Is the hobby starting to finally die down?

[bikingjahuty]

I ask this question because I've seen a lot of local collectors begin to sell off parts of their collection, their whole collections, or just throw in the towel and more or less stick with what they have. On top of that I've noticed that a to of the enthusiasm for collecting has died down significantly in here, in other sites/groups I belong to and among people I personally know who collect. If you ask me, I believe it is.


So where do you believe this will lead if you do believe the hobby is losing steam/interest?

[burningdoom]

^ Hopefully it means more games for me. 

[Warmsignal]

Prices are still climbing, either way. I heard someone saying that eventually, classic game collecting will become largely unaffordable for most people, $100 games becoming the cheap end. I seriously don't doubt this anymore. Every day I learn of something new that people are paying larger and larger amounts for. Like today I realized people are getting $130 a cart for Wayne's World on NES. Ridiculously stupid IMO, but not surprising. That to me is quite telling. I can only surmise that when people throw down serious money on seriously ridiculous stuff, the hobby is getting more serious, and less casual. So maybe less populated, or at least less populated by frugal gamers, or collectors. More so now by elites and hardcore hobbyists. Where do I think it will all lead? Into the hands of a whole other level of collecting. 

Another factor is a lot of us who have been doing this 5, 8, 10 years now nearly have everything we ever wanted, probably a bit burnt out on the routine. Surely annoyed at how things aren't the way they used to be, and probably tired of dealers and random dudes from Craigslist and their antics of looking items up right in front of you and charging you a number based on what they find. No point in hunting anymore, if that's how it's gonna be.

I've wanted to wrap things up long ago, but just recently became somewhat enthused by my 32x of all things. The aspect of discovery has always been the spark of enthusiasm, but eventually you run out of that. Enthusiasm is also easily squashed when you continually feel like what you want to discover is always held just out of reach.  At least for me, there's a lot of gilt involved in spending big on another game I probably don't need.

[seberhusky]

Dying for who?

Seems like you need to interview a larger target audience, as it's not dying at all. I've been buying all kinds of games all month (friend referrals) and another friend I know just got a CD-i console as well as a Virtual Boy this summer.

[ignition365]

A lot of people I chat with believe the market is a bubble and it's on its way to bursting.  Atari used to be relatively expensive for a period of time, now it's relatively worthless.  People think the same thing will happen with the NES.

I don't agree, but I do think a lot of people who are collecting for nostalgia's sake will likely give up at some point, or maybe they get married and have kids and have to change their priorities.

I know I am and have been pretty burnt out lately.  I took a break back in March to chill and just enjoy what I have and focus on saving money to buy a house.  We bought a house, now I'm able to get back into collecting, but I just don't feel it anymore.  Trading with folks online is troublesome because the people I would trade with seem to only want mint condition stuff for display rather than games to play like they used to.  Buying stuff on ebay/CL/facebook is just useless because people throw ridiculous prices out there expecting nothing less because it sold for $10k on ebay VGA graded 4 years ago, so my MINT game with no label, box, or manual is worth at least that.  Yes, that happened, often actually, and yes, I am bitter about it.

In a different situation I would think that the bubble theory would work, but when the big thing right now is streaming let's plays and such, no title is safe.  Some day, a guy is going to do a let's play of a game like Fear Effect and people are going to go banana's and drive that price from $20 to like $50.  Shenmue for dreamcast used to be a $20-30 game, now it goes for like $40-50.  All because of hype.  If streamers, kickstarters, and word of mouth can keep hype going for the hobby people will always be buying something.

Now if MLG and Streaming becomes a fad and nobody cares about it anymore, sure, it'll die down.  But as always, people love to live vicariously through others.

[kashell]

I don't think the hobby is dying down, but it's not as fun as it used be because of the Internet.

[abe]

I don't think the hobby is dying down, but it's not as fun as it used be because of the Internet.

I agree.

[gf78]

I think warmsignal said it all.  I agree with pretty much everything he is saying.

I'm certainly no less enthusiastic about my collecting than I was a month, a year, or five years ago.  But I am at a point where while there are certainly still games I want, I am pretty happy with my collection overall.  And in fact, over the last two months I have spent more on games, accessories, swag than the last two years!

Then you have to look at the ballooning prices.  Even a year ago, I could walk into just about any game store or pawn shop and pick up old NES carts for five bucks.  Mario, Metroid, Zelda, etc.  Now, the price has artificially blew up where even copies of Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt go for $25 a pop for the cart only.  Similarly, the prices of PlayStation (one) games has increased dramatically.  Two or three years ago, I bought a copy of Strider 2 new/sealed for $30.  The recent copy I purchased I paid around $80 for used.  And unless your willing to drop some serious cash forget getting good RPG's for the thing.

Mom & Pop shops are seeing dollar signs too.  My local go-to went from selling NES, SNES, Genesis, etc. systems complete with a game for around $40 to cranking the price up to $80.  eBay and Amazon prices have gone completely ape$hit and locals who advertise on buy/sell/trade pages or have yard/garage sales are looking up online prices and trying to hose you. 

Condition doesn't seem to matter to these jokers either.  I would be willing to pay up to $30 for a complete copy of ActRaiser for the SNES in pretty decent condition.  But asshats are trying to charge that for a cartridge only with a torn off label and ratty-ass Blockbuster stickers & goo stuck all over it.  No thank you.

[dreama1]

Maybe ill stockpile then.

[telly]

I don't personally see myself losing interest anytime soon. I'm pretty young though, I don't buy a lot of games, and I make a effort to play/beat every game that I buy: by and large I will really only buy games that I want to play. I guess that makes me less of a collector per say and more someone who only likes to play games for entertainment. (That's not a knock against people who do that, though).

Anyway, because of that mentality, I don't know if I'll ever get close to buying everything I could ever want, or playing everything that I want. I still have a lot to play and experience both old and new. Prices of things definitely affect how much stuff I can reasonably enjoy, but I would wager that there still plenty of great cheap franchises or games out there that I haven't even tried yet, and I bet that's the case for everybody on here.

Certainly buying games at some point will become exhaustive, but playing games will take a lot longer to accomplish, at least in my opinion. 

[fighterpilot562]

^ Hopefully it means more games for me. 

This! haha

[rayne315]

Im looking forward to the bubble bursting because that just means that I can go out and buy more games for cheaper and hopefully get those Great games that I have never been able to play because they are $100+. I don't know about you guys but whatever the price of a new game is is my absolute limit for buying something.

[gf78]

Im looking forward to the bubble bursting because that just means that I can go out and buy more games for cheaper and hopefully get those Great games that I have never been able to play because they are $100+. I don't know about you guys but whatever the price of a new game is is my absolute limit for buying something.

That's the metric I pretty much go by unless it's something reallllly special to me.  Honestly, most of the time I don't want to spend more than $20 or $25 for an older title, complete in like-new condition. 

[aliensstudios]

I ask this question because I've seen a lot of local collectors begin to sell off parts of their collection, their whole collections, or just throw in the towel and more or less stick with what they have. On top of that I've noticed that a to of the enthusiasm for collecting has died down significantly in here, in other sites/groups I belong to and among people I personally know who collect. If you ask me, I believe it is.


So where do you believe this will lead if you do believe the hobby is losing steam/interest?

If anything, I think the retro game collecting scene is even worse but perhaps you're asking the wrong people this question since all of us here are collectors.

[burningdoom]

I think it's just gotten harder. I remember when I could walk into practically any used music shop or pawn shop and find a row of old cartridge games. Nowadays you're lucky to spot them at all outside of online sources.

That has made the hobby a lot less fun. It was a joy to go to a pawn shop, and grab up an armful of games for $20-$30 out the door. But that just doesn't happen anymore. Now you usually end up coming home empty handed, or with just PS2 & above games, and end up going on eBay to find that SNES game you've been wanting.