I could use some advice on collecting

[Stg-Flame]

Recently I've been trying to collect all the systems and games I grew up with as a kid, but it's proving to be a lot harder than I had initially thought (and I figured it would be next to impossible for some cases). The systems and games I grew up with are staying with my parents since they still play them and I would like to get my own collection going. I should also add that I'm getting two different collections here: one collection of unopened systems and games to be kept in mint condition and the other is for me to play. I'm speaking about the latter in this thread, so pristine condition isn't always required but I do like to keep my games in near-mint condition and I refuse to buy disc-only, missing manuals/cases, or blatantly damaged goods.

Currently, I have worked my way up from the botton (Atari/NES era) where I started out and I'm hitting a lot of roadblocks at the PS2/GameCube generation. I finally found a GameCube in good condition for less than $50 and it should arrive this Friday, but it seems the games are proving to cost countless times more than the console itself. Simple games like SSBM and Pikmen are going to cost me upwards of $120 for a new copy of each game which is the most irritating part since places like EBGames and GameStop purged their older generation games for just a few dollars each.

So, is there an easier way of going about collecting games to just play and systems to play them on? I've been searching the usual places of eBay and Amazon, but I'm coming up with an alarming amount of horrendously scratched disks, games with markings on them (presumably sibling rivalry settled via Sharpie), or games that are marked - DOES NOT WORK - that still cost upwards of what a brand new, current-gen game would cost. Essentially, does anyone know of any other websites than the usual auction sites to buy older games without paying an arm and a leg?

Edit: I'm aware that EBGames is now GameStop, but I was speaking about the time when they were separate entities since we had both stores at one time in our local mall.

 

[Lil Frier]

Video game rental stores are an option, as are the smaller game-trading stores. If you have a rental place with older titles in-stock, they might be willing to sell them. Also, there's the option of scouring Craigslist.

 

[DaveSimmons]

one collection of unopened systems and games to be kept in mint condition

FYI, a good stock index ETF or mutual fund is a much less risky long-term investment. I'd just buy the copies to play and skip buying the sealed / mint copies.

Bonus: fund shares take up zero space, and you can sell them the same day if you need the money.

 

[Stg-Flame]

The sad part about this is there used to be a PlayNTrade but it was put out of business and from what I heard, they had a blowout sale and pretty much just gave it all away before they closed - an event I wish I had been around to participate in, but I was unfortunately stuck in Vernal UT for a three-week-long job. When I came home, my buddy told me they turned the store into a Cold Stone and he didn't even bother going over there since he never played any of the older games.

 

[Stg-Flame]

FYI, a good stock index ETF or mutual fund is a much less risky long-term investment. I'd just buy the copies to play and skip buying the sealed / mint copies.

Bonus: fund shares take up zero space, and you can sell them the same day if you need the money.

I'm not collecting for future investments. I have never sold a video game in my life (25+ years gaming) and I'm not about to start anytime soon. This is a collection for myself and to be handed off to my kids when they get old enough. Plus, I just bought a house and I plan on turning the downstairs area into a true game room with a wall for my collection and the other 75% of the room being filled with everything gaming.

 

[DaveSimmons]

That's a great reason to keep complete playable copies of every game, that you can actually use.

But the sealed, mint copies? All you can do is stare at them, and your kids can't play them either without breaking the shrink wrap.

I've got a couple of shelves of favorite old games like the big boxed versions of Planescape: Torment and Baldur's Gate 2, but they're opened and played. The same with my Fallout 3 lunchbox edition.

I'm just saying, buy one copy in good-to-nice condition instead of paying much more for a sealed mint copy that can never be played.

 

[Stg-Flame]

I didn't mean to insinuate that I was buying unopened copies of all my playable games - just my favorites and the more rare/harder-to-find ones. I failed to clarify that in the OP, so I apologize for misleading. For instance, my favorite game of all time is Star Ocean: The Second Story and I own three copies of it - two of which are still unopened. Due to the fragile nature of the jewel case and how expensive that game is now, I'm extremely glad I have those extra copies lying around. If something were to happen to my playable copy, I have two extras. I also have four copies (thanks to my buddies who thought the game was trash) of Valkyrie Profile as well as countless other rare games.

The consoles I'd like to have unopened copies of and I'd like to have brand new sealed copies of some games. It would be a bit silly to have a sealed copy of all my playable games and I already stated I like to keep all my games and consoles in near-mint condition, so, short of a natural disaster, my playable game library should suffice for the time being. However, as time goes on, some games become increasingly harder to find and when those times come around, I'll be glad my sealed NES, SNES, N64, and PSX copies are still safely stored away.

 

[DaveSimmons]

That makes sense. I have spare CDs of Fallout 1-2, Planescape:Torment and others that I bought cheap before sites like GoG.com existed. I wanted to be sure I could replay Fallout in 10 years when the CDs from my boxed copy got scratched or bit rot.

Now for those I can just copy the GoG files, but there is no GoG for consoles.

 

[OVerLoRDI]

I'm actually going through the same thing. Snagging all the systems I used to have. http://www.lukiegames.com is a realy good shop. I snagged my n64, dreamcast, and accessories from there.

Like you I saw it was just cost prohibitive to snag all the games I used to have or didn't own when younger. I decided to use Rom carts, mod chips, etc to build my retro game library. Some might call it blasphemy/piracy, but the original developers and publishers aren't making a dime of you paying $200+ for Earthbound off eBay. It might be something worth looking into while simultaneously building your show and display collection.

 

[exdeath]

More and more people spontaneously decided to call themselves retro game collectors overnight so now you cant find anything anymore and its enabled a huge reseller interest for resellers to snatch everything up in sight to sell to you at inflated prices before you find it yourself.

 

[Fallen Kell]

Yeah, I am finding this to be the problem. I had personally focused a lot on the NES since there were SO many games I missed out on as a kid on that platform (I maybe got 1-2 games a year back then). I had a decent SNES collection (and a lot of the rarer games, like Earthbound, Secret of Mana, Secret of Evermore, Mario RPG). But I have only recently tried to get some of the others that I missed out on, like Castlevania 4 and Contra 3 and they are impossible to find, or they are in really bad condition and/or $80-100. They are not THAT rare to justify that price....

 

[Fallen Kell]

Holy crap on the price of some of the games lately. I am really glad I had good tastes as a early teen and got most of these when they were available back then. I just found a box of my games that I was certain I had somewhere, but couldn't find. In it was Chrono Trigger (with original box, manual, map, etc). That goes for like $150-200 now.

 

[mizzou]

I have a functioning atari lynx and am keeping it for a person like you lol

My wife says I'm silly keeping all my old systems.

 

[ansarali2h]

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