Did you ever think you were the only one??

I was remembering back when I first started collecting and I thought I was the only one that wanted old games. I started collecting in the mid 90's and I remember going into shops and talking to the employees about collecting. They thought I was crazy. They said, "Who would collect these things?". After a while one guy said " You know, there is another guys that started coming here saying he was collecting them too." I was floored. I didn't know what to say. I was happy that I wasn't crazy, and collecting the NES games wasn't something to laugh at. I then realized I had competition when it came to NES games.image

After that day I am amazed to see the amount of people joining in our hobby. I also learned that people had been collecting games well before I did. I guess just not around Columbia.

Do you remember when you learned that you weren't alone in collecting?  Of course the new collectors never had that chance, because it is more common to find game collectors now. I guess this question is for the people who had been collecting for a while.  

Comments

  • I never thought I was the only one, because I started to collect shortly after meeting a local collector. I wanted to buy some games I remembered from my youth, and I saw his collection, and then decided to collect short after.



    And then, some months later, I discovered NA and also discovered that this same guy was also on NA image.
  • As long as I've seen them in stores, I've assumed I wasn't the only one buying them... otherwise it wouldn't be a very sound business plan for any store to carry them! I don't spend THAT much. Not to say that I've met a lot of serious collectors personally in the local market, though...
  • I got into it because a friend of mine from school busted out her old system, and we played a few times, and I got mine out too, and she fixed it up for me. Then I went to a place selling used games and saw that some were going for a lot of money. Then I looked at eBay. It opened a new world of possibilities for me.
  • I kind of thought I was the only person who was "this crazy" for the first little while. Then I did some searching online and found some forums. Thats when I realized that there was WAY more nutty people than me (at the time, at least).
  • i didnt get too too crazy until i came to this f*cking site! i didnt pay more than $300 for anything until i came here, and that price tag was only reserved for the boxed panesians, se, and se manual. the rest of my collection was REALLY cheap, so i didnt think i was too crazy or the only one, as there were so many sellers on ebay that i figured there had to be more people out there like me. i was just never really very into completing anything... i just did it to pass the time! guys stopped playing magic around me, so i needed something else to do!
  • Originally posted by: Jumpman Jr.

    I kind of thought I was the only person who was "this crazy" for the first little while. Then I did some searching online and found some forums. Thats when I realized that there was WAY more nutty people than me (at the time, at least).

    Yah, your right up there with the best of them on the "nutty list" now!

    Originally posted by: srh201

    i didnt get too too crazy until i came to this f*cking site!


    Same here! I've blown way more on NES since I found this site. Believe it or not.. before coming here I wasn't really all that worried about condition of my games.

  • I gotta say I think I am the ONLY one around here who collects. I haven't met one person here who does. Since the town I live in isn't the most wealthy town, people buy the old systems to give their kids something to do and they can pick them up cheap. My friend owns a game store and makes his living off the new stuff. He takes in and sells the old stuff but he is shocked that some places actually have large sections in their store for them. He bought out a N64 case from KayBee when it went under here and that case has NES, SNES, n64, genesis, master system, and saturn all in one case. He doesn't give much room for them and the games are stacked in front of each other so you can't even read the titles.
  • I never really thought I was the only one, but definitely didn't think there were this many crazy people around. Figured it out pretty quick when I started actively pursuing the higher end games.
  • I never really thought about it until I started getting outbid by the same people over and over on ebay a decade ago. That's when I started finding collector sites, Usenet, etc. and quickly realized I was late to the party.
  • I know there's at least two other collectors here, but I've never run in to them. And none of them work at the game shops around town, so all those people look at me like I'm kinda nuts. Especially when I start schooling them on videogame history, or when they say, "Oh yeah, did you ever play this one game..." and nine times out of ten I tell them I've got it.
  • I've always been one to keep my games, and keep them complete. I've been a hardcore console gamer since I could walk, but just recently (past 5 years or so) made the transition from hoarder > collector. I've had the pleasure of meeting a few fellow collectors in and around town, and even got a friend of mine into collecting. Everyone else though....they think I'm crazy and think I'm the only one that does something like this.



    Frisbee, I gotta agree with you about the coniditon thing. Prior to lurking on NA, I wasn't too concerned about the coniditon of my games. I was a cart only guy, and as long as there were no major defects to the cart it went into the collection. Fast forward to "Post NA", and I won't even think about putting something in my collection that isn't complete and at least a 7/10.
  • I never gave it much thought...I remember one day I was looking through a stack of games and overheard two people talking about the NES games. One guy went 'THIS is the common version of Tetris, it isn't worth crap. But if you find a copy of tetris in a black case, oh man, that thing is rare and worth a fortune.' Around this area I think I compete more with people who are reselling any games they can get their hands on rather than collectors; though there are a few around me; even on these forums!
  • Originally posted by: Dain

    I never really thought about it until I started getting outbid by the same people over and over on ebay a decade ago. That's when I started finding collector sites, Usenet, etc. and quickly realized I was late to the party.

    Dain, i know exactly how you feel. People who are just now getting into this hobby gotta realize how cheap this stuff used to be and when it started going up five bucks here and ten bucks here it made me almost just want to stop cuz I couldn't get complete games for $1-$3 anymore... and all i could ever find in the wild was 10-yard fight and baseball.

    I remember when i started collecting NES in 1998 i'd go into goodwill and there would be stacks of video games, stacks of atari systems and no one was buying them, but hell i was just a kid and the collecting world was SO different.   The internet was a foreign object to me and when i finally discovered there were nuts out there like me I too was late to the party image

  • Same here. As an intern in college, I sat at my desk with nothing to do and browsed ebay. I was trying to get every game, not necessarily collect. I remember seeing Stadium Events go for $50, the Panesians for $50, Caltron for $30..etc. I thought, "No way. Who would pay that much for a game?!" Now it makes me sick because I don't have them, and I can't afford them now either! I have an old Funcoland flyer at home from the late '90's that I'm going to scan and show everyone. It will make you laugh or cry, not sure which.
  • Originally posted by: JKessler00

    Same here. As an intern in college, I sat at my desk with nothing to do and browsed ebay. I was trying to get every game, not necessarily collect. I remember seeing Stadium Events go for $50, the Panesians for $50, Caltron for $30..etc. I thought, "No way. Who would pay that much for a game?!" Now it makes me sick because I don't have them, and I can't afford them now either! I have an old Funcoland flyer at home from the late '90's that I'm going to scan and show everyone. It will make you laugh or cry, not sure which.


    LOL!

    Funny 'cause I was thinking the same back in the days....those days are long gone now.

    At one point I reached 500 or so...then I decided to sell 95% of it to Al Bailey in Ottawa (some may know Al)
    and only keep the rare and my favorite games
  • Originally posted by: sniperCCJVQ

    At one point I reached 500 or so...then I decided to sell 95% of it to Al Bailey in Ottawa (some may know Al)
    and only keep the rare and my favorite games

    *clears throat*
  • http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1547688/20061211/index.jhtml



    This is a great article that was on MTV, there was another good one (written by a collector's wife) that talked about his collecting style, which was shockingly similar to mine (finding out-of-the-way back-alley deals, bulk deals, buying entire stores out of their stock). Wish I still had the bookmark, I think reading that first let me now I wasn't alone in all this.
  • When I first started collecting, I never met anyone that was into it like I was, until I joined NA, kinda crazy, but there are some excellent people here, it makes for a way better collecting experience
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