(Image from thebbps.com article 10 "WTF sega commercials")Video game collecting has become bigger then ever. People often post youtube videos of their collections. Others have pictures they show off on their forums showcasing their walls and rooms full of games. I myself had such a sizable collection. I owned about 12 systems including portables myself. I had quite a bit, to arcade sticks, imports, converts, mods, you name it.
However I am now down to 3 systems. What caused such a drastic change you ask? Well the economy. You see until recently I had been unemployed since the banks went under. For awhile I had been collecting unemployment, however at one point I was fully cut off. With lack of funds coming in I had to find a way to keep money coming in so I could cover my expenses while I looked for work.
I thought about various options, but at this rate I felt I had no choice but to keep looking for work and hope I found something before my bank account depleted. Well the thing is, that wouldn't be for another 6-8 months.
Selling my stuff was the last thing I was considering. But then a funny thing happened, my wii had gone out due to a mod update that I did that bricked it(meaning corrupting it's firmware making it inoperable). I figured I would find work soon and replace it. However I was wrong. About 3 weeks later I still had not found a job.
I figured since it was broken I might as well sell some of the games I stopped playing on it . Another couple of weeks went by and still nothing. I decided to sell the rest of the wii stuff I had. As you can imagine I kept doing the craigslist thing for awhile. I was surprised to find that I had gone down to 5 systems, saturn, dreamcast, xbox, ps2 and 360.
As far as I was concerned there was no way I was going to sell my dreamcast. It's ridicules to think I had such a feeling for a materiel possession when my main concern was survival, but you have to understand it was one of those systems that was very special to me and a lot of people who play video games.
I can remember the firs night getting it and playing the demo it came with all night long. Feeling I was part of a special group that owned a system that provided games no other console did, during a time when when everyone was playing the generic stuff on ps2.
But then one day it it froze, then it stopped reading discs. I did everything I could to repair it, but alas it was dead. Another system dieing on me, maybe some force was trying to tell me something?It was the only old system I had that I had actually played on a regular basis. I was debating about getting another one, but in my current financial situation it just wasn't an option.
So I had to make the tough decision and sell all the games I had for it. Mind you it wasn't an easy decision to make as I had a lot of games that have become rare and are quite difficult to find these days. A lot of people were advising me not to sell them since it had become a bit of a collectors system.
So what sparked the change of heart? Well reality was finally sinking in, and I realized that survival was more important to me. I mean if I have no money to work with what's the point of having this stuff if I am broke and end up in a situation where I am forced to find a place to stay if circumstances got worse. The idea was if I sold as much as possible I would have some money to keep me afloat for awhile.
So I decided to ebay 11 of the 20 games I owned for it. To my surprise I had made about $233 off 11 games, which nothing to sniff at mind you. The rest sold for a much smaller amount, so I would say made close to $270 on all the games.
Then a week and a half later I had gotten a job and then saw someone selling replacement dreamcast's for $5. Was I angry or sad? Not really. I realized I had been doing this to fill a void in my life. I had all this stuff sitting there, and didn't even touch it.
It got to a point where buying a game didn't really bring any sorta joy or entertainment to me, it was pretty sad really.
I think during the whole course of this selling period I made about $700-800 all together on the stuff I ended up selling. You can imagine what that stuff was originally worth when bought, which is about $2,000-2,500 which is insane.
I look back now and realize while it was fun a hobby, I was missing out on a lot of other stuff and not focusing on the things I really wanted to accomplish. I mean if I hadn't bought that stuff maybe I would of had the money to buy that mac I need for school and editing or would have possibly been able to survive easier during my time without unemployment. Hell maybe I could of actually traveled and seen other parts of the U.S.
The one hobby I had that most people viewed as ridicules actually got me through those tough times financially. But at the same time I realized that it was something I had to give up if I really wanted to pursue my real goals. Sure I will still play games, just not as much as I use to. Will I continue to buy new games?
Possibly, but as of right now I am not even interested in purchasing another game. If anything I learned , it's that pursuing your goals, surviving, and appreciating the things you have in life are the most important things out there.
