I'm late to the party, but this thread resonated with me.
My account here is from 2012, back when I was deep into collecting for NES/SNES/PS1. I spent a lot of time researching games to buy, and getting the "best" versions of each. I did actually play most of them, and once I had relived all of my childhood as well as explored games I had overlooked, I sold everything off*. Due to an unexpected sequence of events, I am now back into PS1/PS2, using retail hardware and games.
This time I am only buying what I will play. I don't mean, "I will play this someday", but, "I will play this in the next few months". I am not looking for deals. I am not looking for a collection. It does take some mental effort to resist checking the local shop or online for the "best PS2 games" and buying them for the future. This means that, yes, maybe a game I would want to play someday will become more expensive or difficult to find, but that is acceptable. I have learned that it is better to pay a bit more for games in the future if it means less chance of buying a game that I ultimately never play, and also more time to actually play games now!
Exploring unknown games, finding hidden gems, looking for deals, and building a collection can all be part of the fun. However, sometimes, the act of playing the games gets overshadowed, and I am doing my damnedest to avoid that this time around.
*goddamn if I only had kept my PS1 games, as the prices are now absurd