where would collecting be without the internet?

[ganonbanned]

i was thinking this the other day.  i would either have very little classic games, or none, all the CG games i would have sold for the current gen stuff.  the only classic systems i would know of is NES, SNES, PS1, genesis, and N64.  i would have absoluty no appreciation for classic games, and have no clue about them, thinking that a game like swordquest waterworld would be worth approximately 2 cents.  i probly would have a girlfriend by now to (everytime i tell a chick i collect games shes like "ewww, yur sick) i think that there would be few collectors, and the ones that did collect would have no challenge at all getting exetremely rare games, though it would be very hard to know whats rare and whats not.  for all you know , the mario game your purchasing could be worth $500.  

what are your thought? opinions?

[Speedy_NES]

I do agree that the general citizen wouldn't know much about prices and such, but I'm sure that a fanbase for classic games could have been setup regardless of the internet, and created guides similar to the Digit Press rarity guides, and sell those through mailorder from magazines, or simply in retail stores in similar fashion to Beckett or those stamp collector's guides, etc.  It would be harder to get the info and setup rarities, but it wouldn't be impossible to do either

[RetroYoungen]

I agree with Speedy.  Collecting might not be at the point that it's at now, but I would be more than willing to bet that a lot of serious collectors/players would have likely started their own lists, whether with rarities or not, even if just for themselves or their friends.

Hell, I do that ANYway, and I have guides and books and magazines and Internet databases to help me out.  

[Izret101]

I know the internet really got me into collecting.

When i started i thought i was a minority in the world since i was isolated from pretty much anyone who was a collector.
Then i found tips and tricks(at the time written by Joe Santualli from DP)$ then i i found and join ed about 20 gaming websites.

I dropped off the internet for a month or two(in the mean time VGB broke up and RFGen was founded) then i found RFGen and have been relatively active in the online gaming websites.

In anycase not talking about how i got into the online community.I would not have started my pown rarity lists but i would have still kep my personal record on gamne beat, owned, variations etc.

The internet and online communbity has just m ade collecting for me easier.

(Sorry about typosand such this post was made over an hour of so period when shots really started kicking in)€

[den68]

I know for me personally my collection would not be as big as it is were it not for the internet. Leaving out the most obvious reasons like eBay and others gamers to trade with not having such a wealth of information at my fingertips would have made the biggest impact.

I'm sure I'd still have lots of stuff for NES, Genesis, Playstation, Atari 2600 and such but till I started researching games online I'd never heard of systems like the CD-i, Watara Supervision, Virtual Boy, Milton Bradley Microvision or Vectrex. All but the Vectrex are a part of my collection.

Even with the more well known systems like the NES and Genesis I didn't realize the amount of games available and the boatloads of peripherals. The web has been huge just to know what's even out there to get.

It's also made collecting more fun. I've got a few buddies who have Xbox's but Phoenix is the only other collector I know. I've been able to share the fun of this hobby with tons of people online, many of witch I've made trades with and I've also met quite a few.

Were it not for the internet my games might just be another collection collecting dust like my trading cards and comic books.

[Alabama-Shrimp]

I wuld say the internet has helped alot with knowing whats rare and sort after but with my own stuff most of it is what i got new, kepet and bought the games when the machines were getting sold off as other people "upgraded".

I was there 1st time for most of the old consoles (in not that old though!) so if i was lucky enough to get one and some games for it i didnt want to get rid of it and i would never sell a system just o i could have the newest one.

[wrldstrman]

without the internet I would have had no idea the amount of games that were produced

[Sauza12]

If there were no internet, I know two things would be true for sure:

1)  Games would most likely still be plentiful and cheap.  The only bad thing about the internet is anybody can go online and find out which games are worth some money without doing much research.

2)  I probably would have been out of collecting for a while.  I tend to collect alot of things, but I usually lose intrest in them after a while.  With the internet and boards like rfgen, I always have a place to talk about collecting games and keep the fires burning.

I also agree that there would still be some sort of collectors circle without the internet.  If I recall correctly, DP started out as just a small newsletter that got some exposure in a video game magazine.  Things wouldn't have exploded as fast without the internet, but they would have grown eventually.

[Tynstar]

The net let me know how many games came out for whatever system so I could try and get them all. Also like Sauza said it has fueled the fire of collecting.

[JWZZR]

the other big thing is what would collecting be like if there was no ebay

[Ataripitbull]

  I am not a man with a lot of patients for having to do hard serching for my Atari 2600 collection, the easier, the better, so I can say that 96% of my Atari collection is from the internet.  I have only gone to 2 gaming conventions and from that, I only bought 4 games.