A Growing Trend???

[bikingjahuty]

I wanted to see if anyone else has noticed a trend in the collecting community of people starting to sell off their entire video game collections, or at least big chunks of them?


I belong to a local collecting group and within the past 3-months, about half a dozen collectors have been selling off anywhere from half to around 90% of their respective collections. Even on my local craigslist, there have been a lot of collections up for sale recently.


I might be looking into this too deeply, but it's possible we, the collecting community, have hit that tipping point where the hobby is becoming too difficult to amass the games most people want, or too inaccessible for those who have recently got into it and have found it very difficult and expensive to obtain the games they want. I wanted to see if anyone else has noticed this, or it could be a random influx of collectors selling their collections off in my area.

[foxhack]

Or people lost their jobs and need to sell their things to stay afloat.

It's happened to me a few times. The last time I did it was to upgrade my old clunker of a PC.

[dashv]

I dunno, maybe it's just folks cashing in on the higher values of their collections now rather than wait and miss out if it turns out to be a bubble that's going to burst.

How did you find your local collecting groups?

I tried meetup.com and came up with nothing which I find hard to believe since I live in the 2nd most densely populated area in the US.

[kamikazekeeg]

I dunno, maybe it's just folks cashing in on the higher values of their collections now rather than wait and miss out if it turns out to be a bubble that's going to burst.

How did you find your local collecting groups?

I tried meetup.com and came up with nothing which I find hard to believe since I live in the 2nd most densely populated area in the US.

Can try facebook.  I found one on there that I've gotten pretty into, even making a few friends locally because of it.  Or if you got retro stores in the area, ask them if they've heard of any groups up.

[critter7405]

Maybe that was a hobby for them...and decided it wasn't something they wanted to do anymore. So what better way to make some money with games that are just laying around waiting for us to buy... Or on the other hand in today's world jobs are hard to find and when money is tight something has got to go of some value.

I haven't really tried finding collectors in my area... Maybe it's time to ... Tired of talking to my wife about video games that I know she has no interest in... But, she still sits there with a smile and listens. 

[scott]

need to sell their things to stay afloat.

That happened to me. This winter was a killer. I sifted through my Saturn games and marked a bunch that I can part with in case of emergency. Ended up selling a couple to Varkias and dropping a few on ebay. Sometimes you have to do what you have to do.

Of course, I swore to myself that I'll never use Panzer Dragoon Saga or Albert Odyssey for a cash in. I did end up parting with Shining Force III and Dragon Force though. I prolly have 2/3 of my Saturn collection (which used to be my heavy focus) noted as saleable.

[dashv]

Maybe that was a hobby for them...and decided it wasn't something they wanted to do anymore. So what better way to make some money with games that are just laying around waiting for us to buy... Or on the other hand in today's world jobs are hard to find and when money is tight something has got to go of some value.

I haven't really tried finding collectors in my area... Maybe it's time to ... Tired of talking to my wife about video games that I know she has no interest in... But, she still sits there with a smile and listens. 

Great wife.

My wife and I went on a date a couple months ago. First night out without the kind in a long while and I rambled on at the Cheesecake Factory about Links Awakening for the game boy.

She just smiled and listened to it all.

A week later I found her playing it on the GBA.

She beat it last month and we shared our thoughts on it.

[atarileaf]

I'm selling a bunch of stuff but the reason was mostly space issues and an a desire to rid myself of games and systems I don't play. Like a lot of collectors, I have a lot of "shelf padding" - games that just sit there to look good in the background but never get played. I think it's a fair bet that most collectors have more shelf padding than games they actually play, especially when you get up into collections that contain thousands of games.

My philosophy on collecting has changed and I no longer have a desire to own something that I won't play or use just to put it on a shelf.

[disgaeniac]

I think that it's like that 'vocal minority' that you see complaining on game boards, speaking for *everyone*, etc...

...it *seems* like a lot more than it really is because the vast majority (not complaining/selling their collections) are just not saying anything or drawing any attention to what they're doing/not doing.

[dreama1]

I wanted to see if anyone else has noticed a trend in the collecting community of people starting to sell off their entire video game collections, or at least big chunks of them?


I belong to a local collecting group and within the past 3-months, about half a dozen collectors have been selling off anywhere from half to around 90% of their respective collections. Even on my local craigslist, there have been a lot of collections up for sale recently.


I might be looking into this too deeply, but it's possible we, the collecting community, have hit that tipping point where the hobby is becoming too difficult to amass the games most people want, or too inaccessible for those who have recently got into it and have found it very difficult and expensive to obtain the games they want. I wanted to see if anyone else has noticed this, or it could be a random influx of collectors selling their collections off in my area.

It's a trap bikingjahuty!

[critter7405]

Maybe that was a hobby for them...and decided it wasn't something they wanted to do anymore. So what better way to make some money with games that are just laying around waiting for us to buy... Or on the other hand in today's world jobs are hard to find and when money is tight something has got to go of some value.

I haven't really tried finding collectors in my area... Maybe it's time to ... Tired of talking to my wife about video games that I know she has no interest in... But, she still sits there with a smile and listens. 

Great wife.

My wife and I went on a date a couple months ago. First night out without the kind in a long while and I rambled on at the Cheesecake Factory about Links Awakening for the game boy.

She just smiled and listened to it all.

A week later I found her playing it on the GBA.

She beat it last month and we shared our thoughts on it.

Little as my wife knows it I am slowly turning her into a video game freak... She is starting to look at ebay and Facebook for video games/consoles that are posted. She also every now and then plays the Wii it's a start...all part of my video game conspiracy plan to turn her into a gamer... Mahahaha... Lol

[bikingjahuty]

How did you find your local collecting groups?

The first local collecting group I found was though Craigslist, which eventually became a Facebook group to attract more people. So Facebook is the way to go.

[bikingjahuty]

My philosophy on collecting has changed and I no longer have a desire to own something that I won't play or use just to put it on a shelf.

I know at least two of he people in the collection group I belong to sold parts of their collection for this reason. As one of them said, "I am tired of collecting trophies that just sit on my shelf."

[burningdoom]

Fine. All the more for me.

[jcalder8]

I have been saying for a couple of years now that the hobby is slowing down, this is just one more example of it happening.