I think I have just found a way in which it would be theoretically possible to get a never ending supply of free retro consoles and games for the rest of your life.
http://famicomblog.blogspot.jp/2012/04/freakonomics-how-to-enjoy-endless.html
Anybody care to put this theory to the test? It would make for an interesting long-term experiment to see if it were possible.
Jedi Quest Master - I`m hoping I will reach that point at some stage where I can part with some of my stuff. At the moment I have too much of the collector in me to say goodbye, at least with Famicom stuff.
80s Freak - I`m afraid not ;D This is all just theory after all ;)
I actually pretty much am in this situation. I have way too many games right now and I barely play my xbox.
If you buy and sell wisely, yes I think that should work.
The thing I would throw in there is the daemon I have always faced....
POSTAGE. even if buyer pays for postage for your old games, you have to fork out for your own postage on acquired games.
Something I've noticed is - if I have a Famicom and Powerpak now and a PC with MAME, by the time I've played all the retro games I'd like to that I couldn't before, there'll be a similar scene for PS1/Saturn games and in turn PS2 and Xbox. Heck, there already is if you have the right kit, but I mean an idiot-proof option like the universal flashcart for SNES and SFC that is now available.
Currently all the famicom carts i own i got in a box from a charity shop here though i'm 100% certain they are all pirates and it cost me $10 for the whole box of the stuff which included some superfamicom games too! This was a complete fluke though because i don't think there are many aussies who would have a famicom just sitting in the shed doing nothing!
I have actually done this with Famicom cartridges, making me able to play new games without really spending much more money, which has refined my collection to games I want and like.
Quote from: L___E___T on April 03, 2012, 09:08:58 am
POSTAGE.
That's why you have to buy/sell wisely.
If you do it right (and probably you need luck, too) you can sell your games with enough profit to cover the postage fees you paid.
Yeah, postage is the only thing you can`t get for free.
If you sell the games for a profit you can overcome this, but unfortunately it isn`t guaranteed that you could do that on everything so there might be some expense in doing it. Fortunately it isn`t too much unless you are buying heavy sixers or Twin Famicoms or something.
There are a few things wrong with this.
Inflation - If i buy something this year for £100, then next year I would have to sell it for £104 (assuming inflation at 4%), else in real terms I have lost money.
Exchange rate - If the US dollar / Pound / Euro do get stronger against the Yen (and it has slowly started to go that way) then things from Japan will get cheaper, so buying something this year for say £50 might easily drop to £25 next year, even if the yen price is the same.
Supply / Demand - Just because game x is worth £40 this year does not mean it will be worth £40 next year, it could go up and it could go down. Especially if extra copies of them start to appear. Circus Lido on the PC Engine was a fantastic example of a game going for 4 figures going down to 2 figures in 5 years.
Paypal / Ebay - If you use Ebay / Paypal to sell stuff then you might get scammed and if you do then you lose money...
Fees - If using above then you will tend to lose money, buy something for £100 sell it for £100 and you will end up with a lot less...
Time / Effort - I did spend days, cycling and visiting shops to find games / consoles in, a few times I came away with some nice things but personally the time I spent could have been better spent earning real money.
JRPGs, Horse Racing, Baseball, Football, War Sims - These are generally worthless unless you can find some idiot that doesn't know what they are...
Agreed with all of the above, but the way I am right now I basically stick to hardware as that goes up and up in value.
Ok we're still in a depression now you could say and it's generally a buyer's market, but it's all swings and roundabouts.
By the time the next boom comes I can probably sell my new factory fresh Famicom for twice what I paid for it. Some things 10X what I paid for them.
When I've collected all the hardware I want I will be stopping that and enjoying this as a hobby only, it's just getting too expensive and time consuming for me. One day I'll sell all my new stuff and stick with a TEA 4 TWO Famicom and flashcarts. I'd like to keep a FC, GB, SFC, VB and GBA to play all sprite-based games on as I'll always love them. I have a PSP for other emulation and a PS3 for newer games that's 100% back-compat and region free.
:link:
On top of that, building an arcade cab in the summer, I see myself set with games for about a decade. The next gen machines are going to be expensive and not as collectable for multiple reasons. So I am drawing the line after PS3.
Jamtex you need to rethink your opinion on JRPG, I think... maybe you haven't found the right place to sell.
But baseball games have started to make me lose interest in collecting for GB; I received some lately and thought "why am I collecting this crap" ? Even the boxart is terrible.
(http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2003/all/boxshots2/569772_6896.jpg)
I quite like the Famitsu-esque boxart for all those baseball/racing games :)
Unfortunately, the other caveat that they forget to mention is you must be able to sell things for the going rate. If you live somewhere where shipping costs a lot more than the average (like I do) you can usually only sell things for significantly less than the going rate and always lose money on these transactions unless you get really lucky.