To new collectors from an old collector... Don't do this.

[Rob2600]

It sickens me that the latest Time Crisis is almost $100 when Duck Hunt or Hogans Alley are still fun.

For the Wii, Link's Crossbow Training is only $20 and Ghost Squad is only $30.

[Borman]

And Time Crisis can be easily found for 50-60$ brand new

But I know the feeling of having too much stuff! I had a huge collection a few years ago, and now Im down to basically stuff I want or like.

[RJ]

My point is, the latest stuff costs way too much when similar games just as/even more fun still can be had for much less. Current-gen systems are simply overpriced & underwhelming, which helped me stop the buying/collecting madness.

I'm not going into a whole deal about older vs. newer games. I just know nothing can get me interested in this gen, there are too many factors against it.

[digitalpress]

I totally understand where you're coming from.

Over the past year I've had long discussions with my wife about "the collection". What good will it do me in my later years? I don't even expect to reach later years. I have no family members interested enough in the history to hand it down to. We keep saying "better to enjoy it now", which means it's pretty likely I'll liquidate it in the near future and live high on the hog for my elder years. Only thing really holding us back is that we're both really busy and doing just fine financially so nothing is pressing me to sell it off (at the store first, of course) at the moment.

But space and organization is a huge issue here as well. Good luck taking care of it all, I'm not looking forward to that task.

[Goblin]

I came to the same conclusion last year, while preparing for baby #1. Why hang onto 3 variations of the Intelivision when I never liked playing it? Do I really need 6 different 2600's? I sold a great deal, and then gave away a great deal more. I streamlined down to a handful of systems that I really liked. This allowed me for the first time to sit down and enjoy playing what I already had. It was also quite liberating to consciously walk past an EB and not go in. Up until 5 days ago I don't think I bought a game in well over a year. I never really bought games as a long term investment, although I have speculated a bit and bought a few items to resell.

Just tonight it took me 30 minutes to locate a PSP demo I knew I had, and that drove home the fact that I still have way too much on hand. 2008 will see a new wave of cleaning and streamlining. Most importantly a hobby should be something to allow you to relax with, once it begins to overtake your life and turns into an obsession or a side business then it's time to step back. As someone earlier said, it is important to have a life outside of video games.

[ncman071]

i'm 27 and started collecting around 7 years ago. at the time i was in a very unhappy relationship with a psychotic biatch. it was just too hard to break up because, well, she gave me a few pleasures that were hmmm unavailable other wise, so i stupidly stuck with her. anyway, since i was unhappy with her and she was basically draining my life, i guess i had to find something to make up for what i was losing in my social life. so i started going to funcoland nearly every weekend and spending my small check on snes/genesis/dreamcast games. during that 2 year sick relationship, i managed to buy around 180 games. when we broke up, i still collected some but it was definitly not that important anymore. 2 and 1/2 years ago i got married to a girl that i had been dating for 3 years and for the most part we have a happy marriage. i still collect but it goes in phases. i notice when we do have problems i play games a lot more and buy game a lot. however, when everythings great, i still play the games but am not going out and trying to buy every game i see.

i've tried to be careful with collecting. one thing that i have started doing is trading in ps2/original xbox titles to gamestop when i'm trying to buy new games. i'm a teacher and my wife works at our local hospital, so our income is not that great. i cant afford to go and buy a bunch of games anymore. however, i did take my christmas money and bought mass effect, college hoops 2k8, madden 08, and nba live 08 for the xbox 360 and i bought metroid prime 3 and super mario strikers charged for the nintendo wii. my wife gave me mario galaxy for christmas. i also got an LCD monitor to both replace our old monitor that was going bad and to connect my 360 to. needless to say, i kind of went over the $180 i got for christmas this year which i actually feel bad about. we are not rich by a long shot. but anyway, you guys have a great new year.

btw, i also have in excess of around 400 videogame magazines ranging from 1993 to present. if you want to take a look at my collection:

http://club.ign.com/b/list/custom?lid=100018

[Stark]

Can I get a hug please?

I need it after reading all these sob stories. This entrie thread is unhealthy.

[Steven]

Bottom line... this hobby can drive you crazy if you let it. Don't let it own you! It's far too easy to spend lots of money and acquire lots of things that take up lots of physical space. I really wish I'd kept control of myself and tried to see where I would be in 20 years. Don't buy for the sake of buying!

Indeed it can. A lot of times, it can be easy to fall into that trap of buying old games for the sake of buying, and for the sake of clinging onto the past. There comes a point where it becomes unhealthy. I mainly play my SNES these days, and when people tell me "But you're missing out on all the good stuff elsewhere!" I say hey, you can't play them all. So I stick to what appeals to me most, and I'm no longer a collector-gamer, right now I'm more of a gamer. It's critical to be at peace with yourself in this hobby. That 'next great hunt' or whatever can be exhausting. I'm at the point where by and large I've stopped hunting, and more busy enjoying what I have.

It's all about being at peace with where you are in this hobby. There were many times where I too felt burnt out, and buried in my own hobby. There's so much more to life than games. Definitely do not let gaming get in the way of a healthy lifestyle. Balance is everything and the best thing one can embrace to enjoy a well-rounded life.

Today my cousins came down from half the country over to visit. My cousin is getting married this weekend -- that is why they've made the special trip down. I haven't seen these cousins in 5 years. Enjoyed a quality day and dinner with them just today. Things like this remind you how insignificant video games are in the big picture.

[Soviet Conscript]

Can I get a hug please?

I need it after reading all these sob stories. This entrie thread is unhealthy.

i know...its very depressing. i almost want to give up collecting

i thought about listing all the posatives of haveing a healthy hobby just to state the opposite view a little.....but i'm so depressed now...

i think i'll go on a game buying bing to chear me up!!

[Overbite]

I was like this with my gaming mags but I finally just gave them away to a DP member so I could have more space.

I don't really collect games so I only have what I play, and my only "duplicates" are 2 copies of Mutant League Football, 2 of Sonic 3, and a model 1 and 2 genesis.

[Mangar]

Bottom line... this hobby can drive you crazy if you let it. Don't let it own you! It's far too easy to spend lots of money and acquire lots of things that take up lots of physical space. I really wish I'd kept control of myself and tried to see where I would be in 20 years. Don't buy for the sake of buying! Make sure you have space to store your crap! That stuff you buy today will NOT be an investment tomorrow!

Embrace emulation. It's so much neater.

Good advice, and i luckily never fell into this pit. My entire collection was always neatly displayed. Next to my home theater TV, I have two large wooden bookshelves on each side. On each self, was my collection of game consoles, all hooked up into a centralized box/receiver. You hit the button, and thats the system you got to play. All the games themselves were sort of hidden away, and there were no doubles, triples, or variations. The key point being that my entire "collection" so to speak was functional in nature. After I hooked up a PC to my living room TV, and learned that i could essentially place every single game ever made up until the PSX/Dreamcast era on a 1TB drive, and play them all through emulation - I liquidated most of my holdings and original consoles, and moved on.

Emulation is just so far advanced nowadays, that theres almost no need aside from nostalgia purposes to collect older systems. You can configure most emulators to have complete displays of Box Art, Cartridge Pictures, and scans of the original instructions. Not to mention that you are often using superior controls and getting a better picture then you would be with the old Odyssey 2 hooked up with RF cables. This is not to say that I've gotten rid of EVERYTHING, or don't have a couple of "conversation" pieces on display. (Vectrex on an End-Table being a personal favourite) But with no real vested interest or "drive" to own complete collections of this, or 28 different label variations of Atari 2600 Combat - I find that i tend to enjoy what i have left more, and I can also pick and choose from items that I really actually WANT badly. Which when I move to a bigger place will be some arcade cabinets for a dedicated game room

Oh - For anyone curious - I use www.gameex.net to manage my emulation collection. If you are talking a large amount of consoles, and HUGE rom collection - It's just a perfect way to have everything centralized and still look nice. Very configurable and user-friendly.

[otoko]

hmm.. Dunno. I've thought about selling my collection to bring in some money sometimes. I know there's also Emulation. Takes up less space.. but nothing is the same as the original.

I don't think I'll bring myself to selling it in the near future... but I don't know. At least it does not own me yet.. me and my cheap skateness.

[suckerpunch5]

here it is . . . the post holiday let down.

[Jumpman Jr.]

To me, its only about collecting things that I know I am interested in. Why did you have so many duplicates of consoles? I don't have any duplicates of anything in my entire collection, aside from one bin of NES games that I use to trade (which only consists of 30 or so games). I think walking into my room and seeing 5 NES's would just make me think "what the hell am I doing with all of these "NES's?"

I think its all about collecting what you're interested in, and trimming the fat. Get rid of all of those duplicates and anything that you're not interested in. If you're not interested in anything, well then yeah, you've got a bit of a problem.

[Dire 51]

I had to sell off my entire collection in 2004, which at the time totalled about 12 consoles and close to 1000 games. I've only gotten a small fraction of it back: 4 consoles and about 150 games, but what I did get back were my absolute favorites (and through a surprising twist, they were my original copies. I'm glad about that, as there was so much history tied up in them).

Despite bemoaning the loss of my collection for the longest time, I finally came to the realization that as long as I had my favorites, they were really all I needed. Out of the many games I did not get back, I can think of exactly four that I will eventually repurchase. The rest I don't miss at all.

(and for those of you wondering what the four are: R-Types, Radiant Silvergun, Ikaruga and Akumajuo Dracula X: Chi no Rondo)

[rupert]

It seems that some of you lack a focus on what your trying to achive, I think it must be pretty difficult to collect for multiple consoles and I can really imagine it would start taking over your life.

Ive stuck firmly to one format - and beleave me thats enough. It's totally took over one room of the house, and I do have quite abit of leftovers I want to sell and havnt got round to it (20+ loose Master System's from buying bulk lots).

Ive got other systems with games but I don't think I could 'collect' for more than one system.

So my little nugget of advice is just have a clear idea of what you want to collect and not just buy up everything that catches your eye (plus try and keep on top of selling/ trading off what you don't really want)

[Fuyukaze]

just box it all up and forget you have it.

then come back, go thru it, and enjoy it all over again.

you wont be taking it with you when you die, but you also wont be taking anything else with you either. if your worried about what your family is going to do with all of it when your old and dead, dont. they'll just pick thru it looking for what they want or what they think they can sell for big money, fight among each other over who loved you the most, and say alot of ugly things about each other and yourself about how they were always cheated by you.

you'll be worm food, your precious treasure will be scattered to the corners of the earth (or a landfill close by) and no one will give a rats ass about why that copy of super mario / duck hunt ment all that much to anyone. kids never apreciate the value of their parents posessions unless they know someone else values it in currency.

i'm not being nice but be honest, have you ever seen a funeral where the family didnt look like a pack of waiting vultures looking to pick the flesh off a freash corpse? it's not nice but it's human nature. and besides, if your family doesnt fight over who gets it, the government certainly will.

[Emuaust]

If it is a major problem you can ship everything to me, pm me for shipping details!
Ill store it and love it for you!

[blissfulnoise]

i'm not being nice but be honest, have you ever seen a funeral where the family didnt look like a pack of waiting vultures looking to pick the flesh off a freash corpse? it's not nice but it's human nature. and besides, if your family doesnt fight over who gets it, the government certainly will.

I hope you're either a teenager or have never lost anyone because it sounds like your only insight into the loss of a loved one comes from television shows.

When you lose someone really close to you, the furthest thing from your mind is squabling over their property.

[grolt]

Man...none of this has to be so dramatic. Pick a system you like, go for it, and once you're done collecting, take the time to play each and every game. You'll never run out of games to play, and if you ever get bored, through it up on eBay and make a little profit from a healthy hobby.

I started doing this with the Saturn, and then later with the Master System, and it's been great. I've gotten so many of the games that I always wanted to play, and slowly I'm making my way through playing all of them. I'll be set for years, and no strings attached. If everyone else treats it this way, there's nothing but good.