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Reducing my collection, why regrets later?


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A common theme is that people end up regretting selling their collection later on. I'm curious why that is.

 

At this point, I'm moving to a much smaller place and won't have the space to store all of my collection.

 

I never play ANY of my collection at this point.

 

My goal right now would be to reduce my entire collection to just Atari 8-bit which is my first and true love. My first video game system was an Atari 2600 but I lost interest in it soon after I got my Atari 8 bit.

 

I never had any other systems other than an Atari 8bit computer right up until 88 or 89 when I bought a cheap Compuadd IBM XT clone. Heck, I never bought a NES until around 91 or so when my ex and I bought one. Then we got a Genesis as well.

 

So I really never had any of the other popular systems so I don't seem to feel a kinship towards them. I have a TON of apple 2 stuff, commodore stuff, and a lot of other game systems and software.

 

Do you think I will regret parting ways with 90 percent of my collection down the road?

 

I am contemplating building a MAME cabinet that will also be used for all of the popular other systems like Colecovision, NES, Genesis, etc.

 

 

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I think it depends on what your other focuses in your life may be. If you have other hobbies that are at the forefront of your interests and you barely play your games, it sounds to me like you may not regret it that much. But if you eat, sleep, drink videogames and collecting, it may hurt a little bit down the road (sooner than later potentially).

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I never play ANY of my collection at this point.

It's the "at this point" that is pivotal here.. ;-)

 

As for the "kinship," I think that's all relative also. I love my O2 and my Amigas, which I had back in the day.

I also love my 7800, and I never had one or a 2600 back in the day... No reason for a kinship, but I love it anyway.

 

desiv

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You guys have valid points. I haven't been actively collecting for years now. I mean I will buy something if I see something cheap and intriguing but for the most part,the extent of my active collecting is searching craigslist about once a month for the keyword ATARI and looking for 8 bit stuff which I never see anymore.

 

I might keep a 7800 and a bunch of the popular games though. I certainly don't eat, drink, sleep videogames anymore.

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You guys have valid points. I haven't been actively collecting for years now. I mean I will buy something if I see something cheap and intriguing but for the most part,the extent of my active collecting is searching craigslist about once a month for the keyword ATARI and looking for 8 bit stuff which I never see anymore.

 

I might keep a 7800 and a bunch of the popular games though. I certainly don't eat, drink, sleep videogames anymore.

The worst possible scenario would only exist if you "might" want to revisit this in a few years. Also, it would only really hurt if you are parting with extremely rare items. Truth is, if your only goal is to play the games, then you will have no regrets. You can get SD carts or multi-carts for most systems nowadays, so you won't need to re-invest heavily to be able to just play. Also, if you are not a purist, there is always emulation. It does have some major flaws for certain games, but would allow you to play just about everything you could ever dream of.

 

IMHO, collecting and playing are two totally different animals. If you just want to play games, there is almost no reason to feel remorse later on. I have considered it myself many times....it would certainly put a chunk of change in my wallet and free up a ton of space in my house.

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Three years ago I went through this very same dilemma. I sold all my games and systems other than atari and a couple other systems I had growing up. I sold about 10 systems and tons of games. I turned my focus to Atari 2600 which was my first system. The focus in the last few years has made my collection grow volumes and volumes in the last three years. Only focusing on one system made it much easier.

 

All that being said. I now find myself wishing I still had the others systems. The last 6 months or so it have been contemplating which system I will "rebuy" . My best advice to you would be to focus on one or two systems, but do not sell the others, just pack them away and see how you feel about them in a few years.

 

Remember., It is much easier to sell a collection than to buy one.

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I'm starting to think about the future a bit more. There is a part of me that is tired of hanging on to the past and wants to move into the modern age. My latest project is to build a PC and when that happens it will be my first step into the 64-bit era (cue music from 2001: a Space Odyssey).

 

I'm starting to see a future with emulators and Netflix and a home where everything is on a hard drive or cloud storage or somewhere that doesn't involve filling up my home with junk. I plan to keep my retro collection for as long as I can, but it feels good to see a future beyond my CRT television.

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You say that as tho those 2 things are somehow mutually exclusive????

 

desiv

 

For most people, they're not; for me, they might be. I live in a studio flat and an extensive retro collection takes up a lot of space; most of my kitchen drawers and cupboards are filled with retro stuff and every morning I have to move boxes from my sofa to my bed and vice versa at night. A desktop PC with everything on a hard drive feels like an opportunity to make changes and create some space in my home.

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I suggest picking one system, your first and favorite 8-bit, originally bought by you; and sticking with that. Then Emulation becomes the ways and means to enjoy 500 other systems out there! And collect for too. You have documentation, pictures, technical papers, message board threads.

 

It was liberating, and still is as we're constantly throwing old crap away still today! Eventually I'll be down to 2 or 3 PC's, and my classic Apple 2 paraphernalia.

 

If you're looking to get rid of any apple 2 material, I'm game and it would go to a collector that actually takes the stuff for spin around the block every now and then. You know, keep the electrons from getting stale.

 

Like many hobbies, classic gaming may appear cheap. What with consoles and cartridges being available at garage sales and fleabay and in other people's garbage. But one quickly discovers a place to put it, display it, admire it, and actually play it is needed. This means real tangible space.

 

Informally I est. my Apple 2 collection at 800 sq. ft. more or less. My little workshop is 500sqft. And reading & emulation room at 200sqft. While I could commandeer more, I want the wife to have plenty of space. I like the reading room small on purpose, it's warm and cozy in the sub-zero weather we get from time to time. And packed with radios a couple Apple consoles and a PC this chillout room is inviting. I almost want to get sick from time to time to have a valid excuse to do absolutely nothing, stay home from work, a do-nothing day, you know..

Edited by Keatah
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I sold a part of my first gen collection a few years ago. I don't really regret it but after 1 month of selling a few items i stopped selling. I just wasn't ready yet. I did sell my o2 prototypes a few years earlier. They where just laying around. I wanted a ps3 and didn't have the money for it. So i sold them. Until today i don't regret it. I have put many many more hours in playing my ps3 then i played these proto's.

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That is the thing.I'm not collecting anymore just to see how much I can get. There are people with far more stuff that I could ever imagine to have. I don't care about boxed stuff so why hang onto stuff like my boxed Chromo Cross. I don't even like rpg games. I just don't need all this stuff when I see myself being happy with emulation for the majority of my game playing. Heck the system that gets the most use is my og xbox with coin ops 5 on it.

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To me, the essence of any collection is the playability and usability of it. Otherwise it's just "stuff" taking up space. Space that can either be filled with garbage or aesthetically pleasing decor. Nothing, absolutely nothing, beats emulation in this regard. And you don't gotta worry about broken stuff or stuff that wears out.

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I already sold my vectrex and haven't regretted it in the least. I probably used it once in the last 5 years

 

There's a big difference between selling what you don't want and selling it all save a few. I would say sell what you don't want, what you can't see yourself playing, and keep the rest. If later you want to shed further, you can always do it then.

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I've done two big reductions of my collections over the years, and haven't regretted it for a minute.

 

Most importantly, both times I used the money to finance something really special which I still have and use almost every day.

 

Second, I just wasn't playing games as much. I'm not sure I've even played a video game in 2014... my life is changing and games just aren't as important to me as they used to be, so the connections I had to all this stuff have been fading. I have kept all the games & systems I really like and intend to play more of some day.

 

The question you have to answer for yourself: why are you selling and what will you do with the money?

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From your posts it sounds like you're mature enough/ready to do this & not have it hurt you later.

 

I parted w/ most of my collection over the past 8 or so yrs & never regretted any of it. I dont even recall some of the stuff I had. When Real Life interferes you realize you won't have time to play it all anyway.

 

& now, in the early stages of moving, I'm glad & relieved I downsized.

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Posting it here will likely get you more. You may get "more" on eBay, but they take out a base cut of 15%, not counting PayPal fees, initial listing costs, etc., etc. Not to mention if you have an unsatisfied buyer in any way, you risk losing the item and the money from it (lose-lose).

 

If you do decide to list some stuff, I'd suggest posting here first, then if activity on that slows down, post to eBay. But, I suppose it also depends on how quickly you intend on getting rid of the stuff. I recall that when I made my first major downsizing, I wanted it all gone in a week so I went the eBay route. Got a nice chunk of change but probably could have gotten a lot more if I parted everything out separately on forums.

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I'd say it really comes down to the relationship you have with material objects in general. Some people get a kick out of assembling a collection, and for them the journey is more important than the destination. Once their collection is complete (or close enough to being complete) they tend to lose interest and they don't mind letting go of it after a while.

 

Other people consider their collection as a treasure that they want to keep (some would even say hoard) for as long as possible. Those are the people who feel like they're giving up a piece of themselves when they let go of their collection, and once their collection is gone, they feel a sort of nostalgia for it, and this nostalgia can grow into actual regret.

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I did a big purge of my collection around late 2010 or early 2011 where I got rid of half my collection. Systems I didn't use, play or have any attachment to were sold - Intellivision, Vic-20, Dreamcast, ZX Spectrum. Also got rid of about 80% of my NES, Genesis, SNES and TG-16 games and about a 3rd of my 2600 collection which was mainly the rare games that nobody actually enjoys playing.

 

I did not regret this, although I did reaquire a small handful of games that I did decide I wanted. However I haven't regretted the rest. Over the past 22 years I've bought and sold very large collections and that I DID regret. This time I decided to keep the systems and games that I did actually enjoy and play. No more "shelf padding" for me.

 

If the OP decided to only concentrate on games and systems that they do love, the regrets won't be there or they will at least be substantially mitigated..

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