Facebook Video Game Collectors Groups Discussion

[killerkobra | 268]

My apologies if this is something that has been covered in detail before.

I have been almost dormant in this forum since joining back in fall of 2019. I guess the downfall and blasphemous treatment of NintendoAge was just too much for me to bear.  I just could not get into another forum so soon. Silly, I know but it is my reality. I am now making a larger effort to get back into the grove with this forum. I have an active blog here that has been keeping me coming back. However, Id like to change that and get that old NintendoAge feeling back within myself. Which leads me to my thoughts below.

Like many/most of us discovered, Facebook Groups have gained a lot of popularity in the past while. I have joined countless groups with the hopes of keeping my finger on the pulse of collecting. However, I am extremely guarded when posting to any group.  I just don’t get a good vibe from anyone of the groups I am a part of. I have never opened up to any of them sharing collection pictures or my thoughts on anything. Especially with the way the market is now, a whole lot of bragging going on and not enough love of actual games for me.

I don’t know… maybe I am in the wrong groups or I have gotten older and jaded towards it all. I used to love sharing all of my video games pickups, updated collection photos and my thoughts in general on NA. The times I did try to share just lead to PM’s from guys trying to buy whatever I shared, like it was theirs for the taking.  I guess I am just set in the old ways of being apart of a forum like this to share. Maybe there are just too many casuals, vultures and braggers on Facebook ha ha. I just find it odd that on NA or VGS when people would share something, I never saw it as bragging but more of enlightening the collector community or sharing knowledge. On FB there is just so much striving for acclamation but thats social media in a nutshell.   

Maybe NA and VGS are the exact same as FB, just in forum form and I don’t see it ha ha, Once an elitist cornball cocksucker, always an elitist cornball cocksucker….

I am not trying to run any one group down; I know many members here are creators and mods of VG FB Groups. I am sure many of you love them and that’s great but I find myself just being a lurker in them.

What are everyone’s thoughts on Facebook Video Game groups currently?

[SilverspoonGaming | 332]

Facebook? 

[Reed Rothchild | 9,550]

I check Facebook once a day for about 30 seconds.

[docile tapeworm | 4,204]

42 minutes ago, SilverspoonGaming said:

Facebook? 

 

29 minutes ago, Reed Rothchild said:

I check Facebook once a day for about 30 seconds.

I’ve tried the local retro Facebook groups. 
it never lasts.

[DefaultGen | 5,414]

A lot of the "higher end" game collecting groups are pretty transactional and market-focused (and full of like 75% of the same members which is silly). Lots of the talk is focused on making money more than building a collection and there are tons of dealers. There's good info in the groups though if you're just looking to see or find out about cool stuff.

PC collecting and vintage computing groups definitely have more of the vibe you're looking for, a bunch of nerds getting excited over their niche interests, but of course if you're not into computers that doesn't help. The AtariAge group is great too, although again probably because it's a bunch of passionate dudes with a niche interest in a market that's not going through a speculative mania.

Try Instagram too. You can build your own circle of people with similar interests so you can cut out whoever and just find people who post the types of things you're interested in. I just wanna see pictures of new vidya game things and that's a great place to do it. I definitely don't feel like I 100% fit in with most Facebook groups but have met a lot of like-minded people on Instagram.

[Hammerfestus | 3,863]

I spend very little time on Facebook.   I find it to be a cesspool.

[RegularGuyGamer | 2,014]

4 hours ago, killerkobra said:

don’t know… maybe I am in the wrong groups or I have gotten older and jaded towards it all. I used to love sharing all of my video games pickups, updated collection photos and my thoughts in general on NA.

Get that old feeling back again. The pickup thread here is basically 0 showing off and 100% sharing. This place is better than NA. It's all of the heart & soul and very little of the money grubbin coots. 

And Facebook/ IG groups suck. I can't even bring myself to join any. Same with Reddit forums. 

What makes VGS so great is the small number of active regular users. It's a community, not a page or a group.

Idk, what else do I have to say to get you to start posting your raw sealed games again?

[Tanooki | 4,940]

@killerkobra  Well good you're back.

You're NOT wrong about social media gaming err boards...pages?  Largely you'll find a daily drop of bragging, trolling, trying to grift another person for ebay or over value because...?  Sure you'll find some posts about the system(s), a game or games, but nothing that really cuts into it much.  Yes they happen, but no they don't happen like in a closed registration required classic forum.  It's just NOT built for it. A place like this is designed not in mind for clickbait, instant gratification posts, camera whoring from your phone app and bouncing around topic to topic like a bad case of ADHD which is all social media is largely about in this hobby and many circles...no loyalty or real huge cares from the majority.  You sign up here, you care, you get to know people, trust them more, do stuff with them if local (or other means), treat fair or more than fairly in deals and trades, and the history.  People dig and dig, go into details, post questions that'll run for days, weeks, years which (anti)social media will scroll away for the next crack hit within an hour.  Kind of funny we use anon names on here largely and there's far more community and trust, and on the facebook shitshow you could make a fake account but largely it's real names/faces and it's douchebag central with no shame.  Seems backwards.

You're NOT jaded, you're just seeing social media for what it is (a shitshow.)

I'm in some groups on there, limited, as it's mostly around for a few contacts, but those I am are gaming(general nintendo, general, gameboy, handheld (general), neo geo, anime/manga, and little else.  Despite having dedicated people there, the longer standing regulars who bother posting nice stuff or policing the turds fairly hard, it still some cases aside, has no value on it compared to here, and nothing you can keep stuck around to access a day let alone years later.

It just is what it is, FB groups are inferior, fly by night, and not very friendly for a community sake but instant brag/gratification stuff as it scrolls into the ether within hours.  Had that dump been better designed or overhauled right from it's college boy roots of finding a hot chick, maybe it would be competition.

[LaC | 104]

Facebook is a horrible company and service.  And it motivates bad behavior.  Same with Instagram. 

But let's not pretend the video game collecting community didn't have it's problems before it moved to Facebook.  Facebook just magnified it by 1000x.  

I left all the groups for the same reason you mentioned, and I would delete my Facebook account if I didn't need it for  communication with people who are on Facebook only.

Watch The Social Dilemma on Netflix (another wonderful company) if you want to be able to understand it a bit more.

Here is a hot take...

No one actually "Likes" your posts.  No one actually cares about your "pickups".  And last by not least "PM sent! How much?!"

 

[JVOSS | 1,762]

for me fb and ig is a new thing.  in the one fb group i'm in i talk with people from eu and uk and get a focused take on the local market there.  the ig i use only to talk to the Denmark source i've know for a few years. as for VGS, will it the best.  i spent a lot of time trolling in NA but here it more like family if that makes any since.. and the only person here that kills me is @OptOuthe is just too Jessica Bell (you know Honest) for his own good..

[Andy_Bogomil | 815]

Facebook is a disease - even for stuff/groups you're interested in. It just attracts people with too much time on their hands. People arguing over the dumbest shit with the same topics covered over and over. I would recommend just deleting it.

VGS is pretty chill, but doesn't seem as active as NA for better or worse. Hard for me to say though as I have been pretty inactive and have lost significant interest in collecting and gaming in general over the last few years. The attitude here towards gaming and collecting is definitely gonna be better than FB.

 

 

Edited January 8, 2022 by Andy_Bogomil

[SilverspoonGaming | 332]

People on FB are fake and full of shit.  I have family on there that make it look like they own the world and they dont have two pennies to rub together.  Its pathetic.

To add to that, if you are trying to buy or sell or look for advice, its 99% bullshit because they dont know anything, or they dont have any money to buy your item and are just spinning wheels, or they dont even have the item you agree to purchase from them so you waste your time, and around here typically get robbed or shot.

Edited January 8, 2022 by SilverspoonGaming

[JVOSS | 1,762]

7 minutes ago, SilverspoonGaming said:

and around here typically get robbed or shot.

??????

[SilverspoonGaming | 332]

24 minutes ago, JVOSS said:

??????

City of scammers n crooks.  Trust no one.

[YOURTURN | 1,256]

I can honestly say that there are times I find myself wondering why I am on Facebook. My experiences with that alone has me avoid both Instagram and Twitter. And non-video game related forums, if I can be honest about toxicity. 

As for here, there are times I miss my favorite topics. Like the one dedicated to VGA graded games. That by itself is the biggest motivation behind me making an effort to have a graded video game collection! Which is also a bigger issue, versus the ones I had here.  But I digress... These guys occasionally keep me sane. Facebook? Not so much.

Which is why I am not asking any of them to help me make money by doing either double-sided body pillows with their images on both sides or a "Men of VGS" calendar. Even if both would make me rich. 

[a3quit4s | 4,107]

No social media since 2011 except LinkedIn for business purposes. Personal choice, just doesn’t add value to my life. No knock on those that have it, whatever makes you happy

[RegularGuyGamer | 2,014]

6 minutes ago, a3quit4s said:

No social media since 2011 except LinkedIn for business purposes. Personal choice, just doesn’t add value to my life. No knock on those that have it, whatever makes you happy

Ayy we jumped ship in the same year. Although I do have a Facebook with only 50 friends Strictly to find yard sales lol. Even the local sales is a husk of what craigslist was at it's worst. 

[LutherDestroysTheGond | 690]

I'm 100% with you in Facebook groups.   Nintendoage wasn't perfect but a lot of the regulars kept it an awesome community and a good chunk of them are on VGS now.  Like others have said above, Facebook is all showing off and about the $.  It's not about playing games and the enjoyment of games.  That being said, I still use FB for buying some items and looking locally at a Marketplace for finds and garage sales. 

There are some decent subreddits, AtariAge, and VGS for me for gaming discussions, finding new information about games/consoles/accessories, and posting great local finds and pickups in general.  

It's not NintendoAge but it's a good as we've got.   Lastly, fuck GoCollect.

Edited January 9, 2022 by LutherDestroysTheGond

[LeatherRebel5150 | 1,056]

Ive never had a “real” facebook. I made up some random name one once that has no friends or any profile info set, just use it as a quick way when some websites ask if you wanna sign into them through apple, google, facebook etc

[Link | 2,715]

I like fb groups for shitposting and fun. I'm in a few for video game collecting and B/S/T, but don't find much interesting there. Forums like this are much better to me and have an established community with mutual recognition. That doesn't seem to happen with fb groups in my experience. It does seem to among the big spenders or local scenes where people are frequently active together irl, and I don't have the capacity to be involved in those ways.

[FireHazard51 | 2,047]

I'm sure VGS has some people who are like the FB groups but the key difference is this community is more than showing pickups and selling/buy games.  It's about the love of video games, old and new.  We have bi-weekly game nights, weekly game challenges, and frankly I don't even look in the collecting section very often.  I'm here for the community that loves video games and plays them.  I grew up with the NES but honestly my passion is more for modern gaming and going back and play old classics that I missed out on growing up.  

Don't get me wrong, I love sharing what I pick ups.  And who doesn't want to share with friends with you hit the video game lottery at a GoodWill or found a hard to find item on eBay.  But I get your point.  Sharing because you want to share your joy/achievement vs bragging to make yourself look better to others are two different things.  This community has some serious collectors so good luck trying to brag.  Thankful this community is way more than "dick measuring".  

If you really want to impress these people then win the NES Weekly Contest.  Playing games really REALLY well is more impressive to these people than owning some games.  Also be prepared for some VERY stiff competition.

[killerkobra | 268]

Well from reading all the replies I think I am in the right spot ha ha. I think I need to get off Social Media in general. I don’t have any friends on Facebook or followers in Twitter, I just used them for nerd news and FB groups. So it’s not going to be a big deal. 
 

All the replies inspired me to further my involvement here. 

[fcgamer | 4,732]

I use FB solely to market and advertise shit that I'm being paid to advertise.

VGS is the real deal, the reason for the season haha

[Code Monkey | 2,011]

I prefer Facebook groups to forums because I'm more about the collecting than discussion. I don't really want to talk about games, I just want to collect them any way I can, however I haven't yet found a Facebook group that delivers collecting on the level I want. I joined a local collecting group so I know I don't have to worry about shipping when I see something I want but it's flooded with posts where I spend more time trying to decipher their horrible grasp on grammar than actually interacting with their post. That and people trying to sell a game for $10 because they're having trouble paying the bills, it's not really the level of collecting I'm after. Recently I joined the HIGHend Game Room on Facebook and when I joined, there was a long warning about how I should expect to see items for sale at $1,000,000 and I'm not allowed to make fun of the high sales prices. Great, I thought for sure I was in the right place until I was there for less than a week and someone was trying to sell a set of games, all with bootleg labels. I pointed it out and everyone jumped on me to defend the seller because he mentioned it in his post.

So anyway, I have to use a mix of forums and Facebook groups because neither of them provide what I need so I kind of have to check them all. If you know where I can go to buy items that only come up for sale once a decade, let me know. I want the weirdest of the weird.

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

On 1/7/2022 at 9:51 PM, RegularGuyGamer said:

Get that old feeling back again. The pickup thread here is basically 0 showing off and 100% sharing. This place is better than NA. It's all of the heart & soul and very little of the money grubbin coots. 

And Facebook/ IG groups suck. I can't even bring myself to join any. Same with Reddit forums. 

What makes VGS so great is the small number of active regular users. It's a community, not a page or a group.

Idk, what else do I have to say to get you to start posting your raw sealed games again?

Pretty much nailed it. VGS is a super supportive group with little-to-no bragging, but lots of love and a general eagerness to share.