Thoughts and Discussion on all of the Hoarding Behind the Scenes?

[Tulpa | 3,488]

1 hour ago, scaryice said:

No way have that many SNES games been thrown out, they were $60-70.

I dunno, people kind of quickly forget what games cost. Between when the system was discontinued and when collecting was large enough that word got out that people will pay bucks for Earthbound, about a decade passed. That's a good chunk of time for memories to fade.

Plus, how many stories have we had of parents tossing their kids' shit out when they went off to college? And the parents likely put out the cash for that stuff.

I do think a fair amount ended up in a garage sale bin, but more than one of my friends remembers their old man chucking their stuff into a garbage can.

Edited February 2, 2020 by Tulpa

[hyrulevyse | 151]

On 2/2/2020 at 11:32 AM, scaryice said:

No way have that many SNES games been thrown out, they were $60-70. I'll say around 1/3rd thrown away, and I'd be very shocked if it was over 50%.

Of course, I'm sure it varies by game and genre. Sports game, ok, those are probably over half. But a game like Wizardry, probably something really low like 10%.

That's an insane number imo.  Like you said it's different for each title but in general things get tossed when they're no longer being used, especially toys.  As @Tulpa mentioned parents threw a bunch of stuff out when their kids were no longer using them, it takes a lot less effort than boxing it up and finding a place to store it.  As a parent myself I toss my kids crap all the time.

[DefaultGen | 5,395]

32 minutes ago, hyrulevyse said:

That's an insane number imo.  Like you said it's different for each title but in general things get tossed when they're no longer being used, especially toys.  As @Tulpa mentioned parents threw a bunch of stuff out when their kids were no longer using them, it takes a lot less effort than boxing it up and finding a place to store it.  As a parent myself I toss my kids crap all the time.

Thank you for your services to the trough of no value.

[hyrulevyse | 151]

5 hours ago, DefaultGen said:

Thank you for your services to the trough of no value.

You're welcome.  I've single handedly helped reduced the rarity of countless Polly Pockets.

 

[scaryice | 579]

On 2/2/2020 at 11:34 AM, Tulpa said:

I dunno, people kind of quickly forget what games cost. Between when the system was discontinued and when collecting was large enough that word got out that people will pay bucks for Earthbound, about a decade passed. That's a good chunk of time for memories to fade.

Plus, how many stories have we had of parents tossing their kids' shit out when they went off to college? And the parents likely put out the cash for that stuff.

I do think a fair amount ended up in a garage sale bin, but more than one of my friends remembers their old man chucking their stuff into a garbage can.

 

How many of those parents getting rid of stuff just threw it straight into the garbage though?

Also, the average SNES owner only bought 6 games. Sure, they might've had a few more if they bought used copies. Still, that's such a low attach rate, easily the lowest of any Nintendo console in the US. So that, plus the high cost, makes me think that they'd be less likely to end up in the trash vs say, NES games.

Edited February 4, 2020 by scaryice

[DoctorEncore | 3,690]

19 hours ago, hyrulevyse said:

That's an insane number imo.  Like you said it's different for each title but in general things get tossed when they're no longer being used, especially toys.  As @Tulpa mentioned parents threw a bunch of stuff out when their kids were no longer using them, it takes a lot less effort than boxing it up and finding a place to store it.  As a parent myself I toss my kids crap all the time.

 

8 hours ago, scaryice said:

How many of those parents getting rid of stuff just threw it straight into the garbage though?

Also, the average SNES owner only bought 6 games. Sure, they might've had a few more if they bought used copies. Still, that's such a low attach rate, easily the lowest of any Nintendo console in the US. So that, plus the high cost, makes me think that they'd be less likely to end up in the trash vs say, NES games.

I think a lot of you are severely underestimating how often people just trash stuff. If you move a lot or become a parent, throwing stuff away becomes a very routine and cathartic part of your life. Stop thinking of videogames as something special and treat them like everything else for a minute. Almost everything, especially toys and games, loses value very quickly after purchase. If you buy something for $60, do you really plan on selling it in the future for more than $10? I mean, think about new games you buy today. I highly doubt my copy of Borderlands 3 is going to maintain its value. And is $10 worth the time and effort of a drive across town or a trip to the post office? For some people yes, for many others, the answer is no.

Additionally, we don't trash things based on their future value, we trash them based on their current value. No one who was throwing these things away knew a $10 Little Samson would eventually be worth $3000. And even if it was valuable at the time of trashing, there was no way to know the value or easily sell it without the internet. These people made the best decision based on the info available at the time.

And finally, when it comes to my kids' junk, I'd probably still throw an item in the trash even if I knew it was gonna be worth $3000 in thirty years. The space in my house and life has its own value and I don't want to keep something I don't care about for that long just to make a few bucks. So I bet at least 50% of all previously purchased games were tossed.

[MiamiSlice | 3,089]

On 10/24/2019 at 12:50 PM, Gloves said:

One thing I think the comics folks are going to be disappointed with is how free of them the casual market really is, for the most part. 

My comparison here being the difference in completeness. A casual comic collector who wants every Wolverine comic for instance needs to get every one of them, and the whole lot of em are the same - just a comic. But in video games you see people all the time sharing their "complete" sets of Franchise X on social media, and they have the cart games cart-only. There are tiers of options available, and I honestly can't see them buying up all the Mario 3 carts to try to game that specific bit of the market. 

CIB was already pretty niche comparatively, and sealed far moreso; specific rare variants most people don't even register as a thing that exists. So they can buy up all the CIB Mario 3 all they want, but it will really only impact those specifically into CIB collecting, and let's face it - the vast majority of us who collect CIB already have Mario 3, and probably in pretty decent condition due to the not-scarce nature of it.

I think there's going to be some interesting growing pains for the comic guys coming into this, and some potential surprises for them.

Let's not forget that with CIB it's also possible to piece CIB's together by buying a box over here, a manual over there, etc. But this doesn't matter much, the comic collectors will go for sealed and that's cut & dry. 

I too have Mario 3 CIB, it's one of those games that has nothing to do with the value, it's just a game that people get excited about seeing on my shelf even if much more rare & valuable stuff is right next to it. 

I recall someone told me they bought a bunch of sealed copies of Legend of the River King 2 that popped up on Amazon, I was a bit annoyed because I would have loved to get one for myself before they nabbed them all, but I couldn't really blame them. 

Personally I don't like to keep duplicates, I don't have much room as it is and I'm always trying to get my money back so I try to sell or trade my dupes as quick as I can. But I will gladly acquire more dupes if I see them at good prices just to flip. Buying a bunch of something just to hold and sell feels like a lot of work though, I may as well be buying stocks or bitcoin then. Just click a button, much simpler

[MiamiSlice | 3,089]

On 2/2/2020 at 11:32 AM, scaryice said:

No way have that many SNES games been thrown out, they were $60-70. I'll say around 1/3rd thrown away, and I'd be very shocked if it was over 50%.

Of course, I'm sure it varies by game and genre. Sports game, ok, those are probably over half. But a game like Wizardry, probably something really low like 10%.

Lots of toys are expensive and then kids get bored of them and they have no resale value and end up getting thrown out. Transformers, Super Soakers, etc. I've seen so many toys get dumped because there's nothing else to do with them. 

Also most people assume that outdated games are worthless, because that was the case with outdated music and movies and so on. 8-tracks had no resale value when tapes came along, then tapes had no resale value when CDs came along, etc. So parents look at these cartridges they know nothing about other than their kid has a PS1 or N64 now and they don't have any interest in playing Super Nintendo and no one else wants the things and they are just taking up space so JUST THROW THEM IN A BAG NORM AND GET THEM OUT OF MY HOUSE (is what I imagine mom would say). 

The few times I've heard of some kids' parents doing anything different, those parents were usually eccentric / mildly afflicted with hoarding syndrome. 

[TDIRunner | 2,721]

To be fair, when most of those NES and SNES games were thrown out, they didn't have any value either.