Why do you collect? How do you determine what to collect? What drives your decisions?

[arnpoly | 197]

Sometimes I think I went about it backwards.  I collect NES because it was my first console and I have always loved going back and playing my old games.  I always held onto the idea of having every NES game possible, and I added games here or there over the years.  Buying a house and putting my games on display was when I got serious about buying and collecting.  I met my goal of buying every licensed NES cart except for Stadium Events, and I'm still nabbing unlicensed games, Famicom games, and homebrews from time to time.

All that is fine and good.  But it wasn't until after I had the games on hand that I realized what I really wanted to do was to play through and beat them all.  So that's what I've been doing ever since: playing, documenting, writing, recording, etc.  My original reasons were valid enough, but it would have made for a much better story if I had done it the other way around.

Anyway, for the most part I'm either continuing to find more NES and Famicom games or pick up other games I want from other systems, with no real rhyme or reason other than finding a good deal for finding out about another game I know I'd like and picking it up.

[Nintegageo | 582]

I've had a relativey impressive (at least to casuals) collection a long time, but only considered being a collector when I set a goal and actually bought some SNES games that didn't interest me in playing. I have actually sorta met that goal though and may pare it down.

[kapitank00 | 8]

I'm a zoomer but I found AVGN videos as a kid and it led me to watching a lot of the bigger retro-tubers. I always thought it was cool and thank god I was able to get a couple systems at flea markets before prices got insane. Now that I work and have had a bit of disposable income the past few years I was finally able to start using them/getting more systems when I could find them for a decent price.

I really just collect what I plan to play, and some ventures like my couple 32X games I'll probably get rid of my small collection is pretty well curated. That being said I absolutely love seeing huge cib collections, full sets, etc.

[MasonSushi | 16]

I started in 1994. I was 16, and went with a buddy to a local gameshop and bought buckets of NES games for $3-$5 each. Most expensive games were all $10 and were Contra, Mario 3, Dragon Warrior 2-4, Final Fantasy, Mega Man 2 & 3, Punch Out, Zelda, Ninja Gaiden, and Double Dragon 2. There might have been a few other $10 games but that is about it. Rest were in that $3-$5 range. We would also hit up the flea markets and get games as well. He and I would go online (i cant remember the site name. It was his computer), and we would talk to others and try to make a master list. New games were being found all the time and we had a blast. I never lost that community of people working together toward something they had in common. Around my city, people joked about me wasting my time and money on old games instead of getting the new system. 

I collect now because its what I like to do. Do I play every game I get? Nope, not at all. I play what I can, when I can, and usually with a friend.  I get games because it is a challenge that I take on myself. If they value tanked tomorrow would I be mad? Nope. I mean it would suck, but I wouldn't be mad. I collect for me, and not to have my ego stroked by other collectors. 

Now just wish there were more vintage game collectors around me that I could hang with and play games. I love watching somebody's game collection grow and talking about it.  

[VGCollectaholic | 111]

Why?
Like a lot of you, it sounds like, I have been a collector ever since I was a little kid.  I probably got that from my mom (a librarian who's mother and sister owned and operated antique stores).  I love making lists and working through them, organizing stuff, and researching - for me, collecting embodies all of that.   

Ever since early childhood I went through waves of collecting different things - my path more or less went Masters of the Universe >> GI Joe >> Transformers >> Sports Cards >> Wrestling Videos & Figures >> Movies.  I still have my complete childhood set of MOTU figs/vehicles/playsets, the sports cards, and the wrestling videos (I've got every WWF VHS tape that Coleseum Video ever released and a boat load of others spanning the globe).  Over the years I've sold off all the Joes, Transformers, and wrestling figures (at one point I had a full set of MOC Hasbro WWF figs... selling those off gave me money to open my second game store).

But one thing that never wavered through all of my waves of various collecting interests was collecting video games.  I got my first taste of video games Christmas 1984 when my aunt got me a TI-99/4A and I played Hunt the Wumpus endlessly.  (Her goal was to get me interested in these "newfangled computers", which worked to a point, I guess lol).  I was hooked.  I still have that TI-99/4A and every game I've owned since then.  So video game collecting has just been a hobby all my life I guess.

Determining What's Next & What Drives Decisions
I collect pretty much everything domestic (for me, that's US) and dabble very minimally in imports.  My focus tends to hop around a lot though month to month or even week to week.  Much of that has to do with seeing good deals on stuff and some has to do with random waves of nostalgia triggering impulse buys.  In the past couple months I've been hopping from NES to PSP to Dreamcast to Intellivision to PSVR, so it's really just price and opportunity driven for me, I guess.

[kcaz | 6]

When I initially started collecting about 10 years ago, I went balls to the walls and grabbed anything and everything with no plan. Fast forward to now and my goals have changed. I have no desire to have a complete set of anything, yet. Right now my focus is two fold: 1. Picking up great games I had when I was younger that I foolishly let go of and 2. Trying to get as many of the best games for each system possible. I don't have a big desire to own the junky games, so I limit it to things I know I'll play either by myself or with my kids.

[GPX | 1,366]

On 11/5/2019 at 1:58 PM, Astor Reinhardt said:

Pictures aren't showing up for me OP.

Why do I collect?

Well it started out because I watched AVGN and Pat The NES Punk videos and got hit with nostalgia over those old games. I wanted to replay them. It grew from that to collecting the games my mom never let me own (Castlevania, Contra, Megaman...) and it grew from that to owning every game ever made...yeah. $11,500 later...and I learned some expensive lessons. I don't buy every game anymore. I have a fairly complicated but strict set of rules I go by when I buy something.

But diving down deeper then that surface answer...I'm depressed. I hate my life right now. There are things I can't change about my life, and there are some I can. I'm working on a few of them. So collecting and playing games is an escape from my horrible reality. It's not just "boo hoo, the world is so hard"...I have a lot of pain/health issues and just getting out of bed in the morning is sometimes more then I can manage. So any escape is welcome. It's a miracle I haven't turned to drugs and booze. Collecting is my vice...healthier then some other vices. Anyways, it helps me escape into my childhood, where I was happier and less worn out. My childhood wasn't amazing but damn it was better then this. So I try to recapture those memories any way I can. Playing games I played back then helps...so does surrounding myself with things from my childhood...not just video games but toys, movies, books and so on and so forth from the 90s (and 80s since I had a lot of stuff from the 80s even though I was born in 91.)

How do I determine what to collect?

For NES/SNES/N64 it's easy. I'm after every game...twice. One is CIB, one is loose with manual. CIB is for preservation reasons/ego stroking and loose with manual is to play. Loose cart conditions can be worse then CIB carts. Since I plan on playing them only...so I call them my "playing condition" games. These can have flaws like torn labels, yellowed plastic...so on and so forth. So long as most of the label is readable, the plastic isn't missing chunks and it will actually work...I'm fine with whatever condition. Manuals however need to be in pretty good shape as I plan on actually reading them and handling them. CIB games...don't have to be mint (can't afford that!) but they need to be in good shape as it's about preservation...and yes some ego stroking. The only other system I'm after every game for is the Atari 2600. But I'm not picky...they can be in any condition, complete or not...just so long as they play. And I'm not actively going for it...I pick up games when I see them, but I don't worry about it.

Now for other systems...it varies. Handhelds (excluding DS/3DS/PSP/Vita) I get loose games, sometimes buying CIB if I manage to find it and usually for a game I really love (since CIB handheld stuff is expensive and hard to find). I'm going for exclusives to the systems and my favorites. DS/3DS/PSP/Vita, exclusives and favorites...but they need to be CIB. I have bought some games loose but only rare ones I got a sweet deal on...like Izuna for the DS. But trying to find someone selling a case with the manual for that game is freaking impossible...which is why I don't like buying loose. That and the games are tiny!

Disc based games are the same as the DS/3DS/PSP/Vita. CIB only unless very rare and very cheap. Exclusives and favorites. When I say favorites I mean like Fallout 3/Fallout NV. I own them on the PS3/360 and PC. And variations of those, Collectors Editions, GOTY edition and base game.

What drives my decisions?

I've already touched on this in both of the previous questions. It's a form of coping for me and it's also about preserving games. When I die...there's a few things that I want to happen, depending on when I die/who I leave behind. If I die while my parents are alive...I want them to sell the games. All of them. Use the money to have fun...take a trip, spoil themselves because I know they never do. If I die alone, without anyone to leave anything to, I want my games to go to a gaming museum. They can use them however they see fit...hopefully putting some on display and continuing to preserve them. If I die without children but married, my collection will go to my husband who will either donate them to a museum or play them. If I die with children, I want them to have my collection...IF they actually show interest in keeping it/using it. If not, it goes to a museum.

It boils down to I want the games to go on to be preserved, long after I'm dead. Unless someone I know and love is willing to take care of the collection and pass it along when they pass...except in the case of me dying before my parents. This could be health issues or mental health issues catching up to me...or just fate royally fucking me. Either way, I know they don't spend time on themselves...they're miserable. Dad works himself almost to death on his stupid projects...and mom is as unhealthy as I am. They need to take a break and have fun while they still can. I hate seeing them like this. I don't think my collection is worth a ton...and honestly my mom would have to be the one to sell it all...idk if she'd get top dollar or not...listing everything on eBay would be a bitch. But it's probably a few thousand...enough for a small trip somewhere for a few days...something is better then nothing. My last good deed, my last goodbye and my last gift to them.

 

And wow that's all super depressing to read and think about huh? Whoops.

Yes..that was super depressing to read. But thanks for sharing some personal issues!

Goes to show though, that games have so much more value than just its monetary value, but other intrinsic benefits that only the owners can gain from. Helping people forget their stresses and allowing a temporary exit from reality is something that is highly underrated.

[KokiriChild | 1,644]

Like countless others, I have always been a collector at heart, ever since I was a wee bab. I absolutley get it from my maternal grandfather. He was a co-owner of a sports memorabilia shop for almost a decade. I can still remember helping him sort the cards into different piles (Baseball, Football, Pokemon, Yugioh, etc.) Also got to sort the sports cards by team, year, etc and the gaming cards like Pokemon by generation. I am fully convinced this is what set as others call it "checklist high" and the constant search for it. In my brain, it makes total sense to save the money and only have the best of the best, but I NEED them complete sets and the piles of junk games I'll never play that come with them. This has also creeped into other hobbies I collect for, and thus I need to actively keep myself in check when it comes to collectibles. Yeah, when I look back at it, having my grandpa in the collectibles scene was pretty rad. I still own a baseball hand-signed by Yogi Bera and Don Larsen he gave me. 

Also like many of you, I find video games so nostalgic and calming because they take me back to simpler times. I am a youngster compared to many of you (About to be 25, and the Nintendo 64 was my first system.) My Dad was in the military for a full 30 year career, and did multiple tours in Iraq. He'd be gone for years at a time and I would live in constant fear of him dying. My friends were zero help in this regard, as they didn't know a thing about it. Instead of comforting me or just hanging out, they'd always ask me how many people my dad had killed and whatnot. Looking back, I don't blame them, they were just kids... but it certainly didn't make the day to day any easier. Because of this, my coping mechanism was video games and they helped me not think about it. This also was because my dad and I would play video games as a family. It was a literal group affair. I'll never forget when me, my little brother, my mom, and my dad (who always was in charge of the controller,) beat Ocarina of Time for the first time. My mother, who never plays video games, actually became so engrossed she went to KB Toys at 9pm on a weekday to buy a Prima Strategy Guide "So we can finally beat that freaking water temple!" I can't tell you how many games like this we completed as a family. Majora's Mask. Banjo-Tooie. Super Mario 64. Donkey Kong 64. And so, when my dad was deployed, playing my Nintendo 64 always made me feel safe and think about my dad in a way that didn't make me sad. 

Thankfully, my father came home unharmed (both physically and mentally, something you unfortunately can't say for all vets) and we have a great relationship. But still, those early childhood memories of us playing the 64 as a family and the role the system had in helping me to quite literally survive my formative years will always be my favorite aspect of this hobby, and will forever drive my collecting. 

So, in summary, NINTENDO 64 FOR LYFE BABY!

[Astor Reinhardt | 199]

12 hours ago, GPX said:

Yes..that was super depressing to read. But thanks for sharing some personal issues!

Goes to show though, that games have so much more value than just its monetary value, but other intrinsic benefits that only the owners can gain from. Helping people forget their stresses and allowing a temporary exit from reality is something that is highly underrated.

Yeah well, you got a peek into what life is like for me and what my mindset is...not fun.

I see games as a form of art, like film or novels. It's just an interactive movie...where you're the star. It stimulates your mind a whole lot more then just sitting and watching something. So there's that benefit too.

[BreaKBeatZ | 136]

I have always like collecting things (comics, baseball cards, magic cards) and started "collecting" video games in 2001. At that time, I just wanted to get a lot of the NES games that I wanted as a kid, and bought about 100 games from various Funcolands. Unfortunately, I didn't pick up any rare stuff and didn't stick with collecting NES. Then, in 2012, I got the itch to start collecting more NES games and found out that there were many other people who also collected them as a hobby. My goal was a complete NTSC licensed set, which I'm one game away from achieving (Stadium Events of course) and then I moved on to collecting for other systems.

 

My focus over around the last 2 years has been primarily PC games. PC gaming was an integral part of my life, and the games are very collectible to me. Boxes come in all different sizes, lots of unique contents were included (maps, figures, trinkets, dice, etc.) which makes practically any big box PC game feel like a collector's edition. The PC also has historic value that digs a little deeper than consoles for me. It's very cool being able to own the first commercially released game in different genres - RPG, point and click adventure, RTS game, flight simulator, stealth game... all of these originated on the PC. 

 

Besides PC collecting, my other favorite system to collect for currently is the DS. There are so many unique games and my list of games that I want just keeps growing as I find out about more great titles.

[Deadeye | 1,595]

[T-Pac | 7,509]

I collect for 8 and 16 bit systems. I love the pixel graphics, the physical cartridges, and the pick-up-and-play nature of most games from that era.

I mainly collect cart-only NES games, and my goal is to have every game on the system that peaks my interest in one way or another. 99% of the time, that means games that I want to play, but there are some other games that I collect because they are 'staples' of the library (like Dragon Warrior) or because they are especially quirky (like Hatris). My NES collection is mostly NTSC, but I like to substitute PAL games if they are cheaper or more interesting than the North American counterparts. (My rarer games like Panic Restaurant and DuckTales 2 are PAL versions because they're more affordable, and I want to get a copy of Probotector instead of Contra because I love robots). I don't substitute Famicom games, though, because it's essentially a different system.

For other consoles, like SNES and Genesis, I just pick up games that I think would be fun to play. Unlike with the NES, I'm not interested in scouring these libraries for every game that interests me. I collect completely region-free for these systems, like Super Famicom games for exclusives or as a more affordable alternative to North American releases.

In terms of hardware, I go for authentic controllers (especially arcade sticks like the NES Advantage), and clone hardware. Call me crazy, but I really like the HDMI console lineup from Hyperkin - they're so nice and uniform, and I'm not a stickler for perfect emulation anyway.

I think that sums up my current retro-game collecting. I'm excited to move into Atari 2600 carts once I've finished up with the NES, but for now I'm taking it one console at a time.

-CasualCart

 

[Candi_CGS | 3]

I probably have one of the weirdest standards for collecting. I collect Virtual Boy stuff, Pokemon games, and video game consoles. My goal is to just collect what I love (yes I LOVE the Virtual Boy) and share it with people I know. The Virtual Boy is just an odd unexplainable obsession I have. Pokemon games I collect because I always loved the franchise and holds a lot of nostalgia with it. Game consoles I collect because I want to be able to experience a little bit of everything from every console good or bad.

[AstralSoul | 502]

I collect whatever I want to play. Simple as that. I have a variety of systems and just whatever suits my mood in the moment is what I want to play/collect.

[Sign Collector Guy | 334]

Interesting read from Wiki.....

 

Concept of collecting

For people who collect, the value of their collections are not monetary but emotional. The collections allow people to relive their childhood, connect themselves to a period or to a time they feel strongly about. Their collections help them ease insecurity and anxiety about losing a part of themselves and to keep the past to continue to exist in the present.[1] Some collect for the thrill of the hunt. For these collectors, collecting is a quest, a lifelong pursuit which can never be completed.[2] Collecting may provide psychological security by filling a part of the self one feels is missing or is void of meaning.[3] When one collects, one experiments with arranging, organizing, and presenting a part of the world which may serve to provide a safety zone, a place of refuge where fears are calmed and insecurity is managed.[4] Motives are not mutually exclusive, rather, different motives combine for each collector for a multitude of reasons.

What is collected

People can and do collect almost anything. Saint Louis collected saints’ relics and built temples for them. Collections may be antisocial, such as the collection described in Mozart’s darkest opera, Don Giovanni. Mozart’s character, Don Giovanni, scoured the town collecting sexual conquests, making his indentured servant, Leporello, follow after him, listing names in a catalog and verifying the authenticity of the account while doing so.[5] Henry Wellcome, a pharmacist, collected for society. He spent 40 years collecting over a million sharp objects that he felt represented the history of medical science. He later opened a museum, "The Museum of Medical Science", which operated during World War I.[5] The infamous are famous for their collections. Demi Moore has an entire house filled exclusively with her doll collection, Sharon Stone collects cashmere sweaters. Napoleon collected countries, a habit that led to the "Napoleon complex" cliché we use to describe a man who compensates for physical flaws through acts of aggression.

Psychologists' perspectives

Psychologists have often taken a Freudian perspective when describing why people collect.[5] They highlight the controlling and impulsive dark side to collecting, the need for people to have "an object of desire." This desire, and hence the innate propensity to collect, begins at birth. The infant first desires the emotional and physical comfort of the nourishing breast, then the familiar baby blanket the child clings to for comfort and security. Stuffed animals, favorite toys are taken to bed and provide the emotional security needed to fall asleep. A sense of ownership and control is facilitated through possession of these items for the vulnerable child.[5] Freud himself took a more extreme position on the origins of collecting. Not surprisingly, he postulated that all collecting stems from unresolved toilet training conflict. Freud took the stance that the loss of bowel control was a traumatic experience, and the product from the bowels was disgusting and frightening to the child. Therefore, the collector is trying to gain back control of their bowels as well as their "possessions" which were long flushed down the toilet.[3] Where Freud linked object fixation to the anal-retentive stage in childhood, Muensterberger, in his perspective paper "Unruly Passion" believes collecting to be a "need-driven compensatory behavior where every new object effectively gives the notion of fantasized omnipotence." Jung had his own theories about why people become collectors. He touted the influence of archetypes on behavior. These universal symbols are embedded in what he termed our collective unconscious. Using this logic, collecting and completing sets have as their archetypal antecedents the collecting of "nuts and berries" once needed for survival by our early ancestors.[3][6]

A dark side of the moon?

There are unemotional commerce-motivated collectors, those that hunt for collectibles only to turn them around soon after and sell them.[7] However, the current author of many autograph collecting books, Mark Baker, describes most autograph seekers as being emotionally motivated to collect. Baker (2005) estimates that over 90% of autograph collectors have no intention to sell their wares. If not for money, and assuming issues arising from childhood were long resolved, then what reasons do people give for collecting?

"For me there are three sides to it," says Petrulis, a former outfielder at St. Mary's University in Winona, Minnesota who is an avid autograph collector. "The thrill of the chase, seeing who will sign that day. Second, the collecting aspect, trying to put together one of the best autograph collections around. And, finally, feeling more connected to the game because I actually meet the guys playing it instead of just seeing them on television." Petrulis also admits there is a dark side to collecting, providing some support for views that certain passions can be bad. "It gets addictive," says Petrulis, "just like gambling, drugs or sex. It's like putting a coin in a slot machine. It might not pay off this time, so you put another quarter in and keep doing it until you are tapped out or finally hit the jackpot."

When collecting is happy

Despite the interesting "dark side" of collecting, collecting is still mostly associated with positive emotions.[8] There is the happiness from adding a new find to the collection, the excitement of the hunt, the social camaraderie when sharing their collection with other collectors.[9] Oxlade-Vaz describes the intense emotional bond she had with her grandmother, and the rich heart-warming memories she had amassed at her grandma's house as a child and even as an adult. Her grandmother, a product of the Great Depression, "saved" everything. As a child, the author recalls the loving and gentle way her grandmother organized seemingly ordinary items: rubber bands were neatly bound together and artfully displayed on the mantle. Tops of pens of all colors and sizes were neatly arranged in drawers and bins. Artificial flowers, saved from the dumpster decorated every room in the house. At her grandmother's death, Oxlade-Vaz recalls the overwhelmingly pleasant emotions that overcame her as she sorted through her grandma's collections. Though not valuable, the author kept these collections to remember her grandma's thrifty, sensible, wisdom—reminders of the graceful way her grandmother was able to provide seemingly useless items dignity and respect.

Hoarding

There are also times when collecting is not pleasant for anyone— and much harder to describe than simply dark. These are the collectors that have surpassed healthy collecting behavior and are considered hoarders. When a collection becomes hoarding is when it also becomes pathological. Hoarding is pathological because it interferes with living a normal daily life.[10] Differences between collecting and hoarding are clear. Items in a collection are neatly organized, maintained, and presented or manipulated with ease. If a collector of 1000+ trains wants to find a particular one from his collection, he can find it easily. Collections are often catalogued, sorted, and objectively maintained like books in a library. Hoarding behavior is the opposite. Items with no value or use are piled up in stacks without order nor reason. Steven W. Anderson, a neurologist who studies hoarding behavior, posits that the need to collect stems from a basic drive to collect basic supplies such as food. This drive originates in the subcortical and limbic portions of the brain. According to Anderson, people need their prefrontal cortex to determine what supplies are worth saving (or hoarding). Anderson has found that many compulsive hoarders with brain injury had suffered damage to a region of their brain that regulates cognitive behaviors like decision making, information processing, and organizing behavior—the prefrontal cortex. Those with brain injury who did not display hoarding behavior, did not have damage to their frontal cortex, but showed damage distributed throughout the right and left hemispheres of their brain.[11]