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New guys/gals to the hobby 2020-present


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I think largely now, there are more investors than gamers getting into it who want the real pieces other than maybe some key/fun titles (a few, dozen plus) and the system itself.  It's just too toxic that even a fool would realize fairly quick the prices are a joke when they learn some game made into the 500K-1M+ copies is getting near to well over retail for the cartridge alone, when other stuff seems to have an irrational price given what is in front of them.  You'll have your number that don't care or are just dim bulbs to just deal with it, but the gamers will buy boots, use roms and kits or emulators, some other method because it's wallet breaking.

And that's just the ones going in with the stuff that's like the sub $50(100?) club stuff.  Those who are fine treating a benjamin like toilet paper, those tools are all about the money, it's an investment property to them at the face value of it, or they'll go in full colletard and go with seals, grading, nitpicking a decimal point on some arbitrary sticker.  The true cancers on the hobby that put us here.

TO the rest who still want it but the prices suck, we deal, we trade, we buy a bunch, keep a few and trade/sell the rest to slice the pain off the top.  Now made all the more hard with the tax scam on reporting now congress thankfully has a few bills on the floor with bipartisan support to deal with (and hopefully will and not die in committee.)

For me it's doing that, losing more stuff I just don't need extra copies of, dumping systems that got dusty for years, and in some cases I'm buying bootlegs now because $300 for a MD game can piss off when I can get a new gold trace/pin board version for under/about $10 (ie: Gleylancer is that example.)

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I think the speculators only represent a small fraction it just seems to be a smaller circle of people buying up all the graded stuff. Game collecting outside of that is only expensive depending on what you buy and how often you do it. You could be buying one game a month for $20 and calling yourself a collector. Maybe the days where there were numerous people gobbling up truckloads of games at once for $18 is over but that doesn’t mean someone buying one or two games here or there doesn’t also make someone a collector. I’d still say the genuinely interested far outnumber the speculators. I think full set collecting may go out the door but people will always be buying the popular games. 

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I still follow r/gamecollecting even though it's a cesspool just so I can get an idea of the collecting market. I would say 90% of the posts on there are casual collectors with somewhat modest collections, and from peoples attitude over there I assume most of them are < 16 years old.  From what I've seen, a lot of the newer collectors are targeting more modern consoles that they probably grew up with, which for the most part are still cheap enough to build a collection for. I doubt there are many people newly getting into pre N64 though for collecting purposes. 

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48 minutes ago, A_Feisty_Pickle said:

I still follow r/gamecollecting even though it's a cesspool just so I can get an idea of the collecting market. I would say 90% of the posts on there are casual collectors with somewhat modest collections, and from peoples attitude over there I assume most of them are < 16 years old.  From what I've seen, a lot of the newer collectors are targeting more modern consoles that they probably grew up with, which for the most part are still cheap enough to build a collection for. I doubt there are many people newly getting into pre N64 though for collecting purposes. 

I generally enjoy Reddit, but it makes me feel old now. I'm only 30 but it's really weird seeing people show off their latest find for what I instinctively want to value at like $100, but they're psyched to have gotten it for $300, and I look it up and it goes for $400. Like, damn. I personally have a hard time feeling good about finding something for 20% under market value when I know it was 300% under market value just a year ago... It's even weirder with newer stuff, especially 3DS. And I think there are probably plenty of newer collectors getting into pre N64 stuff, just maybe not interested in full set collecting. 

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Its the same in every collecting hobby im into now. Over the last few years its become a lot harder to collect games, vinyl, coins and watches. Its all driven by people who see it as an investment not a hobby. They are into it for the money and thats it. Its all about flipping and screwing over the next guy. People are looking for thge easy way out, a fast profit. The amount of reseller channels on youtube is insane and its only getting worse. Pokemon cards have gone crazy too. If your starting out today just collect the current gens atleast you can have fun and find uncommon stuff for 20 bucks and enjoy it

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Yup hateful to the core, unless you can find someone more old school who isn't drunk on their own greed, avarice, and farts.

I'm repulsed by it enough now I've been putting some like 30-50% off prices from the shit online selling it or trading it locally.  Some of it is low enough I found a store in town about a week ago that will pay 50-60% of the fucked up online prices so if I keep getting facebook illiterates and trolls I'm going to take my shit in there because they give cash same as trade.  I refreshed my ads this morning, even made it clear on the two high dollar(to me) items (solder fixed virtual boy and CIB near minty original DMG gameboy) I put up will get what I ask, no price cuts, or it goes to the shop and they can buy it from them for 100-200+ more and tax.  I'm over it, dropped the gauntlet basically.

Other than buying for myself for stuff I will play, largely locally, and mostly for SNES/Genesis at this rate -- I'm beyond caring much anymore.  I've been dumping games, consoles, handheld, vintage toys, the works.  Let the vipers poison themselves to death, it'll implode and I can laugh at them later.  To me it was always about the fun, the escape, doing something enjoyable to get away from the bad stuff... the bad stuff has largely ruined this so I have no pity.

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I've seen the demand for retro cart only/complete games drop significantly over the years. Back 10 years ago people were buying those up for there collection. I think now like someone else said people are more into the modern stuff. People who have grown up on retro games pretty much have everything they want as far as a collection and again like some have said there is more people looking to make profit instead of collect. Eventually that bubble will burst and you will find that those people will have all this inventory on hand and not much of a demand for it unless its discounted out.  

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And when that lovely reality check settles in, I'll be after those specific SNES games, NES, Genesis, Gameboy family that are so toxic to handle right now.  I'll be laughing on the inside too because they'll have lost their collective asses trying to rip us very few people around here off and those trying to me too into it too.  It's a shame, but deserved, long over due.

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8 hours ago, Bonanza125 said:

I've seen the demand for retro cart only/complete games drop significantly over the years. Back 10 years ago people were buying those up for there collection. I think now like someone else said people are more into the modern stuff. People who have grown up on retro games pretty much have everything they want as far as a collection and again like some have said there is more people looking to make profit instead of collect. Eventually that bubble will burst and you will find that those people will have all this inventory on hand and not much of a demand for it unless its discounted out.  

This has certainly not been my experience with anything in decent shape, the prices have never been higher and the amount of inventory to find is crippling. The reality is many games exist that didn't circulate much and they likely will forever be impacted unless everyone who cares dies, it will vary based on the time and age of course, just, something like The Krion Conquest is likely never going to be inexpensive to find in reasonable shape because of the Mega Man like intrigue mixed with its obscurity. I'd definitely need to see graphs of the downtrend because I've not stopped in 14 years and am trying to get out ASAP due to price fatigue. While there may not be as many people chasing them, the amount of remaining inventory is also very low, this becoming a different trend might take 10-20 years and most of us aren't willing to 'hold out' that long. At most I've noted some systems have 'leveled off' or rather, some games hit their ceiling and aren't changing much, so your Little Samsons or Haganes might not be increasing in value because they are already obscene, but there are other future games that will likely reach ridiculous territory as soon as the variables align, which is kind of always how it's been. How many games have increased drastically only to trend down a lot that weren't based on some kind of relevant boom, such as Pokemon Go or a recent media release that might pique interest?

Edited by goldenpp72
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