Retro collecting is dying!

[teck]

I think the best name for running your own store is GameSpot, lol. Just send spies in to check GS current prices and trade values, then try to beat them by a small measure. Problem is, as a small business, distributors won't cater to you. Some games you won't be able to get day one, you also won't make, but loose money on new games. Your model will rely entirely on used game and consoles. Everything is out of pocket and you're competing with an entity that has endless pockets and aggressive sales strategies that you likely don't know anything about and can only hope to copy. If you deal in classic games, that's a whole other ballpark. Clientele are fickle and jaded, not to mention stock is scarce and hard to find at resell-able prices.

Distributors are indeed a complete pain in the ass....  I have to deal with Hyperkin quite often and it is always a pain....  As far as new games, the answer seems to be just don't deal in them....  I've found that just being cheaper than Gamestop in every scenario is simple enough and does the trick....  If anyone has recommendations for the rapidly evaporating retro stock issue then please do enlighten....

[Warmsignal]

One sign to indicate retro collecting is in fact "dying" is the way that everything out there seems to have been already "collected". There is no collecting, if there's nothing left to collect.

I drove an hour out of my way to hit a stop I used to depend on a few years ago just today, and wow, my mind was blown. They had nothing. I actually said out loud and didn't mean to "the stock has definitely shrunk here", and pretty sure they heard me. Everything was picked through, mostly just crap left. I went in thinking "okay, I'm not going to get carried away and spend too much here" to thinking "isn't there one thing I can buy here?!" There wasn't, I left empty handed. The other nearby stop I used to make near there relocated out of state last fall. Definitely feels like the wells are drying up. Same story elsewhere, other spots I know of that I hit this year, stock didn't change from the last time I was there. Looked like nothing sold, and nothing new.

I feel like I got into this just before everyone wanted to jump onboard all at once. I had a couple of good years where finding anything was reasonable and people at yard sales didn't know "Nintendo is collectable now". Oh well, I'm past the half-way mark to where I want to be anyway. I don't mind buying most the rest of it online really, but it was fun finding things when you took a drive out to look around. 

[teck]

One sign to indicate retro collecting is in fact "dying" is the way that everything out there seems to have been already "collected". There is no collecting, if there's nothing left to collect.

I drove an hour out of my way to hit a stop I used to depend on a few years ago just today, and wow, my mind was blown. They had nothing. I actually said out loud and didn't mean to "the stock has definitely shrunk here", and pretty sure they heard me. Everything was picked through, mostly just crap left. I went in thinking "okay, I'm not going to get carried away and spend too much here" to thinking "isn't there one thing I can buy here?!" There wasn't, I left empty handed. The other nearby stop I used to make near there relocated out of state last fall. Definitely feels like the wells are drying up. Same story elsewhere, other spots I know of that I hit this year, stock didn't change from the last time I was there. Looked like nothing sold, and nothing new.

I feel like I got into this just before everyone wanted to jump onboard all at once. I had a couple of good years where finding anything was reasonable and people at yard sales didn't know "Nintendo is collectable now". Oh well, I'm past the half-way mark to where I want to be anyway. I don't mind buying most the rest of it online really, but it was fun finding things when you took a drive out to look around. 

It sounds to me that your definition of "retro collecting is dying" is simply counter to mine....  The fact that things are drying up means that collecting has gone up....  Even if I have a full COMPLETE collection, does not mean collecting died....  I would still be a collector, but it would just be a complete collection....  I view collecting as going up as scarcity continues....  So that's where I'm coming from....  I get how our views differ now....

[Warmsignal]

Well I'm not the OP just commenting its harder to do now because resources have dried up. The desire for this stuff will never actually die out. If you think about it, classic games are more finite than most other old collected things. Unless reproductions start coming out which I'm not opposed to by any means.

It sounds to me that your definition of "retro collecting is dying" is simply counter to mine....  The fact that things are drying up means that collecting has gone up....  Even if I have a full COMPLETE collection, does not mean collecting died....  I would still be a collector, but it would just be a complete collection....  I view collecting as going up as scarcity continues....  So that's where I'm coming from....  I get how our views differ now....