Building Collections. Rares first? or easy stuff?

[madmax]

I go for the cheaper ones first. It's nice to see your collection grow and it gives you a really good head start. Having started my FF collection recently. I've spent about $150 but got about 6-7 games. 2 of them were really good deals mind you. Over half price in some cases.

So basically I buy cheap once in a while to feed my addiction and hunt good deals all the time

[varkias]

I've always gone after the ones I want to play the most first, after getting through my "must play" list I start looking at others favorite game lists for a system and continue.  I usually won't pick up the rare titles I don't really care to play until last.  At one point I was about 600 games into the NTSC NES set and realized it wasn't the system for me.  Sold all of them off and I'm loving the Saturn now.

[scott]

@varkias man I love the Saturn. I'm about 70 games into the set. Hope to complete it one day, but it's on hold while I get boxed copies of all the US Castlevania games.

[varkias]

@scott: that's awesome! I've just recently decided Saturn is my platform.  I've been buying Sega stuff for years and just can't seem to put down that Saturn controller.  I used to have a nice Castlevania collection going for awhile too.  I sold off most of it, i was picking up sealed games and got burned twice and stopped with the sealed stuff lol.  I feel the series took a turn for worst after SotN, but then Kojima swoops in and saves the day with Lords of Shadow.

[scott]

Ha actually I feel different about post-SotN Castlevania games. While I didn't care for Circle of the Moon, I really dug Harmony, Aria and Dawn. The 3D games have always been a bit off, each nailing a different aspect, but never merging the ideas and making one perfect version. Lords of Shadow was a good game, It has good combat and platforming, but most of the game, except for the vampire area, lacks the ol' Castlevania feel. Plus, I can't see how they plan to follow up with it as a reboot to the series... especially with that ending. Personally I'd like to see more of the original story's timeline, especially something involving Julius Belmont vs Dracula.

[bikingjahuty]

I know this is an old thread, but I thought it was an interesting one to address.


With the exception of when I first started collecting, where I essentially just grabbed items off of ebay that I could afford at the time, I've simply collected based on what I came across in my searches for games. I'd often find games I was looking for, but often I'd find games that just looked interesting and add those to my collection, regardless of rarity. This allowed me to pick up a lot of rare titles that I'd otherwise have spent a lot of money on.


I'm at the point now, however where all the stuff I run into is stuff I already have or is too expensive. So what I've been doing is mostly using Ebay to fill in the gabs that have been left over from 4+ years of hunting these games and being unable to find them. It's much slower and more expensive, but luckily there aren't a lot more games I'm after.

[fighterpilot562]

I personally would go with i want/cheaper first, than later go for the expensive stuff. Get the cheap stuff firsst, before they go up in price is my thinking.

[burningdoom]

I say just pick up what looks like fun to play for you. That way, you'll be a lot less likely to be disappointed with your purchase.

[maximo310]

Yeah, going cheaper is usually what I do, and it really helps if you are going for complete sets and looking for game lots for decent prices is probably the easiest way to start off collections. Most of the rarer stuff is most likely not going to be in the wild, so online is the best option once you get to that point.
Right now, I mix up common and rare pickups depending on preferences and available funds, and that has somewhat paid off, especially on a few rare games that I got before their price spiked by a good amount ( FE : PoR is an example from last winter).

[thekosmickollector]

Personally, I just buy games that I wanna play and spend as little money as possible and that works out fine for me 

[theflea]

personally my advice for a beginner is buy what you wanna play first, any other games buy if you find a good deal on them (Like from garage sales, flea markets or VGcollect market) But if your going to buy games off Ebay, then buy what you want to play and even then watch for "make an offer" or when the price comes down.
Only other thing I can advise is watch for lots that are good deals with more then half of the games your missing.

[atarileaf]

I will usually buy the easy to find, cheaper games first unless there's a game in a series that is rare and hard to find. May sound strange but I won't buy the rest of the series until I get the harder to find one first or I won't get any of the games in that series.

An example is Pro Pinball for the PS1. There are 4 games in the series with Timeshock being the hardest to fine and priciest. I'd prefer to get that one first and I know the other 3 will be easy to find an fall into place.