Retro collecting is dying!

General and Gaming > Classic Video Games

<< < (13/31) > >>

ffxik:

--- Quote from: eatgrenades on February 19, 2013, 01:43:46 am ---The day it dies will become a holiday on here. :)

--- End quote ---

Bubbly on stand-by. 8)

thegamecollector1:
Here's my story as a collector who collected (via presents), stopped collecting, started again (not picky, collecting everything in sight), stopped again, started again (CIB only), stopped again and is now planning to start yet again (only certain titles that I've really really enjoyed and liked my experience so much that I either know I want to play them all the way through again, or have already done so many times):

I am the type of person who loves to collect video games because when I was a kid I was always allowed to keep all my games and systems to replay later. My grandparents were smart and knew if I did that it would save them tons of money on games. Instead of buying me a new game every week or month and trading in old games for pennies, they would only give them to me on birthdays, Christmas or occasional yard sale finds and make sure they chose well. Because of this method I almost never got any bad or boring games in my youth and had plenty of time to become fully interested in each.

In my mid teenage years my grandma went into the hospital and my grandpa was always going there too busy for me, so I started to buy my own games from used game stores and still seemed to have good luck. Then I found out about emulators and sold everything I had that could be emulated well. Basically everything pre-Saturn.

When I got my Safeway job I started buying physical games again, this time having an interest in collecting consoles and getting as many games as I could play on them. I started with Atari 2600 and worked my way to expensive items like Neo Geo AES which I only ever had 3 games for - the ones that came in my system lot. The worst was when Game Crazy started liquidating all their "classic plastic" and I bought every single game I didn't already have since they were so cheap at $1 or less each. I tried every game for about 5 minutes to see which ones were good, mediocre or bad.

Losing my Safeway job and regretting filling up my shelving with junk I decided to get rid of the whole cart/disc only collection and any CIB games I didn't like. I eventually got my first caregiving job and started to collect CIB only, using funds from the carts to get me started. I mainly went after games I had in my original childhood collection and it was great to look at boxes and manuals for games I had cart only as a kid. The problem was that I bought these games too fast. Thinking I'd keep my job forever I started to use credit card funds to get everything "now" while I can still find it and pay it back later. Well that put me in debt, my hours were cut, I lost my job to another employee she liked better and had to look for a new one. I started selling games I had spent all that money on just to support myself and never did pay off those credit cards all the way.

Before I had my apartment I was cooped up in this little room at my current job. I didn't have room in here to collect so I continued my sales even though my cashflow was much higher. Unable to stand working 7 days a week and wanting my own space I had my days cut and got my current apartment. It was just great for a while but then my hours got cut and I started getting low on money. In this time I've sold off almost my entire CIB game collection for everything before this new generation and the one before it + Gamecube (not so easy to run burn discs or run ISOs for that system), turning to modded systems, flashcarts and burned games to keep gaming on through hard times.

With a new job starting and the knowledge that I will have greater income again I will start again, but this time the collection will be much more refined, protected and better displayed. I would like these complete in box top titles to have video game box protectors, guides when available, cart & disc only copies & loose manuals for regular use and maybe even complete in box import versions and re-releases (example - both gold & gray Legend of Zelda & Zelda II + japanese FDS packaging whether the floppies still work or not). And most important of all: decrease the frequency at which I buy games so I can take the time to play or re-play every single game I get. I'd like to record my footage and edit it for some type of series. Having physical differing packaging to show in these videos plus manuals and guides would make it so much more interesting as it would be a bit different from some emulation gamer just doing another boring Let's Play. My girlfriend doesn't have much experience with console games so it is also interesting to her if I would let her play these games as I get them too.

So yeah it would be great if prices were lower when I start up again, but since I will be focusing less on quantity and more on quality experiences (so I don't have another sell-back nightmare of hard work) I will spend less on games each month, making prices for each not matter as much and allowing me to build up some financial cushion reducing the probability that I will have to sell anything again at all. Another good thing about this is that my collection will take up less space, being a bit smaller. If someone could stay dedicated to just one retro game a month and really go all-out collecting items related to just that one game, all of a sudden that one set becomes more attractive and impressive than a giant horde of games that are in random condition and not taken care of. The games become more taken care of and treasured rather than unappreciated junk someone got just to say they have a lot. If someone was to sell a game complete in box with guide and any other related goodies, they can usually get a premium for it rather than just a regular price. People will pay more to get those extra maps and guides that not every CIB copy comes with.

sens:
I don't see why this is surprising. It's disappointing, yes, but every market does this. Even after markets reach a maturity, then become over saturated, then die down, and repeat.

If you just like collecting games, go to flea markets and thrift stores (sometimes craigslist). Those people don't know or care really what the current market value for games are (with exception of select titles), so you can get them for dirt cheap.

I got mega man X2, TMNT IV, Yoshi's Island, and Captain Commando for a grand total of $18. Someone even gave me a free copy of Intelligent Qube. Granted that's mostly luck, but pricing hikes only exist in Markets that are saturated with products like Ebay where the buyer is the one that created the price and demand for those "Rare games" in the first place. It only takes one person to pay a high price for a game on auctions sites like that to set a precedent for sellers and buyers that whatever game they are looking for is worth that high price.

If you're a re-seller. Do the same thing. As far as online/collecting markets go it's the perfect time to sell. Most games can be found for dirt cheap and turned around and sold on ebay for pure profit. The games don't even have to be in great condition to get someone to pay market price for it. It's a sellers market right now if you can find products cheap. Depending on the game a good collector can take 3-4 games out of their collection and make $200.

If anything would have effected the market right now it would be virtual consoles and roms of any game known to man. That hasn't hurt the market hardly at all. I can download every Snes game ever made for free but people are still dropping $200 on Wild Guns, Earthbound, and Megaman x3.

Nostalgia isn't going anywhere until our generation dies. Older games are most likely going to hold some intrinsic value based on that. It's not like games now where you can find a box full of Sealed GOW 3 for $50. Retro games weren't as mass produced then so their numbers are always going to be increasingly limited. Add that with Nostalgia and theres always going to be a market for it. Same goes with collecting.

Try not to take it so seriously. They're just games afterall.

disgaeniac:

--- Quote from: sens on March 02, 2013, 02:13:35 pm ---I don't see why this is surprising. It's disappointing, yes, but every market does this. Even after markets reach a maturity, then become over saturated, then die down, and repeat.

If you just like collecting games, go to flea markets and thrift stores (sometimes craigslist). Those people don't know or care really what the current market value for games are (with exception of select titles), so you can get them for dirt cheap.

I got mega man X2, TMNT IV, Yoshi's Island, and Captain Commando for a grand total of $18. Someone even gave me a free copy of Intelligent Qube. Granted that's mostly luck, but pricing hikes only exist in Markets that are saturated with products like Ebay where the buyer is the one that created the price and demand for those "Rare games" in the first place. It only takes one person to pay a high price for a game on auctions sites like that to set a precedent for sellers and buyers that whatever game they are looking for is worth that high price.

If you're a re-seller. Do the same thing. As far as online/collecting markets go it's the perfect time to sell. Most games can be found for dirt cheap and turned around and sold on ebay for pure profit. The games don't even have to be in great condition to get someone to pay market price for it. It's a sellers market right now if you can find products cheap. Depending on the game a good collector can take 3-4 games out of their collection and make $200.

If anything would have effected the market right now it would be virtual consoles and roms of any game known to man. That hasn't hurt the market hardly at all. I can download every Snes game ever made for free but people are still dropping $200 on Wild Guns, Earthbound, and Megaman x3.

Nostalgia isn't going anywhere until our generation dies. Older games are most likely going to hold some intrinsic value based on that. It's not like games now where you can find a box full of Sealed GOW 3 for $50. Retro games weren't as mass produced then so their numbers are always going to be increasingly limited. Add that with Nostalgia and theres always going to be a market for it. Same goes with collecting.

Try not to take it so seriously. They're just games afterall.

--- End quote ---

QFT!

Nice post :)

I found myself liking & agreeing with just about all of it!

Btw - Welcome to the site, Sens! 8)

bikingjahuty:
I started collecting in 2008 (not really hardcore until 2010, but whatever) and when I started retro games were abundant all over the place. I remember walking into goodwill stores and seeing people's entire NES and SNES collections, sometimes hundreds of games just sitting on the shelf out in the open. At the time I didn't collect for either, but I remember seeing games like Secret of Mana, Final Fantasy III, TMNT4, and even Chrono Trigger on several separate occasions. That is because few people were collecting and even fewer were reselling old games. Gradually since around 2010 it has gotten harder to find games cheap and certain games have become insanely overpriced, many of them common. The worst part is that people are actually paying these insane prices, encouraging more and more sellers to price their games even higher! There is a local second hand store sort of like Entertainmart or Go Hastings that gets a healthy amount of retro games in, however they price almost all of them 30% to 200% higher than some of the highest BIN on ebay. And still, these games rarely last for more than a week on the shelf. What this tells me is that retro collecting has become so popular and in demand that people are no longer caring that they are dropping $100 on a fairly common game because they want it that bad. Sadly I don't think the boom in retro game collecting has even hit its peak. Now will it die down eventually, yes. But when is totally unclear, and what I am seeing right now is the exact opposite of a hobby that is losing steam.

Navigation

 Message Index

Go to full version