Collector, Gamer or Reseller. Which do you consider yourself the most of?

[olly88]

85% player, 15% collector.

[anagar]

60% - Gamer     40% - Collector     0% - Reseller
 

[trinisete]

100% Gamer. I only collect what I want to play.

[burningdoom]

Mostly a gamer, but definitely a collector, too.

I only buy games that I intend to play. And I'm not one to pass up a game I want to play because it's not pristine or complete.

I really only sell games I get doubles of or just plain don't like, though.

[aliensstudios]

Collector mostly, gamer second. Reseller no way.

[hoshichiri]

Something like 80% collector, 20% gamer, trace amounts of reseller. Like a lot of folks here, I can buy a lot faster than I can play, so my collection definitely outpaces my completion rate. I always refer to my set as a 'working collection' though- as in, I want it to be used. I will lend games out to friends, I'm fine with my nieces & nephews using the systems (although I do try to focus the 2 year old in on the nice, durable Nintendo stuff). It's there to be played, even if I'm not the one doing it.

As a general rule, I don't resell anything. If I have a double of something or a game I don't want, I'm a lot more likely to give it away than sell it. I have done a lot more of it in the last year than I have in ages. A co-worker told me last year how badly she wanted an NES for her husband's birthday, so I sold her my old loaner console (since no one had borrowed it for a couple years). I've also recently gone through my Genesis/NES/SNES collections to remove sports & licensed titles I don't play. This has resulted in 1 (now closed) sales thread on another forum, 1 eBay sale, and 1 box of a dozen games of undecided fate. Once those are gone, I don't foresee anything else getting sold for another several years. I may buy faster than I can play, but I am picky about what comes in- if I buy it, it's because I want it here for good.

[sin2beta]

Most of the time I am at about 75% collector and 25% gamer. This is still the case with console games. However, I play a lot of computer games. Taking that into consideration, I am at lease 50% gamer. A 50/50 split is maybe pretty close to correct.

[maximo310]

 60% collector. 35% gamer, 5% reseller

[kmacdw]

Gamer first, collector second.

I'm not a reseller, only time I get rid of games is when I upgrade condition and then I just trade them in to the retro store in town. I'm not interested in online selling. Probably lose a lot of money as a result but what can you do.

[alkaid]

75% gamer, 25% collector. When I was younger my older brother was usually the one to get video games, so I played his and sometimes still borrow his games. Recently I've been able to buy my own games, so I've been doing that. Only games I intend to play, though. No sense wasting money on sports games for the purpose of expanding the collection.

One day when I own most of the games I want to play, I'll probably buy them for the sake of completion. Who knows, I might find a hidden gem.

Finding Earthbound for $5, selling it for $200, and then using that $200 to buy Misadventures of Tron Bonne is like finding it for $5 since that is how much money I am out when all is said and done (minus ebay fees, which aren't that bad). But this is simply a means to an end for me.

Where in the world do you find Earthbound for $5?

[turf]

60% Collector
30% Gamer
10% Reseller

Older stuff I tend to mainly collect.  Newer stuff I only buy to play. 
Then there's that other 10%.  One weekend a year I am a full on reseller.  I rent a booth at Retropalooza and have a blast raising money to spend on games.  I've bought a lot of expensive games this way... Little Samson, Power Blade 2, and the like.  I'm not too proud.  I sell at about 65%-75% of PriceCharting and I sell everything I have.  Bring on the Flintstones!

[theflea]

I'd have to say...

50% collector. I buy most any game even though I have no interest in playing it. Like sport games and shovelware games.
40% gamer. I'm always playing something new and old. (been playing a lot on my Donkey Kong and Pac-Man arcades) 
10% reseller. I buy a lot of extras from garage sales, but I only sell games to help support my hobby.

[oldgamerz]

I am a collector 60% Gamer 40%. the only thing I resold was an N64 and some games 4 controllers for $20 I needed to buy food for my apartment. but today I don't plan on reselling anything unless I'm desperate. I gave one of my PlayStation 3's and one of My GameCube's away before, not sold.

I don't buy things to turn a profit, so even if it's cheap, If I already have it I won't try to buy it. but I did a few times to replace one I had that I loved that happened to be rotted or broken or badly scratched in a circle, because you usually can't repair a CD/DVD of any kind with a spin scratch. or disc rot.

I usally buy a game that looks interesting and I have a big collection mainly because it's 99% retro I don't buy a lot of RPG's or modern games in which if I did I would be paying a lot more money.

[bikingjahuty]

I am probably more of a collector than a gamer, simply because for a long time I have purchased games way faster than I can play them. With that said, I am in this hobby because I LOVE video games and love playing them. Every game in is my collection because I have the intention of playing it someday, even if that is 40-years down the road. I would be lying if I said I didn't resell, but I often do it in order to pay for the expenses of this hobby or to get enough money to purchase a game off ebay that I will likely never run into in the wild and/or is very expensive. Finding Earthbound for $5, selling it for $200, and then using that $200 to buy Misadventures of Tron Bonne is like finding it for $5 since that is how much money I am out when all is said and done (minus ebay fees, which aren't that bad). But this is simply a means to an end for me.

It's funny how much things can change over time.


At this point I feel like I'm maybe 10% collector and 90% gamer. Most of the games i buy now are newer releases that I play pretty soon after buying them. I rarely buy retro games anymore, most because I have 98% of everything I've ever wanted and also because they are in very short supply these days. Hell, I've even been selling parts of my collection slowly which is the opposite of collecting, however I am still probably accumulating slightly more games than I am purging.


But yeah, I've definitely shifted my focus to actually playing my games more versus tryin to acquire more and more. I feel like I probably reached that point in collecting around the time I posted this where I had most of what I wanted, but I continued to try and find reasons to collect since I was still really into the hunt and the high of buying a new game. I still enjoy buying games, but my appreciation for actually playing a game has become more my focus.


As for recouping my expenses as a collector I don't really do this much anymore either mostly because of what I just said about collecting, and also there just isn't that much to be found anymore to sell, at least at a price cheap enough where a decent amount of money can be made. I feel like when I began collecting I was probably making everything I spent on games back plus an additional 50% profit. Around the time of my original post back in 2016 it was probably me recovering half of what I spent of games at most.

[wartoy]

50% gamer 50% collector 0% seller