the average DP member), but it doesn't really concern me as I am single and don't spend more than I can afford. I don't think it really concerns them, either, but they do like to tease me about it.

I've never gotten into the trap of buying multiples just because its a 'good deal', though I do have extras on a few games, plus duplicate consoles in the case of LE systems.

Ikari Warrior

01-02-2008, 03:39 PM

I'm going to hopefully do the same thing with my DVDs, comics, and action figures from the past 15 years or so. I've thought about trimming down everything from the cartridge days that are much easier to just play on my old Xbox in 1080i, but I can't do it yet, I spent too much time reacquiring those. The really depressing thing is to see how little these kinds of collectibles bring in on ebay, and how much effort is is to sell and ship them.

fairyland

01-02-2008, 03:47 PM

I've never known anybody's family to treat the passing of a relative that way. Where did you get that impression?

When my father died my sister and I went through all his things over a few days, and divvying up "the loot" was the last thing on our mind. You keep the things that are important, pass the valuables to those who'd appreciate them, give the unnecessaries to charity, and drown in the memories of your father as reflected in the things that accompanied him through life.

I think you've never lost anyone close to you else you would understand how impossibly complex the feelings are.

Sadly, not all families are like this. What happened over 15 years ago with my mother's sister's family is a great example of this. She was a real mean bitch, a cheap ass in all aspects and she hoarded money like we do with video games. When she passed away she had quite a bit of money. It ended up all lawyers and lawsuits with one of the boys fighting everyone as he felt he deserved more of it than anyone else because he took care of her. Yet, I heard that he was a crook and was skimming money from her for years. She knew in-fighting would happen and the boy would try to claim more than his fair share, thus she gave money away secretly to her sisters/brothers/grandchildren three months before her passing away. This caused a lot of fighting and anger all around and lawyers got involved. I think the anger lasted much longer than any sadness.

Why I remember this so well was a few years before all of this, I was a kid of about 8 or 10 and she gave away a lovely (yet fairly cheap) snow globe with a rose in it to my family in a box of stuff that she decided she did not want. I liked it a lot as I was so into Citizen Kane as a child and so my mom gave it to me. But I had to give it back about a month later because she wanted it back, even knowing that it was given to a child. I was told to give it up because she's an old lady and I had to be more mature about it. It hurt me a lot, yet even to this day as I think the old woman some zillion years my elder should have shown more maturity than a mere child. This should tell you what she and her family are like.

Anyway, back on topic, I can relate to all of this. I hoard anime, records, cds, comics, video games, and so much more. It got to the point where I started a business with my hobby junk some 10 years ago and now I support myself that way. Most of my hoarding is now "inventory" and it's rare that I keep anything really for myself in comparison to what I buy and resell. Hearing others talk about their loosing interest in their collections really gets my hoarding instincts up and I am really fighting the desire to contact you all down and buying up more "inventory". LOL!

Garry Silljo

01-02-2008, 03:58 PM

Three-P

01-02-2008, 07:42 PM

Well, if all else fails, you could start a video game museum, charge $5 admission per head, and you could make back your money, and then some.

josekortez

01-02-2008, 09:00 PM

Soviet Conscript

01-02-2008, 10:18 PM

Yeah, it's pretty ridiculous that one of my unnecessary monthly bills is a storage unit just to house my games, action figures, comics and assorted other junk and that I live in a really small apartment that I truly despise. I might sell something off so I can move into something better later on this year, but I haven't figured out what yet.

as of last month i'm also in your situation. although i must say the girlfriend is much happier now that i don't completely dominate the apt. with my stuff. also i don't have to be afraid of comeing across a nice monitor or something else of conserderable size for cheap and being unable to buy it because of space concerns.

the hope is of course to one day get a proper house with a game room and transfer everything.

01-04-2008, 11:21 AM

Funny (sad?) collecting story...

~15 yrs ago I shared a house w/ 2 buddies. A spare bedrm had a wire-shelving system in the closet, it was there when we moved in; I'm assuming it was installed right.

One guy really liked porn, he had a crapload of magazines/XXX movies. He kept the mags in that bedrm closet. Eventually I moved out (w/ a GF) & I heard his mag collection got so massive the shelves collapsed & there was a literal "pornvalanche" onto the BR floor! IIRC I visited once & they'd left it for people to see.

Rather than resell/recycle/burn it all, they finally picked it up & left it for the garbage man. I bet he had a fun day.

Cav

01-05-2008, 08:54 AM

I couldn't agree more with the original post (and others, too!). One event that helped me thin my collection was having to move across country. That eliminated quite a bit of it.

The second event that really scaled it back was after I moved to Michigan I went to go visit Tim Snider (Sniderman) in Ohio. He showed me his collection in his basement. It was hardly a "room of doom." It was neat, orderly and his collection was very focused. It was a very Zen moment for me. When I returned home I took a good look at my collection and determined what it was I actually played. Then I eBay'd the rest. I've never looked back and I enjoy my VCS and ColecoVision collection all the more now since it's not so overwhelming.

So, thanks Tim! You are my Game Zen Master and you never even knew it.

Technosis

01-06-2008, 09:18 AM

Embrace emulation. It's so much neater.

Yes, emulation seems to be the way to go.

I'm sure though it's possible to be guilty of "virtual hoarding" i.e. getting multiple ROM sets, multiple emulator versions, etc, etc.

The difference would be the consequences of the hoarding. Whereas the real physical games would take up too much space, cost too much, etc., the emulator stuff at the worst would take up a few extra binders of DVD's or fill up some hard drives.

While it's still probably not healthy to have the hoarding behaviour, if you had to do it, "virtual hoarding" would probably be the lesser of the evils. :-)

Kid Ice

01-06-2008, 01:33 PM

Yes, emulation seems to be the way to go.

I would argue the way to go is to collect the games you really like across systems. If a game is worth playing at length, IMO emulation is not an acceptable solution. I like it for just trying out games, but even using the best emulators there is ALWAYS something missing. It's fine for arcade games since I could not conceivably purchase all the arcade games I like, but I can (actually have) purchase all the console games I enjoy.

alexkidd2000

01-06-2008, 01:45 PM

dave2236

01-06-2008, 02:18 PM

For me collecting is about the "hunt" , I like finding the games.

I also enjoy the people, I enjoy talking about games with other collectors and hearing their stories. I love CGE, MGC, Sean's, CDE, and other shows.

Kid Ice

01-06-2008, 04:41 PM

Yes emulation.... I just got a hacked PSP. Do I really need a Sega Nomad now? I mean, its cool and all, but its hardly playable after using the PSP. That LCD on the nomad is junk. Ebay here comes a boxed nomad...

Fair enough, but keep in mind the Nomad is not the native format for Genesis games to begin with.

bangtango

01-06-2008, 11:10 PM

Going back to an earlier point that came up.

I don't see the problem with duplicate systems, as long as it doesn't get out of hand. It is nice to have a spare or two if something happens to your primary one. Besides, you can never tell when you will run into a person in your area or online who is looking to buy or trade for that particular system.

It seems like everytime I turn around these days, a friend is telling me they have been looking for a particular system I happen to have 2-3 spares of and that they'd like to "buy it or make a killer trade." Those days of stockpiling Atari 2600's, Playstation's, Dreamcast's, Saturn's, N64's, Gameboy's, etc. have started paying off for me in recent months.

Not to mention the fact that historically I've had bad luck with Genesis systems, N64's and PS1's, leading to me having to replace them every so often.

rbudrick

01-07-2008, 11:44 AM

I totally understand where you're coming from.

Over the past year I've had long discussions with my wife about "the collection". What good will it do me in my later years? I don't even expect to reach later years. I have no family members interested enough in the history to hand it down to. We keep saying "better to enjoy it now", which means it's pretty likely I'll liquidate it in the near future and live high on the hog for my elder years. Only thing really holding us back is that we're both really busy and doing just fine financially so nothing is pressing me to sell it off (at the store first, of course) at the moment.

But space and organization is a huge issue here as well. Good luck taking care of it all, I'm not looking forward to that task.

God, the day Joe sells his collection, the earth's gravitation will shift a bit. That, and Baby Jesus will cry.

EDIT: I almost forgot. To those of you who worry about what your family will do when you are gone, don't be stupid....write out a will, for chrissakes. At the very least, be vocal to several family members as to who gets what. Save them the heartache and enjoy your games.

-Rob

calthaer

01-07-2008, 01:37 PM

This thread strikes a real chord with me. My game-buying habits have almost ceased to be, and I don't play too much in terms of recent games. I'd done a lot more console gaming over the past five years, but the really unbelievable and not-so-fun things in my personal life this past year (including a missions trip to India - talk about a paradigm shift) have given me much less of an appetite for all forms of entertainment. Leaving me with loads of games I'm probably never going to finish any time soon.

I'll peck away at some of this stuff over time, but if I do game, I really think I'm going to enjoy more of an intellectual challenge, which means twitch gaming is going to fall entirely by the wayside. There are far too many books I want to read, and as I've been reading more I've found that I believe my time is a lot better spent than it had been previously.

The games are good to keep around - some of them. But I'd have to agree with the poster (think it was RJ?) who said that this generation of games just has no appeal for me. Aside from Bioshock, I really can't think of a game that came out in the last year that I've really, truly wanted to play - including Phantom Hourglass. I'd much rather play X-Com: UFO Defense a second time than Mario Galaxy the first time, when I play at all.

But it's the same thing with movies. I used to watch any old release that came out, but now I find that I a) don't watch movies by myself any more, and b) when I do watch, have a list of things that are recommended so that I don't waste my time. There's just way too much time-wasting stuff out there.

Captain Wrong

01-07-2008, 07:56 PM

Seriously +1 on this thread. Fish, you're pretty much at the place I've been at for a while. I've had to take care of the belongings of three relatives by now and frankly it sucks. All that crap that may have meant something to them or they thought would be worth something (such as collector's plates, Avon bottles, commemorative coins, stamps, tools, etc.) was just stuff that those of us left had to figure out what to do with. Not saying they weren't entitled to their stuff, but we're bodering on hoarding here.

That and after moving, I really don't want to move all this crap again. Plus, I rarely have the time to use any of it. So yeah...if folks want their own personal videogame museum, more power to them. Not me though.

Flack

01-08-2008, 10:15 AM

Yes, emulation seems to be the way to go.

I'm sure though it's possible to be guilty of "virtual hoarding" i.e. getting multiple ROM sets, multiple emulator versions, etc, etc.

The difference would be the consequences of the hoarding. Whereas the real physical games would take up too much space, cost too much, etc., the emulator stuff at the worst would take up a few extra binders of DVD's or fill up some hard drives.

While it's still probably not healthy to have the hoarding behaviour, if you had to do it, "virtual hoarding" would probably be the lesser of the evils. :-)

Virtual Hoarding has its problems as well. For example, I once decided to track down copies of every PS1 game. Even though it certainly did not cost me as much as owning every original would have, it was still quite an expensive adventure. Back when I started that particular quest (1997/1998), blank CDs were around $1/each. 200 holder binders were $25-$30 each. I didn't get a cable modem until August of '99; prior to that, I rented every PSX game I copied; we're talking $3 to $5 per game, plus gas going to and from several rental stores (I didn't want them to know what I was doing).

More than money though, the biggest thing all this cost me was time. There was time involved driving to and from rental stores, the time it took to rip each game, the time it took to burn each one (around an hour, at 1x), and the time it took me to file each one in a binder plus add it to a list so I could find it. Before I bought a cable modem, I actually downloaded several PSX games using a 56k modem. That took forever, I assure you. After I got a cable modem, I found myself online all the time trying to find people with new PSX games -- and of course most of these places had ratios, which meant I was uploading games as well as downloading them. More time.

After several years of that, what do I have to show for it? Several binders full of PSX games on CD-Rs, worthless (or even offensive) to other collectors. A bunch of games with no instructions, no cases, nothing. Sometimes it seems like I spent more time and money tracking down copies than I would have spent had I just bought originals. I got caught up in virtual hoarding big time, and the worst part is, when you look back you don't have much to show for it. I can't sell them or trade them or really even give them away.

I guess I just wanted to point out that there are other side effects to virtual hoarding, other than space issues.

Daria

01-08-2008, 10:39 AM

I got caught up in virtual hoarding big time, and the worst part is, when you look back you don't have much to show for it. I can't sell them or trade them or really even give them away.

For christmas one year we gave my husband's little brother a dreamcast and his collection of burned games. It's still one of his favorite gifts ever. I'm sure if you really wanted to part with the copies you could make someone very happy.

evil_genius

01-08-2008, 12:21 PM

I had to clean out an old ladies house once when she died, it was an old job of mine. Well this lady had some kinda buying disease I kid you not. She must have just kept buying shit because you couldn't even walk into any of 3 upstairs bedrooms. Everything was brand new she would just buy shit and throw it on the pile. Lots of clothes, purses, etc. Well everything got thrown away. But I did find a brand new NES and 2500 cash in the pile shit.

zemmix

01-08-2008, 03:50 PM

My collection for the most part has all been moved to a $139/mo 10x10 storage room since August. Three moves in 5 years and I had had enough. I hated how long it always took me to move everything since I had to do it all by myself. It's not all video games though. I got into cars a number of years ago and maybe 1/3 of the storage room is parts off my old MR2, parts I bought to put on my MR2 (TRD headers, bigger supercharger, Turbo, etc). And then there's the car magazines and books. Damn that paper weighs a lot!!

Now I face a daunting task of going through everything to try and sell what I don't want. I think I'll keep the stuff you could never emulate like the Steel Battalion controller or my blue Tron joystick but crap like my Intellivision and Commodore stuff (well maybe not my boxed copy of Ultima I for the C64) has got to go. I think I'll keep maybe 100 2600 carts and one system. Or better yet get rid of all carts and just get a multicart.

I'm glad I never really attempted to complete any collections for any systems. Just the thought of browsing ebay to find a boxed Sesame Street or Strawberry Shortcake cart sends shivers up my spine.

anagrama

01-08-2008, 03:51 PM

Heh, it's funny really - I've lost track of how many other similar threads (though not always as well put) I've seen over the years, and thought "well, guess it makes sense for you, but nah, I'll never do that" but, sure enough, I'm another one who's now sat here in very similar position - a series of events over the past year or so forced a pretty dramatic reassessment of a lot of things, one result of which is that I've recently began to liquidate all my games. As it stands, I simply don't have the time or resources to achieve half the things I want to, and instead spend/waste far too much time, energy & money amassing more unnecessary "stuff" thanks to my obsessive-collector tendencies.

One thing I can say that's different though is that I can be reasonably reassured that probably 95% of my collection can be sold for more than I originally paid - I've always been something of a cheapskate, and have always waited for the bargains. Even though, the amount of time & effort it's going to take to shift everything is pretty daunting right now...

Only other problem I forsee is that it'll take a fair amount of willpower to make sure I actually put the money made to good use, rather than just "re-investing" it in my recently rejuvenated record collecting habit ;)

01-08-2008, 10:18 PM

Personally I think if anyone's paying "extra" $$$ just to store their extra stuff/junk/crap, it's time to admit they have a problem.

Poorfamily

01-09-2008, 05:24 PM

I grew up in the era of the Atari 2600 but could never afford one. I would go to a friends house and play Yar's Revenge for hours! What joy to be able to go to a yard sale and get a console and 30 games for $25!! I was sticking it to the man!!! But then it all caught-up to me this christmas when I had to move the new 360 from the living room to the 'game room' (a spare bedroom). I had 16 systems hooked up to one TV and nowhere to put the Xbox! Time to clean it all out! And all the crap I keep finding in boxes and closets is unbelievable!

Jackattack

01-09-2008, 09:36 PM

I know I'm coming in way late into the discussion, but I just wanted to add something that some people may be forgetting. Collecting is a blast! It's not just about the money or the space to store everything, it's all about the hunt for the games and reveling in finding that great deal. If you weren't collecting, 99% of us would be spending our money on something else, probably just as silly when we look back on it in 20 years. You have to remember all the fun you had while doing it, and when you look back you'll forget about the money and the time spent and remember the amazing time you had collecting.

dejapooh

01-10-2008, 04:06 AM

I starting collecting video games just recently. I have found about 500 NES carts, usually in 50 to 150 cart lots for about $1 to $2 each. I have quite a few dupes, but I am waiting to sort it all out when the new guide comes out (i've been looking for a copy of the old one for about a year, so if you have one :). The one thing I have not been able to find is a working NES. I've bought 1 on eaby, but by the time I got around to trying it out, I could not return that dead doorstop (If you have a working NES you would like to let go at Thrift store prices, let me know. I teach High School, so I don't have that much left to spend on this stuff :)

I guess my real lesson came while collecting Olympic pins (I've been at that for 24 years). back in 2000, I bought a load of pins... about 750,000 pins for $.03 each (retail $6). My partners and I sold about 300,000 and each got 112,000 (give or take). I've been bringing them to the Olympics with me to use as sellers and traders, and I am down to about 65,000 pins. I have a great collection and I am usually able to sell enough to pay for a trip to the Olympics, but the key is keeping what I collect carefully defined (I can define my collection in about 2 sentenses). If something doesn't fit into those sentences, Ebay, here I come!

The key in collecting is not to take everything, but have a 1 or 2 sentence definition to your collection and stick to that, no matter what great deals you find.

dejapooh

01-10-2008, 04:07 AM

If you want to take a look at me and some of my pins, you can see me live and in person. Just search Dejapooh on youtube.com. It's only about 3 minutes, but it was national!

fishsandwich

03-25-2011, 12:02 PM

It's been well over three years since I first wrote the original post and I though I'd post some insights.

A lot has happened in 3 years. I was in a horrific motorcycle accident that I managed to survive. I've got some scars and I'll always walk with a slight limp but I was still very lucky. I managed to keep my job during a horrible recession even as I watched my friends and co-workers lose their jobs and go on unemployment. I got married again and this second marriage has been far more successful than the first one. I also bought a house using a credit card (the house was so cheap that I couldn't get a mortgage and I didn't have 30k lying around). I've been paying the credit card down steadily but now I'm ready to be debt-free again. I've started selling off my massive collection.

Selling games on eBay is a pain in the ass. IT'S A LOT OF WORK! My house is a disaster. Boxes of games lying around on the floor. Packing materials everywhere. I spend many nights posting games on eBay followed by many nights of boxing up games and shipping them out. Thank God for PayPal shipping and Priority mailing boxes! At least I'm not a fixture at the Post Office anymore. We had to actually wait in line to buy MONEY ORDERS back in the days before (evil) PayPal took over.

I've been mostly pleased with the cash I've made. I'll still end up in the hole, mind you. Lots of these games that I bought years ago are not worth the $5 to $10 I paid for them. But other games have increased in value, some of them quite a bit. I'm not breaking even, but I'm not too far behind. Maybe. There's really no telling how much I've spent over the years.

I thought this would be harder than it has been. I used to take such pride in my collection. I could never imagine selling it off! But that's exactly what I've been doing. My Dreamcast collection has been decimated. I've sold off most of the Genesis games and ALL of the Master System games. My prized complete 32x collection is gone, save for the 2 prototypes that I am preparing to sell. All the "good" (expensive) PSone games have been sold. Most of the good Saturn games are sold, too. I've been boxing up bunches of common games and selling them in bulk. It's odd to see all these things that it took me years to aquire sitting in boxes, waiting to be shipped out. I can't say it was "easy" to box up and ship out that Japanese 32x game that took me years to find but it wasn't nearly as difficult as I thought it would be.

It's been great seeing my friend's basement get more empty. I've taken several BIG boxes home. I've enjoyed seeing my PayPal balance rise, even if the money is gone the next day. The credit card balance is dropping pretty fast! I might even have some extra money to put away when all is said and done.

I'm still keeping some things. Lots of single games that I actually PLAY once in a while. I'm keeping most of the handheld stuff... it takes up a lot less space. I can't yet part with the Dreamcast and Saturn shooters yet. I may hold onto them. We shall see.

My collecting "hobby" was fun while it lasted, even if it consisted mostly of cheap thrills. I spent many a weekend trolling the flea markets and yard sales, happy as a clam. I can't say that I'd go back and do it again (I'd have bought stock in Apple when it was so cheap) but it was still a lot of fun.

I'm still in the hobby, obviously. I'll always like reading about the newest games and I'll always find pleasure in discovering those "lost" games that didn't find an appreciative audience during their first go round. I just don't have to buy everything anymore.

At least I didn't get caught up in Beanie Babies!

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