'Collectards' and the state of the classic gaming hobby

[esteban]

DEEP THOUGHTS w/ a fetishist:

I have always promoted the concept of library vs collection, and that playing a game (or at least listening to the music, appreciating the art) should always be the motive for owning a game...but...

I guess I have a fetish for physical commodities (not all commodities, but specific things: video games, books, CD/vinyl/8-track*). This is hilarious, since I am not a materialistic person in the usual sense (I have crappy old cars, no fancy clothes, generic brands, etc.)

However, when it comes to video games, I have a fetish for physical stuff...in the sense that although (1) playing the game is always the priority, (2) if feasible, I'd love to own some physical manifestation of the game, too.

I like having and looking at and touching physical stuff (consoles, carts, manuals, boxes, etc.)...I am intrigued by the retail and tactile aspect of video games beyond input devices (joystick, controller, button, keyboard, trackball, etc.)...

So I don't deny that I have some collectard/fetishistic DNA in me. I would love to have the original artwork for many, many games, for example. In general, I love looking at/touching the layout/design/aesthetics of physical commodities (not just video games).

Video games were always a commodity...well, that's not 100% true: a vast majority of video games were /are a commodity.

That said, even though I have some collectard DNA, I feel that I am still in a different category than the "true collectard", even though it is a difficult term to define (we have attempted to define collectard, but only the extreme, fringe cases are easy to identify...hence my admission that I know I have collectard in me, even though I play all my games, I buy some games just for the cover art and/or music).

So, I'd love to read a humorous post on the different "levels of collectard-ism"...


* I got rid of all my 8-tracks years ago. But I loved the damn things. I used in my car and home stereo.

[esteban]

^ while you were posting, I updated my post since I realized I have a damn fetish.

BUT: I did this without any knowledge of your post. WHICH I FIND HILARIOUS.

[Gypsy]

A friend of mine put up an NES with 13 common games on Facebook for $150. This happened.

[Otaking]

At the end of the day, all hobbies have their version of collectards.  Whether its games, coins, Pokémon, paper currency or classic cars, there will always be someone who is solely in it for the monetary aspect. 

I wouldn't say a "collector" is in it for the money aspect. Just someone who likes to own physical media and appreciates owning a full set of something.
Tracking down a complete set of something can be fun, I think some people think of collecting as kind of a game itself.
I admit I personaly am not to keen on new collectors who have put no effort into learning about and appreciating what they're collecting, they are just simply just in it for a trophy of owning a complete set, nothing more.
But people who are fans and are completionist collectors I have no problems with.

[_joshuaTurbo]

Two words: Cart only.

You can't play a box or instruction manual. 

[DragonmasterDan]

You can't play a box or instruction manual. 

You took that quote right out of a GameStop employee handbook.

[_joshuaTurbo]

You can't play a box or instruction manual. 

You took that quote right out of a GameStop employee handbook.

gamestop 4 life

[xelement5x]

I'm sure a lot of you looked at my sales thread.

after letting it sit here and another good forum for a few days, I upped all the prices and posted it on nintendoAge.
needless to say, I'm almost cleaned out on SNES stuff.....

what really got me though is the sheer number of messages I got, even multiple messages from the same person, usually something along the lines of:
"I'd like game 'xxx', can I see pics, and will you take (1/2 of the list price)?"
"I'd also like game 'yyy', do you do discounts on multiple games?"
"I looked at your thread again, and I see the pictures now, how about (5/8 of the list price)?"

and when I told them that i didn't have that much wiggle room, they gladly paid up
so people were falling over themselves to buy common shit, like yoshi's island.
I dunno man, I can't stand people most of the time.

Jeff - I had 'the look' all day dealing with that forum.

I will admit I'm guilty of also asking for discounts on stuff frequently when I buy on forums unless I know the person already or it's a solid deal.  But Nintendo/SegaAge are all their own weird beast, I have bought maybe a couple thing from there and their transaction system is nice but the sheer quantity of asshats and scammers makes me prefer known forums better.

[jeffhlewis]

I wouldn't say a "collector" is in it for the money aspect. Just someone who likes to own physical media and appreciates owning a full set of something.
Tracking down a complete set of something can be fun, I think some people think of collecting as kind of a game itself.
I admit I personaly am not to keen on new collectors who have put no effort into learning about and appreciating what they're collecting, they are just simply just in it for a trophy of owning a complete set, nothing more.
But people who are fans and are completionist collectors I have no problems with.

I think you hit the nail on the head with how I ultimately feel about collectardism...for me it boils down to an appreciation of the relevance and history of the hobby. A lot of us have collections that are way bigger than they should be, but I'd also wager that the majority of us understand the history behind what we're putting on that shelf and playing. Versus someone who is blindly picking up a bunch of shit to throw on a shelf or to circle jerk to on a shitty YouTube channel.

I'm instantly reminded of the mob scene at RetroPalooza when a shop was giving out free copies of X Blades and Velvet Assassin for the XB360 because they had boxes full of them and couldn't sell them. It was like watching zombies go after a horse.

[Gentlegamer]

As seems to have been guessed, the quote is from a post at Nintendo Age.

You can't even talk about 'hidden gems' or 'underrated' games there. Any topic on such causes the game in question to inflate in price almost instantly as 1. collectards run out to buy before the price goes up, and 2. the resellers also buy up all the available copies to relist at inflated prices. In fact, there are members who post such threads deliberately for that purpose, likely having already obtained several copies to flip beforehand.

It's so bad I don't even post in threads unless it's about an already 'known' game.

[MNKyDeth]

I am not sure on my feelings about collectards. So many different variables come into play for me.

One, I have many games not because I went around collecting them it's just what I bought or my dad bought at the time whatever console was relevant to us at the time. If it was the Duo, Genesis, Snes, Nes, N64 etc.

So the collectards are actually increasing the value of what I already have from days gone by. But at the same time because of this it makes it hard for games that I would like to go back and visit that I never had as I don't want to spend that kind of money on that game. Might and Magic 3 on the Duo comes to mind.

I love the Might and Magic Series but I never played the one on the Duo. But I will never buy the game at a $300 price tag either so I most likely will never play it unless I burn the .iso to a cd and do it that way. I just never have....

Sure I think the mindset of certain groups of gamers will vary and the way people think of going about the hobby being different. Like the ones that want the trophies that was mentioned earlier in the thread. The younger generation that may not appreciate it because it is a trophy they were not able to enjoy these games as they may not have been born yet. But at the same time maybe they do appreciate the games as they have found that most modern games are a$$ and appreciate the old school challenge. So they may not appreciate what they have like us that owned these things during the heyday of the time but they may appreciate what the game truly is. If it's just to collect for collecting but never actually playing well.... yeah... to me that's just dumb and ignorant.

I love my Duo and cough SegaCD but my Duo is the only console I would even consider trying to actually collect for. And the main reason for that is that the memories I have with this console and the memories I am still creating with this console are priceless to me.

[PunkicCyborg]

I started a local facebook group over a year ago, it's been going pretty good but I see a lot of the bad side of the general retro gaming scene which I haven't really been a part of because Ive always been into niche stuff like PCE and arcade. The flippers and resellers get blocked but I can't help that a lot of the members are the worst kind of gotta collect em all, naver post about playing collectards
Oh well I try to at least keep the flow of the group going and post lots of game playing stuff and try to organize local events which helps a lot

[MrBroadway]

Every forum has a "look what I overpayed on ebay for but pretended I found locally for pennies!" thread that I don't really like. I doubled my PCE collection through forum trades here in the past year, but do I go bragging about it? OK, so you want to share. No big deal, unless you do it for every little thing. Hell, the shmups forum has a thread made by a guy just to show off the useless shit he found. 99% of his posts since starting the thread are only found there, and he's 99% of people posting shit (sometimes people are suckered into commenting). You think I'm kidding, but I'm not.

It's a sick, narcissistic, braggart mentality that really speaks to the vapidity and/or lack of self-worth by that person.

Edit: On a related note, this "helpful" person dominates the discussion of a particular thread at AtariAge. I tried kindly telling him to start a blog for the stupid videos he posts (he's not 99% like the guy above, but perhaps more two-thirds of all posts in this thread), but he insisted that his "links were helpful!" I can't deal with narcissists. I can't deal with collectard, junk-hoarding narcissists. And by god, I can't deal with narcissists who refuse to see they're not as important, helpful, or even good as they claim to be.

[Gentlegamer]

Is the guy at AtariAge the one who bumps the Neo Geo thread like five times a day?

[MrBroadway]

Is the guy at AtariAge the one who bumps the Neo Geo thread like five times a day?

You guessed it. I regret posting in that thread at all. Now it's always at the top when I click on "My Content."