Selling Your Whole Collection

[johnk_]

you're considering selling your collection... for a motorcycle?

keep your collection and buy a bicycle.. you'll look almost as cool on it as on a motorcycle..

actually, guys on motorcycles are usually dicks anyway, so... there ya go.

[PaCrappa]

Have you really thought about this? You do realize that noone is obligated to buy your stuff just because you're so magnanimous as to offer it up for sale. How much money do you really expect all of it will fetch you? Enough to continue not having a job? Once you've sold all your gaming goods are you going to quit gaming forever or are you going to use your collection money to buy other games? Will you get a job after you've sold all your stuff? Once your stuff is sold will you want some of it back? Will some of the items be worth more later than they are now?

In short, how exactly will selling your goods (no matter how you choose to do so) be better than getting even a crappy job?

Pa

[Some Stupid Japanese Name]

Bundles are a bad way to go for the seller, but great for buyers.
I recently bought a Sega Genesis/Sega CD package for around $60 with shipping, broke it up, and sold it for $145.

[Shapermc]

Take EXCELLENT PICTURES and sell everything seperatly.

Try to take your pictures with a solid background. I usually put a solid color sheet over my couch and set up lighting so that it really shows off the contition that it is in. For video games I show them in operation (e.g. take a pick of the TV with it on) if the game is open.

That is all I have to say about that.

[RedCoKid]

Most people I know who sold huge collections ended up rebuying a lot of it much later...and regretting the fact that they ever parted with the stuff in the first place.

True, I bought back my favorite N64 games when they were rereleased on the GCN as "new."

Anyway, think about this for a long time before you act, Lucas. For everyone, there are games we happily could throw in the trash can and others we can't live without.

[mollipen]

Most people I know who sold huge collections ended up rebuying a lot of it much later...and regretting the fact that they ever parted with the stuff in the first place.

They were weak.

It is like any addiction. It's hard to finally admit your problem and start kicking it, and once you are getting yourself off of it, the cravings get worse and worse.

For example, I had a huge TurboDuo/Pc Engine collection which is now about half of what it used to be. I have the urge to play some Duo games all of the time, and I miss the chance to do so. But, at the end of the day, they were just games, and they weren't games that I can't live without.

To me, the more crap I get rid of that is just cluttering up my life, the better.

It certainly can be hard, though. Many of these collections I put a lot of work into. My NGPC collection, for example, good lord I busted my ass to put that together. Now, a lot of the major titles are gone, and I'm looking to get rid of the rest, the system, and all of the accessories as one pack. I'm looking to get rid of 90% of my Saturn collection, and once I do, I wonder if I can justify keeping the Saturn and those few games I kept at that point. And as much as it would pain me, I keep looking at my NeoGeo cart and realizing that while I have a handful of games for it, SamSho 2 is the only reason I keep it. It's just such a lovely system to have and look at, but almost pointless to keep keeping it for just that one game.

I think, too, that once we get to the level that most of us are at (or were at), we stop enjoying games as much as we used to. It becomes more about getting a game, running through it, and getting on to the next title that we're dying to own. When I purchased Silent Hill 3 recently, I did something that I've never done - I sat down and played through the game in every way that you could do before moving on. I took my time, I saw everything there was to see, I did everything there was to do. It wasn't just one of three or four games I bought in a short time period, and I really gave it my full attention for quite some time.

It was really nice doing that - really spending time with a game instead of thinking about what to move on to next. Part of that came from my year in Japan, where I had hardly any exposure to games. So, when I did, I ended up spending much more time with them and really giving them a good play-through.

How does this connect? I think that when we get into the "collection" mode, we sometimes start not looking at the individual games, and instead simply look at the collection. When you get rid of all of that, and only have a few core games to occupy your time, you start to really give them more of your time and attention.

Plus, if you buy a game and really play it through fully at that point, then you have less desire to go back and play it again later because of "incomplete" feelings.

And, I think a lot of people get too emotionally attatched to some games, and don't really "need" to keep a game around and play it a year or more later when they think that they do.

[thray-walsh]

You'll never get my dust-covered, never-played copy of Evolution for NGPC, Shidoshi, NEVER!!!!!!111

[Kinopio]

Trimming down your collection isn't a bad idea, selling all of it is.

[Wilykat]

They were weak.

It is like any addiction. It's hard to finally admit your problem and start kicking it, and once you are getting yourself off of it, the cravings get worse and worse.

For example, I had a huge TurboDuo/Pc Engine collection which is now about half of what it used to be. I have the urge to play some Duo games all of the time, and I miss the chance to do so. But, at the end of the day, they were just games, and they weren't games that I can't live without.

To me, the more crap I get rid of that is just cluttering up my life, the better.

It certainly can be hard, though. Many of these collections I put a lot of work into. My NGPC collection, for example, good lord I busted my ass to put that together. Now, a lot of the major titles are gone, and I'm looking to get rid of the rest, the system, and all of the accessories as one pack. I'm looking to get rid of 90% of my Saturn collection, and once I do, I wonder if I can justify keeping the Saturn and those few games I kept at that point. And as much as it would pain me, I keep looking at my NeoGeo cart and realizing that while I have a handful of games for it, SamSho 2 is the only reason I keep it. It's just such a lovely system to have and look at, but almost pointless to keep keeping it for just that one game.

I think, too, that once we get to the level that most of us are at (or were at), we stop enjoying games as much as we used to. It becomes more about getting a game, running through it, and getting on to the next title that we're dying to own. When I purchased Silent Hill 3 recently, I did something that I've never done - I sat down and played through the game in every way that you could do before moving on. I took my time, I saw everything there was to see, I did everything there was to do. It wasn't just one of three or four games I bought in a short time period, and I really gave it my full attention for quite some time.

It was really nice doing that - really spending time with a game instead of thinking about what to move on to next. Part of that came from my year in Japan, where I had hardly any exposure to games. So, when I did, I ended up spending much more time with them and really giving them a good play-through.

How does this connect? I think that when we get into the "collection" mode, we sometimes start not looking at the individual games, and instead simply look at the collection. When you get rid of all of that, and only have a few core games to occupy your time, you start to really give them more of your time and attention.

Plus, if you buy a game and really play it through fully at that point, then you have less desire to go back and play it again later because of "incomplete" feelings.

And, I think a lot of people get too emotionally attatched to some games, and don't really "need" to keep a game around and play it a year or more later when they think that they do.

This sums up how I'm starting to feel now. Although I probably won't take it to quite the degree you are, my attitude towards collecting games has soured over the course of this year. Over the past few years, I've amassed a number of games which I own simply for the sake of owning, and while part of me enjoys owning and collecting games, another part of me is sick of the sight of them.

Besides, the last thing I want right now is to be tied down to my possessions. I have so many games cluttering up my place right now that I can't even imagine taking all of them when I relocate to somewhere else.

Hopefully in the next few months I'll have the willpower to trim my game collection down to the essentials. Which will still probably be 100+ games, since I'm a glutton for variety. But that's better than hanging onto even more games I will probably never touch again.

[Mzo]

I recently got rid of a shitload of NES and SNES games I deemed unworthy... a friend and I played through every single NES game in my closet and brought the number of worthy titles down to ~50.