How do you steady the course on the long-game collecting?

[JVOSS | 1,762]

I'm the quest for the FULL NDS NA set but as late starter on the set craziness is tarting to sit in. I'm in at the +700 mark and the pain is starting to be felt.  Knowing that shipping cost is now matching the cost of the set. Or the fact that the games that are needed are getting less and less available. or The fact that I've only been able to put a small dent in the list of 1775 or about. 

How do you steady the course on the long-game collecting?

[Code Monkey | 2,014]

I don't think about the end, I just keep enjoying the ride. I actually don't care if I ever complete it, I'm having fun as I go.

[ThePhleo | 2,186]

Don't be afraid to fail, or restart.

I've been actively chasing, quitting, and restarting an NES set for about 11 years now. My latest restart was about three years ago when I started with a single CIB, Sqoon.

After that, I kept pushing and pushing through with a top down approach. I am now only 75-ish titles away from my primary goal of getting a licensed US CIB NES set. Only 4 or 5 of which are actually rare and valuable.

Taking the top down approach was a slow grind at the start which allowed me to determine whether or not I really wanted to make this final attempt, and simultaneously gave me wiggle room to rapidly selloff if I lost interest.

[SilverspoonGaming | 334]

I have taken some long breaks in the past, but because I enjoy my collection so much, its kinda ok that it pretty much consumes my life.  You just have to be smart and stay away from adding to debt or risk a strong relationship just to buy games that you dont have yet.

[RH | 4,982]

58 minutes ago, Code Monkey said:

I don't think about the end, I just keep enjoying the ride. I actually don't care if I ever complete it, I'm having fun as I go.

At this point (unless you have practically endless pockets) this is the truth except for a few systems (N64, VB, Wii U).  Most systems at this point are near impossible to collect for, for a complete set, so just enjoy the ride.

Also, it never hurts to speak to people you know with complete sets and tell them to "remember you" if they ever want to get out and sell off their collections.

[the_wizard_666 | 1,325]

Pretty much what everyone has said already.  There's no rush, take your time, enjoy the ride, etc.  Best real tip is to buy in bulk and sell or trade the dupes to soften the long term blow from shipping, but that can only really get you so far, and it sounds like you're past the point of finding lots with more than one or two needed games.  I've been collecting for pretty much every system for 25+ years now, and I still don't have a full set.  Just don't spend outside your means, as that leads to debt and burnout.

[OptOut | 8,892]

Quickly, buy more now, before they go up! 

[JVOSS | 1,762]

1 hour ago, OptOut said:

Quickly, buy more now, before they go up! 

i know right.  with some i did do the FOMO.  and then the damn thing dropped like 50%.

[GPX | 1,374]

I think it’s important to regularly revisit your financial standing with respect to long-term collecting goals. The key is to balance life matters with collecting costs (needs vs wants).

I sorta went a little bonkers with spending a few years back, but have cut down significantly since the pandemic. I don’t think about the FOMO nowadays, just learning more to appreciate on what I already have. Of course I feel miffed if I miss out on a good deal every so often, but I continually try and remind myself “you can’t always have what you want”. 

[OptOut | 8,892]

38 minutes ago, GPX said:

I continually try and remind myself “you can’t always have what you want”.

Sure you can! 

[Brickman | 4,020]

22 minutes ago, OptOut said:

Sure you can! 

Especially if you're invested in Opty Coin. I've heard that coin is flying right now!

[GPX | 1,374]

1 hour ago, JVOSS said:

i know right.  with some i did do the FOMO.  and then the damn thing dropped like 50%.

Ya know, a “loss of 50%” is just too vague these days. It could be a loss of a few hundred to a few hundred thousand dollars! 

[GPX | 1,374]

27 minutes ago, OptOut said:

Sure you can! 

Even if I can, no fun in throwing dollars blindly. The true fun is in the hunt and the discounts.

[OptOut | 8,892]

7 minutes ago, Brickman said:

Especially if you're invested in Opty Coin. I've heard that coin is flying right now!

The great thing about OPTcoin is you can multiply 0 by whatever number you want, it's endlessly and infinitely impossible to loose! 

[O.G. CIB | 415]

12 hours ago, JVOSS said:

I'm the quest for the FULL NDS NA set but as late starter on the set craziness is tarting to sit in. I'm in at the +700 mark and the pain is starting to be felt.  Knowing that shipping cost is now matching the cost of the set. Or the fact that the games that are needed are getting less and less available. or The fact that I've only been able to put a small dent in the list of 1775 or about. 

How do you steady the course on the long-game collecting?

DS collecting is a little different. Since about 1000 or so games are at $5 mark buying off eBay isn’t probably the best alternative when your under 1000. I don’t know where you live but in the states you have over 10 options of online game stores that have free shipping over a certain dollar figure. They all have hundreds on hand and will make your shipping woes go away. 
 

The DS depending on if your going for variants and releases from other countries is a min 25k investment currently. It’s a lot and major time investment due to the size of the library. It could keep you busy for years to come. 

Edited March 12, 2022 by Mr. CIB

[drxandy | 3,236]

I like to pivot when things get overwhelming or start to seem boring. I don't have a full set of anything yet but have been working on the og Xbox set for like 5 years + taking it slow, flipped over to 64 for a bit and as prices increased for 64 I pivoted to japanese stuff, 64 and GameCube. Pivoted back to Xbox as the pandemic made Japanese purchases difficult. 

Now if I'm out looking for games, I just take it as a thrift store experience ya never know what ya gonna find.

Edited March 12, 2022 by drxandy

[PapaStu | 47]

I fell into the less care on my PS1 collection when I hit about 75% of the base library years ago.  At that point, I started to go deeper into some subsets for it (like GH games) when I found stuff and stopped actively chasing the rest unless I fell into some stuff real cheap at a place selling games to keep it fresh.

For DS, I kinda did the same thing, but just would snag cheap games and again, like with the PS, focused on subsets within the library (like all DBZ or Tony Hawk or Lego games) when I was out and about.

Not having enough wall space to display all of either system in a manner I was happy with also helped to slow it all down to a very slow trickle.  In both the cases of the PS1 and DS collections I stopped active auction/online site chasing them because there wasn't a need to sink that $ into it when I wasn't so mentally invested.  I didn't and haven't gotten rid of a thing, but am totally fine not really adding to either set.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,594]

It's about the journey, not the destination, you can't take it with you, try to appreciate a purchase before it's lost in a flood of other purchases, yadda yadda yadda.

If you speed collect a bunch of shelf candy you're just setting yourself up for a need for endless "fixes."

I'd limit the number of games you're allowed to purchase each month, and turn this into a longer journey that maybe never has an end.  And play some games.

I have 400 NES games.  I may never get the rest.  But I like the thought of working on it for the rest of my life.

[JVOSS | 1,762]

4 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

If you speed collect a bunch of shelf candy you're just setting yourself up for a need for endless "fixes."

I'd limit the number of games you're allowed to purchase each month, and turn this into a longer journey that maybe never has an end.  And play some games.

@Reed Rothchildthat is so true.  been using both the top-down approach and the limit the number..  this month.  next month who knows it's a crazy market and when a lot size from GW is 100 games and you get 48 out of 100 that is need, it just can't be passed up.  the extras can be traded or not.  I do like the "limit the numbers" approach. 

[the_wizard_666 | 1,325]

12 minutes ago, JVOSS said:

@Reed Rothchildthat is so true.  been using both the top-down approach and the limit the number..  this month.  next month who knows it's a crazy market and when a lot size from GW is 100 games and you get 48 out of 100 that is need, it just can't be passed up.  the extras can be traded or not.  I do like the "limit the numbers" approach. 

That's a good approach, but a dollar value may work better.  If you're allowing 20 games, and a high end game comes up early in the month, you could overextend your budget later with some other pickups.  But if you have a $500 limit, and you spend it on day one, you're done.  Helps you think whether you want one big piece or several small ones.  And if you need more than that, you save your allowance (in full or whatever's left) from previous months to get the extra funds.

Another tip I have for people who have a narrow niche is to familiarize yourself with high demand and/or high value items on other systems.  That way if you're browsing the bargain bin for, say, PS2 games, and you find a rare Xbox game for a steal, you know to pick it up for trade or sale to fund the games you really want.  Never really worked for me as a multiplatform guy, as most of those deals would stay put, but occasionally I'd buy dupes for the same reason.  It's how I ended up with multiple Panic Restaurant and Amazing Tater carts at various points, among countless others.

[Matchbook | 194]

Just stopping in to agree and say you all are great. Sound advice all around. Keep up the fun @JVOSS

[a3quit4s | 4,127]

I think SNES might be my last full set. It started to sink in when I was buying shitty sports games for NES that a knew I was never going to play and it just wasn’t fun anymore. N64 wasn’t too bad here because there just aren’t that many games for it but NES was a slag and I can imagine how you feel. It helps to just take a break from your main collecting goal for as long as you need. I find myself buying Genesis games every now and again because it is something different. 
 

Also, just because you started with the goal of getting them all doesn’t mean that you need to complete the set if it’s not making you happy. It’s not a failure if you realize maybe it was a lofty goal or it just isn’t fun anymore. Also, this shit is expensive no matter how you average it.