starting over...snes collection

[ncman071]

Over the course of the last year or so i've had to sell off my entire snes collection as well as many other classic consoles and games...with the snes stuff being the bulk and my personal favorite. This has been unfortunate for me but has been necessary due to life financial circumstances. I have twin boys, a wife, a mortgage, student loans, etc.... I'm sure many of you have been in similar situations. It gets to the point where there's just not enough income to support outgoing monthly bills...so i had to sell my stuff and did so proudly because i knew i was taking care of my family.

anyway, things are starting to look better financially and i've decided to ...try...to re obtain my snes collection. however, i dont think i'm going to try to get all 130 or so games including all the high profile/high value rpg carts i had. I really think i'm going to be as modest as i can and just get the classics that i really enjoyed.

i guess my question is have any of you ever had to sell "it all" and how has that affected you? did you try to re buy all your stuff later on and what avenues did you use? ebay? garage sells? any particular websites? did you set a budget this time?

i can honestly say i didnt even miss my snes until just recently when i was looking at a few reviews on youtube. i do think however, i will never try to get any of the other classic systems i had..and i had them all.

[Steven]

i guess my question is have any of you ever had to sell "it all" and how has that affected you? did you try to re buy all your stuff later on and what avenues did you use?

I never sold anything I even thought I might regret.

I sold off a ton of Saturn games and my entire NES/Genesis collections. No regrets.

My SNES stuff I still kept... because I know that is my true love haha as corny as it sounds. Always gotta have at least one go-to system in case the urge strikes...

[snes_collector]

If I was like you and had to start from scratch, I would just buy a power pack. That way it takes up less space and is much cheaper than buying carts.

[Double Ugly]

I sold almost all of my SNES & PS1 games in order to pursue my Saturn collection. I do not regret it (of course I kept Mario All-Stars & Zelda). I used mostly eBay to put together those collections. I visited stores & looked on craigslist but all I managed to do was waste my time. I hope you enjoy your search!

[Space-Ace-13]

If you're going for a specific set of games, I would check mostly online (ebay/amazon) or local game stores. Flea markets/thrift stores/garage sales are really hit or miss and chances are you won't find the games you're looking for. Good luck

[Tanooki]

I'm even worse off historically speaking than you are with your sell off. I moved out east back in the last weeks of 2002 on a job I supposedly had lined up and got f'd out of after moving. I ended up working for Gateway's local repair/retail shop until a merger killed that 2 years later. Due to that turn of events I ended up burning 6mo of unemployment, having to go thousands into debt(still am) to open a part time small business while working every day of the year at a 2nd job w/horses at a track for another 2 years until I finally got hired where I should have been in the first place. Due to that downturn from 04-06 (mostly, a bit before and after) I had to let go of a heap of stuff, 90% of it farmed locally since the mid 90s and some I bought new as far back as 1985. I had every Nintendo, Sega(non addon) and Sony system portable or home, NGPC, Virtual Boy, Coleco tabletops, game & watches and more and with each well in excess of a 1000 games or so....all but 20% of that gone for 'getting by' which still burns.

I like your angle though, don't bother going for all of it again, it's too costly and too painful. Focus on what matters most and then slowly crack away at it. Thankfully before the iphone greed dicks hit my local area in 2011 I started buying back local in mid 2010 and then also even to date using ebay (I work from home) to find ignorantly posted bin prices or badly listed expiring stuff where I've paid 20-50% less than the average sales rate on stuff. You need to try and attempt this stuff still. When the NES got greedy mid last year I cashed a heap of it out(had 330 of them down to over 50) and beat the greed curve into SNES and the most I've paid yet is $50 on a game which were EVO and Wild Guns, got NGT for $40. Try and find deals, be patient is the key concept, and get what you know you'll play, not just the collectible crap.

What I settled on when I did the recovery was simple. Get back what I had for certain Nintendo systems, no more, and only stuff I used to own to start, and would still play because it didn't age horribly. Certain games have just gone horribly bad with age and others haven't, so perhaps youtube or rom and emulator figure out what works for you. I have a gameboy again(sp for old gb and color, a micro for gba) and what I used to have and a few others i learned were fun but it's not done as I'm still going at it. Same can be said for NES games I dropped, SNES stuff, N64, not bothered picking up anything I had for GC as I just don't care right now and the DS didn't do much for me so I only kept 5 of those too. It's a hit and miss thing, but I kept what worked, got rid of what didn't, and bought back when ages nicely and I still wanted. If you keep it simple and stick with the SNES, even if some of them are more costly it's only one system so you'll not get overwhelmed.

[Steven]

If I was like you and had to start from scratch, I would just buy a power pack. That way it takes up less space and is much cheaper than buying carts.

+1

It may not provide the thrills of the hunt, but it's much more practical (not to mention saves you a bunch of stress and $) for a person in your shoes.

I have the real deal, and the PowerPak. It's nice to have both. PowerPak is useful for bringing to a buddy's place; you don't have to haul 20 games with ya.

[Gunstar Hero]

If I was like you and had to start from scratch, I would just buy a power pack. That way it takes up less space and is much cheaper than buying carts.

I agree to a certain degree (Hey that rymed!). It really depends on 1. wether or not you care about using emulation and not having the carts (I like carts better but do emulate to play games I certainly cannot afford) and 2. wether you like collecting or just playing. If you like just playing the games and don't care about not having the carts then I say get a powerpack and play it on original hardware. It isn't quite as "authentic" but it's about as close to it as you can get without spending top dollar.

[Lerxstnj]

Besides doubles, the only games I sold were sealed ones, since they are worth more to collectors that way, and I could buy 2 or 3 opened ones for the money I got for sealed ones, and this is really a long run-on sentence that I am not proud of but I have no regrets.

[ncman071]

i wanted to update this thread even though i realize most people can give a rats arse...but anyway, i've managed to acquire 25+ snes titles over the last couple of weeks...had some luck at a local pawn shop and traded in a playstation 3 that i literally never play for about 20 snes games at a retro game shop near my old college. i traded in the ps3 mainly because i dont play it and in the 6 years i've had the system i've only totaled 9 games for it...i'm keeping my xbox 360, wii, vita, and psp as my modern stuff and building on my snes and dreamcast libraries. i may start re collecting ps1 titles as well.

i also ordered a few titles off of estarland.com...mk3, megaman x, DKC... a little overpriced but i was able to use store credit that i've had with them for quite a while off of a trade from a while back.

it was definitly easy choosing my titles...like i said i'm only getting games i know i want to play and will put time in...not filler crap that i have no interest in....and i'm not necessarily talking about sports titles...i love the old 16 bit maddens, bill walsh college football, nba jams, etc... but i used to have a lot of games that i hated to play. not gonna happen anymore.

i'm not too concerned with owning everything out there....i made a list of about 65 titles (thanks to DP's advance guide) that i know that i want and don't plan on going past that.

[sloan]

I moved out east back in the last weeks of 2002 on a job I supposedly had lined up and got f'd out of after moving.

Sounds like the majority of places these days and the way they have no regard for the people's lives they screw over. Our country has eroded workers' rights to the point where you have to grovel for a job, then put up with tons of BS and blame for stuff you have nothing to do with after you take the position. Places I have worked over the past decade discriminate on every EOC category imaginable, but try it in underhanded ways that are very difficult to prove. Welcome to the new world order.

Enough derailment for now, back to the original topic.

[FieryReign]

I sold basically everything I owned due to being a brokeass bumass loser that I am right now. Surviving is more important then material things but its almost coming to the point where trying to survive isn't worth it anymore. Everythings been taken away from me including my family. Maybe someday I'll get back up and get a chance to enjoy the hobby I loved so much but that doesn't seem likely. So I'll just read about for a little while longer until I go. Fuck life

[Tron 2.0]

+1

It may not provide the thrills of the hunt, but it's much more practical (not to mention saves you a bunch of stress and $) for a person in your shoes.

I have the real deal, and the PowerPak. It's nice to have both. PowerPak is useful for bringing to a buddy's place; you don't have to haul 20 games with ya.

How would you compare the snes powerpak to the super everdrive ? I'm just asking,because lately i been thinking about getting a snes again with a flash cartridge.The reason being behind it prices for used snes games have been going up.

Btw any body has have a opinion on these flash cartridges ?