Most Neurotic Collecting Habits?

[Icarus Moonsight]

Top scale grades should be difficult to acquire, even in those cases where you are getting it as direct as possible with minimal distribution and handling into a clear plastic crypt. There is always a chance for some imperfection. It's meaningless really. You can have a game that has transfered hands 5 times come out of grading better than a fresh from the case copy. All it takes is a little carelessness with a case knife.

The only value I could possibly get out of buying a slabbed game is the third party verification that it is what it is claimed to be. Fortunately, most the people I have dealt with have been honest in representing the items they sell and there is always a means to correct in the few times it has gone bad. So, third party verification isn't worth the expense. Maybe if something being bought was a unique item and very expensive, then the extra cost is negligible. Like say a sealed Stadium Events... I can understand slabbing that sucker.

[SegaAges]

Graded newer games. I think this is beyond sealed collectors. Why would you grade a game you can go buy for $50 from Best Buy right now? I don't know, it is not me.

As for the sealed collectors thing, I don't have a problem at all with it since I do it with action figures, so who would I be to judge?

[FxMercenary]

This may seem odd, but I refuse to let anyone into my collection room unless they wash their hands first. Quite a few of my friends work in Automotive, and always seem to have stained black hands.

I even purchased a gallon of Gojo for when they come over, and make them scrub down first.

I can imagine Oil stains on my NES carts.


I also open up every ebay game i buy and use the cleaning kit i bought off ebay to clean every cart before putting it in my system. In retrospect, I have never had to replace my pin connectors after I first replaced them when buying the system off of ebay.

It really is amazing to see how much filth gets on those cart pins that I get in the mail, its disgusting.

I have probably spent over 50 hours cleaning all of my cart games and restoring them to mint playing condition.

[Zebbe]

I know absolutely nothing about the process either. I've never seen a game with a '100' score, but if one ever pops up, we both know that some misguided fool will empty their bank account to get that game into their collection to be perfectly angled up on a shelf or curio.

But then it will get a visible scratch when it gets shipped from VGA to the fool, making it only 80+ (in reality).

[SpaceHarrier]

This may seem odd, but I refuse to let anyone into my collection room unless they wash their hands first.

I can understand this one to a degree.

For me, it's the 'pizza-grease' mentality of alot of my gamer friends, who, figuratively, always seem to have some drippy fast food in one hand and a controller in the other. It always grosses me out when we are playing a fighting game, switching off the slime-laden controller.

Oh, and when they switch out a (cd/dvd-based) game, the other gets sat data-side-down on the table.

Because of this, I never bring the original case over when I bring a game to their place (always use an old cd jewel case) and only I handle my game.
_________________

I've brought this up in another thread here, but I used to have a penchant for buying older sealed games.. just to open them! Let me explain: I used to work at a Blockbuster video and saw all sorts of .. life forms coming through. I saw how filthily our rental items were treated and the clientele who handled them. It kinda grossed me out sometimes.

Because of that, I wanted to avoid previously owned ANYTHING. I remember paying an outrageous amount for a sealed black label copy of Final Fantasy Tactics and I didn't even regret it.. until the GREATEST HITS version came out 3 months later There was also a certain joy to be had from being one to 'de-virginize' the game, as it were .. tearing off the cellophane, breaking that PSX seal..

I've given up on that for the most part, the $$ is just too much of a waste, it literally makes no sense, but was my most neurotic gaming tendency.

[NayusDante]

I have purchased ONE sealed game for the sake of keeping sealed, and that's Mega Man X Collection (PS2). I already own at least one edition of all the games aside from Battle & Chase, but I wanted it for my personal collection. I wouldn't say it's neurotic if it means something to you personally. Sealed Stadium Events, on the other hand...

[Rev. Link]

I will admit, when I get an import game I like for it to have the spine card. But it's not necessarily a deal breaker if it doesn't have it.

If I had a ton of money to waste, I'd like to buy some really expensive graded game, then make a Youtube video of me opening it up.

[Collector_Gaming]

Yeah, first time I heard about five screw and three screw I just went "people CARE about that crap?!"

i was going through making my collection database on RFGeneration.com and i was going through the NES games and was like wtf!

For instance Metroid
i got both the original Cartridge and the Classic series cartridge as pictured here

Now
The classic series is all by itself with variant and thats it
the original has
5 screw
3 screw (round label)
3 screw (oval label)

....... really?

[MrNelson]

What exactly are these VGA rating I keep hearing about?

[Ninjamohawk]

I do it to help keep dust out of the console connectors, not because I'm lazy, or want to play that game later. I actually don't like doing it, as it takes it off the shelf, but I think it's necessary.

I do this too but I have dupes for this purpose so that I can still have a full shelf.

Man we're all weird. :P

I also do the variants thing but only for games that I really love, like Zelda, Mario or Final Fantasy.

[Snappaccino]

What exactly are these VGA rating I keep hearing about?

Its when people spend money to have someone lock their already sealed games into another layer of plastic with a meaningless number attached to it.

[WelcomeToTheNextLevel]

I organize my collection by CONSOLE release date. For example, I keep my Genesis games before my Game Gear games and after my Turbo Grafx 16 games, as the Genesis release date (9/15/1989) is before the Game Gear release date (4/26/1991) and after the TG16 release date (8/29/1989).

Here is my order (Release dates from giantbomb.com or Wikipedia)
1. Fairchild Channel F - (8/??/1976)
2. Atari 2600 / VCS - (10/14/1977)
3. Magnavox Odyssey 2 - (12/2/1978)
4. Mattel Intellivision - (01/08/1980)
5. Coleco ColecoVision - (08/05/1982)
6. Atari 5200 - (11/??/1982)
7. Vectrex - (11/03/1982)
8. Atari 7800 - (06/??/1984)
9. Nintendo NES - (10/18/1985)
10. Sega Master System - (10/16/1986)
11. TurboGrafx 16 - (08/29/1989)
12. Sega Genesis - (09/15/1989)
13. Sega Game Gear - (04/26/1991)
14. Super Nintendo - (09/21/1991)
15. Sega CD - (10/15/1992)
16. Panasonic 3DO - (08/27/1993)
17. Sega Saturn - (05/11/1995)
18. Nintendo Virtual Boy - (07/21/1995)
19. Sony Play Station - (09/09/1995)
20. Nintendo 64 - (09/29/1996)
21. Neo Geo Pocket Color - (03/16/1999) - NEO GEO HOME CONSOLE TO BE ACQUIRED IN JULY
22. Sega Dreamcast - (09/09/1999) Who could forget that?
23. Sony Play Station 2 - (10/26/2000)
24. Game Boy Advance - (06/11/2001)
25. Nintendo Game Cube - (11/18/2001)
26. Nintendo DS - (11/21/2004)
27. Sony PSP - (03/24/2005)
28. Xbox 360 - (11/22/2005)
29. Sony Play Station 3 - (11/17/2006)
30. Nintendo Wii - (11/19/2006)

16.5 - I also have an Atari Jaguar (11/18/1993) - games coming APRIL/MAY 2011

In total, 31 video game consoles (32 from July 2011), meticulously organized. Loose games come before boxed games for every console - e.g. loose Genesis games come right before boxed Genesis games.

[jordandavid]

I have 2 piles of cart based games. Those that have been cleaned and those that have not. Those that have not, are not allowed to be put in a console untill they have been opened, polished and cleaned.

THIS.

why would I gunk up the connector on my consoles by putting a cartridge with 20-25+ years of crud into the system without cleaning it. HAVE YOU SEEN the condition of the contacts on some of these games from flea markets/thrift stores? I think some people store their games in the chimney of their coal stove or their toilet tanks or something...

I do tend to leave games in my 64 though, because it's my most played system. I feel like I'd be allowing more dust into the connector if I took out a game every time I turned the console off for a couple hours and then put it back in and turned it back on every single day. Either way, I understand why someone might have a minor problem with someone who leaves games in a console for months. However, the Expansion Pack (I know you were joking) is an entirely different thing. The springs would never weaken enough in your lifetime to cause a problem. (Staying on the expansion pack though, 1. When I bought my expansion pack used I took it apart and cleaned it like a cartridge. 2. I would NEVER put a 3rd party expansion pack (the ones with the slits in the red part instead of the holes) in my 64, just not something I would do.)

[tubeway]

What's most amusing about sealed game collecting is that shrinkwrap isn't meant to hold up over time. I'm betting the cellophane will eventually brittle and yellow, staining and sticking to the boxes. I see old comic sleeves and pre-nes sealed games like this. Heck, the formuula for today's cellophane plastic may be even worse.

[Family Computer]

Well, as far as buying and keeping a sealed game, I can see it in a limited fashion. I guess something with a really "artistic" and relatively big box used for display could make sense. Like, lets say you have a huge Mario collection, I could see wanted to own something like a sealed NES Mario3 to display.

But with newer CD jewel case games or DVDs? I mean there is little charm to the packaging to begin with so who cares between sealed or not.

So if someone wants 5 of their favorite sealed games to display thats great.

The OCD idea that I am referring to are people that literally just collect tons and tons of sealed games. Straight up mental illness.

And I don't think it relates that well to things like figures. Honestly, action figures usually look the best when displayed with their packaging. It also has the type of package where opening ruins the actual package. You can buy a PSX game and be extremely careful about opening it, and keep it completely mint—and buy used games in this condition without resorting to hoarding sealed games.

[Jorpho]

The one comment I really choked on was when someone said they didn't like recombining their loose carts with "orphaned" boxes and manuals purchased separately, since it's mixing two elements of a set. Gah?

What exactly are these VGA rating I keep hearing about?

http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?t=115443

[Aussie2B]

How about when people can't handle a case or a piece of a jewel case being replaced even when they're completely generic and the replacement matches exactly?

[MrNelson]

Ugh, why bother paying a premium for a sealed game, let alone one that has been "graded". Games are meant to be PLAYED, not kept in shrinkwrap on a shelf.

[allyourblood]

Ugh, why bother paying a premium for a sealed game, let alone one that has been "graded". Games are meant to be PLAYED, not kept in shrinkwrap on a shelf.

Don't worry. That guy who keeps a sealed SMB3 on his shelf isn't depriving anyone. Life will go on.

[fergojisan]

I am a proud variant collector, but only for the 2600, and only for Atari-produced carts (although I have a few Imagic variants). I will also save boxes if I get a dupe and they have different backs.

One thing I was thinking about doing was collecting the variations of the numbers stamped on the end labels of some of the 2600 picture labels. I was going to pick one game and try to find as many different stamped numbers as possible (the theory on those numbers is a production code, the year and the week if I remember right). I haven't actually done this yet, but I'm sure I will.