What do you do to support your addiction??

[pceslayer]

I think everyone on this site can agree that collecting Video Games is a pretty expensive hobby this day and age.

So my question is, what exactly do you do for a living?

I am a System Administrator... It pays enough to support me and my addiction for the most part. lol

[scott]

I'm basically a sales manager for my family's business. I can usually afford to pick up a few games here and there, of course sometimes I do splurge too much, ha. I think I found my niche w/ the Saturn and since some games are spendy, that might help me reign in going too crazy.

[possebon]

At the moment I have a scrabby part time job at a sports store. Not exactly worthy of funding the ultra rare games. I manage to get about 1 game in a month at the moment.

It'd be better if it wasn't for friends trying to take up my time by making me go outside.

[jobocan]

I'm a web developer. Currently working in a contract with the Canada Science and Technology Museum Corporation to help maintain their sites (or creating new sites for their projects), though I think I will be getting hired as a permanent employee there when the contract ends, which would be awesome (since it would actually give me a good increase in my hourly salary).

Also, there's the fact that I'm super cheap when it comes to game prices. That's why my collection doesn't have many rarities... I'm just not willing to pay over 100$ for single games.

[soitsgh3]

For now, im unemployed and trying to get a job and a car lol...but I recently took a visit to my future college full sail university (possibly) and will try to get a degree in program engineering, if it all works out, ill be programing video games with a 6 figure salary till that day comes, I go to flea markets and buy video game related items and fix, repair, and then sell it to turn a profit. Ill be posting things im selling later on

[sriq]

Full time English student for me! And I get enough grants to give me a decent amount of extra cash for video games. Eventually I'll be a teacher (and after that, college professor), which should allow me to be a lot more spendy.

[ebinsugewa]

I buy and sell underpriced games, systems, and lots that I find locally or on eBay. It requires a bit of scouring at all the flea markets and thrift stores and such but that's a lot of the fun for me

[amauriel]

My husband and I both work in technical support for one of the big cable companies everyone loves to hate. It pays a decent amount and we don't have kids, so we're lucky enough to be able to have a bit of expendable for when something rare gets listed incorrectly on eBay and it's going for a steal or someone at the flea market has an entire table of games that we can deal in bulk on. I refuse to spend an exorbitant amount on a rare game though...possible exception at Christmas. The last few years, we've given each other a rarer SNES game we've wanted....last year I got Harvest Moon and he got E.V.O., for example. Gotta still keep it under $100 for sure.

[pceslayer]

^^
Must be nice having a partner who shares the same affinity for game collecting.

[amauriel]

^^
Must be nice having a partner who shares the same affinity for game collecting.

It's both amazing and very, very bad. We both love games, but for very different reasons, and very different games. We end up buying a lot more games that way, because it's something one of us wants or the other. I've always been a fan of adventure games (Zelda style) and RPGs, whereas he likes fighting games and FPSes. Therefore, we end up getting a lot more games than either of us really WANT, because we're getting games for our own interest. Example: We have the PS2 AND Gamecube Resident Evil Chainsaw Controllers and Steel Battalion, all on a shelf. I'd have no interest in any of them, on my own. But the shelf beside it has every preorder bonus they've ever given for Harvest Moon. So it's very give and take, even within the same hobby. And it means we need more storage space than we have, for sure.

When we do find a game for both of us together, it's AMAZING. For example, we played Portal 2 together, get very competitive in Soul Calibur, we both love Behemoth games (Alien Hominid, Castle Crashers) and we have had several enjoyable nights finding walkthroughs for games and taking turns playing through them. (We did D recently, that was great.)

[tpugmire]

I'm not sure how I managed to miss this topic originally, but I'm a FedEx courier.  I also repair old systems on the side and occasionally I buy and sell systems if I know someone who is looking for anything specific.  I usually only make a few bucks but it gives me an excuse to go in the game stores.

[matt]

I'm also a full time web developer/software engineer. Lately my focus has shifted from traditional websites to more web applications. The desktop is slowly dying so most software is going to the browser.

[darko]

I'm a commodities trader. I'm pretty lucky to have a good job that can afford my habit. I don't spend a ridiculous amount on games though. I'm more into the hunt, which usually turns into a good deal.

[desocietas]

Example: We have the PS2 AND Gamecube Resident Evil Chainsaw Controllers and Steel Battalion, all on a shelf. I'd have no interest in any of them, on my own. But the shelf beside it has every preorder bonus they've ever given for Harvest Moon.

That is the *cutest* trivia ever.  I love Harvest Moon as well but did not start early enough to have the preorder stuff.  I think the closest I have is the preorder bonus for Rune Factory 2.

I just work in an academic library but somehow find the money to buy a game or three every other month or so.  I've purchased a decent number of games from Gamefly and have gotten good deals through SlickDeals or CAG.

[adrianoo]

Full time English student for me! And I get enough grants to give me a decent amount of extra cash for video games. Eventually I'll be a teacher (and after that, college professor), which should allow me to be a lot more spendy.

THIS! You have just described my current status and goal haha, I wonder what the people that give me my grant would think if they saw my constantly growing collection!