Poll: Locally vs. Online - How did you build your collection? By percentage %

[RegularGuyGamer | 2,018]

Where's @Quest4NesArent you another 100% local buyer?

[Quest4Nes | 376]

1 hour ago, RegularGuyGamer said:

Where's @Quest4NesArent you another 100% local buyer?

I got many games in person. not 100 percent though.

Id guess like 80/20

[GPX | 1,374]

I would say my collection is 50/50. I bought a significant amount locally from quite a few collectors selling out, and even a couple of ex-store owners who have kept some old retail stock. But during those early years, I would also buy a heap of stuff online. Recent years, I’ve slowed down a lot but would still collect some high end stuff from time to time, and these items are predominantly purchased online.

When it comes to which I prefer to buy from, online or local? I tend to think it matters more how much of a deal I’m getting and the type of sellers I’m dealing with. You get the good and the bad with both local and online transactions. 

 

[spacepup | 2,412]

I'd have to guess well over 90% of mine is online.  Most of the stuff I want just isn't available locally.  For a long while now, the majority of my acquisitions have been either imports, or obscure / hard to find demos that I just couldn't get locally.  

Even if I wanted to shop locally, it'd be difficult as there are a ton of people in my city who going around and hit up all the places daily to get everything remotely good.  I don't have the time or energy to compete with them.

 

[Brickman | 4,019]

I'd say roughly 50/50 for me. Anything modern is nearly always bought local because you can get EB sales. 

Retro is basically all 100% online these days. I mainly collect Japanese stuff and don't live there, but I do have a connection so I get my stuff cheaper than eBay/Yahoo auctions at least.

[T-Pac | 7,590]

My collection has to be 99% online purchases. My gaming interests are way too focused (and increasingly niche) to pick-up random stuff locally.

Having games in my collection that I didn't specifically seek-out drives me crazy, anyway. (*looks angrily at my duplicate Super Mario / Duck Hunt cart that came in a lot and I never got rid of...)

-CasualCart

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

I didn't start seriously collecting until the last five years, so almost every retro game I own was bought online. My sizable Xbox and PS2 collections were actually bought on craigslist before videogame prices skyrocketed. So overall it's probably 50/50 for me, but if you just look at the last five years and going forward it would be 90% online.

Garage sale cruising and thrift store hunting just isn't worth my time at this point.

[Jono1874 | 144]

If I can buy locally, I will. Even if the prices are a bit higher.

My NES collection specifically was built almost entirely locally. I waited over a decade to get my hands on stuff like Dragon Warrior 3 and 4 because I wanted to see them in person before buying/trading for them.  With consoles I'm less interested in, I tend to just buy online.  Since my NES collection is the vast majority of my game collection, you could say it's over 50% local.