Game collecting on the rise still?

[WarmSignal]

Just wondering what your thoughts were about this...

I'm sure the AVGN had a lot to do with inspiring a lot of people to collect, or at least revisit old games. I think Youtube is also playing a big role, but I can't really gauge whether any of this is making game collecting (not just retro) a more popular hobby than it was before.

The concept never really came into my mind before these things. I never considered my games a "collection", until a couple of years ago. Then I began to realize how outrageous everything was online, and how much people invested in buying up and reselling anything game related locally.

So, is it safe to say that "game collecting" is either still on the rise, or at it's peak right about now in terms of popularity? Just seems like a bad time to be into it, with all of the money there seems to be in it. You can find something for a couple of bucks and turn around and sell it for 10x that. I got sucked into all those kind of crazes as a kid, and now it's suckering me again.

[QuickSciFi]

I was a collector the minute I bought my first Genny and games back in the 90s. Youtube and other online sources like sega-16 do help raise awareness, but I think it's these forms of social media that has allowed us collectors of all sorts and all places to gather and share knowledge.

I do think that this trend is very much still on the rise.

[snotmaw]

I think it's only becoming more common with some systems, and the internet makes collecting really easy. Not sure how obscure old systems like the vectrex fare in all of this but SNES and NES are really common.

but it can't be that way forever, there are limited copies of old games and they don't last forever

[Obviously]

Since I first started collecting I've noticed people's prices slowly but steadily rising and lucking out with finding good/rare games in the wild happens a lot less often. A lot of this is because there's many more collectors to compete with now. There's also a lot more information readily available about retro-games that can quickly catch people up on what titles they should be looking out for beyond the obvious classics.

On youtube it seems like every day there's a new collector either just starting out or adding to a growing collection. Collecting is also kind of a bug, my collection in college inspired two of my friends to begin collections of their own but for them it was sort of just a fad and they sold off those games a few years later.

But you've also got people who collect the games they want and then they're done or the people who finish their collections then sell them off for reasons ranging from financial to storage problems to just growing tired of it and needing the money for their next endeavor.

[chrisbid]

there will always be strong interest in collecting


however, the hot systems to collect for will be as fluid as the console marketplace was when the collectors were children.

nowadays, college age kids are collecting big time for the N64, the console of their youth. their interest in the NES, SNES, Genesis, and Atari era machines is much lower.

kids that grew up during the NES era tend to shun the Atari, intellivision, Coleco, etc

[Guntz]

What about kids who have broken all those rules and collect a little something from virtually every console generation? That certainly describes me.

[chrisbid]

What about kids who have broken all those rules and collect a little something from virtually every console generation? That certainly describes me.

that makes you an exception

[Zz Badnusty]

I've just gotten into serious NES and FC collecting in the past 2 years, and during this past 6 months or so it really seems Famicom game prices have skyrocketed.

It seems Sega Genesis, Dreamcast and Saturn market is pretty flat. Prices haven fallen over the past few years and staying relatively low (with a few obvious exceptions)

Vectrex prices have been up in the past few years.
And so have Atari 5200 prices.

[Zz Badnusty]

kids that grew up during the NES era tend to shun the Atari, intellivision, Coleco, etc

I disagree with this.
I think adults who grew up with NES (for example), and who still maintain a serious interest in gaming are by now plenty familiar with the NES and are now mature enough to broaden their horizons.

[chrisbid]

I disagree with this.
I think adults who grew up with NES (for example), and who still maintain a serious interest in gaming are by now plenty familiar with the NES and are now mature enough to broaden their horizons.

again, exceptions to the rule


most of the time, youll hear things like "i dont play any games older than the NES"

some collectors move beyond nostalgia, but for most of the market buying retro games, its simply rebuying what they played when they were growing up.

[Defolto]

The whole gaming industry has grown from the 90's, yet it was never as good as the 90's.

[GKC]

again, exceptions to the rule


most of the time, youll hear things like "i dont play any games older than the NES"

some collectors move beyond nostalgia, but for most of the market buying retro games, its simply rebuying what they played when they were growing up.

I can more or less argree with this. I have set limits to my collecting. I collect systems from the 8 bits up until about the PS1. Mainly because these are the systems that I grew up with and are the systems with the games I most want to play. I don't collect just to collect, I like to play the games I have. However while my time frame I chose to collect for is probably based on nostalgia I have recently gotten into collecting Sega stuff (I now have the Genesis, 32x, and a Saturn and am looking for a Sega CD and Master system) all of which I never owned growing up.

[Baloo]

I've got to say, I collect a little bit from every Generation except for Pre-NES (Save the Vectrex). Sorry, but the games on the 2600, 5200, Intellevision, 7800, Colecovision are too dated for me. The arcade games from the era are some of my favorite games of all-time though ironically.

More on topic, I do think the internet has played a very large role in the spread of classic video gaming, even if kids today still tend to shun it a bit. Between the AVGN and Youtube, sites like Racketboy, Sega-16, Kotaku, the Virtual Console, XBLA, and what-not, classic gaming is getting more exposure than ever with the advent of the internet.

There's definitely a very, very nice online market for the games as well, and one can practically run a business from their own home in that aspect.

[David J.]

I only collect Sega and for frigs sake I am just about all done. It has taken years but fun and frustrating at times.

[ApolloBoy]

I've got to say, I collect a little bit from every Generation except for Pre-NES (Save the Vectrex). Sorry, but the games on the 2600, 5200, Intellevision, 7800, Colecovision are too dated for me.

This makes me sad.