What do you personally consider rare and collect?

Prototypes? Japanese games? Rare version of a series you like (Zelda, Metal Gear, etc), Obscure consoles that never saw the light of day in some areas (64DD, Wonderswan, etc), development stuff?

Personally, I have been wanting to collect a few obscure titles recently for a variety of things. Steel Battalion, Zelda: Master Quest and Collectors Edition, GCN Resident Evil games, The Document of MGS2 and the 20th Anniversary box.

I've been hunting down a few somewhat rare games as well, such as:

-Saturn version of Symphony of the Night: Been wanting to pick it up due to the extra areas and that my Saturn has not seen too many games in awhile.

-Metal Wolf Chaos: While it does not seem like a overly amazing game, I sort of been wanting to pick it up after seeing how obscure it is. Its hard to find, going in the $100s range on ebay many times.

-International Versions of PS2 Final Fantasy games: Mostly FFX, X-2, and XII. More or less because I have been wanting to pick them up for collection reasons. I also want to get KHII: Final Mix for the Chain of Memories remake.

I don't know, I always wanted to get into the proto collection scene, but I don't have the resources to do so, or interest unless there is a great difference in the proto and the final product and isn't a game no one knows about. I always wanted to get a NR Reader, but never got the chance. Guess I am just a weird collector.

 

It really depends upon what you call rare. In your list you listed the Saturn version of Symphony of the Night but here in Japan I can buy that game ANY day of the week pretty much all year round.

For me getting PAL Dreamcast games was impossible in Japan since only one or two places in the entire country stocked them. I ended up getting them through a few good fellows here. Got MSR (unreleased in Japan), Who wants to be a Millionaire (original British version), Skies of Arcadia (Didn't bloody work in VGA so I had to buy the US one) and both Shenmue games.

In Japan though I collect rare games. Stuff that had very low print runs or cult status releases. I'd love to do hardware but I just don't have the space.

Yakumo

 

personally i only collect arcade shoot'em'up kits somewhat activeley.

since i started that even the most sought after comercially released videogame items seem pretty easy to come by, say a game like darius alpha is up for sale a few times a year for instance and can be had fairly easily if youre just ready to break open the wallet.
the pricing of arcadestuff also breaks the oomph of videogames, there arent really that many that break $1000 while in arcade terms that wont get you very far at all, not even if you settle for loose boards.
(there are ofcourse a few exceptions )

prototypes never held much of a collectors interest for me for some reason but obviously theyre in a league of their own as far as pricing and collectability go, i do find them fascinating to look at and read about tho, love the RE1.5 thread for instance!

 

Man, how much can you get it for over there? Every time I look on ebay, I always see a Japanese seller charging $60+ US dollars for a copy without shipping.

 

Lifestyle limitations...

What I consider rare and what I can collect are two different things.
I consider rare anything that was made in low quantities or is difficult to obtain, the obscure side of the fence mostly. Mostly that's not what I can collect due to cost and space restraints.
I like to collect things that I'll actually use. That's something I decided a long time ago when I first started reading and posting here.
99% of my collection isn't rare at all, just uncommon; I like it that way. Most people that come over aren't "hardcore" enough to not be impressed by my meager Saturn/import library, that's good enough for me and really I enjoy showing them the little that I have because it's all quality and I usually spark a genuine interest in them. I find it likely that if I had entire museum-like rooms of obscure hardware they'd be impressed but really wouldn't be sparked into going out and buying a Saturn or Dreamcast themselves...

~Krelian

 

I find myself nodding when reading the above post =)

If I'd had to be specific, I'd go for PAL Saturn games, PAL/US releases of 2D shmups/fighters for PS/PS2/PSP and Laserdiscs. Not that I'm really "collecting" stuff at the moment, but I have a great deal

 

My collection a few years ago was at nothing, then ballooned to have consoles, rare items, you name it, now its back down to nothing (compared to how it was, anyway). Why? Because rare has no meaning to me. Thats nice that its 1 out of 10 in the world, but nowadays, the game has to have some meaning to me if its going to be a mainstay in my collection (bar CD-i stuff, where just about anything goes heh). I could save cash and spend 1000$ on an arcade board, but to me, its probably just an arcade board. Im fine with people that do it since it has meaning to them, but for me, Im much more happy having Marvel vs Capcom in one of my cabinets then having something thats rare just because

 

Well i am really fascinated by hardware,i want every console ever existed boxed!! That will never happen but i keep being confident! :lol:
Actually i tend to change my mind very easy. One day i start collecting 3do some months ago devs run into my life, then i see msxs then... its crazy they never end...:banghead:

 

I agree that something that's "rare" means it wasn't produced in very high numbers. It could also apply to something that was made in good numbers but few people part with. But alot of things people call rare are just highly priced.

I like to collect games I'll play. Wether they are rare or not doesn't matter to me, only if I enjoy them.

 

It depends upon where it's bought from but if I was to sell it I'd also be charging 60USD. It's a sort after title you see :shrug: It's not that cheap in Japan so I think 60USD is a fair price.

Yakumo

 

That or items made in a quantity less than 100 units.

 

It has to be something I will use and is just plain cool to me. For some reason, most of my life has been spent looking for the unique, obscure, and functional material goods that appeal to me - gotta be different. My collection is pretty small but if I come across things I will use, then I will buy it...this year - Wideboy64 AGB Debug, DocV64Jr., and a bunch of shmups.

 

There are loads of old PCBs that were regular releases but still fall under the rare category. W/ the advent of CDR, even rare than some prototypes.

 

i tend to find that altough Rare is a large appeal, unless its got some sort of meaning to me (i.e. sentimental value perhaps, childhood memories) then i tend to appreciate it but not want it.. What appeals to me is uniqueness and something that can create a talking point.. (hence the TOOL purchase and the more recent PSX's)

 

old or obsecure consoles boxed (I prefer consoles that I never owned out of curiosity but any will do if I didn't play around with it for a long time) and dev hardware because I still think that one day I'll have the time to make something cool I'm not really in to rare or unreleased games tho.

 

I don't collect anything. Now, if it's useful and practical to my ends somehow, then I'm interested (like getting a Doc V64 / N64 stuff), but I just can't afford to buy stuff that I can't justify having around. Yet.

 

Most of my collecting is based around hardware. I still have the goal of owning every released console of significance out there. I'm well on my way to that goal.

More recently though, I've been on an arcade kick. I've built a supergun, bought some boards, bought a burgertime machine and capped the monitor and repaired the bourd...

My next project is looking to be restoration/conversion of some sort of cocktail cabinet...don't know exactly what yet, though.

Still collect consoles though...theres a few that I'd like to have that have been on the back burner for awhile. Mainly, I don't have a Virtual Boy...its the only nintendo console I don't own...and I don't have any idea why. I really like them...I just never got around to owning one.

 

I prefer to collect not-for-resale retail items.

I don't know how to code and I have little personal exposure to any sort of development, so dev gear tends to strike few emotional chords with me.

On the other hand, I remember rushing to the store to download the demos off the first Nintendo DS "download station" update, and so NDS download station carts are a favorite item of mine.

I like kiosk discs, trade show floor demos, actual console kiosks, "not for resale" demo copies of games, etc...

 

I collect old computer games because I'm a sucker. Videogame-wise I'll usually only buy something if I plan on using it.