On Collecting Gaming Related Items

[Forlorn Drifter]

When it comes to collecting gaming memorabilia, what do you go for? What do you prefer? Special editions of games with all the little extras? Posters, figures, and statues? T-shirts? Spit from the developers?

I'm also wondering why you collect the things you do. Just to have something to look at? Or any other specific reason?

As much as I love them, I regret buying any special edition games. I currently own the special editions of Skyrim (which is for sale on Amazon, btw) and Gears of War 3, neither of which I feel were worth what I payed for them. Todays special editions don't hold up nearly as well as older special editions, from last generation. However, I do like figures, posters, statuettes, and on the rare occasion a sound track. As of current, I don't have room for posters, so I have not collected any. I have my eye on some figures and statues, but most are too costly or I just haven't bought yet. With sound tracks, I'm always happy. I'm currently looking for the vinyl versions of both the Red Dead Redemption and Bioshock soundtrack. (I admittedly have sold Bioshock, due to me losing interest pretty late into the game. I dreaded the Sander Cohen area.)

I'm interested in some of the great Zelda statues out there in the world, but man are they expensive.

[flojocabron]

merchandizing man, its where the moneys at.

Being limited makes it more desirable.

yeah there lots of good/awesome stuff out there.

Competition is fierce with all of those companies to get your $$$.

I try to find what ever is cheap enough. If I myself had more money I would seriously get those mondo huge limited edtion stuffs.

Sometimes being limited edition doesnt mean much, but if its a well known, popular franchise. Obviously expect to pay more especially in the secondary market.

I'm happy with whatever I can get.

[Forlorn Drifter]

^Nowadays the "Limited" editions are sold so widely that most of them can be bought for around $30 down the road. Others aren't well recieved or niche, like Deathsmiles, and end with cheap, sealed copies pretty widely spread.

On occasion, we do have one that is actually limited nowadays, like Bioshock. But its getting rare nowadays.

[Menegrothx]

I have crazy amounts of game music on my external hard drive but the only soundtrack I own is the one for Rayman Origins which came with the collector's edition. Ironically enough, I really disliked the soundtrack on that game I only download the songs I personally like when it comes to game music so buying a CD with the whole soundtrack would feel like a waste in most cases. There are some games where I like almost the whole soundtrack or it just has grown on me over the years (like Warcraft 3 and World of Warcraft), but when I play your average single player game (play through the story mode once and then forget about the whole game), I usually download a song or two out of the whole soundtrack, if that.

Too bad old game music doesnt really get released on CDs the same way many modern game soundtracks do. Catchy 8 and 16 bit tunes >>>>> orchestrated wanna be movie music.

I guess in my case it's also a preference in collecting habbits. Some people feel like collecting soundtracks, plushies and such makes their collection more complete just as much as collecting actual games. I think anything that isn't an actual game is worthless, I'd rather buy more games with the money. I personally dont really like to buy anything loose. And by that mean that if a collector's edition comes with a separate figure or art book that does not fit inside the game's package, it will feel out of place. I dont want random junk lying around on my shelves. I dont mind things like that as long as they are a part of game's packaging. I'll make an expection if it's something over the top awesome like the Resident Evil 4 chainsaw controller

[bo0naka]

I don't typically go for the special edition games. I think I currently have 2 in my library: Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, because the day I went to buy the game, Best Buy mistakenly priced the regular and special ed's at $60...so I went for the special edition , and the other is Final Fantasy XII.

I didn't expect to get XII either, I bought it off of Gamestop recently in their buy 2 get 1 free deals for like $6 and they sent me the collector's edition. The sad thing is that unsurprisingly I got a generic case with the 2 discs in the sleeves...so now I'm trying to find the tin case and manuals because it's driving me batty.

I think the only limited item I specifically purchased because I knew it would eventually be rare was a Soul Reaver figure that was being released to GameStop's when I was working there between 2002-2004. IIRC, they only made between 3000-5000 of them, so I picked one up.

[BurningDoom]

I'll buy comic tie-ins sometimes. Because they're cheap and if they suck I'm not all that disappointed, and if they're good then great!

I also buy books on the history of gaming like this bad boy that I recommend to all classic gamers, it really is a MUST READ:

[MrPopo]

These days the stuff I collect is stuff that you can't easily get otherwise. Most of it I get from the Child's Play Charity Auction, as there tends to be a lot of unique stuff there.

[Gunstar Green]

I'll buy comic tie-ins sometimes. Because they're cheap and if they suck I'm not all that disappointed, and if they're good then great!

I also buy books on the history of gaming like this bad boy that I recommend to all classic gamers, it really is a MUST READ:

Thanks for the recommendation that looks really nice. Most attempted "history of video games" stuff falls flat but the preview was more than enough to spark my interest.

[Forlorn Drifter]

I'll agree with the comic tie ins, I've been looking at the Portal 2 one, and will probably end up getting the Mass Effect ones at some point.

And papercrafts from games... I'm going to find the ones from Portal so you can make some Glados cameras. Its kewl.

[Erik_Twice]

We should have dicussed this earlier!

Right now I don't own any merchandaising or memorabillia, unless you consider soundtracks to fall into this camp, which may be pretty right so it's fine by me. I listen to music while I go to the gym or when I study so soundtracks for me have a lot of value and give them a lot of use. They are really expensive, though, and my preferences weren't cheap in the first place!

Other than that, I would really like to have some books regarding gaming history or criticism, but most of them look shallow and uninteresting, like those big format books with lots of pictures that you never really care about. There are a few that have gotten my attention and that I may check out, like Dungeons & Designers, which I didn't particularly care about until I read the author's column in rpg.net and say, Racing the Beam. However what I would kill for is a good Atari book and a good Sega book. The later is unlikely but I have been told there are some new books on the former that are very insightful.

Figurines are cool but I don't really think they look good on a shelf. There's a beauty in rows of books that is tained when an object is placed in front and I took down my lego figurines after a while. Were I to get some, I would put them behind a glass and present them more profesionally.

Posters don't fit in my room, but there are a couple covers that would look great on the wall. I would love to get Space Harrier's poster, and it's a shame than the phenomenal cover for Monkey Island 2 was lost when the new version was made. Wasteland is also great but getting the picture at good enough quality is probably impossible. I would rather not have the lettering on the artwork unless it was part of the original design, though.

There are two plushies I would love to have. One is the Taiko version pictured in my avatar, which I still haven't found (If you know, please tell) and the other would be a pokemon, which would be Jumpluff if it wasn't extremely hard to find.

Sorry for the huge post