How To Narrow Down The Number Of Systems You Collect For?

[Skippy B. Coyote]

You're very welcome! I will say that it was a journey to get to the point where I was able to let those things go, it certainly was not overnight (though I wish I could claim to possess herculean self-will).

 

I do understand what you mean about "collector compulsion", as even now I am occasionally tempted to pick up an old system again. Usually I ask myself when I am tempted, "What specific moments do I hope to have with this console?", and "What is the exact reason I have for purchasing this?". If the answers aren't something concrete such as, "I want this system because it has these specific games I can only play on this system, and I will play them often." then I realize it's most likely something I can live without.

 

I feel that the desire to obtain things isn't so much a selfish first-world desire, but more of a base neurological process. Back when we were hunter-gatherers, we were wired for "the hunt". We set a goal in our minds (obtaining food) then put all our resources towards that end. During the hunt the brain would release doses of dopamine the closer we came to obtaining food, and finally when we did obtain it (gather the berries, down the animal) we received a surge of pleasure as a "reward". These days we don't do much hunting, but our brains are still wired for that drive. So we find other things to hunt for to find the same dopamine releases. That's why almost universally collectors find the hunt more satisfying than whatever particular item they obtain. The good news is we aren't slaves to those impulses. Like anything, with time and continual reinforcement, we can change how we respond to those desires. Even starting as simple as boxing up your least-used system and having a friend or family member store it, well out of your reach may help. What you are doing is slowly reinforcing in your mind that it is okay to be without that system. The longer you go, the less your mind hungers for it. Of course, this also requires that you stop hunting for anything related to that particular system to truly work (i.e. not looking up anything related to the NES for example), but that's part of the effort. At the same time, if you continue collecting for and playing your favorite system(s), you'll still give your brain that thrill of the hunt it is asking for. I'm not a psychologist, but you may just find your desire for other systems decreases to the point where you may feel confident enough to let some go. The single most important thing to remember is give yourself time. Don't try to rush through everything, or you'll make yourself miserable. If you feel that you may want to consider reducing your systems, just take it slow and steady. Our minds prefer gradual curves, not sudden turns.

 

All that being said, I wouldn't dare to try and tell you what you should or shouldn't do. That is simply what worked for me, and I found much peace with myself. What works for you may be quite different than what worked for me.

 

Next, I have to take a look at liquidating my camera collection! Not looking forward to it, but again when I realized that I never touched them I knew the time has come to let them go.

Very good points all around! I'm definitely one of those collectors who probably enjoys hunting for games more than I do actually playing them (thus why flash carts are so unappealing to me), though I have always limited myself to hunting for games that I think I will genuinely enjoy playing when I get them. I've never been the "completionist" type who felt the need to own every game released for a system, I just try to track down the games that I think I would personally enjoy playing; and build diverse enough library for all my systems to give a good representation of that system's strengths and it's standout titles.

 

For many years that wasn't a problem at all, because I spent most of my time hunting for fairly common games for the Atari 2600, Game Boy/Color/Advance, and Genesis. The games I bought all ran me $1 to $3 each on average so it wasn't a big deal if I only played them for half an hour or so then put them in a drawer. At that price I felt like I was getting my money's worth of fun out of them, both in the hunt and the time I spent actually playing them. But times have changed and I now own all the common and inexpensive games I wanted to acquire for all my systems, and the prices for the rest of the games on my various wants lists just keep going up and up; making it unaffordable for me to keep collecting across a wide range of systems. That in turn makes me wish I could just narrow my collecting desires to one or two systems, and be happy and content enjoying not only the hunt but actually playing the games I buy.

 

Can I ask what it was that made you decide on the GameCube as "The One"? You seem to have had a pretty similar collecting background to me so I think I might already have a pretty good idea why you chose to stick with the system you did, but I'd still like to hear your thoughts on what makes the GameCube so special to you that you've been happy collecting for and playing games on just that one system. If you're up for sharing that is.

Edited October 30, 2015 by Jin

[zylon]

For me, the cube was a keeper and the only system of that generation I kept. It didn't have the selection choices the other two systems had, but it had enough of every type of game I wanted to play on it. So there's always something for whatever mood hits me. Being able to play most of my GB,GBC, and GBA games on it was also a consideration. I spend lots of time on the old menu-driven RPGs and the GBs had them in spades. I am working from a one-room apartment for now so space was also a consideration. All that made the cube a no-brainer in which systems I would bring along. I chose the GC, my 360, and my Gen2 systems. The rest I do via emulation and a USB saturn style controller.

I also got rid of many systems at my real home during this last winter- NES, SNES, all handhelds, some DC and C64's as well. I realized that I only used DC for emulation so I sold most of them off, and switched to an SD drive for C64 and also sold most of those, keeping the 65XEs as my only classic computers.

[Keatah]

Over the recent years I've whittled down an extensive hoard⁽¹⁾. A hoard so epic that the TV show would be scared. Little kids running away. Don't want.. And the remaining material goes something like:

 

1 garage worth of Apple II and III material

1 486 DX2/50 + 3x tubs of support gear
TRS-80 Pocket Computer models 1,2,4 Complete MIB NIB CIB (2x tubs)
TI-59 Complete NIB MIB CIB (2x tubs)

1 super emulation box

5-10 or so boxes of odds and ends, calculators, RadioShack stuff, kits, parts, couple of handhelds.

 

And I couldn't be happier. Things are accessible, usable, manageable, nicely organized and displayed. And most important its enjoyable again. I'll be targeting the Apple stuff this early winter and swinging the ax one more time. Most will go on ebay. Things I'm not able to test or not in the mood for testing will be sold for a token payment of $10 or given away.

 

(1) - VCS, Intellivision, Colecovision, Vectrex, Astrocade, Odyssey^2, Atari 400/800, 5200, 7800, 520/1040ST, 130XE, 800XL, XEGS, TRS-80 Color Computer, Model I, II, III, Vic-20, C64, Microvision, Aquarius, Coleco Adam, Apple-//e, ][, ][+, ///, Timex Sinclair ZX-81, Amiga 500/1000, TI-994/A, PSX-1, SMS, SNES, NES, Genesis, X32, Macintosh 128K, Kim-1, Cosmac VIP, Gameboy, Lynx, IBM PC 8088 through Pentium class and beyond, 47 arcade cabinets, overstock buyouts. Multiples of each system. And more! Peripherals, attachments, controllers, wires, printed material, overlays, mods, adapters, books, magazines, newsletters, boxes, manuals, hundreds of cartridges, disks, tapes for each.. the list goes on..

[byonddrivn]

Over the recent years I've whittled down an extensive hoard⁽¹⁾. A hoard so epic that the TV show would be scared. Little kids running away. Don't want.. And the remaining material goes something like:

 

1 garage worth of Apple II and III material

1 486 DX2/50 + 3x tubs of support gear

TRS-80 Pocket Computer models 1,2,4 Complete MIB NIB CIB (2x tubs)

TI-59 Complete NIB MIB CIB (2x tubs)

1 super emulation box

5-10 or so boxes of odds and ends, calculators, RadioShack stuff, kits, parts, couple of handhelds.

 

And I couldn't be happier. Things are accessible, usable, manageable, nicely organized and displayed. And most important its enjoyable again. I'll be targeting the Apple stuff this early winter and swinging the ax one more time. Most will go on ebay. Things I'm not able to test or not in the mood for testing will be sold for a token payment of $10 or given away.

 

(1) - VCS, Intellivision, Colecovision, Vectrex, Astrocade, Odyssey^2, Atari 400/800, 5200, 7800, 520/1040ST, 130XE, 800XL, XEGS, TRS-80 Color Computer, Model I, II, III, Vic-20, C64, Microvision, Aquarius, Coleco Adam, Apple-//e, ][, ][+, ///, Timex Sinclair ZX-81, Amiga 500/1000, TI-994/A, PSX-1, SMS, SNES, NES, Genesis, X32, Macintosh 128K, Kim-1, Cosmac VIP, Gameboy, Lynx, IBM PC 8088 through Pentium class and beyond, 47 arcade cabinets, overstock buyouts. Multiples of each system. And more! Peripherals, attachments, controllers, wires, printed material, overlays, mods, adapters, books, magazines, newsletters, boxes, manuals, hundreds of cartridges, disks, tapes for each.. the list goes on..

Did I hear VIC-20? Do you still have that? Can I call dibs? I don't know if you've read my post in the Marketplace about my missing item that a seller may or may not have shipped but it was a VIC-20. Been waiting a month for it to show and I've given up, pisses me off too cuz out of the things I did receive that was what I wanted the most. Probably the last retro/classic system I'm looking for. Had one as a kid with the tape drive, modem, & joystick. Been looking for a replacement for a while so I can get my Radar Rat Race fix.

[Keatah]

Did I hear VIC-20? Do you still have that?

 

I do not. It would have been sold, traded, or disposed in recent years. The Apple II, III, and TRS-80 Pocket Computers are the only vintage systems I have.

[byonddrivn]

 

I do not. It would have been sold, traded, or disposed in recent years. The Apple II, III, and TRS-80 Pocket Computers are the only vintage systems I have.

Damn, how can that be so elusive for me? In reference to the OT, that's something I could see just getting a multicart for. No spending a lot of money or taking a lot of space or hunting.

 

Sadly a lot of my problem is I like turn based RPGs too so I play them on a lot of systems but since they're not made too much anymore I've moved on to my second favorite genre, racing. I like the more current systems for that tho.

[godslabrat]

It's very, very difficult for me to get into collecting for any system I didn't use back in its heyday. I've grabbed some CDI and Dreamcast stuff on the fringe, but that's it.

 

There are some systems that I really overbought. The original Xbox and the PS2 are good examples. I have a dozen games for each, and I kinda-sorta want them all, but I truly keep the systems for one or two really neat exclusives. But if I went back in time and stopped myself from buying them, my life wouldn't be much different. So those are now my "cautionary" systems.

[HoshiChiri]

For many years that wasn't a problem at all, because I spent most of my time hunting for fairly common games for the Atari 2600, Game Boy/Color/Advance, and Genesis. The games I bought all ran me $1 to $3 each on average so it wasn't a big deal if I only played them for half an hour or so then put them in a drawer. At that price I felt like I was getting my money's worth of fun out of them, both in the hunt and the time I spent actually playing them. But times have changed and I now own all the common and inexpensive games I wanted to acquire for all my systems, and the prices for the rest of the games on my various wants lists just keep going up and up; making it unaffordable for me to keep collecting across a wide range of systems. That in turn makes me wish I could just narrow my collecting desires to one or two systems, and be happy and content enjoying not only the hunt but actually playing the games I buy.

 

 

Ah yes, the collector's tipping point, when your ability to pay for new acquisitions cannot overcome the cost of said acquisitions. I hit that point several years back, I have friends just now getting there. I can't help you much there- I honestly find it kind of liberating, to basically call my collection 'done' and focus on enjoying what I've got. Of course, maybe I'm just ok with it because I have so many systems there's usually one or two with some cheap stuff I can go digging for.

 

There's two ways I tend to go when new games aren't on the docket to keep up 'the hunt' for my collection: one is storage. I'm constantly poking at new boxes & bins, looking for the perfect way to house the games I have. What makes it interesting for gaming is, so much stuff is non-standard sizes as far as storage bins go, so you have to get creative. Sega CD and other longbox disc games rarely fit in media storage boxes- and if they do, it's a loose fit with room to stick things in at odd angles. But this Ikea shoebox? Perfect size! You really have to look everywhere, too- I wish I'd discovered Dixit Expansion boxes make great cart trays for several systems before we threw half of them away. Did you know the wider side of a typical Intellivision cart is the same size as a Magic The Gathering card? Means anything that hold the cards vertically can double as Intellivision storage. You can find all sorts of unexpected game holders with enough poking around.

 

The second thing I do is re-shopping old bargains. I don't put a lot of effort into this, but it can be fun to check prices on something you already own and see how the value's changed. For example, today at a local shop I spotted a copy of Tail Concerto, CIB, for $80. I got my copy a good 10ish years ago... for $5. Makes it feel like a steal all over again. Gotta be careful with this one, though- it's just as likely you'll see the item of choice is half the cost you spent on it. I mostly just opt to skim the 'I can't afford this stuff' case every used media place has, to see if anything I already own is in there.

[zylon]

Damn, how can that be so elusive for me? In reference to the OT, that's something I could see just getting a multicart for. No spending a lot of money or taking a lot of space or hunting.

 

Sadly a lot of my problem is I like turn based RPGs too so I play them on a lot of systems but since they're not made too much anymore I've moved on to my second favorite genre, racing. I like the more current systems for that tho.

 

I sold about 15 working VIC-20 systems to a place in Wilkes-Barre, PA called "The Video Game Store". They are willing to ship things. I also sold them all my software carts and tapes as well.

 

http://www.yellowpages.com/wilkes-barre-pa/mip/the-video-game-store-17088313

[Andromeda Stardust]

I've got a bunch of crappy NES and Atari titles. Some other filler here and there. Some of which I've never played. One weekend when you've got nothing better to do, go through your entire collection for a given system. Put every game into the system and play it. If it grabs your attention, put it in the keep pile. If it bores your or downright sucks, put it in the sell pile. Don't get sucked in and kill time playing. If you find a game intriguing or need more time to decide, keep it for now. You will know crap when you come across it.

 

Check the prices on pricecharting. Anything that's worth something, try to sell. If it's cheap, just unload it at a used games store. Sure they pay pennies on the dollar, but your time is valuable. You'll spend more time photographing and listing items and running to the post office than it's worth. Lots at slightly below market price are another option.

 

Finally get a flashcart for every system if you don't already have one. Play games to your hearts content without breaking the bank.

 

And channel your collecting efforts in homebrew. They are great games, often much better than period releases, and worth it to support the community. Let the collectors hoard the vintage junk. One awesome homebrew is better than half a dozen lackluster shelf sitters from back in the day.

[Classic Pac]

easy for me the ones I will actually play

[sega_SHARK]

I sold off :

SNES.

I had CIB copies of all the Star Wars games, Zelda, Metroid, some rare Koei stuff.

 

NES:

I had a nice stack of Konami games with sleeve and manual.

 

Dreamcast:

My translucent controller/memory card collection, two arcade sticks, a stack of fighting games.

 

Transformers toys:

All of the early release Masterpiece Transformers, the really expensive big guys.

Boxed eHobby exclusives that I was never going to open.

 

Battletech tabletop wargame:

EVERY PRODUCT RELEASED in the first five years. Every miniature, still sealed. Every guidebook.

 

Advanced Dungeons and Dragons:

Every hardcover except the Dungeon Master's Guide.

 

Comic Books:

12 short boxes sold off. I had 14 at one time.

 

I regret none of it. It's just stuff.

 

Buy a flash cart with the money you made from selling off stuff.

 

Join a high score club.

 

 

[icemanxp300]

The best way to enjoy and collect w/out going broke is by game hunting. Some people frown on resellers but at the end of the day I have an entire basement full of thousands of games that I actually made money on by collecting.

 

You really need to become a walking price guide. You also have to be willing to put in the time. This is basically how I do it.

 

Say you see a lot worth $200. You pay $100 for it, that is a very reasonable expectation in my area at least. You then keep only a portion and just make sure to sell and get your money back. There is a catch. Sometimes the lot is so good you want to keep everything, that's ok. However you MUST sell something else from your collection to recoup the funds. This is not a problem usually as long as you sell an easily obtainable title. Something like Mario 64 has good value but lets face it, it is all over the place where as something like Space station is of equal value but not as common to find. You may like Mario 64 better but you have to sell that game because it will be easier to re-acquire.

 

If you have patience and just buy whatever you see at a good price and resell a portion you will amass a huge collection in no time. You can then resell from what you own to buy something you really want as well.

Edited October 31, 2015 by icemanxp300

[TPA5]

Very good points all around! I'm definitely one of those collectors who probably enjoys hunting for games more than I do actually playing them (thus why flash carts are so unappealing to me), though I have always limited myself to hunting for games that I think I will genuinely enjoy playing when I get them. I've never been the "completionist" type who felt the need to own every game released for a system, I just try to track down the games that I think I would personally enjoy playing; and build diverse enough library for all my systems to give a good representation of that system's strengths and it's standout titles.

 

For many years that wasn't a problem at all, because I spent most of my time hunting for fairly common games for the Atari 2600, Game Boy/Color/Advance, and Genesis. The games I bought all ran me $1 to $3 each on average so it wasn't a big deal if I only played them for half an hour or so then put them in a drawer. At that price I felt like I was getting my money's worth of fun out of them, both in the hunt and the time I spent actually playing them. But times have changed and I now own all the common and inexpensive games I wanted to acquire for all my systems, and the prices for the rest of the games on my various wants lists just keep going up and up; making it unaffordable for me to keep collecting across a wide range of systems. That in turn makes me wish I could just narrow my collecting desires to one or two systems, and be happy and content enjoying not only the hunt but actually playing the games I buy.

 

Can I ask what it was that made you decide on the GameCube as "The One"? You seem to have had a pretty similar collecting background to me so I think I might already have a pretty good idea why you chose to stick with the system you did, but I'd still like to hear your thoughts on what makes the GameCube so special to you that you've been happy collecting for and playing games on just that one system. If you're up for sharing that is.

 

A large part of it is the massive nostalgia that comes with putting one of those mini-discs in, snapping the lid shut and hearing that Gamecube jingle for the 3 millionth time. The other part is that it has games I really love to play, which makes collecting for it a joy because the rush doesn't end when the game comes in the mail and goes on the shelf. I return to the games over and over again and love playing them. So, though I have I think in the range of about 50 Gamecube games I can honestly say that over the years I have played all of them, and I am still finding new ones to enjoy. That's why the Gamecube clicks for me as a console to collect for. It's also the reason I am okay with emulating games from the SNES, NES, etc. Because there are so few games I would end up playing so rarely, I can't justify the space and cost of a console setup with games.

 

I suppose it boils down to why you want to collect. Many here collect essentially for the sake of collecting, never really playing the games at length, and that's totally okay! Personally, I shifted my collecting mentality from simply obtaining stuff, the obtaining games I wanted to (and would) play. Hence the Gamecube for my primary console-collecting, and Good Old Games for a lot of the PC games I played growing up.

[Keatah]

Check the prices on pricecharting. Anything that's worth something, try to sell. If it's cheap, just unload it at a used games store. Sure they pay pennies on the dollar, but your time is valuable. You'll spend more time photographing and listing items and running to the post office than it's worth. Lots at slightly below market price are another option.

 

Yup. that is one of the reasons why I do not collect for physical systems anymore. The time and money and traveling involved for what often amounts to acquiring filler material. It's just not worth it. All that effort to get 100% material, including all the negative traits that go with it.

 

When ebay time and fees, traveling, gas, packing material and trips to the post office are factored in. Do you really come out ahead? This is another area where emulation (or flashcarts) reign supreme.

 

 

And channel your collecting efforts in homebrew. They are great games, often much better than period releases, and worth it to support the community. Let the collectors hoard the vintage junk. One awesome homebrew is better than half a dozen lackluster shelf sitters from back in the day.

 

Ohh god yes. I can't wait till I reach the Apple III boxes I've got stashed. They are gonna be all gone. Gone! Gone! Gone! That along with many other useless ebay purchases conducted over the past 10 years.

 

Returning my Apple II material to its roots, to the stuff I had as a kid, is going to be great fun. And profitable too. I've had things I bought on fleabay in 1990's and have not developed a nostalgic or sentimental attachment it to it. But my original peripherals from the 80's? That's all a keeper.

[Keatah]

I wonder how the collecting bug gets started? When I was a kid I had the VCS with the 8 or so launch titles. Got a new game every couple of weeks more or less. Certainly at the time I did not care about a collection, what I had, or in starting one. I wouldn't have known what a collection was in the first place. And if you were to "grade" my "collection" it would have been very modest and in average shape.

 

The somewhere along the way I ended up with several garages full of this stuff. And then it became a burden. And first, now, I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. We're hitting the Apple material this winter.

 

Making two mounds.

 

1- Stuff I owned back in the day and used as a kid in school.

2- Stuff I bought on fleabay beginning in the 1990's.

 

The stuff I had as a kid I would expect to fill a car trunk at most. That's a keeper. That's sentimental stuff.

The stuff I bought on feebay, we're just going to rent a container and get it hauled it away. The wife is checking prices and agreed to pay for it! I just hope they can fit it in the back yard I don't want to truck all this stuff out to the front.

 

There may be a box or two of crossover stuff, such as spare cards, chips, drive parts. Things that I bought on ebay which are genuinely useful. Or things that can be used to keep my original equipment operational, print heads for MX-80 printer, ram & rom chips, drive pressure pads. Sockets. Baggie of brackets and screws. Odds and ends. Nothing bulky or space consuming though.

 

I just cannot see the point of keeping this material anymore. Let's look at an arbitrary box that's sagging under the weight of 4 boxes stacked atop.

 

3 Profile /// drives. Unknown condition

Apple III Business Basic and manuals

20+ floppies of accounting and business and spreadsheet software for the ///

An external drive for the ///

Some sort of addendum papers for something

 

Another box reveals,

Variety of printer and serial cables

Some /// cards of unknown working condition

AC cords

A warranty sheet and card

2 floppies

A PC BIOS setup guide

 

Despite having had it for many years none of it means anything to me. There is no personal history or sentimental attachment to it. So why continue to house it? It's not like it's worth anything or likely to be worth anything anytime soon. Right?

[ubersaurus]

My suggestion: once you've gotten the specific titles you want for a platform, don't sweat looking for more. There are only a couple ps1 games I still want, and I check for them, but I am happy to skip the hundreds I don't have or want. Unloading any items you don't actually care about or expect to play anytime isn't a bad idea either, if it's weighing on you.

 

These days I basically only buy specific games I want or cool stuff on pre-nes platforms. I'm happy with the arrangement!

[Schizophretard]

I wonder how the collecting bug gets started? When I was a kid I had the VCS with the 8 or so launch titles. Got a new game every couple of weeks more or less. Certainly at the time I did not care about a collection, what I had, or in starting one. I wouldn't have known what a collection was in the first place. And if you were to "grade" my "collection" it would have been very modest and in average shape.

For me it was always there. There was never a time when I was a kid that someone could ask,"Would you like to own every video game in the world?" with me answering,"No!" I also grew up surrounded by collecting. My mom was into collecting every single family picture, birthday card, etc. in albums. She also had and still has a thing for romance novels so that she can escape from listening to my dad. My dad was into having a CB/HAM radio with an illegal amount of power and then collecting post cards from people he talked to all over the planet. He seemed to want every single channel too because he had crystals or whatever added in to listen to the military and NASA. It was fun making him scream when he would catch me speaking on those channels. Today he seems to be into collecting more watts for his pirate... I mean... part 15 radio station. I can't really recall what my younger brother was into back in the day but today he is into collecting watches, cigars, and lots of money. Now my older brother was collector to the extreme. He collected Garbage Pale Kids cards, Baseball cards, G.I. Joes, WWF wrestlers, Transformers, and most importantly had massive NES/SNES collections back when they were new. I was collecting VCS, Game Boy, Coleco-Vision, etc. back then but eventually expanded into other systems, music, movies, and anything that seems retro and/or cool to me.

 

The collecting bug has been a part of my life since birth. It seems normal to me. I can't even relate to people who don't have it. For an example, most mansions I have been into are mostly empty. They own the basic things that everyone else owns like furniture, a TV, beds, dressers, etc. except more expensive versions. However, everything they own looks like it could fit in a 3 or 4 bedroom apartment but instead of doing that they put it in mansions of mostly empty space with ceilings as high as churches. I mean, Hell, I own more stuff than the average rich person. I look at their walls stretching up to those church like ceilings and fanaticize about book shelves going all the way up with massive collections on them with no space in the mansion wasted. But they don't think that way for some reason. It seems like they are thinking,"I want to own the same stuff and same amount of it as poor people in the ghetto but just more expensive versions of that stuff. Then instead of an apartment that can fit it all comfortably, I want a mansion with wide open spaces. If my living room set doesn't look like it is sitting in the middle of a gymnasium then my living room is too small." It makes me wonder where they got the incentive to work hard enough to become rich if they don't want to use the money to own more things than if they were poor and why they want to buy homes so big if they are going to waste most of the space. If I were in their shoes then I would have no incentive to work at all. I might as well be on welfare and just living the poor ghetto generic version of what the rich live because both seem equally boring with the rich version just being more expensive. Work harder and pay more for the same life? Makes no sense to me. I guess what I'm trying to say is that if I didn't have the collecting bug I would be lost. I would be thinking something like,"Okay, I gave up collecting. I sold off everything that I didn't need and now just have my bare necessities. So, what do I do with the money from everything I sold? I can't start buying things because I will be collecting again. I guess I save it? But for what? Why am I working 40 hours per week when I probably could maintain my needs at 20 hours per week? But if I did that then what would I do with my extra 20 hours of free time if I don't have a collection of fun stuff to enjoy at home? It would just be free time of total boredom. Not having the collecting bug sucks and being normal is weird!"

 

Anyway, an addition to your question could be online shopping like eBay. That doesn't start the bug but it magnifies it. Finding whatever your heart desires easily without even leaving your home is the collector's version of online gambling for a gambling addict.

[Keatah]

Classic video games are a mere conduit and memory aid for experiencing past happy times. But beware, they also work opposite that, too, and can make you recall a sense of dread.

 

[Flojomojo]

I think we all have a similar relationship with stuff, it expands to fill the space, we purge stuff we don't need, we make space for new stuff. Sometimes we buy something because we think it will make us happy. Sometimes it's because we have liked other things like it. Sometimes it's because other people say they enjoy it. Sometimes we grab "bargains" because they are cheap.

 

I try to imagine everything in my house as having to pay rent, because there's a finite amount of space -- and I definitely have a finite amount of time and attention. I also try to think about what will happen to something I want to buy 5, 10 or more years into the future -- is this something I really want to make my kid deal with? I no longer pick up stuff because I can, or because it's on sale. I have to want it. Only easily hidden, sortable things like digital media (Humble Bundle! GOG! Steam! Kindle Books! iTunes Movies!) gets purchased on impulse. Some of that stuff sits around "just in case" but it's not bankrupting me, taking up space, or disrupting my life.

 

Empty, white space can be really soothing. Having entire empty shelves is pure zen. Throwing stuff out (donating, selling, freecycling) feels great.

[Andromeda Stardust]

Classic video games are a mere conduit and memory aid for experiencing past happy times. But beware, they also work opposite that, too, and can make you recall a sense of dread.

 

Anyone who has ever experienced controller-breaking rage will know the feeling of playing bad games...

[Skippy B. Coyote]

Anyone who has ever experienced controller-breaking rage will know the feeling of playing bad games...

Or good ones like Truxton and Ninja Gaiden. There are some good games out there that may one day make you curse the money you spent buying them.

[Andromeda Stardust]

Or good ones like Truxton and Ninja Gaiden. There are some good games out there that may one day make you curse the money you spent buying them.

Well at least the first few levels of Ninja Gaidan are playable. I rarely play games to completion anyway so I can still get enjoyment out them even if the second-to-last stage or final boss is virtually impossible without cheats or save states. Even the AVGN had to use a Genie to reach the latter stages of the game in his review.

[bretthorror]

From my experience to the OP - granted I have a lot of shit and there are certain things I'd still buy, though these are becoming few and far between. What I did was went the emulation road - though this may sound foreign to you now since you like the thrill of the hunt, once you're off that little addiction, that's when you start thinking about playing your games. I know this because I used to spend all my time searching for stuff to buy. Playing is the natural way to fill the new free time on your hands when you quit buying. Now, I kept all my consoles so I can play on original hardware for most everything out there sans a handful, but stopped buying any games I could emulate. This knocks a lot of shit out of your way and can actually make you "accumulate" more games in the long run. Instead of buying games, I bought things like a shitload of those old school table top arcade games or handheld games that interested me based on what I was into. I like wrestling, so I got all the old ass WWF ones. I like hockey, so I got those and Donkey Kong Hockey. I found this collection a lot more rewarding than a wall of carts because everything looks cool and is unique. They can be played and displayed and not just be a damn wall. I have a wall of DVDs, so when I see people's complete NES collection, all I see is my full DVD wall from roof to floor and shake my head. Half of it is needless, though at the time it served its purpose. Unfortunately, selling them off for $1 - 2 apiece (I'd want the stuff I can't find on Netflix, etc.) is hardly worth the effort.

 

The emulation thing is cool as well, because while I don't own Bible Adventures, I could try it any time I want - and that would be my main interest in having a ton of NES games - to try them. However, I bought a Zoomer racing wheel controller for NES and a couple more racing games, and a lot of light gun games because that can't be emulated. Sega 3D glasses came with physical carts as well, so these accessories still had me tracking down some games, but the number of them I wanted was so much more manageable and not having to pay top dollar for certain games left my mind at ease. I'm about 3 years out of that kind of collecting and now I'm at the point where I shook it off almost completely and literally subscribed to Indiebox for $20 a month, which sends you a surprise physical copy collector's edition of a well rated indie game per month. I found that I just didn't really want to buy any more of this old stuff, I have enough of it, instead I'd rather get a retro style game, new in packaging, crack the seal, read the manual, experience everything for the first time for something modern, not old as the hills.

 

Not sure if this will help you, but it shows you how my collecting of games/DVDs waned into something acceptable. My most basic advice would be to definitely not stop collecting for all consoles. You have the systems - just buy the games you'd theoretically want to play the most. No need to back yourself into a corner. For me, emulation (for you, maybe you'd want flashcarts) made me calm down because any game I couldn't find, or was too expensive, or whatever was still able to be played by me at any moment. If you're done collecting hardcore and wanna give Quadrun a try, you can without breaking the bank, especially if it turns out to be a bust. I've also heard of people who use emulation first to steer them into buying quality games for their collection, leaving behind the filler and wasted bucks. And from the time you spend playing your emulation arcade, I don't know just how much you'd be against it if you tried it for a month or two. And if you do try it, try it in a way it's not a pain in the ass to you. A flashcart would be cool or even if you had like an Ouya because it's cheap to play around with, full screen HD picture, no dicking around with a PC, etc. I love my Ouya because I have a wireless controller for it that I can turn the system on and off, navigate and play virtually every game ever with that one controller.

[Andromeda Stardust]

From my experience to the OP - granted I have a lot of shit and there are certain things I'd still buy, though these are becoming few and far between. What I did was went the emulation road - though this may sound foreign to you now since you like the thrill of the hunt, once you're off that little addiction, that's when you start thinking about playing your games. I know this because I used to spend all my time searching for stuff to buy. Playing is the natural way to fill the new free time on your hands when you quit buying. Now, I kept all my consoles so I can play on original hardware for most everything out there sans a handful, but stopped buying any games I could emulate. This knocks a lot of shit out of your way and can actually make you "accumulate" more games in the long run. Instead of buying games, I bought things like a shitload of those old school table top arcade games or handheld games that interested me based on what I was into. I like wrestling, so I got all the old ass WWF ones. I like hockey, so I got those and Donkey Kong Hockey. I found this collection a lot more rewarding than a wall of carts because everything looks cool and is unique. They can be played and displayed and not just be a damn wall. I have a wall of DVDs, so when I see people's complete NES collection, all I see is my full DVD wall from roof to floor and shake my head. Half of it is needless, though at the time it served its purpose. Unfortunately, selling them off for $1 - 2 apiece (I'd want the stuff I can't find on Netflix, etc.) is hardly worth the effort.

 

The emulation thing is cool as well, because while I don't own Bible Adventures, I could try it any time I want - and that would be my main interest in having a ton of NES games - to try them. However, I bought a Zoomer racing wheel controller for NES and a couple more racing games, and a lot of light gun games because that can't be emulated. Sega 3D glasses came with physical carts as well, so these accessories still had me tracking down some games, but the number of them I wanted was so much more manageable and not having to pay top dollar for certain games left my mind at ease. I'm about 3 years out of that kind of collecting and now I'm at the point where I shook it off almost completely and literally subscribed to Indiebox for $20 a month, which sends you a surprise physical copy collector's edition of a well rated indie game per month. I found that I just didn't really want to buy any more of this old stuff, I have enough of it, instead I'd rather get a retro style game, new in packaging, crack the seal, read the manual, experience everything for the first time for something modern, not old as the hills.

 

Not sure if this will help you, but it shows you how my collecting of games/DVDs waned into something acceptable. My most basic advice would be to definitely not stop collecting for all consoles. You have the systems - just buy the games you'd theoretically want to play the most. No need to back yourself into a corner. For me, emulation (for you, maybe you'd want flashcarts) made me calm down because any game I couldn't find, or was too expensive, or whatever was still able to be played by me at any moment. If you're done collecting hardcore and wanna give Quadrun a try, you can without breaking the bank, especially if it turns out to be a bust. I've also heard of people who use emulation first to steer them into buying quality games for their collection, leaving behind the filler and wasted bucks. And from the time you spend playing your emulation arcade, I don't know just how much you'd be against it if you tried it for a month or two. And if you do try it, try it in a way it's not a pain in the ass to you. A flashcart would be cool or even if you had like an Ouya because it's cheap to play around with, full screen HD picture, no dicking around with a PC, etc. I love my Ouya because I have a wireless controller for it that I can turn the system on and off, navigate and play virtually every game ever with that one controller.

Agree with your entire post, just replace "emulation" with flash carts. The only emulation I do is on my Raspberry Pi MAME bartop because there's no way to play these games without emulation or a huge budget and a giant garage.