Around this time last year, I wrote a very popular entry about my goal to drastically reduce my game collection and the work I was doing to achieve said goal. Reading this back a year later, I can tell I was writing from a peak point of games outgoing. I spoke about reducing shelving units from three to two, and how I'd like to go from two to one. I noted that I had gotten on the shelf physical titles down to about 750 pieces. So, what has happened since then? In twelve months was I able to get down to that magical goal of one shelving unit for games? Am I buying any games anymore? Perhaps the answer will be surprising.



It didn't take long after I wrote Liquidation for me to start losing steam. I had sold some major holy grail games and highly sought after consoles. The pull I was feeling to purge games out of the collection hit a critical mass after some huge sales. I was looking on my shelf for more big ticket items and I kept discovering games I knew I didn't want to sell. Steambot Chronicles on the PS2 has shot up in price in recent history, and even though I have played the game without finishing it, I love IREM games and I really enjoyed the premise of this one. I knew I'd want to play it again some day. Afrika on the PS3 is begging me to sell it, but it has sentimental value. The game (as it can be referred to loosely) was something Jesse was looking for once upon a time. Somewhere in my travels I had found a copy for him but when I tried to hand it over, he had already found a copy for himself. Just knowing that he had interest in the game, even if it was just morbid curiosity, makes it almost impossible to let go of.

So as the game selling cooled off my side hustle of raiding the Goodwill outlet store for flips heated up. As I wrote in another article, I was pulling in a couple hundred bucks a month selling the books, cds, and videos I found there. Lately that has tapered off too. General consensus is that ebay selling is slow overall in the summer and the many listings I have are moving slowly despite what I see as competitive pricing. Add to that the fact that my last few trips to the outlet haven't been fruitful and my selling in general has slowed down to a trickle.


How have I done in the past year with games coming in? Not too bad, really. I got hit with FOMO when I realized some Switch games were going way up in price so at one point I went on a little shopping spree to grab some games on the console while they were still at retail or below. I picked up Deadly Premonition 2, Bravely Default II, and Octopath Traveler all on one spendy Amazon order. None of these games have become rare or especially pricey as of the time of this writing, but I have them now and that's what matters.

Recently I got bitten by the music bug. I had been in bands since I was a teenager but it has been a long time since I wrote music. As I get more into it, the quest for the best gear is my new calling once again. I'm going to be honest, sometimes I look at myself and I have to admit I have something akin to an addiction to spending money. Perhaps because I don't have children, I try to fill some kind of void in my life with physical objects. As a result, my computer/podcasting room has become a band room. At the moment I am making a concerted effort with my wife to not spend so much money. Meanwhile, I've brought in more games in the past few months than I have in a long time. I went to a convention with my wife and made it a point to blow some money as a way of having a fun time, and I think it reignited a spark for video games which I had tried very hard to snuff out about a year ago. I've grabbed a bunch of games that I had previously avoided out of willpower.

So, am I back into video game collecting? Not really, but I'm out of the 'everything must go' mentality. I rearranged my shelves so that the newer consoles have "room" for a few new games here and there, and certainly as the odd title pops off in price I will seriously consider selling more, but for now I am very happy with where I'm at and I have no seller's remorse for anything I have sold. Instead of putting the pedal to the floor on selling off, I'm going to try to keep a balance between incoming and outgoing games going forward.

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