>>7089242
>Do you collect old gems?
I used to, still have a decent-sized collection of Genesis/Sega CD, PlayStation and PS2 games.
>Do you consider it complete if it only has the instruction manual in the box (no flyer/epilepsy warning)?
Yes, just the game, the box and the manual make a game complete in my eyes.
>Do you accept non mint games in your collection?
I have collected plenty of games that aren't mint or CIB.
>also, the price on those is getting rather insane, where will it stop?
Prices will probably stabilize over the next 10 to 15 years before we see a sharp decline in the same way collecting baseball cards fell out of vogue. The prices of many of these games are getting to the point of where it'd be far more cost-effective to order a flash cartridge or an optical drive emulator if you're simply wanting to play on original hardware. Anyone else interested in retro games is emulating them anyway.
While collecting video games has been enjoyable for myself in the past, as I've grown older, I've realized that it's a huge fucking waste of money. People nowadays are even selling reproduction games and passing them off as genuine like some people do for vintage guitars and shit. It's grown to the point of where it's largely not worth it and most collectorfags simply place their collection on a shelf display, never to play them and let the data rot away over time.
TL;DR: Get a flash cartridge/ODE if you like original hardware or emulate if you just want to play video games.