Biggest regrets as a collector and gamer?

[sparf]

I'm wondering what everyone's greatest regrets are. Maybe that ultra rare game you sold for pennies because you didn't know better at the time? The chance to pick up that choice jewel for your collection that you passed up and are now kicking yourself for? Genuinely curious!

For me, it's how much of my original game collection I traded in at GameStop, back when they took NES and SNES, in order to finance games I could not possibly care less about keeping copies of. About the only good things to come out of that were my copies of Elemental Gearbolt, Valkyrie Profile, and, at the time, Steel Battalion.

In the end, not worth it for the sheer amount of my childhood I gave up. I am pretty sure the fact that I did this is what fueled my desire to collect retro games. The pain of parting, and of reacquiring those things that were lost. I, of course, kept a few things, such as my copy of Castlevania that was the first NES game I owned. And even though Gamestop was giving $50-60 in store credit for an NES system at that time, I kept mine, and I'm grateful that I did. It's not that they're uncommon or anything, but it's the fact that it's the one I was given for Christmas, with Castlevania attached to the outside.

What say you guys?

[bazariah]

about a decade ago i closed up my shop, we primarily dealt in vintage games so i was able to amass a freakishly huge collection

over time i needed money quickly so i literally sold all of my ex stock to another store for about 30% of it's worth for a quick sale, i think it was something like 500 nes carts, 500 megadrive, 300 master system etc. the most painfull part was losing my personal pc engine collection though, around 200+ games for that 2 original white consoles, a core grafx and a turbo duo..
in hindsight i could've sold the games slower on ebay or something and made more money, but at that particular time i felt they needed to go quick, shame realy as if i'd have still had them all now it would've been a nice house or something from that stock.

i still treat it as a life lerning experience and had i known then what i know now i wouldnt have done the deal

the company i sold the gear to eventually decided there was no money in retro so they destroyed 99% of their stock, keeping only titles like mario, pokemon, sonic etc, you know the staple names of retro

[SuperSonic]

The fact I had a chance about 5 years back to start buying NES/SNES/Sega games for dirt cheap lol.. I have had consoles for ages but switched to PC didn't buy games for years.. I come back to my snes/genny/nes and only have about 10 games each for them.. When I could have been buying boxes of games for cheap.

[Immutable]

I passed up several games that were in high demand without realizing it.

About a decade ago, it was Guardian for the Atari 2600.

Last year, it was Little Samson for the NES.

[TheRetroVideoGameAddict]

I have two major regrets as a collector that still haunt me to this day. Between 1995 and 1997 I acquired about 10 different consoles and over 200 games between them, but in 1999 I sold almost all of them in favor of buying a car, but I eventually won a scratch ticket soon after selling them for more than what I got for them and even though it was money for nothing I always have regretted doing it. I didn't use the scratch ticket to buy back everything I had sold, instead I used to to go to a strip club with a friend and we blew the winnings in less than 3 hours. Eventually I would get back everything and more and my collection is much bigger now than it was then, but still, it was a hard pill to swallow.

My second regret happened just a few years ago in 2008 when I sold off my entire NES collection of 1 NES, 2 different clone systems, 6 controllers, a few other accessories, and 68 games. I only got about $170 for the collection when I sold it on eBay but I really needed the money and at the times the games weren't too expensive to get back if needed, but I refused to sell my other systems or games because SNES has always been kind of expensive. I've got mostly everything back since then and have even more games now than I did before, but I never felt right about that decision and have regretted it ever since.

[TheRetroVideoGameAddict]

As far as passing up games, I remember back in 1996 a friend of mine came over and had a bunch of SNES and NES games he wanted to sell me because he desperately wanted a Playstation and Resident Evil at the time and needed the money. He had like 10 NES games and I bought 3 of them, one of them was Stadium Events that I remembered seeing in the Funcoland sheet for like $2.00 so I passed it up and got a Jeopardy game and 2 Mega Man titles. Now I believe Stadium Events sells for over $1k, but for me it's not about the money it's about the fun.

[rmaerz]

Selling my Atari 2600 collection at a garage sale in the 80s.

Not buying a Turbo mini-cabinet at an arcade auction with a buy price of $100.

[bigbacon]

Mine is the wondering if I could have gotten more money for my Final Fantasy Prototype.

[YoshiM]

There's a few but some were attributed to youth and not thinking ahead:

-regret storing my game magazine collection in my leaky shed. I didn't see it as a collection per se but I think I put them out there thinking I wouldn't read them. Changed my mind but the damage was done. Not totaled but disheartening. Left then out for garbage then realized I should keep them but it rained. I had the first year of EGM, Game Player's, Nintendo Power, VG&CE...yeah. Most have been replaced now but some, like the early issues of EGM, are expensive.

-selling then rebuying then selling then rebuying etc etc. I went through several bouts if owning a system and games then selling it off only to get nostalgic and repeat the process. This mostly happened with my Genesis, Sega CD and TurboGrafix-16. I'm only my seventh Genesis, my fourth Sega CD and my third Turbo. Needless to say, I've broken the cycle.

Actual bone fide regrets:
-not getting a Discs of Tron Cab. It would have been $250 in the early 90's and I could have gotten it if I saved my cash.

-not getting a Space Invaders cab. When I went halvsies with my bro-in-law and bought Ring King from a colleague at a great price, I could have also gotten Space Invaders for cheap. I didn't have storage (lived in a mobile home) but could have made room and I could have afforded it with a little penny pinching but I passed.

[YoshiM]

Gah...stupid phone and double post...

[postulio]

I dont really have any gaming or collecting regrets... I kinda finished w/ collecting games and my collection currently stands at about 600+ across several consoles. I own every single PS1 and GBA RPG released along with most across several other consoles including 90s PC.



My biggest regret in life though was not going in on bitcoins when i had the chance and connection to get them at 1:1 with USD. I literally could have made over a million. I turned down the opportunity thinking bitcoin would either wither or face extreme opposition from the World Bank (among others).

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

OH HOW MANY EARTHBOUND BOXES/GUIDES WE THREW AWAY AT FUNCOLAND.

SO MANY.

so many.

[Parodius Duh!]

Selling basically every Japanese Saturn game that was worth owning for way to cheap about 10 years ago. Including practically all of the games that go for serious ching these days, all were in perfect condition (90% I bought new/sealed). It kills me inside and I usually think about it once a day because Im trying to re-collect all of these Saturn games again.

[Tanooki]

Keeping perspective out of it my biggest regret would have been selling off 80% of my collection a decade ago about because of unemployment and then paycheck to paycheck living for 2 years after that. But as I said no perspective, I had no choice. I had some crazy stuff for even the fewer systems I did keep which bugs me because of how rotten the prices became on the NES and SNES in particular. Just some random losses would be a dead mint cib Earthbound, Aerofighters all papers but the box, Square's FF2+3+SOM+FFMQ+CT which were all CIB, soul blazer, and on the nes stuff like Bubble Bobble 2 with the book. All these items I had as original retail or with earthbound, aerofighters, bb2 I got for $10-20 at a retail shop in the later 90s and in perspective I did sell them for like I think twice what I paid, but still...shitty business. I've reacquired all those titles but Aerofighters, and all of them but BB2 and CT I have the guide(EB) manuals+maps too. Thankfully I didn't pay out the nose for any of it with some research, luck and nice prices from people. One of the nicer things was a friend who got me back all the square/enix manuals/maps back for $20 flat along with a nicer zelda lttp paper pile too among some misc stuff.

[granz]

Investing in early consoles. Game cartridges were really overpriced back then, and they almost never came down. The only game I ever owned for the SNES was the pack-in game Super Mario World. After purchasing the console, I couldn't afford anything else. Bear in mind, this was my childhood. The occasional allowance or birthday money from Aunt Ida wasn't enough to fund new games.

It seems like games became much cheaper around the PS1 era, maybe due to the reduced cost of manufacturing discs. I waited a few years after the PS1's release then went out and got Greatest Hits titles for $20 and under. Meanwhile, N64 games that had been on the shelves just as long still were still priced around $60 or more.

[otaku]

selling anything really wish I could have kept pretty much everything especially now as I sit console less and game less. But particularly having to sell my brother and I's first console the n64 original launch system and our collection of 20 or so games. we were so broke at the time the little bit of money it all brought in was needed. :(

[Eternal Champion]

I sold, a couple of years ago, my SNES Zelda Link to the Past that was a pack-in game ca. 1994. Apparently I sold it at the wrong time, given the prices that the game is going for on Ebay!! Jesus H. Fucking Christ. I had the map, manual, and the little book of secrets. Now that I have a CRT again, I regret selling it. Shee-it.

[Nesmaster]

Sold a CIB Little Samson and loose Flintstones 2 for $100 each in a collection purge in early 2007. Many regrets to be had.

Passed on a CIB Bubble Bath Babes for $50 in the 2002 - 2003 timeframe.

[Bazoo]

selling all my gamecube stuff and now their prices seem to be soaring. =\ could be worse, I guess.

[sloan]

OH HOW MANY EARTHBOUND BOXES/GUIDES WE THREW AWAY AT FUNCOLAND.

SO MANY.

so many.

Wow. Just wow.

[SpaceHarrier]

I traded in X-Com: UFO Defense (Playstation 1) (complete, mint) to Gamestop for less than $2 credit. Traded all my complete-in-box N64 games and almost half my Dreamcast games in, though I don't miss some of them like Stupid Invaders or NBA 2K all of that much. I believe I also threw a complete Mega Man X2 in the trash.

[Tron 2.0]

Mostly selling or trading past console that ive owned only to buy them again :p

[JakeM]

Eh, any game I was at the store around all the time I could have asked my parents for but didnt because I knew we were poor but I should have been like a kid and not care about their money and asked and asked and asked for this or that.

[thegamezmaster]

Selling systems and all the games to get the new thing coming out. Or passing on marked down games when a system was at the end of it's run. Or anything sold cheap only to see what they sell for now. But what's done is done.

[Polygon]

Not collecting more before the retro boom.

[Eternal Champion]

I sold a nice complete Shantae about 5-6 years ago, for not a lot of money. I had bought it new in 2003. I had no clue that now the prices have skyrocketed. Holy shit.
I chose the right time, about 11-12 years ago, to get back into 8-bit and 16-bit gaming, but apparently the wrong time to sell stuff for cash a few years ago. I had a mint complete Yoshi's Island SNES that I had bought new in 1999-2000, sold for $30 or so 2006-2007. Later regretted it and paid almost the same price for cart + manual about 2 years ago.
I also regret not buying Genesis Weapon Lord a couple of years ago - complete copies seemed to just sit on Ebay. But now?

Why the sudden interest in NES, SNES, etc??

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Wow. Just wow.

There was, LITERALLY. ZERO. demand for them.

To us the boxes were like any other box for any other common game.

Who would have known that it would become one of the most valuable SNES games in recent history?

Crazy stuff.

[Jack_Burton_BYOAC]

I am pretty sure I passed up on a copy of Star Fox Super Weekend, or the Donkey Kong Country weekend cart at a video rental store about ten years ago. Whatever it was, it was a SNES competition cart.

My biggest regret right now is not jumping into the PlayStation collecting scene. It's wide open, and games are still very cheap. Every week some new proto or piece of dev hardware shows up, but it's only a matter of time before it all ends up in the hands of collectors, never to be seen again.

[Ed Oscuro]

not knowing there was a nitro ball on eBay at $150 a month ago

look at the gun ball (same game, JP region) on there now, lol

eh can't really say that's a huge regret

[Little Miss Gloom]

When I graduated Grade 8 in 2000, my dad took me to Walmart to buy a Gameboy Colour and one game. I had my eyes on Final Fantasy Adventure. But the shining opportunity at buying a Gameboy Colour game to go along with my new handheld was too tempting.

...So instead of Final Fantasy Adventure, I bought


6873

[Xander]

Trashing all the boxes for my NES/SNES/N64 games as soon as I opened them when I was younger.

Not buying the Earthbound Strategy Guide before the big increase in price for Earthbound SNES stuff.

Buying some of my genesis games without their manual/box. Now I have to replace everything..

Buying a few japanese games that are now just sitting in my collection not being played. What the hell did I think when I bought that Pop'n twinbee RPG for the PS1? I never had any intention to learn japanese in the first place.

[Little Miss Gloom]

Now I have to replace everything

I don't know about you, but...

http://www.thecoverproject.net/

This place has been a total godsend for me. And I know it doesn't at all beat the original packaging, but it does at least offer a cheap, cheap, CHEAP alternative than what is metaphorically replacing all your VHS's with Blurays.