Secrecy in the gaming community

[bikingjahuty]

I cannot say I'm completely innocent though; from around the time I began heavily collecting until probably 2014ish, I refused to tell local people where I found my deals and was very secretive about it. I mostly didn't want people pouching the games at the places where I found my deals, which despite my efforts people found out about them in the end anyways. Now I don't give two shits if people know where I found a deal because everyone already knows about all the spots that used to be good for deals.

I'm guilty.  I had a great little game store that I used to get boxed games at really good deals.  I refused to tell anyone where it was.  I had to protect my honey hole.

Exactly! I had two main places; one was a independent thrift store in the rough part of town that used to get A TON of stuff in and it was rarely priced over $5 for games, and $20 for consoles. The other place was a store owned by GO Hastings that was a goldmine for about the first two years that it was open. Then everyone found out about it and also collecting got big around that time, and on top of that the store employees became notorious game poachers who would rarely let anything of value even hit the sales floor. Although that didn't stop them from slipping time to time and letting some really good stuff out on the floor, but it was just never as good as it used to be.

[ignition365]

It doesn't help that when I started joining communities I was largely on the receiving end of paranoia from locals.

A local guy had found a bunch of CIB SMS games at a shop for $2/ea.  Posted on the group asking if anybody wanted them.  I said I was local and was interested.  Guy refused to tell me where the shop was because he didn't want me poaching.  I said okay, go buy them for me and I'll pay you back.  Guy's response was okay, but at full ebay prices.  I knew what type of shop it was and there are only maybe 4 in our city, I went to every shop to find the one.  Bought the games, and proceeded to go there EVERY SINGLE DAY and bought everything they had worth buying and then the shop very quickly figured out that the games were worth money and jacked up the prices to ebay prices.

Similar thing happened early on during the Amiibo craze.  I hooked up a guy at cost with like Marth or something because his pre-order was sold right at open, like right in front of him.  Mind you, this is alleged, I guess.  He proceeded to immediately turn around and post it on the group for sale at full ebay.  Same guy has said he was at a TRU and had found a bunch of rares and asked if someone wanted any and I mentioned that I was local and could get there in a few minutes if he'd just hold it so I could grab it.  He proceeded to have an admin delete my comment, bought the amiibo himself, and sold it to someone who posted after my comment was deleted.

This is the exact reason why I don't deal with locals AT ALL.  Because they act like that and would do exactly what I did regardless of whether or not I was helpful.  I've met 1 local who wasn't a dick.  And we hook each other up on occasion (read as two or three times over the course of 5 years).

[azure]

I understand why a lot of people want to hide stuff, but it would annoy me. I already have too much to worry about with life, don't wanna add the stress of caring what I might "Miss out on" or something. So I just don't worry about that sort of stuff and just go with the flow.

[tripredacus]

Ive heard about people who have "private" collections that no one knows about. Its an oddity to me.

Collectors on the internet are often in the minority when it comes to overall collectors. This applies to various hobbies. There are many people who may be online but they will never post, or many people who do not even have accounts. I have known collectors like this. There are even cases where there is a collector that is unknown to the local area where they are. There is one good example I can think of this, when a (now locally known, but still not online) pinball collector surfaced in my area. He has one of the larger collections in my area, I'd say top 3 or top 5. It will not be an isolated case.

Many people still live under the stigma that there is something wrong from society's view of collecting. Either the things they collect are considered child's things (toys, video games, etc) by their peers, or fall into the borderline hoarding type. You can tell by looking at people's behaviours on the whole, that most people do not speak out in public vs those that do. And this translates to online communities also.

It is difficult to determine what the percentages are for video games or arcade games, because a lot of those collections are pertaining to items that solely exist in the secondary market. There is a comparison to toy collecting that may end up being of similar percentages. The idea that Hasbro estimates that in the US, the online toy collector community only makes up 5% or less of their annual sales numbers. They have information or need to know who it is that is buying their products because they need to determine whether it is worth it to offer "collector focused" items and exclusives and whatnot. And believe-you-me, if it wasn't profitable for them to do things like that, it wouldn't be done. So on best guesses from in the fandom, if the online collectors were 5%, those who collected outside of the online communities might be 5-10% in addition. With the rest being resellers or people who are not collectors.

[pzeke]

Many people still live under the stigma that there is something wrong from society's view of collecting. Either the things they collect are considered child's things (toys, video games, etc) by their peers, or fall into the borderline hoarding type. You can tell by looking at people's behaviours on the whole, that most people do not speak out in public vs those that do. And this translates to online communities also.

You know, and I hope this doesn't derail the topic, but I believe that in some individuals collecting is a form of hoarding, and to some extent and excuse to hoard. What really bugs me in this regard, and this is seen many times in videos posted by YouTubers who chronicle their thrifts and their pick ups when they say, "I wasn't gonna leave it there for 25¢/50¢/75¢!", or "I'll pick this up everyday for a dollar!". Usually they interject that when showing their pick ups as a form of excuse, especially when said pick up is a sports game, shovelware, or just about any other game that would/could be considered crap. Clearly to most of these type of "collectors" it's a numbers game whether the game they bought is good, bad, or outright shit, and to me that's hoarding.

Again, I hope this doesn't derail the topic; I just wanted to throw this out there.

[soera]

Ive noticed that too. I actually was at that point once then I realized I was hoarding stuff I had no interest in just getting it cause it was somewhat game related and cheap. I broke that habit about 2 years ago and have slowly been working on passing on those items to people that would enjoy/appreciate them more than I was.

As far as my original post is concerned, it seems other people have either A) noticed the secrecy or B) participated in it

[burningdoom]

There's a HUGE difference between a collector and a hoarder.

A collector focuses on certain things, and makes a point to show off and be proud of his/her collection.

A hoarder is someone who holds on to EVERYTHING to the point that it's unhealthy. Like keeping McDonald's wrappers and sales ads from 15 years ago.

[oldgamerz]

I don't mind at all telling people where I found the best deals, because, where I shop locally none is a dick. and IF someone new comes into my flea market with some ridiculous prices HA they won't sell much because the sellers currently there don't have inflated prices to begin with. AND not too many people on here that I know of on VG collect live in my local area. BUT even if they do, then I am happy to tell my local buddies on VGC where to find the best deals.

Well push comes to shove most people are trying to get rid of retro video games in my area and I live in a large city area. I don't care about complete sets, heck with all the games out there I just don't want to get complete sets right away. I know eventually I will get every game on the market if I have enough faith, but I plan to share in the future but sadly I got no friends to share with currently

I am a vary open individual so ask me anything outside of usernames and passwords or codes and I'll give you the best answer to my ability. just read some of my Hardware and Tech posts on this site just to see how knowledgeable I am to everyone online. (as long as it is nothing personal)

My religion is personal, but I'll tell you one of the things I believe in.

1: All knowledge in the Universe does not belong to anyone except God, (the one who created it)

here is my honey hole and heck I have a HUGE backlong anyway

https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,8409.msg140481.html#msg140481

AND if someone buys them all I just get ROMS

[oldgamerz]

hoarding is just a waste of space, because the people that usually hoard usually have no friends to play with other then themselves and they don't deserve friends as far as I'm concerned howvever 

[tripredacus]

hoarding is just a waste of space, because the people that usally hoard usally have no friends to play with other then themselves and they don't deserve friends as far as I'm concerned

Hoarders are people too. You shouldn't be so judgemental.

[oldgamerz]

hoarding is just a waste of space, because the people that usally hoard usally have no friends to play with other then themselves and they don't deserve friends as far as I'm concerned

Hoarders are people too. You shouldn't be so judgemental.

I wasn't talking about the mental illness I was only refering to the ones who just don't want to share and have everything to themselves sorry but people who are rich and take everything from the poor piss me off

 IF you had a million dollers would you buy 50 games for 50c just to have them to yourself? I know you would not

[ignition365]

[oldgamerz]

LOL well? If you were a millionare would you buy 100 games for 25c

[ignition365]

LOL well? If you were a millionare would you buy 100 games for 25c

Yes.  Why wouldn't I?  I'm not a millionaire and I'd do that.

[oldgamerz]

LOL well? If you were a millionare would you buy 100 games for 25c

Yes.  Why wouldn't I?  I'm not a millionaire and I'd do that.

good then your playing it smart