How often do you trim the fat?

You're right. Like, I own some bitches on the side, but they end up causing so much drama it's like sometimes I wonder who's the daddy and who's the bitch. Until I dump another ho into the bottom of the bay.

I recently got rid of all my non-cob super famicom stuff because those loose carts looked so ghetto.

GohanX said:

You're right. Like, I own some bitches on the side, but they end up causing so much drama it's like sometimes I wonder who's the daddy and who's the bitch. Until I dump another ho into the bottom of the bay.

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I'm wondering what a generally accepted definition of a large collection of games might be. I have about 30 MVS carts, which is just about every game I want to play on a regular basis in the library, save for one or two really expensive ones that I can't justify buying.

I have a bit more games for my other systems... I hung onto the systems I had growing up - nes, snes, genesis, gameboy, etc and purchased a few games for them that I like now, that perhaps were above my level of taste as a younger person.

I've also bought a couple older systems, namely saturn and pce, to get into shmups, which I've only developed the taste for playing in more recent years.

So, adding up all my systems and games... it seems like I have too much stuff. But I don't ever buy to collect or complete any kind of "set."

Ultimately, I think if there's any trimming of the fat with my things, it would be PS2, Gamecube and Wii games, that I may have purchased due to a period of time where I was into buying things based on bargain bin or used prices. I have since curtailed that with my latest systems - I only have a few Wii U games, and my PS3 games mostly consists of fighting games that get regular useage. I think the key going forward for me is to not buy things based on a deal. Games are not groceries after all!

This thread inspired me to do some trimming today. I now have a fat stack of PS2 games that need to find a new home. I was able to clear enough space on my game shelf to put the rest of my CIB Genesis, SCD, and Saturn games. So... Thanks!

Nope, no, I do not sell. I hoard them, I play them, they're mine. All mine. Mine for eternity. They will certainly never be yours.

smokehouse said:

I sold off a vast majority of my stuff. It's way too long of a story to talk about here but I was surround gin myself with shit in many aspects of my life, I needed a purge badly.

I kept a ton of games on a few system I truly love…the rest, I sold.

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This. I feel I have reached a point like this in my life where there are many facets of my life that feel cluttered. I am mildly interested in games now as there are only a few that I play. Our downstairs den is a cluster with all the shit I am trying to purge. I have stuff with me that I no longer use left over from when I moved. My intention is to throw stuff on here and the bay, but honestly what little free time I have left anymore I like to sit and play online or watch tv which mainly happens when the child goes to bed =P I do go through spurts where I sell or throw out a bunch of stuff but this seems to happen more and more infrequently as of late as work and life get in the way

I've been in pure hoard mode for the past few years, until I had to make a move this year (multiple moves actually). Seeing the pure bulk of it come out of all the nooks and crannies makes you realize how much unplayed crap there is. I try to keep a "one in, one out rule", but that doesn't always work...

egg_sanwich said:

I've been in pure hoard mode for the past few years, until I had to make a move this year (multiple moves actually). Seeing the pure bulk of it come out of all the nooks and crannies makes you realize how much unplayed crap there is. I try to keep a "one in, one out rule", but that doesn't always work...

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Holy shit is that true. There was a period in my life where I moved about 4 times in a span of 2-3 years and the shit I found was amazing. I never knew I had some much crap lying around.

I like this thread good call, got me wanting to purge some of the dust collectors I have.

Kid Panda said:

Sure there is, when you're trying to inflate the value of a game you hoard as many as you can and then put in your piece list that it is super rare and charge 3x more for it. There's a certain guy that had scooped all of the Willow pcbs a couple of years ago and all of a sudden on his "official" price list the game tripled in value.

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Interesting. I had a WIllow board about 4 years ago. I sold it because it had issues where it looked like a dirty nes cart (with the vertical lines in game), on certain backgrounds. I assumed I would pick it up again, and looked about 2 weeks ago and was not surprised that it jumped in value. Actually it looked like it tripled. It's a good game, but as far as arcade games go, it's not worth over $70.00 and can be MAME'd any day of the week perfectly. Other then my Progear CPS2 cart and my maybe 30 remaining Neo Geo MVS games I feel I am pretty much done with arcade stuff. I have a few titles I still want in my sig. But I will probably only pick up half of those in all reality, and a 161 in 1. If a Neo Flash cart comes out they're all gone.

I have been trimming my collection since about 6 years ago when I needed to replace my engine in my car. I went from around 700 games, to barely over 100 games. And even right now I have stuff on eBay trimming more. I have been through this process several times and I can give you some pointers. Obviously the best advice to avoid being a hoarder/collector is emulation and everdrives. But here we go.

Life is too short to spend all your time collecting, and not playing games. I challenge you to make complete lists of every game you want (I like Excel for its addition function), then look at the number of games, and the value of all the games you want and add them up. When you take into consideration other hobbies, music, movies, books, and other hopefully outdoor activities, you will see the value of all the games you want, and can estimate the number of years it would take you all to play through and collect all of them. Neither is realistic. I will quote True Detectives Rust Cohle in saying "Life's barely long enough to get good at one thing." So spend more time playing and doing other things. Don't waste precious years collecting. I figured up all the games I wanted with what I felt was a conservative list and it was still over $20,000, and I would have to purchase multipe games a week over MANY years. When you notice some of those game command hundreds of dollars, and the majority floating in the $60.00-$100.00 range = Not happening.

Since then I have devised a system. If I have had a game over 2 years and never touched it, it's sold. If it has been over 2 years, and I have played it I might keep it. But it has to meet certain criteria. For the most part it has to be a game when I look at my wall of games for a specific system, it is one of the games I always have a tough time deciding whether to play or not because it's so good. For example, I look at all my neo geo games, I see 30-ish games, and I always want to play Last Blade, Magical Drop 3, Metal Slug, and a few others. I never play NAM-1975.... SOLD, because I have no burning desire to play it, even though it's a great game. Ninja Combat SOLD, KOF 94,95,99,00,01,02 SOLD.

That is the first part of my system. the second is a little more intricate.

First - sell games and buy everdrives. Only collect the best 15 games for each system. Even this is generous. The price does not matter, if it's a $5.00 game or a $150.00 game it still counts as a game. Don't say "it's so cheap I can justify it". This is how you end up with thousands of dollars in mediocre games, and a room full of crap.

Second - Everyone has that system they are partial to. Mine is the NES. I allow myself to collect more games for the NES or any system really, but at a comprimise. If I go over the 15 game limit, I must remove 1 game from another system. For example I widdled down my wanted sega cd games to 8 total. That gives me 7 more games to collect for other consoles that I like more. Which is how I can justify a few more neo titles at this time. But I will be trimming more soon.

Third - Don't cheat by adding 15 more games to a system by saying you hate Jaguar, or CDi and will never collect for them. Then it would be easy to add hundreds of games. Only count systems you have a active desire to collect for. Your brain is going to look for ways to justify buying more games. DON'T LISTEN TO IT!!!

4th - Collecting complete games in cardboard boxes, and trying toget full libraries is dumb. Also, collecting a game just because it's rare is dumb. Sorry to those of you that collect this way but it's pointless. I can understand wanting a complete genesis game, or cd based game because it's easier to store them, and doesn't command a ridiculous inflation in price. But in all reality you're paying double for a crappy cardboard box and a black and white crap manual. Learn what games have good mauals (download a NES manual set), and just go for the loose cart with the manual. Like Zelda 1, Kid Icarus, etc... have sweet manuals, Mega Man NES games have suck manuals, and the box art is the same as the label. Plus you can print out high quality inserts and get much cheaper plastic boxes that make them look better, and store better anyway. I learned this with TurboGrafx the hard way. I had a near complete boxed anglish collection and they were ugly. I didn't even keep them in the boxes because it was a pain in the ass to get them out without damaging the box, so they took up double space anyway. Now I have 4 english turbo games. Y's books 1 and 2, ys 3, lords of thunder, and gate of thunder. I will get Exile, and if I ever luck out I would get Dynastic Hero. Then I would be done. I desire a mere 13 Japanese games, which I almost have all of.

Finally - Respect your collection. Don't collect a game, or justify keeping a game because it's "good". Like I said before life is too short. There is no time to play every single good game. Strive to collect the "best" games. Games that you would rate at least an 8 out of 10. Hell, even then you will see after you learn to trim the 8's have to go. Life is just too short to play average games, or even above average games. Don't disrespect your collection with some shit like a $100.00 Neutopia 2, when you don't even have A Link to the Past, Ocarina of TIme, Wonder Boy in Monster World, Dragon's Curse, and Landstalker. And don't disrepect your awesome NES collection with some shat like Stadium Events when Simon Belmont rapes him in the ass every night.

I think the way it is easy to get a large stupid collection is to be like "Neutopia 2, that's a great TurboGrafx game"! BUt when you really think about it, will you really be playing Neutopia 2 when you have 20 other better action RPG's? WHen you think outside a specific console, you will see that even though Neutopia 2 is a decent game, you will never play it when Secret of Mana, and every other wonderboy game is lying around. Therefore it is not justifyable to keep when you take into consideration a universe filled with hundreds of batter action RPG's.

I personally think it's just absurd, looking at these youtuber's that do reviews with wall of crap like Luceinne's Quest, thousands of games they will never play. I would love to see a youtuber with a collection wall with only the top 20 greatest games in their opinion for every "good" console. Not that wouuld be something awesome.

Volume wise nothing beats the neo. I have about 70+ loose SNES carts that will fit in the same box as maybe 20 mvs carts.

I've been actively downsizing my gaming possessions for a couple of years now. Early on it was easy determining what I didn't really enjoy, cardboard boxes. I got rid of almost all of them, save for a few of my favorite games. Then I started looking at systems I didn't play much, then games, then more systems and then more games. At this point, it's tough trying to trim more as what I'm left with is all the stuff I do enjoy playing, yet it all still feels like a lot.

For a time i did slim down my saturn collection but that's it.Though i don't go out of my way for a complete collection.I just buy what i want to play,if that means a small collection for said console then so be it.It's a good thing there are plenty of flash carts to choose from,for older consoles.With flash carts i don't have to worry about having a big collection at all.

I always try to keep what i own to a certain minimum. So if i get new stuff , i'll try to get rid of old stuff to make room . Lately i got rid of my DVD collection to make room for new games that i bought. I like to have everything easily accessible.

HeavyMachineGun said:

I've been actively downsizing my gaming possessions for a couple of years now. Early on it was easy determining what I didn't really enjoy, cardboard boxes. I got rid of almost all of them, save for a few of my favorite games. Then I started looking at systems I didn't play much, then games, then more systems and then more games. At this point, it's tough trying to trim more as what I'm left with is all the stuff I do enjoy playing, yet it all still feels like a lot.

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It's ungodly how much you can make piecing out old boxes and manuals. I have made thousands over the years selling them. Just this week I sold the Ys 1 and 2 map on eBay. Starting bid $20.00, ending bid $44.00. For a crappy map that adds nothing to the game. It's not also uncommon for me to buy a complete snes game, sell the box and manuals, and break close to even.

If you look at the video games you own as a "collection", there are a lot of nasty mentality traps outside of the general hoarder's attitude which can lead to owning more than you need (haha need).

Even when collecting for a single console, it's easy to amass a lot of crap by rationalizing and saying "gee I'd like a collection that strongly represents my 6 favorite genres, and my 8 favorite developers. Also, I'd like to my library to represent the launch to the twilight era, as well as everything in between of course. Oh, and I need to make sure I have every game I like in my favorite series. And I need to make sure I have both the domestic and JPN versions of my favorites too." Sure I guess these people are kind of "ill", but this type of illness can be streamlined as opposed to the sickness of the fickle hoarder who hoards for hoarding's sake.

My rule of thumb is..

The rotten apples will sour the cream at the top. Having a collection of 15 games you adore, swimming in a sea of 70 mediocre/unplayable/"it was only $1 at the flea market" titles will make your "collection" less pretty, less powerful and less desirable to you. And most likely you'll try to buy more games in the process to fix whatever it is that feels "off".

Now of course it's is possible to own hundreds of "great" games that you actually enjoy playing…but there will always be cream at the top of this hierarchy and the lesser ones will appear weak by comparison, and hopefully will be weeded out through natural selection.

Having less is more assuming you're actually "into" whatever it is you're collecting.

I laugh at the people who balk at the thought of buying a $400, $200 or even $100 game, but have like $10,000 worth of inexpensive unplayable trash on display in their homes.

andsuchisdeath said:

I laugh at the people who balk at the thought of buying a $400, $200 or even $100 game, but have like $10,000 worth of inexpensive unplayable trash on display in their homes.

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THIS

I had a friend who gave me the absolute most crap he could about owning a RotD homecart, but he is sitting with every previous version of Madden or other crap he doesnt play but doesnt want to sell because of the depreciated values.

I haven't had to trim the fat lately. My collection is pretty small these days.