How much have you and would you spend on your collection?

[FritzWhite]

One of the mods on NA currently has a $100k bounty on the original cover art for Contra. I'm curious to know how much you've spent on your collection. What's the most you've spent on a single item and the most you WOULD spend for a special gaming piece?

Have you spent more or less on your collection than its current value? Do you ever plan to sell or is your stuff going to the grave or to your kids? Any game purchase regrets? Do you have insurance?

[TDIRunner]

(Copy and pasted from NA  )

I can't think of a single instance where I would have paid more than market value for a given game, although I'm sure that there have been several games that are now worth less than what I paid for them (mostly stuff that I bought new that hasn't yet appreciated in value). I keep track of my monthly spending for budget purposes, but I do not track my purchase price for a specific game, so I do not have a way to track how much a specific game has appreciated for me over time. I catalog my collection in Excel and update it with market values, so I'm aware of what my collection is worth (in theory), but I keep that information to myself.

That being said, my biggest fear is that when I die, my wife will sell my video games for what I told her I paid for them.

[Shadowfox]

One of the mods on NA currently has a $100k bounty on the original cover art for Contra. I'm curious to know how much you've spent on your collection. What's the most you've spent on a single item and the most you WOULD spend for a special gaming piece?

Have you spent more or less on your collection than its current value? Do you ever plan to sell or is your stuff going to the grave or to your kids? Any game purchase regrets? Do you have insurance?

Wait, what? $100k bounty? For the original Contra artwork? Can you point me to that? I actually ran into the artiest for that a year and a half ago... I bet I could get that.

[Bear78]

No idea how much I have spent on my collection (too much I'm sure) but I've bought mostly under or close to market value.  I always try to get the best deal I can and I'm perfectly fine with waiting on something if I don't feel it's a good deal.  A lot of my big items I got before the boom really kicked in so they have increased in value.  What I thought was a crazy price for a game 5 years ago has in some cases doubled (and I'm glad I got it 5 years ago). The most I've spent on a single game is $400 on Panzar Dragoon Saga a while back.  I can't imagine spending much more then that on a single game but the 1 I would (if I had the money sitting around) would be Keio on the Sega CD.  

I've also sold a SE for a large amount of money / profit which I can kind of justify as making my money back from my hobby.

[TDIRunner]

One of the mods on NA currently has a $100k bounty on the original cover art for Contra. I'm curious to know how much you've spent on your collection. What's the most you've spent on a single item and the most you WOULD spend for a special gaming piece?

Have you spent more or less on your collection than its current value? Do you ever plan to sell or is your stuff going to the grave or to your kids? Any game purchase regrets? Do you have insurance?

Wait, what? $100k bounty? For the original Contra artwork? Can you point me to that? I actually ran into the artiest for that a year and a half ago... I bet I could get that.

http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?StartRow=1&catid=5&threadid=179770

[Shadowfox]

I just spoke with Anna (Bob's Business partner for eCommerce stuff)

Bob didn't have any more original artwork pieces left and she doesn't have any clue were to look. So hopeful...

[Shadowfox]

And even a bit more detail: Anna seems to remember that someone snatched the Contra original artwork while it was in the Ocean office way back in the day.... so it's out there.... time to go hunt down an employee list....

[segamer]

I spent, Maybe $20k to $30k on my collection. I spent $400 on Little Samson on NES.

[Tech13]

I'm curious to know how much you've spent on your collection.

Too much but I am happy


What's the most you've spent on a single item and the most you WOULD spend for a special gaming piece?

$200 on Lunar for sega cd in near mint condition. Honestly I have all the high priced things in my collection that I want except a ps4 pro... but I am working on that.

Have you spent more or less on your collection than its current value?

if you count repairs, custom cases and art prints, More

Do you ever plan to sell or is your stuff going to the grave or to your kids?

I have a stepson that would like it, but honestly everything is for sale. If someone offered me $350,000 I would let my collection go (with it taking me almost 20 years to get it this far)

Any game purchase regrets?

Yep, and I sold those crappy games or traded them away.

 Do you have insurance?

House insurance covers the games at current market value, and my firearms keep the robbers away.

[Megatron]

I have spent quite a bit on my collection, although how much I have no idea.  I definitely haven't spent what it's worth, so if I ever did sell I would theoretically come out ahead.  But it's hard to judge if I overpaid for something when you look at newer titles.  I've paid over $100 for new special editions of current titles (Arkham series, etc) which just depreciate in value.  And the most I've ever spent on something is also tricky, as I own systems, and paid $500 for an Xbox One X. 

So taking the current and last generation out of the equations, (PS2/GC/XB and earlier) I think the only thing I paid an absurd (for the time) amount of money for something would be the Gamecube Component cable, which I paid around $160 or so.  Other than that I rarely pay market value for anything.  I definitely own things worth a ridiculous amount of money (seriously, why is Power Blade 2 worth THAT much?) but I paid considerably less than what they're worth, or I got them before the price jump.  One example would be Vanark for PS1.  I paid $5 for that in 2015.  Now it goes for $100.  The only times I consider paying market price is if it is something considerably hard to find, either just finding the game in general is tricky or finding one in great shape.  I recently paid $45 for a jewel case variant of D.  But only because I don't think I've seen a copy of that in stores or online in years. 

As for selling, I part with things here and there, but I have never considered selling the bulk of my collection.  I've given my family information on the stuff to sell if anything happens to me, but other than that I plan to hang on to this stuff for the foreseeable future.  And I have home insurance which covers the value of the games plus a few thousand buffer in case it increases substantially over the course of a year. 

[EVILSANTA777]

I used to collect for all kinds of systems back in high school but sold them all off to buy stuff to impress girls lol. Definitely worth it at the time 

After graduating college I've gotten back into it after realizing that I love having buckets of games and love the hunt for new ones. Getting into custom case making and printing covers helped me realize that I could achieve most of the fun of having a CIB collection without spending top dollar for flimsy cardboard.

I'm curious to know how much you've spent on your collection.
Since restarting my collection I've spent maybe $5,000? Not much by most standards.

What's the most you've spent on a single item and the most you WOULD spend for a special gaming piece?
I'd spend probably a grand or two on a single piece, just depends I guess. I love boxed sets of consoles, those are usually pricey depending on rarity. My most expensive item right now is probably my Earthbound + Player's Guide, spent about $200 I believe? Not mega rare but it's up there in cost.

Have you spent more or less on your collection than its current value?
Considering my collection is still pretty small and I made out like a bandit with about 20-30 first party SNES titles for $180 when I started, I'd say I'm in the green.

Do you ever plan to sell or is your stuff going to the grave or to your kids?
Don't plan on selling. Just going to have a massive ever expanding game room until I croak.

Any game purchase regrets?
Nope, I appreciate crappy games for their art, so even bad SNES titles I collect just for completion sake are still fun to look at sometimes.

Do you have insurance?
Renter's Insurance atm. If I ever got into six-digit value or more I'd take out a special policy probably. Haven't thought too much about it.

[wiggy]

Sorry, had to steal your format

• I'm curious to know how much you've spent on your collection.

That is something that I've kept absolutely ZERO track of.


• What's the most you've spent on a single item and the most you WOULD spend for a special gaming piece?

Software-wise, probably Clay Fighter Sculptor's Cut.  I believe I paid just under $200 for it.

On the hardware end, I believe I paid about $500 for my N64DD

$200 for a single game is about as much as I'd ever want to spend.  If it's more, then I'll just make myself a bootleg copy


• Have you spent more or less on your collection than its current value?

Less.  Probably a lot less.  I started collecting in the 80's.  Most of my "heavy hitter" SNES games were either purchased new or for VERY little when I worked new and used retail in the late 90's/early 00's.  Same goes for Saturn, PS1, PS2, Dreamcast, and so on.


• Do you ever plan to sell or is your stuff going to the grave or to your kids?

Going to the boy!


• Any game purchase regrets?

Not really.  I'm a very calculated buyer.  I almost NEVER buy on impulse.


• Do you have insurance?

Yup.  

[ShoothimNow]

• I'm curious to know how much you've spent on your collection.
Just like others, I don't keep track of this.

• What's the most you've spent on a single item and the most you WOULD spend for a special gaming piece?
$450 for SNES: Donkey Kong Country Competition.  Person needed rent money.

$303 for NES: TMNT Tournament Fighters + Box.  Shenske needed the scans and I don't regret helping him out.

$250 for SNES: Earthbound + Strategy Guide with Scratch n' Sniff stickers.

• Have you spent more or less on your collection than its current value?
Way less.  Mainly started collecting when great games in my area were $2.50 - $5.00.  Those same games are about $50 in the same store

• Do you ever plan to sell or is your stuff going to the grave or to your kids?
Depends, but will probably stay with the family for a while.

• Any game purchase regrets?
Nothing comes to mind, though The Exchange has had prices higher than eBay when I got home... nothing to be completely upset about though.

• Any game non-purchase regrets?
Missed eBay lots (which would have resulted in impulse purchases): tons of regret

• Do you have insurance?
Nope, I am a cheap ass.

[Shadowfox]

• I'm curious to know how much you've spent on your collection.
..man, a LOT. When I was 16 and got my first job, for the first year exactly half of my paycheck went purposely to video games. And even before that, since I was 12 Birthday and Christmas money went to games (and Legos) sooo.... I don't track it, but it's somewhere in the range of $15,000 I'm sure.

• What's the most you've spent on a single item and the most you WOULD spend for a special gaming piece?
This would be my PSP 3000 Monster Hunter Limited Edition. I spent $390.00 for it several years back.

As for game cost limit; my personal cap is $80 per game, after that I can't really justify it to myself.

• Have you spent more or less on your collection than its current value?
Way less for sure! I have funny memories of things like buying chrono trigger for $35.00 and Mega Man X2 for $50.00. MOST of my SNES and gameboy collections are from when I was a kid.

• Do you ever plan to sell or is your stuff going to the grave or to your kids?
Nope, I'm not planning on selling it. I have 7 kids so splitting up my collection would be pretty sad. I'll probable let the family do what they want with it when I die.

• Any game purchase regrets?
Nope, when I buy a game I feel like "What's done is done" if I like the game, AWESOME! If not.... it's just another to add to the collection.

• Any game non-purchase regrets?
Yes.... I should have bought Mega Man X3 when it was $65.00 (I almost did then backed out...like 10+ years ago)

• Do you have insurance?
Home Insurance. Specifically for the collection; nope.... but I should do that.  

[BadChad]

I'm curious to know how much you've spent on your collection.

Over 12 years of collecting, I've easily spent a lot of money. How much? I've never kept track of that.

What's the most you've spent on a single item and the most you WOULD spend for a special gaming piece?

$600 CDN for a copy of Musha CIB. That's the item I WOULD spend the most on. I already have anything else I would want that would fetch more these days.

Have you spent more or less on your collection than its current value?

Definitely less.

Do you ever plan to sell or is your stuff going to the grave or to your kids?

Not planning selling it (certainly not anytime soon). Probably once I'm too old to enjoy any of it.
Any game purchase regrets?

I'm sure there's a few. But significant that stands out.

Do you have insurance?

I did at my old apartment. I should probably get that set up at the new place.