Watch: How To Get Good At Collecting Retro Video Games (Without Breaking The Bank)

Just focus on collecting the games you really want to play, avoid buying games to fill your shelf.

Unless it’s very rare and complete in box I just go for loose games. I collect to play not to have paper weights and window dressing.

I got the retro games mostly from my local online shopping website and sometimes I got the cheapest price that it will never happened on Ebay.

I don't really care about collecting retro games, to be honest. I did when I was maybe around 10-12 years old, but nowadays, I prefer the convenience of being able to play ports of classic games on modern hardware. It's just too cumbersome for me to keep enough room on my TV stand for vintage consoles, constantly have to wrestle with all the cables, sit at the edge of the bed so I can reach the wired controller, swap HDMI ports (my TV only has 2, which is an annoyingly common thing), have a TV handy that still supports AV cables...it's just too big of a hassle.

I'd rather have all my games in one place, with the versatility of my Switch to play portably or on the TV. This is gonna sound stupid, but I also just really like how modern consoles keep a log of my play time. So I avoid playing on old hardware because I like being able to look back at my play history. I'll probably sell all my GameCube games someday if they ever come to NSO. If I started collecting old games, they would just sit there gathering dust. I don't have the room to display it, and even if I did, I don't think bookshelves full of games like many YouTubers have looks very appealing. Even my Switch cases are kept tucked away in a drawer of my TV stand.

@Not_Soos
Meanwhile, I have a lot of different video game machines hooked onto my TV, from PS2 Fat, PS2 Slim, Wii, PS4 Slim, Wii U, Switch dock, PS3 Slim.
There are a lot of cables behind my TV and I must switch the HD cable input every time I play different HD video game machines.
It looks pretty tangled but I enjoy my gaming collections as I bought them with my salary.

I bought Terranigma (cart and manual) from a friend for £7 about a year after it was released. I'd seen it for £59.99 new. It's my favourite game ever so easily the best bargain ever!

I think a time machine is the best way to collect retro games. Otherwise, focussing on games you really want to play.

There are lots of great bargains still. I went through a few 'best of' lists on Nintendo Life over lockdown. My favourite bargain was probably MadWorld for the Wii, new and only £2.99.

The DS and 3DS had some great bargains too, including new games.

I just get stuff I want to play. And usually make digital back ups (if I can) and play them on my Odin. Working full time I prefer playing portable.

I am still sad because I can not get Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door for a reasonable price. 200 -300 euro is just too much but I really want to play this game. Watching longplays of games with a lot of text is tiring.

I got a PS 2 a few days ago and will be collecting some games for the system.

I like collecting as my shelves clearly show, but collecting video games these days is a painful adventure. There's just too many money hungry people out there doing it that have no interest at all in the games themselves. It's just an investment to them.

I really wish that companies would rethink their "closing down eshops is a good idea for older hardware" mentality. Give us a way to continue buying games on all systems that have that capability in the first place. I mean just recently I got super frustrated when I realized that I can't even buy anymore 3DS games because I didn't load money on to my account before hand. There are so many 3DS games I want, but the physical prices are stupid insane.

Video gaming is a downright cheap hobby these days, I'd say. Video game collecting is another matter. But if you're not averse to digital downloads, the amount of gold you can get in sales, bundles, and even just good games cheap makes gaming a ridiculously frugal hobby.
I present some counter examples: gambling, clubbing, yoga/gym membership, online shopping, trading card games, tabletop games/wargames, water sports, and so on and so forth. You can have a pretty rich and varied gaming experience if you spend like $20 a month; way less if you're into indies from places like itch.io which are often free. Not to mention, you can always play the games which you already own consarn it!

It is a wonderful privilege to sit atop my evil skull castle and play my hoarded rare collection of games that lesser minions of the realm can never get a whiff of!!!

Beg and donate on my stream so you may have a glimpse of the wonderful experience that I am so generous to share.. for a price

@GameOtaku Before they got expensive, I liked to get at least manuals with my games since they sometimes told you things that weren't told in the game. Also for old games, that was sometimes the only way they told you the lore.

I only purchase old games that I want to play. Could care less if a game has "collector value." Means nothing if the game is crap or it's not my style.

I'd love to go US and check out flea markets and thrift stores. UK scene is really frustrating.

I have been to Japan and got to a flea market, got an n64 and some boxed games for about £30, obviously it's in Japanese, but I use it for US games. The best bargain is my Japanese Dreamcast, games, fishing rod and controller, £2!

If I ever get to the US, I'll be rewatching this video on the plane.

@eltomo the US flea markets have been tough last few years. Either crap (sports games like Madden) or ebay prices or absolutely nothing. It's good to find a game store that has a good selection and good prices. Here's hoping you are able to go to one soon.

I have stopped, started, stopped, started many times over the years, collecting retro games & consoles.

I no longer have the room / time to have all of my consoles hooked up. I also no longer have a CRT television. Both my Saturns no longer work (the Mark 1 no longer reads discs, the Mark 2 has a sound issue (sounds like the console is under water), Dreamcast is on blink, most my consoles are now either boxed in loft or at bottom of wardrobe, had to take a long time, a few years ago, labelling and bagging Cables and Plugs, so that one day in the future, will be able to use the again.

I have a very small number of PC Engine, Neo Geo, 3DO, Atari 2600, Jaguar, 32X games, but have a little larger Sega Megadrive, SNES, Mega CD, Saturn, PS1, PS2, N64, Dreamcast, Gamecube

I also have a few Japanese Saturn & Mega CD games, that I used to play with a CDX Cartridge. My person favourite is Chase HQ / SCI pack for Saturn.

I have recently pre-ordered a Polymega (still waiting), as I really like the idea and convenience. Since pre-ordering, I have started collecting again, but the prices are so extortionate now.

My main memory was buying Turtles In Time off a school friend in 1995. Was just the cartridge but was worth every penny for the amount of hours my Little Bro and I got out of it.

I'm the opposite now though, no longer collect as I sell my Switch games after completing them.

Trying to sell all my old USA N64 and GC games at mo too on eBay which is more difficult as I'm in the UK.

I am glad i never sold my Games, some of them have insane Prices on Ebay, it is just not worth.
I really suggest:
Go, buy a Mister and if you love a Series, buy those Games to celebrate them and basta.

If you really want a Collection of a System, only buy what you would also play.

I think Systems that are good to collect at the Moment are: Nintendo DS, Gameboy, Gamegear, Gameboy Advance, PS2 and the PS3.
Especially the PS3, the Prices are very low.

Megadrive has reached Super Nintendo Level on many good Games like Streets of Rage and Turtles, they are really pricey.
The Pokemon Games are also way to pricey.
Overall i nearly stopped completly to buy Games beside Super Nintendo and Gameboy, Gameboy Games don't take too much Space

Ah and PC Games, Bigboxes aren't as pricey, they are pretty solid in their pricing over the last Decades.
I love them, they look sooo nice, but they take so much Space.
I am still sad my Monkey Island 3 and Trespasser got destroyed by Water back then :/
Especially Trespasser with its nice 3D Raptor is not normal priced nowadays.

I started video game collecting almost 2 years ago, and I can’t wait to see what I will have in the years to come. I’m looking for a specific PS2 game but it is pretty rare.

I started collecting N64 games years before the prices skyrocketed and finished my complete CIB only last year.
Thankfully I got all the very expensive ones years ago for a bargain.
Titles like Snowboard Kids 2, Kirby 64, Resident Evil, etc for less than $120 Australian.
Now I have all 244+ Pal Australian releases mint cib.
I also picked up a Bandai NES Mega Controller cib still sealed last week for a bargain.
If you look hard enough you can still find bargains.
I have played all my N64 games and my kids love playing them.
I own a huge GameCube and Wii U collection too.
I kept every game I've bought from the 64 onwards and added to them as I see them cheap.
I collect to play, I have sealed games like my copy of Ikaruga for the Cube but I bought it on release and never got around to playing it and by the time I did it was released digitally on my 360 so I played it on that instead.

Emulators and ROMs. Download a ROM and Nintendo don’t get any money. Buy a retro cartridge at some over inflated collectors price from eBay and Nintendo don’t get any money.

I only buy games I want to play, but the conditions in which I buy them really depend on the systems.

I don't mind buying loose carts when it comes to SNES, N64, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance and even Virtual Boy games since those came in cardboard boxes so it's a little tougher to find them in their boxes with manuals and whatnot. I don't collect NES games but I suppose those could also count for the criteria.

Games from Gamecube, Wii, Wii U, DS and 3DS (which have plastic boxes), I have little to no faith in finding complete or in good conditions. More often than not I find them either missing the manual or the box altogether. Even when it's only the loose disc/cart people tend to ask for a lot of money, in those instances I'm like "F*** no!". I've been lucky to find the Switch games I want with their boxes, the only exception is my Super Mario Odyssey + Traveler's Guide edition, it's missing the big box that holds the game case and the booklet.

There's no reason people should be missing the boxes, let alone the manuals, when they come in plastic boxes. This particularly seems to happen with Gamecube games, it's already difficult to find GC games in my area and then I have to deal with that.

How the hey do I have a box that says it's Metroid Prime + Metroid Prime 2 Bonus Disc but on the inside it's a single disc box containing Prime 1 and a loose disc of the full Prime 2 (not the bonus disc) without the manual for either game?
In hindsight, it sounds great that I got the full Prime 2 and not the demo, but that's not what I wanted to buy.

Another one that happened to me at the same time as the Metroid Prime situation, how the hey do I have a box that says it's Sonic Mega Collection on a DVD box that holds two discs (not a Gamecube box) but when you open the box it's Sonic Gems Collection, and again without manual?

My whole point is "If you're gonna sell used games at crazy prices, at least justify those crazy prices"

In the case of second hand collector's editions or games that include some sort of accessory, I make sure it includes all of the goodies it is supposed to include. Granted I've done that twice with Personal Trainer: Walking and the Special Edition of Metroid Dread.

Buy a mister. The only collections I bothered with in the last 5 years are DS and 3ds because everything else prior is too expensive now. I'm actually considering selling all my gb and GBA games and two DS games that are worth $100 more than I paid a year ago.

Good tips, but they'll only get you so far past the run of the mill stuff. Unfortunately a lot of the best retro games are now locked behind insane values. I'm super glad I kept my childhood copy of Bucky O Hare on the NES. It's a fantastic game but I'd never pay $150+ for a loose copy, even if I took their tip of investing in my games and sold my CIB Ogre Battle 64 which is also ridiculously inflated in value. It's just another collector's market now and people actually like playing everything they own suffer their dominion. At least we live in a time of Mister, Analogue, and Everdrive.

Been collecting for the Atari 7800, Jaguar and N64 lately. Jag and N64 tough to emulate and 7800 and Jaguar & 7800 have tons of homebrew games with more to come! But damn Jaguar is expensive certain games!
Overall my game collection might be closing in on 9000 games, approximately 1/2 which are still factory sealed. I’ll leave it for the kids to sell off when the big guy says it’s my time to go! Lol

As a collector myself, mainly of Nintendo first party stuff:

1. Avoid collecting stuff for the sake of numbers, like buying tons of cheap games that mean nothing to you . I recently did a bit of a collection review, and I found that I've bought several meaningless cheap games, just to boost the numbers, yet with the exact same amount of money I could have bought Fire Emblem Path of Radiance, which I couldn't justify because it's nearly £200. Sometimes you just have to splash the cash a bit, just make sure it's something that you really want and you won't regret it, all this stuff is only getting more expensive every day anyway.

2. If you find a joblot at a good price, buy it, and sell the stuff you don't want to keep or duplicates individually. Guaranteed to make a profit even if you undercut pretty aggressively. For instance, I was on the lookout for a well priced Oracle of Ages. I couldn't find anything below £90 for a while, so I decided to instead buy both Oracle games for £120, although I Already owned Seasons, then sold Seasons for £90 on its own and Ages basically cost me £30 which is an absolute steal.

As long as you are not lazy (or literally have no time), you can make it work without paying too much more than RRP, even if it takes some back an forth to get there. If you're lazy or have no time, you just pay more for the convenience, it's still usually easy enough to sell a game for roughly the same price, if not more, so it is never a bad investment.

I would love to hang a picture on my wall that says:

"I DO NOT NEED EVERY GAME"

@Redax Your reply should be the top answer. Granted, some titles are probably exorbitantly priced at the moment, but we all have our own personal favorites that may not be other people's cup of tea.

lol I've just been importing games from Japan for the past 2 years cause prices over there haven't been inflated nearly as bad compared to everywhere else
it's more fun buying a lot of Famicom games than it is buying a single NES game for $30

@Not_Soos I also really like playtime logs and I'm not entirely sure why. Games with more detailed stats, like enemies killed, deaths ect are even better!

@N64-ROX Gambling and online shopping sound like worse replacements.
"Clubbing" potentially in that category.

@RadioHedgeFund is that a...good thing?