Collecting Just Isn't Fun Anymore

[Anonymous No.2151503]

I've been collecting for years. Finding retro games at garage sales, thrift stores & flea markets was just as fun as the games themselves but that's over. There's no thrill of the hunt anymore. It's getting harder & harder to find anything good because every schmuck with a smart phone who passes by looks up the price then immediately scoops them up to be flipped on eBay.

And eBay's no good because it's all Buy It Now and all the greedy scalpers circle jerk the sales from each other, artifically inflating prices so a game that a year or two ago at $50 is now $150 with only a couple people having dozens of copies and waiting until some rich fuck decides his boat no longer amuses him so he's gonna start dropping thousands on retro games he'll probably only want for display.

[Anonymous No.2151508]

welcome to 2010 my friend.

[Anonymous No.2151514]

waaa my s-secret club hobby no longer costs pennies to participate in fucking rich fucks (i.e. anyone with an income)

why can't normies just leave me alone?

[Anonymous No.2151529]

>>2151514
>(i.e. anyone with an income)

haha

[Anonymous No.2151531]

>>2151503
I don't get "collecting", as in buying games for the sake of buying games and having a huge wall.

I do have a fairly large collection, but its not like i'm going to buy multiple copies of cheap games like Legacy of the Wizard just because. I'm also not going to buy games I know I'll never play.

If I could find a Little Samson or Mr. Gimmick "out in the wild" it would be fantastic, but as it stands now, I just budget away 20-100 dollars a paycheck for retro games, and maybe splurge a bit if a game I want is getting released or its a really good deal (like Bloodborne collectors edition, or finding a copy of Demon's Crest for 30 bucks when I already spent most of my game budget) but by doing that for the past few years I've been able to accumulate a good collection, and even gotten some very expensive games, like Tron Bonne, just because I've been saving for a long time.

Yeah its annoying that its a "thing" to collect, and people are jumping on the craze. I've remedied this by jumping ship to multiple consoles (added, PS4, Genesis, and Sega-CD to my normally playstation and nintendo exclusive console set).

If you want to play games the best option for owning "real hardware" has always been flashcarts. I've considered buying one (I owned them for GBA and DS) but I kinda like the feeling of popping in a cart.

tldr; just gotta deal with it.

[Anonymous No.2151532]

>>2151514
It's more like shit that I used to look at on amazon for 15-20 dollars is now 150 anywhere now that I am an adult with a job.

[Anonymous No.2151538]

>>2151531
>I don't get "collecting", as in buying games for the sake of buying games and having a huge wall.

That precisely why collecting blows. People aren't allowed to feel and exchange affection for one game they loved because loving plastic and stickers gets you more money.

[Anonymous No.2151539]

>not emulating

[Anonymous No.2151546]

The only games that have reached ridiculous prices recently are Snes games. All other consoles still have reasonably priced games except for a few rare games. Sega Saturn games have always been overpriced.

The best bet for buying cheap games online is to LEARN moonrunes. Japanese games can be bought cheap as fuck sometimes. Although even Japan is seeing the value in retro games so expect those prices to go up also.

[Anonymous No.2151549]

>>2151514
I used to dismiss complaints like OP's, but then i started collecting for the SNES.

Seriously though, OP. Just collect something other than Nintendo.

[Anonymous No.2151551]

>>2151508
I was still having some luck until about a year ago.

When my luck ran out I stopped going to fleamarkets and thrifts, and now over the last year the big local fleamarkets have closed down so I guess that age is over. WELCOME TO THE NEW AGE , TO THE NEW AGE, TO THE NEW AGE WELCOME TO THE NEW AGE

[Anonymous No.2151552]

>>2151546
>Although even Japan is seeing the value in retro games so expect those prices to go up also.

Please God no.

[Joseph Joestar AFK No.2151562]

>>2151552
Yeah, the wild ride is over.

[Anonymous No.2151578]

>>2151514
What do you take me for? I'm not taking about a copy of Ducktales costing $30 now. I was talking about Nam 1975 for Neo Geo AES which is one of the cheapest & most common games for the system & it's tripled in price since I got the system a couple years back. Those are expensive. It's not that I don't have an income, I just can't justify dropping hundreds of dollars on a single game every month. Can you?

[Anonymous No.2151579]

>>2151562
It's not like I wanted much, only a Famicom and some cool games, then I'd be doing everything else with flash carts, not even going to get a FDS. How are the odds of getting everything under 150$ or so?

[Anonymous No.2151585]

You gotta adjust.

Right now the good games are known, so shit like Playstation 1, SNES and N64 are on the rise because the generation that grew up with them are getting established. I believe NES is going to sort of cap off because the games are very rough compared to the SNES/Genesis and beyond era.

PS2 is going to go on the rise, then PS3 will rise a bit, but the sheer volume of games that got printed for each release has gone up so don't expect huge increases.

Btw, nows the time to buy PS2 and PS3 games, you can get a brand new sealed copy of AC: Black Flag for 10 bucks if you look around. End of a console gen is the best time to buy games, and even if you're super into retro, there are definitely some non-retro games worth playing, just something to keep in mind.

[Anonymous No.2151590]

I predict a huge crash, for the lose cart market at least. In less than 5 years.

[Anonymous No.2151593]

I blame youtuber collector scum in general for making it so popular. Collector/hoarders/resellers need to sell stuff cheap so other people can have a chance. I only own the games I need and actually play regularly. Owning a ton of games you dont even play is fucking stupid. Also I have seen Retro game stores in real life try to sell games at MAX ebay/amazon prices and they will sit at that price for years not selling it.

[Anonymous No.2151592]

What do you expect? I mean seriously? There's a finite supply of these games. As time goes on the supply gets lower due to demand, the price rises as a result. Economics 101 faggots. You don't like it? Emulate. Flash carts. Find a new "hobby".

[Anonymous No.2151609]

>>2151585
I dunno about PS2. By the time that was common, people knew games were becoming collectible. It's like comic books right. When they first started going for big bucks everyone jumped on board buying up as many new copies as they could in the 90s expecting them to reach the same value as the debut of Superman which they never did, not even close. Maybe a few JRPGS will but JRPG fans seems to enjoy overpaying.

[Anonymous No.2151613]

>>2151592
Resellers wipe their ass with your Economics 101. Why settle for low when you can fake the supply?

[Anonymous No.2151619]

>>2151613
Oh yeah, let's forget that retro games are a commodity like anything else that can be bought, traded and sold. Fuck principles based in the real world, because /vr/ believes there's a secret society of retro hoarders a la The Illuminati, controlling retro game prices.

[Anonymous No.2151623]

>>2151619
It's not a secret society. It's fat jews who are trying to have a job that doesn't involve working.

[Anonymous No.2151625]

>>2151623
Does your mother know you're on the chan? Go back to /v/.

[Anonymous No.2151628]

>>2151619
Yeah, it's not like people pay their rent while fucking other people over. This has never ever happened, truly was I blind.

[Anonymous No.2151629]

I got into collecting around 2008 and it was great, but now everything sucks.

Not only do you have the resellers making up artificial values, but you now have people who found an old console or game in their garage and look it up on eBay thinking they can get the same as the "buy it now" price.

[Anonymous No.2151632]

>>2151503

It's already been said, I think (just scanned the thread), but you can still do good with PS2 era games at garage sales. Recently picked up Final Fantasy XII for $1.50 and Suikoden IV for $5

[Anonymous No.2151639]

>>2151592
Prices seem to be rising too rapidly to simply be lessened supply. It is newfags with too little knowledge, too much time, too much money (or, more likely too little sense when it comes to money), and too much of a desire to be hip coming in and raping something to death (see: late 2006-era 4chan).

[Anonymous No.2151654]

>>2151639
There aren't millions of SNES and NES games laying around waiting to be sold at $5 a pop. Games like Little Samson and the sort maybe had a run of 500-1200 copies. It's very reasonable to assume most of them have homes now and that there aren't many available, same goes for other rares and uncommons. More people are collecting than ever before, so the supply is dwindling FAST. Just look at the Game Chaser subscriptions and view, or Game Grumps, new fags and kids want to be just like them, driving up prices and eating limited supply.

[Anonymous No.2151667]

>>2151632
where do you live that there's still garage sales? I haven't seen one in years and even then it was all VHS tapes & tea cups

[Anonymous No.2151669]

>>2151667
hick ass white towns are the best places to find videogames at garage sales

[Anonymous No.2151676]

>>2151654
OK, I will refine what I said: it isn't a natural reduction in supply. It is a slight reduction in supply due to idiots (We agree here, for sure), and said idiots overreacting to said reduction in supply or buying into L@@K RARE HOLY GRAIL. You know you have a dumb market when I, someone with a modicum of intelligence and desire to research, can literally buy things in one huge online market place and could if I so desired resell them for double or more on another huge online marketplace. That just shows stupidity and people only seeing what is shoved right in their face.

[Anonymous No.2151679]

>>2151669
That's not always true, I live in the mid south tri state area and go between TN, AR, and MS. Places like Game X Change are poison and they are buying up retro games en masse and charging list price charting prices or higher. They used to be a great place until they got caught slipping on $5 Little Samsons and Flinstones.

[Anonymous No.2151685]

>>2151669
Hell yeah.

[Anonymous No.2151689]

>>2151676
I for one buy in lots for my own personal collection and resell the duplicates to fund rare shit. It sucks it's come to this but w/e, it's necessary. And you're right, the market is flooded with idiot buyers. Things are shifting to non Nintendo consoles. Mega Drive games have doubled in average loose price in less than a year.

[Anonymous No.2151691]

>>2151669
I grew up in a hick ass white town. That's how I was able to build such a good collection early on ($5 SEGA CD Snatcher FTW) but last timeI went back home I picked up Turtles in Time.. it was still $50. Even hicks know now to check online prices from the wi-fi at their local McDonald's.

[Anonymous No.2151704]

>>2151691
Every slack jawed hick who has seen the YouTube wants to be the gay chasers and thinks they can make a lot of money off anything vidya, just go to Game Room Trading Post in Malvern, AR. Fucking train wreck of old rental hoarder hillbillies who admit to reselling from flea markets and yard sales.

[Anonymous No.2151708]

So much fucking cringe. I really dont like youtube.

[Anonymous No.2151714]

>>2151704
hahaha sounds amazing! I used to love places like that but again all of them want to wring every penny out now that they see what eBay sellers are charging. If I wanted to pay that then I would have just bought it off ebay instead of driving to your charming community of Podunk

[Anonymous No.2151724]

This is what I see every time I go out. They literally paid some mid 20 something $15 for this. As soon as he came in the door they were on eBay and Pricecharting.

[Anonymous No.2151734]

And that's when you get an Everdrive or comparable device. Original platform, no compatibility issues or glitches like in emulators, the game data is only fed a different way. Also no physical clutter because less is the new more after young people realized that boomer materialism leads nowhere.

[Anonymous No.2151738]

>>2151724
Yeah I don't like stores like that either. This one paid in my city some guy 20 bucks for a complete, in-box Turbo Express then bragged to me how he was going to sell it for like $300. Well I know better than to trade anything in there now.

[Anonymous No.2151742]

>>2151734
>less is the new more
>physical clutter
Yeah, clutter, frivolous stuff and having stuff you don't use is dumb, having a nicely organized collection of games isn't clutter, people need to get this out of their heads.

[Anonymous No.2151751]

>>2151734
What about all the young people stockpiling skylander & amiibo figurines?

[Anonymous No.2151756]

>>2151751
Not THAT young. The average Skylanders buyer is in middle school. I wish I could say the same about Amiibo collectors, but even some adult people have an obsession with Nintendo.

[Anonymous No.2151758]

Nintendo anything people stockpile, right now Game Cube is the next hot thing to price inflate. The average Game Cube price for a first party release or AAA is about $30, not retro but get used to it, it's not just limited to 25 year old carts.

[Anonymous No.2151764]

>>2151758
>The average Game Cube price for a first party release or AAA is about $30


Well fuck, I always thought they didn't ever move from that price, now you're telling me it was even lower before?

[Anonymous No.2151770]

Just wait for ebay to go back to their old policy of BiN. Reseller scum will be hanging themselves and jumping off buildings.

[Anonymous No.2151775]

>>2151758
Really? Let me check.. Geez $70 for Chibi Robo? I got mine new at Gamestop for ten bucks.

[Anonymous No.2151778]

>>2151764
I bought F-Zero GX for $5 six months ago, it goes for over $20 now.

[Anonymous No.2151786]

>you will never enjoy the comfiness of buying some random game only judging by the cover, so that you can play and keep it if you liked it or to sell it back to the store (for half the price of course) to buy some other game you can possibly like

That was collecting done right. It's become redundant thanks to emulators but that's what made it a hobby and not some dick size contest.

[Anonymous No.2151808]

My advice is to collect during the EoL of a consoles if it really matters to you. I did this during the Dreamcast where I was old enough to have my own money and I could get games for 10-20 bucks new. Now mediocre stuff like Cannon Spike and Project Justice (I really like this game, its just not worth the current market price) are going for absurd prices. But for all those people who missed out, the great thing is that there are great avenues to play the old games for cheap. Flash Carts, CD Drive emulators, PC emulators, etc. In the end, all that matters is the 1s and 0s after all.

[Anonymous No.2151820]

>>2151808
Great advice, now where did I put that time machine...

[Anonymous No.2151834]

>>2151786
I'm a little younger than you.
But I remember judging games by their covers too.

I remember for weeks and weeks seeing this through the glass at the store whenever my mom took my shopping and finally I had saved up enough to ask for a couple extra bucks to buy it.
I didn't know anything about the series, but I was so in love with the game I made my best friend get it too. I spent so many hours playing it it's crazy.

But how many snes and ps1 games did I rent based on box art that were awful, oh so many.

[Anonymous No.2151836]

>>2151808
Oh I did. I was that kid who picked up a TG-16 when they were reduced. Same with the SEGA CD. And I got the Dreamcast as a Christmas present back in like 2000. I got most of the good stuff for dirt, dirt cheap but the few I wasn't able to get around to in time are prohibitive now because the people who couldn't give two shits at the time to keep those systems afloat suddenly decided OMFG these are so cool!!11one

[Anonymous No.2151889]

>>2151820
PS3/360/wii have a lot of great games man, games I would argue are must plays. Granted, Wii can be modded really easy, and PS3/360 also pretty easily but its still worth it if you want to collect.

>tfw through stupid gamestop circumstances got jewed out of my Collectors Edition for Demon's Souls and Dark Souls on ps3.
>Got standard copies even though I preordered basically when it first became available
>look at prices now 150+ for the deluxe edition

It fucking taunts me.

[Anonymous No.2151896]

>tfw got a 32x for ten bucks yesterday
The dream is still alive

[Anonymous No.2151934]

>>2151896
Most of my good deals these days are by abusing eBay and Paypal systems from reseller scum.

>specifically look for ads with pictures that show damages or other features that are not accurately listed or described in the system.
>have a super nintendo that I can only get a few games to work on for some reason, my original copies of Megaman X, Secret of Mana, and Chrono Trigger.
>Always show the sellers a video of the SNES working with one of the games, then popping in the game they gave me to show that it doesn't work
>get most games at anywhere from 20-75% off this way.
>have 3 or 4 ebay and paypal accounts at this point, done the same thing to a few sellers a bunch of times
>they're either too stupid or too high volume to notice
>I've gotten easily 30 SNES games for dirt cheap this way

[Anonymous No.2151971]

>>2151934
the free market lives.

[Anonymous No.2151978]

It's just too expensive to get Sega stuff these days, the rare stuff anyway.

Fucking plastic longboxes.

[Anonymous No.2151982]

>>2151978
Sega CD and Saturn collecting must truly be suffering. I just burn all the Sega-CD games and put them in a CD wallet.

PS1 is great because you can just buy bulk generic jewel cases and replace them.

[Anonymous No.2151991]

>>2151982
not so much if you're collecting japanese Sega CD and Saturn stuff.

[Anonymous No.2151992]

>>2151593
god he's so ugly, he looks like he's related to phil fish too.

[Anonymous No.2152014]

>>2151992
He's not that bad. Just needs to spend more money on a good haircut and clothes and less on shitty weeb games.

[Anonymous No.2152110]

>>2151593
The only store within twenty miles of me sells at high eBay + 5-10 dollars.

Had a few good gets from them when they first got into old games but now I can barely go in without exploding into laughter.

Quite a few game stores about 30 miles away, but they're all steadily increasing their prices too. Thrift stores are the only place left, and they're way more miss than hit these days.

[Anonymous No.2152163]

>>2151758
>Game Cube is the next hot thing to price inflate

That already happened like two years ago. I'm just glad I've owned every Gamecube game I've wanted to play years now.

[Anonymous No.2152167]

Is there a practical advantage to collecting rather than buying a flash cart and flashing downloaded roms on it?

I'm a legit newfag to /vr/, so this is a legit question. With the flash cart, you're not emulating, right? So the gameplay would be the same.

[Anonymous No.2152168]

>>2151593
That hairline... that pussy hair glued to his face...

[Anonymous No.2152173]

>>2152163
Its a good thing because not only is the GC library small, a ton of the good games on it got released multi-plat on the PS2 and are way cheaper.

The GC exclusive stuff are kind of expensive, but also kinda sucks.

[Anonymous No.2152356]

>>2152173
I agree

[Anonymous No.2152401]

>>2151751
They have brain problems.

[Anonymous No.2152405]

>>2151546
If you are ever in Tokyo I suggest you visit Super Potato.

[Anonymous No.2152417]

I only collect games that I really enjoy, so I can usually afford them if they're expensive. Prioritizing is the key, anons.

[Anonymous No.2152445]

>>2151593
>Pete Dor
I fucking always hated this guy even when I was subbed to him. I finally figured out why when I saw a video of him buying games on ebay and paying retarded amounts like it's just nothing to him and he has this smug attitude. He's part of the inflation problem.

[Anonymous No.2152559]

>>2152417
I priroitize, that's why I got games like Panzer Dragoon Saga or Cadash before they got too crazy but there are still others I'd like which I couldn't get to in time because I had to make a choice.