Author Topic: Need advice collecting  (Read 872 times)

December 31, 2013, 06:03:08 PM
Reply #15

FritzWhite

  • *******
  • Information Offline
  • Devoted Member
  • Posts: 1555
Yeah, but will your kid's kids still play? ??? :P ???

My bad, I didn't mean to derail the topic.

December 31, 2013, 06:07:40 PM
Reply #16

kingjohn3

  • ****
  • Information Offline
  • Sr. Member
  • Posts: 489
    • Email
I have a "Hall of Fame" collection that, to me, is what I grew up playing and also what is considered to be the best of the best by several different sources, in case i've missed a really good unknown title. Rather than be trapped by the "more is better" mentality I've finally decided that quality over quantity is the way to go across the board. I dont think the retro game thing will go away as long as there are people talking about it and enjoy reliving fond childhood memories or are newly discovering these old gems. Just remember to not be tied down to big numbers. Go with the best first

December 31, 2013, 07:29:25 PM
Reply #17

Head of Desserts

  • Tiellä armahdukseen
  • ****
  • Information Offline
  • Sr. Member
  • Posts: 309
    • Email
It's good to have a goal, and a list of what you want, but don't have it very strict and leave room for impulse buys. Also set a budget, and leave more room for wild finds than internet. I normaly leave internet buys for stuff on the top of my list that I was not able to find in the wild.
You also don't have to have everything all at once. Games will occasionally pop up in the wild for good prices.

Whenever I buy a new system, I always look for some cheep games, just to have something to play on it.

Here is how I got some of my stuff, maybe you will get some inspiration.
I started collecting in 2009, and the biggest places I got games were from friends/ adequateness, Goodwill, Creg's List, eBay/Amazon, and local game stores.
Early on, I knew I wanted a NES, SNES, N64 and Genesis.
I did not have a personal credit card or a store near by that sold old games, so I had to scrounge.
Tag sales were my first method, but I never got anything too good, My first find was a PS1. I never found anything older but I got some N64 stuff later on.
I got a N64 system from my sisters freind, no chords, and some crap games. Got the chords off-line.
I later found a old video rental store and got some random SNES, NES and Genesis games CIB for cheep.
My SNES was from a friend.
I eventually got a NES and Genesis from the internet.

Stuff like the Saturn, 3DO, Atari 2600, Xbox, and Dreamcast were impulse, I found a good deal and got them.
The Xbox, 3DO, Xbox and Dreamcast were from Goodwill. Atari from Creg's List, and I got a rare game for the Saturn from GW, and later bought the system to play it on.

For games, I put a price limit on used retro games of $30 for average games, with a few exceptions for games I really want. Most of my pricy games I got for cheep, Only paying market value for Mario 64, Zelda LTTP and Yoshi Island.
I got games like SSB 64, Mario Kart 64, DKC2, Super Mario Kart, Mario World, Mega Man X, Banjo Kazzoie, Both Zelda 64s, Dragonforce, Mario Sunshine, Luigi Mansion, All 3 Zelda NGC games, and Yoshi Story were gotten cheep or free from Tag Sales, Good Will, or Friends, not paying more than $5 for any of them.
Big lots can be good, bus it's hard to find some that are not overpriced. I got a huge NES lot with great titles from Cregs list, for around $2 a game, and got Zelda 1 & 2, Castlevania, Contra, and Mega Man 3 in it. I sold Duplicates here a while back and made back most of the money. Cregs List is probably better for this, but eBay can be good if you dig around.  I recently won a Famicom lot of 170 games on ebay for around $200.

It's fun to build up a collection from nothing, slowly getting stuff from where you can. I have pictures from early on to more recent times if you want to see how my stuff grew. I need to post new pics. http://www.thecoverproject.net/forums/index.php?topic=11412.0

THanks for sharing your story, you seem to have better luck than most of us went it comes to Goodwill and Craigslist. When I lived in South Florida, Craigslist was below average, now that I moved a little north from there, Craigslist is abysmal, but I check it once in a while. The only thing I ever bought from Craigslist was this huge SNES lot with the best of the snes library and that was a huge battle because a lot of resellers contacted the seller, so I had use all the charisma I could to seal the deal. In regards to Goodwill, never have found anything videogame related except for some nasty ass yellowed Dreamcast. Pawnshops rule though, great experiences with them.

Now here's my next question to you guys, how do you use search box in Ebay in the most optimal way. For instance, it's easy when I just want to buy one game, say for example Abadox (NES), I get about 70 or so results, which is easy to browse through, but I am having trouble finding a Sega Genesis (Model 1) with the box, and some games to go with it, but I am not getting good results, how can I use eBay to find that specific inquiry. If I do find something it's outlandish prices like 500 or so. And if I type let's say NES Lot, I get so many results and none of them are pleasing. Any suggestions regarding the search engine on Ebay?

December 31, 2013, 07:32:22 PM
Reply #18

Head of Desserts

  • Tiellä armahdukseen
  • ****
  • Information Offline
  • Sr. Member
  • Posts: 309
    • Email
I have a "Hall of Fame" collection that, to me, is what I grew up playing and also what is considered to be the best of the best by several different sources, in case i've missed a really good unknown title. Rather than be trapped by the "more is better" mentality I've finally decided that quality over quantity is the way to go across the board. I dont think the retro game thing will go away as long as there are people talking about it and enjoy reliving fond childhood memories or are newly discovering these old gems. Just remember to not be tied down to big numbers. Go with the best first

Yeah we got the same mentality. I go for quality over quantity. Quality is subjective, but I think we can rule out sports titles (Madden 99, 2000, 2001), unless it's a fun sports game like Blitz or Mario related sports game. In other words, it's got to be games I would enjoy playing.

December 31, 2013, 07:58:06 PM
Reply #19

larryinc64

  • Custom Title
  • *
  • Information Offline
  • Omega
  • Cover Guru
  • Posts: 3807
  • Motament
    • Motament (My Art)
When searching eBay, I look by price, I work by way down from the highest price for a lot, and from the lowest up for something more specific.
For a boxed Genesis. try "SEGA Genesis system box" Or "Sega Genesis Model 1 box" I got a few results.

For quality, for me if I can get some enjoyment out of it, its good. Troll 2 is not a great movie, but it is fun to watch. It is a good movie to watch.
I had fun messing around with Tomb Raider Angel Of Darkness with a friend. The game is not good, but fun with a friend. It is a game worth having. I love getting random games I never played or seen and just exploring it. That's one reason why I want to do Power Plaid Plays with my friend Matt. Our first episode released, Gun Griffon Blaze, was a game I bought for $1 and never played. We had some fun with Karate Champ, a crap NES fighter, I have not posted that episode yet.
Keep your mind open when getting games.

December 31, 2013, 08:24:55 PM
Reply #20

kingjohn3

  • ****
  • Information Offline
  • Sr. Member
  • Posts: 489
    • Email
RBI 3 for NES is one of my all time favs because my buddy and I would play for hours but isnt regarded as the best Baseball game so I agree it can very subjective. For example, I love Goonies 2 because I loved the movie growing up. Best game ever? No, but its in my top 5. I was always a mainstream guy but occasionally a sleeper hit would sneak in

December 31, 2013, 08:35:23 PM
Reply #21

wiggy

  • The one.. the only... whatever
  • **
  • Information Offline
  • Maximum Volume Poster
  • Posts: 8241
  • Extra cheese please!
    • Rose Colored Gaming
It's nice to see how differently we all approach collecting.  There are some seriously varied approaches here.

I'm also sorta curious why everyone here collects as well.

December 31, 2013, 09:30:13 PM
Reply #22

Mick Dundee

  • ******
  • Information Offline
  • Dedicated Member
  • Posts: 1066
I'm also sorta curious why everyone here collects as well.
I think for me its because we didn't get to keep the games when I was little. My parents always purchased beyond their means. We had Nes, Sega, Snes, and even got a TG16.  We never owned them more than a few months before we needed money and they were sold.

 So I guess in short. Its something I have that I can be proud of that is mine and don't have to let go.

December 31, 2013, 09:48:38 PM
Reply #23

Ozzy_98

  • *****
  • Information Offline
  • Hero Member
  • Posts: 637
    • Ozzy's Blog
(I'm wordy; deal with it) I was an only child living in the country in ohio, so video games were one thing to keep me from going mad with bordem. I imported my first game when I was 13-14, a fighter that got good reviews at a time we were starving for more SFII goodness, a game called "dragon ball Z 2".  Was a wired game, cost me $80 + shipping from Chips & Bits.  Bought my Turbo Duo not long after from Game Dude, cause it seemed like it was better for RPGs than Genesis, and when I poped Ys in, I pooped just a little.  "Eece, the ideal utopia" indeed.  I was working on the family farm at the time ($3.25 an hour in the early 90s rocked at 12-14 years of age) so I had extra cash, I'd write a list of games I wanted, and how many houws I had to work to earn each one. 

Fast forward, I quit the farm after 12 years there, become unemployed, and no time to play games due to having to study and no money to buy them.  Moved my way to working IT, buy a house that's much to small for games, and have them all in storage.  about a month and a half ago, bought this new house that has room, dug out my games from storage (some did not fair well), and I'm trying to fill in the cracks.  In the collection, not my cracks.  That wouldn't be good for the games.  Even if it's what N64 controllers were designed for.

Anyways for me, I'm collecting EVERYTHING.  One thing I love are the SSI gold box games (Pool of Rad\Darkness, Curse of the acure half naked chick, ect).  My first real RPGs on the C64, got me introduced into D&D, and a great tactical game.  I have all the normal games, the Famicom version of Pool that looks like a gold box, still need neverwinter nights, but cant justify spending $200 on it when that's 400 UGC I could have.  But other than that, and a prefrence for any TG16 stuff in the wild, I buy cheap and in bulk, from EVERY system I see. 

December 31, 2013, 09:56:39 PM
Reply #24

wiggy

  • The one.. the only... whatever
  • **
  • Information Offline
  • Maximum Volume Poster
  • Posts: 8241
  • Extra cheese please!
    • Rose Colored Gaming
(I'm wordy; deal with it) I was an only child living in the country in ohio, so video games were one thing to keep me from going mad with bordem. I imported my first game when I was 13-14, a fighter that got good reviews at a time we were starving for more SFII goodness, a game called "dragon ball Z 2".  Was a wired game, cost me $80 + shipping from Chips & Bits.  Bought my Turbo Duo not long after from Game Dude, cause it seemed like it was better for RPGs than Genesis, and when I poped Ys in, I pooped just a little.  "Eece, the ideal utopia" indeed.  I was working on the family farm at the time ($3.25 an hour in the early 90s rocked at 12-14 years of age) so I had extra cash, I'd write a list of games I wanted, and how many houws I had to work to earn each one. 

Fast forward, I quit the farm after 12 years there, become unemployed, and no time to play games due to having to study and no money to buy them.  Moved my way to working IT, buy a house that's much to small for games, and have them all in storage.  about a month and a half ago, bought this new house that has room, dug out my games from storage (some did not fair well), and I'm trying to fill in the cracks.  In the collection, not my cracks.  That wouldn't be good for the games.  Even if it's what N64 controllers were designed for.

Anyways for me, I'm collecting EVERYTHING.  One thing I love are the SSI gold box games (Pool of Rad\Darkness, Curse of the acure half naked chick, ect).  My first real RPGs on the C64, got me introduced into D&D, and a great tactical game.  I have all the normal games, the Famicom version of Pool that looks like a gold box, still need neverwinter nights, but cant justify spending $200 on it when that's 400 UGC I could have.  But other than that, and a prefrence for any TG16 stuff in the wild, I buy cheap and in bulk, from EVERY system I see. 

Holy crap, I'm having flashbacks now  :o

December 31, 2013, 10:01:04 PM
Reply #25

kingjohn3

  • ****
  • Information Offline
  • Sr. Member
  • Posts: 489
    • Email
I collect for the fun of it. I only collect Nintendo since its what i grew up on. Im trying to get CIB of all those Hall of Fame games i talked about earlier & Im actually considering selling a large number of games to supplement the purchase of what i actually want. Again, quality over quantity.

Top NES
Zelda
Metroid
Kid Icarus
Mike Tysons Punch Out
Goonies 2
Final Fantasy
Dragon Warrior 1-4
Faxanadu
Bionic Commando
Wrestlemania
Willow
Wizards and Warriors

Top SNES
Zelda
Mario
Super Metroid
Final Fantasy 3
Chrono Trigger
Blackthorne
Rock n Roll Racing
Tecmo Super Bowl 3

Top N64
Ocarina of Time
Mario 64
Donkey Kong 64
Goldeneye

Top Gamecube
All Zelda
Mario Sunshine
Luigis Mansion
Metroid Prime

I know no one asked for a list but these games are listed for various reasons for me. Bottom line is hardly anyone ever gets rich buying and selling games so collect because its fun. But remember no matter how far you take collecting its still "stuff". Its nice to have stuff as long as the stuff never has you.  

January 01, 2014, 12:34:08 AM
Reply #26

e_brugal

  • *<§;)>
  • ********
  • Information Offline
  • Super Member
  • Posts: 2489
    • Email
I buy games not necessary because I had play it in the pass, I like to play and try every game I see even if everybody say it is a bad game. So I am collecting not only to play is because I like to try to get a complete set of some console. My basic consoles that I would like to have a complete set are Nintendo, PlayStation, Xbox and some of the sega ;D
« Last Edit: January 01, 2014, 08:40:32 AM by e_brugal »

January 01, 2014, 08:37:07 AM
Reply #27

Dr.Agon

  • ********
  • Information Offline
  • Super Member
  • Posts: 2330
    • Email
Personally I collect for a couple of reasons;

Games I had as a kid, games I'd liked to have owned back then but could never afford, and games that I think will be fun or good. I collect for a lot of systems because every system has at least a couple of good games that I'd like to try out.

As for collecting tips, personally I try to collect for a different system each month, it might take longer to finish a set, but it keeps the collection "alive"

January 01, 2014, 11:45:48 AM
Reply #28

Head of Desserts

  • Tiellä armahdukseen
  • ****
  • Information Offline
  • Sr. Member
  • Posts: 309
    • Email
Personally I collect for a couple of reasons;

Games I had as a kid, games I'd liked to have owned back then but could never afford, and games that I think will be fun or good. I collect for a lot of systems because every system has at least a couple of good games that I'd like to try out.

As for collecting tips, personally I try to collect for a different system each month, it might take longer to finish a set, but it keeps the collection "alive"

Hmmm I see
/raises monocle
A month dedicated to a system, good idea.

January 01, 2014, 12:13:51 PM
Reply #29

Ozzy_98

  • *****
  • Information Offline
  • Hero Member
  • Posts: 637
    • Ozzy's Blog
Holy crap, I'm having flashbacks now  :o
You know Game Dude still used the same format trade in lists they used to? http://www.gamedude.com/turbog.html It's so nostalgic I got a boner.

I mean, umm, smile.  yes smile.  And I like how they say they're not responsiable for typographical errors on their web site.  Yes, they are responsiable, there's no printers screwing up your web site!