Really, the story dates back to before my time at VGC.
Fall 2008 / spring 2009
I had become a retro game collector and enthusiast by the start of 2009. Largely inspired by many of the early game collecting YouTube channels that I used to watch then. Back then, truthfully I was just mesmerized by the fact that there was so many games, and so many systems which looked cool to own and play on. Prior to becoming a "collector", I was more of what I'd call a casual type of gamer in my youth. Up until the PS2 era where it more or less wrapped up for me, I played roughly 5 to 8 games a year. Maybe owned 15 to 20 games per console.
When I got into retro and collecting, it was an entirely different story. My eyes were open to so many different games that I'd never considered before then. Better yet, I didn't have to go spend $50 on every game anymore. In fact, many of these retro games could be found at thrifty $5 or less prices if I just went hunting around on the weekends. Only problem was, despite how thrifty everything was, I didn't have a lot of money to be spending on the hobby. So I'd hit the town and see what all I could find for a $20 bill, and I'd come home with a stack of games. At the same time, my brother also became a fan of the AVGN and wanted to start game collecting as well. We used to hit the town and travel to neighboring towns hunting games every weekend. He'd come back with big cardboard boxes FULL on NES games for roughly $100. He was going for a full NES set and in less than two years of hunting, got around 80% of the way there. I was more of a variety collector. Wanted to go for a bit of everything on all systems, but I didn't know a whole lot about what games where what back then. I knew that many of the early YouTube channels were big JRPG fans, so I felt like I needed to try to get into that scene.
2012 / 2013 and joining VGC
This was around the time game collecting was exploding as a hobby, prices were getting higher and a lot more competition. This was where I started to mature and become a bit more seasoned, I learned how to judge the market better, which games were for me and which weren't, how to catch sellers slipping, etc. The era of cheap games was over, my brother had bowed out as a result. I decided to press on, as I had a better understanding of how to find things I wanted, and get the best possible deals. I enjoyed my time trading notes with fellow VGC members, many of us where at a similar point in our collecting journeys. Deals were still possible and the thrill of the hunt was still there. My collection was beginning to take shape and become more what I wanted it to be, and I was reaching the point of owning many of the more popular, highly regarded types of games, but I was thirsting for more of the obscure and what else was out there.
Mid 2010s era
By the mid part of the decade, the market was worse than ever. Retro collecting was SUPER popular, and SUPER competitive. Anything outside of retail and video game stores, had completely dried up for me. This is when I started to have a bit more money to spend on the hobby, but subsequently the hobby had become MUCH more expensive too. Games reaching ridiculous $200 and $300 price tags was no longer uncommon. A lot of my pickups by then, came from local game shops, and I also started going to annual video game trade-shows / cons, where I'd go and blow several hundred dollars getting more of that premium sort of obscure stuff that I never could find back in the thrifty era. Each year I'd hit several trade shows and come away with a stack of obscure/primo games for a hefty chunk of change. Also, a business owner in my town had opened up a new retro game shop with fair prices and a really good selection. In addition to this, another local spot which had an epic stash of retro stuff stored away for many years, brought their inventory back out to their floor as well, selling at FLAT prices like it was still 2010 or something. I hit those places religiously, every week building up the collection. The former business eventually decided to fold up shop, and sold out stock to other store in town, absorbing all of their inventory and hiking up the prices. I took some pics of this massive buyout, and shared them on a thread here that was about local game shops.
At this point I was getting a lot more into the odd and obscure, I was becoming more a fan of the unsung, or "hidden gem" type of games and discovered that many of those were just as interesting to me as a lot of the popular, so-called "must have" games I'd chased after in years prior. My interests in different types of games began to expand further, and my wish lists only grew over time. Games that I would have looked right passed in years prior, were suddenly on my radar as I did more research into what more of these lesser known games were about.
Late 2010s and pandemic nightmare era
By this point, collecting was reach ridiculous levels. Stuff that had always been cheap was no longer cheap, everyone and their uncle was a retro game collector by now. Then the pandemic hit, the government responded stupidly handing out money to those who obviously didn't need it, which resulted in market poisoning for retro gaming. Suddenly everything was worth like 50% more than before, and naturally prices didn't recover from this.
I was still kind of following that pattern of trying to build an exhaustive collection for each of my favorite consoles. Modern game collecting had taken off, as we began seeing more and more indie title games releasing in physical form on platforms like Switch and PS4... further dividing attention away from my retro goals... still, I pressed on. Paying high prices for some things, but still managing a few deals here and there at the last few local spots I could go to. Having to resort to eBay for many things, by this point.
2023
Currently I've found myself stuck in this rut of wanting to flesh out these various sub-collections but with prices often rivaling that of new release games, it's just not financially sustainable for me anymore. Many things I still want to add to the collection are $50 there, $100 here, and $75 for the other. I can't spend that kind of money on individual pickups every single week. It's the complete opposite of how things felt back when I first started. If I had the money that I spend today, back then? I could only imagine how quickly I could have built an epic game collection. Nowadays, it doesn't matter how much money you throw at it, it still eludes you. Granted, I've probably taken the whole thing way too far, my goals became way too lofty and I should have hung it up long ago. It's just too stressful.
So now, I'm really tying to streamline my goals, and create a vision towards getting out of the retro game collecting market for life. It's more or less become a rich man's hobby, and it's more stressful than fun anymore. I have the rest of my life to sit down, roll my sleeves up and really spend the time using all of this expensive plastic I've acquired over the years the way that it's intended to be used. Maybe that'll trigger more revelations, and I'll discover that perhaps some of this isn't what it's cracked up to be. Maybe I'll let some things go, once I experience more of it. We'll see. But for now, I'm wanting this to be the final era of retro collecting.
I actually look forward to the mental and financial freedom of no longer doing this, and turning my attention towards the many other aspects of life, that I've probably ignored far too heavily in pursuit of the retro gaming hobby. Honesty, I miss what my life felt like before I became addicted to this hobby, and I want that back. Hopefully, I'll be able to reflect on this post in some time and have a conclusion to this whole story.
