Collecting regrets from entering hobby late

[kainemaxwell]

Anyone here regret getting into the collecting hobby later than some others, like when prices for more popular titles began to skyrocket?

[Bojay1997]

I wouldn't say I have regrets for entering the hobby late as I have been collecting since the late 80s, but I do sort of regret getting into collecting PC games late (as in the last few years) and stuff that I passed up regularly in the mid to late 90s is now worth a lot more than it was worth even a few years ago. It's not NES style inflation, but paying $50 or more for some rare PC games really hurts.

[Aussie2B]

I'd say I'm pretty content with when I started. Outside of just keeping everything I owned, I didn't start collecting (that is, tracking down games for older systems and buying up modern games while they were cheap even if I had no intention of playing them right away) in 1999. That was a great time to collect N64 and PlayStation, since those systems still had some life in them yet were out long enough that plenty of the older games had gotten cheap. I bought so many games used or marked down for under $20 a piece that now go for a good deal more (since I was buying lots of PlayStation RPGs, for one). And in terms of older games, NES, SNES, Genesis, etc. were still pretty readily accessible. I loaded up at local independent shops, and even GameStops still had a nice selection for a few years past 2000. And, of course, eBay was starting to take off at that time. I wouldn't say the deals were great back then on eBay (nor have they been ever), but it really opened the doors to accessing games that you just couldn't seem to find in person. In fact, that's how I got my first NES (not counting the childhood system that wasn't really mine). The moment I became a collector was when I said to myself "I want to get back those games I loved as a kid." Talking to people on Nintendo's BBS online, I realized people still played those games and that there were even people tracking down and buying them in the late 90s. I decided that I wanted to do the same, and I found an independent store that carried NES stuff. I bought a nice stack of games from my youth (Metroid, Super Mario Bros., Zelda, Dragon Warrior, Batman, etc.), but the store didn't have any systems in. I got on some waiting list, but that was going nowhere. When I learned of eBay, I signed up with the goal of getting an NES, and the rest is history.

[The Adventurer]

My only collecting regret is selling off my copy of Earthbound last year for a quick buck (75 cash+75 store credit). Now that I'm collecting earnestly I'm really kicking myself.

As a general fan of video games I really should have been thinking of collecting more as I've gone through life. I've thrown out so many boxed and manuals over the years...

[Greg2600]

My regret is waiting so long to buy certain hardware. The games you can always get relatively at fair prices, but certain hardware prices when ballistic. Others were high for a while and then plummeted. I swear when I bought the Colecovision they were going to quite a bit, now you can barely give them away.

[StealthLurker]

I didn't start my current collection til about 2002 or 2003, don't exactly recall. I keep hearing stories about how good deals were in the mid to late 90s for some of the things I collect now. I also got into NeoGeo AES collecting around the height of interest and prices for the games which is a bit of a bummer.

Big picture though, it doesn't really matter. I didn't have much in the way of disposable income pre 2000 to be collecting stuff period.

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[Tanooki]

Nah I actually have it in a bitter and uniquely more worse way with it. I got into going backwards with games in 1995 as I looked back to missed out on NES, SNES and Gameboy stuff. From there I then with the N64 being screwed by Sony (media) and their own pricing stupidity ended up bored and got a Turbo Duo. NGPC, all Gameboy systems, Virtual Boy, Nomad and all other Sega systems(non addon), PSOne+LCD, PS2, various game & watches, couple coleco tabletops, and other fun stuff and a good 1000-1500 games by my guess up through 2003. Then I got screwed by a temp agency on a move east, ended up getting less pay doing PC repair, then they folded and no pay for 6mo, then had to make a small business that barely paid to get by while double working every day of the year with horses and all this caused me to be paycheck to paycheck or worse monthly. In time and it stung, all the Sega, all the Sony, NEC, the VB, all GB stuff, basically anything that wasn't Nintendo went goodbye and I had a heap of games worth 100s or more now. And of Nintendo I went from like 100-150 games per system down to like 20 here, 30 there it sucked.

Now each time I see shit like Aerofighters which I had, it makes me sick. Same with Bubble Bobble 2, Earthbound mint like new in box(have a cart now found for $2 2mo ago), Dracula X PCECD, and the list goes on.

So whereas you maybe starting late...I'm having to selectively buy or fume over things I just can't get back either because I still can't afford it(have a baby and living in CA on KY money as I work remotely don't help) or I refuse to cough up over $50 for a stupid game. I'm rebuilding slowly late because now we're in comics and cards resellers predatory purchasing bubble and I refuse to be someone elses bitch pray for exploitation. When it pops I'll get back more stuff, but for now I keep going places local(flea markets) or getting lucky online and paying the more reasonable prices we saw as late as 2010 on most stuff. NES got so bad I offloaded a heap and bought a powerpak so I could get the SNES goodies I wanted before it shot up, and when it did, I jumped off that into Gameboy which is still cheap cart alone and rebuilt most of that mess (gb/c/a), and then went and got a SMS as no one cares about Sega so it's all cheap still for 95% of it. :D

[StealthLurker]

Nah I actually have it in a bitter and uniquely more worse way with it. I got into going backwards with games in 1995 as I looked back to missed out on NES, SNES and Gameboy stuff. From there I then with the N64 being screwed by Sony (media) and their own pricing stupidity ended up bored and got a Turbo Duo. NGPC, all Gameboy systems, Virtual Boy, Nomad and all other Sega systems(non addon), PSOne+LCD, PS2, various game & watches, couple coleco tabletops, and other fun stuff and a good 1000-1500 games by my guess up through 2003. Then I got screwed by a temp agency on a move east, ended up getting less pay doing PC repair, then they folded and no pay for 6mo, then had to make a small business that barely paid to get by while double working every day of the year with horses and all this caused me to be paycheck to paycheck or worse monthly. In time and it stung, all the Sega, all the Sony, NEC, the VB, all GB stuff, basically anything that wasn't Nintendo went goodbye and I had a heap of games worth 100s or more now. And of Nintendo I went from like 100-150 games per system down to like 20 here, 30 there it sucked.

Now each time I see shit like Aerofighters which I had, it makes me sick. Same with Bubble Bobble 2, Earthbound mint like new in box(have a cart now found for $2 2mo ago), Dracula X PCECD, and the list goes on.

So whereas you maybe starting late...I'm having to selectively buy or fume over things I just can't get back either because I still can't afford it(have a baby and living in CA on KY money as I work remotely don't help) or I refuse to cough up over $50 for a stupid game. I'm rebuilding slowly late because now we're in comics and cards resellers predatory purchasing bubble and I refuse to be someone elses bitch pray for exploitation. When it pops I'll get back more stuff, but for now I keep going places local(flea markets) or getting lucky online and paying the more reasonable prices we saw as late as 2010 on most stuff. NES got so bad I offloaded a heap and bought a powerpak so I could get the SNES goodies I wanted before it shot up, and when it did, I jumped off that into Gameboy which is still cheap cart alone and rebuilt most of that mess (gb/c/a), and then went and got a SMS as no one cares about Sega so it's all cheap still for 95% of it. :D


That's got to be super rough living in California and being paid a Kentucky wage. Good luck to you and your family. Hope things get better.

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[Atarileaf]

My regrets usually fall into the selling category, getting rid of items I wish I hadn't. But as far as going into collecting late, I was another old timer who's been doing this off and on for over 20 years now and am glad my collection is pretty much complete to my liking. The prices and the amount of people in my area who are collecting has risen dramatically, especially in the last two years it seems. I'd be very disappointed if I was to try hunting now. Its very dry in my area anymore and what does show up in garage sales or thrift stores are priced like ebay.

[xelement5x]

......as no one cares about Sega so it's all cheap still for 95% of it. :D

I love collecting Sega stuff and you're right on the money for the price difference. I'll grab Nintendo stuff if I stumble across it but I won't pay those crazy prices people want for the games now.

I bought a fair amount of stuff in the late 90s that was cheap, but apparently not enough to keep up with all the hidden gems out there. Some consoles are really heating up though and I hate that even getting common fun games isn't as cheap as it used to be.

[sloan]

Never having sold off anything from the 70's or 80's, I have no regrets. Having all my original NES stuff means not having to pay current insane rates.

Word to the wise: If you sell it, you will regret it.

[Tanooki]

That's got to be super rough living in California and being paid a Kentucky wage. Good luck to you and your family. Hope things get better.

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Yeah it kind of is and thanks. I got swindled in a way on coming out here by my wife and family due to some grandparent illnesses and other reasons against my better judgement so it compounded the issues I mentioned already from back east. The up side is I kept my job, work from home, and the losses are cut a good bit as I don't have all the expenses of driving to work and back(gas, oil, tires, wear, washes, etc) and buying food and so on too, but it still is low. Working on selling my place and going back, got it foreclosed so when I do I can rack up enough dough to get a nice house instead of a condo(here) and get enough too to drop the huge debt on a line of credit I have which will give me hundreds more a month to save or be able to spend when emergencies pop up. :) Supposedly some form of a raise and promotion await when I can get out of this mess here which shows at least they value me which is good.

Regardless cash or not, I won't re-buy all that stuff. I have no time to play it, and it would just sting too much. Anything I grab now from back then or new I intend to use. I'm just not into hoarding.