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Reasons for collecting video games?


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Just now, DefaultGen said:

For the last time we don't care about your Taiwan exclusive underground bootleg unlicensed prototypes. Do you have Super Mario Bros. 3 or not?

I think I have a Canadian one...

*barf*

I mean, that's even worse than PAL, right? 😄

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I like how games bring people together...more than pretty much any other collectible that I can think of. 

I love seeing my friends/coworkers (and/or their kids) eyes light up when they see my walls of games...

I like hearing people say, "Man! Do you have "[Insert Game/System]?" and I can reply with, "Hell yes! Plus have you ever played [Insert lesser known game in the same genre]?"

I like that everyone wants to party at my house, and I have enough room/systems/tvs to have more than a dozen people playing Smash Ultimate (Switch), Super Mario Strikers (GCN), NBA Hangtime (N64) and Contra (NES) all at the same time!

I like reading manuals before I play a game like I used to do on the car ride home after buying a SNES game with my birthday money.

I like having all of (video)gaming history at my fingertips, to play or not at my leisure.

I used to have a lot of disdain for sealed/graded collecting because that seemed to be the antithesis of all the reasons I found collecting games enjoyable...but I have come to realize that my motivations aren't everybody's.  There are people on here that make their living off investing and/or flipping and there are people who care about owning the rarest of the rare or the mintiest of the minty...That's not me, but that's OK.

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A mix of nostalgia and the fact I just like collecting things 😂

I've tried to narrow my focus as I've gotten older, but all that's gotten me is a jillion Dragon Quest items, games and merch, and tons of stuff I don't have room for. I also collect anime cels and nerdy (mostly anime) dishes, but I've managed to calm those collections down for now. 🤣

So yeah, I'm drowning in slimes. It's a way of life at this point.

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I started building RetroPies years ago to find games I could play with my kids. That lacked the tangible fun of playing on OG hardware, so I bought a few favorite titles to play on an old NES I cleaned up. Then I got addicted to started following eBay auctions and fell down the rabbit hole. My motivations have changed over the years, but ultimately my main focus is still on games I enjoy playing.

But yeah sometimes I also buy crap just to show it off on the internet.

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Yeah, growing up poor is a great motivator for later success.

I would go on to over-correct and buy in excess as a young adult upon finding success, but over the years, learned restraint with the understanding that feeling like a have-not was a matter of perspective and a metric I had entirely associated with material things.

Now, I collect games because I love games and sharing them - and those experiences - with others. 

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56 minutes ago, Ferris Bueller said:

I'm sure a few here have seen this before, but a friend of mine once wrote this great article about Stadium Events collectors (and what motivates them) for ESPN. I think it's interesting to look at that article five years out and think about how game collecting has changed over that time -- Stadium Events is still a premium pickup, but other titles like sticker sealed SMB CIBs have surpassed it in terms of desirability.

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8 hours ago, GPX said:

You guys are a bunch of liars. The real reasons are:

- you started collecting for the love and nostalgia, and if you’re still with it today, it’s because you’ve become masochists! (The pain when you part money from wallet/card; and the pain you’d get if the partner finds out how much you truly spent!)

- y’all want to become millionaires! (And go on Pawn Stars)

But I started collecting when I was a teenager, and games were cheaper than dirt back then.  I actually remember buying games at garage sales for 50 cents, and taking a literal jar of pennies to Gold Video to buy up a bunch of games when they went out of business for a quarter apiece.  So neither nostalgia nor monetary gain were motivations for me.  And frankly, if every game I owned was still worth a buck or less, I'd still have my collection.  Hell, it'd probably be a LOT bigger 😛

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7 hours ago, dvertov said:

I'm sure a few here have seen this before, but a friend of mine once wrote this great article about Stadium Events collectors (and what motivates them) for ESPN. I think it's interesting to look at that article five years out and think about how game collecting has changed over that time -- Stadium Events is still a premium pickup, but other titles like sticker sealed SMB CIBs have surpassed it in terms of desirability.

Crazy, the Goodwill from the article where the lady bought the Stadium Events is in my hometown (Charlotte, NC). Thanks for sharing, never read about that before. On a completely unrelated note, I’m suddenly in the mood to hit some local thrift shops this weekend...

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8 hours ago, RpgCollector said:

I was a very poor foster child and now I have more money than I could have dreamed of. So I need everything!

I salute anyone and everyone that overcomes difficulties! Do you feel that collecting is in part attempting to find this childhood you never had?

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18 hours ago, Andy_Bogomil said:

As for games I own I'll never play... I hate myself for it and will be in the process of selling them for quite some time. There was no question I was addicted to buying and collecting for no reason other than that feeling of purchasing something and getting it in the mail.

Yeah, I think many people are addicting to buying and growing their collection. Sometimes people becomes incredibly obsessive to the point it can be unhealthy (not saying anyone on here is like that).

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20 minutes ago, avatar! said:

Yeah, I think many people are addicting to buying and growing their collection. Sometimes people becomes incredibly obsessive to the point it can be unhealthy (not saying anyone on here is like that).

That was definitely the case for me. I started spending money that I was saving for other stuff, hitting the pawn shop every single day regardless of how inconvenient it was, buying filler just because it was cheap, constantly surfing buy/sell groups and eBay, etc.. I had all the textbook signs of addiction.

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12 hours ago, Naked Warrior said:

 

I love seeing my friends/coworkers (and/or their kids) eyes light up when they see my walls of games...

I like hearing people say, "Man! Do you have "[Insert Game/System]?" and I can reply with, "Hell yes! Plus have you ever played [Insert lesser known game in the same genre]?"

I like that everyone wants to party at my house, and I have enough room/systems/tvs to have more than a dozen people playing Smash Ultimate (Switch), Super Mario Strikers (GCN), NBA Hangtime (N64) and Contra (NES) all at the same time!

 

Some great points in your post. I don't share or talk about my collection that much so even though most of my friends know I like video games and collect they don't understand the scope of the collection until they see it in person. I had a decent party last summer and it was a good feeling when a lot of people were looking for certain games and I could pull out a nice CIB copy and let them take a look. I didn't even plan on playing anything that night but the 64 was a huge hit and people were playing it off and on all night with 4 player Kart, Mario Party, and GE. A few people commented that they were extremely happy to "relive good/old times".

Edited by Andy_Bogomil
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