People Selling Their Collections

[kmacdw]

Ha maybe I'm alone in this but it always disappoints me to see people selling their collection or even downsizing. I can never bring myself to buy anything from them as I feel like I'm contributing to that disappointment. Just seems like a shame that someone who has put time and money into collecting these games, suddenly decides to sell them for whatever reason. I get that sometimes it's a necessity; babies for instance tend to be a common cause for people deciding to sell, as they're expensive; however that isn't the only reason I've seen people sell.

So I'm just curious as to other people's input on this. How do you feel when you see someone selling their collection? Have you sold a large chunk of your collection before? Why did you do it? Do you regret it?

[asmodean]

I agree that it's a bit sad when you see other peoples complete collections go on ebay or other places. But as for downsizing, I regulary do that when I find parts of my collection boring, so I see no problem with that. For me it's more a natural evolution of my collection

[sworddude]

Were not talking about people who owned a console with some games but people with entire nice quality collections, Not people who sell their entire collection of for example megadrive. 30 40 games with mediocre titles. High quality collections. ive seen many people who collected and they had pretty much no good titles, I don't feel sad when people get rid of those collections.

Back on topic
 
Some people decide to sell their filler titles wich are a large portion of their collection

If i see someone sell all their sports games and other bad (platformers shooters racers etc etc) titles huge amounts I don't think they will have any regrets. In fact they make the world a better place, sspecially for ps1, ps2 xbox and wii consoles Also for mediocre nes snes sega titles I doubt many would think it is a shame. The games are trash anyways, filler titles are not worth owning in my opinion unless you go for a full set. If you don't It's worthless It's all or nothing if you include fillers.

If you have an excellent cib collection of nintendo or sega games with good games and you put that for sale than I agree it is a bit sad to those collections go Someone selling for example their old school castlevania or mega man game collection It's pretty sad since in most of the times they are forced to sell those for money needs. Same goes for entire collections of sought after ps1 ps2 and wii titles and ofcourse many more.

I'm a bastard but thanks to those deals I've managed to ad many high priced older cib sega and nintendo sony titles for bargains or nothing.The stuff is usually in excellent shape and you can sometimes get it for excellent prices in big lots not to mention more uncommon titles wich are not always on the open market. Also people who sell their entire collections miss out on some valuable things or are years behind what it was worth than. There was this sega collector who sold his sega megadrive games for 5 euro's a piece. I did pay more for the 2 starting 20 a piece titles but the ones that were not online yet wich he gave me a list for he accepted it for 5 euro's a piece wich i offered as joke to see his counter offer these were nice quality sega titles. It's insane also accepted 7,50 for factory sealed dreamcast games wich apperently no one saw in his adds good ones btw phantasy star etc, for his pc big box games it was another story 40 etc.

I won't say no to a free cib pal megaman x3 and panzer dragoon with sleeves etc both for the sega saturn. I did pay a nice chunk for the lot these came in but these are the deals you want to make as a collector. I do always pay a solid chunk If I have these opportunities but far less than It's worth and I usually end up getting the stuff I want for free or in the very least for bargains flee market prices.

Also If you feel dissapointed when buying stuff from them you will pay way higher prices than on flee markets were people actually get ripped off or you will pay full retail prices from resellers who bought these games from those collectors for the more uncommon stuff. If you don't buy it someone else will and you will pay retail prices. I personally don't see the point in people being sad. Especially since everyone complains that retrogames are way to expensive and want to pay way less than the value. make your choice people. If your sad than buy your games of ebay for full retail price and don't complain for retro games being to expensive. Plenty of collectors who sell on ebay for retail prices.

I'm not the kinda guy that likes to spend 50 to 350 a piece on games. I can quit collecting after a short time after buying games for those prices before going home broke for the year. I'm the kinda guy that lives for the deal.

Collections aside I recenlty bought a ps1 lot from a non collector and the person apologised for taking to long for shipping Didn't mail the guy but he send me a message. Apperently he Was in the hospital for research and they confirmed the person had cancer. I felt pretty sad for that guy. Also from this one sega lots apperently being from a person who died and they wanted to get rid of it. Didn't need to know that. Sometimes some sad stories behind 2nd hand goods it's just how the cookie crumbles.

[bikingjahuty]

One thing that a lot of people in this hobby seem to forget is that there are many things in life way more important than having an awesome game collection. Games can be sold and repurchased; medical bills, vacations, life changing experiencing, college, buying a house or car, and many other things do not work this way.

Yes, it is a bit sad and depending when you started collecting you will probably never find the sort of deals you may have on some of your games, but again they can always be repurchased if you end up missing them that much.

In the 8-years I've been collecting I've only downsized once and to be honest I really don't miss the games that I ended up selling (about 100 in total, mostly NES, SNES and Genesis games). I had some major expenses to pay for and it was worth it to me to get those taken care of versus holding onto my games, but being in debt right now.

In terms of the rest of my collection I certainly have no intention of selling it, but if something very important ever came up I may consider it.

[gf78]

I've recently been selling off a big part of my collection.  There are four main reasons behind this.

1.  I have Too.  Much.  Stuff.  I don't have a place to keep it all.  A huge part of my collection I have had to move to my nephew's place to store because I simply don't have the room.  My bedroom walk-in closet has become a storage shed.  My daughters both suffer with less closet space because I have tubs tucked away in their rooms.  The corner table in my living room sectional hides two tubs of games and consoles.  I have storage tubs sealed up out in the garage with game-related but non-game items because I have no place to keep it all.  It's just too much.  It's unwieldy, I cannot even enjoy looking at the items let alone get to them easily.  Hell, I have this giant flat box full of promotional posters.  I have them stored under the living room couch because that is the only place I could find to keep them.  I can't even pull them out and look at them occasionally because I have to move the damn ottoman five feet across the room just to get to them!     I have dozens of really bad-ass looking gaming posters.  Guess what?  They are all rolled, hiding in the top of my closet.  Unseen and unloved.

2.  I rather have Star Wars stuff.  As far back as I can remember and indeed - I wasn't even 3 years old at the time - Star Wars has been a big part of my life.  It inspired my love of sci-fi and influenced my further love of anime, comics, toys, models, etc.  The only sci-fi that could come close to being as cool for me was when Star Blazers aired back in the late 70's.

3.  My OCD drives me insane.  If I have Virtua Fighter 5, I have to methodically and systematically hunt down every other single Virtua Fighter game whether I have a system to play it on or not.  It's insane and I cannot control myself.  Collecting Star Wars on the other hand, I don't try to get "everything" and instead can pick & choose because there are so many different things to choose from.  It may not make sense to you, but it does to me.  For example, I love the Bandai Movie Realization figures.  They basically take classic Star Wars characters and reimagine them as Samurai.  They are pricey, but there are only three with a fourth on the way.  So it was easy to get them and be content.  Like I said...it makes sense in my OCD mind.  LOL.   

4.  My family means more to me than video games ever could.  My priority is to make sure my wife and girls know I love them, and to make sure the girls grow up to be good, smart, compassionate people.  Spending hundreds of  hours playing games - especially games that nobody in the house but me likes - isn't a good way to be a part of my family.  Sure I've sold off hundreds of games.  But I've also picked up a few here & there like Disney Infinity with a dozen or so figures (so far) that my kids & I can play together. 

[spac316]

It also makes me sad to see people sell off their collections, but I would understand if it's for an important necessity.

I hope I'll never end up in a situation where I have to sell off a large amount of games...

[Warmsignal]

Yes and no. Depends on how much pride they seemed to have in their collection before they decided to shed it off. If they're the type who jumped in and bought 1000 games in one year's time, then decided to get out of it, that doesn't bother me. But if they spent years picking up games on the cheap, slowing building their collection and you can tell they take a lot of pride in it, then something comes along and they axe a bunch of it. That kinda hurts to see, even if it doesn't bother them to do it.

For me this is a one trip journey, and I'm never going back. If something ever happened, I'd just emulate games when I felt like playing, and find another physical hobby to pursue. The prices, scarcity, and popularity of this stuff nauseates me to even think of doing-over. Plus so much of it was about the discovery, and the game hunts and special finds that cannot be recreated.

It doesn't pain me to buy from a collector. I'd much rather see their games go to someone else who is ecstatic about them than into the hands of a re-seller or something like that. What gets me more, is buying or taking games from someone who was not a collector, but just had a few old games lying around from their childhood. Here I am with a million games, and I'm taking their childhood stuff away most likely to throw on a pile. That doesn't sit well with me.

I've considered downsizing because I have a number of things that I bought for the wrong reasons, but don't know if I could actually do it. Still have a stack of FMV games for the Sega CD I've disowned, but never gotten rid of. Have about 100 games that I have no desire to ever even try, would like to shed those, but probably won't. Maybe one day, after I've tried everything I own, I'd feel better about getting rid of some.

[olly88]

It's a shame when you see someone selling a collection, but if they've lost interest or need to sell it due to personal reasons then it's understandable.

Something that I do find weird though, and I'm not sure if anyone else has experienced it, is that some people I subscribe to on Youtube sell and restart collections all the time. Like, they'll have one collection, sell it, start another one, then sell that one and restart a collection of the console they first sold, then sell that one and restart buying the other one again. Some of the people do the process over and over, and I don't get it. Fair enough, they've got their reasons and it's nothing to do with me, but some times I feel like people are forcing themselves to enjoy collecting, when perhaps they just need a break from it all for a while.

[kmacdw]

I've recently been selling off a big part of my collection.  There are four main reasons behind this.

1.  I have Too.  Much.  Stuff.  I don't have a place to keep it all.  A huge part of my collection I have had to move to my nephew's place to store because I simply don't have the room.  My bedroom walk-in closet has become a storage shed.  My daughters both suffer with less closet space because I have tubs tucked away in their rooms.  The corner table in my living room sectional hides two tubs of games and consoles.  I have storage tubs sealed up out in the garage with game-related but non-game items because I have no place to keep it all.  It's just too much.  It's unwieldy, I cannot even enjoy looking at the items let alone get to them easily.  Hell, I have this giant flat box full of promotional posters.  I have them stored under the living room couch because that is the only place I could find to keep them.  I can't even pull them out and look at them occasionally because I have to move the damn ottoman five feet across the room just to get to them!     I have dozens of really bad-ass looking gaming posters.  Guess what?  They are all rolled, hiding in the top of my closet.  Unseen and unloved.

2.  I rather have Star Wars stuff.  As far back as I can remember and indeed - I wasn't even 3 years old at the time - Star Wars has been a big part of my life.  It inspired my love of sci-fi and influenced my further love of anime, comics, toys, models, etc.  The only sci-fi that could come close to being as cool for me was when Star Blazers aired back in the late 70's.

3.  My OCD drives me insane.  If I have Virtua Fighter 5, I have to methodically and systematically hunt down every other single Virtua Fighter game whether I have a system to play it on or not.  It's insane and I cannot control myself.  Collecting Star Wars on the other hand, I don't try to get "everything" and instead can pick & choose because there are so many different things to choose from.  It may not make sense to you, but it does to me.  For example, I love the Bandai Movie Realization figures.  They basically take classic Star Wars characters and reimagine them as Samurai.  They are pricey, but there are only three with a fourth on the way.  So it was easy to get them and be content.  Like I said...it makes sense in my OCD mind.  LOL.   

4.  My family means more to me than video games ever could.  My priority is to make sure my wife and girls know I love them, and to make sure the girls grow up to be good, smart, compassionate people.  Spending hundreds of  hours playing games - especially games that nobody in the house but me likes - isn't a good way to be a part of my family.  Sure I've sold off hundreds of games.  But I've also picked up a few here & there like Disney Infinity with a dozen or so figures (so far) that my kids & I can play together.

I can relate to some of your points.

In terms of your first point; despite only have 500 or so physical games I can't have the pleasure of viewing them on display; I am currently living back at home while I finish college/university; my room doesn't have the room for shelving and even if it did, it'd be impractical to get in shelving as then I couldn't move it when I leave. I think that was one of the reasons I scaled back my ambitions when I first transitioned from simply playing games to collecting them; initially I planned to get every RPG available for every mainstream system available in the PAL region; as well as other series in other genres that I like. However I soon decided this would be more games than I could ever hope to play and they'd just be taking up space for no reason. So I scaled back my ambitions twice; firstly to just the 'good' RPGs that I'd hope to play on those systems, as well as other games. And eventually back to just the more modern consoles (though I haven't yet ruled out entirely eventually getting a Genesis and a SNES). So yeah I can understand that you have to consider space and the potential to actually play them.

I can also relate to your 3rd point as I also have OCD. It's the biggest drawback to collecting anything; I also tend to have to have the entire series; which means generally I don't buy a single game, I buy the entire series; like when I got my PS3 I bought Agarest 1, 2 & Zero instantly. Yet even worse than wanting entire series; is striving for perfect condition. I realise in terms of finances I generally can't buy sealed, yet my OCD drives me to find copies that are as good as new, and any imperfection makes them unworthy of being long term parts of my collection, so I constantly have a replacements list which i can never clear as I always buy more games and 1 or 2 will always have an imperfection. There's some games I've bought multiple times, and expensive ones at that; I had to buy two copies of Skies of Arcadia Legends which goes for about €70-€80 in this region. Yet worst of all is Suikoden 5, I got that game for my 15th birthday when it originally came out, I finished it and I kept it for a year or so in great condition, I then traded it in with another game so that I could buy a ticket to a LAN I wanted to attend. However when I started collecting I wanted it back so I bought it for about €30, condition wasn't good enough for me, so I traded it into a retro store for a fraction of what I paid and I went on ebay and got another copy for about €25; it was perfect but when testing the disk my PS2 decided to go to town and eat it, it still played but the condition bothered me, so it was back to the market and I purchased a 4th copy for €40. I couldn't even trade in the other copy due to the torrid condition so I just gave it to a friend as he wasn't bothered by condition and just wanted to play it. So yeah I'm on my 4th copy of Suikoden 5. I've replaced so many games due to condition that my collection could probably be 100 games or so better off if I was more accepting of condition. It drives me mad

[kmacdw]

It's a shame when you see someone selling a collection, but if they've lost interest or need to sell it due to personal reasons then it's understandable.

Something that I do find weird though, and I'm not sure if anyone else has experienced it, is that some people I subscribe to on Youtube sell and restart collections all the time. Like, they'll have one collection, sell it, start another one, then sell that one and restart a collection of the console they first sold, then sell that one and restart buying the other one again. Some of the people do the process over and over, and I don't get it. Fair enough, they've got their reasons and it's nothing to do with me, but some times I feel like people are forcing themselves to enjoy collecting, when perhaps they just need a break from it all for a while.

I've never noticed that tbh. Surely their channels can't be making enough money to justify them spending that much on rebuilding

Only YouTube collector I've noticed selling off his console was Aerodynamicsh; a guy from the Netherlands. He decided after he met a girl while travelling the U.S that his games were tying him down and if he ever decided to move to the U.S fulltime, he wouldn't be able to bring them with him anyways; so he stopped collecting and sold like 70% of his games. In my mind I was like "noooooo just tell the girl she should move to Europe, then you can keep your games "lol But in all seriousness in my mind his collection was a bit OTT; I've never understood the attraction of having regional variants or in having various special editions. So in my mind he could have sold all his regional variants, collectors editions and merch; while still retaining all his standard release games, but clear a hell of a lot of space and make a lot of money. I thought he went too far really.

[gf78]

Fair enough, they've got their reasons and it's nothing to do with me, but some times I feel like people are forcing themselves to enjoy collecting, when perhaps they just need a break from it all for a while.

I think that's a big part of it.  For me, collecting has become a chore and a source of anxiety.  I've stopped enjoying not only collecting, but also playing the games partially.  You (as in anyone collecting and specifically my case) get to a point where you are like "I have to get Dark Souls III.  Ooh...can't forget Odin Sphere.  Buying those, I better get Ratchet & Clank too!"  And it just goes on and on and never ends.  And you end up spending a ton of money on a bunch of games that are in your "backlog" and you feel pressure to get to.  So you either don't play the games until the time comes when you could have just gone to the store and bought them for $20 because they have been out so long, or you shortchange a game you are currently playing (and hopefully enjoying) to move on to the next title. 

If the game collection (at least in my case) is there for aesthetic reasons (to look at and marvel), I would much rather look at a statue or cool figure or other item that I find visually pleasing and cool rather than an endless row of box spines with a title on them that I have to cock my head to the right to read.  But again, that's just me.

I'm not abandoning gaming at all.  It's in my blood.  I've been a gamer for almost my entire life.  But I have to take a break, clear out a lot of it and get back to actually enjoying the systems and games I own.  For me, there is definitely such a thing as "too much of a good thing."

[gf78]

I can also relate to your 3rd point as I also have OCD. It's the biggest drawback to collecting anything; I also tend to have to have the entire series; which means generally I don't buy a single game, I buy the entire series; like when I got my PS3 I bought Agarest 1, 2 & Zero instantly. Yet even worse than wanting entire series; is striving for perfect condition. I realise in terms of finances I generally can't buy sealed, yet my OCD drives me to find copies that are as good as new, and any imperfection makes them unworthy of being long term parts of my collection, so I constantly have a replacements list which i can never clear as I always buy more games and 1 or 2 will always have an imperfection. There's some games I've bought multiple times, and expensive ones at that; I had to buy two copies of Skies of Arcadia Legends which goes for about €70-€80 in this region. Yet worst of all is Suikoden 5, I got that game for my 15th birthday when it originally came out, I finished it and I kept it for a year or so in great condition, I then traded it in with another game so that I could buy a ticket to a LAN I wanted to attend. However when I started collecting I wanted it back so I bought it for about €30, condition wasn't good enough for me, so I traded it into a retro store for a fraction of what I paid and I went on ebay and got another copy for about €25; it was perfect but when testing the disk my PS2 decided to go to town and eat it, it still played but the condition bothered me, so it was back to the market and I purchased a 4th copy for €40. I couldn't even trade in the other copy due to the torrid condition so I just gave it to a friend as he wasn't bothered by condition and just wanted to play it. So yeah I'm on my 4th copy of Suikoden 5. I've replaced so many games due to condition that my collection could probably be 100 games or so better off if I was more accepting of condition. It drives me mad

Agh....I know!  I've passed over so many games and re-bought so many others because the condition wasn't up to snuff for me.  Final Fantasy VII?  Has to be black label, mint condition, first print with the error on the back or nothing!  If normal folks could only understand the pain of OCD freaks like me...

[kmacdw]

One thing that a lot of people in this hobby seem to forget is that there are many things in life way more important than having an awesome game collection. Games can be sold and repurchased; medical bills, vacations, life changing experiencing, college, buying a house or car, and many other things do not work this way.

Yes, it is a bit sad and depending when you started collecting you will probably never find the sort of deals you may have on some of your games, but again they can always be repurchased if you end up missing them that much.

In the 8-years I've been collecting I've only downsized once and to be honest I really don't miss the games that I ended up selling (about 100 in total, mostly NES, SNES and Genesis games). I had some major expenses to pay for and it was worth it to me to get those taken care of versus holding onto my games, but being in debt right now.

In terms of the rest of my collection I certainly have no intention of selling it, but if something very important ever came up I may consider it.

I'm not saying I'm ignorant of there being important reasons for one having to sell their collection; obviously family, health and education should all come first. However I still feel it's a shame; in an ideal world they should be able to finance those things and their games. Hell at times I feel like if I was a millionaire I'd love to just turn around to those people and say "keep your collection mate, I'll pay for your daughter's operation"; as well these people share my passion for video games and I hate to see their efforts undone by them falling into financial hardship.

At times I've considered downsizing (despite not having a big collection); there's certain series I've lost interest in, so I consider selling most of the games from that series off but my OCD prevents it. For example I no longer bother with Call of Duty; so the logical thing would be to sell off most of my Call of Duty titles and just keep CoD 2 & 4 as they are the only two I could ever see myself replaying but then OCD kicks in and I feel I can only ever have complete collections so instead I will inevitably buy Ghosts, Blacks Ops 3 and Advanced Warfare before long so as to complete the collection, even though I may never play them as I don't really like the games anymore. I know it sounds ridiculous but it is how it is. So my only approach to downsizing is never buying certain games in the first place, so as to avoid jumping down that rabbit hole.

[kmacdw]

Agh....I know!  I've passed over so many games and re-bought so many others because the condition wasn't up to snuff for me.  Final Fantasy VII?  Has to be black label, mint condition, first print with the error on the back or nothing!  If normal folks could only understand the pain of OCD freaks like me...

Exactly I can't stand 'greatest hits', 'platinum' and the like. Has to be original release. Games like Final Fantasy VII are so annoying; those multi disk cases are so fragile and so difficult to find replacement parts for. I'm on my third attempt to get a copy of Koudelka as the copies always seem to have broken disk holders. The last copy I got was perfect but it got damaged on route as the seller never put bubble wrap in between the holders; I just bought another copy and the seller has agreed to put bubble wrap in so I'm praying it survives the journey.

Ebay drives me mad. I love a seller who takes good pics of both sides of a case, the inside of the case, both sides of the manual and the disk. That's my kind of seller as I can study condition. However most people use stock photos or just take pictures of the case or the disk. So frustrating 

[desocietas]

Agh....I know!  I've passed over so many games and re-bought so many others because the condition wasn't up to snuff for me.  Final Fantasy VII?  Has to be black label, mint condition, first print with the error on the back or nothing!  If normal folks could only understand the pain of OCD freaks like me...

Exactly I can't stand 'greatest hits', 'platinum' and the like. Has to be original release. Games like Final Fantasy VII are so annoying; those multi disk cases are so fragile and so difficult to find replacement parts for. I'm on my third attempt to get a copy of Koudelka as the copies always seem to have broken disk holders. The last copy I got was perfect but it got damaged on route as the seller never put bubble wrap in between the holders; I just bought another copy and the seller has agreed to put bubble wrap in so I'm praying it survives the journey.

With those multipacks, I've compromised by just replacing with a CD multipack case (or parts of, as you can remove sections of the case), as long as it looks as close to the original as possible. I know in my heart that it sucks that it's not the original case, but most folks won't know, and the game was usually purchased cheaply enough that it didn't matter to me in the end.