Eerie Sense of Urgency in the Collecting World?

[cybercylon]

I second the PSP 3000 idea if you are good with handhelds. I tried that route myself, but it sat and gathered dust along with some games. That went to a good home to someone that would use it more than I would. Handhelds don't do it for me personally.

[leods]

Oh, sorry. I wrote PSP go, but that's pretty much a brick right now unless you have another PSP that reads UMDs. Sony is closing the PSP store. I meant the psp E1000. It's not as good as the 3000, but it's still decent enough.

[ianoid]

Hype about prices always peaks during the holidays, when sellers have been saving their stock for higher prices and less experienced buyers are willing to spend more.

 

This collecting thing has it's ups and downs. The people who complain about the ups are mostly people who have not been in the games for a terrifically long time. Prices will never bottom out. But interest will wane and prices for items spiking in price typically come down somewhat.

 

I love the hype even this thread has generated for Wii-U collecting. It's fun to see what people think, and I am tempted to succumb to it, even though I have no intention of getting every Wii-U release. Yet.

 

People have their ideas of what will cause surges in collecting to the point of unaffordability. The end of physical media. The progressive mainstreamification of nostalgia. Nintendosexual milleneals driving up prices indiscriminately (which is my current favorite).

 

My end of the world sign reads "Beware of China". When the Chinese get into Western nostalgia, and a billion potential new buyers come online (or even a fraction of a fraction of them), there just might not be enough to go around. Perhaps that will fortuitously happen in my retirement, when I'd imagine I'll be passing my stuff along, so as to avoid dying with it all and burdening my poor children with my collection.

Edited December 23, 2015 by ianoid

[bretthorror]

Hype about prices always peaks during the holidays, when sellers have been saving their stock for higher prices and less experienced buyers are willing to spend more.

 

This collecting thing has it's ups and downs. The people who complain about the ups are mostly people who have not been in the games for a terrifically long time. Prices will never bottom out. But interest will wane and prices for items spiking in price typically come down somewhat.

 

I love the hype even this thread has generated for Wii-U collecting. It's fun to see what people think, and I am tempted to succumb to it, even though I have no intention of getting every Wii-U release. Yet.

 

People have their ideas of what will cause surges in collecting to the point of unaffordability. The end of physical media. The progressive mainstreamification of nostalgia. Nintendosexual milleneals driving up prices indiscriminately (which is my current favorite).

 

My end of the world sign reads "Beware of China". When the Chinese get into Western nostalgia, and a billion potential new buyers come online (or even a fraction of a fraction of them), there just might not be enough to go around. Perhaps that will fortuitously happen in my retirement, when I'd imagine I'll be passing my stuff along, so as to avoid dying with it all and burdening my poor children with my collection.

 

All I know is every Nintendo system ever so far has seen a big resurgence in prices and they never hit bottom for first party games and the amount out there is gonna be smaller than ever. It could also mean less people will be interested, but I'm not especially willing on taking the chance when it comes to solid games. I also like the fact that the Wii U looks so great whereas PS2 or Wii stuff is not the best. I guess what I mean is it's nice to have Nintendo games in HD and they likely won't show their age like the older stuff and next gen might be all server/DLC related like PS4 and never again will physical really mean as much. It could be the last hurrah. And if not... you have a system with a bunch of great games. There's no real drawback to collecting Wii U. Plus, it's nice that it's backwards compatible with the Wii so you don't gotta have two consoles hooked up at the same time, and in the future, that could be another decent selling point. Wiis were so popular they'll be a dime a dozen, but a system that'll also play its strong library makes the Wii U that much more worthwhile. 10 years down the road, that feature becomes a very modest selling point again. Nintendo systems are just more fun to buy for regardless.

 

I vaguely thought of getting all the Wii U games as a goal, but shit canned that thinking about how I'd have to buy legit kiddie games, shit like Just Dance and ports that would be cheaper on Xbox 360, etc. I'm not a complete collection kind of guy, so I figured I'd do the best thing - make sure I'd have all the games I want to play on it.

[ianoid]

 

All I know is every Nintendo system ever so far has seen a big resurgence in prices and they never hit bottom for first party games and the amount out there is gonna be smaller than ever.

 

Let's all remember that these are mass produced items with production runs in the tens of thousands and more often for games you know and like in the hundreds of thousands. It takes a long time (years) for any real scarcity to manifest.

 

And I think your reply is in keeping with several of my points about this thread.

[Keatah]

I think NES games have enough definition to appeal to today's audiences. Anything before is too simple and bland.

[cybercylon]

I guess the only "urgency" I would see then is getting stuff now that you want to play so it isn't at a ridiculous price later. Of course, "what you want to play" is different for everyone.

 

Just collecting just for value later....I don't understand it, but I don't begrudge someone for doing it either. Their hobby, their money.

[cybercylon]

Oh, sorry. I wrote PSP go, but that's pretty much a brick right now unless you have another PSP that reads UMDs. Sony is closing the PSP store. I meant the psp E1000. It's not as good as the 3000, but it's still decent enough.

If they have one, can't they just make the purchase on the PS3 or PS4 and transfer it over? Or does that only work with the Vita?

[leods]

Not sure. Probably works still. But considering the Price you can get a regular PSP to rip the UMDs I think it's a worthwhile Investment. The Problem with the go is more the damned analog stick. Really not great to use. But whatever. It has Advantages. Anyway. I'm convinced that PSP, Nintendo DS, PS2, Xbox, PS3, Xbox360 and even maybe Gameboy is where it's at right now. Tons of great games, easy to find and at very reasonable Prices for the most part.

 

But if you HAVE to have those SNES games, well, don't complain about the Prices. You're obviously part of the Problem... I swear to god the PS2 ports of Final Fight and Street Fighter on PS2 are better than the SNES ones..

Edited December 24, 2015 by leods

[Flojomojo]

If they have one, can't they just make the purchase on the PS3 or PS4 and transfer it over? Or does that only work with the Vita?

I think they're closing the PSP store on the PSP itself, but they'll keep the Download List available on the device for re-downloads. They'll also keep it available on the web store and for PS3 transfers.

 

I have a PSP Go and really like it, because UMDs were bulky and slow. Everyone talks about the Go like it was a big failure because it was $250 and didn't use discs. I've never seen anyone substantiate the claim that it didn't sell well. I still play with my Go, unlike dead-ends such as the DSi.

[vitaflo]

 

Let's all remember that these are mass produced items with production runs in the tens of thousands and more often for games you know and like in the hundreds of thousands. It takes a long time (years) for any real scarcity to manifest.

 

Many games sold over 1 million copies. There's over 50 of them for both NES and SNES, many of them the best games on the system. Nintendo sold half a Billion (yes with a "B") games on the NES alone.

 

There's been a huge influx of new collectors lately, but for most titles, there are plenty of games to go around. Games aren't scarce at all. Once a collector has a game, there is no need for them to get it again. As people fill out their collections, demand goes down and these titles will tank in price. It's the same thing that happened to baseball cards in the 90s.

 

The "valuable" games will be anything with a print run of less than 100k, or almost certainly less than 50k. This is very few games, as most games needed a print run >50k to recoup dev costs, and usually they're the worst games on the system.

Edited December 24, 2015 by vitaflo