How much of your collection is wild?

[Christophero Sly]

I wish I would have maintained some sort of database of my carts that tracked when, where (or who), and how much.

[Cootster]

All but 4 (soon to be 5) of my hundred-odd 2600 games are wild . . . Over half of them were purchased pre-90 NIB.

 

All the NES stuff is wild, and all the NTSC Genesis stuff (wild PAL-only MegaDrive stuff doesn't exist in AL.) . . .

 

Pretty much every CV item I have except for Lady Bug and Baseball was an online purchase.

 

I generally just don't buy games/systems on eBay. . . The thrill of the hunt just isn't there.

[Atariman]

I'm surprised at the high ebay percentages I've seen!

I'd have to say that about 99% of my entire collection is from 'the wild.' I've never really been one to track down something online that I just can't live without - that's not what my collection is about. Since the day I 'became a collector' it has been a 'right place at the right time' sort of setup. Most of my collection was found in thrifts/garage sales/store.

The only exception to that would probably have to be my Lynx - probably about 50% of my games came from ebay, the other 50% came from video game liquidators (back before they were an ebay store).

My 2600 only has a few games out of the 400-500 carts that were purchased online. My 5200 is 100% 'in the wild' and I'd have to say that my 7800 is probably around 95%. My JaguarCD unit is from the goatari website (when they were still $80) and probably about 25% of the games I own are from ebay or another online source. As for the rest of my collection, (Colecovision, Sega, Nintendo, Intellivision, etc) it would probably end up being somewhere around 99.9% in the wild.

So overall, I'd say that less than 0.1% of my collection came from ebay.

[Atariman]

bah - I did an atrocious job spacing in that post - my apologies

[wrldstrman]

Wouldnt any cart you ,yourself didnt buy back when the carts were new be considered a wild find..Most everything on Ebay is bought kind of in a flea market/yard sale type of way.Instead of putting their item out in the yard or on a table at a flea market they put it on Ebay.Then people look at your item and offer you a certian amount of money for it.

[wrldstrman]

Oh but to answer your question..Atari games Ive found about 75 percent in places other than ebay..and nes about 80 percent came from other places and 20 percent from ebay.

[video game addict]

I've probably found 800+ Atari carts locally, although my collection of 2600 is around 99% sourced from online auctions & deals.

 

 

If I were to add up all the Atari, Colecovision, Intelly, NES, Sega, etc, I've probably found close to 3000 carts locally, yet my total collection is still probably over 95% sourced from online deals LOL, I've sold most of what I find, and only collect complete in box games at this time.

[gospeedde]

Probably over 90 percent of my collection is from Ebay, though I don't keep track. I only collect one of everything, so its been about three years since I found anything in a thrift store that I didn't already have. My systems are both from thrift stores, but they are breaking so I will probably toss them soon and get one from Ebay that actually works.

[Mindfield]

Frankly, finds in my neck of the woods are few and far between.

 

To be precise, I do have finds, but they're almost always commons I got long ago and have little use for -- especially for the $3 I usually find them for at the local VV. Oddly, the really good finds I've had weren't Atari-related, unfortunately. (Actually, that's not entirely true; I got an Atari 520STFM (1 meg) from VV some time back for all of $6. Works great, too! It was a little ironic, since that was the first ST I got back in 1990, too)

 

So, most of my stuff comes from eBay, with a small percentage coming from AA and CGCC folks in trades or purchases, and the occasional local classic game show (another of which is coming up in March -- and I've got money to burn this time, too. :-))

[A.J. Franzman]

OK folks, (especially mods) it seems from some of the posts here that some of us don't know exactly what "in the wild" means. I just checked the site glossary, and it isn't in there, so I recommend that it be added.

 

IMO, "wild" does NOT include eBay, online contacts, or anything that can be ordered from a website. It should also not include vendors or fellow collectors met IRL at some kind of a convention where retrogamers are likely to congregate. It's just a given that stuff will be found at places of high concentration like these, and most of the time (except possibly on eBay) the seller knows the desirability and value of what they have.

 

Wild DOES include:

Yard sales/garage sales/rummage sales/boot sales

Swap meets/fleamarkets

Thrift stores/charity shops

Pawn shops

Ordinary retail outlets (if ANY of them actually still have any vintage Atari stuff in stock...)

 

I'm not sure whether "wild" should include (B&M) dedicated gaming stores, but I lean towards not.

Opinions?

 

Comments welcome!

Edited February 13, 2006 by A.J. Franzman

[A.J. Franzman]

Oh, one more thing: should stuff acquired "back in the day" (by current collectors) be considered as "wild" finds?

 

I suggest yes, since most of it would have been from "ordinary retail outlets", with a small but significant portion of it coming from the now-dead medium of mail-order catalogs.

[Mindfield]

Technically, by your own definition, it would also be a given that one would have found a high concentration of stuff at ordinary retail outlets back in the day. Perhaps the definition then should be amended to state that "wild finds" would be those one came across purely by chance in places that may not always have such things in any concentration, though in some cases may be more likely than others to have such things (thrifts, pawns, etc.)

[kyle]

My 2600 games i think i have about 280 of them i would say i got about 85% in the wild. Of my 40 to 50 7800 games i would guess i got about 50% of them in the wild. And i just got a 5200 i only have three games for it and got all three of them in the wild.

[spacecadet]

Wild DOES include:

Yard sales/garage sales/rummage sales/boot sales

Swap meets/fleamarkets

Thrift stores

Pawn shops

Ordinary retail outlets (if ANY of them actually still have any vintage Atari stuff in stock...)

 

I'm not sure whether "wild" should include (B&M) dedicated gaming stores, but I lean towards not.

Opinions?

 

It's not that we've never heard "in the wild" before. It's just that it's a term that doesn't really mean anything, IMO, so it's impossible to quantify what percentage of your collection fits the description.

 

I think everyone knows the difference between finding something at a thrift store and finding it on Ebay. But what about finding something at a thrift vs. finding something at a friend's house? I mean the game hasn't even hit the used market yet! To me, that's even more "wild" than any sort of store. So why not include private sales or trades?

 

And why would you include general retail stores but not game stores? And does a game have to be used and out of production to be found "in the wild"? Why? Isn't it even more impressive to have bought a 2600 game when it was new and in production, and still have it? And what about the guy who found all those new O2 games at Best Buy a month or so ago? I'd call that a "wild" find, even though it's a large retail chain electronics store with a big video game section.

 

So I think when people say they don't know what it means, they're just saying they don't know how to apply the term in every case to their collection. There are so many different ways to acquire video games these days, nobody's ever going to agree on a "standard" definition of "in the wild". To me, it's a term that shouldn't even really have a standard definition; it should mean whatever somebody wants it to mean.

[Shawn]

My NES collection is about 40 percent from the wild, 30 percent from friends & contacts and the other 30 is ebay.

 

My Atari collection though is about 90 percent ebay & 10 percent contacts but all of it minus 2 or 3 games was all bought online. Costs alot that way but you get what you want when you want with no wait (except the 2 - 3 weeks in the mail )

 

My SNES collection is about 60 percent wild & 40 percent ebay. And that sums up all I got. 3 systems & a couple hundred games. Not much compaired to alot of you guys but its just enough for me seeing as I'm down to the "final 5" games before I have every game I want. It will be quite satifying when I'm done.

[Philflound]

Wild should be where you got one hell of a deal. No full "retail" price. Buying from Sears or other electronic store when the cartridge first came out is not the wild. Also, I wouldn't consider Gamestop, Funcoland, etc a "wild" place, though it is crazy in there. That's more for the NES games. I probably picked up 1/2 of my NES games in Funcoland/GS for no more than $3 per game.

 

As for me, I personally started again from scratch back in 1995. I owned my own comic book/toy store back then, so my "wild" included customers bringing me in their games. I didn't really market the games in the store, because there weren't any guides or real values on the games back then. I put a couple bucks on each of my duplicates, more for people to see them and sell me theirs vs actually selling them in the store.

 

I got almost all my loose games in the wild. Probably a good 400 different carts just for the 2600. When I started upgrading to boxes, that is where ebay and other sources came into play. Seems no one liked boxes around here.

 

I have to say about 100 of my CV games were found in the wild.

 

O'Shea provided me with a good 25 or so sealed 7800 games, and the rest I got in the wild. I don't think I've ever bought a 7800 game on Ebay.

 

Intellivision is the most wild complete system. I would consistently find them over any other system. In fact, I think I have an extra 400 or so boxed Intellivision games at this time, plus about another 300 loose if I can find the loose box.

 

Phil

[Dolt]

Suggesting that dedicated used game stores not be included is a tricky thing. I found a LOT of my collection in mom n pop used game stores back when everyone thought they were crap--$1 per game, $10 for a 2600, etc. These days, the mom n pops have disappeared and places like Gamestop, EB, etc. don't carry any Atari at all (at least not in New York--do they carry it anywhere else?). All that's left is specialist stores who know what their Atari games are worth--or think they know (like the joint near me that chargest $10 for Adventure!). I don't think these specialist places necessarily count since the heart of the phrase 'in the wild' is that you got a kick ass deal from an unsuspecting seller.

 

But maybe "in the wild" should just basically mean, any way where you physically bought games that you didn't order, in person from someone other than a collector (thus, people answering classifieds, specialist shops, etc. count as in the wild).

 

If that's the case, I'd say 80 percent of my 380+ different games were from the wild. Most of the boxes are not from the wild. The boxed systems are. My best score was the day where I found Quadrun, Glib and all five Avalon Hills for $2 at a used game shop in 1998 among 24 or so games that I bought that day. Those were the days!

[+KaeruYojimbo]

About 40% of my collection came from Ebay.  About 90% came from some kind of online source or contact.

 

Dude, that's 130%. Did they cut the funding to your school or something?

 

90% of my total collection came from online. That's 40% ebay and 50% other.

 

After I thought about it for a second, I figured out you probably meant something like that. Unfortunately, there's no "Take Back Stupid Comment" button.

[+KaeruYojimbo]

When I initially said in the wild, I basically meant anything not purchased over the internet. Meaning, if you actually had to leave your house, it was in the wild. I think it's a lot more satisfying to hunt for something than it is to just type "Pitfall 2" into eBay and see what pops up.

 

I know I have a big disadvantage here because none of the used game shops in Wichita sell anything pre-NES. I was kind of lucky that when I first started collecting back in'97 I found a pawn shop that had hundreds of 2600 carts. Every paycheck I would go in and buy 10 or 20 dollars worth at 6 games for $10.

 

Since then I've had mixed results finding games at other outlets, but almost never turn to the internet unless its something I absolutely want right now. I have to admit though, I'm really suprised how how high some of the eBay percentages are. I had a feeling 88% would be pretty high, but I had no idea so many of you collect almost exclusively from internet sources.

[+FujiSkunk]

When I initially said in the wild, I basically meant anything not purchased over the internet. Meaning, if you actually had to leave your house, it was in the wild. I think it's a lot more satisfying to hunt for something than it is to just type "Pitfall 2" into eBay and see what pops up.

 

I know I have a big disadvantage here because none of the used game shops in Wichita sell anything pre-NES. I was kind of lucky that when I first started collecting back in'97 I found a pawn shop that had hundreds of 2600 carts. Every paycheck I would go in and buy 10 or 20 dollars worth at 6 games for $10.

 

Since then I've had mixed results finding games at other outlets, but almost never turn to the internet unless its something I absolutely want right now. I have to admit though, I'm really suprised how how high some of the eBay percentages are. I had a feeling 88% would be pretty high, but I had no idea so many of you collect almost exclusively from internet sources.

 

Keep in mind that, in the beginning, eBay itself was a little "wilder" than it is now. It wasn't uncommon back then to see auctions titled "100 Atari games" or "Atari collection" or something like that, and then have almost nothing in the way of a description. That's how the majority of my 2600 collection was built up, because back then you could pay around $50 for those kinds of auctions, knowing that most of what you got would fill holes in your collection. eBay doesn't really work that way anymore.

[A.J. Franzman]

I think everyone knows the difference between finding something at a thrift store and finding it on Ebay.  But what about finding something at a thrift vs. finding something at a friend's house?  I mean the game hasn't even hit the used market yet!  To me, that's even more "wild" than any sort of store.  So why not include private sales or trades?

 

It depends on the friend - if he's a current or recent Atari collector/fan, I would say that's not wild. But getting Atari stuff from someone who hasn't touched it in years and is not aware or part of the current collector/fan scene, I would count that as "wild" (like the recent thread about bartering a boxed Big Sexy discovered in a basement for veterinary services).

 

Here's my best attempt to define "Wild":

Any item offered for sale or trade in a forum where significant quantities of similar items are not expected to usually be available, or owned by a person or business that is apparently not part or aware of the item's existing collecting community, fan base or present fair market value.

 

If you are reading this at Atariage.com, then by definition any Atari items you now own are not currently wild, because you are obviously aware of the fan base and/or collecting community.

 

I tried to keep my definition brief while covering all the bases, and generic so it could apply to any collectible. Note that by this definition, many used game stores are aware of the existing Atari fan base and fair market value of their stock, so should not be considered a "wild" source. Also, retail or mail order outlets when selling items currently or recently produced would not be considered wild either.

 

If I'm much mistaken in my opinion, or there are specific situations not covered, please comment so we can have a definition that the majority can agree on to put in the glossary.

[lokidchser]

Out of my 300+ carts, most, (I'd say 75%) were obtained in the wild or were purchased new. The other 25% were obtained from E-Bay. With my Intellivision, thats about the same. Coleco I've only got about 20 carts, but they were all purchased new. Nintendo, SMS, Genisis, SNES Gameboy, all these syustems were purchased 100% new. For systems other than what I call the Big Three (Atari 2600, Intelly, and Coleco), I'm only interested in a certain type of game, so I really don't collect to have a complete set of these. The wilds are batrren in my neck of the woods anyway. The last wild find I can think of was a complete Sega Master System with around 15 games and the light gun for 2 bucks

[Deteacher]

I've got 180 carts. I'd say 150 of them are from the wild. So, that's about 83.3%, if my math is correct. I use Ebay only when I'm looking for a specific title. For me, the hunt is the fun part. Using Ebay is like hunting a deer that's chained to a tree...where's the fun in that?

 

UPDATE: After today's finds (Jungle Hunt, Arcade Pinball and White label INTV Baseball) my percentage probably went up over 84%

Edited September 29, 2007 by Deteacher

[7800Lover]

Some of my own stuff came from EBay, a few from CGE 2000 and 2001, one title came from a store that had some Atari/Intellivision titles for sale (and they all vanished the next day!), and my 2600 Space Invaders and Missile Command games came from a CT flea market.

 

Flea markets can be an interesting spot to find games and such.

[kidnicky]

I want to hear the story about O2 carts at Best Buy!!!

I've bought probably 25 games from a used gaming store,and maybe 7 from a game convention. I don't have a very large collection,and I've never ordered any of it from any online source.