RF Generation Message Board

A little background on myself.  I have Masters in Library and Information Science(yes, you have to have a masters to be a librarian).  In my professional career I develop the music and video game collection at a public library.  I have a ton of fun buying crap and building the collection.  But I have to weed out old stuff.  Which is actually a fun part of the job as well.  I have criteria such as how many times an item circulated or  when it circulated last that I decide whether or not it needs to stay in the collection. 

Now translating that into my hobby of collecting NES and Genesis games I feel like I don't do enough weeding.  TNN Bass Fishing on the Genesis.  I don't play it much, but I remember my uncle playing it so it stays.  Bases Loaded II on the NES.  I don't play that much either but I remember renting it with friends and really is a nostalgic trip everytime I fire that up so it stays.  Bart Vs. the Space Mutants isn't that great, but there's no way I can get rid of that one.

Do you keep everything?  Do you have weeding policy?  Is it yearly?

I'm a slow collector so I haven't out grown any space and I tend to only buy games I want to play.  So I haven't really gotten into weeding yet.

I am notorious for hoarding anything I collect. I always have a hard time letting go of anything. I got rid of two games so far for 2014.

I try to evaluate my collection on a yearly basis and do some "weeding" when necessary. Not too long ago, I decided to sell my O2 and Jaguar consoles and games, because I really wasn't playing them and really had no nostalgia associated with either of these libraries. When Crabby opened his store, I saw it as another opportunity to trim down stuff I wasn't playing, so the Game Gear, and most of my N64 collection went to him. I'm pretty much settled in terms of what I am collecting now and basically went through every console I owned to determine how I wanted to collect for it (complete vs. what I consider the better, playable titles). To this day, I still take inventory and will sell off a few games I picked up long ago that I doubt I'll ever play again.  I think if you are honest with yourself and your passions, you can avoid hoarding. It really depends on the individual in this case in terms of whether they collect mainly to play, or if they simply enjoy the collecting aspect of it. To each their own, but it's always good to decide where you fall.

Give it time Mike - in a couple years you may take a step back and go through your inventory and decide to weed out stuff you'll never touch. I've collected since the mid 90s but really got back into it in 2011 and picked up a ton of stuff over the last 2-3 years.

This past summer, prior to us having a baby, I went through and pulled out stuff I would never touch. Most of it was acquired from 2011 onwards (3DO, Lynx, Neo Geo, 7800) that I had no emotional attachment too. Then I culled out all the commons I had (or duplicates) for SNES and N64 and offloaded them. Felt much more organized.

Now I used the $$ to add to the areas I wanted to collect for, so in the end it worked out.

I've actually been going through this process for the first time since I started collecting.  I was definitely a hoarder; other than duplicates, I would hang on to any game that I got my hands on, no matter how bad or worthless it was.  Once my collection hit about 1200-1300 games, I decided that my gaming area was just too cramped, so I started weeding out some games.  Mostly old sports games, generally bad games, and games that I had played before and had no intention of ever playing again.

Fast forward a few months later, and I've probably trimmed about 250-300 games from my collection, and still have some more things to get rid of.  My goal was to get my collection to under 1000 games, at least for a brief period, and I am currently very close to this goal.  I've sold/traded a lot of games on ebay and to other users here, and in the process I've been able to add some more desirable titles to my collection.

I imagine this is a process I'll have to go through every couple years or so, since I'm already noticing certain games creeping into my collection, games that I would have most definitely pulled off of my shelves just a few months ago.  I already have more games than I could play in a lifetime, especially if I count my digitally owned games as well (I probably have 700-800 games just on my Steam account alone), so it's more important for me to focus on the good games and games that I actually want to play instead of playing something I picked at random and trying to force my way through a game I'm not enjoying.


This is a good point.  While I do think it would be awesome for my collection to be a literal game library, I am definitely a gamer first and a collector second.

Collector first here. While I definitely plan on playing most of my library at some point, my collection is around for others to experience. In fact, I just brought in 3 boxed consoles and some games into the office for a game night tonight...

I need to start up Retro Game Night again.  ;D

having a set of high standards for condition and what type of games you add to your collection will go a long way towards keeping things out without even having them in the first place.

This defines the way I collect.  I won't let my collection get over 250 unique games so once I get something new, something old gets kicked out.  I've had a constant push for quality over quantity ever since I've started.

Unless it's a duplicate it stays in my collection.  I have the great fortune of having lots of space for my games.  Like an entire small house right next to my house I live in.  I guess you would consider it an "in-laws" house.  It was a major reason we bought the house when we did. The only other reason things leave my collection is if someone has a need for it and I don't really play it.  I will happily sell/give it to someone if they have a need for it.

I am pretty selective about what I'll buy these days, which makes "weeding" pretty unnecessary most of the time. I also don't buy much anymore, and a lot of what I buy is only to resell (HATE ME ALL YOU WANT).

It's a hobby, do what makes you happy. I keep what I find interesting, and flip what I don't. I've got a large collection, and would feel fine with trimming a little when I am ready. Some things will never go, and some will.

I'm pretty much with Duke - It's a hobby and yes do what makes you happy.  My own thought is I will not ever sell my collection even for marriage so I guess that is my Wedding Policy ;-)

Why would I do that? Flipping games I either already have or aren't interested in gives me the finances to buy what I do want. This isn't an inexpensive hobby after all.

As for weeding: aside from resales, I pretty much just buy what I think might be interesting to play. There are several on-the-fence titles I'm planning to try out to see if they make the cut. If not, then I'll have that much more space for something I really do want.


'Late

Exactly! Thank you for being blunt about it, ha ha. Nobody should hate you for reselling, you are making money, whether it is to buy more games for yourself, or to pay bills, or whatever...people should only be supportive of it. People makes tons of money flipping all sorts of stuff, you are making the effort to make a profit, and that is something to like, not hate you for. :)

Look no further than CrabMaster2000 as an inspiration to all the resellers on this site. The dude went all in and set up his very own meatspace-based retail game-vending establishment... which EngineerMike apparently is single-handedly keeping solvent. ;D

I used to collect everything that I could find however that all changed a year or two ago. These days I prefer to only buy what I intend to play and then sell if I don't see the game having much replay value.

Again, if anything this thread proves, it's that all of us collect in different ways. Some of us are just collectors, some primarily gamers, some who like to buy and sell for profit, and some who are a mix of some or all of these. Weeding is going to be based on what category you fall in, so it's more of a personal preference.

I usually keep what I find unless I already have it then I sell or trade for something I don't. Also, if I find game for cheap that I know is rare/valuable, and I don't really have an attachment to it then I sell it. I have done this with some C64 games, I don't have the system nor do I have a nostalgia or attachment to it. So I have traded and sold some of those games from my collection

I mean if I were to find stadium events you would bet I would sell it, I can pay down some debt with that thing

I used to just buy whatever was cheap and keep anything and everything that wasn't a double. But I think I got burned out doing that, so now I'm starting to do some major weeding. "Weeding" isn't even a good term for it, at this point its more "brush hogging".