The selling entry

Entry posted by Guest October 17, 2005

906 views

Hey, FYI, apparently "redoubling my chronogaming efforts" must've meant "not writing about them anymore" because I haven't updated in a week, right?

No, no, no. In this case, I've needed to start "redoubling" my efforts to selling the stuff I've already moved past, namely anything pre-1977.

I've got three rules as far as keeping a happy marriage as it relates to my gaming obsession.

Rule #1 Never give an exact figure detailing how much time you've spent gaming during a recent period of time. For instance, let's say, in August of 2001, you spent 70 hours playing and completed Final Fantasy V. Do not say to your spouse (who doesn't game) "Oh, yeah, you know that game I got at the beginning of the month, Final Fantasy V? Well I finally finished it. It took 70 hours, but it was worth it."

Rule #2 Never give an exact accounting of how much money you've spent on your gaming hobby. Never say, "Oh, I was looking at the stuff I've gotten since a year ago and I was surprised that I spent about $1500." It doesn't matter if that's all you spent in ten years, just hearing any large amount of money associated with games and not spent on the house or vacations will surprise them.

Rule #3 Never display all your stuff at the same time. ALWAYS have some things away in storage. If you're not using it, box it up and put it somewhere out of sight. I'm not suggesting that you deny its existence, just that the cummulative effect of your spouse's visual reception of your many game-related things will work against you. Eventually, a little light-bulb will go off over their head and they will say "you need to get rid of some of your stuff, it's taking over the house."

Well, I've learned the first two rules through real-life experience. The last rule I had only hypothesized untill recently. I don't have a "room of doom" per se. I have a "house of videogames". With no room, in a strict sense, in which to contain my treasures. They exist throughout the house in closets, shelves - flat surfaces in general. If it's flat, it's got a game or a game related object either stored on it or "in transition" on it. Hell, I've got printouts of Captain Olimar, Seamus Aran and that eclipse scene from Eternal Darkness hanging on walls in my living room and kitchen. We're talking a high level of cultural penetration. Alas, it has its risks.

Recently, my wife, "noticed" it. Since it's been time to sell some of this stuff for a while, (all of the Odyssey stuff especially) that process has started. I've been using my blog over at Digital Press, which, until recently was identical to this one here, to post pictures and to describe, mostly because I have somewhat of a reputation over there as a good buyer and a great deal more posts than I have here.

(outdated useless link removed. finally. sure took me long enough. sheesh.)

So, the last three links from the above entry are what have been for sale. Well, the most recent entry (the one that link is to) isn't so much for sale as it is a description of my "Very Special Odyssey with the Silver Magnavox Logo on it". If someone wants it for $250 they can have it, but I doubt anyone will want it for that much. That's okay. It was the first Odyssey thing I got, I'm fine if it is the last to go.

The two entries prior to that have pictures of my "best condition" Shooting Gallery and my "most complete" games, all of which have already sold. I hope to put up more of the complete Odyssey systems tomorrow, after I take pictures and describe them meticulously.

As for Chronogaming, we have been doing that around here. We've played five of the 1978 games on the Atari VCS: Basketball, Breakout, Slot Racers, Home Run and Space War. I'll talk about them just as soon as I get all my Odyssey stuff photo'd and posted for sale.

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