sacrificing part of a collection for the sake of another collection

[Iron Draggon]

just wondering who else here has ever had to sacrifice part of a collection for the sake of another collection... I just had to do it recently for the first time... sacrificed my entire D&D collection from my board game collection for the sake of adding Pac In Time to my video game collection... I know I paid alot more than I should've for it, but I wanted a new sealed copy, so I'd know that it would be in perfect mint condition... it took me over 10 years to find a new sealed copy for sale, and the asking price was $150... about twice what the game cost brand new back in the day... the price I passed up on several times in favor of getting something else instead, and then suddenly I wasn't able to find it new and sealed anymore, and I still hadn't gotten it yet... so I was willing to pay virtually any price to add it to my collection, and when it finally appeared on ebay, I had to have it... just one problem... I had no money at all... so I had to sell something, to be able to get it, and I had to be able to sell it FAST, before someone else used the $150 BIN on it...

I ended up selling my complete D&D boxed rule set collection... 6 sets in all... Basic Rules, Expert Rules, Companion Rules, Master Rules, Immortal Rules, and the Hollow World campaign set... I really didn't want to sell it, but it was all I had that was worth around $150, that I could sell very quickly... so I sold it all for $120, and got the extra $30 I needed by selling an old NHRA collectible that I happened to have two of... the 1/24 scale Tom Martino 1998 Six Flags NHRA Pro Stock Firebird model... I got $50 for it very quickly, but I felt like I was very lucky to get that much for it that quickly, because I had paid $30 for it about 5 years ago and was just hoping to get my money back on it...

anyhow, I actually sold the car first, and ended up using part of that money to buy some souvenirs from the Reliant Park World Series of Dog Shows that was held here recently, so I could add them to my Dog collection... I had received payment just minutes before I left to attend the show, and sure enough I ended up having to use $20 of that money for something I wanted there... so now I had to sell something else... well I had already posted an old Monopoly clock from 1984 with all the other stuff I was trying to sell, because I was afraid that I wouldn't even be able to get my money back from selling the car... and I lucked out and sold it for $50 shipped, which again was more than I thought that I'd be able to get for it, but it had to be shipped to Australia... that cost $30, so I really only got $20 for it, which was all that I expected to be able to get for it... anyway, so yet another item that I considered to be part of my board game collection was sacrificed for the sake of adding Pac in Time for SNES to my video game collection...

but now it's finally here, with the crisp new manual filed away with the rest of my SNES game manuals, and the cartridge filed away with the rest of my SNES carts... I've only played it enough to test it and make sure it works so far, but it's really cool and I am very pleased with my purchase, even if I did end up spending about $75 more than I really wanted to have to spend on it... and sacrifice all those old D&D sets that I really didn't wanna sell in the process... but I am also pleased with my decision to sell my D&D sets... I've decided that I can always replace them... prolly not with copies as nice as my original copies were, but that's OK with me, because I'm not planning on trying to replace them anytime soon, if ever... I'm just very happy that I finally have Pac in Time in my collection now, and I was able to help out a fellow board game collector in the process... the guy who bought the D&D sets had been looking for a complete set of those rule sets in mint condition for about as long as I had been trying to find a new sealed copy of Pac in Time... so it just doesn't get any better than that... knowing that my rare sacrifice made someone else as pleased as I am with my own rare find...

[Family Computer]

Collectors are crazy. I am not trying to knock you down at all, just some observations. It is weird how people will spend $150 on something that you personally wouldn't spend $10 on. Isn't that crazy? Even within the same collecting hobby of video games, or the same system SNES, it is really strange.

Second of all, it was interesting to see how you collect video games, D&D manuals, NASCAR models, and dog show memorabilia. Whoa...you are hardcore.

Lastly, you paid $150 (a huge premium for that game), in order to open it up, play it for 10 minutes and file it away!? I would think it would have to be a pretty important game for you, in order for you to pay that much.

I know collecting is a sickness, but damn, you're insane! ;p

And to answer your original question, yeah I have sold a collection for another one. I used to sell old video games that I still liked to get newer ones. You get ripped off doing this at EB or similar, so I eventually learned not to do it this way.

Also, I have sold videogames that I no long want in order to buy records.

[Blitzwing256]

I collect a ton of differnt things, but my most favorate thing to collect would be transformers (followed probably by video games) but I had collected magic the gathering cards as well and had all of the $$$ cards in multiples. I had gone to a star trek convention with a few friends and found a dealer that had a shitload of g1 transformers (before it became cool to like transformers and before all that reissue stuff) I didn't have a whole lot of money that day, but I noticed they had a case filled with semi rare to decent magic cards, I asked if they'd be interested in a trade, they figured i'd whip out some ice age rares or something but they decided to look, and I whipped out several moxes the black lotus and several of the uber rares, by the end of the day I was down 5 rare cards and walked away with about 300 differnt loose mostly complete transformers as well as a misb blitzwing (as you can guess my favorate charecter) mib soundwave runamock runabout jetfire and prime. as well as a hefty box filled with accessories and parts. sure I missed a few of those cards but overall I had much more fun with the boxes of transformers then 5 pieces of cardboard (that 4 of i had extras of) its all in what makes you happier

[Family Computer]

hey blitz, no one can deny that transformers are the shit! Great trade, no doubt about it. I bet those transformers have actually increased in value heavily since you did the trade. I just want a soundwave and a soundblaster, and maybe the guy that turns into a camera someday!

[Barbarianoutkast85]

Yea I was at a pawn shop once and they had a complete copy of Spider-Man: Web of Fire, AND a complete copy of Miracle Piano Teaching System. They wanted $15 for Spiderman and $25 for Miracle Piano and I had already blown all my money on other games/bills/rent. So I only had gas money for the week, so I asked the owner to put them behind the counter for an hour. I went home grabed a stack of DVD's (a decent sized stack because the owner only pays $3-8 a DVD) and sold them to the owner for store credit to buy the both. HA HA HA HA HA HA Now I'm very close to have all 708 US released genesis games.

[bangtango]

Yea I was at a pawn shop once and they had a complete copy of Spider-Man: Web of Fire, AND a complete copy of Miracle Piano Teaching System. They wanted $15 for Spiderman and $25 for Miracle Piano and I had already blown all my money on other games/bills/rent. So I only had gas money for the week, so I asked the owner to put them behind the counter for an hour. I went home grabed a stack of DVD's (a decent sized stack because the owner only pays $3-8 a DVD) and sold them to the owner for store credit to buy the both. HA HA HA HA HA HA Now I'm very close to have all 708 US released genesis games.

Awesome stuff. I know a lady who owns a second hand store near my work and she gives $2 of trade in for VHS tapes or any garbage cd's. I just have piles and piles of that sort of thing, some of which I grab for 10 to 25 cents at a lawn sale knowing I am just going to trade it in to that woman's shop.

I'm always bringing her in worthless stuff (cd's or vcr tapes) for $2 per pop of store credit and I can't count the number of "good" NES, Super NES and cube games I end up getting in exchange for rubbish that helps me rack up the store credit.

[Iron Draggon]

Collectors are crazy. I am not trying to knock you down at all, just some observations. It is weird how people will spend $150 on something that you personally wouldn't spend $10 on. Isn't that crazy? Even within the same collecting hobby of video games, or the same system SNES, it is really strange.

Second of all, it was interesting to see how you collect video games, D&D manuals, NASCAR models, and dog show memorabilia. Whoa...you are hardcore.

Lastly, you paid $150 (a huge premium for that game), in order to open it up, play it for 10 minutes and file it away!? I would think it would have to be a pretty important game for you, in order for you to pay that much.

I know collecting is a sickness, but damn, you're insane! ;p

And to answer your original question, yeah I have sold a collection for another one. I used to sell old video games that I still liked to get newer ones. You get ripped off doing this at EB or similar, so I eventually learned not to do it this way.

Also, I have sold videogames that I no long want in order to buy records.

actually I collect video games, board games, card games, Hot Wheels, tigers, cats, dogs, dragons, griffins, gargoyles, tiki idols, rocks & minerals, gems & jewelry, and amusement park stuff, in addition to all the more typical pop culture stuff like books, music, and movies, although I really have very few movies cause the ever changing format thing totally pisses me off... one could say that I even collect clothes as well, since I'm very much a clothes horse... in fact, most of what I bought at the Dog Show was shirts... so it's pretty amazing that out of all my years of collecting all this stuff, all at the same time, this is only the very first time that I've ever had to make any sacrifices like this... one would think that it would've happened alot sooner than now...

anyhow, I know it's nuts, but that's just the way I am... I don't have alot of big collecting goals left anymore, so it's no big deal for me to pay way too much for something that I really want in guaranteed perfect mint condition... and I really wanted that Pac Man game... it had eluded me for far too many years to let it get away on some silly little technicality like I happened to be flat broke at the time that I found it... I simply had to get it, no matter what the cost... why pass it up over the price, after over 10 years of searching for it? it was worth every penny just to be able to stop trying to find it anymore!

and it's totally BADASS... I'm so glad I finally have it now... I have no regrets about getting it or what I had to go through to get it at all... I won't miss all my D&D sets that much... I'd much rather have this game in my collection than to not have it in my collection instead... and I'm already getting far more enjoyment out of finally owning it and being able to play it whenever I want to than I ever got out of owning all those D&D sets and never having anyone to play D&D with me... however I do wish that it had occurred to me to scan all the pages of all those rulebooks before I sent them away... then I'd still have all the rules and be missing nothing more than my original sets... but it's just as well I didn't do that, since I'd still have no one to play with...

so believe me, I will be playing alot more of Pac in Time as the years go by... I didn't buy it just so I could file it away and never play it... if I was gonna do that, there would've been no point in me opening it, and I would be even more insane for doing so... but one man's ridiculous expense is another man's mere pittance for the priviledge of finally owning a long sought after item... alot of people pay $100's or $1000's for stuff that I wouldn't pay a dollar for... so you're right, it is crazy... but then video game collecting is a crazy hobby... look how many people think we're nuts just for collecting games? if I was worried about what other people think of my collecting eccentricities and anal retentiveness, I would've dropped out of this hobby many years ago...

[Fuyukaze]

I think your freakn nuts man. Realy I do.

Catch is, I think I'm nuts as well. Having played the game for years I never thought it was that great a game. It's ok and all but I'm surprised it fetches more then 60-70 for a new copy still. Reguardless of my or your interpitation of sanity, you knew what you wanted more and got it. I'm going to get a laugh every time I look at my own copy though.

Still hope for an actual Houston meet of DPers. Would be interesting to meet you and Dan.

[Family Computer]

fair enough, you should definitely buy or trade for what you want

I'm just surprised about how hardcore some collectors can be

[suckerpunch5]

I've sacrificed many an item at the alter of SNES collecting.

To me, it's just good collecting strategy.

[Iron Draggon]

I'm gonna laugh every time I look at my copy too... there's the game that I never bought way back in the day, because I thought it cost too much... so I paid twice as much for it a decade later... I can't believe I did it either... but I'm still glad I did it... it's so much better than staring longingly at that big hole in my SNES collection, wishing that I hadn't passed it up before... and now the hunt for new sealed copies of Pac Mania & Pac Attack is on... I've been passing both of those up for years too, because I couldn't find a new sealed copy of Pac in Time... and I kept passing that one up because I couldn't find a new sealed copy of Q-Bert 3... but I finally found that one a few years ago... and ever since then, my need to own Pac in Time as well has been even more important... so now I finally own both... and it's time to track down those other two Pac Man games that I've been passing up on for so long now... I should've gotten them both way back in the day... then I'd already be done with Pac Man games and own all of his games that I want...

[Policenaut]

Right now I am contemplating the crazy(totally crazy) idea of getting rid of my modded AES and use the money for other Sega stuff. AES carts are expensive and I really don't use it that much.

[Keir]

I've sold a lot of video games in order to buy records with the money, but I don't know if that counts since honestly I could've afforded the records anyway. Selling games just made it easier (and helped make room too).

A better example for me would be trading video games from one collection to add to another that I valued more. I've done that several times, for example trading a bunch of rare Genesis games for Princess & Frog and a few more HTF VIC-20 games.

[mnbren05]

I over the last 1.5 years have traded away my NES w/26 games, SNESw/39 games, Dreamcast w/12 games in pursuit of N64 stuff, Genesis items, and an Atari Jaguar. I really regret the trades some of the things like the SNES stuff I spent a long time putting together are growing up with. Plus the Jaguar was not what I expected and I sold it 2 months after getting it.

[neogamer]

I don't know if this counts, but I used to collect high value (thousands of dollars each) comic books. Now that the market has swayed and people are "stupid" enough to pay that type of price (to each their own-I am not knocking any collector of anything) for a "near MINT" comic book, I sold the collection.

I got around $50,000+ for it.

If that counts, I guess I sacrificed it. My true love was always video games. Comic books never really served a purpose for me, so when the market got "hot" I knew it was time to cash out.

Glad I did, prices are falling since the market high in 2003!

I didn't need the money, I just couldn't see having that amount of cash in something I didn't enjoy. Video games I truly love...

I actually bought the comic books just for the heck of it, then when third party grading entered the picture, prices soared. I guess I got lucky!

That's why I only collect MINT items-condition is always linked to value and people will pay for it! I know I do any way.

[Night Driver]

I sold off all but a few pieces of my Doctor Who collection to help finance my video game collection. I've never regretted the decision. My interest in Doctor Who had long since waned and the collection was just sitting in storage, unappreciated.

[cyberfluxor]

Poor poor people, selling off one collection for another. I can't stand selling anything off I don't already have a copy of let alone trading/selling things to support another hobby. Maybe it's just that I haven't been into the scene long enough, in that type of situation or I just appreciate my stuff in a different way. Either way it's all good and if it makes you happy then IMO you've succeeded in one of lifes greatest departments.

[bust3dstr8]

I sold off my Laseractive with Sega & NEC pacs and some games to get a 135 gal. fishtank w/ cherry stand and canopy.
Never regreted it once.

[Dangerboy]

I sold off a lot of gaming stuff to help fund my PSX collection. I will be auctionign off my complete (as in all boxed complete, every game) 32x library to help pay for another huge PSX addition.

If i'm not playing it, and know I never will, i have no problems selling it off.

[neogamer]

For me it was a simple decision: Why the heck do I want something that has value (i.e. the comic collection) that I no longer want.

I sold when the market ws high so I am happy.