I've decided - I will sell my collection

[Ziggy]

Great replies, everyone! I think I really needed affirmation. I've gotta get to work now, so I only have time to respond to a few posts. But I'll respond to the less later when I get some more free time.

As long as I have access to play the games that I want through emulation or flash carts, I am perfectly content with a small curated retro collection along with the occasional modern game purchase.

Pretty much exactly what I'm looking to do. A modest collection of what I really care about, then flash carts for the rest with a small amount of emulation as well.

I think it makes perfect sense and I think you'll be much happier once you do it. After all, what are those sealead games doing for you? Do they really make you happy? I bet you have lots of games that you don't care about, not even in a collecting sense.

Well the thing that sucks about that is if I have means to play the games without the physical copies on real hardware. It's easy for the retro cartridge based consoles because I have flash carts now for most of them. I have a chipped PS1 and was thinking about getting PSIO, so I could part with PS1 games. PS2, GCN and Wii can all be copied to a HDD and played on those consoles using a HDD loader. It gets trickier with modern consoles though. I have a bunch of sealed and/or unplayed games for the Wii U and PS3, but I have no way of playing those games other than legitimate means. I bought those games because I'd like to eventually play them, I just haven't gotten round to it yet. So that's where the decision get's a lot harder.

I've been considering this myself. I had to box up my whole collection when I moved, and you know what? I haven't taken the time to unbox most of it. I'm entering a stage of my life when I'm more interested in saving up a down payment to own a home rather than owning a bunch of video games that I don't play anymore.

Most of my NES and Genesis collection has been packed away for a few years now, and I've made do with mostly using flash carts for those systems. Hasn't bothered me in the slightest! And yeah... Huge video game collection or my own house, I'll pick the later every time.

Here's a great video about a toy collector explaining how he's changed his views on collecting. I think it may help you feel even better about your decision and on how to decide what to keep and not keep. Youtube Link

Thanks for the link. I'll be sure to check that video out as soon as I get the chance. Sounds interesting!

Also thanks for posting, I'm always trying to keep my own collecting in check, making sure I'm balancing it with my other priorities. One day I'm sure I'll come to some kind of inflection point where I want to do away with a large portion of it. In the meantime, I've been really trying to focus on enjoying what I have, sharing it with friends and my kids, and getting more value out my time with it while I still have it.

You know, it's funny. 10 years ago I would have largely ignored a thread like this. It's amazing that as you go through life you're constantly finding that things that use to be so important to you aren't anymore. So this is the kind of thread that I use to ignore 10 years ago, but it's the kind of thread that I'm interested in today. It's really encouraging to hear that every one else in my age group also came to this decision. It really helps to reinforce my feelings that I'm not making a sacrifice, rather, this is a natural way to feel at my age.

This has been me since January. Since then, I've made around $1000 worth of trades for games I wanted but hadn't bought and (once this one pending sale goes through and gets finalized) have made close to $5000 selling games. Granted, about $700 of that went to flash carts and the other $4000 went to paying off credit card debt, but still, it feels good to have paid down a considerable chunk of my debt and actually INCREASED my gameplay options thanks to the flash carts.

This is very encouraging to hear! I'm actually about to have all of my credit card debt paid off, which will be the first time I'm without credit card debt since I was 18 years old!

I don't know how large your collection is, but there are some SNES/Genesis/Dreamcast/NGC/and more games i would like to buy. If you are willing to part with them maybe I can buy them, but not sure if the games you have are the same games I want. If you been hoarding games since 2001, I am guessing many.

But if they are sealed that means you are looking for premium price and I am not into "collecting", I am more into buying used games to play them.

Most of my sealed games are from either the current or last generation. So Wii, Wii U, Switch, PS3, PS4, 3DS. I don't think I have any sealed retro. I don't know how many weeks or months I am from officially opening up shop. And again, I'm not selling everything. But if you or anyone wants a sneak peak just take a look at my Backloggery (link in sig). When I do get everything in order, the Racketboy forums will definitely get first dibs.

[Ziggy]

You've got this man! You're much more into mods, emu, ODEs, & flashcarts than the average retro collector. Your gaming options will still be there.

Yeah, I'll mostly rely on ODEs and flashcarts. It's funny though. I've been using a HDD loader with my PS2 phat for the longest time now. I pretty much never use the optical drive. Even all the PS2 games that I own, if I want to play one I rip it on the PC and copy it to the HDD first. So after a while you start to wonder what the point of keeping the physical disc around for.

I started this habit with optical discs simply to keep the wear and tear off the hardware, but I've even noticed myself getting lazy when it comes to carts. If I already have a flash cart in my console, I might load a game on it instead of going over to my shelf and switching carts. Super lazy. But again, I start to wonder why I bother keeping the carts around if I'm using the flash cart anyway.

Emulation I like, but I don't like to use unless I have to. I prefer using real hardware when possible. Emulating something like the SNES I wouldn't be happy about, but emulating some console that I have little experience with I don't mind doing at all. For me that would be something like the TurboGrafx or GameBoy Advance.

When I sold off much of mine, I made a cutoff. After exhausting forums/community, any item under $5 or so I was okay selling in a bundle/lot on Ebay. In lots I'd include one $15-$20 game or so to make them more attractive. That worked out well. Clear out some common titles, make some cash, but not invest too much time on pennies. It takes a long time to price up, post, sale, & package. I was personally okay getting 85-90٪ of the possible collection market value if it took my half the time.

That's a good tip, thanks for posting that. I'm not too sure how I'm going to go about it yet, but I was considering what to do with all the $5 games.

If you're really looking at moving, take state income tax into consideration. Moving from NY to a state with no income tax (federal is US wide of course) will be an automatic 5-6% raise there. My eyes were opened to this when working for a national company. Folks were always trying to transfer to states with: no state income tax, affordable housing, in check property taxes, & low cost of living. I'm bias of course as a native here , but Texas was always a target. 4 of 4 on that list. I moved back

Moving out of state is something that I've been thinking more and more about, but I'm not ready mentally yet. Being born and raised on LI, and all my friends and family living here, makes it hard to leave. But the biggest thing that is keeping me from doing it is doing it alone. Not just the moving part, but living some where with no one to lean on. I am mostly sick of LI at this point. The people suck, the traffic sucks, the cost of living sucks. I was researching homes in NC because I have a good friend that relocated down there. It would make the transition easier.

I was actually briefly looking at some homes in Texas on Zillow, mostly because I've heard this and that about the cost of living there. But from looking at the homes, it seems like a town is either really nice to live in or a complete shit hole with not a lot in between. It's a big state, so unless you know which areas are desirable or not it's kinda hard to gauge. It's easy for me to search homes on LI because I was born here and know off hand which towns are good or bad, but I can't really do that in any other state.

But anyway, I'm really not opposed to moving off LI at this point. I guess I just don't have enough courage yet.

Good on ya!
I've slowly been collecting loose carts of games I want to play again, but every time I find a pile of good games that I won't play, I purge them. This was decided long ago as dusty boxes became a problem. Of course I have regrets on dumped games and hardware, but nothing my care-free no responsibilities leave-at-any-time goal would allow me to dwell on.

So for the most part, I'm only going to be selling games right now. I will be keeping hardware, including duplicate consoles. The exceptions will be things that I have to admit I just really don't care about.

I recently bought a PAL Gamecube for the sole purpose of using the GameBoy Player with RGB on my PVM. But do I really need that? I don't think so. I spent a lot of money earlier this year getting a PC Engine and a handful of cheap games, with the intent of getting a Super SD System 3, with the sole purpose so I could play Castlevania Dracula X on "real" hardware. But I own 3 digital copies (PSP, Wii VC, PS4) of this game, so I think I'll be alright. And I have two Atari 2600 (one 4-switcher wood grain and one Darth Vader) with a dozen or so games that I NEVER play and have never had any interest in playing. No reason at all to keep all that, I don't even remember that I own a 2600 most of the time.

[goatlll]

I was actually briefly looking at some homes in Texas on Zillow, mostly because I've heard this and that about the cost of living there. But from looking at the homes, it seems like a town is either really nice to live in or a complete shit hole with not a lot in between. It's a big state, so unless you know which areas are desirable or not it's kinda hard to gauge. It's easy for me to search homes on LI because I was born here and know off hand which towns are good or bad, but I can't really do that in any other state.

But anyway, I'm really not opposed to moving off LI at this point. I guess I just don't have enough courage yet.

I can tell you the good thing about the Dallas area is you have a few options. If you want to live in the city you don't really need to flat out buy a house. Renting is a very viable option, and one that can free you from having to buy and maybe one day sell a home. The cost of renting is not that bad either, not for the amount of options a city like that gives. And if a house is a must, you still have Sugarland, Waco, Irving, For Worth, all those satellite cities that are just a short drive away. Richardson is also a nice middle ground. But all of that really doesn't matter if you are not ready to move yet, just something to keep in mind.

I recently bought a PAL Gamecube for the sole purpose of using the GameBoy Player with RGB on my PVM. But do I really need that? I don't think so. I spent a lot of money earlier this year getting a PC Engine and a handful of cheap games, with the intent of getting a Super SD System 3, with the sole purpose so I could play Castlevania Dracula X on "real" hardware. But I own 3 digital copies (PSP, Wii VC, PS4) of this game, so I think I'll be alright. And I have two Atari 2600 (one 4-switcher wood grain and one Darth Vader) with a dozen or so games that I NEVER play and have never had any interest in playing. No reason at all to keep all that, I don't even remember that I own a 2600 most of the time.

Man, earlier this month I bought a pallet of PVMs. Who the hell needs 10? I mean yeah it was cheap but still. I ended up giving almost all of them away, and now I have a few in my basement that was already to full to being with. It can get a bit on the silly side. I had to sell pretty much my entire collection a few years ago, and I have been in overboard mode buying things back ever since. So I am in the same boat as you, I am thinking of selling off quite a bit. I wouldn't even miss most of it because I don't even know everything I have. I was looking for something just yesterday and found a sealed copy of Um Jammer Lammy, a copy of Vanguard Bandits, and a copy of Silhouette Mirage. I didn't know I had any of these, I thought I sold them forever ago. I bought another copy of Lammy not to long ago because I didn't know I had it. Flash carts and the like for me from now on.

[prfsnl_gmr]

Uh...so...congrats, Ziggy! Should I go ahead and PM my want list to you?

[pook99]

I get it, I sold my collection eons ago and thanks to the magic of emulation I never miss any of it. When I did have a huge collection I wound up playing everything on emulation anyway since it was so much easier to click a rom file than have 9 systems hooked up and manually having to find a game I wanted to play. My only regret is I sold them before the pricing bubble blew up, I definitely regret the amount of money I could have made but never actually miss the physical objects, also no matter what any l33t youtube gamer says, emulation is the exact same thing as the real deal, oftentimes better, with very few exceptions.

I also get the long Island thing, I moved off of long island 3 years ago, I'm living in upstate, NY, in a nice house with 4 acres of property and my property taxes are about 4k a year. LI is way too expensive and I don't miss the traffic at all...I do miss the pizza though, there is absolutely no pizza in the world like LI pizza. I don't know what your living situation is but upstate NY is better in every way and I am still close enough to visit my friends and family pretty often.

[nightrnr]

Well, you guys are in a better place than me right now. My insane collection is just part of me.

It is weird that I pursue so many digital options but still cling to having a big physical library.
I like to have the cake and eat it too, so to speak.
My main issue is having so many half-finished projects. I usually lose focus and end up playing just the few things that I managed to load on a card, content with the possibility of more.
Anyways, everything has a cost, and I think you are generally more free without having so much (literal baggage) to worry about.

Less really is more; I'm just not ready for that yet (or ever?). I wish you luck with this, and will probably buy some odds and ends off you whenever you are ready to list it all (Genesis, PS1, and random portable games are likely most of my wants).

Currently (or when I can) playing a mix of physical and digital games (mainly on genuine hardware). Like you, I will always have an actual hardware option, regardless of what happens to the main collection.

[Ziggy]

I was thinking about my collection last night and I forgot there's just so many easy things to get rid of. Like The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, I own this game on the Gamecube, Wii and the HD remaster on the Wii U and I haven't played any of them LOL. I can get rid of two versions and not sweat it at all. I have GTA V on PS3 and PS4 and haven't played either version yet. I have a sealed Switch game that I forgot I owned when I purchased it on Steam because it was on sale LOL (I think it's a Wonder Boy game). I have A Boy and His Blob on Wii but I never played it, and I also own it on GOG. I have a sealed copy of Super Mario All Stars for the Wii that I will never play over the SNES version, so I'm not sure why I even bought it in the first place! That's just off the top of my head, I think I have many more examples like this!

I did something last night that I never would have done in the past. I canceled my pre-order for a physical Nintendo Switch game on Amazon and pre-ordered it on GOG. I've always been a huge fan of physical over digital (hence my large collection) mostly because I love to look at artwork, manuals, et cetera. But I am also always concerned with how I will be playing these games 10, 20, 30 years from now. If I have physical games for my Nintendo Switch, and my Switch breaks 10 or 20 years from now, I can pick up a replacement console on the used market and play the games I own without any concern. That's not always the case with digital purchases. Even something like PS3 or PS4, where you can get a new console and download your digital purchases through your account. But what if you don't have access to that service 20 years from now?

So for right now, GOG is the only digital purchase that I feel 100% safe going with. With no DRM, I can install my games at any time without any concern outside of computer hardware compatibility. With that said, I may convert some of my physical collection to digital if it's available on GOG.

If you want to live in the city you don't really need to flat out buy a house. Renting is a very viable option, and one that can free you from having to buy and maybe one day sell a home. The cost of renting is not that bad either, not for the amount of options a city like that gives.

Right now I'm pretty opposed to renting as well as living in a city. I'm looking to do the opposite pretty much LOL. I wouldn't want to be completely in the middle of no where (not that I would mind it too much) but I want a house with a fair amount of property and not have neighbors on top of me. Most homes on LI, you can stand at your front door and see 5-7 other houses without even turning your head! Ideally, I would like to be able to be just about anywhere in my backyard and not be able to see any neighbors.

Man, earlier this month I bought a pallet of PVMs. Who the hell needs 10? I mean yeah it was cheap but still. I ended up giving almost all of them away, and now I have a few in my basement that was already to full to being with. It can get a bit on the silly side.

Damn, I would have loved to have gotten one of those PVMs! I bought my first PVM earlier this year, and WOW! I have a bunch of consumer CRTs, but I would want to get a backup PVM and part with a lot of the consumer TVs. But yes, it does get silly: http://racketboy.com/forum/viewtopic.ph ... 0#p1144142

Uh...so...congrats, Ziggy! Should I go ahead and PM my want list to you?

The Racketboy forum is definitely going to get first dibs!

My only regret is I sold them before the pricing bubble blew up, I definitely regret the amount of money I could have made

Most of my collection was acquired before the prices really blew up. The prices might go up still for some of the more rare items, but I'm also afraid the bubble will burst and I would miss my window.

also no matter what any l33t youtube gamer says, emulation is the exact same thing as the real deal, oftentimes better, with very few exceptions.

Well yeah, emulation can often times be better. But I'm a huge enthusiast of real hardware. Maybe another 10 or 20 years I'll post a similar thread about hardware instead of software. But for now, I'll be keeping most of my hardware.

I also get the long Island thing, I moved off of long island 3 years ago, I'm living in upstate, NY, in a nice house with 4 acres of property and my property taxes are about 4k a year. LI is way too expensive and I don't miss the traffic at all...I do miss the pizza though, there is absolutely no pizza in the world like LI pizza. I don't know what your living situation is but upstate NY is better in every way and I am still close enough to visit my friends and family pretty often.

I was looking at places on Zillow in upstate NY. Definitely a lot of nice houses and properties, and definitely a lot cheaper than LI. And being in decent driving distance to "back home" would be nice. Except for anything just outside the city, that's still expensive. The pizza thing I get. I grew up on LI, I fucking love pizza. But I've also reached a point / epiphany in my life regarding food too. I love pizza, but I'm trying not to eat it all the time.

My insane collection is just part of me.

This is how I felt about my collection for so long. I've heard "priorities change" before, but that always seemed like something that I HOPED would never happen to me. But when it does, it's not a bad thing. It actually feels good to finally be OK with it.

Of course, if I win the lotto I'll be keeping my entire collection.

Less really is more; I'm just not ready for that yet (or ever?). I wish you luck with this, and will probably buy some odds and ends off you whenever you are ready to list it all (Genesis, PS1, and random portable games are likely most of my wants).

Thanks. Like I said, RB will definitely have first dibs once I'm ready to pull the trigger on this. I will definitely have a lot of Genesis and PS1 games. As for portable, I will have some GB/C/A for sale. Maybe some DS.

It's funny you mention Genesis and PS1. Just a few months ago I went nutty and decided I needed to beef up my Genesis and PS1 collection.

[pook99]

[

Moving out of state is something that I've been thinking more and more about, but I'm not ready mentally yet. Being born and raised on LI, and all my friends and family living here, makes it hard to leave. But the biggest thing that is keeping me from doing it is doing it alone. Not just the moving part, but living some where with no one to lean on. I am mostly sick of LI at this point. The people suck, the traffic sucks, the cost of living sucks. I was researching homes in NC because I have a good friend that relocated down there. It would make the transition easier.

I was actually briefly looking at some homes in Texas on Zillow, mostly because I've heard this and that about the cost of living there. But from looking at the homes, it seems like a town is either really nice to live in or a complete shit hole with not a lot in between. It's a big state, so unless you know which areas are desirable or not it's kinda hard to gauge. It's easy for me to search homes on LI because I was born here and know off hand which towns are good or bad, but I can't really do that in any other state.

But anyway, I'm really not opposed to moving off LI at this point. I guess I just don't have enough courage yet. e.

I missed this the first time I read through the thread.

I agree with literally everything you said here, moving up here was terrifying to me. I moved up here when I was 36, having barely even traveled to other places in my life. I moved up here for a job opportunity...a job which I got fired from earlier this week so now I don't know what the fuck I'm doing.

But even with that said, I still don't regret the move up here. There is no traffic, ever, there is not even a rush hour. The cost of living is much cheaper, the people here are so nice. I've had the same friends my entire life and I was thinking, how am I going to make new friends at my age? But, I did, I met so many great people here and have a very big friend group, and an even more active social life now than I did when I lived on LI. People up here are just nicer, the atmosphere up here is more relaxed, and the quality of life is even better.

Even with me being technically unemployed right now, I still am not going to look to move back unless absolutely necessary because it is so much nicer up here, and I have faith in myself and my ability to move forward from this pretty huge setback that life just threw at me.

The point is don't let fear hold you back, the unkown is always scary, its easy to see all the possible bad things that can happen rather than all the new exciting opportunities that await you. If fear is the only thing thats preventing you from leaving than just yolo and go for it, if you are unhappy there I doubt you will regret it. If you do ever move upstate to the Albany/Saratoga area let me know, we can hang and play retro games together and I can introduce you to a really nice group of people.

[goatlll]

Right now I'm pretty opposed to renting as well as living in a city. I'm looking to do the opposite pretty much LOL. I wouldn't want to be completely in the middle of no where (not that I would mind it too much) but I want a house with a fair amount of property and not have neighbors on top of me. Most homes on LI, you can stand at your front door and see 5-7 other houses without even turning your head! Ideally, I would like to be able to be just about anywhere in my backyard and not be able to see any neighbors.

I can understand that. Those outlying cities are pretty good for that. Waco in particular has some insanely large houses for not too much money, that would get you space without putting you out in the middle of nowhere. It's roughly 50 minutes from downtown Dallas, which is great for jobs. Mind you, I don't live in Texas, but I have done enough traveling in this part of the country to know the hot spots. Oklahoma is not a bad option either but the weather sucks. Tennessee is..ok. Travel sucks and crime can be a bit ridiculous. I live in Arkansas now, and everything is dirt, dirt cheap but there is not a lot of variety. My current home is 2000 square feet with an additional 900 square foot basement. But man entertainment options are limited, and jobs don't pay a ton overall. Travel is easy and everything is very cheap. Still, I am looking into moving to Texas or Washington, so I have been looking into those areas.

Damn, I would have loved to have gotten one of those PVMs! I bought my first PVM earlier this year, and WOW! I have a bunch of consumer CRTs, but I would want to get a backup PVM and part with a lot of the consumer TVs. But yes, it does get silly: http://racketboy.com/forum/viewtopic.ph ... 0#p1144142

Yeah at this point I can pick a few up every month, but there is no demand here. There are also the LCD studio monitors that I run across all the time, like the Panasonic WV. I see those aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall the time, and they are decent enough for PS2 up level systems. I am able to play IIDX on one I have, and that has been next to impossible on most hi def sets. State auctions and redistribution centers are your friends for these sort of things. That pallet I got was 5 bucks. They end up taking so many PVMS to the recycling centers I wish I could buy them just to flip them.

[Dikdikvandik]

I sold off most of my Dreamcast games, and now I'm getting rid of anything that isn't VGA compatible, I'm selling off all my Gamecube stuff, I sold off all my US PS2 games, Sold off most of my PSP Collecting and gifting the rest. In return I'm getting an Original XBOX and mostly Switch games.

I don't want to be a John Hancock Hourder or Metal Jesus, I want to concentrate on the systems I enjoy Japanese Playstation, Saturn, XBOX, Super Famicom and NES/Famicom.

SO that's my selling off stuff deal.