I would say I'm a value conscious collector, so my advice would be to learn the market and prices as best as you can and buy whatever is a good deal, whether rare or common. If I had to pick one I would say go for commons first because typically you can buy them in lots with other games you want. Then resell the doubles and use that cash to either buy more game lots or save it to fund one of the rare games. As long as you are getting good value out of your purchases you should be able to come up quite a bit ahead.
Well seeing as I've rekickstarted collecting famicom what I've done was buy a few cheap lots that had at least half stuff in it I know ill play then I'll nab a few popular ones and as I accumulate doubles I'm hoping to either trade for other carts or at least get back what I have in it and go for an uncommon or a rare.
Just find the best deal on a LARGE lot to start. If you can buy a big enough lot, then you can generally pay 60% of what those games are worth on an individual basis. You also generally end up with the good games in something big. Buying games "one off" is not a good way to start collecting if you are going for a full set. Buy lots at a good price and then sell off duplicates to recoup money.
If you just want to buy good games to play, then still look for a lot to start, then buy the games you want.
i do pretty much everything up to 100 euros for loose carts, all mixed,
everything above 100 never really moves up in price that much anyway...
I'm assuming there’s a difference in PAL vs. NTSC here. If id waited to pick up some of the expensive NES games to the end of when I finished my NES collection (took roughly 3.5 years) I'd have spent quite a bit more. Some examples would be $350 vs $1000 on Little Samson, $200 vs $450 on Panic Restaurant, $150 vs $350 on Power Blade 2, $40 vs $250 on Kid Klown. Just in those 4 games, at retail, I saved roughly $1300 by doing expensive first. Stupidly I didn’t picked up Stadium Events when I first started at $4000 vs ~$9000 now.
In response to a lot of the other comments, I think the main question here is do people actually plan on completing a full set or just buying games as they find them to raise their numbers. If you’re not really focused on a complete set and just want to build up numbers, I'm all for buying lots with stuff you’d like to play in it and then selling the rest or just adding to your numbers and saving by buying in lots/bulk. I think so many people end up getting around 200 carts for a given set, say NES, and they just say they are going for the full set. Maybe 10% of those people are actually serious about it. The other 90% just buy commons until they hit 500 and quit because it’s too expensive or they just sell it all off knowing they will never complete it. It doesn’t take a huge investment to get to around 500 NES loose carts. It’s the last 20-25% that is the real challenge.
In this day and age, I'd suggest starting out with the cheap commons by buying large eBay lots of commons, selling off what you already have individually.
To get the best value, lots would definitely be the way to go starting out. But for the condition conscious collector, where lots can be just a waste of time, I would suggest the cheap and popular games to start.
I would tell anyone new to collecting though to pick and focus on one, maybe two, platform(s) that they absolutely love and have a lot of passion for. When I see the burnout collectors selling their stuff it is usually a bunch of stuff from like 4-5 platforms. They probably chose them because they are super cheap or super dank on instagram and not because they care for the history of the console.
It is hard to say, if you really do want to go for a full set you would be better off buying the rares first since they just continue to rise in price.
On the other hand they could potentially drop but as per the trending data, they won't for awhile.
Like others have said, buy in very, very large lots...The discount you will get for buying in bulk is huge.
If your actually going to take whatever set your planning on collecting to the end, start with expensive first. I cant even count the amount of people who I see who are going for a full NES set and are around 550 and the last 127 are all the expensive games. Basically those people will never finish that set. They have 3x as much value left in the 127 as what they have in the 550 games they have already. If nothing else you have to mix expensive games in as your picking everything else or your going to come to an impossible task at the end. Honestly id think you'd be better off to burn out in the begging trying to get expensive games first. At least you can sell off what you have and recoup your investment pretty easy with expensive stuff rather then getting 500 commons in the first two years and then realize there's no way you can afford all the expensive stuff and try and unload all those commons. Your going to loose your ass in bulk rates on common stuff.
Pretty good point here.
I'd agree to get the expensive stuff first if you're planning on a full set. Easiest to resell and get most, if not all or more of your money back if you fizzle out.
I agree that if you're committed to a full set (whether licensed or true full), this is the way to go. The rares are going to go up for the forseeable future.
Maybe first decide on what type of collection you want. A curated set of classics and a few hidden gems isn't near as heart attack inducing, unless Little Samson is in the mix.
you just gotta adapt to the high prices you see for the good stuff. Takes a while but if you stick around the game long enough those astronomical prices will seem not so crazy anymore if you realize ur really into it. Eventually you'll slowly adapt and get only the expensive stuff you really want. Takes a while but its worth it in the end.
I wish I'd picked up the "expensive" games when I started... but then again, that was over 15 years ago. As someone who is three (expensive) games away from a licensed set, I doubt very seriously I'll ever finish it (though if SE is all that's left, I doubt I'll lose any sleep over it). It really just depends, if you want awesome games to play, pick games you want to play first. If you're concerned with getting them all, I'd start with the pricey ones, given they tend to only ever get more expensive.
Comments
everything above 100 never really moves up in price that much anyway...
If you just want to buy good games to play, then still look for a lot to start, then buy the games you want.
Originally posted by: Friendsfa26
i do pretty much everything up to 100 euros for loose carts, all mixed,
everything above 100 never really moves up in price that much anyway...
I'm assuming there’s a difference in PAL vs. NTSC here. If id waited to pick up some of the expensive NES games to the end of when I finished my NES collection (took roughly 3.5 years) I'd have spent quite a bit more. Some examples would be $350 vs $1000 on Little Samson, $200 vs $450 on Panic Restaurant, $150 vs $350 on Power Blade 2, $40 vs $250 on Kid Klown. Just in those 4 games, at retail, I saved roughly $1300 by doing expensive first. Stupidly I didn’t picked up Stadium Events when I first started at $4000 vs ~$9000 now.
In response to a lot of the other comments, I think the main question here is do people actually plan on completing a full set or just buying games as they find them to raise their numbers. If you’re not really focused on a complete set and just want to build up numbers, I'm all for buying lots with stuff you’d like to play in it and then selling the rest or just adding to your numbers and saving by buying in lots/bulk. I think so many people end up getting around 200 carts for a given set, say NES, and they just say they are going for the full set. Maybe 10% of those people are actually serious about it. The other 90% just buy commons until they hit 500 and quit because it’s too expensive or they just sell it all off knowing they will never complete it. It doesn’t take a huge investment to get to around 500 NES loose carts. It’s the last 20-25% that is the real challenge.
I would tell anyone new to collecting though to pick and focus on one, maybe two, platform(s) that they absolutely love and have a lot of passion for. When I see the burnout collectors selling their stuff it is usually a bunch of stuff from like 4-5 platforms. They probably chose them because they are super cheap or super dank on instagram and not because they care for the history of the console.
On the other hand they could potentially drop but as per the trending data, they won't for awhile.
Like others have said, buy in very, very large lots...The discount you will get for buying in bulk is huge.
If your actually going to take whatever set your planning on collecting to the end, start with expensive first. I cant even count the amount of people who I see who are going for a full NES set and are around 550 and the last 127 are all the expensive games. Basically those people will never finish that set. They have 3x as much value left in the 127 as what they have in the 550 games they have already. If nothing else you have to mix expensive games in as your picking everything else or your going to come to an impossible task at the end. Honestly id think you'd be better off to burn out in the begging trying to get expensive games first. At least you can sell off what you have and recoup your investment pretty easy with expensive stuff rather then getting 500 commons in the first two years and then realize there's no way you can afford all the expensive stuff and try and unload all those commons. Your going to loose your ass in bulk rates on common stuff.
Pretty good point here.
I'd agree to get the expensive stuff first if you're planning on a full set. Easiest to resell and get most, if not all or more of your money back if you fizzle out.
I agree that if you're committed to a full set (whether licensed or true full), this is the way to go. The rares are going to go up for the forseeable future.
Maybe first decide on what type of collection you want. A curated set of classics and a few hidden gems isn't near as heart attack inducing, unless Little Samson is in the mix.