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I am just wondering how many folks have had their collecting create negative effects on their personal/professional lives. I have collected on and off for many years. I picked it up again about a year ago after taking about five years away from it. I was in a better financial position to start again, I felt like I missed out on a lot in my time away from the hobby, and frankly I was bored and needed a hobby. I got pretty obsessive and compulsive about it.
My fiancé decided it was too much to deal with and felt I spent more time and money on buying games than I did on her so she left earlier this week without even wanting to discuss it. She felt like I couldn't stop buying crap even if I tried. Maybe she was right. That was a wake up call for me. I am now boxing everything up and in the process of getting rid most of the stuff that isn't tied to my childhood. This has been pretty daunting. I hadn't realized how much stuff I really had. Half of my living room is littered in large boxes. It's going to take forever to sell this stuff off. I have well over 1,000 games and maybe 40 or so systems. I'm pretty disappointed in myself for letting things get so out of control. I bought a lot of stuff just to have it knowing I'd never play it. I simply wanted to get my collection to grow as large as possible.
It seems like the culture of game collecting pretty much embraces a hoarders mentality. Does anyone out there actually feel like mass collecting is a bad thing? Anybody got any experiences to share about overcoming the negative effects such heavy collecting has created for them? I can't be alone here.

I've discussed this in many threads on many forums. Just like everything in life, collecting needs to be done with moderation. If you don't have the self-control to keep yourself from digging a hole (financially and emotionally) for you and your loved ones, then maybe you shouldn't collect.
Same can be said about any hobby. I know a man who had been married nearly 20 years that had his wife leave him because he spent too much time working on old cars. He would blow all of their money on rebuilding them, and would spend almost every day in his garage.
I personally believe you should do whatever makes you happy in life. If collecting and playing old gaming systems is something that you enjoy, there shouldn't be anything taboo about it. If cars or sports are your thing, then go for it. However, you should never let any of your hobbies completely take over your life. Hobbies need to stay hobbies.

EDIT:
On a side-note. I did have a similar problem when I was younger. I kept all my action figures, video games, and anything Godzilla that I could find. This wasn't a big issues, until I moved in with my dad. I went from having two rooms to myself, to being crammed in a small office which became my bedroom. This caused a lot of tension between us, as he thought it was all junk that I needed to get rid of. I had just enough room for a bed, chair and small computer desk. I had stacks of TVs, old computers, and consoles. One wall was completely covered in video games and imported Godzilla VHS tapes and memorabilia. After losing most of my stuff in a fire, and then the rest of it in Katrina, my mind-set changed a lot. I had a bitterness for physical media and collectibles, and every time I felt like I wanted to collect again, I just couldn't bring myself to do it...

I know what your going through. I had the same problem also. I would just buy buy buy and never played any games. It really is hard to not find something cheap and say Ohh I need this game or hey I want that and never played it.
I now buy just to build up to flip on eBay and save the money on family trips. I just have a nes, dreamcast and a ps2. That's all I need. I do own many games on all 3 but Its not my family life or it didn't kill my wallet.
Make a small list of what you really want to keep and know what games you can always go back to. I know I can always play punch out for the nes and other nes games but I will never play genesis again so I'm selling it. And if I ever get that sega kick my kids have the sega collection on ps2 and ps3 so there I go.
It takes a lot of will power to not buy a 3 dollar game or a rare title. I just was at gamestop buying ps3 games for my kids thinking they may play them but I feel like it was for me so I put them away and walkout

I just wanted to add one more thing. Make sure you don't sell what your going to regret. I have done that many times. I know I won't play with the genesis as much as the nes so I'm tossing it. True sega games look better but I have better memories on the nes than I do with the genesis. And my kids have those sega collections. Same thing goes for my Saturn and ps2. I know I would get more out of the ps2 than the saturn so im tossing the Saturn and the fact that ps2 has any god damn genre you can think of.

jinx wrote:After losing most of my stuff in a fire, and then the rest of it in Katrina, my mind-set changed a lot. I had a bitterness for physical media and collectibles, and every time I felt like I wanted to collect again, I just couldn't bring myself to do it...

This is one thing about collecting that really sucks. Natural disasters and accidents can destroy years/decades worth of collecting. And it also restricts your life to some extent. Like say if I wanted to move to Australia for a year and see what it's like living in there, I couldn't really do it because shipping all of my stuff there would cost a small fortune (and my collection is still relatively small mind you) and it would be just a giant burden if I wanted to travel around the country and see all the different places. If I didn't live with my parents, I wouldn't have any place to store all my games and hardware in while traveling, so I'd have to either sell it all or take it all with me. Just a hypothetical situation.

Another thing in collecting is that it changes your mindset. Atleast I don't want to spend my money on anything else except games because it feels like a waste. Especially on non-material things, like paying a lot of money for concert tickets or traveling to new places and countries (or downloadable games). I'm not the out going type to begin with so I wouldn't pay for that stuff anyhow, but it's a good example, as in those cases you're spending money on things that aren't concrete. I can see where many "enlightened" people are coming from when they denounce all forms of materialism. Although in my case it might be more of a personality thing. I try to be efficient with my time and resource usage so I feel like all the time and resources I don't spend on my hobby (/what ever it is I'm focusing on at the moment) are wasted.

I've come to realize that I need to slow down.

One reason is due to lack of space. I simply have nowhere to put new games and collectibles.

In addition, I'm only working for two more months. Any money I spend after that is technically my wife's money, and I don't think she'll be cool with me buying so many games/consoles. I also have a baby daughter now and I think I'd rather spoil her than buy anything for myself.

One thing that helped me was making a "wish list" and buying only things from that list. I've also tried to cut down on credit card spending - it's easy to loose track of and debt builds up quick. Nowadays, when I buy something from Amazon I'll actually use to cash to buy an Amazon gift card and then make my purchase with that - it seems extraneous but helps keep my spending in check.

After going through a bit of a space crunch myself, I decided to limit myself to collecting for one console (Gamecube) and handhelds (GB/C/A, 3/DS, PSP). I've gotten rid of a few shelves of stuff I never use and I can actually put my dvds on the shelf now.

It may sound like a "captain obvious" type statement, but I"ll say it anyway:
Always try and spend within your means.

No sense in loading yourself with debt over a hobby, no matter how much significance it may hold for you in your life.

It's all about life's priorities. Be disciplined. Have fun with your collecting, let it bring you pleasure/satisfaction, etc, but never let it be your sole/primary focus of attention if that meant that other areas of your life get short-changed/neglected because of it.

This is bit extreme opinion, but I think it becomes problem pretty much when you have games you don't play at least every now and then. Well collecting don't really require that... but I think collecting in general is bit of a problem. Perhaps some are more accustomed to it and are happy collecting, but I haven't felt particularly happy one second (except the exhilaration of finding something and getting home, after that it's just hard to let go of and feels bad). So I reasoned myself that I don't need or want all possible (good) games, because I don't have time to play them and there's other things to do. Best is to have just a handful of interesting and deep games I play whenever I feel like it. If I haven't been playing, I sell it. It's always possible to buy them back.

The process of selling stuff has been the most enjoyable experience of collecting... and I'm glad of it all, I learned something, doesn't work for me and don't need to ever collect anything again.

I like to live bit ascetic life and the games were a big stain in that "lifestyle". I don't have much stuff, just basic things and stuff for my hobbies, but the amount of games really trumped everything, and it felt ridiculous moving to a new place, when almost most of the boxes were just for games.

But I do think if you really feel fully happy and comfortable with your collection, then there should be no problem... it's when there's that even occasional feeling of "why I'm doing this, why I have all this crap?" when one should consider doing something about it.

Never let your hobby control your life that's what I follow for my video game collection.

I never really understand fully the idea of buying every games and spend tons of money on it when you may only place a select % of the game you own. It's kinda a waste of money and time when you think about it. I understand the adventure part of finding a game you want to get at a good price (the original Final Fantasy for the Gameboy in very good condition for 45 dollars was my fun adventure).

For me, it's my job that kinda slow down of how many games I want to play now and even buy. With this issue, I only buy the games I want to play and try to limited my collection down to a minimum amount (my collection is now above 200+ in games if you include download game). Just keep control of your spending on your collection and you should be okay. If your hobby is starting to control your life, then it's time you need to stop collection stuff and start to find out what is the most important in your life.