Why do you collect?

[tynstar]

I have seen the postings of what kind of collector are you. My question is why do you collect?

I have collected non-sports cards, hockey cards, and figures but after awhile the get boring. (That is why I will be selling them soon). What can you do with them? You can only read a comic or look at cards so many times.

You could say you can only play a game so many times but I have played hockey games for 10 years. I have played through Zelda and Metroid a ton of times.

So why do you collect?

[autobotracing]

I have seen the postings of what kind of collector are you. My question is why do you collect?

I have collected non-sports cards, hockey cards, and figures but after awhile the get boring. (That is why I will be selling them soon). What can you do with them? You can only read a comic or look at cards so many times.

You could say you can only play a game so many times but I have played hockey games for 10 years. I have played through Zelda and Metroid a ton of times.

So why do you collect?


i collect because its fun and can be profitable.

[digitalpress]

You know, now that you ASK that question, I'm not sure I have an answer. Dammit! I QUIT! What fools folly this has all been!

LOL

OK really? For one thing because I love games and on any given day I might get that "whim" to play something from the past. Actually I get that a lot. Also, collectors in general are either pack-rat types, investor-types, or both. I'm the pack-rat. I just like "completing things", filling holes, and putting that very last dot on the very last "i".

I've also learned that I enjoy being surrounded by the colorful library of a video game collection. Damn, just look at the Game Room photos (click link above). It's just FUN sitting in these rooms. When I go to a fellow collector's home I get a calming "aura" when I'm near their collections. Kinda hard to explain if you don't already get it.

These are a few reasons, there are many more. I'll leave some space for others to chime in here.

[Kennedy]

somekind of hobby :)

when i was kid msx, nintendo 8bit etc. just arrive. those were nice times.
now i collect those coz it reminds me of good times and few of friends who die couple of years ago.

[MankeyMan]

I think it's nice to know that there is something I'll never be able to finish. There are thousands and thousands of video games out there, with label variations, limited editions, prototypes etc...
If there is something that I can collect, then I'll do it obsessively until i'vew finished. When I was 6 or 7 I completed sticker book collections for the football seasons 4 years in a row. And that only took about 3 months, the rest of the time I was just bored. I know vg collecting will take me years to do (Joe has been doing it longer than I've been alive, and he's nowhere near finished).

[Kroogah]

Video games have been a part of my life since I got my first NES in 1989, with Contra and Skate or Die.

During the summer of 1999, I discovered the joy of NES emulation, but simply having the ROMs was not enough! (especially since StarTropics, one of my most fondly-remembered games, didn't work in NESticle!!!) So I found an NES at a garage sale for $6, and it kinda exploded from there.

I had also been "collecting" Capcom games for my PSX before then, now that I think about it....

I collect because I looooooove video games. L-U-V.

[Arrrhalomynn]

Because I can't get laid.

[oesiii]

So why do you collect?

Because I have a problem :twisted:

[Nature Boy]

I was first exposed to games when I was 6 (1977, the introduction of the VCS). Back then I was at the mercy of others when it came to new games.

Fast forward to 1996. I'm out of University (finally) and I have some money to spend for a change. So I get a SNES (because I can't afford any of the newer machines on my meager starting salary).

Fast forward again to 2002. I get an Xbox for my b-day, completing what I like to call the holy trilogy of consoles (the other two I purchased myself on their launch days).

In case it's not obvious yet: because I finally can afford to :)

Seriously though, I've just always enjoyed playing video games. I started collecting in earnest when I found an Atari 2600 and about a dozen games at a Goodwill while looking for a Hallowe'en costume. It was that freak purchase that started the ball rolling.

I like buying older games because they're cheap, and I like buying newer games because I love gadgets and I love being wowed by what can be done.

[Raedon]

I think it's been said before that everyone needs a hobby, whatever that may be. You can read about how I got started in collecting games in the "introduce yourself" thread ( http://www.nullunit.com/dpforum/viewtopic.php?t=11 ) Why I collect is a mystery. Though I really love the hunt; there is no greater feeling then finding a classic console or game for a few bucks but you know it's worth much more. Or finding a C64 AV/monitor cable or 5200 Power supply and giving the guy a quarter because he doesn't have a clue what that was for.

I have friends who don't collect anything but data, People who just collect Mp3's and PC game iso's. I can't understand that, just like people don't understand why I buy carts when I can just Emulate some roms. There is something nice about having the cart in my hands. Being sort of a Tech geek I guess I have sort of a romanticist view of technology, and Console games were a big part of my life at one time (ok, all the time :wink: )

[omnedon]

I'd been thinking about really trying for a few years now, to collect. I already had an NES with a few games. I was looking back longingly, wishing I could have the old consoles I'd wanted as a kid (pre-NES). I tried emulation for a while, and I still think it's neat. For me, emu is great for trying something out, or if you really need the save state. The Passion, is in the collecting. 8)

Once I got started, and got used to E-bay, I began to realize that I could even make a bit of money doing this. (Being Canadian helps, the exchange rate is on my side when selling in USD)

Now, I'm rabid. My collection is growing rapidly, and when the debits and credits are added up I am usually way ahead. (I fix broken stuff, and broken stuff is often free!) How do you stop getting stuff you love at a profit??

So, between genuine passion for the games, and profit incentive, it's becoming a small part time job. It's been too profitable to ignore, in more ways than one.

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

Why do I collect? Hrmmmm. In some ways, it's a bit of a futile grab at the past - when I was growing up, I spent heaps of time playing Odyssey2 games with my mom or my brother. My mom used to fund my brother's and my epic journeys to the local arcade. It was just a part of growing up. Now she's gone, and my brother has moved way the hell away, and Mrs. PDF isn't exactly fond of my vast, room-filling game/game memorabilia collection, but like Joe, I still get a nice warm fuzzy glow just from being around that stuff. Those were the days - when I was still a kid, still allowed to be a kid, and my family was still more or less in one piece. I suppose that's also why I collect Star Wars figures, and why a healthy chunk of my music collection is stuff from the early 80s.'

Another reason I collect video games is because, at some point when I have kids of my own, I'd like them to grow up playing some of the same games I did: abtract, goofy, cartoony, and no more violent or socially reprehensible than your average Looney Tunes cartoon. I want my kids to grow up with Dig Dug and Pac-Man, not the kung-fu krap that seems to dominate the game scene these days.

If I ever do have kids, it'll be great - I'll finally have someone to play video games with! Whether or not they're allowed to play with my Star Wars figures, however, is a whole other discussion. :D

[johnny arcade]

I collect because I'm living some discombobulated vision where I must have ALL the games so I'll be the coolest kid in the whole freakin' City!

Seriously though, it's pretty much the same as what some other people have already said... I can walk into my room, see a whole dump-load of games all over the place, and just stand there and audibly say, "Ho-ly Shit! I got it fuckin' made!"

[GENESISNES]

I did, because i used to think about things to collect, and i collected cigar boxes, moist toweletts, and lastly, cards. and i finally found out, that i wasn't even aware of that i was buying sega genesis games! so i decided to collect those.

[digdug]

There is something special when you have a person over at your place for the first time and they see your massive game collection in the room you have just for that. I agree with Joe and all the rest of you I LOVE games, it could be the worst game in someones opinion but I will find something fun about the game.

I feel the same way most of you do when you walk into your santuary, that calming feelling. No matter how hard of a day I have had Gaming is always been good to me. I think I will be playing games up until I die.

I sure hope that games are around until that day.

Chris

[Mr. NEStalgia]

I started collecting NES because when I was 7 or so, my dad through out my NES and all the games with it. He was tired of pulling it outa the closet, and messing with the blinking light. Out of the blue, I had the urge to play those games again. I searched for a few weeks, and bought a system and about 20 complete games from my best friend for $20 (I felt bad, he wouldnt take more :lol: ).

A couple months later, I was looking around online, and found out that "retrogaming" was actually getting popular! Alas, I am still the only person that I know personally that collects any old video games.

-=Mr. NEStalgia=-

[asharru]

I collect because I love games and gaming. I collect everything from board games, to video games, to pen and paper role-playing games, and puzzles. I don't collect anything I'm not going to play with though. I don't collect for investment/money, I collect for my own personal enjoyment.

:D

[coleco_chris]

@ Tynstar: I have collected non-sports cards, hockey cards, and figures but after awhile the get boring. (That is why I will be selling them soon). What can you do with them? You can only read a comic or look at cards so many times.

That's bizarre, because I also have a very large collection of hockey cards as well, but it's just like you said, what can you really do with them besides look at them?

This has got to be one of the greatest hobbies in the world just for the fact that the collectable is interactive. I was sooo into video games in the late '70's early 80's. After I got my computer 2 years ago, I started searching the net for Donkey Kong. I didn't have a clue about emulation, I just figured there had to be a way to actually find a copy of it. That opened the floodgates, and in my random searches, I always seemed to end up at the old digital press website. I've been hooked every since!

I was incensed that I had thrown out all the Colecovision boxes & gave me collection away to my brother-in-law for Christmas one year after getting my Nintendo. I've since doubled my original CV collection, not to mention Intellivision, Atari 2600 & 5200. Lesson learned-don't ever throw anything out!

[Tritoch]

By accident. I kept buying and buying games I enjoyed in the past (and new ones as they came out), and before I knew it I was collecting them.

When I pick up a game now, it's either (a) a new game I want, (b) a review copy I decided to keep after reviewing, (c) an older game I always wanted but never could afford growing up, or (d) as an investment.

So basically it boils down to either buying it to play or resell...I don't have a bit of pack-rat in me. In fact I've always been anti-pack rat, to the point that I'm constantly looking for stuff to get rid of (games or not) to lessen the amount of stuff I own. So it's a constant inner struggle between my desire to own lots of great games to play and my desire to be as efficient as possible.

[Tiger_Tailz]

I actually started collecting thanks to Sony and there abysmal PS2. I am a avid board game collector, mostly Fantasy, Science Fiction and War (Avalon Hill, Metagaming Concepts, SPI, GDW ect) I have been an avid gamer since i was in grade school but never really collected. I pretty much had all the systems as they came out. The Dreamcast really impressed me, and when i read that "If the PS2 was only half as good as they say it is, it will still be 10 time better than the Dreamcast" Does anyone remember that article in the mags? First off, my heart goes out to those who had bought one on Ebay in the first couple of months of it's debut he he he. That system had the second worst launch title software trailing only behind the 3DO. There was absolutely nothing worth buyin for that system for almost a year. I think the first game i actually bought was Onimusha. I bought The Bouncer and returned that the same day. Then came Dark Cloud, the nail in the coffin for me. After playing that game i realized this sytem really weak, no texture memory, repeated low resolution textures, jaggies everywhere, long load times and the shovel ware was really building up, and realizing that the system isn't 10 times better than the Dreamcast, it's 10 times worse. So i got into original PSX games and was on a RPG kick. I came accross Lunar: Silver Star Wow, this is great. I remember doing a search and came accross references to Lunar on Sega CD. I had a sega CD in the beggining, but didn't remember Lunar as i didn't have mine for very long. So i decided to invest in a Sega CD again and try Lunar and loved it. Then i had to grab the other RPG's on the System. Then i wanted the shooters and so on until i decided i would like to complete this list. So i did. I never had a 32x so i was itching now to try it being you could grab one new for $29. and soon that list was complete. Then that spawned my interest in almost all the older consoles again. 3DO, Saturn, Genesis, Neo Geo. Then i went back to my beloved Dreamcast as it was nearing the end of it's extinction and decided i would like to finish that list. Now I'm currently working on Neo Geo Pocket and 3DO. I collect because it's fun trying to complete a particular list, and i'm probably just a big kid who still loves to play games wether it be an Atari 2600 cart, 3Do or Xbox and now that i have my Xbox moded and loaded with my favorite emulators i'm set!! Wahoooo!!! :D

[thekeepr]

I collect so that I may play, I play so that I may collect.
The Keeper 8)

[punkoffgirl]

I never MEANT to start collecting, honest.
To this day, I'm still more gamer than collector, but I think I'm being swayed to the dark side as I find myself buying more and more games that I haven't gotten around to playing yet. It starts simple, innocently picking up a game you "heard was good", taking it home, not getting a chance to play it, picking up a couple more games in the meantime..

[maxlords]

Well, I never used to collect, but I got started way back in high school. Back then, all I had was an SNES and a Genesis. I had no job, hence no money to get more than one or two games at a time, and so I had to trade in one or two games to get another game. Then, after a month or so, I found that I wanted to play the games that I had traded away again! So I went and got them again and said to myself "Screw this, I'll just keep em and buy games when I can". Now I have a 600 game collection that just keeps growing. I'm not sure quite when this morass slid down the slope from collection to obsession though :) I'm proud to say that I'm not an obsessive gamer that gets games just to "have them in my collection". I just buy games that I think I'd like to play, and that's all. Sometimes it takes me a while to get to them all, but I don't buy them just to have em all. I don't even WANT most games, as I don't like half the stuff that's out there, and I don't want to have every game for ANY system, cause for every system, there's at LEAST a handful I'd NEVER play and most likely aa lot more than that. It's all about having what I want to play on hand for me! :)

What I've found though, is that once you start "collecting" you don't have time to play as much. I wish I could have stayed in HS forever, cause real life just gets in the damn way of gaming! I never seem to have as much time as I used to to play all these games! On a separate note, I also have collected stamps (really!), and still collect comics, board games (sorta), and sci-fi/fantasy novels. I think it's partly a "collecting" habit that gets you into game collecting, as I started out just collecting comics and my collecting has spread to many many realms.