Classic games economics and ethics

[Gunstar Green]

Well, if you see it as an investment, then it's not a bad move. I've got some dupes, and I will sell them one of these days. Once I get off my lazy butt.

I think anyone doing it as an investment is playing with fire.

That said he did say he got them in bulk buys and if you're someone who buys up entire collections to pick what you want and sell off the rest (which is a great way to make money while getting what you want if you're patient enough to part out the rest of the collection to make a profit) you'll end up with situations like this since lots of people have Holy Diver in their collections.

[Sarge]

Oh, I don't disagree. You can get burned fast. It's a ridiculously speculative market. I think about the reaction when that guy found a bunch of sealed Stadium Events carts from the folks that already owned copies.

I've been tempted to do some bulk buys, it does seem like an excellent way to get some good titles and still not break the bank, assuming you've got the patience for reselling it all.

[Betagam7]

Well, if you see it as an investment, then it's not a bad move. I've got some dupes, and I will sell them one of these days. Once I get off my lazy butt.

He doesn't seem to be indicating it is though, rather he just seems to enjoy having multiple copies of a hard to find game on his shelf (if you planned to resell would your really keep it out on display where it could become tarnished?) This seems like little more than the kind unnecessary hoarding that often seems to develop among collectors once they've gone beyond their initial nostalgia kick.

He doesn't need 3 copies. This is figuratively just wallpaper at this point and I agree with Gunstar, its bordering on a sickness that a lot of us (myself included) are probably hovering on the fringes of.

I've often bothered myself with introspection as to why I feel the need to have so many games or why physical copies mean more to me than emulation. I think it really does go back to being a kid and having little money to afford new games and then entering adulthood, having disposable income and suddenly being like "Bwahaha, now I can get all the games I never could before, screw you impoverished childhood".

Then the price-hike came along and was all "haha, back to square one for you kiddo!"

I should probably see a psychiatrist. I could fund it by selling my collection.

[Sarge]

I've often bothered myself with introspection as to why I feel the need to have so many games or why physical copies mean more to me than emulation. I think it really does go back to being a kid and having little money to afford new games and then entering adulthood, having disposable income and suddenly being like "Bwahaha, now I can get all the games I never could before, screw you impoverished childhood".

Pretty sure you just described my childhood, too. It might explain a lot. Games were hard to get. One of the most special Christmas gifts I got one year was a copy of Dragon Warrior IV. Mom paid $40 for it back in the day, which for them was a huge sum of money. She never told Dad how much she paid for it, she took it out of her art teaching money.

When I got money as a college student (scholarships and stipend), I went pretty bonkers picking up stuff. I still keep my eyes peeled, but my NES/SNES collecting days are probably over at this point, unless I come into millions of dollars. Then I'll go for that complete collection!

[Gunstar Green]

Well, if you see it as an investment, then it's not a bad move. I've got some dupes, and I will sell them one of these days. Once I get off my lazy butt.

He doesn't seem to be indicating it is though, rather he just seems to enjoy having multiple copies of a hard to find game on his shelf (if you planned to resell would your really keep it out on display where it could become tarnished?) This seems like little more than the kind unnecessary hoarding that often seems to develop among collectors once they've gone beyond their initial nostalgia kick.

He doesn't need 3 copies. This is figuratively just wallpaper at this point and I agree with Gunstar, its bordering on a sickness that a lot of us (myself included) are probably hovering on the fringes of.

I've often bothered myself with introspection as to why I feel the need to have so many games or why physical copies mean more to me than emulation. I think it really does go back to being a kid and having little money to afford new games and then entering adulthood, having disposable income and suddenly being like "Bwahaha, now I can get all the games I never could before, screw you impoverished childhood".

Then the price-hike came along and was all "haha, back to square one for you kiddo!"

I should probably see a psychiatrist. I could fund it by selling my collection.

I took a long hard look at my collection and said, "What does this game mean to me?" If the answer was, "nothing," then I got rid of it.

I looked at it like this: if I'm never going to play this game for any reason, either novelty or serious play, then it shouldn't be around. It's not an easy thing to do so I can empathize a bit with the hording mentality.

I also extended it to "what system am I never going to hook up and are there other ways to play the games I like on it." I was never a big fan of the N64 and my favorite game for it, Starfox 64, had a better version on the 3DS so I got rid of it.

It's one of the big reasons I don't own any hardware that's too obscure because while a lot of it is really interesting it doesn't mean much to me on a personal level, though I get that a personal connection to certain hardware or games is not the reason everyone collects.

[Betagam7]

I've often bothered myself with introspection as to why I feel the need to have so many games or why physical copies mean more to me than emulation. I think it really does go back to being a kid and having little money to afford new games and then entering adulthood, having disposable income and suddenly being like "Bwahaha, now I can get all the games I never could before, screw you impoverished childhood".

Pretty sure you just described my childhood, too. It might explain a lot. Games were hard to get. One of the most special Christmas gifts I got one year was a copy of Dragon Warrior IV. Mom paid $40 for it back in the day, which for them was a huge sum of money. She never told Dad how much she paid for it, she took it out of her art teaching money.

When I got money as a college student (scholarships and stipend), I went pretty bonkers picking up stuff. I still keep my eyes peeled, but my NES/SNES collecting days are probably over at this point, unless I come into millions of dollars. Then I'll go for that complete collection!

I would bet its describing 90% of game collectors childhoods.

There are stories of sailors lost at sea who almost perished. After being rescued and returned to land they seemed to be living a normal life until, years later, someone went into their home and found they were stockpiling food in unnecessarily high amounts.

I think there is a solid comparison to be made for most hoarding.

[o.pwuaioc]

I took a long hard look at my collection and said, "What does this game mean to me?" If the answer was, "nothing," then I got rid of it.

So this! This is how I went from having well over a thousand games to just over 500, and there's less than 200 more games I would want to own.

I also found myself never playing modern systems, so out went everything past the PS2 except the GBA and Wii (wife's insistence on the latter, though I admit its 2D games are pretty good).

Everyone seems to want their own private museum. To what end, though?

[Gunstar Green]

I think it's a bit different than the lost sailor analogy. A lot of people that get a collecting bug for anything from video games to rare pennies get caught in a loop like any other addiction.

You find a new one, you feel good for a little while, that feeling goes away and you need to find another one. You start running out of new things to find so you just keep finding whatever you can to keep the high going and that's when it might cross over into hording.

Sometimes I wonder if complaining about prices is like complaining about cigarette costs going up and maybe it should be taken as a sign that it's time to cut back or stop all together.

[Betagam7]

I think it's a bit different than the lost sailor analogy. A lot of people that get a collecting bug for anything from video games to rare pennies get caught in a loop like any other addiction.

You find a new one, you feel good for a little while, that feeling goes away and you need to find another one. You start running out of new things to find so you just keep finding whatever you can to keep the high going and that's when it might cross over into hording.

Sometimes I wonder if complaining about prices is like complaining about cigarette costs going up and maybe it should be taken as a sign that it's time to cut back or stop all together.

Well, like I said, I kind of already have. I simply refuse to pay those prices and I'll invest my classic gaming itch in other less well known (or hyped) systems.

My other alternative is bootleg or repro carts...which kind of returns us to the original off-topic topic that first got this topic re-homed.

If I want to own a piece of grey plastic with a Super Nintendo label on it to play a SNES game, I'm not going to pay some wannabe millionaire on Ebay £100 for it if I can get the same thing (to my eyes) for £10 on Aliexpress.

I don't really care what the circuit-board underneath looks like and as the original developer was never getting any money out of the ebay transaction either I don't concern myself ethically about it.

[Jmustang1968]

I took a long hard look at my collection and said, "What does this game mean to me?" If the answer was, "nothing," then I got rid of it.

So this! This is how I went from having well over a thousand games to just over 500, and there's less than 200 more games I would want to own.

I also found myself never playing modern systems, so out went everything past the PS2 except the GBA and Wii (wife's insistence on the latter, though I admit its 2D games are pretty good).

Everyone seems to want their own private museum. To what end, though?

The joy of collecting, displaying, and having a library at your leisure. I have a decent sized collection, but am discriminate on what I get. I don't just get stuff for the sake of having it, almost all my games I have an interest in playing.

I think the word hoarding gets thrown around way too much. When is it hoarding and not collecting?