What are some tips and advice you would give to someone new to retro collecting?

[marvelvscapcom2]

Hello everyone .   I was thinking recently with the NES and SNES classics and how much retro has surged it has become very trendy for new comers to swarm wanting to relive the old classics or just experience them for the first time. .   With this comes a lot of new comers who while may know a lot about games may not know the most about the retro market and about old consoles. Perticullary young people.

As someone who hasn't been collecting as long as most on here. I remember a time when I was new to the scene of collecting and hunting retro games. While I did play all the games I collect as a kid I was pretty new to collecting them.  Luckily for me I had my brother who was an avid collector who I learnt some tricks from along with YouTubers like Classic Game Room and AVGN (To tell me about shit games lol)

My question is, pretend someone who is 15-20 years old comes to you and is new to collecting retro games and wants to build a collection.  What advice and tips would you give as the essential commandments to follow for all gamers and collectors alike?

For me here are some of the essentials.

1. Your NES isn't broken.  It's finicky.  They always were.  Please do not piss off an ebay seller by returning an NES because it doesn't work first try everytime.  Use the wiggle method by josling your catridge until the visual appears than reset.  (Learned from youtube when I was new)   One thing with new comers they expect 30 year old hardware to be free of wear and obvious aging.  Things need patience.

2. Ebay prices are more than what should be expected from a retailer.  Do not use ebay prices or even sold listings as the word of god.  Ebay factors in not only fees, shipping and fluxuations in value but also the liesure of staying at home and browsing endless games.    (New comers at times can just go off Ebay and act like they know prices when they don't.  Take 30-40 percent off ebay and you might be somewhere where a deal would lie)

3. Collecting for value is the wrong reason most of the time.  Don't just jump on the Flintstones or earthbounds of the world because it's a 500 dollar game. And have tons of rare gems with nothing else with the intent to flip them or flaunt them. If you want to amass treasure than buy gold bricks.  Games are meant to be played imo

4. If you hook up an NES or SNES to an HD TV without an HDMI mod of some sort it's going to look bad.  Try to pick up a cheap RF or RGB set from a thrift store

5. The asking price is NEVER the final price. A guy asking for 25 will almost always take 20. 

I can't think off too many more.   I can't wait to hear all the useful insight from all of you. 

What are some tid bits of wisdom you'd share with the retro hipsters?

[sworddude]

I would recommend just getting the console and an everdrive for the true experience.

Saves allot of trouble and money, you'll be done in one fell swoop.

I mean seriously 

at 15 20 years old, unless your pretty handy with deals etc there is no way you could afford pretty much anything without busting your ass of at some part time job. not to mention that even than your money will be gone quick

At that range everdrive or emulation only way to go not to mention even recommended if your not really going to be that into it when you have plenty of cash.

Also if your going to collect cheap and buy mostly cheap games since it is to expensive you will most likely end up with pretty mediocre games. Were is the fun in that?

[turf]

Learn to fix your shit.  It's probably not broken anyway.  Just clean it. 

Always ask for a few bucks off.  Even if you can just get them to cover tax if you pay cash.  This won't always work.  A lot of workers don't have the stroke to change prices. 

Find stuff that you like.  Find a system or genre and stick to it.  The days of completion collecting are damn near gone.  If you try to buy everything, you'll go broke. 



Don't do it.  Just emulate all this old shit.  Steal it from the internet and just enjoy all these old games.  Don't pay tens of thousands of dollars for a wall of carts. 

[burningdoom]

I would feel bad for them.


I would probably tell them to focus on the PS2/XBox/GameCube era, and PS1, for now; due to prices. I feel lucky to have gotten into this hobby before prices shot up so much. I got a lot of what I wanted at good prices back then, without having to work hard at it.

[kashell]

Ask yourself if you really want that game that you're about to purchase.

Do you want that cheap sports title just to fill shelf space? Do you want that crazy expensive niche title to give your library extra sheen? If not, then save your space and money for something you actually want to play and enjoy.

[thewelshman]

Make sure you research the games you're going after, especially the truly rare ones. You might think you're getting a steal at a garage sale, or flea market, but they might be duping you. Learn what certain circuit boards look like, have reference pictures of the logos, trademarks, and such. I've usually found that most legit sellers are fine with you popping the game open to inspect the innards. At least, as far as the cartridges go.

I also recommend, picking a console and sticking to that collection.

Of course, most folks I know 15-20 are more worried about current games.

[sworddude]

Learn to fix your shit.  It's probably not broken anyway.  Just clean it. 

for consoles I mean it really depends if you value your time, there are people who buy broken consoles to fix them and say it takes no time at all yea right  They are deluded even with skill it can take a while if you have bad luck. It's about gaming not fixing and modding stuff that's a very time consuming part that i would not recommend getting yourselves into even if some fixes are easy.

Sure it could take 5- 10 minutes for easy stuff (if you have a working place otherwise preparations take more time than the deed) but not always not to mention that people who say that see this part as a hobby anyways and invested quite allot of time in this already. a bit of cleaning is allot different than fixing stuff up just saying. it's most definitly one of the lesser things in this hobby.

I'd rather sell a snes or dreamcast for 20 - 50 % of the price of a working one than to invest time into it getting it fixed and it sells many people want to fix up a broken console mainly shops though wich to be fair are the only ones who can make it seem like a good investment for their very high console prices 

Only if it is a special console but for a snes megadrive master system pretty much any handheld or even a dreamcast the difference between a working and a non working one are not worth it in my opinion not to mention no gurantee that your efforts will pay off or that you have to wait for weeks to replace certain parts. and even if it does work you'll end up with like 20 30 $ more minus investments for replacement parts if you sell it for pretty high price wich will take a while no thank you. broken handhelds could argubaly be worthless however i would still not put the effort into repairing those.

You could spend your time allot better or actually enjoy doing something.

I never buy a lot for It's console mainly for the games if a console is broken not a big deal to me.

[soera]

Don't do it.  Just emulate all this old shit.  Steal it from the internet and just enjoy all these old games.  Don't pay tens of thousands of dollars for a wall of carts.

Ding ding ding! We have a winner.

[bikingjahuty]

I'd tell them to find a working time machine and go back to 2005.


But in all seriousness I'd ask them what they're into and based off of that I'd probably give them different advise.

[bikingjahuty]

Don't do it.  Just emulate all this old shit.  Steal it from the internet and just enjoy all these old games.  Don't pay tens of thousands of dollars for a wall of carts.

Ding ding ding! We have a winner.

/thread

[oldgamerz]

I used to download ROM files but sometimes I have caught viruses so I stopped. plus I once downloaded a copy of Mike Tyson punch out and the game was altered to make you lose every time to the fat hippo king dude.

I'd say  never pay more then $30.00 for one used cartridge. and not more the $15.00 for a used CD/DVD/Bluray game. Unless it is a game you REALLY want digital or physical. and you got to be careful when buying old stuff. because occasional sometimes the game you buy game will freeze in the middle of playing it. Most sellers that actually test games, only test to see if they start properly but never actually play the game through to see if it works fully.

PS, nothing worse than a video game that stops right in the middle of playing.

Cartridges I found more a guarantee to work (if clean) in my experience as long as the battery works in some of them. I find cartridges more reliable than CD/DVD/Bluray games. on CD's and DVD's they can scratch easy. of course they can be resurfaced in most retro stores or in some Family Video rental stores

If you can't fix a broken console youself try to google a retro console or  sometimes a PC repair person and never hire SONY to fix your broken PlayStation 3 or PlayStation 4. they charge hundreds of dollars just to get them checked out by SONY.

[sworddude]

Most sellers that actually test games, only test to see if they start properly but never actually play the game through to see if it works fully.

I really wonder wich fool would actually do this before selling them games to play one game after another 20 or way more hours each to see if every event and scene in a game triggers succesfully 

on a serious note disc repair solves those problems for a couple of dollars unless you have a super damaged disc in wich the risk is pretty expected.

[oldgamerz]

Most sellers that actually test games, only test to see if they start properly but never actually play the game through to see if it works fully.

I really wonder wich fool would actually do this before selling them games to play one game after another 20 or way more hours each to see if every event and scene in a game triggers succesfully 

on a serious note disc repair solves those problems for a couple of dollars unless you have a super damaged disc in wich the risk is pretty expected.

You just have to be lucky I guess. I forgot all about the fact that some new CIB games come out of the factory broken. Yea that would be too time consuming to test run a game before selling it

[sworddude]

Most sellers that actually test games, only test to see if they start properly but never actually play the game through to see if it works fully.

I really wonder wich fool would actually do this before selling them games to play one game after another 20 or way more hours each to see if every event and scene in a game triggers succesfully 

on a serious note disc repair solves those problems for a couple of dollars unless you have a super damaged disc in wich the risk is pretty expected.

You just have to be lucky I guess. I forgot all about the fact that some new CIB games come out of the factory broken. Yea that would be too time consuming to test run a game before selling it

Also broken brand new games are very rare, most people would have returned those games for a new one back in the day not to mention that even than it like never happens. Games are pretty reliable else stores etc would'nt take the risk of taking games in without testing them or having allot of faith in disc repair.

Never seen one personally maybe with some of the crappy games that i've sold in lots but yea those chances of having them are astronomical small.

you would need to have some super bad luck to get a broken game that is brand new. this should not be an issue at all.

[hoshichiri]

Put some serious thought into what you want to collect and why. Do you need every system? Do you need boxes and manuals? Would you be happy with just emulation? It's all to easy to sink a bunch of money into what's cool and retro and then realize it's just not what you like to play.

Never sell anything. Remember, most retro collector's didn't decide to do it one day, we just bought new stuff and kept it until it was old. If you don't sell your newer, non-trendy things to finance your retro buying, you'll likely have an amazing collection in 20 years. Plus, you might be less likely to overspend if there's no 'resale value' for you. (Ok, sometimes it's OK to sell stuff, just be 110% sure you'll never, ever want to touch it again. Because you might not.)

Buy the cheap stuff... no, it's not 'cool' to collect for Wii, or 360, or PS3 right now. That means it's cheap and easy to get even some of the rarer things right now. Remember, this is cheaper when you play the long game- get it now while it's available. Just make sure it's something you'll want to play- don't buy every crappy sports game & shovelware title you'll find.

Learn basic maintenance. You don't have to be able to check traces and solder, but know how to clean a cart, fix scratches on a disc, open a d-pad controller, etc. Own a set of gaming tools to open things up if you need to. Not only can you save yourself a lot of money by not replacing machines/games malfunctioning due to dirt, but you'll have a better idea of what to look for on new buys to see if it's worth your money. (and if you happen to learn soldering & traces & other more involved stuff, so much the better!)