Collecting in the pre-Internet days

[Technosis]

I'm curious as to the collecting habits of those gamers who sought out classic games before the Internet was popular. Did you have any concept of rarity, or did you simply pick up whatever you didn't have? I collected ColecoVision stuff before the widespread use of the 'net, and I noticed that people often passed up rare games for sale simply because they believed that it must suck if they hadn't heard of it (I suspect some of those 3rd party Atari 2600 games sold for $0.99 during the "crash" helped reinforce this idea ).

[Pantechnicon]

Well, I once heard rumors of this print magazine ran by "a syndicate of East Coast collectors" that served the needs of the pre-Web collectors and gamers.... :-P

For myself I collected whatever interested me personally, predominantly Commodore and Atari 2600. During this time (1995-1997) I'm certain I obliviously walked past more than one grail in the thrift stores with nary a second glance, but the reason I started collecting was to give myself all the toys I could never afford during my first childhood, not to build a personal retirement fund, so I have no regrets. However, it would now be dishonest to say that Web-derived awareness of rarity doesn't fuel some of my modern thrift store visits.

So in that sense, I would say that the Web giveth and the Web taketh away. Yes I have gained knowledge about general rarities to keep an eye out for, but so have all the people I now have to elbow out of the way every week at Goodwill.

[YoshiM]

The only thing I knew that was rare was the Vectrex due to a "Game Doctor" blurb in an issue of Video Games & Computer Entertainment magazine. Oh yeah and the Tengen version of Tetris, again from a magazine article. Beyond that, I had no idea on the actual "value" of games. I just picked up stuff I never played before.

Ah, the good old days...

[Kid Ice]

I collected 2600 at the time and I considered any game I had never heard of a good find. My first contact with rarity guides was the classic videogame newsgroup (rec.videogames.classic or whatever). I was surprised by how *not* rare some of my games were. ;)

[roushimsx]

During this time (1995-1997) I'm certain I obliviously walked past more than one grail in the thrift stores with nary a second glance, but the reason I started collecting was to give myself all the toys I could never afford during my first childhood, not to build a personal retirement fund, so I have no regrets.

Same boat here. I spent quite a bit on NES carts during that time frame because I was trying to recollect everything that we had traded in for our SNES years beforehand. Along the way I just picked up pretty much everything that ever looked interesting in EGM and Nintendo Power but that I couldn't afford on my meager allowance (which I had to also spend on hockey/football/basketball/baseball cards!).

There was a used CD store that had a wall of used games for various systems and I went a little crazy there from time to time. Good times...good times. :)

[norkusa]

Wasn't really pre-internet days, but I started collecting in 1997. Mostly NES and 2600 stuff since that was mainly what I'd find out in the wild. At that time, the only rarity lists I knew of was Etler's NES list and the DP Collectors Guide #5, so I almost always had an idea of what was worth what. Almost had a disastrous trade when I first started collecting that involved my complete Hot Slots and Peek A Boo Poker for someones boxed Channel F system. :roll: Fortunately I figured out what they were worth just in time and have been holding onto them ever since.

I remember reading a real good article about 2600 collecting in an old issue of VG & CE (think it was around 1990 or 1991). I remember it talked about the Off Your Rocker prototype and even had an address of someone where you could buy a copy of it from as well as many other rarities. Man, if I knew then what I know now....

[k8track]

In this instance I must "pat myself on the back" and state that I was incredibly prescient in these matters since I started collecting from minute one. I kind of got a "late start" (in my opinion) in collecting--I got my Atari VCS on Christmas 1982, a year or two after all the other kids got theirs, but that was sort of the impetus that helped my brother and I lobby our mom for months and months beforehand. I did pretty well, considering my limited financial resources--I was only 11 at the time, living in the middle of nowhere in West-Central Illinois, and our (single-mom) family was kind of "living on the dole" to a small degree.

I saved every box and instruction manual from the first minute and kept them in perfect condition. Even all the warranty slips. Then, when the Crash of 1984 (NOT 1983, as Wikipedia foolishly insists) arrived, I really cleaned up at the bargain tables at Kaybee and the other places where 2600 games were going for dirt cheap. I started getting an allowance in high school and scraped every penny and put them towards comics and video games. When the NES arrived and got really popular, I really cleaned up and bought everyone's used games from them for cheap.

The real "salad years" were from 1987-1992 where everyone was dumping their old Atari, Intellivision, and Coleco stuff for dirt cheap. No one knew it would be worth anything, except for me. You could find all kinds of stuff at yard sales and thrift stores, and I cleaned up. I did have a concept of rarity even then, and tried to snap up everything I didn't have.

The best score ever--I'll never forget--was around November 1989, my freshman year of college. I was at the service counter at a grocery store and overheard a lady talking about her son's video game collection and how he wanted to get rid of it. I interjected, exchanged phone numbers, and ended up getting a huge Colecovision collection for $150 (which was VERY hard for me to scrape together back then) and later, his Atari 5200 collection for $60. I mean, this was a LOT of stuff. Some of my best memories from that year are staying in my dorm room on a Friday or Saturday night, watching Alien Nation and The Next Generation, and playing tons of Colecovision.

After that, eBay arrived, opened the floodgates, and changed everything. I was so upset that I stopped collecting altogether for about 2-3 years, from roughly 1994-1997. After that, though, I came back with a vengeance.

My point--before the internet, yes, I was collecting like crazy, and as far as I knew back then, I was the only one.

[bangtango]

I saw a write up on the Digital Press Collectors Guide in the old VideoGames magazine (Chris Gore era), that was the first I heard of the concept. This was back in 1993 or 1994. Like Kid Ice, I was surprised to learn most of my Atari 2600 games were pretty much "worthless."

Even before then, I was trying to save most of my boxes and manuals so it wasn't like I was throwing them away and suddenly saw the light. I just never thought of collecting until reading that small blurb.

[tom]

Between 80s and 90s everything was purchased new. Or from the newspaper/magazine... buy/sale page. Or the fleamarkets (UK = car boot sales). or Telegames UK (I was a customer with them since early 80s). Also, computer fairs (Longleat and Stafford). And PCW trade shows and such in London. Best times was in England during the 8-bit days, you could walk into WHSmith, or a petrol station, a newsagent, a sweet (candy for USAers) shop, and purchase a C-64 or Atari XL title for GBP 1.99 - 2.99.
I also seem to remember ordering some VCS games from an advert in Antic, can't remember the company name though, could have been B&C.

In early 91 I discovered The 2600 Connection in the USA, and Best Electronics too, both great sources for VCS and Atari Computer stuff. Year later DP came on the scene, and got to know even more American people, many dropped out of the scene a long time ago.
Usually, from UK, I sent cash in $s registered to sellers from USA, never had any problems. A very big friend was the late Kevin Oleniacz, who helped me to get loads of rare VCS titles.

And who can forget Werner from Belgium, hey!! Fun times...

[RadiantSvgun]

When I was in high school and middle school, I would save my allowances and money from yardwork and go to Replays. I bought games that I wanted to get when they came out. I didn't have a rarity concept at that time, it was just to have something to play.

[Nicola]

Here in Italy I was buying everything. The idea of rarity was elusive at maximum level.
Then I was buying japanese stuff from import shops.

Then Digital Press came, and my life changed forever!

[Wavelflack]

I didn't think any of it had real $$ value, and my rarity guide was simply based on my own experience and my (faulty) perceptions. For instance, two of the rarest games IMO were Kool Aid Man (a Kool Aid game? Gotta be rare!) and Star Ship (because it wasn't in any of my Atari 2600 catalogs, and none of my friends had it.)

I never sold any of my games, but only started "collecting" around 1986, when my friends decided they didn't want their Atari games anymore, and would sell me shoeboxes full for $5-$10. After 1987, I had better access because people were getting into the NES, and REALLY didn't give a shit about those old Atari games anymore.


Anyway, the first time I was made aware that anyone else in the universe collected games, besides my cousin and myself, was in 1996. I was fiddling with a Web TV unit at Sears, and by looking for Atari, I came upon something called VGR's list (I think). It was rated by letters, like C+, C-, ER, stuff like that. I was REALLY excited to see that there was actually a list of what was out there! Up to that point, my cousin and I had no idea what to tell our families to look for, because we didn't know what was available. The rarity listing was cool too, and we were both shocked (Kool Aid Man C+) and pleased (Chase the Chuckwagon ER) with the results.


Bottom line is that I had no concept of value, because until 96 I didn't think anyone collected them. And rarity was all based on mine and my cousin's experiences. He lived in Kansas City, and I live in Hutchinson, and if we only saw one copy of a game in all of our searches, it must be rare. And I was always trying to complete my "45 games" Atari catalog (I still don't have Flag Capture!), so Atari brand games that didn't appear in the catalog must be rare, and games that WERE in the catalog that I just couldn't find..must also be rare.


So that was our system.

[7th lutz]

I didn't consider my self a collecter in my early years as a home console owner which were 1988-1991. I didn't know what was a good atari 2600 or 7800 game at the time, when I purchased the game. After I played the game I know thought. I had the buying habbits of a collector as a result of my lack knowlege of what games were good at the time I bought them. Back in 1988-1991, there weren't that many game magazines that covered 2600 and 7800 games along with the fact there weren't that many game magazines I first started to buy games in 1988. If you owned a 2600 or 7800 system back then, you didn't a clue what you are buying in quality of the game.

My first game systems that remembered where the atari 2600 jr and the 7800. These were the systems that my brother and I bought for. For buying games at the time, I bought every game I didn't own at flee markets. I didn't know what rare and was not. All I know at the time was the 7800 was not popular and had less games out then the sms and nes and the 2600 was out in the market for a long time. The only way I could tell if a game was rare was not seeing an atari 7800 game that was released in 1990 but, was not at stores but in a sears catalog. At the time at the flee markets I went, 2600 games very in price depending on the flee market you went to or the stand. They were anywhere from 50 cents to $3.00 for a loose 2600 cart. The games weren't super rare like Chase the chuckwagon. They were anywhere from being a rarity of 1 to a rarity of 4. Outside of fleemarkets, back in 1990 or 1991, you had to places that sell toys like Children's palace or Circus world at the time to get boxed games on clearence up to $12.00 a game.

[Technosis]

At the time at the flee markets I went, 2600 games very in price depending on the flee market you went to or the stand. They were anywhere from 50 cents to $3.00 for a loose 2600 cart. The games weren't super rare like Chase the chuckwagon. They were anywhere from being a rarity of 1 to a rarity of 4. Outside of fleemarkets, back in 1990 or 1991, you had to places that sell toys like Children's palace or Circus world at the time to get boxed games on clearence up to $12.00 a game.

Flea Markets were just brimming with Atari 2600 games back in the NES era. They were so incredibly common, sort of like cassette tapes, or VHS tapes today. I remember some vendors having half a dozen milk crates full of them.

What also sticks out in my mind was the incredible number of handheld games. You'd even see numerous Coleco Mini-arcades like Pac-Man or Donkey Kong, and they were seldom priced over $5.