Have you ever had to downsize your collection?

[spacecadet]

On 4/23/2020 at 12:50 PM, Atari2008 said:

Selling things really becomes time consuming and a job in and of itself and sometimes for very little return, it's part of the reason why I end up with stuff in the closet as sometimes I just don't want to deal with the tediousness.

I am kind of the same, but I would almost always rather sell than throw something away, if only because nobody's making any more of any of this, so every vintage console, computer system, peripheral or game that goes in the garbage is just one less that will ever exist.

 

That said, I will admit to having done it once or twice. Sometimes circumstances conspire against you. I think the couple times I remember doing it is when I was moving and we were literally done and about to turn in the keys and I'd left a few random things right until the end and realized I couldn't physically carry it to our new place for whatever reason. (Once, I remember we were walking and then taking the subway, and I already literally had my hands full. It happens...)

 

But usually I will try to sell, or if something's not worth selling (sometimes it isn't), I'll just keep it until some opportunity comes along to more easily give it away to someone who wants it. And I've gotten a few things myself that way too, from other people doing the same thing.

Edited May 2, 2020 by spacecadet

[Keatah]

I don't like getting rid of things either. That's because I always think there will be a use for "it" at some point in time. May be decades even.

 

And as for selling. Yes. Usually little return. Oftentimes negative return. So I have to be a in good mood to follow through with stuff like that.

 

[high voltage]

Yes

[AtariLeaf]

I never had to downsize I just wanted to. So much I didn't ever play and just sat on shelves. I'm down to pretty much my Atari systems and the NES and I have less than 150 games across all of them combined. And I'm still debating selling off much of my Atari 8bit computer collection like the XEGS systems and most of the carts and just keeping the stand out titles like defender and donkey Kong and using the atarimax cart for the rest. Not sure yet.

 

My philosophy now is keep the best, emulate the rest

[Keatah]

It's a good one. I was just about to build up another 486 machine, decided not to after falling into some rabbit holes and bad documentation. I think I'll just go and optimize my old original 486 instead. Put its software back to its original configuration.

 

[AtariLeaf]

I sold off a case with a Xeon processor and an extra case I had for a 486 build but never got around to. I don't really need 3 486 machines anyway. I only have a couple games that are really cpu sensitive so I'll lose the case and keep the board, cpu, and ram as backups. Takes up less space. 

Edited May 2, 2020 by AtariLeaf

[Keatah]

I wonder how my CPU would work if I put it in a cup?

 

This last 486 build I was going to do got confusing. Confusing as to why I was working on it. What section of the timeline would it have filled? What nostalgia would it have generated? And would it be advantageous to have a 2nd 486 anyways? 

 

As I got going I found some incompatible parts. No worries, it's all cheap enough. Then I thought I could either use my original 486 or my Pentium III 1400MHz. I figured that those two machines are "legacy enough" and would cover all the vintage software I'd ever want to play with. And I could easily swap the S.E.C.C cartridge CPU down to 233MHz if I wanted to. And even downgrade the Graphics card to earlier ones too.

 

And then there's PCEM & DOSBOX to fill in the cracks.

 

So. Yeh. A bad decision. Glad I stopped with no more than about $250 into it. And I'll be able to use the RAM I bought to upgrade my original 486 to 32MB or 64MB if I get another set. It's nice to find newly made 30-pin SIMMS today!

[Atari2008]

11 hours ago, spacecadet said:

I am kind of the same, but I would almost always rather sell than throw something away, if only because nobody's making any more of any of this, so every vintage console, computer system, peripheral or game that goes in the garbage is just one less that will ever exist.

 

That said, I will admit to having done it once or twice. Sometimes circumstances conspire against you. I think the couple times I remember doing it is when I was moving and we were literally done and about to turn in the keys and I'd left a few random things right until the end and realized I couldn't physically carry it to our new place for whatever reason. (Once, I remember we were walking and then taking the subway, and I already literally had my hands full. It happens...)

 

But usually I will try to sell, or if something's not worth selling (sometimes it isn't), I'll just keep it until some opportunity comes along to more easily give it away to someone who wants it. And I've gotten a few things myself that way too, from other people doing the same thing.

Same I've never thrown anything away for the same reason, I think this is older and there won't be more and likely there will be even less in the future, so I always think about preservation and giving the opportunity for someone who really wants it to have it. I've sold things at a loss or one time even sold my stuff to a shop that basically paid me pawn shop prices and overpriced all my stuff for sale, so that part has usually sucked but I feel a bit better knowing that hopefully someone who really wants it is getting it. I will say since reading this thread I've sold a few things here and there, and bought some stuff too but my collection now is literally only down to systems I'll play which I feel better about and makes me happier overall. While my collection has never gotten huge many times I'll get a system on impulse, realize I don't care for it, it sits there for years taking up space and dust and then unmotivates me to engage in the hobby. Now it feels focused and I interact with what I have more. Plus if I ever really really miss something most times I can just buy it again.

[Lord Mushroom]

I am selling my electronic games right now to raise money.

 

Those of you who have lots of games, but don´t want to deal with all the work involved in selling them, you could sell it as a bunch. There would only be one buyer to deal with, so not too much hassle. You would get a lot less per game, though. So if you have some valuable games/consoles, you might wanna consider selling those individually.

[Tanooki]

Problem is you have to want to probably take a 50% hit on the value.  I haven't hit a point where I'd personally be willing to do that so I just pass bits and pieces off for years and I find it more beneficial as it keeps a small rolling balance in case something does pop up.  If you don't have a lot, you can't spend stupidly on a lot either.

[Keatah]

On 5/2/2020 at 2:34 PM, Atari2008 said:

I will say since reading this thread I've sold a few things here and there, and bought some stuff too but my collection now is literally only down to systems I'll play which I feel better about and makes me happier overall. While my collection has never gotten huge many times I'll get a system on impulse, realize I don't care for it, it sits there for years taking up space and dust and then unmotivates me to engage in the hobby. Now it feels focused and I interact with what I have more. Plus if I ever really really miss something most times I can just buy it again.

I always recommend a similar plan and can't emphasize that enough. It's like your head is being pulled in 10 directions at the same time when you have too many systems. Not to mention the constant re-arranging and cleaning if you don't have enough room or want it to look really super presentable.

 

There's more but I don't feel like ranting at the moment.

[Atari2008]

8 hours ago, Keatah said:

I always recommend a similar plan and can't emphasize that enough. It's like your head is being pulled in 10 directions at the same time when you have too many systems. Not to mention the constant re-arranging and cleaning if you don't have enough room or want it to look really super presentable.

 

There's more but I don't feel like ranting at the moment.

Exactly! I felt pulled and it really drained my enjoyment of the hobby which for me at that point defeats the purpose as this should be fun and not a second job. Exactly, the having to re-arrange whenever I wanted to play something just meant over time I didn't play anything at all. Now my collection is small enough that everything fits in my entertainment unit and I can play anything whenever I want without having to move things around. Far better. Selling was barely profitable at all but I knew that, I just wanted the stuff out.

[AtariLeaf]

I'm actually doing another purge now. Sold a couple big 7800 lots. Next up 800xls and xegs systems with games. Is cib mario bros xe really worth what its going for? Global economic crisis my butt.

 

Point is i like space and keeping retro games small and out of sight and im rapidly getting there

[Tanooki]

1 hour ago, AtariLeaf said:

I'm actually doing another purge now. Sold a couple big 7800 lots. Next up 800xls and xegs systems with games. Is cib mario bros xe really worth what its going for? Global economic crisis my butt.

 

Point is i like space and keeping retro games small and out of sight and im rapidly getting there

 A lot of gaming and other vintage collectable (toys, etc) are going for asinine boosted rates for the time being.  As long as there's that stimulus check money lying around and people care to foolishly waste it, free money makes prices go up on stuff like that, so if you're shocked and don't care to keep it, do it.  I said it before, I did over 40 items in a couple weeks, some that sat for months, and I've never in over a decade have seen that happen, it was a first.

[Keatah]

I re-evaluated what I started last year or thereabouts. A practical and clear-cut downsizing.

 

I discovered I was completely disappointed with the progress I made. It looked good here and there, but a year into it I found I made little progress. My goal was to sort through and keep the Apple II material I had as a kid. But this huge gray area kept creeping in. Again and again and again. It's all this support material like spare parts and fringe purchases from ebay.

 

While I dumped (gave away) a lot of stuff it was insidiously being replaced by other stuff. I'm still stuck at 4 or 5 walk-in closets plus stuff packed into the workshop. I put feelers out at the library, not many takers, their interest was in current stuff. Not old stuff. I've done some ebay sales, but it's really time consuming. And then there's fees.

 

I thought about running a free postage-only giveaway, it didn't generate any good vibes. Too many I don't care for could get stuff IMHO. I even had a list going but it whittled itself down over time. Just not good idea.

 

Other family members aren't interested in 40-year old "old-man" computer stuff. It's junk that gets in the way. I've lost contact with many of the kids I traded games with in high-school. Some have even passed on. So that's a bust.

 

So this time around I'm simply telling the wife and niece to have at it. And stopping my involvement right then and there. I "authorized" 1 closet to be dealt with as they see fit. Perhaps they will do better because all I've been doing is moving stuff from one room to the next, to the garage, to the storage area, and back. The Rubbermaid containers became a shuttle bus service.

 

While they're working on it I'll go sit "over there" and polish the contacts in my vintage 486.

 

Space isn't a problem you see. Making it all nice and pretty and useful is. As time goes on I think I'm drifting away from the hobby. Maybe "getting back to basics" & seriously deduping everything (in force) will help.

 

---

It's crap like Apple /// expansion cards or II+ expansion chassis I'm never going to play with. I don't need 10 or 20 spare Disk II drives. Don't need 17 different kinds of memory cards, 3 would do nicely. Don't use more than 1 MockingBoard, well you can use 2 but I wouldn't go through the trouble for just 1 game. Do that in emulation.

 

I never owned a //c back in the day but somehow ended up with 4 or 5 of them. 2 I recall getting at a thrift shop for under $5 each, back in the beginning of the dot-com era. And I certainly don't need the mounds of floppies. They're rotting and stuff is being archived all the time anyways. I long ago saved what I wanted.

 

The list could go on for pages and pages but I'll stop here.

[Mikebloke]

I made the jump this year of getting rid of boxed pc games I had on steam. This came to about 100 games, which is a good 7-8% of my physical collection. 

 

I think the lock down and prices going up has made me question more what I will expand into in the future. I think I'll still aim to get 1st and 2nd gen stuff and selected consoles for 3rd and 4th gen, but I'm being more careful I think from now on. 

 

I started collecting video games because it was a cheap hobby a working class kid on minimum wage can afford. Now I'm not technically working class, a kid or on minimum wage but it's becoming a steeper hill to climb to collect than I can catch up on. 

 

Phrases like "maybe I'd sell it all for x amount" is starting to pass my lips, its less of a "I can be rich!" sensation but rather "I'm too poor to continue" deflation. 

[Lendorien]

 I have downsized a couple times. First was when I got my Harmony cart. I kept only my favorite 2600 games and got rid of two consoles including my Heavy sixer (wish I'd kept it). I kept some games including all of my Imagic games (so glad I kept Subterranea) but I'm down to about 25 instead of over 150. I still have a Vader 2600 gathering dust, but the 7800 is used if I play 2600 games these days. 

 

I also got rid of my Intellivision collection. I had 50 or so games and a boxed Intellivoice. I never liked the intellivision and after owning one for a while and never touching it, I decided I was just wasting space and sold it. No regrets.

 

I do regret selling my Turbogrfx 16 though. I had about 8 games for it. I sold it about the time I hot married thinking I needed to downsize.. Now, though I have a working one that I found at a Goodwill for cheap, I do not have any games and cannot afford to buy them at current prices.

 

I used to collect everything, but I've gotten more discerning over the years, focusing on things that actually interest me and passing on stuff that doesn't. It comes down to space and the simple fact that I dont gave time to play most of what I own. Is having stuff just to have it really what I find value in? Not really... so I've been debating downsizing more of my collection for the same reason I did the intellivision.

 

As for throwing stuff out... if you don't have time to sell things individually, just sell big mixed lots of stuff. Less packing and less sorting. You could even require local pickup. Or do a yard sale! Or give it away for free.

 

If you were going to throw it out anyway, it'll be worth it. Throwing away vintage limited quantity items just feels wasteful for the same reason our whole consumerist society does. It all goes to landfills and pollutes the environment. 

 

[Keatah]

49 minutes ago, Lendorien said:

I do regret selling my Turbogrfx 16 though. I had about 8 games for it. I sold it about the time I hot married thinking I needed to downsize.. Now, though I have a working one that I found at a Goodwill for cheap, I do not have any games and cannot afford to buy them at current prices.

When I did my first downsizing years ago I wasn't too discerning about what I got rid of. Some years later I thought about re-acquiring some of it. And while the prices were very reasonable. $10 for and Atari 800 console, $0.95 per cartridge, or like $5 for a carton of disks, I just wasn't into it. It wasn't my original stuff and it wasn't in the precise same condition. And it wasn't exactly what I had before. So it was a bust, for every reason except price.

 

The thought of brushing-up and having to review all the commands and procedures and whatnot was also another deterrent. Meant I'd have to take time away stuff I was more interested in.

 

In the above example I cite the Atari 800, but, it's just an example. The reasons apply across the board to anything vintage I had earlier but no longer have today.

 

49 minutes ago, Lendorien said:

I used to collect everything, but I've gotten more discerning over the years, focusing on things that actually interest me and passing on stuff that doesn't. It comes down to space and the simple fact that I don't have time to play most of what I own. Is having stuff just to have it really what I find value in? Not really... so I've been debating downsizing more of my collection for the same reason I did the Intellivision.

I think many 1st time collectors (and accumulators) start out the same way. They go after everything. Then end up with piles of stuff that's of dubious value to them.

 

49 minutes ago, Lendorien said:

As for throwing stuff out... if you don't have time to sell things individually, just sell big mixed lots of stuff. Less packing and less sorting. You could even require local pickup. Or do a yard sale! Or give it away for free.

 

If you were going to throw it out anyway, it'll be worth it. Throwing away vintage limited quantity items just feels wasteful for the same reason our whole consumerist society does. It all goes to landfills and pollutes the environment. 

 

 

I still purchase stuff in large lots from time to time with the intent of finding one piece or item or spare part. Afterwards I typically put the remaining stuff curbside a couple of days before the dustcart rolls around. The stuff usually disappears. I suspect it's a stealth-collector or reseller or antique shoppe owner. Or even a fellow hoarder.. that comes to get it.