The Many Kinds of Collecting

As said in my first post, there are many many different kinds of collecting someone can do when it comes to video game collecting. I will go over some, but there are many shades in between these types. Nothing says you can't be all of them if you want.

Our first two divisions are that among Player and Investor. These divisions happen between almost any kind of collectible hobby. The "Player" is the collector that focuses on using the items that they amass in their collection. Its the tea pot collector that brews tea in their pots, the pocket watch collector that wears a different one each day. A player's collection has posters hung on walls, game systems plugged into televisions, and games at the ready for some play time.

From Game Collecting with Rick

Not my room btw, but I am jealous.

The other division is the Investor. The Investor collects games for a monetary reason. Their meat and potatoes are the rare and rising in price. They usually have pristine collections of unopened games that have been left in wrappers for 20+ years. Their posters are rolled up and protected in cases. Their games are rated by a ratings board and they have charts of what games are selling for on Ebay. They do not care and have never played that rare game they have that is worth something, but that doesn't matter, its going to pay for their kid's college some day.

Now that's not a hard division, most collectors are a combination of the two. I myself have an unopened special edition of a game and would not mind having a couple of rated game. On the other hand I make sure I have a working and playable version of any game I own.

A few notes on this. Players tend to not spend as much money as an Investor. The cheapest an investor gets away with things is buying brand new games at retail, but these are usually the $100+ collector's edition. If they want the game rated, they are looking at $75-100 each attempt. A bad wrinkle in their new game could result in a less than satisfactory score, causing them to have to buy another set.

From Game Collecting with Rick

But do not be mistaken. Some people judge Investors, saying they are not enjoying the games as much as Players. I say this is just an misunderstanding. To Investors, these "whale hunts" ARE the enjoyment. A Player will find the game online, missing manuals, missing cases, and they can get away with looking for 3 minutes on Google, getting their game, and playing it in a few days. Investors will hunt for specific games for years. They will haggle and perhaps even trade parts of their collection to get that one whale they've wanted for so very long. If it was not fun for them, they would simply choose something else to invest in.

The key is to identify who you are dealing with when you are meeting other collectors. Learn to be friends, judge less, and work together to further each other's collections. Video game collecting flourishes with more people of all types.

Next post I'll talk about the next division; Complete vs Bare Bones