Collection Plateau...anybody experience this?

[brettybluevein]

Hey gang,

I'm at a weird spot in my collecting right now. I spent years grabbing all the games I wanted and now with the exception of just a few titles, I feel like I have what I want. My only wants now are to finish my Sega CD and Saturn sets, and continue to collect Neo Geo games, which can be quite expensive so I just tackle those as I see good deals. I don't "hunt" anymore, because I fins now that I spend too much time looking for games I need to make it worth the end result, so by the time I factor in gas driving around, and my time spent searching for a title I might want, it's easier just to buy it off ebay and call it done.

Has anyone else hit a plateau in their collection to where it feels like you are at a stand still?

I've also considered purging some of my collection. Partly to  make room, partly to focus more on what I truly enjoy. It's tough to think about parting with all the stuff I've spent so much effort to acquire though.

[tpugmire]

I'm kind of at a self imposed standstill. In December, I realized that I had way too many games that I haven't ever played, so I made a quiet New Years resolution. I'm not going to buy any games this year until I feel like I've put a considerable dent in my backlog. The last game I purchased was NES Remix Pack for Wii U on December 31st. I've been given some games for free recently, and I used the remainder of my Club Nintendo codes to get Virtual Console games, but those don't really count. I have yet to spend any money on games this year.

[devancowan]

I'm kind of at a self imposed standstill. In December, I realized that I had way too many games that I haven't ever played, so I made a quiet New Years resolution. I'm not going to buy any games this year until I feel like I've put a considerable dent in my backlog. The last game I purchased was NES Remix Pack for Wii U on December 31st. I've been given some games for free recently, and I used the remainder of my Club Nintendo codes to get Virtual Console games, but those don't really count. I have yet to spend any money on games this year.

That's actually really impressive! I say to myself I'm going to lay off the gaming buying for a while but then find myself buying something in EB.

[bikingjahuty]

I am actually at the same point with collecting; I have almost every game I ever wanted since I started back in 2008 and then some. I used to hunt for games almost every day, now, for a variety of reasons, I buy most of my games on Ebay since it is often easier and typically cheaper since all, but a few places I used to hunt have dried up or are so saturated with collectors and resellers you have to be very lucky to find anything. The collecting landscape has changed dramatically in the past 2-years alone and it is a far cry from the highly accessible and highly rewarding scene I started in. So part of my plateau is the fact that running around looking for cheap games has not only become mostly pointless, but it has lost most of its appeal to me.


But despite this, I am grateful I started before the hobby got as big as it did and was able to get most of the must have games on all the retro consoles I had an interest in. The only older consoles I still have a sizable log of games I would like to get are ps1 and Saturn. I have most of the N64 games I've ever wanted, but one thing I've been gradually working on is getting all my childhood games CIB. I'll also note that I have been collecting pretty aggressively for the PS3, 360 and Wii, but that is just because games on those consoles are becoming more and more common and are dropping in price like crazy.


But yeah, my intake of games has dropped pretty dramatically and it is near the point where I'm not sure I'd be able to amass more than 100 games this year. It's sad in a way, but also a bit of a relief.

[seberhusky]

The worst thing you can ever do is sell it. Never sell it, never even think about that. You will regret it.

There will be times where you can take a break, sure. But try playing them in between breaks in collecting.  That's what they are for.

I still don't have everything I want yet, so I can't say anything about it, but I have a various array of collecting, so I don't think I'd ever get bored.

[dashv]

I have also hit a plateau.

Wouldn't dream of selling of any of it. But, yeah, I only have a small handful of titles I am actually looking for. Most are so expensive now that I can only afford to get one a paycheck.

Should have the wishlist closed out by the end of this year.

[amauriel]

I'm doing something similar to @tpugmire, but I'm not quite as drastic. I promised myself I would finish more games than I buy in 2015. I did it as a New Year's Resolution and started keeping track on January 1st.

To date, I have purchased 11 games this year and I have finished 13. That may be more games than I finished all last year and it's only April. The only drawback I've found to this is that I don't play as much of my games like Animal Crossing and Harvest Moon because they really don't end. I need to come up with a way of considering them "complete" to be able to add them to my lists as well, so I don't feel guilty playing them rather than games with a set beginning and end.

[retroone]

I go through weird spurts where I am either always buying games on Steam or always doing eBay hunts on trying to track down NES gems. I never truly track down games anymore because there are no good gaming spots that don't resell games. Whatever you do don't sell any of it. You'll regret it in the long run.

[argyle]

The worst thing you can ever do is sell it. Never sell it, never even think about that. You will regret it.

There will be times where you can take a break, sure. But try playing them in between breaks in collecting.  That's what they are for.

This is certainly true for me. I have sold a lot of stuff I once had and now regret it, especially since a lot of it will cost much more to reacquire than I got from it at the time.  

[gartcat]

I was like that about 5 years ago.  I decided to sell systems & games I didn't ever play so that I could get further into my Gameboy collection.  I don't miss them because I didn't play them or had them for 20 years & was completely finished with them.  I regret selling some games simply because of the huge skyrocket that happened with SNES and NES games during/after 2012, but that's more about the money I could have gotten than missing the games. I put the money I did get into buying more of what I truly wanted.  However, if I didn't collect all those games in the first place, I never would have figured out what I really enjoy, so it did have a purpose.  Letting go of things can be a positive experience, do you own the games or do the games own you?   

[evilnick]

I haven't reached the plateau yet.  Though I'm in a general lull where I'm more focused on my other expensive hobby: Transformers.  The new Combiner Wars figures are just too damn cool to ignore.  I'm waiting for something to "re-spark" my drive to collect games.  Maybe a good garage sale will strike me in May.  There's an event in Minnesota and Wisconsin known as the "100-mile garage sale" that once yielded a black Sega Sports Dreamcast, 2 controllers, 2 VMUs, and 15 games for... $5.  That is not a typo.

[sin2beta]

I am but I'm not. Primarily been busy with life. Getting married. Moved to lower-mid management. Getting a mortgage. The finance and I have been playing a lot of Blizzard games as well. So, I haven't purchased many this year.

I don't really feel like I'm at a plateau though. Just a temporary stall. I do consider myself a full set collector though. So, I will never have everything until I have all of the games for the desired systems. I have found myself wanting to finish a few subsets of the collection first though. For instance all of the Shinobi games.

I have found myself continuing to look at non-seta parts of my collection. I have several Xbox games that I will probably not get to ever. I have a small atari collection. I've debated on trimming the Xbox collection down to the "greatest hits". I've also though about increasing the portable gaming side of things though since I take the train to work. Very contradictory.

[soera]

Im mostly there. If you look at my wishlist, you will see its very small and most of the items on there have low priority anyhow. Im enjoying current gen (PS4 and 3DS) lately and will pick up stuff when its released but my addiction to collecting retro is almost dead. I havent "hunted" in months and dont have a want to do so.

[turf]

I havent "hunted" in months and dont have a want to do so.

Guilty.  I've looked a little, but the fun just isn't there.  Everyone wants eBay prices, so I can't see spending the time and money when I could just order it online and have it sent to the house.  There's just not much out there in the world anymore.  It's been almost a year since I had a real good find. 

I've lost a little of my want to .  Maybe it'll come back.  I just need a spark to get the fire going again.

[wartoy]

Hello well I haven't reached that point yet.I have lots of games and even though my goal is to own every game ever made.I know its not possible,but I don't care I love collecting and playing.I think I will always collect then pass my love for gamming onto my children. I don't do ebay or amazon for me it cheapens the experience.It may take longer but it always been somthing me and my kids could enjoy doing together.Even though now they're in their 20's we still go game hunting.