Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Collecting a Complete Set

As I've expanded my video game collection over the years, I've really enjoyed talking with other collectors online and watching YouTube videos on how people collect and what people collect. YouTubers like the Immortal John Hancock, Adam Koralik and the guy from the documentary, Nintendo Quest (that I just watched last night); while entertaining to follow and learn more about I don't get it.

Now before anyone spews hellfire and brimstone at me, let me try to explain myself. I'm a collector...of a lot of different things. Just check out my various other blogs and you'll see that I collect trading cards, comics, toys, and music to some degree. The idea of collecting doesn't escape me, but that's not what I don't understand. I've never been a completionist with many of my hobbies. I nearly amassed a full original Transformers Generation One collection of toys, before I realized that I really didn't care about (most of) the Action Master toys that released at the end of the series run. However as a trading card collector (or comic collector) I get the idea of wanting all of the cards/comics in the series...it just makes sense. Video games however are a whole different animal.

I've had this inner debate before of whether I'm more of a gamer or a collector. Part of me loves acquiring new games and putting them on display. Just take a look at part of my shelved collection below. I have a good many games spread out over a lot of different systems.


I know I have more games than I have time to play, however I don't see the point in buying a game I know I'm not going to play. Outside of the occassional baseball game, I don't care for sports titles so it doesn't make sense for me to buy a sports game because I know I'm not going to play it. The idea of collecting an entire set of games for any one console just seems meaningless to me. Now I'm not going to tell someone how to collect or how to spend their money. Lord knows I couldn't have made smarter choices when it comes to my expendable income, however I only have so much money to spend on my hobbies (have you noticed how many hobbies I have?!) and I only have so much space for said hobbies in my home.

To me, and only to me, it just seems like a waste of money and space collecting games that you know you aren't going to play. I guess this could be extended to those who collect variant versions of the same game (different regions, etc,). If I'm going to spend my hard earned money on anything, I want it to be spent on something I know I'm going to enjoy. Now I guess people that collect for their favorite system do it because they have fun. Hey, more power to ya! I just don't get it.

Surely I'm not the only one with this opinion. It's not a slam against anyone. I'm just one guy with a blog and an opinion. I would however like to get some feedback on this topic. Why are you trying to complete a full set for (fill in the blank) console? Is it the thrill of the chase and hunt that makes it so entertaining? Or why don't you fell it's necessary to buy every game for (again, fill in the blank) console? Thanks for reading my rambling words. Peace.

9 comments:

  1. I agree. Completing sets for the sake of completing sets seems pointless to me. I like to have mini-collection goals, like a particular genre for a specific system (shooters on Saturn) or a sepcific developer. After that, there's so much crap for every system that its impractical.

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    1. I'm trying to do with pinball games what you are doing with shooters. Speaking of that, I've got some great ideas for pinball posts...just can't seem to find the time to put them together!

      I find it interesting to watch YouTube videos of collectors that have completed a full set. That dude that Metal Jesus had on his channel that had a full Wii set was cool...then again think of all the shovel ware he had to buy to complete his set!!

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  2. I always loved Sega and I started collecting my games when I was 15 ( I am now 37 ) so I went for the complete retail sets for all Sega systems because the hunt for the best deals was fun. And I also started when most of the games where still in the stores, so I never paid more then 60$ for any of my Saturn games.

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    1. Thats the only way I can see people collecting a full set of anything is if they had the hindsight to begin years ago before it was popular to collect games and the prices shot up.

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  3. I wish I could collect all of the the king of fighters that came out in the US but I haven't even try because I never in my childhood use a handheld system and there are some titles for like the DS and I never played one when I was growing up how ever I love the sega Genesis was my second system to play video games NES was my first but only played Mario and duck hunt lol still good memories .And the ps1 with I love because I was 16 when I got it with my own money along with a copy of NFS 3 hot pursuit so I collect for those systems and play the heck out of Mario kart double dash best racing game ever to me . Sega Genesis favorite game is chelnov the atomic runner.

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  4. Eh I collect every game for the Dreamcast but that is just that one system and because I am a really huge fan of it. In other words I am collecting Dreamcast stuff to collect it and know I will never play some titles. All my other game systems I tend to fall in the same boat as you. I collect only what I can see myself playing.

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    1. The Dreamcast is an excellent system. I also must confess I have a few DC games in my collection that I probably won't play much either. Found them mixed in w/ the CDs at my local GoodWill and I couldn't leave them behind for just $.50 a piece!

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  5. Never attempted to collect an entire run of games for any console. I think the closest was I once considered picking up all of the Madden games for the Sega Genesis. Never actually completed that project though.

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    1. Well Fuji if you ever change your mind I think that quest to buy all the Madden games on the Genesis would set you back maybe a whole $15-$20!

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