Yes, video games are lots of fun and we both love them but have you ever considered collecting them? Thousands of gamers out there collect games and not only is it an interesting hobby but it gives you a chance to learn the history of the games we play today. If you were ever considering starting a collection and wanted to know where to start, I hope this article helps to pave the way to owning the collection you’ve always dreamed. Who knows, you may even own games that may yield some value in the future.
- The first and best place to start is to ask yourself a couple of questions that will help steer you towards the system and type of collection you will have. Those questions include whether you prefer compact disc or cartridge based systems, How much money you have to spend and what types of games you enjoy.
- Always remember the most important factors in collecting games and will effect the price of the game the most. Those factors are what kind of condition the games are in and how “complete” a game is (whether or not the game includes the original box, instructions and inserts).
- When starting out ask yourself if you prefer collecting for compact disc based systems. You should know that disc scratch fairly easily and are much more fragile in general. It is more challenging to find old discs scratch free and when you do they are generally more expensive.
- If you decide to go for cartridge based systems you’ll find that the games are almost always playable no matter what condition they appear to be in. The downside to cartridge based systems is that they rarely contain the box and instructions. If having “complete” games is important to you, you may want to consider disc games.
- If you have money issues but you still want to collect you should consider collecting current gen games. A number of retailers have bargain bins where you can get lots of great titles for cheap and places like Gamestop and Toys ‘r’ us have buy a couple get a couple sales that will fill up your collection quickly.
- If money isn’t as important there is a lot of challenge and rare items in the older game category especially if you look into getting complete games. Markets for older games are also more stable so you know what the game is worth and what you should pay for it no matter what the condition is.
- Throughout gaming history there have been systems that have better games in a particular genre than other systems so if you like RPG’s, for instance, you should look into the original Playstation or Super Nintendo but if you want to play the system that has the most influence over modern gaming try the Playstation 2 or the first Xbox.
- I find the best place to get games is at garage sales and pawn shops. The people running these sales generally don’t know what they are worth so you can find a great deal easily but you can’t always predict what you are going to get. Places like eBay and Amazon Marketplace are good resources for common titles but rare titles are often very expensive. I would suggest checking out Craigslist for the best deals especially if you live in less populated areas.
- I would stay away from the best selling games in a genre. You will often see that the triple A titles are the cheapest games to get. This is because publishers knows that certain games are going to sell like crazy and they produce a ton of copies. The more copies of a game that are circulating, the easier it is to get them and the cheaper they are to get.
- The most obvious but probably the most important tip is to collect what you like. Collecting is a very personal art and the more personality and uniqueness you bring to your collection, the more people will appreciate and value your collection.
If you liked these tips and want to see more or want us to write about something else entirely, please sound off below.