What makes collectors so special?

I tried to be a full fledged collector because I wanted the status behind it on this forum. However, money got very tight. I also hardly had the time to play or get any use out of the hardware (32x Dev kit). I went through some revelations and just stuck to what I like best: Arc The Lad. I ended up selling almost all the games I owned.

Although with school, I haven't really spent any money for anything Arc The Lad related.

I will sell my kidney and go into enormous amounts of debt to get my hand on an Arc The Lad Collection Volume 2 Strategy Guide. I have yet to see any surface but their existence is known thru the video included with the game.

 

To preserve history in an industry too young to care about preserving anything.

 

Don't know about that mate. I love drinking and as for loose women, ....if only :-( I wish I was 22 again instead of 32.

As for collecting, well I collect stuff that I want and proud to own. My Mega Drive and SFC collection show this off very well. For Saturn it's the goal that drives me to have the best Saturn collection out there, even surpassing Adols which it will since I have much easier access to software. Oh, I the Saturn is my favorite console of all time followed by the Super Famicom then Mega Drive and finally Dreamcast.

yakumo

 

humans are collectors since very very ancient ages. it's in our genes. it's normal. it just depends on your interests of what you collect. that's just a very normal and human thing. don't worry if you can't explain exactly, it's just like that.

 

As for collecting the "old stuff" that came about because of missing out on certain things as a kid due to a father who didnt approve spending much $$ on it (as a kid I got maybe 4 games a year if that). But thankfully my mom was the one who saved every bit and piece from the boxes when I was little, so she got me hooked on boxed complete. I cannot buy a non boxed complete "retro" game now thanks to her As for buying almost every new title as it comes out: I must spite my dad for those childhood years.

 

I guess I'm a cancer. Funny though... I'm a very picky gamer but if I find betas for the games I like, I'll make sure I get them, because its fun. Though on the other hand I dislike it when collectors get development hardware just to collect, I think dev hardware should be left to people who will actually develop or use it for a better cause to just game, as they just treat it as a console that plays betas.

I definately fall under my horoscope.

 

Same here

Plus why go the lengths to aquire something either rare or because it was such a bargain it was to good to pass up ;-)

The only time I ever sell/trade anything is when it bought for that purpose

IE I got a boxed Sega Master System II with about 10 boxed games for £10 at a boot/flea sale recently

Will see if I can out it for about £30.......even if it goes for £20 this can then go back to be re-invested :nod:

 

better keep it and get the £10 @ mac donalds for a 2h part time. maybe the resulting work will be even less^^

 

I only ever sold one console and that was the NES for the upgrade to the SNES. It wasn't all that long before I ended up with another NES and more games. I collect video games because why not? I like them, they look nice, they're fun, they aren't disposable items.

Although I suppose it's not entirely true, I have sold some other consoles, but they were retro items by that time. I know I sold a PC-Engine DUO that I had bought. And I sold a GBA (original). But generally I like to keep my games, though this is not true of more modern games really. While I enjoy the Xbox 360, I could care less if I don't have them in 10 years other than a select few.

 

I like how everyone has a different story. For being such a young industry, video games offer so many types of people different reasons to play.

I don't as much collect, as I buy a lot of games and try not to get rid of anything anymore. I had a few bad trade-ins at Funcoland as a kid. Now that I think about it, though, between the internet and flea markets, I could probably replace in 5 minutes if I really wanted. I just remember my mom being really angry when I traded in the Illusion of Gaia she spent $80 on as a x-mas gift for me for like $15. So that right there is probably the reason I collect nowadays.

Games also serve as my reference library. Need to find a game that does mechanic X well? I either already have it, or will buy it now.

I avoid prototype stuff because it's way more common than most of you imagine, and a lot of it is either very illegal, or way too far in the gray. Same with dev units.

 

I started collecting because I wanted to play the games I couldn't play when I was a kid.

 

I'd have to say I collect for largely the same reason that a lot of others here have already mentioned: I want what I couldn't have as a kid. But I don't think that turned me into a collector, I think I was a game collector before my first system.

When I was a kid, my family was poor and I had the misfortune to fall completely in love with an expensive hobby. To give you an idea of my level of obsession and counterproductive poverty, our family television broke in September of 1987, by October I knew that the TV wouldn't be fixed or replaced until the following summer because we just couldn't afford it. Just the same, I begged every relative likely to spend money (including my parents) on me for Christmas or my birthday to just send money so I could scrape together the necessary $80 to buy an NES.

My parents thought I was crazy for buying a game system that I couldn't even use, but I had it, damnit. I remember adopting a whole new perspective about going to grandma's house - she had a TV! The only game I ever owned for it was the Super Mario Bros. cart that came with it, but I got the newsletters and read my friends' Nintendo Power and dreamed of all of the things I couldn't have. Now that I can have them, I try not to deprive myself.

I'd also have to echo the sentiment of preserving history. It's sort of embarassing, but until last week, I had never actually played through the original Legend of Zelda. I set aside a whole day to once and for all beat that game. My 8-year-old nephew happened to be visiting at the time and when I told him I was going to play Zelda, he asked which one. I told him "The Original Zelda" and his eyes widened with a look of awe as he repeated in whispered reverence "The ORIGINAL Zelda?". The first Zelda game he ever played was Wind Waker, and the oldest he had seen was Ocarina. From his perspective we were truly reaching back to the annuls of history. It was strangely gratifying to function as a library of sorts for a young gamer. I know that he could probably play Zelda at a friend's on Wii VC just as easily, but the rentware version most definitely doesn't come with a blindingly bright gold cartridge like the original

To answer the original question of this topic, however, I'd have to say that what makes collectors so special is that we have a much higher level of respect for every aspect of video gaming than you'll find in your average "casual" gamer. Some of us border on obssessive, and others of us have lived way on the other side of that border for years, but all of us share a passion for the single most engaging form of entertainment and education ever invented.

 

Well for me it's good old fashioned "surrounding yourself with stuff that makes you happy will make you happy". It works really well for me. So I'm surrounded by a real kick ass games collection from 1978 to 2008, games make me happy. All the music I ever liked on a server, and a bunch of other stuff that makes me happy, outward to the house the neighborhood and even the country that makes me happy. I've found when I'm miserable I'm surrounded by stuff that makes me unhappy. Living in a crap house with no money near nothing cool. Don't recommend it.

Simple as that. Other guys have other ways to get themselves happy. Adrenaline rushes or booze or whatever. Just knowing what makes you happy is a huge step. Lot of people don't. Lot of miserable sods around.

As for the games instead, why I collect and play games older than 18 months which is a huge no no in the hip gaming circles, well it ain't nostalgia I think. Well partly perhaps. Gaming runs on fads. An idea gets hip, the classics are made, the fad goes out of fashion, it goes onto the next fad. If you want to play a variety of games, the ultimate way is to get collecting.

Some guys collect for one machine, I like to spread across 6 or so. Playstation(1,2.3), SNES, and Saturn are the main ones. That's a good spread. Playstation (1,2,3) as you can play everything on one machine, the back catalogue is full of gems. Saturn because it's a unique machine that's feels like the first classic 3D machine and the last classic 2D machine. SNES because it's Nintendo's finest moment I think.

 

Special in what way? Like royalty? Like the short bus? ;-)

A collector is someone who collects something. They have a collection of at least two items. That's it in a nutshell.

You could argue that a collector should care about the preservation of their collection and stuff like that, but it often isn't the case.

I collect because I enjoy the games and I want to see them played and enjoyed for years to come. And because it is fun! Not just to play the games, but the hunt and finding something rare.

 

For me i'm more into the hardware rather than the games and i think the reason why i collect certain stuff is because it was what i had and played on when i was growing up and it reminds me those times but also i think i like to collect or want to collect hardware becuase i like being able to look at what the companies like sega,nintendo, 3do or whoever wanted to acheive with there console and i can see that they failed or not.

I also think that as games/hardware gets older it can go from being something terrible when released to something you quite like.

 

Again I don't know why nobody has mentioned the fact that consoles and electronics have a use. They do something interesting and fun. That is the main reason why I will collect cars if even given the right economic situation because they are usable and never depreciate in value.

 

Cars never depreciate in value? Are you kidding?

 

Don't cars normally loose about 40% of their value as soon as they leave the forecourt and even classic cars, unless you are buying really rare desirable cars, most will lose value or at least cost you more to maintain even if it does 0 miles then what you get back in selling them.

 

Only non collectible cars do.

 

so what are the few collectibels in your mind?