'Collecting' - The Great Debate

[Tirian]

I do! It's robbing someone else of the chance to play the game! You're effectively 'sitting' on a copy of a rare title just to gain some profit at a later date...while there's nothing wrong with making a bit of money for yourself, it strikes me as a rather greedy.

Not really. There's more than enough copies of Radiant Silvergun around for everyone who actually wants a copy to play. Seriously.

And again, just because someone has a sealed copy of something doesn't necessarily mean they are 'sitting on it to make a profit'. No matter how much you protest, there are people who want a sealed copy purely because it makes them feel good to have it, and / or it gives them some sense of achievement to obtain it, or just because it's not easy to find such a thing.

Of course, it gets confusing when there is crossover between the gaming instinct and the collecting instinct in a person. A coin collector is never really going to have the sudden inclination to go out and spend all the coins they've collected. With game / LP / Book collectors there can be that other aspect to it - but for some it is simply and purely the collecting aspect of it that appeals.

I don't see why people worry about it so much either - it's not like there's only one copy of Silvergun in the world, and nobody can play it because some collector is 'sitting' on the sealed copy just to spite everyone ... it's just not like that. And almost without exception, the rarest and most expensive games for collecting purposes are also the crappest. Very few exceptions to that.

For a truly good game that was a classic, you might expect to pay a reasonable amount of money. In order to spend an absolute fortune, you generally have to start looking for really totally ****e games that never sold a copy whilst they were on the shelf.

So on the whole, collectors and gamers really needn't step on each other's toes much at all ....

Tirian

[kernow]

I guess it is usually the pants games that become collectors items.

why do you think its sealed? no-one wanted to own or play it.

[Baseley09]

So on the whole, collectors and gamers really needn't step on each other's toes much at all ....

Tirian

Too right.

Collectors should not post in gaming forums

[Kubrick]

*snip*

I like having the spine cards

I've no doubt there are people out there who do "sit" on games just to keep them valuable etc. The biggest example of this has to be the Kizuna Encounter shambles at NG.com. Jesus, people even had to pay to see a picture of it.

[vertigo]

I'd rather just buy games I'll enjoy playing because I don't have the money to buy things that'll just sit on a shelf, would rather spend the money having fun, going out, etc, than on bits of plastic that I'll never even touch "just in case the value goes up in 10 years". Buying games as an investment is a big mistake. Any profit you do make on one game simply isn't worth the time (years!) you've waited or the money invested in multiple options.
I think people who expect SNES games to be mint and bitch and whine when someone sells them a game with a slightly bent box corner need to get a bit of perspective. The games are between 10 and 15 years old, for god's sake. I also don't see the point of grabbing as many SFC RPGs as possible if you can't even read them, and then going on forums and talking about how rare they are to bump up the value so that English language ones are inaccessible to everyone else. How many copies of FF3 were made that it can be deemed so rare and worth in the region of $80-plus?
I buy games to play and enjoy them and I don't care if something's not entirely mint. It helps if it's complete at least, so that I can re-sell it when I've finished with it and that I'll recoup some money and someone else will get a complete version to play, appreciate and sell on which is why I keep cartridges out of their boxes 90% of the time, but it doesn't have to look like it just fell off the production line for me to buy it.
I guess it all depends on how much you're prepared to pay for what you're getting and I'm not prepared to pay more than $50 for any one game unless it's an arcade board that I really want.

[anagrama]

I dunno, I guess I've been a collector in some shape or form for almost 20 years now - from Panini football stickers & cards in primary school, though the geeky early teens Warhammer/Magic: The Gathering years, onto records & cds and now videogames. Must just have the 'collector gene' or something.
I mainly collect PAL games 'cos they're easier to find, and the only real chance I have of that mystical 'complete set', but there's no way I'd bother spending so much time & money on the things if I didn't actually enjoy playing them too.
In a way, it's the same as how I prefer to hear all of an artist's albums rather than just a 'greatest hits' - you get to see the full spectrum, good and bad, by having everything and it allows you to properly appreciate every nuance of a system.
I personally have no interest in sealed games (and take great pleasure in opening every such game I get) and don't really understand that mindset, but can see why it exists.
At the end of the day, most collectors do it because they enjoy the product, it's not simply a case of getting a buzz from crossing items off a list.

The hoarders/speculators are a different kettle of fish entirely, and are simply evil ****s with pound signs floating in front of their eyes. Unfortunately, other collectors often get lumped in with them in the eye's of the 'pure' gamer. Hell, ya should be grateful that we spend time chasing after awful-but-rare games - it means you've got less competition when buying the not-so-rare-but-actually-enjoyable-games instead

[vertigo]

At the end of the day, most collectors do it because they enjoy the product, it's not simply a case of getting a buzz from crossing items off a list.

I guess this is a question of semantics over the definition of the word 'collector' and how it applies in this context. To say that you collect the games for the enjoyment of them but then say that you actively go after **** stuff so that you're closer to a complete collection seems to be a contradiction in terms, no?
I suppose this puts you in some sort of middle ground. You want to tick each box in the list, but you also don't care about opening them up and playing them.
Me, I don't have the time, space or money to do any form of collection outside of my want list, which amounts to about 50 games and is gradually decreasing as I cross games off it due to knowing that I simply wouldn't play them if I did acquire them. There's enough micro-management in the rest of my life without having to do the whole game collection thing, it's a leisure pursuit for me, something to enjoy in my spare time but not something to spend time solely obsessing over finding more funds in order to increment a number or take up another shelf inch.

[anagrama]

it's a leisure pursuit for me, something to enjoy in my spare time

But I'm sure that's exactly how the majority of collectors see it too - I know I do.

[Geoff D]

I think people who expect SNES games to be mint and bitch and whine when someone sells them a game with a slightly bent box corner need to get a bit of perspective.

Like any used game I buy, I have no problem as long as it's described accurately; I want to know exactly what it is I'm getting - there are too many sellers bandying around phrases like 'Mint' & 'As new' when they should be using 'Jumped up & down on' & 'covered in spunk'.

[muse hunter]

Me personnally i would play and open every game that i get, i love games and i love experiancing every bit of it, whether its the game itself, flicking through the colourful manuals of most jap games, or placing it on my shelf so its beautiful artwork can be appreciated. I like to have my games in very good condition, if pay out for something i would like the best for the money i spent, if that means buying sealed games than i would, but once in my hands they wouldn't stay sealed for longer than a second. Also if there is a game i really want i wouldn't mind paying out for it, mark of the wolves on the neo is an example of this, but i played that game so many times i definately got my money's worth out of it in the end.

Maybe i wouldn't spend a lot of money on games to not play them myself but who am i to criticise how others spend their money? If someone wants two of their favourite game, or they like having sealed games on their shelves than thats their buisness, i might not understand it but if thats how others want it so be it.

[S3M]

I'm a gamer and a collector, but I don't see the point in buying a sealed game and never opening it. What is the point of a sealed copy?

My Radiant Slivergun was sealed but I opened that, mind you that was when it was ?40 to buy.

Game's are there to be played not to be left in a shrink wrap coffin. So as you can guess none of my games are now sealed and all have been played. I see my collection as having a great array of games to chose from and play.

I can't see the point in owning like six copies of one game, is one not enough?

Oh the other thing about sealed games is a lot of them are now mint copies resealed so you have to be careful with what you are buying.

[SuperDanX]

Like any used game I buy, I have no problem as long as it's described accurately; I want to know exactly what it is I'm getting - there are too many sellers bandying around phrases like 'Mint' & 'As new' when they should be using 'Jumped up & down on' & 'covered in spunk'.

[buster_broon]

I'm a gamer and a collector

i would class myself into that group of people

i used to be alot worse, i would buy games like quiz king of fighters and never play it because i can't read Japanese and i bought plenty of the quiz and puzzle games that i would never understand, but i couldnt quite bring myself to buy quiz chibi - so i'm glad of that

nowadays i collect 'saturn' and 'dreamcast' stuff, but i play the games nevertheless, some i havent quite got around to playing yet so they are still sealed (trizeal, chaos field & border down) but i just havent had the time or i prefer to play other games to completion until i move onto another

buying games to make money doesnt strike me what a collector would do - that sounds like a reseller, but some like change, some of the neo carts i had quadrupled in price from when i bought them and some had lost their value (sam spirits ?185 - sold for ?18 ) so in the end i reckon i made my money back overall, but who can tell what will be collectable in 10 years time

with the saturn and dreamcast stuff i dont own 1 rpg for either system as i know i cant play it - mostly shooters and fighters, which i reckon about 90% have been played to death at some point

[Duddyroar]

Taken from World of Stuart:

Collectors are the scum of the Earth, viewers. This reporter and this website have always been dedicated to making both the knowledge and the use of the products of culture available as widely as is within their power, sometimes even by bending the law, so that we might all share the enjoyment of the wonderful, life-affirming stuff that humanity's capable of creating in the few moments when it isn't busy fighting, lying and blowing itself up with bombs and the like.

Collectors have the opposite impulse. When he finds something which has for some reason become rare, the collector will expend stupid amounts of effort and/or money to secure it for himself. In most cases, the item will then be "preserved" - locked away, often still sealed in its original packaging, where it can be enjoyed by no-one, thereby defeating the object of its ever having been created. It's also, in effect, rendered even more rare (since there's now one fewer copy in circulation than previously), protecting the collector's "investment" at the expense of everyone's cultural heritage.

Eventually, when every copy of a rare item (intended by its creator to be used and enjoyed by actual living people) is in the possession of "collectors", it will effectively cease to exist and be lost to the world - because you can't play/watch/listen to/look at something that's locked away vacuum-sealed in a safe, "preserved" to death.

In this reporter's view, dedicating your life to taking culture away from the world in order to make yourself a poxy few quid is a pretty sorry way to be going about things. Collectors - I hope you die young of some exotic, rare disease, and your next of kin unwittingly sell your collection off for pennies in a jumble sale (ideally to kids ignorant of its "value", who'll just thoughtlessly tear open all the boxes and play the damn things) while emptying out your sterile, soulless home.

[wheelaa]

I do! It's robbing someone else of the chance to play the game! You're effectively 'sitting' on a copy of a rare title just to gain some profit at a later date...while there's nothing wrong with making a bit of money for yourself, it strikes me as a rather greedy.

I disagree. I have some very rare sealed games, not silvergun rare, proper rare, and they're not for me to make a profit on. If I ever sell up completely then they'll be sold, if I make a profit, great, if not, great too. I will only sell them though if I ever do decide to sell up, not before.

As for robbing someone else the opportunity to play them..lol..emus are rife of basically everything. I get raised eyebrows when I harp on about the evils of emus, but at least I actually buy games, be they open or sealed. Different strokes for different strokes, and if you can't respect others for what they choose..well........

(Plus don't forget that say I sold a really pricey sealed game..only a sealed game collector will buy it...your average joe is NOT going to want to shell out, open it and lose 1/3 of its value before even playing it are they??)