Most retro game collectors take a lot of pride in their collections. However, that doesn’t mean we haven’t all made mistakes before. We have decisions that we’ve come to regret. I go over some of the most common errors we all wish we hadn’t made, as well as go into detail about why these are so common.
Biggest Retro Video Game Collecting Mistakes / Regrets – Retro Bird / Top Retro Video Game Collection Mistakes
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Good thing I kept all my games with the boxes and manuals from my childhood! For me, it can't just be the same game it has to be the same cartridge I played back then! Therefore, I have never sold any of my original SNES games from my childhood!
My biggest collecting mistake is bot checking games for authenticity better. Ran into a couple of fakes and been really upset about that. I have game bits I bring with me now.
I smoked a half pack ramen noodles before I clicked this!!!
Never had regrets but always never known whether to start something or not. Ah, not having started collecting sooner, not picking games up at the right time, not knowing/forgetting if the game is backwards compatible, or getting it for the right price. Always my mistakes. Otherwise I always question if I should pick up older consoles (especially if they don't have the outputs or understanding like when I saw a Master System 2, I know not the best version of the console but I'd never seen one before, and it's the closest I'd seen to a console older than the 00's era in a local store in my area and it stuck out among the 00's games besides the N64 ones in a different store near by), or getting a second copy/system just encase for different purposes or backup.
Back in the early 2000s, my local video store sold all of their SNES and genesis games for 3 for 5 dollars to clear them out. Me and my friend bought what we could with the Christmas money we had received. Mistake 1 wishing I had bought more than I did even though we bought a lot and mistake 2 wishing I had kept a better eye on them. I still have a few from that sale but I know I had alot more I'm sure some were stolen or loaned out and I never saw them again or some were misplaced over the years. But when retro gaming really took off and I got a retron 5 I went out and bought a lot of cheap NES, SNES and Genesis games. I and a friend played through them and kept the ones we liked and I sold the ones we didn't on eBay. Currently, I'm reading the new guide from patthenespunk to find out what games I want without the trial and error as it's gotten pretty pricey to buy lots of games and most lots sold are sports. But it's all in the fun next ill read the SNES omnibus while I hope someone does a Sega Genesis version of these books so I can easily figure out what I want.
My only real collecting mistake was buying tons of games on the Wii/WiiU vc, now I know it has more lag and darker worse looking visuals on old games and if the system fails I lose them, so I'm trying to replace them with original carts.
I just got Chrono Trigger on Snes. For example if I'd just bought an original cart back then it would be 70ish now I spent 225 for a loose cart.
Not telling my mom that the 100+ video game boxes in the basement were important… I think there were games in some, too. To the trash they were taken. RIP.
Love ya bro, but that Tetris gameplay oof…gotta clear four lines at once! 😂
Yeah not holding on to the original gear is a big one. Although it would be very painful to have something happen to the actual Christmas '88 NES my parents got us (if I still owned it)
Everytime I put my slightly melted Excitebike cartridge into my NES I miss my poor cat Skittles. He did not find his way out.
I think buying shatterhand and zen for nes from my sister for like 10 a piece when my fiance told me a week prior no more games and shed leave me but I couldn't pass up that deal my sister had no knowledge or care and we're to be pawned if I didn't buy them so I had too in my eyes and that lead to a spiral of my fiancee and me breaking it off and know I've been single for like 7 years and feel I lost a soul mate …..lol but I still have my zen and shatterhand
You need to play in TATE.
My friends and I were into gameboys a few years ago. GBA games were so cheap back in 2017. For my friend's birthday I bought him pokemon emerald for $20. He ended up being a bad person and I've since moved.
Thank you for making this video. I like your style of how you film your video game footage. I do understand why there are no boxes for Nintendo games but why would someone throw away the boxes for the genesis? Gamestop threw those boxes away.
Couple Sega CD games I wish I bought when they were still expensive, but not used car expensive.
Great topic, my biggest regrets are not keeping my childhood treasures including a Sega CD and games. Moreover, I would immediately tear packaging and throw it in the trash can. Even ps1 jewel cases and manuals ended up in the trash while the game disc went in a black leather Case Logic folder. SMH.
Let my friend borrow all of my gba games while she was in the hospital, life happens and 10 years later we’d lost touch so I donated the boxes to a local retro game store. Then she immediately gets back in touch and returned my games. Sigh. Glad she’s ok though.
The biggest collecting mistake is buying games you "might" want to play. Buy what you do want to play. It will save you money, and heck, if you do want to play a game that becomes rare and expensive, the money you saved not buying everything in sight will be there to go towards what you truly want.
I only collect games that I like so I don't have any regrets
Hey time to start hoarding PS3 games before this happens again!
Biggest Mistake: Being stubborn about price range. When stuff just trends upward, it can very possibly never return to the range you may be looking to pay. I’ve missed out on many games for this reason that now sell for 4-8 times the price I was initially looking to pay. If I had just been willing to raise my target price by about 10-15% I wouldn’t be excluded from owning them today.
Many. Especially the starting earlier. I'm glad I started pretty early with rebuilding my library for stuff like the Dreamcast and PSX, but I still passed over a lot of the heavy hitters until it was too late.
– Letting people borrow my games. I've lost so many games over the years to letting people borrow stuff that they never returned, or returned in poor condition. Some became very rare, and quite expensive to replace. I don't let anyone borrow anything anymore unless I really don't give a shit about it.
– Losing so many of my games in the sands of time. A lot of stuff that I didn't even trade in; just plain lost or didn't keep track of, or left somewhere. I still have some stuff from my childhood and teen years. But very, very little.
– Settling for "Greatest Hits" or "Players Choice" labels at first. Though I rectified this pretty early on. However, collecting would generally be a lot less of a pain in the ass — and less expensive — if I wasn't OCD over stuff like this. And I don't buy anything incomplete, unless it's for a console that used cardboard boxes, like GBA. In which case, I use plastic repro cases that are better than those cardboard boxes anyway.
– Collecting games I don't really give a shit about. But other people do. And random people on the internet regaling their memories and fondness of a particular title will often make me want it, like I'm trying to absorb their life and memories. And if that person were to see my collection, they will see their game in there. And sometimes, there's certain games that are defining or seminal titles for a console, and so I buy them — sometimes for not so cheap — even though I myself don't particularly appreciate them. It's an occasional quirk of my collecting habit I wish I didn't have.
There was a time when I worked at a superKmart as a cashier I went to the electronic area to buy tekken tag tournament
For the ps2 I happened to come across Sega genesis games in envelopes no case just Manuals and the cartridge I went crazy they were so cheap to 4 dollars for games no one would by them I bought mega turrican , I always wanted to play castlevania for the sega I bought that and ranger x ristar I saw gunstar heroes didn’t like the cover I skipped it at the time , I didn’t wanted to give games that looked child like a chance because sega as the genesis was dying was promoting shitty games
One example was Xperts they promoted this piece shit , but no gunstar heroes no ristar
I didn’t want to waste money on shitty games
Anymore so I wouldn’t take chances on sega products unless I felt it looked like arcade quality so I took them home was amazed
I was missing out these games I left sega and became PlayStation boy I went back
I gave gunstar a chance another amazing game
Oh I remembered I no why stop giving sega chance that missed out on these gems 💎
There prices 70 to 80 dollars and you couldn’t returned them to some Electronics Boutique stores I spent that summer playing those and enjoying them , I moved on though ,it wasn’t till
2006 I started remembering a game I never beat called target earth and some one got me looking at emulators and showed it was possible to play it this way of course I played it but I wondered what else I could play
For the sega and once again I was floored with some of the games I missed out especially the Japanese MD games i would download Roms to my computer like crazy but to me it wasn’t the same o wanted to play them in my genesis so I went for adventure I remembered along time ago there was Funcoland in my area i searched into I found it they had a lot stuff still, I went home with some great games except target earth and then I moved to buying some Japanese mega drive games the story is actually a lot longer as it want easy to acquire those ,thanks target Earth
You are still the only game I don’t have lol
There is a time for everything, and everything in time. Impermanence makes you value what you have.
And flea markets can be crap. Yard sales are a better bet. I did score a vintage Mickey Mouse statue phone for around $20. It's apparently worth a lot more, but I'm keeping it. It looks cool and I love the old Mickey or Mortimer cartoons. Turkey in the straw is stuck in my head.
I don't so much value games anymore. CIB is cool. When I got my Genesis mini, my middle sister wanted me to plug it in and watch Sonic 1,2, Toejam and Earl. When we were kids we used to play those games. I completely forgot. Different eyes, different values. I wanted to beat the game, she remembered it as spending time with her brother.
So I felt like a shallow jerk. Which is only partially true. You decide what holds value. One man's trash and all that. Take care!
Not looking carefully at my purchases… missing things or just getting the first one I can get my hands on, then a week later a better option pops up. I just purchased a Sonic 3 manual for my OG copy, but the guy sent a REPRO, that was complete garbage, pages aren't the same sized or lined up and the ink was running low. The outside is nice glossy paper, so I keep it on the shelf and ordered a REAL manual.
I tried to break the 4th pin of the lockout chip in my NES and now it doesn't read games, I think that's a big part of why I'm buying a lot more Sega games at the moment.