Is it normal to lose interest in collecting?

jonebone

My buddy came over yesterday and brought Street Fighter IV over for the 360 (great game btw if you enjoy the series).  I realized that I was only able to play a few matches, and the rest of the time consisted of me sending PMs on here / packing games / listing on eBay / sniping a few things.  It was kind of like a revelation in a sense, here I am with one of my best friends coming over playing a brand new game that should keep me glued to the TV and I'm barely playing a match or two.

It really made me think about how much time I've devoted to collecting and reselling these past 6 months.  It almost feels as if I don't have anytime to myself....

I don't have an interest to sell off my collection, but at the same time I don't feel the urge to buy up every CIB that I find cheap for my collection.  I'm just wondering if it's normal to go through this, or if I'm maybe really losing the desire?

Plus I'm going to go rent SFIV today so it should keep me busy for at least a week or so I'd imagine working on some of the achievements

Penguin

Everyone seems to get to this road block at one point or another. Everyone has their own way of dealing with it weather it be rethinking your collecting goals, selling your collecting, taking a break from it or quitting it all together. Any way you deal with it, it is a hobby and you are free to do as you please, so don't let anyone convince you otherwise of what to do, it is your decision alone.

Maydogg6

Yeah, I've heard of a lot of people losing their steam or just quitting all together. Like any hobbie, eventually it may lose it's appeal. I guess it's all a matter of priorities and resources.



For instance, I like collecting a lot, but I mostly collect to play the games. So whenever money starts to get a little tight or there's something better going on I'll take a brake. Right now I havent bought anything in nearly a month because I just bought a new truck and I need to see exactly where my finances are. There's ups and downs.

nes_king

well one of the most time consuming parts is selling off all of your extra stuff... once you get further along you will find that you wont be buying all these huge lots and you will have nothing to sell off, then you can kick back and relax as you search for the last few items you desire...

arch_8ngel

The honeymoon doesn't last forever, sorry.

NationalGameDepot

This hobby can really turn into a total job if you let it. I used to have a lot more responsibilities than I do now, and have kinda backed off on a few of those cause it was taking up all my time. Which was fine when I wasn't working, but I don't have nearly as much time now that I work so much. NESdepression happens to all of us sometimes.

~~NGD

KHAN Games

I haven't bought anything in probably 5 months just because I don't have any extra money, so I guess in that regard things don't seem as exciting in my collecting life, but I am still interested in completing everything. I'm just not so hardcore about it.



People don't seem to realize that you don't have to finish it a week.

TheFrisbee

Yeah, I took off collecting for about 3-4 months a year or so into collecting... when I first took off I thought about selling my stuff. When I finally decided to get back to it I was SOOOOO glad that I decided to keep what I had rather than selling though.



BTW: today is a work from home day, and I just picked up SF4.. needless to say.. i am going to have to fudge what ever work I was suppose to do today. Note: Zangief owns all.

jonebone

^ You on XBL or PS3? I'm gonna do some offline practice first to learn some of the new moves but I'd be down for some SFIV online tonight on XBL...

TheFrisbee

Yah man, XBL. My gamertag is Maximusfrisbee. Hit me up.. im in the same boat as you..I need to get some practice time in. I haven't played street fighter since SNES.

jonebone

I'm LegendofJonas feel free to send me a friend request now and I'll get around to it after work / gym and I stop by Blockbuster to rent it



Unless of course they don't have it, then I might cave and drop $60 on it. I haven't bought a 360 game since Ninja Gaiden II and I really don't like spending $60 on a new game when it can get me a mildly rare NES CIB too

dr.robbie

I pretty much hit this roadblock a few months ago. I stopped buying huge lots and reselling them like I was for a year or so. I still have my collection, but not so sure I want to finish up the few loose ends (SE, Myriad, and such). The thing that did it for me was the Powerpak. I've got every game and can play every game on my system. Makes it really hard to justify keeping a few grand worth of games just for having them sake, or justify paying a few grand to buy a new one. I've actually been considering selling out as well. I still have them now, but just don't care as much anymore.

TheFrisbee

^Well just in case. I call dibs on BB games.

Freedman

Been there, had the tombstone blues.

I was lucky though, I was traveling and when I got back I had a renewed interest. I think it hits because you get so into it, and then realize holy shit, I made my hobby my life. Take a step back for a month or two. Might help.

OSG

Originally posted by: mewithoutYou52

you don't have to finish it a week.

This needs to be, like, in big bold blinking red text at the top of every page on the site.


You can burn yourself out on anything if you go at it too hard.

jonebone

Originally posted by: jonebone

I'm LegendofJonas feel free to send me a friend request now and I'll get around to it after work / gym and I stop by Blockbuster to rent it



Unless of course they don't have it, then I might cave and drop $60 on it. I haven't bought a 360 game since Ninja Gaiden II and I really don't like spending $60 on a new game when it can get me a mildly rare NES CIB too

Well so much for that, I just spent $79.99 on the Collector's Edition at gamestop.  The woman showed it to me (it was the last one) and mentioned about the hint book and little figurine included in the package so I had to buy this edition.  Chasing after damn hint books (like Deja Vu which I actually picked up today coincidentally) and still not having a monster for Monster in my Pocket, my collecting side made me get the upgrade.

Oh well it's official that I won't be playing many retro games for the next month.  Gotta get a bunch of 360 achievements now

TheFrisbee

My fingers hurt.

jonebone

Haha, don't you just love fighting games. Am I the only one who has problems going both ways? I.e. when I'm facing to the right I can own with fireballs / dragon punches etc. But then when I'm facing left, I only throw fireballs about 75% of the time and I can barely ever pull off a dragon punch. I really gotta practice going both ways....

TheFrisbee

lol... thats brave of you to say. But, yah.. im totally the same. From the right gets me everytime. I tend to go into button mashing from that side.

NewUser123456789

If only SF4 was released on the Wii....  Damn Capcom...

wstankew

I go through these weird phases where my interests shift dramatically between my hobbies: gaming and cars. Every 2-4 months I go through a total shift. I've been on gaming since January, so in a month or two I will most likely begin coming to the board VERY infrequently in favor of some automotive message boards.

collectinisgame

i do this once in a while but i never want to stop collecting, i just slow down a lot and don't look for stuff like i normally do.

pats1717

Yeah it can consume your entire life really quickly. You just need to stop once and awhile

removed-07-06-2016

I've been a collector of various things for over 20 years if you go all the way back to when I started picking up baseball cards when I was 5. I've done comics, coins, stamps, video games, you name it. Really, it's about moderation. As mewithoutyou52 said, you don't have to finish your collection in a week. The one thing I've learned over everything else is to take pride in building your collection. Speed kills in most cases, and as others also mentioned, unloading your extra crap can become a second job practically. I almost never buy in lots for just such a reason; I don't quite appreciate each item as much, and I always end up with crap I don't need/want that takes up space. If this is just a short-term hobby for you, then stop or sell off what you got and move on to the next fad. If it's something you really love, find time to smell the proverbial roses on the path.



Nothing in this hobby, or any other hobby for that matter, needs to be bought now. Everything comes back around eventually. Take your time, find specifically what drives you in this hobby, and explore that. Find niche areas to collect for (all RPG's, all Capcom games, all NFR games, etc.). If you're not enjoying it anymore, and the experience cannot be recovered, don't push yourself to keep going.

burnambill333

Originally posted by: jonebone

It really made me think about how much time I've devoted to collecting and reselling these past 6 months.  It almost feels as if I don't have anytime to myself....

That's exactly the realization that I came to recently. NES collecting consumed me at one point. I took a look at myself from somebody else's perspective and it was quite sad. It's still a big part of who I am, and will continue to be my hobby, but there's an entire fucking world out there that I can play in! As the great Ferris Bueller once said "Life moves pretty fast, if you don't stop and look around, you could miss it"

jonebone

^ Yeah, I'm always going to love video games, no questioning that. I've never really had a passion for collecting though, except for baseball cards as a youngster which now just sit in boxes piled up in the corner of my room.



I'm not at the point of wanting (or needing) to sell anything and I'm definitely keeping everything I've amassed quite so far. It's just that the whole reason I started collecting was A) To play games I missed as a child (like Mega Mans) and to relive games I enjoyed as a child (like Contra). I've gotten so much stuff so fast that there's a lot of games I'd love to play (lolo 2/3, snes rpgs, etc.) and all of the games I wanted to relive haven't even been touched.



I'm definitely slowing down (hopefully SFIV will keep me busy for awhile), but I still plan on trying to complete by set and get 600+ CIBs by year end...

removed-07-06-2016

Yeah, that's exactly it, though. There's a big difference between hoarding/amassing stuff, and collecting. While some people may disagree with me, I think there's a big difference between just needing to have one of everything, and putting together a collection of everything. The first is indicative of a pack-rat, and the second is of a hobbyist. Just because someone buys a lot of NES games and displays them on a wall doesn't make them a collector of NES games. "Collecting" is also much more about preserving, archiving, contributing to the community surrounding some particular thing.

bezem

Originally posted by: wstankew

I go through these weird phases where my interests shift dramatically between my hobbies: gaming and cars. Every 2-4 months I go through a total shift. I've been on gaming since January, so in a month or two I will most likely begin coming to the board VERY infrequently in favor of some automotive message boards.

I am like this as well.  I just came out of a huge action figure phase, with video games sprinkled in here and there as I found good ones and/or good deals.  Now I am trying to moderate them all together, enjoy the hobbies equally.  Though I do go through obsessive phases.  Right now I need Mighty Final Fight!

srh201

i stopped collecting for 3 years. then i found this site last year and now i have 1500 games sitting on my floor because of it! i almost completed my set, spent thousands upon thousands upon thousands of dollars in the process, and where did it get me? promoted? yes. laid? yes. happy? yes.



well, come to think of it, i guess nintendo has been good to me!

Mario's Right Nut

Originally posted by: srh201
yes. laid? yes.

Really...?  Rosy doesn't count.

themotherbrain

That's an inspirational story Seth. It's all about overcoming adversity.