Last year a NA members started a thread about a purchase he'd made. The thread seemed a little boastful and another member made this comment: "Congratulations. You had $300."

I'm not here to discuss the thread or the reply, the point is that this quote stuck with me and it's made me think about collecting in general. 

There are some members here who's collections are made up of many clicks of the "Buy it Now" button. Some members have the means to throw cash at their collections without worry. Others work and save for years to earn the collection they have.

When you look at your collection, do you see all the effort, good deals, and smart purchases? Is that what makes collecting fun? Or do you see hundreds and hundreds of dollars spent on stuff that's worth hundreds and hundreds of dollars? Is that what makes it an accomplishment?

I've amassed a decent collection and I can truthfully say that I've earned more money from this hobby than I've spent. LOTS more, in fact. That's what makes it fun for me. 

But I can see the fun in putting together an interesting collection at any price.

So where do you sit?

I tend to buy stuff I don't have if I come across it for a good deal. 99% of what I have has story behind it, I don't pay retail if I can.
Maybe 20+ items I own I paid retail for. I am not rich by any means and honestly IMO poeple who hit BIN's on stguff just to own it are ruining collecting. Everytime you hit a BIN for Little Samson you basicly tack on more to it's value.

yeahh i mean i pay retail, but not pay it cash, i tend to just amass alot of more common titles accross systems and then trade up towards retail prices wiht people, just recently traded some gamecube games for a little samson , and so on, so i keep retail prices in mind, but when it comes to shelling out money, the only title i think i will have done it for ( outside of 5$ common titles ) wil be flinstones, just cant find it in the while and i really want to finish my complete set

LOL, YEAH, THIS TOPIC IS ABOUT ME.

But yeah, the EarthBound pogs I sold for around $400 so yeah. I made $100. :I

Yeah same here.
I have a friend who ownes a store (I helped found it and now am opening my own), and I do alot of trades with him for higher end stuff he gets.

I don't think it's fair to say you can either pay retail, or earn your collection.

I try not to pay retail, but if I do I still earned it because I worked hard for the money I traded for the game.

I don't think hunters deserve their collection any more than ebay buyers. Hunters spend time hunting deals, while others spend time earning the money to pay retail. Same outcome achieved differently.

Hahaha, no Evan! This isn't about you I swear! It's about the comment that was made. It really got me thinking. You know I love and respect you, man. We share a stupid passion for Earthbound, we're practically brothers.

I mostly hunt, but I do splurge on impulse buys every now and again. But it is usually for lower priced items.

Not going to lie, I do have to turn to ebay more than I would like just based on the limited number of NES carts in my area. But still, I refuse to click on a "buy it now", I'm still keeping an eye out for some serious ebay deals (as rare as they might be). If it isn't a good deal I won't bid.

Anything found locally at a reasonable price is pretty much like three Christmas mornings all at once.

Ive added one game to my nes collection in 6 months. Slow and steady. The game was bo jackson baseball 3 bucks.

Slow and steady for me (but I'm just trying to get all the NES / SNES games I had / wanted as a kid). I'm also in no hurry and can't wait for this bubble to burst and prices to drop a bit as well.

Needs more options, my "awesome pieces" don't ever appear at "great prices"

I needa slow down. I'm going for good games the are well worth playing and now have no time to play em

I'm inclined to agree with this. It's fine and dandy to idealize things, but at the end of the day, it's all just plastic and nostalgia. I look at it this way - I'd be spending my money on something, why shouldn't it be this? Or anything else for that matter? As far as BINs on ebay ruining collecting, that's nonsense. Just look at all of the people on these forums, all of the new retro game stores popping up everywhere... Things change, so it goes.

For the record though, the quote that inspired this thread is pretty great.

I've had lack of money issues for a long time, so I try and find the best price while looking around either locally or if lucky a new bin or missed thing on ebay too (or even here if the timing or trade works.) I'll go slow and steady as I did the fast and furious and I ended up with a huge pile of crap that I only touched once to clean and test, rarely twice, so I re-used that to get stuff I wanted and stopped that junk. I rarely if ever will pay retail, retail these days is a depraved sick joke, so even if I do I don't because I'll pull it off paypal winnings from flipping cheap and selling not so cheap.

I almost never buy games at retail price. Mario Kart 8 is the only game I've done that for in 2014 so far.

If people have the luxury of buying their games at premium prices to build their collection, then that's great for them. I just have to use a more thrifty approach to get mine.

I've only ebayed 2 games in my 2 years of collecting, and of those 2 I found one a few months later locally for half the price.

I'm willing to pay retail for games I really want, but I very rarely have to. For instance, I was recently able to trade 2 games I bought for $20 total for 3 games I really wanted, games that had a $65 value at least.

Patience pays off, but I don't feel bad about spending money on things I'll enjoy.

And I don't know about anyone else, but I can name where I bought 99% of my games & how much I payed.

Ah this relates to me in many ways. I'm a cheapskate when it comes to games..if I can talk granny to taking $5 instead of $10 on a game worth $100, I would. I count and save my pennys..I try to stretch out my money. I haggle with the best of them and can talk people to dropping their prices down quite a bit if I stick with it. Most of the time I try to stay above half the price so they can still think their still making money. Like if there was a $10, I'd offer $7. More then likely they'll agree since I'm not asking half off. If they won't budge I'll go up by .50 till they give in. So I might end up paying $8.50 or so. Most of the time even the hard to haggle with people cave then...because they laugh and think it's pretty funny. I worm my way into them with laughter lol.

Now when I look at my collection I see...not a lot of stuff for the amount of money I put into it. For the most part I seemed to save a lot but my bank account is crying...not good. Also when I look I see deals and money saved.

Anyways I hate paying retail unless it's a very VERY good or hard to find game then I will..depends on the game and the price. Nothing over $50 so far..I've payed around $30 I think for more popular game..newer stuff too. But that's usually at pawn shops and even then I can haggle the price down since I'm usually in there buying a lot of games all at once. And I go often enough at some of these places I think some people remember me.

Now I avoid ebay like the plague unless it's for odds and ends or that rare game I've been wanting and just can't find in the wild. Stuff like manuals/cases/boxes/wires or Earthbound..lol. Most of my collection comes from yard sales, thrift stores and pawn shops. A handful of games come from deals made on here but I don't like doing stuff online. I like seeing the game in my hand (not that I'll pay more for that mind you, so game stores are a big no no...unless their Al's), getting to see any flaws on it..so on and so forth.

The only time I pay retail is when I see something in unbelievable condition (ask rondy, if I could afford to I would buy everything he sells). Other than that its deals, deals, deals!!

I take your meaning, but something about that makes me sad. Poor granny..

I use eBay to get things I either have never seen locally or games I really want to play that I'm too impatient to wait for. And when I do buy on eBay it's generally money I've made by flipping things. Most of my collection is built from hustling around town, looking for good deals.

"Congratulations, You had $300"

That type of attitude just doesn't sit right with me. Whoever says something like that, do they say the same thing whenever they buy any other non-essential item? Whenever they go out to see a movie or have dinner out?

Frugality is a great trait, but not when it impedes your quality of life.

I kind of took away from this that people think paying retail is overpaying, without actually coming out and saying it. I'm not saying that's right or wrong, just what I took away from this. A dollar doesn't have the same value to everyone, sadly enough.

I'm usually of the ilk of if I want something I'll just buy it. Ithat doesn't mean I'll overpay for something, though. I'll shop around for a good price, but if I end up paying retail, so be it. Lately, I mainly buy new gen games at full retail. I like supporting the developers.

Almost all of my collection was acquired locally at low prices. However, as the years have passed, it has become harder and harder to find even loose commons, let alone rare games. Up until recently, my collecting had slowed to a crawl. That freed up a lot of disposable income that built up over time.

Recently, I decided that I would put it to use by buying a CIB collection of some of my personal favorite SNES games. To accomplish this, I looked to eBay. Two months later, I've purchased a little over 50 CIB SNES games ranging from high end games like Mega Man X3 to cheap, personal favorites like Monopoly. So far, I've gotten most of the items at 75% average value or less by sniping auctions and BINs. I'm fairly certain that it can still be considered buying at retail though. I don't mind so much however, as it has reinvigorated this once stagnating hobby for me. I'll be looking at slowly accumulating more CIB games this way going forward.

I usually only buy things full price if I can't get them in North America, I usually buy Japanese games full price.