A change in thinking regarding game collections

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Recently, my video game collection has been bugging me. I have a bunch of unplayed/unfinished games sitting in my bookshelf staring at me, most of which will probably never be played or finished. Now pretty much since I was 15 years old (6 years ago) I have kept the mindset that I would never sell any of my games. I was even going to keep the cream of the crap for collection purposes. When I was much younger, I had other systems and games that I traded in for new ones, and some of those trade-ins I deeply regretted, thus sparking the new way of thinking.

More recently, starting this summer, I realized that I did not need all of these games. I convinced myself to sell my SNES and ~70 games to my friend, using these points: 1) I haven't played this system in years, 2) I have all of these games plus thousands on my computer and I never play those either, and 3)I could use the extra space and the money. It's been over half a year and I still haven't regretted it. Likewise, I plan to get rid of my Atari systems and NES.

With that out of the way, I could focus on collecting for my 3 main systems: Gamecube, Nintendo DS, and Game Boy Advance. I was still under the impression that I would never sell any of my games for these sysytems, just for collection's sake; I currently own about 80 Gamecube games, 50 GBA games, and 35 DS games. Mostly the games I own are pretty good, but I have some real stinkers in there that up until now, I had been hanging on to to make my collection bigger. No, I never play Madden 2002 on Gamecube, and I really hated Lost Magic on DS. The problem is, when they're sitting there uncompleted on my shelf, it eats away at me. I hate having an uncompleted game lying around that I know I'll probably never want to beat.

So, I'm starting to weed out my collection a bit. Nothing major, mind you; I'm only looking at getting rid of 5 or so of my Gamecube games, about 5 GBA games, and 2 DS games. I'm basically operating by this new principle: If it's good, keep it, if it's not, sell it.

Anyways, any thoughts on the matter? Are you the type of person that never sells a game, or one that gets rid of them as soon as you beat them?
 
I pretty much trade in anything I don't think I'll ever play again. I don't really carts just for the sake of collection. However, my collection is still pretty large, since I have a lot of good games from my 25 years of buying habits.

However, I have always kept my consoles. I have a hall closet full of consoles. Some of them haven't been powered up in close to ten years... (cough, Atari Jaguar).

Some of the consoles might be missing a cable or two by this point... but I still would never throw one away. It's like throwing books away -- you just don't do that;) !
 
I keep my games, mainly because I won't get half of what I paid for the games I own. Hardly do I ever buy Next-Gen games untill years later.

If you want to rid yourself of those games, hit me up :D
 
I keep most of my games since I rarely feel I paid too much for a game. The only time I get rid of a game is if I bought it on sale, then heard it was crap or played it and didn't like it, then I sell it.

Since you rarely get a good return on them anyway, I'd rather they collect dust.

Of course, now that I'm running out of room to put all of them, I'm starting to regret my decision.:lol:
 
I avoid selling by games...simply because I fear it'll be a pain in the ass to track them down again if I get the itch to play it again.

I've made some concessions, where if I know the game will absolutely depreciate in value...I'll sell it now and sit it out till it's cheap (case in point, The Simpsons game...I got 900 points for it on goozex, I'm sure in a year or 2 it'll be a 200 point game)
 
Since Rhino closed, and most people don't give anything for XBox games, i've been keeping all my XBox games. I think i'm at 204 now. I'm keeping my 360 games (for now), and i'm at 93 360 games.
 
I like being the 'omfg! you still got that?' guy...
My NES, SNES, and Genesis games Ill NEVER get rid of (except of course the doubles I have... considering I bought a lot of games from guys like you that hock their system and all their games for $50 when they needed $$.)

Its not even like Im waiting for the resale to go up, I just like having these things. ITs like part of my childhood that I still have that was really frigging cool.

Funny, my Brother used to trade in his games all the time... When I kept EVERYTHING!
 
Yeah started dumping my stuff I have beat or wont get to in the future unless its totally worthless.

We ar reaching a digital age in reality and if you get the itch it will be cheaper in the next few years (legaly) to play them. There are other options as well if its just an itch to play of course.

I am going to try to keep a game, beat it, move it for something else rinse and repeat. This way I should have minimally invested. Its been working out pretty well to this point.
 
I'm definitely of the "collector" mindset. Though, I have never bought a game for collection purchases, once I have it, I'll usually keep it. My downfall lately has been that I've been getting tons of games for $5 and under, so I haven't put much money into it, and you can't get much for it. Honestly, if I can only get $1 for my game, I'll just keep it. If I am in a spot where someone comes over and wants to play it (especially a relative that I'm forced to entertain), it pays for itself right there.

Plus, I definitely get a warm/fuzzy feeling looking at my 300 or so game collection. Also, looking at it, I have to say that at least half of them I'd be willing to play again. I am actually one of those people that, 5 years from now, I might get an itch to play an older game, even if it's just for an hour or 2.

Then again, I'm lucky so far to devote a room of my house to video games, a luxury many don't have. Without that, I'd have some trouble.
 
I ran into the same problem about two years ago, way too many clearance games and what not and my time was shrinking to almost nothing. I cleared house, cut my collection down by leaps and bounds , now what I have left is more or less what I can see myself playing, honestly I miss nothing from any of it.

I will say though my only regret was getting rid of the consoles as well, that was a mistake, I could have used the gamecube for import gaming, Xbox backwards compatibility is still not where I need it to be,PS2 would have been nice for stuff like Takio Drum master and the GunCon games. Funny enough I still have a NES and Super Nintendo, just have no more games for them.
 
I'm in that similar position right now with my collection. I just have so much stuff that I don't appreciate anymore and wonder why I keep it. Between junky psx/Genesis/SNES/Sega CD stuff I bought just to get complete collections (no longer interested in anymore) and games I buy that I *might* be interested in playing one day (Samurai Legend Musashi, R-type Final) but only took the plastic off just to make sure a disc was inside.

My biggest hurdle right now is trying to decide what to do with these rpgs I have. I really don't even like jrpgs much anymore and yet I can't bring myself to ditch stuff like FF X2, Wild Arms 3/4, Disgaea, and the rest of the Nippon Ichi games (haven't liked any of them except La Pucelle).
 
I purge my collection every now and then. Then I'll either hook up friends, hit Game Rush, or sell on eBay. If it's something I want for collection's sake, something I hope to eventually play, or something I enjoyed quite a bit, I'll keep it. Also, if it's not worth much, I'll tend to keep it (GameRush was going to give me $2 credit for Pirates/Caribbean 3 DS, for example).

I really wanted to get my collection down below 1000 games, but that's probably not happening any time soon. I usually just reorganize where I put stuff: Most played near TV, then 200 or so on shelf, then about 100 more in a cupboard, then in boxes, etc.

But philosophy-wise, I'm trying to play games I feel confident I'll be committed to beating -- instead of just sampling games for an hour or so, like I did last year.
 
I remember the last time I purged my collection. I sold off 30 games from my collection and within 6 months, I had like 50 more.:whistle2:|
 
[quote name='youruglyclone']I avoid selling by games...simply because I fear it'll be a pain in the ass to track them down again if I get the itch to play it again.[/QUOTE]

That's exactly my thinking. I keep all of my games so I can play them again later.
 
I used to be the type of person that kapt all his games, then I graduated into just keeping the ones I liked but had yet to really finish/play.

Then I got over it. I never went back to the games I had set aside for a, "just in case I want to play it later." So I started getting rid of them.

I own nine games not from this current console cycle. The games are...

Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy Chronicles - Crono Trigger FF IV
Final Fantasy Tactics - PSX
Metal Gear Solid - (I'll probably be getting rid of this)
Halo: CE
Halo 2
Kingdom Hearts
Kingdom Hearts II

Metal Gear and the Halos can probably get the hell out. They are great games, but will I ever go back and play them? No, probably not.

There are games I have for my 360 that I can probably get rid of, but there are a few pesky achievements in them that I hope to go back and get some day soon.
 
I sell whatever I can cut even on, and buy whatever I can cut even on.

I'm able to fill up all the time I have to play games, and spend next to nothing on them.
 
I mostly kept everything unless it was just painful to play. I'm at the point now though that I hate having clutter, I'd rather have more space and just have what I truly enjoy. I've dropped off a few archiac systems and their games to Good Will over the past few months and now I'm trying to thin out my GBA collection (cml). I'll try to make a couple dollars off of what would sell, and give away anything that'd be too much of a hassle to list or just not get more than a few bucks total.

Similarly, I'm strongly toying with the idea of parting with a good number of my old and newer My Little Ponies. With over 1200 total, thats my biggest collection and I know I'll never get around to fully displaying them as I'd like to. But it's hard parting with the ponies from the early 80s. I have a lot of wonderful memories associated with them. =\
 
[quote name='guinaevere']I mostly kept everything unless it was just painful to play. I'm at the point now though that I hate having clutter, I'd rather have more space and just have what I truly enjoy. I've dropped off a few archiac systems and their games to Good Will over the past few months and now I'm trying to thin out my GBA collection (cml). I'll try to make a couple dollars off of what would sell, and give away anything that'd be too much of a hassle to list or just not get more than a few bucks total.

Similarly, I'm strongly toying with the idea of parting with a good number of my old and newer My Little Ponies. With over 1200 total, thats my biggest collection and I know I'll never get around to fully displaying them as I'd like to. But it's hard parting with the ponies from the early 80s. I have a lot of wonderful memories associated with them. =\[/quote]

After reading your first paragraph, I decided that you were the one poster in the topic that I related with the most. Then I read the second paragraph >_
 
I usually only buy games I know I'll play. Then I play them and either beat them or get bored of them and sell them. Games that aren't worth much or games I really liked I keep, and even then sometimes I still sell games I really like just because I won't play them again for a long time, and by then they'll be super cheap.
 
I only sell/trade those games that I feel I would never play/play again or those of which I have somehow acquired more than 1 copy. I keep just about everything else.

I purged a lot of my PS2 collection during EB's final trade 3-get an extra $10 on PS2/XB/GC games a while back and don't regret it at all. There's no reason to keep games that you'll never play or that won't increase in value.

One great way to keep your collection at a manageable level is to never buy something just because it's cheap - a trap many fall into upon the discovery of sites such as this one.
 
About a year ago I decided to sell of my collection, at a certain point I realized I wasn't going to play 95% of the games again and hey like everyone else I can always find a way to put money to good use.

Let's say at worst you sell 1 game you find you can't live without just go on ebay and pick up another copy, most used games don't cost all that much.
 
[quote name='Melatonin']After reading your first paragraph, I decided that you were the one poster in the topic that I related with the most. Then I read the second paragraph >_
 
I'm in the midst of purging my collection now. Space is getting horribly cluttered and my wife basically threw down the gauntlet. Those 2 reasons made me pull over 100 games off the shelf (that I have not finished) and now I'm trading/ebaying/goozexing a ton of crap. No idea what I'm going to do with the money yet, maybe get the wife something special...
 
I get rid of almost everything that I finish. If I want it again, the used price will most likely be lower by that time, and usually I never want to play it again anyway.

I just dont' see the point of me having a game collection. To those that do, please check my trade list.
 
OP: I had the same feeling about a year ago. I'd open up my game cabinet, look around to find something to play and couldn't find anything intresting out of the 250+ games I owned. At that point let's just say my CAG tradelist got a bit more intresting. I got rid of about 1/4 of my orginal collection and so far I haven't regreted it at all. In fact I'm still wanting to get rid of more, but I'm too lazy to spend he time to put it all on eBay.

With that said there are a select few games I'll never get rid of, no matter how much they collect dust.
 
To me it's out with the old, in with the new. Once I beat a game, I'll sell it if I don't see me playing it again. Others I'll keep even if I play them rarely. A few i'll sell even if I don't beat them, if I don't think they're that much fun. Old consoles, gone, I don't see myself going back to play those games, so out they go as well.
I don't want to junk up my house any more than I have to.
 
Renting is the way to go. $22 a month and I play all the games I want, some of them being stinkers that I would have otherwise bought. I don't need a big "collection" to show off and inflate my video game e-penis.
 
If I buy a release at full or near full price, I'll try and play through it at least twice or at least unlock most everything available, but then I'll sell it. I don't know if there's a term for it, but I'm the polar opposite of a pack rat when it comes to games. I used to sort of regret selling off my Sega CD and especially Saturn games back in the day, but then I fired up the Wii virtual console and most of my nostalgia/desire to play old games went up in smoke. Aside from a very very few select games (RE4) , I just can't get into replaying something for the 3rd time or more.
 
I generally get rid of games when I beat them (and/or get tired of playing online), unless it's something I know I'll want to replay down the road.

I went into this gen with the plan of not buying a new game until I finish the one I'm playing to avoid a backlog.

I've generally done pretty well, but got behind after getting a 360 with 5 games from frys.com in Oct, and getting a couple more games for b-day and X-mas. Trying to get caught up on these before buying anything else, but will be hard to pass on Smash Bros in Feb (and doubt I'll have my 360 backlog cleared by then).
 
Careful what you get rid of. Back in the day, I thought that buying the newest iteration of a game meant I wouldn't want the old ones anymore (i.e. trading in GTA 3 when I bought GTA: San Andreas), or that I would only keep my "favorite" games.

If you really enjoy a game, and it isn't so new that you can get a significant amount of money for trade-in or selling it online, don't get rid of it. Only sell games that you didn't like a lot. Believe me, you'll feel like a real idiot when you re-purchase a game six months after selling it because you're feeling nostalgic.
 
[quote name='Melatonin']So, I'm starting to weed out my collection a bit. Nothing major, mind you; I'm only looking at getting rid of 5 or so of my Gamecube games, about 5 GBA games, and 2 DS games. I'm basically operating by this new principle: If it's good, keep it, if it's not, sell it.

Anyways, any thoughts on the matter? Are you the type of person that never sells a game, or one that gets rid of them as soon as you beat them?[/quote]

I have been in the process of reducing my collection as well. I've been selling quite a bit here and I traded some lesser Genesis games at a local game store recently. It felt good because I just don't have time to collect stuff unless I am actually going to play it. I have been selling a lot of RPGs. That is something I never though I would do, but I have yet to regret selling any of them yet. I am even going to most of my SNES RPGS soon. Most of my gaming is pretty much done on the Xbox 360, Nintendo DS and PC now. The only thing I probably won't sell is my PS One RPGs because it is hard to find those mint and complete for decent prices.
 
I purposely keep my console games cases in a tiny cabinet, and the discs in a 32-slot disc binder, so that I force myself to sell/trade off games to make room.

I have an ammo box (300mm vulcan rounds) which I use to store my PC games, most of which I haven't played in years. It's an example how much of a pain in the ass it is store store and catalogue dozens of games. I'm trying not to make the same mistake with my console games.
 
[quote name='Dream to Dream']Believe me, you'll feel like a real idiot when you re-purchase a game six months after selling it because you're feeling nostalgic.[/QUOTE]

Not really, as you usually still come out ahead. Well not ahead, but at least reduce costs of owning the game for good.

Buy game for $60, beat it, sell it for $45. Rebuy it a year or so down the road for say $20.

That way your out $35 instead of $60.

More often in the past I'd just do straight up trades on another board I used to post at. Then you come out even more or less since you basically got to experience two new, $60 games for the price of one.
 
Before the 360 I never really got into gaming. With this 360 though I've managed to accumulate a lot and I only buy games I know I'm gonna play. If not then I sell them.
 
I rarely sell off anything, I enjoy having a large catalogue of older games. Then again, I also rarely buy new, and usually stock up at clearances, sales, and B2G1s.

The rare non-flipping trade-in will happen when I buy a game at release and manage to beat it while the trade in value is high. For example, I got Red Steel at release, dumped it at GameCrazy for $30 in February to pay off my Pokemon preorder, and just rebought it for $8 on sale at CC.
 
I've just recent decided that there's no point in randomly "collecting" games that I'll never play. If I know I will play it at some point, or if it's something I played & really enjoyed, fine. But otherwise....I just purged over 100 games from my PS2 collection alone, because they were either games I had never played and knew I never would, or had finished and knew I would never touch again.

Sold the rare ones on here, and used the cash to pay off a CC (with some left over). Traded in the common ones to GS using their 30% bonus coupon from a couple weeks back, and ended up w/ $400 worth of store credit.

I'm also going to start being a lot pickier about what I buy, so I hope to stretch that store credit on into next year.

I'm not done getting rid of games either - next up will be a good chunck of my PSOne RPG collection.
 
[quote name='argyle'].

Sold the rare ones on here, and used the cash to pay off a CC (with some left over). Traded in the common ones to GS using their 30% bonus coupon from a couple weeks back, and ended up w/ $400 worth of store credit.

I'm also going to start being a lot pickier about what I buy, so I hope to stretch that store credit on into next year.

I'm not done getting rid of games either - next up will be a good chunck of my PSOne RPG collection.[/quote]

That's what I am about to do to with my PS2 stuff. I have a sealed Growlanser Generations Deluxe and a sealed .hack 1-4 I'm going to put up to sell here. I'm going to use it to pay on a credit card also, but I still have a ways to go before I pay that thing off.
 
I am starting to feel this way. The problem is that I don't want to get $1 - $2 for a game I paid $30+ for years ago so I'd rather keep it. I have sold a bunch games I bought because they were cheap and on those I got most of my money back and in some cases profited.
 
I keep most of my games. I have hundreds, and although I am moving into an apartment, I'll leave most of my rare/valuable games at my parents' house.

The ones I trade with tell-tale signs of dropping in value, or games I'll never play. If I have a modicum of interest in it, I'll keep it.

I traded off all of my cartridge-based games except for my precious complete N64 collection, due to my fear of the batteries dying out on my copy of Chrono Trigger or Final Fantasy III (I'm not too keen on replacing it and less confident on being able to reassemble the carts.)
 
I never anything from my collection, though now I am much more selective as to what I add to my collection (i.e. no more automatic purchases of $5 or less games).
 
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