Author Topic: Is collecting games still fun?  (Read 4056 times)

Re: Is collecting games still fun?
« Reply #30 on: September 25, 2019, 10:37:41 pm »
Its still for fun for me. I have been collecting for about 15 years, but don't have a big collection. My goal is to get games I like and try out new games I never had/knew about and I am constantly "curating" my games. If there is a game I don't like, I would rather get rid of it. Also for me it is about playing games, not just collecting them. I want to be able to like every game I have (at least to some degree.) Sometimes that means only the artwork  :)

Re: Is collecting games still fun?
« Reply #31 on: September 26, 2019, 09:30:06 am »
Quick follow-up on the notion of 'make sure people know you collect':

My brother's an Xbox fan. Yesterday he handed me a game he thinks he paid 6 bucks for back in the day. His 360 could play it, but the backwards compatibility doesn't extend to his Xbox One, so I can have it- and he hands me a CIB copy of Stubbs the Zombie. Not something I was expecting to just be given!

Not adding it to my collection officially just yet. I did promise that, if they add it to the Xbox One, I'll give the game back because it would be notably pricier to get a new copy these days.

But yes- this is the core of current collecting right here... not finding a lucky score at a flea market or what-not, but keeping tabs with the other gamers you know (be they friend or family) & looking out for each other. Because, in fact, this is not the most rare/expensive thing I have been given, or given away!

Re: Is collecting games still fun?
« Reply #32 on: September 27, 2019, 11:11:32 am »
I see a lot of people equivalating “easy” with “fun”.  I never found collecting easy.  That’s why it’s fun.


I've always seen hunting for games as an investment of time and money. I never expected to go to a place like Goodwill or my local flea market and find a bunch of very rare games for next to nothing, however I did expect to find something I was interested in, even if it was some cheap $5 game that had been eluding me. And for several years that expectation was met. Yeah, I did walk away empty handed occasionally, but the hits far outweighed the misses. I'd go out to places like this often and a lot of times wouldn't find anything I was after, but I'd find a ton of games I could use as tradebait or resell for the purpose of putting that money back into collecting.


Around 2013 is when the hits and the misses started to equal out, and then by 2016 it was probably 10% hits and 90% misses, but even given how disproportionate this was I still was motivated to look, albeit not to the extent I used to be. As of the last year and a half, it's been like <1% of the time I go out I'll find something worth picking up; it's literally got that bad for me. Sure I find a ton of games still, but they're all either games I have that are priced above ebay, or are games I do actually want and are priced just as high. At this point I literally have zero reason to continue to go out and look for games when it is nearly certain I won't find anything. Imagine going to a place like Target every week in hopes that they'll have some super obscure movie on DVD there; yes it's possible hey might, but incredibly unlikely, yet you still go back week after week hoping to find it. That's what game collecting became for me, at least the hunting aspect of it. It became way more convenient and cheaper overall just to go on ebay, bite the bullet and pay market value for a game I want. There just isn't enough out there anymore, and what is out there is in the hands of people who absolutely know what they have.


Hopefully this paints a picture of why going from "easy" finds everywhere to it being incredibly hard to even find a copy of Banjo Kazooie priced at $5 under ebay would kill ones motivation to collect and look for games. I don't know when you got into collecting, but it might also be  case of knowing how great things once were and comparing them to how they are now that creates this feeling of collecting no longer being fun; if you got into collecting around 2015 or later you really have no idea what you missed out on other than veteran collectors telling you about the good ol'days, which would have little impact on you since you never experienced it first hand.


On the bright side though and as I pointed out in my original post, less and less people are going after these games which at the moment as created a lot more supply while also decreasing prices. Even though these prices are almost always relative to ebay, it's definitely sparked my interest slightly to want to collect some more, but at the same time I have no desire to collect the way I have been for the last 3 or 4 years. If retro games ever slipped into the status of being old junk again then I'd likely get into it again just to buy up games on the cheap and flip so I can buy the stuff I still really want on ebay. But I don't think that'll ever happen again. I think the best that will happen and is actually likely at this point is that retro game prices reflect the games actual abundance and the price reflects this rather than reflecting a massive amount of interest from collectors who want the game so badly that it's caused the price of the game to inflate well past it's quantity in the wild.

Warmsignal

Re: Is collecting games still fun?
« Reply #33 on: September 27, 2019, 01:07:11 pm »
Collecting now is the definition of insanity for many of us - Going out and looking over the same places again and again, actually expecting different results, but it's always the same thing as last time.

Maybe in some areas it still hasn't complete dried up. Around here, it did years ago. You might have a slight chance of finding something if you go a dozen times in a row, but that to me is totally not worth it, and totally not fun. So yea, I expect it to be somewhat reasonable to do, or it's not fun. 70 gallons of fuel and all of my free time is not worth the occasional catch, and is far from my idea of doing something fun.

I have more fun just hopping on eBay and smashing that BIN button. At least I can get something I want once in a while.

NickAwesome

PRO Supporter

Re: Is collecting games still fun?
« Reply #34 on: September 27, 2019, 02:52:16 pm »
Yep! I live in the NW so retro collecting is still very popular and there are a lot of options that still make this hobby so much fun.  I still find great deals on the regular on fb/Craigslist, we have great retro stores with several opening up in the last few years, and our local PDX community is fantastic. Gearing up for PRGE in a few weeks, which is set to have more vendors and arcade machines than any year prior.  I've built up a good deal of trade bait and excited to knock more off my ever decreasing wishlist. 

What hasn't been fun is recently having to move again and pack up my entire collection.  I'm in the process of putting everything back on the shelves in alphabetical order, it is going to take several weeks...  But my new setup means I should have room to display more so I'm excited about that!

sworddude

Re: Is collecting games still fun?
« Reply #35 on: September 27, 2019, 06:53:16 pm »
I've stopped caring for Special Editions in general. Quite honestly most of it now just come off as bulk items (excluding soundtracks and some art books).


modern day collecting is filled with special and collectors editions. in the past special and collectors editions where actually special. like way less than a % of game libraries had special editions nowadays it's like the opposite even with nintendo. These days it's like a miracle if a game withouth a special edition releases say mario odyssey or dragon quest XI devinite edition i was like damm finally some games with no collectors edition.

I personally feel that modern day collecting is way more pricy than retro game collecting except ofcourse for the high tier value games. I'm kinda glad I'm a cheap mofo. I'm only buying 1 to 2 modern games a year wich I really want to play right now. some years even zero new games.  Also even withouth the special editions. the dlc not to mention that many non nintendo games have micro transactions it's quite a mess imo.

i really am glad that I'm not going to seriously collect for these modern system since otherwise I would probably waste a ton of money on shelf candy CE etc wich i would not appreciate as much as other stuff that i collect.

I'll just focus on the retro stuff wich i have with a few of the newer nintendo releases wich i really want to play.

I mean japan was crazy with CE since them saturn days but it just had to tranfer to the west during the wii u 3ds era. and ofcourse for non nintendo consoles ps3 and xbox 360.
« Last Edit: September 27, 2019, 07:07:04 pm by sworddude »
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pzeke

Re: Is collecting games still fun?
« Reply #36 on: October 31, 2019, 08:32:22 pm »
Yeah, it still very much is. I buy what I like and know will enjoy; I try my hardest to not overshoot and always keep my two feet on the ground. Hobbies are meant to be fun, and if you ain’t having fun, then clearly you’re doing something wrong.

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