What's your opinion on collecting sealed games or collecting for the sake of collecting

[Xander]

IMO a hardcore gamer is the dude that comes to your house and plays one of your sealed games that's sitting on your shelf for years. Neither person have played the game before. And the person who owns the game gets their ass kicked by someone who's never even heard of the game. That guy that beats your high score 10/10 times and you can never beat his score or beat him in a particular game. That is the hardcore gamer to me.

When I think "hardcore" I think Billy Mitchell and hot sauce. Not some guy with a good income that can afford to buy a lot of games they are never going to play.

I think a better term for what you are describing would be a pro gamer. The one that is very good at games.

In my opinion hardcore gamer does not have much to do with skills. Hardcore has to do with how you approach gaming as a whole. When you get really into it, you know very very specific informations about the industry as a whole or the subgenres you are interested into. Hardcore gaming is about playing a shit load of games and making gaming a big part of your life by devoting a part of your free time to it. It can also be about research, finding the little gems that may have fell into the cracks and playing those obscure good titles that never had their time in the sunshine.

In the end it's all semantics, but it's still a fun discussion.

[needler420]

Why dont you just marry Billy Mitchell already, I think you two will make a great couple

He's married and lives in hollywood FL with his 2 children and runs Rickey's World Famous Restaurant chain. He makes a great hot sauce btw.

[Final Boss]

It has made game collecting worse. But it happens with any target of collection after people with money to throw on "investments" like that get a whiff of the situation. Comic books and games are like that at the moment; kind of like a stock market.

[Haoie]

A little bit pointless. What's the point of you can't enjoy it?

[Aussie2B]

I'm not interested in pussyfooting around with people, so I'm not afraid to say that I think it's dumb to collect games with no intention of ever playing them (whether they're sealed or not) and it's not something I would ever do myself. If somebody wants my opinion on the matter, that's it; I'm not going to play all nicey-nice and hide my opinion with something like "well, it's just not for me". Anyone with a backbone can realize that it really doesn't matter what my opinion is on their collecting habits. There are plenty of people who would think it's dumb that I collect retro video games at all, and I'm perfectly fine with that. That said, people are entitled to spend their money however they want, and I can fully respect that. It's not worth my time to put much thought or concern into what other people buy, even if I do think it's dumb, so I really don't care much one way or the other at the end of the day.

[AceAerosmith]

Collecting without playing is pointless. Some sealed games may have value but the real value is in the playing, the experience.

"Hey, you've got a complete sealed PS2 game collection." Great, now you've got a collection that is 80% shit. Enjoy that.

[wiggyx]

A little bit pointless. What's the point of you can't enjoy it?

If they're spending the money and time to collect, then there's obviously some level of joy/satisfaction involved, even if it doesn't make sense to some of us.

[Mark1983]

I agree that "to each their own" however my opinion is that its a waste to collect video games that will never be played.

This, right here, is absolute truth. I mean, if someone goes out and finds a copy of a game that only 2,000 were made...wouldn't you get pretty pissed off if it's just going to sit around on someones shelf and NEVER get used? That just means one less copy to own, for us actual gamers, and the value will keep going up on it which will almost make it impossible for the average joe collector to snag one.

[Bojay1997]

This, right here, is absolute truth. I mean, if someone goes out and finds a copy of a game that only 2,000 were made...wouldn't you get pretty pissed off if it's just going to sit around on someones shelf and NEVER get used? That just means one less copy to own, for us actual gamers, and the value will keep going up on it which will almost make it impossible for the average joe collector to snag one.

Your argument lacks any sort of logic. Whether they play it or not has nothing to do with whether the average collector will have a chance to snag one. I know plenty of collectors who own and play really, really rare items and would never sell them. Chances are you'll never get to own their copies either, so it really doesn't matter if they play it every day or lock it in a vault never to be played again.

[staxx]

I have quite a few sealed games and I probably won't have time to open and play those. But I am still happy that I own those games. Life gets busy and you have those games there and you can play them when you retire, or have plenty of free time and etc. The kicker is this though, I have sealed games but yet I still can play the games. For example the PSP, I have a few sealed games and yet I can still play them. It doesn't take much to figure out how I am playing those games. The fact is this, I do not have to open those games and hey who cares if I keep em sealed. I bought them and I can do what I want with them. Hell I can even smash them and make it a youtube channel.

[Ed Oscuro]

IMO VGA is bad because, unlike other collecting scenes I've found, there's not even a pretense of pricing according to market. They just throw that shit in a box and slap on a price. Not exactly Beckett or PCGS quality there. It's a scandal. Now, the practice of putting the games in a slab - I don't think it makes sense given how complex games are, as compared with a coin where you need it to remain untouched to keep in shape. Games in plastic might be deteriorating inside, so it's somewhat different in my view.

To me, what really matters is condition. The only way to guarantee the important parts are in a good condition is to open it up and inspect it. Open it as carefully as you like, but you have to look - X-Rays don't cut it.

[The 1 2 P]

Seems like we get a new thread for sealed games every other week. I collect sealed games but like most people with common sense it doesn't matter to me rather somebody collects sealed games or loose games. Just like it doesn't bother me that some people don't like collecting sealed games. Everyone is entitled to their opinion but I still don't understand why some people get so anal over this when it isn't directly affecting them at all. And even though I collect sealed games I have extra open copies to play for atleast 70-80% of my sealed games.

What alot of sealed game collecting haters seem to forget is that eventually all of us are going to sell off our entire collection or pieces of it(minus those who will keep some of it to pass down to family members), either due to space concerns, to pay bills or just lack of interest in the future. Now who do you think is going to get more for their collection: the guy with 500 factory sealed games or the guy with 500 loose games? That was rhetorical btw. Like others on this forum I am part of the 800+ club. With two jobs, a family and a social life theres no way I will ever get to play all of those games. Eventually I will have to....wait for it.....sell the majority of them. And for that reason it was actually pretty wise of me to not open up every single one because I will get a much better return for selling them sealed. Thats as straight forward as it gets.

[PreZZ]

If i find old sealed games I wont open them, to keep their value high and i can play them anyway on an emulator. Other than that I wont bother buying sealed games on ebay, ill look for a complete mint copy to play.

[Niku-Sama]

i collect sealed games, but unintentionaly usually.

usually winds up that i buy a game and never make it arround to playing it so it is still sealed up, alot of my PS2 games are like this, Xenosaga games and rogue galaxy come to mind with some others...choro-q i think aswell.
but then there are the old games i get and not realize its factory sealed untill i go to play it and its like "oh, maybe i should get another copy. They are usually common games which to me makes a factory sealed game rather rare, thinking about how common it is, mario for instance, is suprisingly hard to find sealed still.

theres only a few games i have done this with. 3D Hot Rally for FDS is one. bought a copy at superpotato durring my visit, got home to play it and went "oh disk-kun is still instact and not peeled back" so i bought a cheepo copy on ebay, took me 3 years but i finally got it. Pole Position for 2600 is another one of those games but both of these games were cheap. pole position you can get for a quarter, 3d hot rally was i think $7 and it was a domestic seller from CA.


that being said though i have to say.....

screw the VGA, i know what my stuff is worth, infact its getting to the point where i should probably insure it

[needler420]

Seems like we get a new thread for sealed games every other week. I collect sealed games but like most people with common sense it doesn't matter to me rather somebody collects sealed games or loose games. Just like it doesn't bother me that some people don't like collecting sealed games. Everyone is entitled to their opinion but I still don't understand why some people get so anal over this when it isn't directly affecting them at all. And even though I collect sealed games I have extra open copies to play for atleast 70-80% of my sealed games.

What alot of sealed game collecting haters seem to forget is that eventually all of us are going to sell off our entire collection or pieces of it(minus those who will keep some of it to pass down to family members), either due to space concerns, to pay bills or just lack of interest in the future. Now who do you think is going to get more for their collection: the guy with 500 factory sealed games or the guy with 500 loose games? That was rhetorical btw. Like others on this forum I am part of the 800+ club. With two jobs, a family and a social life theres no way I will ever get to play all of those games. Eventually I will have to....wait for it.....sell the majority of them. And for that reason it was actually pretty wise of me to not open up every single one because I will get a much better return for selling them sealed. Thats as straight forward as it gets.

What you're doing then would completey affect others. You are manipulating the market. Basically in it for a monetary gain aside from whatever reason you have to collect whether it be nostalgia or whatever. Whether you play the games or not doesn't take away the fact that you reduce the amount of copies in circulation. That drives up prices no matter how you cut it. It's just a matter of gaming morals I suppose. Another example is earthbound the cart is going for $120 and the game has never been ported. Not everyone can afford $120 on a single game and not everyone is going to find one in the wild. I'd say between it's high demand and the fact it has yet to get a port makes people revert to illegal emulation.

VGA is a even better example of the WTF just happened. VGA won't grade a game unless it's sealed.

[understatement]

VGA is a even better example of the WTF just happened. VGA won't grade a game unless it's sealed.

Yea, I don�t understand why that is, when every other form of grading (collectable cards, comics, coins, and so on) can be done with open items. Although if they ever start doing that I could just imagine the butt hurt it would cause with the �games were meant to be played� crowd and might give some of their arguments validity.

What you're doing then would completey affect others. You are manipulating the market. Basically in it for a monetary gain aside from whatever reason you have to collect whether it be nostalgia or whatever. Whether you play the games or not doesn't take away the fact that you reduce the amount of copies in circulation. That drives up prices no matter how you cut it. It's just a matter of gaming morals I suppose. Another example is earthbound the cart is going for $120 and the game has never been ported. Not everyone can afford $120 on a single game and not everyone is going to find one in the wild. I'd say between it's high demand and the fact it has yet to get a port makes people revert to illegal emulation.

So basically if you own any game you�re doing this even if you�re playing it every day. So why do you condemn the sealed and collectors that don�t play their games, yet hold the ones that do up on a pedestal? I bet Billy Mitchell has a good bit of arcade games that he�s manipulating the market on.

[Bojay1997]

What you're doing then would completey affect others. You are manipulating the market. Basically in it for a monetary gain aside from whatever reason you have to collect whether it be nostalgia or whatever. Whether you play the games or not doesn't take away the fact that you reduce the amount of copies in circulation. That drives up prices no matter how you cut it. It's just a matter of gaming morals I suppose. Another example is earthbound the cart is going for $120 and the game has never been ported. Not everyone can afford $120 on a single game and not everyone is going to find one in the wild. I'd say between it's high demand and the fact it has yet to get a port makes people revert to illegal emulation.

VGA is a even better example of the WTF just happened. VGA won't grade a game unless it's sealed.

I'm sorry, but your examples and reasoning have become more and more ridiculous the longer this thread has gone on. Do you even understand the phrase "manipulating the market"? With very few exceptions, every game ever produced was produced in some kind of quantity. As such, there are many, many copies of everything, including Earthbound out there. The fact that anyone has more games than they can possibly play at any given point in time is not a manipulation of the market, it's simply a statement of the reality of how Americans consume and store more items than at any point in history.

The truth is, you're never going to own every game and neither will any one collector and unless you create the next Facebook or Google, there will always be people richer than you who can buy whatever they want whenever they want. You're not entitled to own any game and blaming other collectors for that fact is foolish and frankly pointless. If you really want Earthbound, all you need to do is save your money and then buy it when it pops up on Ebay or elsewhere as it does on almost a daily basis. If you think it's too expensive, then you simply can wait in the hope that the price goes down or buy one of the thousands of other great games out there that can be purchased very cheaply.

I think this really isn't a rant against sealed games or collectors, it's a rant against the fact that you can't afford to collect or buy games to play. Instead of spending all your time posting here and elsewhere, perhaps you should put that time and energy into getting an education or the experience to become financially succesful so that $120 isn't a lot of money to you.

[needler420]

I'm sorry, but your examples and reasoning have become more and more ridiculous the longer this thread has gone on. Do you even understand the phrase "manipulating the market"? With very few exceptions, every game ever produced was produced in some kind of quantity. As such, there are many, many copies of everything, including Earthbound out there. The fact that anyone has more games than they can possibly play at any given point in time is not a manipulation of the market, it's simply a statement of the reality of how Americans consume and store more items than at any point in history.

The truth is, you're never going to own every game and neither will any one collector and unless you create the next Facebook or Google, there will always be people richer than you who can buy whatever they want whenever they want. You're not entitled to own any game and blaming other collectors for that fact is foolish and frankly pointless. If you really want Earthbound, all you need to do is save your money and then buy it when it pops up on Ebay or elsewhere as it does on almost a daily basis. If you think it's too expensive, then you simply can wait in the hope that the price goes down or buy one of the thousands of other great games out there that can be purchased very cheaply.

I think this really isn't a rant against sealed games or collectors, it's a rant against the fact that you can't afford to collect or buy games to play. Instead of spending all your time posting here and elsewhere, perhaps you should put that time and energy into getting an education or the experience to become financially succesful so that $120 isn't a lot of money to you.

Bojay I see you on CAG so I know your one of the people I talk about. You buy games just to buy games and whine about how big your backlog is and that you'll never have time to play them. Then I see you buy more. And I can afford $120. You are completely missing the point. The point is that game has gone up about 50% in the last few years due to the high demand of collectors and gamers and I'm not willing like many people to pay $120 for a cart only game. The poster I quoted basically said he collects for a monetary gain as his main purpose. Do you not get the concept that he speculates what will go up in value and hoards that. Then someone ignorant like you says that doesn't manipulate the market. Whether it manipulates the market or not it still affects it for others. FYI just because someone doesn't want to drop $120 on a game doesn't mean they are financially unstable or lack a education.

This rant is no different then the topic that went pages long about the bad things about VGA.

[Bojay1997]

Bojay I see you on CAG so I know your one of the people I talk about. You buy games just to buy games and whine about how big your backlog is and that you'll never have time to play them. Then I see you buy more. And I can afford $120. You are completely missing the point. The point is that game has gone up about 50% in the last few years due to the high demand of collectors and gamers and I'm not willing like many people to pay $120 for a cart only game. The poster I quoted basically said he collects for a monetary gain as his main purpose. Do you not get the concept that he speculates what will go up in value and hoards that. Then someone ignorant like you says that doesn't manipulate the market. Whether it manipulates the market or not it still affects it for others. FYI just because someone doesn't want to drop $120 on a game doesn't mean they are financially unstable or lack a education.

This rant is no different then the topic that went pages long about the bad things about VGA.

First of all, I am on CAG as well as many other forums. I would defy you to present even a single post where I have ever whined about my backlog or lack of time to play my games on CAG. I'm a collector and a gamer, just like many people here.

Earthbound has gone up in value because it's a good game and uncommon, not because people are manipulating the market. Frankly, I can recall it being expensive five years ago, long before this latest wave of new SNES collectors starting collecting. If you wanted to buy it cheap like I did, you had to get it when Best Buy and Gamestop were clearing it out for less than MSRP when nobody seemed to want it despite extensive distribution and marketing by Nintendo.

At what point did 12P ever claim to be a hoarder or in it solely for profit? All he stated is that the reality of life is that many people end up selling their collections over time. There's nothing wrong with hoping to get what you paid or more for your collection if you're ever forced by circumstances or simply choose to sell it. The very forum you are posting in is owned by a collector who also owns a retail store that sells video games for a profit. Is Digital Press also an evil and manipulative company?

It costs significant time and money to collect, from driving around to find items or having them shipped to storing them and keeping them in good condition. Selling at a profit isn't market manipulation, it's being smart about making sure that you get fair market value for goods you are selling to others. I suppose when you sell a used car, you pay the other person to take it and if you donate it to a charity, you never take the tax deduction? I'm sorry, but you are a straight up troll who doesn't even bother to get his facts right. Why don't you take your hate elsewhere or have you been banned from everywhere else?

[Mark1983]

Your argument lacks any sort of logic. Whether they play it or not has nothing to do with whether the average collector will have a chance to snag one. I know plenty of collectors who own and play really, really rare items and would never sell them. Chances are you'll never get to own their copies either, so it really doesn't matter if they play it every day or lock it in a vault never to be played again.

There wasn't really any logic there because I didn't intend there to be any. It's just my personal opinion..which pretty much says collecting for the sake of collecting without any desire to play it just flat out sucks for the guys who collect with the intent to play.