Your Mistakes In Collecting Or Gaming

[oldgamerz]

A mistake is a matter of opinion sometimes, So what are some of your gaming or collecting mistakes or any other mistake, that you consider a mistake in your own mindset?

I bought 2 copies of WCW Mayhem for the Nintendo 64 and I usually don't like to own 2 of the same video game.

 I also plugged in a much too powerful AC adapter and ruined a plug in play game that is not that common to my knowledge

I dropped  both a Super Nintendo and it's AC adapter and it would no longer run.

I sold my 007 Goldeneye cartridge for just about nothing

I practically gave away 4 working original Nintendo brand Nintendo 64 controllers

I traded in a Sega Saturn and 2 games for it in exchange for another PlayStation 2 slim

I got a few more but these ones came to mind in this post

[betelgeuse]

I loaned out my Intellivision system and games and never got it back.
I loaned out NES carts with the manuals and covers and sometimes wouldn't get the manual or cover back.
I loaned out Veigues Tactical Gladiator in exchange for Pacland and was told "I lost it, just keep Pacland"
I loaned out Playstation games and they returned scratched
I loaned out...J/K I don't think I loaned out anything after that

[droaa]

I loaned out my copy of Capcom vs. SNK 2 on PS2 and they claimed their father destroyed it in anger
I loaned out my copy of Onimusha 2 and it came back very scratched
I loaned out my copy of FFIX and one of the discs went missing
I loaned out my copy of Fear Effect with disc 1 coming back scratched
Replaed above with Legend of Dragoon

I have been more cautious about borrowing since.

[Flashback2012]

By far my worst gaming mistake was being in a Babbage's (the precursor to GameStop) in my younger days and deciding between two games to buy. I was big into the Turbografx-16 at the time and they had a pair of games on their shelf I wanted. I wanted both of them but could only afford one at the time. The one I ended up going with was Neutopia II even though it was $10 more expensive than my other choice. I picked it over the other game because I had the first Neutopia game and enjoyed the hell out of it for being a LoZ clone. Plus I LOVED LoZ: ALTTP and back then I was more the gamer than collector so it made more sense in my mind to pick that one up. The game I passed on?

Magical Chase.     

I tried to go back like a week later to pick it up and the box was gone. I could have had a complete Magical Chase for the TG16 for a mere $20. The thing was I have always been a big fan of shooters, especially vertical shooters such as Life Force, Thunderforce III and Gaiares. It's just at the time I was on an adventure game kick. I managed to rectify this slightly later on as I was able to obtain the PCE version of the game for a decent price and I jumped all over the Japanese Game Boy Color release right when it came out. Still...it stings to this day. 


That one is by far the worst but I can think of a few other instances. I remember when I was starting to get serious about collecting that I decided I wanted to collect as complete as possible games and would pass on cart only ones if I saw them in hopes of finding them complete. PLENTY of rare games could have been had. Little Samson? I've held that one in hand a few times I know for sure. The rare Flintstones NES game. Ditto. Sometimes there were games I did find complete and either did not have the funds or the boxes/carts were too banged up and I wanted "nicer" looking copies. Two games that stand out are Aero Fighters and Hagane on SNES. My local Blockbuster had them in box with books, though they put tape all over them to prolong their shelf life. I remember both being the same price too. $24.99.  In my defense, I didn't know that Hagane was a Blockbuster exclusive and I remember seeing some website offering Aero Fighters for about the same price (Tommo maybe?) and I never got around to ordering it. 

[oldgamerz]

I guess I won't loan my games out either after hearing the first 2 posts

 I actually don't have any friends currently but when I did in childhood, I lost both all my Game Boy and Game Gear games. and even the handhelds themselves. All I did was show and let my childhood friends play the handhelds when they came over. and when I was not looking that stole every single game for handheld I owned growing up. among tons of other things

when I refused to lend them the handhelds they just stole them and never returned them or I got some of them back in pieces but they were stolen again shortly after. Later friends were not like this, I did have a 3 good friends that been in my home that never stole or broke anything of mine but  all my childhood friends used to ally themselves against me and hid a lot of my things inside the jackets or pockets I was a stupid good child who didn't know any better they took advantage and used to laugh while they did it

[marblecakeultra]

It's not really a mistake, but growing up in the 2000s my mom had a mint CIB SNES down in the garage, and we had to sell it for cheap because we were moving and had to get rid of literally everything as soon as possible.

Only a few years after that I started getting into collecting video games and OOF, it hurts. So close!

[aliensstudios]

Hmm... I'd really say losing some of my GBA or Nintendo DS cartridges as a kid, or letting my mom sell a complete copy of Gunstar Heroes at a yard sale in 2001 before we moved, but I didn't even care back then and I own it now. Not a lot of regret on my end honestly.

[pizzasafari]

- My Saturn shelves are near the door to my bathroom, upon which is my copy of Panzer Dragoon Saga, and as a result the steam condensation from my shower has worn the outer box down a bit. Fuck.

- When I was little I sold a lot of my games in a car boot sale, some of which have hiked up in price a little since. Nothing dramatic but still games I wish I still had.

- The gamer rage I'd get as a kid was unprecedented and I always took out my anger by hitting my console with the controller (I was young guys don't judge me) and it's caused both physical and internal damage to some of my consoles, my PS1 barely works anymore and my original Xbox is covered in scuffmarks.

- I also used to leave my discs lying around as a kid because I was dumb, so most of my PS1 games that I've had since I was a kid no longer work.

- My bedroom gets incredibly dusty and I don't have any storage space left to put things in cause I've got so much shit everywhere so I've had to leave my handheld consoles lying around on my shelf, I have a FF2 edition WonderSwan and the screen got really dusty, I tried to wipe it off one day and the dust left masses of scratchmarks on the screen that are now always always visible because the screen is so reflective, so I've basically ruined it.

- Not really a mistake but a huge regret, I didn't realise at the time but when I originally bought Persona 3 FES and Persona 4 on PS2 it was right after a reprint run so there were sealed copies going on Amazon for about £20, I thought that was the usual price, I bought them and naturally opened them, and then a few months later the price shot back up to £60+ for used copies of each, and I really wish I bought an extra copy of both and kept them sealed.

- I spent literally years working up my card collection on Yu-Gi-Oh: Forbidden Memories on PS1, one day I lent my game and memory card to my next door neighbour, got them back, and a while later I booted up my save to discover that all of my best and rarest cards were gone from my save. It has a trading feature where you can trade cards between saves on two memory cards. Hm.

- My biggest gaming regret/mistake, when I was about 2 or 3 years old we had some kind of game console in our house that probably belonged to my brother or sister, I don't remember what it was (my gaming illiterate mum says she thinks it was 'an Atari' but I vaguely remember minor details of the appearance of the console and I don't think it matches any Atari consoles) but one day my mum fed me cold medicine or something and because I was a kid and kids are little shits instead of swallowing the medicine I ran into the room with the console and specifically spat the medicine out on the console, thereby breaking it, and I remember my mum going mad at me and then throwing it in the bin. Literally why would I do that. Goddamn I wish we still had the thing. I mean my mum probably would've sold it on the car boot or something eventually but even if she did at least if it was when I was older I'd be able to remember what the console was.

[bikingjahuty]

- loaning out my games and never getting them back: To my knowledge I've only done this twice, once with Tourist Trophy on the PS2 back when the game was relatively new. I lent it to a cousin and never got it back. The other game was Smash Bros on the N64 which I lent out to my brother and never saw again.

- Selling my childhood games and consoles (most of them at least): I never had anything ultra rare or really even much that was uncommon, but the sentimental value of still having my original game systems from when I was a kid would mean more to me now, especially as a collector, then the chump change I got from them from selling them at garage sales or at game stores when I was younger. This would include my original Sega Genesis, SNES, and Dreamcast. The only original console from my childhood I still have is my N64 I got for XMAS in 1996. It's just too bad that I don't have any of my original games for it anymore. I will take that system to the grave with me.

- Passing of certain games when they were way cheaper: Not a ton of these come to mind, but some certainly do. Probably the game I've passed on the most has been Panzer Dragoon Saga, simply because at the time I thought it to be too expensive, but compared to its $500 CIB pricetag now it would have been a steal to buy it at other times when I've come across it, once for $150 at a second hand media store back in 2014 or so. Also, I could have bought Rule of Rose on the PS2 for $80 from this same store, but passed because I thought it too expensive at the time. If only I had known what it would climb to...

[zenimus]

• Loaned out Tecmo Bowl for NES to a kid who moved away and never saw it again
• Loaned out Final Fantasy VII for PS1 to a kid who turned around and loaned it to another kid who moved away... never saw it again
• Loaned out Earthbound for SNES and the guide to a kid (before it was crazy expensive), returned with damage
• Loaned out Tron 2.0 for Mac to co-worker, returned squashed and broken. "Yeah, sorry, it was on the floor of my truck"
• Finding an unused 1993 Nintendo Demonstrator's Kit as a kid, but not taking care of it and letting everything get in bad shape

+ Packed up my friend's N64 and Star Fox 64 at a large party, later turns out he already packed up Star Fox 64 and I accidentally stole someone else's (still have it to this day)

[kypherion]

Not snagging a japanese SOTN copy for only $40

[undertakerprime]

I guess I should be grateful I really don’t have much to regret when it comes to games.

- In high school I lent my original Game Boy to one of the biggest jerks in the school (don’t ask me why, I’m not sure). It was in great shape when I lent it to him; when I got it back there were dead lines of pixels all over the screen. I swear he must have been smacking it against a wall or something to do that to it. But, my parents bought me a new one so no big deal.

- I used to keep all my NES instruction manuals an a big pile in a cabinet. I’m not sure what happened, but I think they got lost during a move. I haven’t been able to find the pile in 25 years.

- I’ve rarely sold any of my games, but a few years ago I sold a few used games to Target including Fire Emblem Path of Radiance. I don’t really regret it because at the time we needed the money, but that game has really shot up in price.

- When my local Blockbuster was purging their old games I had the rare foresight to pick up Clay Fighter 63 1/3 Sculptor’s Cut, but they also had the Blockbuster exclusive Transformers Beast Wars for N64. As a Transformers collector I regret not getting that one too, even though it’s not really that valuable.

- I’m normally a calm, low-key person, but when I was younger I had major gamer rage. I broke a few games, controllers, and even a couple consoles 

Now to end this on a good story:
In middle school my friend was in the school auditorium and found a copy of Final Fantasy Legend for GB just lying around one of the seats. There was no one else around and we had no clue who it belonged to. Since he had no GB he just comes up to me and says “here”. I still have it too.

[hoshichiri]

Games I lost through loans, or my brother's sticky-fingered phase:

Final Fantasy 7 (CIB)
Brave Fencer Musashi (CIB)
Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past
Super Mario RPG
Spyro the Dragon

Thankfully, I replaced all of those years ago before the collecting boom hit. I did not replace my straight-up-just-lost-it copy of Pokémon Blue, but I'm not as bothered about that.

I once lent my copy of Lunar 2 on PS1 to a friend 1 disc at a time, and she scratched disc 2 to the point that it didn't load anymore... and got mad when I said she'd have to get me a replacement. Needless to say, that was the end of lending to her. She was over when I beat the game. Credits roll, and then you get a message: 'insert disc 2.' I very slowly turned, stared at her, then got up and turned the game off without saying a word. She never did buy be a replacement, but my copy works now... see, she'd lucked into a $20 copy of Valkyrie Profile that she treated like crap. We begged her to be careful with it- at the time, it was a $100ish game- but no. Constantly losing the discs, leaving them lying around, etc. Then one day, she tells us it won't boot anymore. We (me & other friends) were fed up. We drug her to a Gamestop, forced her to buy a bottle of skip-fix, repaired the game, then kept the skip-fix for a couple weeks to repair music CDs she'd screwed up during visits & my copy of Lunar. She completely lost Valkyrie Profile a few weeks after that.

[kashell]

Loaning games, but I can't remember which ones. They must have not been that special.

Trusting folks with my trade in credit from FuncoLand to get me something I'd enjoy. ~.~()

[sworddude]

Getting rid of certain pretty cool titles years ago when I got them for cheap or were included in sets.

They sold for pretty high prices not to much lower than now but still quite a shame if you later on actually wanted to have them for the collection since you might not come across them anytime soon or ever It's just how the cookie crumbles unfortunately.

Had a few notable games that I did not buy wich raised in price by multiple times. Don't regret it though since even at the time it was an amount I would still have never paid for a single game as a loss if i were to add it to the collection.