Game collecting is not what it once was

[Sarge]

Oh, it's going to happen. We all know it.

In all seriousness, I have a few of the Atelier games, and they seem to have kept sliding towards more feminine appeal. I don't know that they're anything terrible compared to the Idea Factory or Nippon Ichi stuff, though, just not really for me anymore. Atelier Iris rocked.

(I own both Ar Tonelico games. I know, I know. That's when I was obsessed with snagging every RPG on PS2 before I just kinda tanked out. They're even worse now, it seems.)

[Nintendork666]

I'm thankful that I managed to procure what I did when I did because things just seem ridiculous now. It feels really good to let go of titles which I know I'll never play in order to grab some quick change for whatever. So I have no qualms about the surging prices.

With the advance of digital distribution, my colleftion feels more than complete now aside from all the new Nintendo games I'm looking forward to.

[Blu]

Not to bump this mundane thread, but I did it rather than creating a new one, sparing the forum much assured moaning and groaning.

I might be looking at random-ass times on Fleabay, but some really nice lots are going for astronomically higher costs. I watched as a lot of N64 stuff went from a reasonable $150-200 bid to a holy shit this got out of hand quickly $400+ end price. I mean I'm not too knowledgeable about N64 stuffs, but looks like if there's still deals to be had, I might need to vary my time though.

This was a good snag for whoever got it: http://www.ebay.com/itm/nintendo-64-lot ... 7675.l2557

Here's one that I watched to the end, and remotely thought about jumping in before it got nuts: http://www.ebay.com/itm/NINTENDO-64-CON ... 7675.l2557

If you followed the Dreamcast thread in the Sega subforum, we've gone back and forth on the steady increase in price (TL,DR; supply and demand) and are not surprised by the price increases, but as to how suddenly it's all happened.

What are some of you all's strategy if you're hunting on eBay? I tend to look for low Buy-it-now prices from newly listed items, as watching items doesn't tend to work out for me much nowadays. I will say that I do look in the middle of the day though while everyone is at work at least.

[Westane]

Yeah, I feel really strange about my collection...

I'm not collecting in the sense that I ever feel my software collection will be worth much aside from a few treasures I managed to come upon, but mostly so I can pass on the experiences I grew up with to my kids. That's why I really have zero issue with reproduction carts, even for some particularly rare or valuable commercial games, though I do try to avoid it. Once a game hits triple digits is when I pursue other means. I know that upsets people, and I'm okay with that. I want to be able to browse a shelf full of games, look at box art, read the back of the case, and slap a cartridge into some plastic. I want my kids to know that, too, and emulation and digital games will be able to recreate that. This collection is for me and my family, not for the eBays...

All that said, I'm making a conscience effort to have set parameters for each console I'm collecting for, so there's an "end" to each collection. I had a list of 55 NES games I wanted on the shelf, I have them, I'm done with buying NES carts. On to Genesis. Once I'm done I'll probably cap each system off with a Flash Cart, just to catch everything else.

[Tanooki]

At this point the only strategy left I think worth it, have the time to monitor whatever section (system) a game if for you're after, search it, then refresh it like every 30sec or minute for the newly entered stuff and see if a crappily placed fair bin (not reseller bin) price is on it and snap it up. That or you can look for stupid misspellings, stuff in wrong areas, or things where you have say like Indiana Jones SNES (or) Indiana Jones Super Nintendo, one will show up in a normal search, the other not so much at times. You find the quirky search, the bad spellings, or the hot bin. It's stupid rare for much of anything individually to slide by anymore by expiring.

Your other option, watch all system bundles, hope someone has poorer imagery and a gem is in a stack of turds and commons that goes unnoticed and score a deal.

There's just too much predatory crap on there to ever get your hopes up anymore of having a fair break, luck is about it anymore.


Westane, tip of the hat to you. I wish everyone thought like you did to cripple these punks racking up the prices on the games. If people would just set a reasonable cap before doing it themselves (kazoo writer and board) or finding someone who will for them with a $100+ value game it would punch these scalpers in the nuts for their antics. It's a good tactic to have a set 'end game' for a system so you can get a fair spread of what there is to offer and really how many games can one really focus on anyway over time with life (and kids) eating up time? I've got a top20 of games for anything post SNES, and then NES/SNES they're like around 70~. I've skimmed off a lot, but I sadly will admit I've kept some high dollar stuff that's kind of questionable but I don't want to feed some scalper to re-buy something I end up regretting.

[dsheinem]

There's just too much predatory crap on there to ever get your hopes up anymore of having a fair break, luck is about it anymore.


Westane, tip of the hat to you. I wish everyone thought like you did to cripple these punks racking up the prices on the games.

keyboard smash.gif (260.84 KiB) Viewed 849 times

[wclem]

HAHA...... Awesome, simply awesome!

[Westane]

I understand that GIF comes at my expense, but I literally can't stop staring at it and laughing my ass off!

[dsheinem]

I understand that GIF comes at my expense, but I literally can't stop staring at it and laughing my ass off!

no, it is directed at the drivel of Tanooki

[Tanooki]

I had to look since the mention of the image was brought up. Doucheinem has had it out for me for months now showing the true troll he is and probably in part explains why someone that unstable isn't a mod anymore. You're not being poked at, it just happens we both agree enough it looked that way. Had I never posted, that image would have never shown up because he likes to make things personal and is too goddamn ignorant to remember I have him on message block so I can't see anything he writes unless I choose to view it so he's just bitching into the wind for his own petty amusement.