The Wild is Dead... to me.

[ClubNinja]

Surprise, surprise. This is *not* your typical, run-of-the-mill "OMG the wild is dead!" threads. Instead, it's a brief account of my recent observation that, in general, the wild is dead *to me*.

See, I've been getting out of several segments of this hobby that haven't been "doing it for me" lately. I can categorize it as mainly "popular old stuff" - NES, 2600, INTV, etc. I'd find games, clean them, catalog them, then never ever touch them. Eventually, I realized that it would be far better for me to pass these things along to other collectors and exchange them/profits from them for items more exciting or interesting to me. This works well now.

So, I'm at the flea market last weekend. Giant flea. Lots of games scattered about, though very few items considered more than uncommon at best. To many fellow collectors, this kind of scene would be a goldmine. To me, at this point, it was just as boring as a craft fair. I did manage to pick up a Sega CD game that rekindled fuzzy memories, but that was entirely the end of it. Meanwhile, in internet land (forums, newsgroups, ePay, etc), I've been pulling in all sorts of fun stuff lately - Neo Geo, PC Engine, Mega Drive, various PSX and DC titles that aren't too common at the local EB, and so on - not just imports, in case it looks that way. While I still find games out and about, it's the online community/sellers that have been fueling my collection lately.

And I like it.

I've found myself getting much more excited about returning home from work to find a package or two on the porch than I ever did scooping up an armload of games at a thrift store. Sure, you rarely find the same deals in pricing online as you might in the wild, but when you're selectively obtaining exactly what you wanted in the first place, does that really matter as much? Is buying a favorite $50 Neo Geo game online worse than buying a box of dirty and common Atari games for $10 at a yard sale? I don't think so at all. In fact, it's something that makes collecting more enjoyable to me now. Anyone else experience a personal "death of the wild" and find that it actually boosted their collecting morale?

[Lemmy Kilmister]

I still love the feeling that i get when i find a game i have been looking for in the wild. Though i totally agree with you on the whole trading on-line bit. I like that because you can talk to the person about things and get to know them a little more. Like this guy on one trading web-site i'm on is giving me a free megaman x2 manual and secret of mana map and manual. It's because of people like him that i do do online trading.

[Kid Ice]

Your preference of online hunting over hunting in the wild brings up a "chicken or the egg?" type of question...if it weren't for the online aspects of collecting (especially e-bay), would all this stuff be out there in the wild?

Another factor contributing to the "death" of the wild (and it is pretty much dead to me too) is the change from cartridges to disks. When 2600 games dried up in the wild I moved to NES carts. My next logical step (considering my personal preferences) would be PSX games, but there are a number of problems w/ collecting PSX games in the wild...the disks get scratched easily, the prices stay up there a little bit because they can still be used on the PS2, etc.

[AB Positive]

I for one agree completely. Very rarely do I find something in the wild that I end up keeping. Mostly I just try and find good tradebait to get stuff (read: AES, DC, Sega CD, NGPC) that I personally want. I picked up 10 Genesis games a while back and kept one (Kid Chameleon). To me the wild is more of a two-step method to get my stuff.... get stuff to trade for stuff.


I think we're simply people that prefer the more obscure stuff rather than the 'common' systems. Like folks that prefer indie music to more mainstream stuff.


-AG

[ClubNinja]

I think we're simply people that prefer the more obscure stuff rather than the 'common' systems.

I think that's reasonable to suggest. Just to further that idea, the only two pre-SMS systems that I've kept my collections of are the Channel F and Arcadia 2001. Nice and obscure. Go figure

[christianscott27]

excellent! one less collector i have to worry about in the region!!

i used to like trades via the mail but with the kid around its just a hassle, much prefer the face to face sort of thing. i'll never give up on the wild, its been very good to me over the years, and with my "anything and everything" game collecting strategy i almost never come home empty handed. there are many games i'll never get around to playing in my collection but hey i'm one of those crazy building a library types. your shift works out well for me, you probably got half those out of favor games off me and now i can cherry pick the best of your remainders, the cycle of life!

[dethink]

my collection wouldn't be possible without ebay. while i can find some US stuff in the wild that i would add to my collection, 9 times out of 10, it's a wasted trip. while the browsing and adventure is all part of it, nice genesis stuff in the wild is pretty much an "endangered species," if you get my drift. by the time i drive around town and sit in traffic wasting gas half the day to scour the few second hand stores, i might as well have just paid someone to ship it to me.

[ClubNinja]

excellent! one less collector i have to worry about in the region!!

I didn't say I wasn't going to continue the hunt, I just said that there was less in the wild that interested me. You can bet that I'll still be out there looking for Quadrun - once I find it, I'll just have the sucker up for trade/sale faster than you can say "todd drinks cheap beer"! The remainders will certainly be at our meet on Sunday, but I'd say the very best have already been picked.

[sniperCCJVQ]

i used to like trades via the mail but with the kid around its just a hassle, much prefer the face to face sort of thing.

Hmmm...that's remember me something

[-hellvin-]

Being as I have not collected very long, I think the wild has been quite the goldmine to me in just about one year's time. I have restarted collecting all my old game systems and tons beyond that and am amazed at what I personally have accomplished in all that time. Online deals are always very fun. I have pulled quite some amazing deals out of other forums but I will always be partial to the wild. I myself just try to never burn myself out on it. Go on a few key days to a bunch of key places. Then, maybe every week or so take a long trip out of town to Mesa for example and see what I can pull out of there since I last was there.

[captain nintendo]

I like visiting every pawn I can and looking through every single game at the local game store. Heck , thats how I found Starfox Super Weekend recently.
I have been turned off by the swap meets because everyone wants Ebay prices. But you do come across a good deal every now and again.

Is "The Wild" gone ? I dont think so for myself anyhow. There does seem to be alot more educated collectors and sellers out there however. All I can do is keep plugging away and hoping to find things I need.

By the way , I still am looking for a complete Snow Bros for the NES

[NintendoMan]

Oh man, I have completely given up on things in the wild. I am tired of finding overpriced, dirty as all hell, beat to shit games in the wild. Well, at least that's what everything is like around here.
I fuel my video game fire by ebay. I thank god for ebay! That's just the place I find everything I want.

[LazingBlazers]

... Anyone else experience a personal "death of the wild" and find that it actually boosted their collecting morale?

Welcome to the club. Being that I really only give a care about TurboGrafx and imports, and a few Saturn games (side note: I'm only 2 games away from the entire US TG library), the wild doesn't really do it for me either. Pretty ironic that I found number 4 on my TG Hit List in the somewhat wild, though. But I must say that it feels damn good to sit back, look at my collection and say, "I'm this close to owning everything that I truly want. I am this close to my goal." Of course current stuff is not withstanding for that comment, but it's really a goddamn trip when it comes to the old stuff... it multiplies your collecting morale tenfold.

[Ed Oscuro]

I've gone in the opposite direction from most folks - I started out online and have more recently moved towards looking offline. Not a lot of great stuff to be found at Goodwill; I know I've missed a lot of garage sales recently as well.

Really, though, it's pretty hard to find good stuff in The Wild; in the time it takes to hunt down a good find you might end up having spent enough time and gas that you aren't doing any better than eBay...

[Nez]

Granted its hard to find rare stuff. Becouse its RARE. I see good condition fun games all the time. The only problem for me is that I cant take the whole rack. I'll find a hard to find game now and again, but that is not my goal. I find stuff I want to play and I find it all the time.

Another reason people don't like the wild (IMO) is becouse they go out looking for something inparticular. This is never a good idea, becouse unless its common you pry will not find it that day. But if you go around looking for just games that you know kick ass you will do a lot better and enjoy the hunts more.

[Raedon]

I'll admit, I go to flee markets less and less. I will never find a Bubble Bath Babes there. 4 years every weekend is long enough to know, though my collections are completing finally after all these years and that wouldn't have happened in not for "the wild."

[PentiumMMX]

Oh man, I have completely given up on things in the wild. I am tired of finding overpriced, dirty as all hell, beat to shit games in the wild. Well, at least that's what everything is like around here.

I Agree, Every thing I find in the wild is Sprots Games, and stuff I have, and they always want $5 for loose N64 Games (I whoud buy it if it was rare, or if it's compleate!)

But, I have not given up in the wild yet, But It will get more chalenging to get games in the wild when Gamestop opens!

[chadtower]

The remainders will certainly be at our meet on Sunday, but I'd say the very best have already been picked.

Booyah, picked over a beer at John Harvard's, baby. He not only brought several hundred 2600 carts, but he also brought a pretty girl. It gets no better than that.

[Aswald]

"The wild" is pretty much dead for me, too.

The last really significant find for me was back in 2000. That's when I found a Roller Controller and a couple of games I didn't have for the ColecoVision.

I HAVE found a few decent NES games, but even those are few and far between. I have also noticed more Genesis games and consoles; is it now time to find the 16-bit items out there? Back in the mid-1990s I used to find quite a bit of ColecoVision stuff; now, it's been about "that long" for the 16-bit equipment.

[ClubNinja]

Booyah, picked over a beer at John Harvard's, baby. He not only brought several hundred 2600 carts, but he also brought a pretty girl. It gets no better than that.

Yep - Chad scored about 80% of my 2600 collection on the EZ-Payment Plan.

Twas a lovely evening of good beer and good company. Also Chad, I appreciate that latter comment. She's not part of the deal though