Can you plan to start collecting?

[turf]

Every now and then, I cruise through reddit.com/r/gamecollecting. I see things like "My first collection find" and "Starting my collection"

Did anyone here decide to start collecting, or did it just happen?  There never was a day that I said, "I think I'll collect video games.  That seems like a fun and rewarding money/time sink." 

I don't understand the idea of just deciding to build a game collection.  I can see picking up a few games you enjoy, looking down and thinking "Holy shit! I have a ton of games.  Maybe, lets see how many we can get." or "We've come this far. Let's get them all."

Just my random though for the day.  Discuss amongst yourselves.

[scott]

Ya no. I don't really buy into the "I just decided to start collecting games" as a hobby. I'm sure most of these people prolly already gamers and had some games in their possession, but don't consider them a "collection" until they snag (insert "rare" title here).  I'm a pretty firm believer that 99% of us are gamers first and collectors second. And that the collection is a symptom of gaming and a anti-trade-in mentality.

I do believe that a gamer can at any point decide to focus on only certain niches of game collecting.  Such as sin2beta dropping NES collecting in favor of SEGA collecting. soera focusing on Dragon Quest and PS1 RPGs. Or myself deciding that I wanted a CIB collection of Castlevania games. But still we all are gamers first, we just decided to focus on certain aspects of the gaming industry since they suit our tastes better.

[disgaeniac]

Did anyone here decide to start collecting, or it just happened.  There never was a day that I said, "I think I'll collect video games.  That seems like a fun and rewarding money/time sink." 

I don't understand the idea of just deciding to build a game collection.  I can see picking up a few games you enjoy, looking down and thinking "Holy shit! I have a ton of games.  Maybe, lets see how many we can get." or "We've come this far. Let's get them all."

As far as I'm concerned - you've said & covered (my thoughts, at least) already, right there...

[disgaeniac]

I'm a pretty firm believer that 99% of us are gamers first and collectors second. And that the collection is a symptom of gaming and a anti-trade-in mentality.

I like this!

Well said & well worded; it says & covers a lot concisely -and- w/o too many words 

TBQH - I think it's your use of the word "Symptom" there & like that.

I remember (while working as a drug counselor at an inpatient (no...not impatient:) Rehab); that - as I got to know & work w/ these people *AND* the longer that I'd go w/o fucking-up myself (yeah, I absolutely think that there's nothing like a recovered version of a person (recovering from whatever the addiction/ailment/obsession/compulsion might be) when it comes to helping another one)...since (*MY* strong belief) is that there are many things (in these fields) that simply can not be taught adequately from just books/schooling/education -not only that- but, when it comes to counseling these people...they can 'smell' the difference between someone who's been there -and- someone who's read some books, stared at some blackboards, and/or sat on their asses in some class rooms; from well over a mile away...

...boy did I ever veer away from what I was starting to go for 

Anyhow, my point was that, for the addicts that I worked with (myself included)...I came to see that (IMO), the use of the drugs (or...insert "addiction-of-the-day" here___) was more of a *symptom* of their/my problems than the actual heart & core of the problem itself.

Does that make any sense...to...anyone?!

[PimpernickleBag]

I was addicted to games as a kid. I am old enough that I had an original PONG, Atari 2600, 7800, NES, etc when they came out back in the day.

After college I gave up games (for the most part) because I wanted to get things done around the house instead of plopping on the couch all the time to crack out on games.

My ex girlfriend a few years back wanted a Wii — and I felt like it would be okay since I am not a huge fan of the "get up off the couch and flail my arms around" kind of gaming. I did pick up a few games that I liked for it though and was semi-addicted until the fun of having a new game wore off.

When I broke up with her, and started a new job I absolutely hate over a winter — I started feeling nostalgic and picked up a few vintage consoles and games I used to love. That snowballed into having over 14 vintage consoles, all the new consoles, thrifting and craigslisting for games, and the game collecting has become as much of a "game" to me as the games themselves (and I even like my Wii now LMFAO).

Right now the game collecting is somewhat of a "coping mechanism" for my mindset after leaving the crappy job (something fun to do) — and I buy 5X more games than I actually play. Half of my collection are games I've yet to play once since picking them up.

That is mainly because I have limited time to sit down, and games like GTA V are so involved I might spend a month playing one or two games.

Right now I have 16 consoles hooked up to an HDTV with switch boxes and fairly nicely done (my girlfriend has no idea how to even watch a TV show with the myriad of switches and remotes involved) — and I am in the process of boxing loose games and making it a really nice "showpiece" kind of a collection as I go.

My focus has been mostly "re-claiming" all the games I loved as a kid, and picking up complete sets of games / or themes I like — such as "Star Wars," "Grand Theft Auto," "Racing," "Soccer," "Any Games with Adult humor I wasn't supposed to have as a kid" etc etc.

[desocietas]

the game collecting has become as much of a "game" to me as the games themselves

TRUTH

not much time to actually play these days, so the collecting aspect of it has become something of a game IRL

the hunt for the bargain and the rare game

[redblaze57]

I fall into the boat of Stupid people who traded in a bunch of games because I grew slightly bored and later when i want to play those games and regret trading them in.

[scott]

I fall into the boat of Stupid people who traded in a bunch of games because I grew slightly bored and later when i want to play those games and regret trading them in.

Same here. I sold off my NES and games, my Saturn and games and traded off a bunch of GC, GBA, PS2 and Xbox games. All of which I now regret. I've gotten most of them back now, but I'm still a ways off.

[90snostalga]

I fall into the boat of Stupid people who traded in a bunch of games because I grew slightly bored and later when i want to play those games and regret trading them in.

That used to be me    I regret getting rid of a lot of my stuff years ago, only to find years later, I want it back

[sin2beta]

People can decide to start collecting. But most of them quit pretty soon. It's kind of a "Fools Rush In" thing though. I especially see this in full-set collecting. People will decide to collect every Super Nintendo game, get about 20% through and then sell everything because they hate it now. I also would see a lot of people in game stores go through every system looking for rare games to start their collection. These people tend not to last either. Let's be honest, you need some filler. There has to be some sides to that Prime Cut steak.

Most people who succeed seem to have a slow and steady approach. They buy games because they like playing games. And once they realize they have a lot, they then label themselves as a collector. This doesn't typically go with deciding one day to collect games. Not saying you won't succeed if you just decide to collect games. It's just not the norm.

I myself kind of made a decision. In the late 90s, I read a bunch of Geocities sites and the NES Archive and SeanBaby (anyone remember SeanBaby?). Anyways, a lot of these people were talking about going to garage sales and flea markets to pick up games. This sounded fun to me. So, I wanted to get involved in the activities surrounding collecting. I made the decision to make flea markets a hobby. But I have a personality suited to that. I love digging through peoples junk.  God forbid there is an American Pickers marathon on during the weekend. My weekend would be ruined. Well, except for saturday which was well spent at the flea markets.

[kingrat101]

I think in recent years collecting games has grown because of stuff like AVGN, and it's both a good thing and a bad thing. On one hand it's nice to see the whole idea of collecting games grow, however it can be harmful too like sin2beta said people rush in and quit doing it right away and prices skyrocket because of stuff like that.
I myself got into the idea of collecting when I was little, I grew up with the snes and didn't get a next-gen console until 1999,PS1, I didn't want one. I realized the only way to get super Nintendo games was at a local retro store, that actually closed last year unfortunately, but seeing all these games that I heard about and wanted to play I think cemented that into my brain. It wasn't until I got older and had a job and could afford that stuff I just went crazy.

[thomascozine]

I decided to start collecting, kind of out of the blue, sometime around '07.

One day I was just shopping around town when I found both Star Fox Adventures and Assault for cheap when I thought to myself: "You know, growing up I'd only ever buy about 5 games for a system before a new system came out. I should really get more. See what I've been missing." And it's just snowballed from there.

[insektmute]

the game collecting has become as much of a "game" to me as the games themselves

TRUTH

not much time to actually play these days, so the collecting aspect of it has become something of a game IRL

the hunt for the bargain and the rare game

I've slowly come to accept this is the case for me, too. I still only buy games that appeal to me, and rarity often just means paying more than I'd like, but I still love it when I find something rare or rare'ish, or find that something I snagged cheap has since become rare, like some arachaeological relic seen by few.

[stuntman64]

I wasn't interested into collecting until my 8th grade year when I got an N64 and I was in diapers when it came out.

[PimpernickleBag]

I fall into the boat of Stupid people who traded in a bunch of games because I grew slightly bored and later when i want to play those games and regret trading them in.

Now I regret having sold off my game collection, especially some of the NES / Super NES / N64 games I had back in the day when I see how much they are to replace NOW that I want to have them again.