People Selling Their Collections

[sworddude]

I really hope that I wil not come in some situation were I have to sell parts or the entire collection.

I collect by finding deals for bargains etc. Furthermore everything in excellent shape straight cardboard boxes etc are really hard to find for a nice price in deals Also megadrive games are a pain to find without white scuffs on the art work

I would be really sad to see my megadrive and cib GBA collection go to much nostalgia for those systems.

I barely have any filler titles so It's pretty sad to see anything of the collection go.

If my collection would be sold I would probably never have a copy of. (unless I'm pretty rich and don't care and buy everything factory sealed )

In pal expensive games

Castlevania symphony of the night, panzer dragoon saga any more. Pretty lucky with those and not willing to spend 200 - 350 euro's a piece on those and probably higher when time goes by.

Same goes for some cib gameboy (color) games wich are pretty hard to find and pretty expensive.

I remember a gameboy deal console with games such as megaman 2. Guess what the seller had boxes for megaman 2 pal in excellent shape wich were not in the ad.

That's a 10 euro game to 120 - 150 these days the difference is huge. During that day the difference was already 90.

 Or some guy who threw a free spare manual and box in excellent shape of a pal BC kid in excellent shape a worthless value but nice game wich is 100+ with box and manual in Pal.

Overall many games are expensive games but also consoles in the collection in this cib excellent shape many more examples.

Also my ps1 collection would definitely not be the same. definitly build up over the years same goes for allot more like ps2 ds etc.

I think if I ever were to sell my collection it would take me years to get a same quality collection if I want to + that I will never come across some games again for that price. However my guess is that I would quit collecting and maybe only keep some games since I will likely not get the same quality for the prices I paid.

It really depends on your collection, but I definitly took some time to build my collection by coming across stuff in lots for cheap etc. It's a fun adventure and with not to many filler titles It's a shame to sell since even if you have the money not everything will turn up in an eye blink the right condition. It's a waste to sell it on a one time event even if you are forced to. If that time comes I will sell because we all know that there are things more important in live.

[theflea]

While not everyone can be a mass game collector and to be honest they shouldn't be. Collector's should stay when in their limits.
Many collector's will buy games then as the collection gets bigger and take up more space they weed out the games they don't play or don't have any interest in owning any more, then look to buy new games they always wanted to play. There's nothing wrong with this kind of collector.
Buying from one should not make you feel guilty. I'd rather see a game change collector's hands who wants to play and enjoy the game then end up sold to a reseller who's going to jack the price. I love to find collector's selling pieces of their collection they don't want anymore just because most collector's want to see a game go to a good home, and when I show them my collection they many times work with me on a price we both can agree on.

I know a guy who used to have a ton of rare stuff in his collection and he was hit by hard times, he could have sold it on ebay for more then the price he offered to me. he wanted these pieces to go to someone he knew was going to love and take care of it as he did. (plus he knew he could always see it again in my game room) 

Will that day ever come that I decide to sell my collection? Well unless I decide to pass it down to someone or donate\open a museum that will continue after I pass on. Yes it could happen, one day I'm over 65 and think I could sell my collection and do other things, I don't know what I'll be thinking of in that far in the future. Right now I love owning it and seeing peoples eyes light up when they enter my game room. I love it when I have someone in my game room for the 1st time and they run around trying to see everything. I love being able to pull any game out at any time and play it again with friends and family. I love teaching others about odd game consoles they never knew existed. Which is why it's hard to get me to part with anything but extras from my collection.   

[desocietas]

theflea, I love that much of your joy of your collection comes from sharing it with others! I also agree about being able to talk about a game and just pull it off the shelf to actually play    Such a great freedom about it.

[ignition365]

theflea, I love that much of your joy of your collection comes from sharing it with others! I also agree about being able to talk about a game and just pull it off the shelf to actually play    Such a great freedom about it.

The fact that I usually (or at least used to) just buy any cheap game I find whether I really want it or not, it's actually quite a pleasant experience for someone to tell you about a game and then I go look in my game room and see that I already own it.

[insektmute]

I sold a very small selection of games recently, the first time in years, mainly owing to space considerations. Portland is currently in the midst of a ridiculous flood of transplants from out of state, driving housing costs, traffic, and general costs of living into ridiculous territory. We're currently being ranked as the most quickly gentrified city in a century, and as a native of PDX, I'm really not a fan of seeing my rent climb from around $798-850 just a couple years ago to $1175 in June. There are larger spaces around for that same amount of money, so I want to move, but with a vacancy rate around 2-3%, openings get snatched up in a blink... and that's assuming they accept cats.

The end result is that people are paying more for less, and people are increasingly trapped wherever they are. I've had to get creative with the layout, find ways to fit more shelves, or squeeze more consoles into the living room, and I've managed to free up enough room to fit maybe another 100 games/movies, but after that...?

My sales so far were strictly games I already have on PC, or had multiple console versions, or just hated to the point I knew I wouldn't regret selling them, but I may dig more out as time goes on. I'll never stop collecting games, but it's harder and harder to justify owning multiple versions of the same game. If I can sell 10 games I have on Steam already, and bring in 10 more that I don't have on any platform, that seems like a much better way to go under the circumstances.

[kashell]

I sold a very small selection of games recently, the first time in years, mainly owing to space considerations. Portland is currently in the midst of a ridiculous flood of transplants from out of state, driving housing costs, traffic, and general costs of living into ridiculous territory. We're currently being ranked as the most quickly gentrified city in a century, and as a native of PDX, I'm really not a fan of seeing my rent climb from around $798-850 just a couple years ago to $1175 in June. There are larger spaces around for that same amount of money, so I want to move, but with a vacancy rate around 2-3%, openings get snatched up in a blink... and that's assuming they accept cats.

The end result is that people are paying more for less, and people are increasingly trapped wherever they are. I've had to get creative with the layout, find ways to fit more shelves, or squeeze more consoles into the living room, and I've managed to free up enough room to fit maybe another 100 games/movies, but after that...?

My sales so far were strictly games I already have on PC, or had multiple console versions, or just hated to the point I knew I wouldn't regret selling them, but I may dig more out as time goes on. I'll never stop collecting games, but it's harder and harder to justify owning multiple versions of the same game. If I can sell 10 games I have on Steam already, and bring in 10 more that I don't have on any platform, that seems like a much better way to go under the circumstances.

Wow, that sounds just like Nashville. People from all over the damn country are moving here and it's driving the prices of everything up. Also, traffic is getting worse.

I feel your pain.

[insektmute]

Wow, that sounds just like Nashville. People from all over the damn country are moving here and it's driving the prices of everything up. Also, traffic is getting worse.

I feel your pain.

I hadn't seen the info on Nashville, but just a quick search tells me you're probably right. Lots of poor and middle class people being pushed out, especially in traditionally African-American neighborhoods. Dunno anything about the area, but it seems weird that anywhere in Tennessee has hipsters o.O

It's similar to what the SF/Oakland area went through back in the late 90s, and at least here, the same people are responsible. They're coming from all over, but primarily from expensive cities like Seattle, SF, and LA, and a lot of them are happy to pay $1700-2000 for a decent size apartment, or plonk down $70k over list price on homes, because prices are still cheaper than wherever they came from. Absolutely guts me to see what's happened to my hometown in just the last few years.

We're still a bastion for weirdos, outcasts, liberals, and atheists, as we've always been, and our local politics and culture still reflect that very strongly, but I worry about how much more conservative things might become over the next decade. Mostly I keep hoping that the transplants will get sick of the grey skies and constant drizzle and go back to where they came from :p

[kashell]

I hadn't seen the info on Nashville, but just a quick search tells me you're probably right. Lots of poor and middle class people being pushed out, especially in traditionally African-American neighborhoods. Dunno anything about the area, but it seems weird that anywhere in Tennessee has hipsters o.O

It's similar to what the SF/Oakland area went through back in the late 90s, and at least here, the same people are responsible. They're coming from all over, but primarily from expensive cities like Seattle, SF, and LA, and a lot of them are happy to pay $1700-2000 for a decent size apartment, or plonk down $70k over list price on homes, because prices are still cheaper than wherever they came from. Absolutely guts me to see what's happened to my hometown in just the last few years.

We're still a bastion for weirdos, outcasts, liberals, and atheists, as we've always been, and our local politics and culture still reflect that very strongly, but I worry about how much more conservative things might become over the next decade. Mostly I keep hoping that the transplants will get sick of the grey skies and constant drizzle and go back to where they came from :p

Yes. Hipsters are all over the damn place downtown. And I hate them. I'm not even sure how they afford to live in these nice places. They're probably I'm not going to say it so they're probably able to live their annoyingly hipster lifestyles and eat organically and wear their stupidly tight jeans and...I think you get my point. Again, I feel your pain.

Like you, I'm hoping that the transplants get sick of it and leave. Granted, I'm kind of a transplant, too but...I'm an exception because I'm a gamer. And I'm cool. Or something. ^.^()

[sin2beta]

Yes, I've seen that before, and particularly with one channel I've followed for years. The guy will sell off a bulk of his games - a year later he's like "why did I do that?" and re-buys them at a higher price, then sells off some other games - a year later he's like... "why did I do that?" and re-buys those ones again. Then those games he re-bought the year before he sells off again and... you get the idea. Drives me nuts. If you like the game just keep it!

That describes almost exactly one person who I'm subscribed to.

I've thought that maybe some people prefer the process of finding/buying games over anything else (which is really fun to be fair), and in the back of their minds it makes them want to do all this.

Either of you thinking about Snestastic? When reading these, he is the one who comes to mind. If not, he is interesting, because he has even mentioned that about himself. He is one that I think enjoys the selling and rebuilding deep down.

In all honesty, I can see fun in it. I knew a comic book collector who would collect full sets, sell them, and start over. The fun for him was the building. Building is also a lot more fun at the beginning. Once the honeymoon phase wears off, you just move to the next. I'm not sure these people have the wrong mindset.

I have seen some people sell collections that makes me a bit sad. But most of them have solid reasons. I'm seen someone with a full SMS and Megadrive sell off everything. A complete Game Gear collection was sold off. Mostly due to family issues. It's sad but understandable.

[soera]

I saw a guy on Nintendo age who has completed the N64 CIB set like 3 times. Every time he sells it and starts over. I personally dont like the thrill of the hunt so the concept seems alien and absurd to me.

[sworddude]

I saw a guy on Nintendo age who has completed the N64 CIB set like 3 times. Every time he sells it and starts over. I personally dont like the thrill of the hunt so the concept seems alien and absurd to me.

My guess is that the thrill comes from completing the set and flipping it for a profit to start over once again.

Full sets could potentially mean more money than selling the items lose since it is a complete set and not some random lot after all.

[Warmsignal]

Yes, I've seen that before, and particularly with one channel I've followed for years. The guy will sell off a bulk of his games - a year later he's like "why did I do that?" and re-buys them at a higher price, then sells off some other games - a year later he's like... "why did I do that?" and re-buys those ones again. Then those games he re-bought the year before he sells off again and... you get the idea. Drives me nuts. If you like the game just keep it!

That describes almost exactly one person who I'm subscribed to.

I've thought that maybe some people prefer the process of finding/buying games over anything else (which is really fun to be fair), and in the back of their minds it makes them want to do all this.

Either of you thinking about Snestastic? When reading these, he is the one who comes to mind. If not, he is interesting, because he has even mentioned that about himself. He is one that I think enjoys the selling and rebuilding deep down.

In all honesty, I can see fun in it. I knew a comic book collector who would collect full sets, sell them, and start over. The fun for him was the building. Building is also a lot more fun at the beginning. Once the honeymoon phase wears off, you just move to the next. I'm not sure these people have the wrong mindset.

I have seen some people sell collections that makes me a bit sad. But most of them have solid reasons. I'm seen someone with a full SMS and Megadrive sell off everything. A complete Game Gear collection was sold off. Mostly due to family issues. It's sad but understandable.

Nope. I don't want to name drop, but this guy has a small channel, been doing it for a lot of years. He doesn't build sets or anything, he just goes through phases of buying tons of games, then he'll come back in a later video and say "I just sold off like 300 random games, including x, y, and z which are great games that I love but they weren't doing me any good." Then like a year later he's buying them back. I swear he has games that he's bought at least 3 or 4 times over.

But he admits that's how he's always been, and I've known people with similar habits, not just with game collecting. People who like to start anew over and over, and can never really get anywhere with goals because they love the feel of a fresh start, and really don't have any attachment to the goal or the objects themselves. That's like the opposite of my psychology, I could never be like that.

[shfan]

Then like a year later he's buying them back. I swear he has games that he's bought at least 3 or 4 times over.

I used to do that, I'd hit a point where I wouldn't have time or inclination to game for awhile and I'd look at my collection and think "what a waste of space and what a waste of money this was" then dispose of it for little cash, every time thinking I'd 'outgrown' gaming. Typical kid, wanting to 'grow up'. Gaming is my hobby, it always will be.

3 or 4 years ago I started again having only been left with the PS2 games I couldn't bear to part with and literally a couple of PS1 titles. Gone were all the Megadrive games I'd owned before several times, my PS1 collection (all the Konami, Namco and most Squaresoft games I owned from new, Klonoa, Symphony of the Night soundtrack edition, the works).

Now, after a lot of bargain hunting and trade-ins, my collection's larger than ever by a mile (in numbers at least), but there's several gaps in it when it comes to my favourite games from the past - so many of them are too obscure or too damned expensive. I content myself with knowing that I own several new treasures that I didn't have back then or weren't even released.

I do have to tidy the collection out every now and then, doing so now, it just gets too big, but the junk gets traded in for more gems so it just adds fuel to the fire. I will never get rid of my collection again - not only are the older 8/16/32 bit generation games becoming harder if not impossible to find cheap, there are so many recent consoles with ultra-obscure games that I can only get hold of now because online-enabled chain stores still carry that format. Rare/obscure PSP/DS/PS2/Wii games in the wild? No chance! Even some of the Wii U's ports and exclusives are starting to hot up already.

It is sad if someone is forced to sell their collection for whatever reason, or gives up on collecting only to regret it later, but sometimes people do just want to move on. It's best not to get too emotionally involved with what other people do with their things, as much as possible, life's complicated enough.

[Warmsignal]

Then like a year later he's buying them back. I swear he has games that he's bought at least 3 or 4 times over.

I used to do that, I'd hit a point where I wouldn't have time or inclination to game for awhile and I'd look at my collection and think "what a waste of space and what a waste of money this was" then dispose of it for little cash, every time thinking I'd 'outgrown' gaming. Typical kid, wanting to 'grow up'. Gaming is my hobby, it always will be.

3 or 4 years ago I started again having only been left with the PS2 games I couldn't bear to part with and literally a couple of PS1 titles. Gone were all the Megadrive games I'd owned before several times, my PS1 collection (all the Konami, Namco and most Squaresoft games I owned from new, Klonoa, Symphony of the Night soundtrack edition, the works).

Now, after a lot of bargain hunting and trade-ins, my collection's larger than ever by a mile (in numbers at least), but there's several gaps in it when it comes to my favourite games from the past - so many of them are too obscure or too damned expensive. I content myself with knowing that I own several new treasures that I didn't have back then or weren't even released.

I do have to tidy the collection out every now and then, doing so now, it just gets too big, but the junk gets traded in for more gems so it just adds fuel to the fire. I will never get rid of my collection again - not only are the older 8/16/32 bit generation games becoming harder if not impossible to find cheap, there are so many recent consoles with ultra-obscure games that I can only get hold of now because online-enabled chain stores still carry that format. Rare/obscure PSP/DS/PS2/Wii games in the wild? No chance! Even some of the Wii U's ports and exclusives are starting to hot up already.

It is sad if someone is forced to sell their collection for whatever reason, or gives up on collecting only to regret it later, but sometimes people do just want to move on. It's best not to get too emotionally involved with what other people do with their things, as much as possible, life's complicated enough.

The thing about the Wii and DS, even the PSP, is if you weren't actively collecting when they were still relevant, you're gonna have a hard time filling it in. They were bound to become very collectable platforms from the start, but a lot of people didn't foresee that.

But I'm very content to have given up on modern, current gen game collecting. Even that can't be made easy anymore, and it's all this psychology of "rare and limited" that has come from classic game collecting into the modern era. I don't see anything all that special about today's instantly-rare games. Mostly because I'm way out of touch with modern gaming, I can't see the collecting appeal at this point, which probably explains why I still love Nintendo stuff. To me, it's Nintendo, it's the "end of history" as far as I am concerned with gaming. Focusing in on just one platform, namely the Wii U, is much easier to do, and frees up a lot of needed cash to keep working on that classic game collection.

[gf78]

I sold a very small selection of games recently, the first time in years, mainly owing to space considerations. Portland is currently in the midst of a ridiculous flood of transplants from out of state, driving housing costs, traffic, and general costs of living into ridiculous territory. We're currently being ranked as the most quickly gentrified city in a century, and as a native of PDX, I'm really not a fan of seeing my rent climb from around $798-850 just a couple years ago to $1175 in June. There are larger spaces around for that same amount of money, so I want to move, but with a vacancy rate around 2-3%, openings get snatched up in a blink... and that's assuming they accept cats.

The end result is that people are paying more for less, and people are increasingly trapped wherever they are. I've had to get creative with the layout, find ways to fit more shelves, or squeeze more consoles into the living room, and I've managed to free up enough room to fit maybe another 100 games/movies, but after that...?

My sales so far were strictly games I already have on PC, or had multiple console versions, or just hated to the point I knew I wouldn't regret selling them, but I may dig more out as time goes on. I'll never stop collecting games, but it's harder and harder to justify owning multiple versions of the same game. If I can sell 10 games I have on Steam already, and bring in 10 more that I don't have on any platform, that seems like a much better way to go under the circumstances.

Things have definitely become tighter budget-wise these days.  State employee wages have been stagnant for years and when we did receive raises, it was piddly little 2% raises that didn't even cover cost of living increases.  Meanwhile, everything has gone up in price.  Gas, food, housing, taxes, goods...you name it.  And video games.  Yes, video games.  Because while you can go to the store and buy a new game for $60 just like you've been able to since that became the de-facto price in 2005, half the game is locked away behind a paywall or drip-fed out as DLC and Season Passes.  So your average game costs $80 on the low-end these days and nearly $120 for the full season pass treatment, just to get the full game experience. 

I've recently been drawn back into reading comic books and man, those suckers have gone up in price too.  Your average issue costs $3.99 now.