Video game hobbyist Vs. game speculators

Video games used to be about PLAYING the games, collecting sealed games and shelving everything reduces the hobby to absurdity imo.

As much as i love opening new stuff, when i can get a lose cartridge for a fraction of the price, i get that one when i wanted to play the game anyway.

And we will have a crash at some point, that's for sure.
It actually surprises me that the prices aren't hitting rock bottom despite our "financial crisis".

 

You should just point out that many of the "sealed collectors" are players mostly.
They're players,who owned (or still owns) the game in loose/used condition, but dreamt about the best condition possible for a specific title that marked them forever (Zelda,Metroid..). And so they want it badly.
To remember the way it was on the shelf 20 years ago when they were going to the store to buy it as kids. To have the same emotion than back at the time. Most of them work that way.

But i admit that lately (those past 5 years),many people see factory sealed games as shareholdings with insane asking prices. Without having played those games 10-15-20 years ago like us.

 

Of course i can understand that for a select few titles, but i know a bunch of collectors, who just collect for the sake of collecting. They don't ever play their stuff. And they drive prices up.

 

i'm a game hobbyist with full heart!

i have some sealed games (but not more than 100, mostly PCE stuff), but nothing which i do not own as a used copy as well or at least played it once before and declarated as the deep shit, which is not even worse to be opened.

just buying and hunting down sealed stuff for the shelf without ever played it and to hope making some cash in the future is bullshit deluxe.

it's like buying new cars, put them away in a storage and hoping for the big cash as "sealed" oltimers 50 years later.

btw. what was the main impact/cause of the comic collectors crash? as for the stamps etc. collections, it was the die off of many old collectors, which then left-behind the stamps which again caused a market saturation -> lesser peeps are interessted in suddenly more common stamps.

the same could happen to the VG scene once in future. with one difference, in our case the games will probably die off before their owner do.

 

I do have some sealed games, most of them are dupes of stuff I have non-sealed copies of. Stuff I have sealed copies of are things that are somewhat special and unique, to me. I rarely pick up stuff with the intent of reselling it in mind (though, I've recently been selling off some duplicates that have popped up thanks to various lots I've bought through auction sites. I did some experiments with prices and found myself kinda amazed by what sold at what did not.)

It's fun to see what other people have, fun to show them some of my own stuff. I'm not much of an e-penis battler, though. Probably 'cause I generally don't make a big deal out of what other people have. Some people kinda get surprised and/or frustrated at the fact that I don't keep some super list of everything I have, that I let people borrow stuff from my collections, that I "didn't mention" that I have something, that I didn't say that I knew some guy, etc... It's kinda funny to leap back in time a good few years, though. 'cause I did have a bit of the "OMG!" attitude towards certain things at some point.
(I shall "blame" my life situation at the time and the fact that I'd finally gotten "unlimited" online access for that :love: )


Anyway, I find people's obsessions with things rather strange. Not too long ago, someone I know brought his SNES back to life. Some spoiled brat I grew up with, basically. He was known back then as the guy who'd get anything he pointed at and he's still kinda the same. Well, after he brought his SNES to life, he wanted to get some SNES games he didn't have. So I showed him some of the stuff I've got, me and my little brother recommended some titles and then I also showed him (just for fun) some of the slightly more obscure stuff I have in a display cage next to my TV... (you know... "that" kind of stuff) Suddenly I see him browsing ebay with his mom's bank account in one hand as he's sending in "best offers" for all sorts of random shit that he doesn't even have a clue what it is (beyond the fact that it has a non-standard cartridge and someone wants at least $800 for it for no good reason)


Anyway, it'd take a lot to actually get me to buy something old that is sealed/overpriced. I buy things either to consume or document<->preserve. Sure, stuff might get to stand around on display and stuff, but even those things have had a good run for their money and would under closer inspection show signs of having been in the hands of a loving owner who bought it out of passion of what experience may have been lurking inside it. Don't think it's a secret that I like games of a wide variety of different kinds, spanning across different generations~

 

with all high priced items youll also get collectors who are only in it for the trading aspect, making your collections cash-value rise is a big incentive for many, its like a game itself.

if keeping games sealed is part of that then some people will just succumb to it, others will exploit it and some will deny it.

id say im somewhere in between, i play all my games and at the same time i try to keep conscious about the value, but yeah i dont necessarily think not wanting to loose $3000 on a videogame qualifies as being a douche.

and its not just "hoarders" who drive prices up, look around you, collecting videogames is massive, 10 years ago no-one gave a rats ass about it, thats the main contributing factor for high prices id say, very few have the privelege to actually make an impact on the general price of game.

 

Err, I'm a gamer / collector. I've played EVERY game I own and even finished quite a few of them. Then there's games I go back to time and time again. I'ma strong believer of items are bought to be used. I'm also a strong believer in keeping items in good condition. Something my wife just can't understand whether it be from my games / DVDs to my car. She just doesn't understand why I like to keep things looking good.

Yakumo

 

lol. if it comes to our car my wife is the superior maniac of keeping it up in good shape. a lil' amlost unoticeable scratch and a world breaks in.

 

I like things in good condition. But come on, i buy things and PLAY them.

P.D = Those prices for a Game Boy and MJ Moonwalker are retarded beyond belief. Damned ebay.

 

I solely purchase want I'll use. I don't like labels, such as "collector", despite owning a pile of the usual stuff every old gamer owns and then some more. It is the same reason that I have never "displayed" my collection on any forum - this isn't a chance of willing-waving for me and I really don't understand why people are so obsessed with proving they know/have/had owned stuff. It's all good as long as it stays for personal fun, what video games are/used to be all about..

 

Playing the shit out of 'em. I wan't to use my stuff.

But I must admit, I have one sealed game worth nothing (Yes, with 'h'): Chu Chu Rocket. It's great use as a replacement shell, isn't it?

Also my Game related stuff begins to multiply, as I'm not a big believer in selling games. Most games I didn't wan't anymore I traded for other games, or gave away. But some turd ball games just won't go, even for free.

Hell, I bought myself a 64DD to play F-Zero and try Mario Artist (And because of the NTSC/J N64, I can now enjoy Sin & Punishment with good controlls).

There is currently a Wondermega on eBay, 'like new' 'cib' 'rare' 'original receipt' etc, I just want it because it looks beautiful and I in need of a Mega CD, why not combine both?

On the other hand, for some rare games I can understand the prices (Pro Tour Golf 64, Nintendo World Championship).


I once met a guy, from Appenzell Ausserrhoden (Tatsu, you may know and describe how these types are), which collects PSX games, sealed, just because he can. But a technical zero (What? The N64 does not have RGB? And why these cables?), and did I mention he despises the internet and bulletin boards like this fine piece here? And he told me he sees increasing value in those games.


In a nutshell: It's frustrating for those of us, which want to play those games, collector or not.

 

For me it's THIS. having a sealed game for me means nothing but a waste. All i have, i play and keep it minty, but damn i do play them! Only exception my Romancing saga 3 cart that i bought after playing and finishing the game on the fantranslation.

 

Exactly. I think it's stupid how some people treat video games as an investment, and how some people are willing to pay so much for games just because they're "sealed" or pay a lot of money for some cardboard box for a console. Especially if you buy them just because they're expensive, so they don't any have kind of special value to you and you don't even care if they're good games, you just buy them for your "investment" and never play them.

I wouldn't really call myself a collector for example, since I don't buy crap games just to have them, I just stick with buying the good ones for any given system and actually play them instead of sticking them in a display case or whatever.

In the past 5 years or so the whole retro gaming thing has gotten pretty big, but I'm sure the "fad" will pass eventually and prices will fall universally, and those "investments" suddenly don't look so attractive.

 

Thank you for reminding us it's not always someone else's fault... It's always easier to blame it on the postman is it.

:110:

That being said, I do love sealed games, but almost always, I know what the game is because I either have other used copies or I have played the game before. On the other hand, there's nothing wrong with investing and hoping to resell for more, it's normal. Those prices are just funny, they'll never sell and you'll find them at fleas in ten years for a penny. This monster we created will crash someday soon, as other peeps here just said. That's why IMO, best thing is not to spend too much on so-believed or so-called rare stuff.

Games aren't paintings or old books, they're some damn 10 year old piece of plastic, how can people sell some stuff for 100000$ is really beyond me. It's just too early, and all games will be dead/unusable by the time they could be worth a lot.

 

Well, it technically isn't a problem until someone actually pays that insane price for them.

The best that could happen is that someone else lists the same thing and it gets sold for $35 while the other guy watches. Though... that might not work out too well, given the circumstances... I've been trying to get ahold of something for a long time now, but the only sample of it I know of keeps getting relisted by the same guy for a totally unheard of and inane price that is way beyond reasonable.

 

The worst are those stupid topics in some forums, like:
"So, what should I collect now?"
So lame...

 

I love to buy sealed games and items so that when I open them up they are mint condition inside. I open up all my sealed items though.

I don't ever buy anything with the hope or intention of re-selling the stuff. I have never sold anything on Craig's List or E-bay that is video game related.

Anything I have ever sold or given away I do so with no profit to friends or fellow collectors.

I do understand some people making some profit from their stuff because that is how they make their cash. Do I like that they make profit off of saps like me - not really - but that is the beauty of a belief in free market.

 

In the early 90s, with the rise of comic book specialty shops, speculators started buying comic books, especially #1 issues, in large quantities hoping they will get a rare gem that they can buy a house with. The comic book companies started catering to the collector market with multiple #1 issues, sometimes with multiple covers, so that you had to collect them all. The art and stories became secondplace to the gimmick of the shiny covers. When the speculators realized that all of their new books were pretty much worthless, they left along with the jaded fans who were sick of the poor stories and art that had taken over. At that point the industry crashed.

Theoretically, this could happen to the video game industry. Games produced in multiple versions where you have to buy every version along with poor graphics and gameplay could lead to a crash like that of the early 80s. Its not totally inconceivable. As for right now, games are produced simply to enjoy with a very small niche market who collect older first editions of games.

 

lol..interessting. but what's about those very old #1 issues, like for old Donald Duck comics e.g.? had that 90s incident any impact to the old collectors as well, which took place many years before that all happened with multiple #1 issues? or was it only within the later collectors era?

if this would happen to teh VG scene as well, this would probably mean, that the 8/16 bit era never wouldn't be really affected from such kind happening, who plays more in the 128bit toward era.