Have you ever considered thinning out your collection?

[darko]

I'm considering thinning out some of my collection. There are a few games for each of my systems that I'll absolutely never play. Some of them are valuable-ish (like Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade on NES) and some are practically worthless. I thought about this when I was re-shelving part of my game room this weekend. I mean, what's the point of owning a game like Orb-3D, for example? Anything I sold would end up funding things like boxes and manuals for games I really DO want to own.

Have any of you considered thinning, or have any of you done it? I'm not talking about forced selling (like to pay bills and whatnot). I'm talking about waking up and realizing that you need to narrow your collecting goals.

[scott]

I've been weighing my options on if I want to keep all of my Saturn games, or just keep the ones I really want and sell off the filler. But really that's the only system I really have thought about doing that with. Mainly because I was going for the full set, but now I don't really feel like it and I honestly will never play a lot of these.

Sure it's impressive. But what's the point, if they aren't going to be played ever? Everything else in my collection is there because I wanted to play it at some point. The only other system I have some filler games for is my Game Boy. But, I just have a deep love for the system and like discovering games for it, so I don't think it's the same thing as my Saturn collection.

[jobocan]

I've been thinking about this a lot recently. As you may have realized in the pick up topics, I haven't been buying a whole lot of games recently. I think my interest in video game collecting has gone way down in recent months. I think some of it is that I already have a lot of the games I want, and that the remaining ones I want are hard to find, and the ones I do find are obscenely expensive.

I might be thinning out my collection, we'll see. There's obviously a bunch of games I'll be keeping no question, but I don't feel the need anymore to keep everything I have. And obviously I'll keep buying new games, and older games I want if I find them for good prices.

[blipcs76]

Part of why I collect is to have a physical library of gaming history, both the good and the bad.  Will I ever play Airwolf or Sesame Street 123?  Probably not, but it's a part of NES history and something I collect partially to protect.  As long as I have the space for them, I'll buy practically anything from the 16-bit era and older.

[kimimi]

I've been sort-of thinning recently... really more "refocusing" than anything; getting rid of games I like but really will not find the time to play and using the money to buy other games that I will. This is why I'm been selling SFC RPGs and buying arcade games - the RPGs are definitely cheaper and without doubt really good games, but I just don't have the time. I've played more of my Sonic Wings 3 cart this week than some of these games I've sold have seen since I bought them.

[stethebubble]

Part of why I collect is to have a physical library of gaming history, both the good and the bad.  Will I ever play Airwolf or Sesame Street 123?  Probably not, but it's a part of NES history and something I collect partially to protect.  As long as I have the space for them, I'll buy practically anything from the 16-bit era and older.

like wise. i would probably play them for a day thou just to see how bad they really are

[varkias]

I have done it, I sold off about 600 NES games about 18 months ago to concentrate on my Sega Saturn and imports.  I had tons of expensive NES titles like Little Samson, Duck Tales 2, Contra Force (complete), King Neptune's Adventure (sealed), Caltron 6 in 1 (cart only).  But they were taking up TONS of room and I wasn't playing them anymore.  This photo was a little more than half of what I sold:



Love my Saturn

[thomascozine]

I'm too much of a completionist to want to thin out my collection. No matter how much a game might suck if I sold it I'd want to play it afterwards.

[burningdoom]

I've often thought about selling 3 consoles and the games with them, in particular, just because I hardly ever play them: Sega Saturn, TurboGrafx-16, and Atari 2600. But then, all 3 of those consoles are pretty collectible and usually get long conversations of nostalgia and collecting going with people that see them. And I know as soon as I do sell them, I'll just start wishing I had them again.

[foxhack]

I already have a ton of PC games set apart for selling. I already have them in digital form, or they simply aren't worth keeping anymore.

My console stuff, though? Nope. All mine.

[turf]

Not long ago, I seriously considered selling out.  I almost sold it all.  I was getting frustrated with how much the price of stuff has gone up. Everyone thinks they have gold just because a Zelda cart is painted that way.  My wife talked me out of it.  Thank God.  I might have been a little more flush with cash, but I would have cried when everyone hit the door.

[redblaze57]

No matter how much a game might suck if I sold it I'd want to play it afterwards.

That right there is how I feel mainly because with my Gamecube & GBA I used to trade in games all the time and although I got most of the most memorable titles back there are still ones that just seem to keep getting higher every time I look or they are commonly faked (Example:Pokemon) and I keep getting screwed online

[sin2beta]

Everyone thinks they have gold just because a Zelda cart is painted that way. 

LOL. Like two days ago. A copy of Ocarina of Time that someone placed in a spiderman cart sold for over $200 because it was the "rare" Zelda red cart. Certainly one of a kind.  http://www.ebay.com/itm/171033204312

On topic though. I did thin out my collection. Refocused mainly. My mentality is full set collecting. That's just how I work. So, I had to focus it. So, I am really only collecting SEGA and Microsoft. Depending on how Microsoft goes next gen, I may only collect SEGA. This was the best thing I ever did. I sold all my other stuff about a year ago, minus a few things I kept just in case. Recently sold that off. ANyways, a year later, I've never been happier collecting.

[pacpix]

Everyone thinks they have gold just because a Zelda cart is painted that way. 

LOL. Like two days ago. A copy of Ocarina of Time that someone placed in a spiderman cart sold for over $200 because it was the "rare" Zelda red cart. Certainly one of a kind.  http://www.ebay.com/itm/171033204312

That is awesome!

[slothingXPIG]

the only reason I have ever thought about selling off some of mine was soo I could use the money to buy actual games to consoles I really like, but I really hate the thought of getting rid of any of mine even if I don't play some of them.