VGCollect Forum

General and Gaming => General => Topic started by: marvelvscapcom2 on December 07, 2017, 02:45:59 pm

Title: What are some tips and advice you would give to someone new to retro collecting?
Post by: marvelvscapcom2 on December 07, 2017, 02:45:59 pm
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. :D.   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? :D

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.  :D

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?
Title: Re: What are some tips and advice you would give to someone new to retro collecting?
Post by: sworddude on December 07, 2017, 02:54:18 pm
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  :o

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?
Title: Re: What are some tips and advice you would give to someone new to retro collecting?
Post by: turf on December 07, 2017, 02:57:57 pm
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. 
Title: Re: What are some tips and advice you would give to someone new to retro collecting?
Post by: burningdoom on December 07, 2017, 03:00:40 pm
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.
Title: Re: What are some tips and advice you would give to someone new to retro collecting?
Post by: kashell on December 07, 2017, 03:02:26 pm
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.
Title: Re: What are some tips and advice you would give to someone new to retro collecting?
Post by: thewelshman on December 07, 2017, 03:15:03 pm
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.
Title: Re: What are some tips and advice you would give to someone new to retro collecting?
Post by: sworddude on December 07, 2017, 04:55:47 pm
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.

Title: Re: What are some tips and advice you would give to someone new to retro collecting?
Post by: soera on December 07, 2017, 05:12:44 pm
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.
Title: Re: What are some tips and advice you would give to someone new to retro collecting?
Post by: bikingjahuty on December 07, 2017, 05:31:03 pm
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.
Title: Re: What are some tips and advice you would give to someone new to retro collecting?
Post by: bikingjahuty on December 07, 2017, 05:31:30 pm
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
Title: Re: What are some tips and advice you would give to someone new to retro collecting?
Post by: oldgamerz on December 07, 2017, 07:16:09 pm
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.
Title: Re: What are some tips and advice you would give to someone new to retro collecting?
Post by: sworddude on December 07, 2017, 08:16:33 pm

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  :o

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.
Title: Re: What are some tips and advice you would give to someone new to retro collecting?
Post by: oldgamerz on December 07, 2017, 11:25:27 pm

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  :o

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
Title: Re: What are some tips and advice you would give to someone new to retro collecting?
Post by: sworddude on December 08, 2017, 06:56:19 am

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  :o

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.
Title: Re: What are some tips and advice you would give to someone new to retro collecting?
Post by: hoshichiri on December 08, 2017, 10:43:48 am
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!)
Title: Re: What are some tips and advice you would give to someone new to retro collecting?
Post by: tripredacus on December 08, 2017, 10:51:54 am
1. Buy a CRT TV!
Title: Re: What are some tips and advice you would give to someone new to retro collecting?
Post by: jce3000gt on December 08, 2017, 07:00:38 pm
.
Title: Re: What are some tips and advice you would give to someone new to retro collecting?
Post by: theflea on December 10, 2017, 07:00:50 am
Here's the tips I tell "New" collector's.

1. Start with what you like, If you love NES and you grew up playing it or for some reason it is what you want to play and you insist on playing the original then start looking for the games you want to play. Look for lots to start out. Lets say you find someone who has a SNES with 20 games for $100 on craigslist or Facebook and they are all decent games like, Super Mario World, Zelda, Mario Kart, Donkey Kong Country etc, well these 4 games with the system alone can go for over $100.

2. Always go out and hunt, buying on Ebay is only if you want a game right now. (even then look for "make an offer" and get it cheaper) But part of the fun in collecting is the hunt. Start hitting Thrift stores and garage sales see what you can find. Part of the fun is spending a day hunting for deals and you never know what you'll bring home. Also as your collection grows be on the look out for lots at garage sales. You might find a NES with 20 games for $30 at a sale, keep what you need then sell/trade the rest to not only get your money back but have credit to buy games from a used game store or paypal money and now a game that cost $100 will cost maybe $20. I traded 2 copies of Earthbound I found at a garage sale which I paid $8 for the pair for a $300 Turbografx game once. A few months ago I traded a stack of common (but popular) SNES/NES games for $350 credit and got several rare games added to my collection.

3. Hunt the local used game stores, pawn shops and flea markets. Now these usually don't have the best of deals but be smart. Keep your phone on you and when you see classic games and there's something you want, look it up and see what the game usually sells for. If its priced over, pass or try and talk to the seller about a better deal. If its same or just a tad under then always ask seller about a better price, worst case you get a no and you pass. Never be afraid of walking away. If its a way under. (at least 25% or more cheaper) then its a safe buy.

4. KNOW YOUR LIMITS! I can't stress this enough. Ether due to funds or size, If you can only afford to go game hunting once a month with $20 in your pocket then Just look for games under that price and once its gone your done. Also stick to what your limits are. I don't collect PC/MAC games, they don't interest me. I also don't collect Pinball machines due to space, price and upkeep. I also only buy arcades if they mean something to me or just to damn cheap. (even then I have passed) If you start with the mind set, you only collect Nintendo games? then stick to that. Don't bother looking at Sega games, if you set limits then you can't spend as much money.

5. Enjoy the hobby, if you're only doing this because you look at them as an "investment" go find a better hobby.
You gotta have love for the games, the art, the history and enjoyment when you go hunting and find some games for bargain prices. Part of the fun is finding deals. I respect a collector who hunts for deals in the wild over someone who just hits "buy it now" on a bunch of games on Ebay. When I started people thought I was stupid buying old video games, I didn't care. I enjoyed it.
Half of the time I'm in shock when I find out a game I had for years goes up in value. I keep track of games I'm missing more then I ever do ones I already own. But 90% of games (especially new ones) don't hold their value at all. This is why I hunt clearance bins and see new games for $5-$10 a piece and think okay I'm not out much.  :P
One of the questions I get asked a lot is "How much is your collection worth?" My answer is always the same "I don't know, because that's not why I collect" lol
Another is "What would you do if there was a video game crash and it all plummeted in value?" I always say "awesome, I can finally get many of the games I couldn't afford before." lol
Just don't get into video game collecting because "its a popular thing to do" do it because it means something to you and you enjoy it.

Now most of these are aimed at "Adults", most kids only get into retro collecting because their parent(s) are into it. But if a young 16 year old wanted to know, I'd tell him most of the same I mentioned but also just take what ever money you can afford and go hit some garage sales. Hit any many as you can the more you hit the better your odds. It's pretty much how I got started. I remember taking bags of pennies and coming home with several games.
Of course back then most where only 25 cents a game. lol



Title: Re: What are some tips and advice you would give to someone new to retro collecting?
Post by: oldgamerz on December 29, 2018, 09:38:20 pm
Scan the internet for local indoor flea markets and other retro stores. usually these I think are places that many people probably overlook. Sometimes with a title like "___" Trade Center could be an indoor flea markets or even old rental stores, that many can miss and they could actually sell video games and other goodies. Just like the one a few blocks from where I live currently
Title: Re: What are some tips and advice you would give to someone new to retro collecting?
Post by: pzeke on January 18, 2019, 10:05:33 am
Best advice is to emulate.

Unless the person is genuinely interested and is willing to go out and about hunting for deals and, above all, has the patience to find them, I’d pretty much recommend sticking to the newer stuff, possibly start from the 5th generation onward.

Or, there’s always the next best thing; if it’s all about playing the games, either get the NES/SNES Classic and hack them...or get a Retro Pi.