RF Generation Message Board

Over the years of collecting and going to various sites I cant help wondering what some people do for a living to be able to spend thousands of dollars on games like they were buying a coke.Or have the time to sit and watch ebay all day..myself including driving time overtime etc I spend about 60 to 70 hrs a week working and support a family of 4.I also am in law enforcement and dont make all that much.But I can say I dont use credit cards to buy games ever.

Same here, I am a security officer and work about 60hrs a week.  I spend most of my disposable income on games, which is about $30 every two weeks.

I am a struggling part part time (as it stands only like 26 hours a week) student.

Up until recently all i had to worry about was my insurance.
But now college bills loom so MUCH less of my income is going to be disposible.

I hope that i will be able to use my collection to pay for itself in the near future. At least for a little while anyways.

I wonder that myself quite often. I have a huge collection but I've aquired most of it my patiently combing thrift stores, flea markets, garage sales, trades, and various clearance sales. I've also been given several games from friends that know I collect.

I have bought a few games from ebay but not too many. The most expensive game in my collection cost me $70 and that was Guitar Hero. The most I've paid for a system was the $200 I spent on my PS2 and Xbox.

It still adds up though.

I'd say I have an OK sized collection, but I haven't spent a great fortune on it.  Like Den said, most of mine has come through snooping in fleas, thrifts, or whatever.

At one time, I collected EVERYTHING...stamps, coins, comics, baseball cards, records....you name it.  I finally realized i had too much crap and decided to focus on one hobby and sell everything else.  Years later, I'm still trying to sell off my other crap.  Made a nice little profit the other day on ebay when I sold off more baseball cards and Star Wars toys.  Now I can get those arcade machines I've been eyeing.

I'm a part-time teacher/instructor at a local university and help my wife run her home business...so, we don't have alot of extra cash lying around.  Over the years, I've found ways of making extra cash to pay for my hobby.  For awhile, I was going in to fleas and thrifts and buying old books to resell on Amazon.  I've paid pennies for old books and turned around and sold them for much more on Amazon...haven't done it in awhile, but it's a great way to drum up quick cash.

EDIT:  Oh, also, credit cards are bad....been down that road...paid all mine off and now don't have any.  THAT'S how some of these people get their massive collections.  I've heard many stories about game buying followed a few years later by bankruptcy...I love video games, but not that much.

I'm the fleet manager for a company called Visiting Physicians Association.

I don't make a ton of money, but I make enough that I can spend around $50 a week on games.  I don't use credit cards for anything, unless it's an emergency.

I make due with the income I have. I have spent my fair share on video games, but never to the point where I am in over my head. Being a single parent and the sole income in my house, I need to plan what I have, and what I can spend on mostly anything. I know what part of my income can be spent on entertainment on a monthly basis. It changes, as my monthly bills move up and down depending on what time of year it is.

It would be great to be able to just spend a huge amount of money and be able to collect everything I wanted really fast, but then I dont think I would appreciate my collection as much as I do :)

I have always wondered that myself. I sell stuff on Ebay for a friend and take a % of the sales. Thats how I buy stuff. Plus I will work on PC's on teh side to make some cash.

I buy just about any cheap deal I come across when I have funds available to do so, and then sell stuff I don't need for a profit and use that profit to buy more stuff for my collection and pay for more cheap deals for resale :)  I also get some $$ for studying every month which I just throw into the mix, but I also have bills and food that I need that money for as well.  

Either way, most of my purchases come from resale profits.  I tend to find so many good deals that it's just natural that I started buying them for resale purposes :)

I hold true to the principle that when a game comes out, the price can ONLY go down. This is true for about 99% of the games out there (exceptions being the occasional high quality/short run game that collectors continue to chase). Especially sports games; I NEVER buy them at release, the price on them drops dramatically!

For current gen games, more often than not, I'll wait for a game to drop to $19.99 or less. And even then, in many cases wait until there's a 2 for 30 or buy 2, get 1 free deal.
For next-gen games, my rule of thumb is $29.99 or less. Of course there is the rare exception (i.e. Oblivion), but even then, if I can even get $5-10 off by holding out a few weeks for a sale, I'll do it.

I'll also scour ebay regularly for deals, and every week I check out the weekly ads for circuit city and best buy. Take advantage of their points plans if you can, too.

Of course, I'll hit the flea market on occasion and stop at garage sales when I have the time.

For me, it also helps that I'm a bit of a fussy buyer. I pretty much only buy CIB if I can, and do so without exception for current and next-gen games. And tend to only buy games with high rankings. I'm regularly checking gamerankings.com.

Although I don't recommend it, poker and gambling winnings have been helpful as well. Vegas and Greektown Casino paid for my 360. ;) At this time, I'm grateful to be set on systems. I've no interest in the PS3 and am still not motivated about the Wii yet.

I'll also keep an eye on the video stores for good deals. Game Rush (Blockbuster) and GameCrazy (Hollywood video) occasionally have sales that are too good to pass up.

I also agree with many that have already posted to avoid using the credit card if at all possible.

When I was hardcore collecting (till last Sept), I was daddy's little princess...lmfao My dad is a retired Firefighter for the City of Pittsburgh. 37 years on the line. Won't say exactly how much he gets every 2 weeks but I will say it's more than the average person makes in two months. Not rich by any means but well off enough to support 2 households and help me and my brother out. When I lived at home I was able to spend pretty much whatever the hell I wanted on whatever the hell I wanted.

Now that I'm married and we're pretty fuckin broke, I only buy games that I really want badly and -know- I will get the use out of. I've actually had to resort to trading games in but now all of our crap games are gone. We just have stuff we actually play for the most part though there are some we'd sell if we had to. I plan on selling what's left of my collection in Pittsburgh as soon as I can get my hands on it. Just don't have the money or time anymore and prolly never will again.

I am actually unemployed, have been for about 2 years now.  I used to run a Godfathers Pizza and made pretty decent money.  I guess I will have to get  a job one of these days.
~~NGD

I work as a cook in a community centre for people with mental health problems on Thursdays, then I work on the floor at the weekends, waiting tables. We're only open to members during the week but we're open to the public and act as a restaurant at the weekends.

I earn adult's minimum wage (£5.05/hr) on Thursdays and £5.50/hr at the weekend. My official hours are 12 a week, 4 on Thursdays and 8 at the weekend. But it usually changes each week due to leaving late, or closing early. Last Saturday everyone was watching the football so we closed because we had no customers.

So, I get about £60 or over each week, and I get paid every fortnight.

I really want a full time job but the ones I like the sound of always have some requirements I don't meet, like being over 21 for insurance.

At the moment i run my own small business fixing PC's, im good at it but hate it! so am loking for something else. Money can be all over the place just depends on howmany and what type of jobs come in, I love spyware make quite a bit on a format ;)

Dont think ive bought a new game in er about 6 month and they were the Midway collections 1 and 2 dirt cheap.

and i have far too many games i just aint played

I'm a machinist and usually get 30 hours a week at 9.50 (but lately I've only been getting about 20 hours a week).  I have a budget of about $60 a month for games.  Though this month I've gone wayyyyyy over my limit.  So I'm pretty much broke until payday.

I'm a manager for a retail company.  I make decent money, but it helps that I'm only 21 and completely single, only expense is rent/utilities.

I know how you feel.   :(

I go to school...not college....but school. So I don't have to much money, and pretty much all of it goes into collection. I rarely buy anything new, and most everything I get is from thrifts and flea markets.

With the Circuit City sale and my MK purchase yesterday i have decided i temporarily fall into this deep pockets list of buyers.

But this is only going to last another couple weeks tops.

Then back to bills and much less personal shopping.

It runs in streaks. When the sale is too good to pass up, though, you've got to take advantage of it.

Not to sound like a dick but teh CC sale doesn't count as deep pockets. I think what wrldstrman is talking about are the people that spends thousands on games in a short period of time.

In the last week or so i have spent 300-400$s on games.

Thats mega deep pockets to me.

Point taken. But maybe the original comment is more a matter of personal perception which may not match the facts.

For example, if I were to say I bought 6 new xbox games last week, one person may think "Wow! He must've spent close to $300 on games in 1 week!", while another may think "He must've found a great sale!" and not think I spent as much money (i.e.the Circuit City sale).

Just my $.02.

300-400 is good. I thought you might of picked up a few 5 dollar games. Then I saw you MKII purchase.

I agree with you Phoenix it is all relative.

I used to have deep pockets before I moved an took a new job. Now, I'm lucky if I have extra money. I still find games to buy and selling extras helps.

I'm frugal. If I see a penny on the floor I'll snatch it up. Ever see the A1 Stake Sauce Commericals? Yeah, it's that important.

I put most of my wages in the bank, pay my bills, wait for games to get on sale if it is a new game, or stick it out if it is a rare game. Some times I go out and buy the farm on a specific game or two. Even more fun is living on, say, $20 for three weeks, and combing entertainment with living expenses.

I spend between $200 - $500 monthly on video game purchases depending on various factors.  Sometimes significantly more.  If we had kids, I'd imagine a significant portion of that would dry up.  I also own my own home and the morgage is pretty substantial.

Children can take away from certain funds, but are so totally worth it :) Of course my collection does grow slower than I would like, but it is worth it.

By time I have kids (which will be when I am 40 at the rate I am getting dates) I'll be done with collecting. No really.

I have $$$ ready so I don't have to sell my game collection if something happened. Thank you frugalness.

actually my boys 14 so hes getting into the collecting part of gaming..just havent been able to get him up early to hit any yard sales...guess that will happen when you play video games til 3 in the morning