3 year post-pandemic review: how’s your collecting life before and now?

[nrslam | 477]

Pandemic didn't really change my habits, but I did move from a big city suburb to a rural area so there's just not as much stuff around. Only 2 big thrifts in the whole county compared to over 20 in my old stomping grounds and proportionately fewer garage sales. Luckily I've already got more than any sane person could want.

It has, however, become much harder to sell stuff locally, even when I advertise it for less than half the going online rate. Guess I'll just have be buried with it all.

[T-Pac | 7,588]

My game-collecting increased a bit from 2020 through today, but not because of the pandemic. I think these two factors played a much heavier hand:

1 ) I graduated college in 2020. (Working full-time = more disposable income = more game purchases.)

2 ) I became more active on VGS. (You guys are enablers, and you keep introducing more games to my "want" list haha.)

-CasualCart

[Sumez | 2,994]

I don't really understand why the pandemic would have had any influence? 

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

31 minutes ago, Sumez said:

I don't really understand why the pandemic would have had any influence? 

Many people had more time at home and/or to themselves during that time, and a lot of those used it to focus more on their hobbies.  Some had less money because of all of it, and were forced to cut back on their hobbies.  And some folks in some countries got "free money" (advances on their tax returns) to spend on whatever, which had the potential to advance their hobbies.

[Tanooki | 4,952]

...and some also got money (in the US) across the board repeatedly (3x or more) whether they were job impacted or not.  It made for a lot of fluid cash to waste on whatever, some saved, some re-invested into wise stuff, some blew it on dumb stuff, and others used it in our circle here to buy up all sorts of stuff at whatever value because the money was free.  VGPC isn't the best, but the line graph has a very lovely sharp rise with those checks.  And some stuff fell back a little, a few a lot, some just haven't, and combined with the criminal level activity of wata kind of made for a perfect storm of changing a lot of peoples habits in buying games before and after the fallout.

[YOURTURN | 1,257]

On 1/12/2023 at 12:45 AM, GPX said:

Have you been infected by the WATA virus?

Nope, not really. And you guys ignored my STD joke that I made at both Wata and HA's expense.

On 1/12/2023 at 12:45 AM, GPX said:

Has HA brainwashed you yet?

Nope, seeing that I am not their target audience. And by that I mean I am often broke by the end of the second week.

On 1/12/2023 at 12:45 AM, GPX said:

Have you retired from collecting or still going strong? 

Mostly yes to this. But I am also using my "retirement" as an excuse to refocus on what my goals are.

[GPX | 1,374]

It’s interesting having read most of the responses thus far. I think a change is inevitable as a collector for any period in time. Something to self reflect on: how much of the last 3 years has been influenced by:

- the rise of WATA/HA

- the hype train from the mass media

- Covid-19 reasons: being more relatively isolated during the pandemic; unable to travel; more savings etc.

- you ageing 3 years and becoming more wiser/senile.

————————

Personally, my collecting interests haven’t changed all that much, although I’m definitely less enthusiastic about full set collecting. This being directly related to the crazy price hikes and the increase in greedy/dodgy sellers has put me off with the communications. I’ve been lying low with the number of purchases, but overall the passion and desire to collect still remains strong.

[Sumez | 2,994]

8 hours ago, darkchylde28 said:

Many people had more time at home and/or to themselves during that time, and a lot of those used it to focus more on their hobbies.

Wouldn't that have been wonderful 

When it comes to video games one thing I'm sorely lacking is time! 

[Tabonga | 2,341]

3 hours ago, GPX said:

- you ageing 3 years and becoming more senile.

Hmmmm........

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

5 hours ago, Sumez said:

Wouldn't that have been wonderful 

When it comes to video games one thing I'm sorely lacking is time! 

When it came to folks suddenly having to or getting to work from home, a lot of us experienced having a lot more time during the day to do things that we wanted.  This was typically due to not having to deal with all the distractions that the office offered (leading to higher productivity), but also due to being immediately at or near those things that we would do at home and being able to take advantage of them during the typical bouts of "down time" that many (most?) experience throughout their workday.

I know that personally, during one particularly long Teams meeting, I ended up working on and fixing the popped out bottoms on the drawers in my dresser, something I couldn't have accomplished in the office (where I'd have most likely just been looking around the office, tapping my fingers on stuff, spinning in my chair, etc.).  I still paid attention to what was being said, contributed when and where I could, but otherwise kept myself muted and used my multitasking skills to my own advantage.  I got other stuff done as well, although not any video gaming, but I imagine others managed where I did not.

[drxandy | 3,236]

I don't plan to continue at the pace of collecting I have in the last few years. I don't plan to stop, but just focus more on goals. I'm out of space until we move and most is still in boxes until end goal shelving but I'm very happy with where I am at. I just reorganized the game room and even though it's not perfect I love staring at all the games, honestly the organization side is really fun for me too. Once we have more space i'll be ready, whoo.

[LeatherRebel5150 | 1,056]

My main slowdown happened in 2017 when I went back to college. I’ve maintained that level ever since

[Armageddon Potato | 124]

Honestly not much changed for me collecting-wise. The pandemic started off rough for me as I got brutally sick from some super rare stomach virus, and lost around 70 lbs in around 6 months. I've never been so miserable and sick in my life(and I've passed 14 uric acid kidney stones, lol!) I never really got too far with the medical system since it was so overloaded with Covid patients, but I stabilized randomly during Thanksgiving. They kind of just gambled random medications on me until some things started to appear to work(and certain ones I found out I was very allergic to, lol.) I even got Covid(Omicron) in February last year to boot. I sweated that beast out like you wouldn't believe, haha. I kind of took a break from here for a while when I was recovering even though I hopped in every once in a while.

I'm doing a lot better now! I didn't ever really stop collecting even though I was stuck at home for so long. It just slowed down, and I played more as a result. Once I got better and the flea markets and such opened back up I went back to my old tricks once I could drive again. There's still some amazing finds to be had out there, but you have to put the time into it and go out and look. I'm nearing end game with most sets, and it'll be fun finding those last boxes, etc!

Let's just hope the fates that be don't decide to hit the Bowser attack, or UFO button again, lol.

[Prime2099 | 176]

I had really stopped buying retro games back in 2018 because I had gotten a lot of what I wanted. What I did do though was sell a lot in the last few years. I decided to scale back a bit on what I had and then saw the prices, so it made it easy to make that decision. Probably just plan on maintaining what I have and selling if I decide to, but don't plan on doing anything too different.

[NoWaves | 5]

For me, the price hikes hit just as soon as I finally got income to start properly accumulating the games I want. It's been a bit demoralizing. I've recently adopted a philosophy of "Nothing But Bangers" where I only get what I know I want to/I'm going to play. Kind of takes the fun out of grabbing a strange random game you've never heard of and booting it up, but odds are if it's any good, no matter how common, it's prohibitively expensive. (Looking at you, Silent Hill & Pokemon) (Nintendo in general, really) ($50 MAX for anything with a Greatest Hits release).

One day I'd like to get an N64 full set, but I've got the rest of my life to do that, I'm in no rush, and I'm not averse to repros for the rarer games. Aside from that, I'm going to be doing one game at a time, and playing them as I get them, unless an absurdly good deal comes along, but I doubt it.

[Tanooki | 4,952]

41 minutes ago, NoWaves said:

For me, the price hikes hit just as soon as I finally got income to start properly accumulating the games I want. It's been a bit demoralizing. I've recently adopted a philosophy of "Nothing But Bangers" where I only get what I know I want to/I'm going to play. Kind of takes the fun out of grabbing a strange random game you've never heard of and booting it up, but odds are if it's any good, no matter how common, it's prohibitively expensive. (Looking at you, Silent Hill & Pokemon) (Nintendo in general, really) ($50 MAX for anything with a Greatest Hits release).

One day I'd like to get an N64 full set, but I've got the rest of my life to do that, I'm in no rush, and I'm not averse to repros for the rarer games. Aside from that, I'm going to be doing one game at a time, and playing them as I get them, unless an absurdly good deal comes along, but I doubt it.

With this more than you can imagine, stuck in the past fine, call it that, but the prices blow.  That's why I buy almost exclusively local now, and it has to be a game I will play in most cases that I desire a lot, the exception is an old school-ish style price where the risk is worth the reward to me.

A good example, last year I had never touched F-15 Strike Eagle on NES, game exchange got it with the sleeve+manual too for $10(game needs a manual) so I grabbed it, and it's utterly awesome.  I never thought I'd find a flight game on there that doesn't suck outside of Top Gun1&2.  I used to be no flash kit, then I was no copycat 1:1-ish looking games, now I support them more than anything because too many greedy losers shit the bed.

The good thing for you, N64 is manageable at about 300 titles, and largely most of them are cheap still (relatively meaning like $5-50 range, no higher than old retail.)

[NoWaves | 5]

6 hours ago, Tanooki said:

With this more than you can imagine, stuck in the past fine, call it that, but the prices blow.  That's why I buy almost exclusively local now, and it has to be a game I will play in most cases that I desire a lot, the exception is an old school-ish style price where the risk is worth the reward to me.

A good example, last year I had never touched F-15 Strike Eagle on NES, game exchange got it with the sleeve+manual too for $10(game needs a manual) so I grabbed it, and it's utterly awesome.  I never thought I'd find a flight game on there that doesn't suck outside of Top Gun1&2.  I used to be no flash kit, then I was no copycat 1:1-ish looking games, now I support them more than anything because too many greedy losers shit the bed.

The good thing for you, N64 is manageable at about 300 titles, and largely most of them are cheap still (relatively meaning like $5-50 range, no higher than old retail.)

That's the main reason I'd even consider it. My other love is Dreamcast, but I'm just going to get an ODE and call it a day. Even have an extra with a bad laser kicking around for exactly that purpose. I've gotten really into the whole digital preservation thing as of late. It's one thing to maintain old consoles, but another to keep a whole library of games in good shape. Discs inevitably rot, after all. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE physical media, but between degradation and inaccessibility, I'd rather support efforts to preserve things either digitally, or through reproduction.

Personally, I'd like to keep the experience of the original hardware alive, as much as possible, for as many people as possible, or at least that's my hope.

 

[Tanooki | 4,952]

@NoWaves Agreed on the Dreamcast.  The prices are disgusting, Sega doesn't care and when they do, they convert them to PC these days or Android so they'll get paid.  Dreamcast games prices blow, and as over compressed as they are, they're a real tease to not work with the slightest of scratches, and there's just not that many systems either, functional at that decreasing as time goes along.  ODE is perfect, remove the moving parts, throw in a memory card, and rock n' roll.

I love media too, but I also don't trust discs either largely at this rate.  Gamecube aside I do not have other optical media and don't care to add it given they rot, outside of a few PC titles.  I like to keep the experience right too, it's why I am find keeping chip based media players/media going longer term as it's very much more sustainable, even if the plastics tinge with age.  Even then, crap prices aside online largely, that's why flash kits exist to middle finger the clowns and enjoy the library without being taken advantage of... Yet when a deal presents itself, a new game is made, or an old publisher re-issues it on card/cart again or as a download on some service, support it, they deserve it, not some loser wanting $500 for a NES cart just because...greed and the fomo suckers who prop it up.

[Andy_Bogomil | 815]

Started selling games locally and cashed in on a few heavy hitters and then a few graded games through HA and made some good bank with the overspending of people with too much money. Took a break from selling but will hopefully be ramping up for the last big purge any time now once I get some motivation (which is really tough for me, since selling is a chore). I have all my 'keep forever games' aside and then have a for sale pile put aside with games I'm ready to part with. I also have a Wii U Amiibo set, Wii U full game set (with a ton of extras), and the first 4 or 5 waves of World of Nintendo toys that I'd like to offload as individual lots. 

Only thing I've bought is like 3 or 4 Switch games in the last few years and a pile of GC games I stumbled upon at Goodwill and instantly flipped.