What are your goals for collecting?

[7800 Pro Gamer]

When it comes to video games I'm starting to realize that different people collect for different reasons. Some want awesome games and the ability to play them on original hardware. Others want anything and everything gaming related. And I've heard of shelf collectors who don't play their games much if at all.  

So, why do you collect and what is the philosophy behind it?  I'll start with mine. I have a few ideas behind each collection but it's taken me years to figure out what I wanted. When it comes to Sega, NES, SNES, and PS1 I strictly bought back the games I used to have, and a few others that looked really interesting, but that's it. Before I drew that line, the collection got to massive to where it wasn't even fun anymore. 

For Atari 2600 I'm sticking to releases from 1985 and newer. Again, I'll buy a few I really like from before but mostly I wanted to keep all the Redbox games and some of the Froggo stuff, etc. And the Atari 7800, being my most nostalgic console, is the one I got a complete set for. I have a love for the system, and the library is manageable at under 60 releases. 

Finally, the Atari Jaguar was a console I was going to get a complete library for until recently. I just really dislike some of the games and can't see keeping them. So I'm keeping my Jaguar collection to the games I absolutely like and nothing more. 

Now my collection fits on one shelf and I'm thrilled with it. I have most of what I want to play and I'm not overwhelmed by the idea of moving it around or trying to find something in boxes and boxes of stuff.  And while I have a few games I'm looking for, I'm no longer interested in picking up everything I see. I did that for a long time and enjoyed doing it, but at this point in my life I just don't want all the stuff.  If I do want to play something else, well I have a modded OG Xbox to scratch those itches. 

So I guess I'm a nostalgic collector, mostly getting back what I used to play and a few things I now enjoy. How would you categorize your collecting mentality?  I'd love to hear it!  Thanks guys. 

[DegasElite]

I want to collect as much of the Atari stuff as I can. I know it's scarce, but I can try. I would really like Track & Field for the A2600, but it's rare and hard to come by. I would like to collect more Lynx and Jaguar games as well. They hard to come by as well. It's tough when everything is getting collected and you are left with fewer choices, and the choices are expensive. But, I think I will persevere as much as I can and get what I can still get. Thanks for letting me share. :O)

[DegasElite]

My philosophy is nostalgia. I grew up in the 1980s. So, that's my favorite era, I guess. I also collect for posterity. These are old games, the new antiques. They should be collected and preserved. :O)

[RickR]

I have fallen in-line with the philosophy you mention of minimizing and having the games that I really love handy and accessible.  I'm really trying hard to play and enjoy, and stop collecting unless it's something that helps me in my goal.  For example, I just purchased an ATGames Arcade mini console with the hope of having all the arcade games I love in a simple to use package. 

I still have to sell a bunch of stuff, which is part of the minimization goal.  This takes time and effort, so it's been slow going. 

 

[Atari 5200 Guy]

I'm a mixed bag but I'm finding more often that the pre online gaming stuff is more reliable...especially when your internet goes down.

I prefer cart based systems and have a decent collection.  I don't play those as much as I use to but what is there I'd say only a few are titles thrown in to get free shipping or part of a lot.  Since importing a Famicom and Super Famicom I am finding myself wanting to explore what all they got that we didn't.  So far what I have collected are either games we did get, variants of games we got, or games we didn't get but all of them I have enjoyed. I have 2 games for the SFC and 8 or 9 for the FC.  For some strange reason I find playing the Famicom and Super Famicom a bit more appealing than playing the NES or Super NES. And that's probably due mostly to growing up with an NES or Super NES as I know what to expect whereas with the FC and SFC I have no clue unless it's games we got over here. 

If the price is right I get whatever I can find for anything Atari thru XBOX.  I stop at XBOX One and have no plans to pick up another XBOX console.  I'm after two consoles: a PCE and PS3. But machine prices are so high right now that those are on a back burner. Instead I'm concentrating on games.  I try to get only those I know I will play or those I've seen/heard about that I wanted to play but never found.  Blood Wake for the OG XBOX was one of them which turned out to be a blast.  

For the PC I have Steam and Epic Games accounts.  For Steam I have almost 300 titles including a few well-known titles like the Trucking Simulator series, Car Mechanic, Borderlands, Saint's Row, and Sniper Elite.  There are others in there that are iffy and not as much fun to play.  Most of these games I got on Spring, Summer, or Winter sales.  Epic Games I have almost 200 games and none of them I paid for...all were free during the weeks Epic was giving them away.  The only games I got there that are the same as Steam are the Borderlands 2 and Pre-Sequel, everything else are games I don't have over there.  I continue to claim those because it adds to the collection. I probably have only played less than 10% of games on both accounts combined.  I have favorites I will go to over others I have yet to play.

So, gaming goals?  Continue collecting for the Famicom and Super Famicom what I can and only games that look interesting.  My PS1 & PS2 collection is lacking but the games I'm after are not cheap anymore.  The Gran Turismo series has went up over the years, the Final Fantasy series might as well be printed on gold, and others on my list are just hard to come by.  My Atari ST only has two games but those are getting scarce these days.  I think the retro gaming stock is drying up.  At least the sought after stuff is.

The time between new games being added to the collection gives me time to try to enjoy them as it usually takes me about 3 to 6 months to get a new game. I'm fixing to grab a new game for the FC now but it's in all Japanese.  Anyone know of a good way to translate that...preferably free?  Even if it is an odd way of doing it?

[Atari 5200 Guy]

5 hours ago, DegasElite said:

My philosophy is nostalgia. I grew up in the 1980s. So, that's my favorite era, I guess. I also collect for posterity. These are old games, the new antiques. They should be collected and preserved. :O)

I'm an 80's child and proud of it!  Modern society could learn a thing or two from it.  It couldn't have been all bad if it influenced Japan.  The games were fresh and the music was great.  Give me a time machine and I'd gladly go back.  I prefer the 80's style and technology.  Like Weezer sang, "Memories make me want to go back there."

[7800 Pro Gamer]

Thanks for the input guys. I do love seeing large collections. Some people take really good care of them and display them nicely, and I've always found large collections to be pretty nice looking. For me it was a lack of space that played into it to. Having boxes and boxes of stuff in storage wasn't gonna do me any good. 

But more so now than ever I really like seeing small curated collections too. Probably because that's where I'm at in life but it just feels more personal and there's usually good stories that goes along with the items. 

I never collected any import stuff let alone Famicom or sfc so I think that's really cool. 

I find it more difficult to sell stuff today because many of the methods I used to use are no longer as active or viable in my opinion. And I hate taking things to the local trade in shops. I know they need to make a profit but I feel like I'm getting robbed there with expensive stuff. 

I wonder if collectors are trending a certain way now compared to say 10 years ago...

[DegasElite]

I think, since older stuff has become more scarce, collecting trends might go down as it gets more expensive to do. There are games for the A2600 in mint condition that go for approximately $1,000.00 because they are graded by professional appraisers. But, as prices go up, so do the values of the collected items. They WILL appreciate over time. This is a given thing. Fellow Atari collectors, be proud of your collections. If it is older stuff, in any condition, it will go up in value during appreciation. Whatever condition it is in will determine the value of it in the future. Thanks for letting me share. :O)

[CrossBow]

Hmm.. I've thought about this many times and I still can't quite classify where I fit in with the collecting part of the hobby. When I got back into this just over 20 years ago now, It was first about getting all the stuff I wanted to play back in the day but couldn't afford as a child but could as an adult. As a result I was kinda smart in that I started with the heavier hitters first on some systems. But, I was only actively collecting for those systems that I had experience with when I was younger. So it started off being the Atari 2600, 7800, Genesis, SNES, and NES. But I was never wanting a complete collections. Just the games that I knew I would enjoy or had fond memories of playing. As a result of this mentality I still do NOT have a complete collection for any one system I have. Although my 7800 and 5200 are the closest to meeting such a goal.

Today, I do not really actively go on the hunt to collect these days and stick with what I already have or purchase home brews that I enjoy playing. So I'm still never likely to attain a complete collection for any one system. And honestly with the flash cartridges that I do own, I find myself even less likely to keep collecting going forward. In fact, most of my collection these days is that of the shelf collector variety with nice stuff setup in groups together or on display in some way. While I might still occasionally open up the cases to grab one of the games to pop in and play, it is usually because there is a need for the physical game to be used for testing for instance.

I've thought recently to start minimizing it down to just a few systems to actually keep and 'pass' on to another in the future but neither of my sons really have any interest at all in my old games nor do they seem to even care much for going back to play the games they played when they were younger. 

This is ONLY a theory of mine, but I think what is different now than 20 years ago is how much more mature emulation and emulation/simulation devices have come. There wasn't a decent 7800 emulator 20 years ago. There were good NES emulators but even SNES emulation had some issues. N64 emulation wasn't yet a think and even Sega Genesis emulation also had issues much less the ability to do SegaCD and 32x back then. So there was more of a need for many of us to have the actual hardware and games in hand because it was the only real way to play them properly without issues. But 20 years later and that landscape is very different. There are now multiple ways to play these older games through emulation that are so spot on that over 90% of the general gamer isn't likely to notice or have an issue playing games that way. So I can easily see why the appeal for the classic hardware and games might not be as interesting as it once was. Still, I like being surrounded by these old games and I smile that my child hood dream to have all the games is being met in my eyes.

[7800 Pro Gamer]

When it comes to values of games I think we are close to reaching the peak. I know graded games are now a thing but I'm not sure how much I would invest with that. Keep in mind that I have no data to support my claim, but I think the next generations aren't going to care like we do.  You have to have people who care about this stuff for it to remain valuable. As @CrossBow said, I don't think my kids really want the stuff but it means a lot to me. 

Also crossbow made another great point that there are more ways than ever to experience this stuff which is another reason why limiting my collection is so easy. I can emulate most other stuff, keep the stuff I'm attached to and keep a few that don't emulate well like the Jaguar. 

thanks for opinion @DegasElite I know I said some contrary stuff above.  I think it'll be a while before this stuff goes away down in value to where it's bottomed out (a couple generations at least) and we all should be proud of our collections!

[DegasElite]

18 minutes ago, Silver Back said:

I think it'll be a while before this stuff goes away down in value to where it's bottomed out (a couple generations at least) and we all should be proud of our collections!

Agreed on that. :O)

Retro seems to be king right now. I think nostalgia is a fad, but it keeps coming back from time to time. People like to reminisce. Memories are a powerful thing, especially if they are reinforced with something good. The Atari Era is a good time for a lot of people from the 1980s, especially if you are fascinated with video gaming. I have been an avid Atari collector for forty years now. I started at almost eight years old in 1982. Now, I consider myself a true connoisseur of collecting. I have dealt in other game systems other than Atari, but it all goes back to Atari. I had SMS, Genesis, Intellivision, ColecoVision, and TG16 collections, but they are gone now. Going strictly Atari has made collecting games more centralized and possibly cheaper.

This is because I am not going after ALL video game systems. Just Atari.

Of course, needless to say, classic Atari games are getting more expensive. That is predominantly scarcity, and people are looking for mint condition collections a lot of the time. The scarcer something is, the more it can go up in value. Commodities are like that and it is also the law of supply and demand. The demand is there. The supply not so much, especially since these games are not made anymore, which also adds to the value. I think of collecting older video games as a commodity as well. It seems to be the in thing at the moment, which makes collecting even more attractive. Maybe I am rambling a bit, but I think I am on to something here.

Edited March 14, 2022 by DegasElite

[Atari 5200 Guy]

Nintendo stuff has been going up lately, too.  One of the Famicom games I got for $4 is now worth $40.  No joke. Atari stuff might be worth more but the systems after it that were most popular, like PlayStation, are starting to affected by appreciation.  

One aspect of emulation I found helpful was the fact I could finally try games out to discover games I would physically want in my collection.  It has helped me out in a huge way.

 

[CrossBow]

2 hours ago, Atari 5200 Guy said:

Nintendo stuff has been going up lately, too.  One of the Famicom games I got for $4 is now worth $40.  No joke. Atari stuff might be worth more but the systems after it that were most popular, like PlayStation, are starting to affected by appreciation.  

One aspect of emulation I found helpful was the fact I could finally try games out to discover games I would physically want in my collection.  It has helped me out in a huge way.

 

I paid $250 for my Magic Knight Rayearth for the Saturn. Disc in excellent condition, case also in good condition with the sticker sheet it came with fully intact etc. First time my wife thought I was a little crazy. But I bought it about 4 or 5 years ago at that price and it is still the most I've paid for any single used game in my collection. Looking at how much that game goes for now, I feel I made the right call to buy it when I did. 

And really that is the takeaway from all of this. If you are wanting to collect the games to keep and play, then you are better off buying what you can and want now vs tomorrow. I still kick myself in the butt for not being willing to spend $100 - 200 for Snatcher for the Sega CD 15 - 20 years ago. Now I'm not likely to ever own an original of that game at this point given what it goes for.

 

[Atari 5200 Guy]

20 hours ago, CrossBow said:

I still kick myself in the butt for not being willing to spend $100 - 200 for Snatcher for the Sega CD 15 - 20 years ago.

Back when I was caring for my grandmother, after my Mom passed away, I traded in all my PlayStation stuff and scored an NES and almost 100 games.  I ended up selling those off to help my grandmother get some meds.  In some ways I regret it because I had one hell of a collection.  Most of those games were $2-4 each. You can't find them now for less than $40 - 50.  When I did it I was under the impression that it was old stuff, stuff no one really wanted any more.  It'd be easy to replace later on.  I never expected the retro gaming craze to take off like it did, let alone become a thing.

[7800 Pro Gamer]

I really regret selling some things that have shot way up in price, but who would've known. I had chase the chuck wagon complete in box with "manual" that my mom sent away for and kept pristine (because she said it sucked).  I had both the dino crisis games that are going for way too much now, I had D2 and Illbleed that are going for ridiculous money, and Duck Tales 2 from my childhood that I can't afford now. But how were we to know I guess?

[RickR]

Regrets -- give them thought for just a moment then move on.  Who is to say that something else may have happened to impact those items?  Like a robbery or fire or whatever.  And in a case like @Atari 5200 Guymentioned, helping with Grandma's needs was absolutely the right thing to do.  And as @Silver Backalluded to...hindsight is 20/20.  At least balance out any regrets with your victories...like getting any items you have now for a lot less than what they are worth now or selling things off at a market high (like Adventure carts during the "Ready Player One" craze). 

 

 

[CrossBow]

22 hours ago, RickR said:

Regrets -- give them thought for just a moment then move on.  Who is to say that something else may have happened to impact those items?  Like a robbery or fire or whatever.  And in a case like @Atari 5200 Guymentioned, helping with Grandma's needs was absolutely the right thing to do.  And as @Silver Backalluded to...hindsight is 20/20.  At least balance out any regrets with your victories...like getting any items you have now for a lot less than what they are worth now or selling things off at a market high (like Adventure carts during the "Ready Player One" craze). 

 

 

I can get on board with that line of thinking. After all while they might be Cartridge only... my MUSHA and Crusader of Centy I bought back in the early aughts only cost me about $8 and $10 respectively at that time and I felt they were great prices back then and especially what they go for now!

[7800 Pro Gamer]

I wish I would've bought Musha back then!  Those are definitely wins @CrossBow

[Atari 5200 Guy]

On 3/16/2022 at 12:21 PM, RickR said:

Regrets -- give them thought for just a moment then move on.  Who is to say that something else may have happened to impact those items?  Like a robbery or fire or whatever.  And in a case like @Atari 5200 Guymentioned, helping with Grandma's needs was absolutely the right thing to do.  And as @Silver Backalluded to...hindsight is 20/20.  At least balance out any regrets with your victories...like getting any items you have now for a lot less than what they are worth now or selling things off at a market high (like Adventure carts during the "Ready Player One" craze). 

 

 

My victories have far surpassed my regrets. My 5200 collection is a part of my collection that I am really proud of.  And  the Famicom and Super Famicom have become staples to seal the deal.  I'm enjoying finding games for those two. What I have now still blows my mind.  It might be small compared to other's collections but it is something I never had before.  I'm still missing two consoles I'm after but if I never get them I'd be ok with that.  I've got enough to keep me busy until the day I die.  I only hope I manage to keep my sanity until then so I can enjoy what I have.

[DegasElite]

On 3/13/2022 at 8:19 PM, Atari 5200 Guy said:

I'm a mixed bag but I'm finding more often that the pre online gaming stuff is more reliable...especially when your internet goes down.

This is true. I love pre-online stuff myself. It's the nostalgia, I guess. :O)

[DegasElite]

Not only that, the pre-online is more tangible to me. You can physically own a cartridge or CD, or an SD card if you have an SD cartridge.

[LeeJ07]

My main goal is still trying to reacquire everything I had before the fire destroyed my collection back in 2019.

I've managed to get back about 65%, I wanna say, but I'm still missing a lot, like almost all my Game Boy games.

Edited March 22, 2022 by LeeJ07

[Atari 5200 Guy]

On 3/14/2022 at 9:14 AM, Silver Back said:

Thanks for the input guys. I do love seeing large collections. Some people take really good care of them and display them nicely, and I've always found large collections to be pretty nice looking. For me it was a lack of space that played into it to. Having boxes and boxes of stuff in storage wasn't gonna do me any good. 

But more so now than ever I really like seeing small curated collections too. Probably because that's where I'm at in life but it just feels more personal and there's usually good stories that goes along with the items. 

I never collected any import stuff let alone Famicom or sfc so I think that's really cool. 

I find it more difficult to sell stuff today because many of the methods I used to use are no longer as active or viable in my opinion. And I hate taking things to the local trade in shops. I know they need to make a profit but I feel like I'm getting robbed there with expensive stuff. 

I wonder if collectors are trending a certain way now compared to say 10 years ago...

Have you thought about selling your stuff on Atari I/O's marketplace?  I'm sure members here would be interested in seeing what you may have up for grabs.  Just a suggestion.

[7800 Pro Gamer]

I would be willing to try it in the future. I don't usually have much to sell, I don't have much in my own collection I want to get rid of. I was considering a complete Jaguar collection but thought better of it and sold off some of those and I sold a few back up consoles. Sometimes I find good deals and I pick them up and usually end up selling them but I've stopped doing that lately because I couldn't sell them as easily as I said. 

I'll try it next time I have something.