What will happen to video games collecting?

[Synergy]

I've got a question about the future of our hobby. What going to happen in 12 years when our first round of cd based games turn 25 years old? Is'nt that the expected life span of disk based media? Are all my sega cds going to crap out on me? Kinda makes me think that this hobby dosent have much of a future.

Since I've made the decision to go back into collecting after selling hundreds of games a few years ago, I've been wrestling with this issue as well. A big factor of me selling off my collection I had up to that point (other then helping out the 'ol family with house expenses), was being afraid of my collection decaying, wearing out, etc. Not just my CD-ROMs either; cartridges wear out even faster since they are more "mechanical" then compact discs.

So, for the last couple of years, I've been playing with emulators on and off, but it just wasn't the same. I just can't say I authentically beat the pants off of an NES game unless I'm playing on the actual console, holding the actual controller, and playing on a TV screen. It just felt too fake after a while to me. So, I finally decided to go back to collecting full time because I baby my games so much, I'll most likely pass on before my games start dying. But, then again, electronics have that nasty habit of just going kaput one day, no matter how much you take care of it. That still scares me.

[megamaniaman]

Actually most of your ROM cartridges will still be Alive and well even after your children die of old age. CD's actually have a shelf life that is way shorter. My nephew one time brought home A Atari 2600 centipede cartridge that he found in the desert whose label had worn away from the sun. Looked like it had been out there for atleast 10 years probably even longer. You could barely tell it was a centipede cartridge. It even had some small dead spiders in the cartridge itself. I decided to plug in the cartridge with no cleaning of it whatsoever. To my suprise it worked perfectly. It still works perfectly to this day. Now if a cartridge can take the outside weather for 10 years straight with no problems, I have a feeling you have nothing to fear with your cartridges actually dying out.

[GarrettCRW]

One note about card collecting and comic book collecting vs. video game collecting: cards and comics saw their values plummet because of speculators, which is why the early '90s in both hobbies are characterized by heavy amounts of showy gimmicks and bloated product lines. The closest video games have seen to that phenomena was back in the '80s, with the Crash. Though, as many have noted, most games aren't as easy to destroy as comics or cards, which also impacts the value of games.

[vintagegamecrazy]

I'm sure game collecting will slow down sometime, probably in a few years or sooner. I my self will like video games well beyond that, I have collected many other things and lost the bug, but gaming has been in my blood since I was in like 1st grade or so and I will collect games after the buzz has passed. Think about what Digital Press was like before the 2000's, small and unknown (a few hundred members strong on the boards at most) but classic gaming was to them. Comic and card collecting was popular and died off, but there is still die hard fans that it will live on through. Gaming is the same and will be the same to come. Speculators killed the card hobby by buying too much cards and the like and the market is flooded with it. Gaming is different it will hold up better, you can't just make reproductions of old games now (NES and the common consoles are an exception) but you have fake carts which are just that and you have plug n plays which are worthless and emulators which give you an experience but not the cold hard copy of the real thing and the real thing is what's worth money. That is what makes gaming different (maybe not better) than the other hobbies. One other thing to keep in mind, stuff that was produced to be collected (cards comics) are dead, stuff that isn't meant to be collected is what everyone is collecting nowadays. Bottom line, game collecting will die down inevitably, but the people who are in it for a hobby (not an investment) will remain and they will still enjoy it and collecting will become easier at that point. I am waiting for that time actually

[Bronty-2]

One note about card collecting and comic book collecting vs. video game collecting: cards and comics saw their values plummet because of speculators, which is why the early '90s in both hobbies are characterized by heavy amounts of showy gimmicks and bloated product lines. The closest video games have seen to that phenomena was back in the '80s, with the Crash. Though, as many have noted, most games aren't as easy to destroy as comics or cards, which also impacts the value of games.

Personally I think the 'showy gimmick' that might rear its head in video games is the limited edition box sets. The special metal gear, growlanser, lunar boxes, etc. Manufactured to be collectible. Hopefully things don't go down that road but if you see people paying $100s or $1000s for the Final Fantasy 18 box set with Yuna's panties and a lock of her pubes you'll know its time to run.

Or once you see Metal Gear 7 released in 12 different versions each of which you 'have to have' and people are paying big money for overnight, etc.

[gum_drops]

I have a feeling you have nothing to fear with your cartridges actually dying out.

Weren't the genesis / snes carts produced in a way that was less expensive then the old atari carts, resulting in a shorter lifespan?

I remember reading a post about it a while back, something to do with the eproms maybe. I would try finding the info by I am tired

[Dave Farquhar]

Interesting discussion, especially for someone inexperienced like me.

I think there's a useful parallel I can draw to: Lionel (and similar) electric trains from the 1950s. In the early 1950s, a Lionel train was the Christmas present that everyone wanted. That hobby crashed too. It's a little harder to pinpoint (1956 was the last really big year, but the two dominant firms went bankrupt in 1967 and 1969). Throughout the '70s and '80s, you could find that stuff at garage sales and thrifts. There are stories of the early collectors going out on a Saturday and filling up a station wagon with it. In the late 1980s and the 1990s, it really boomed. Note the time frame--the guys who had this stuff in the 1950s were middle-aged then.

And 1950s Lionel and American Flyer trains are worth less now than they were 10 years ago. Some of that is the eBay effect. Maybe most of it. It turns out some of it isn't really as rare as once thought.

At any rate, based on what happened to the hottest Christmas present of the early 1950s, I suspect the hottest Christmas present of the early 1980s will have a similar track record. Some people will sell their 2600 collections when they reach middle age, but since middle age is all about recapturing lost youth, won't more of them be buying?

And Lionel trains don't necessarily have to run to be valuable. If it looks new, it's valuable to a collector, even if the motor won't run. Based on that, there's reason to believe a cartridge in really nice condition will still be valuable, even if it doesn't play.

And if it's any consolation, even though everybody knows old Lionel trains are valuable (just like all old baseball cards are valuable) sometimes I find them cheap at places I wouldn't expect. So will it still be possible 20 years from now to find an Atari Game Center with a working console concealing Chase the Chuckwagon and a few other desirable carts underneath, and score the whole find for less than 50 bucks? I believe it will be.

Take that for what it's worth--for some reason I know a lot more about the trains of my dad's youth than I do about the video games of mine.

[s1lence]

I wouldn't be to worried about it, seeing the amount of people that go to videogame shows is proof that game collecting is alive and well. A few years ago the 2600 was the really hot item to collection, then it went to the NES. Prices for games are like baseball cards, the majority fluctuate up and down were the rare/popular games command high/stable prices.

It is also summer which is a great time to buy games as people tend to not be playing as many games, hey people like to go outside this time of year.

I feel that collecting games will be around for many years to come, think it as todays popular game will be a collectable game in a few years to come.

[Bronty-2]

I feel that collecting games will be around for many years to come, think it as todays popular game will be a collectable game in a few years to come.

That part is true. I think there will be many ups and downs in the next 25 years or whatever but overall as long as today's games are still popular there will be a market for yesterday's games. The average collector is probably what? 23? That's sooooo young for an average age of the fanbase for any collectible. If a decent # stay with it over time then the market over the long haul should do fine. There will be winners (rare stuff) and losers (common or poor condition) be overall things should be fine.

As for nintendo stuff, I think as long as the company continues to make home consoles, there will be interest in their past offerings. Same goes for sony and ms, really.

[jajaja]

As long as there are games there will be collectors. People start, people quit, it goes up and down all the time