Selling my Game collection.

never thought i would ever say this, but it's time.
it's enough.

[pzz]

I think we want to create a childhood we didn't have, a 20-30 year delayed childhood where we have every game at our fingertips ready to be experienced and loved. In reality though, that can't be replicated, and the idea that we have all of these games ready to be played now takes an increasing cost of space, guilt, and money. Make a collection of the games you love. Maybe one shelf, maybe with some new merch that celebrates the memories you have with that game. IMO that’s a healthy evolution of the desire to continue the gaming path that started when we were kids and only had a handful of games.

[muneno]

I changed my collecting habits to buy what I'm going to play, and sell off what I know I'm never gonna play. Makes me appreciate my collection more.

[Juicepepper]

After a certain amount of games, buying more games is just a shopping addiction.

[JB.zero.zero.]

Push past it - we can't take this clutter to the grave and all we do is pass it on to a relative who needs to either sell or recycle it.
Attachment to most things is just a heavy weight we drag around.
It comes with age as well - you hit 40+ and these things understandably start to mean less.
Who are we trying to impress ?

[MegaTominator]

I did this about 5 years ago. I was in a really bad place both mentally and financially ( Was burnt out on life and work and found I was not feeling anything playing a game at that point.) I sold it all for a fraction compared to what it should of been (I was really desperate).

Cut to now, I'm happy I did it! I learn't so much about myself and life over the years and have slowly rebuying things I actually want to play and enjoy, rather than feeling like i need this because of whatever reason.

I actually found I play through more games now as well and feel more connected to the hobby then ever before!

In the end I realised a hobby shouldn't be a chore. Being happy with what you have and embracing it is what matters in the end.

[Sedifet]

A gamer is not defined by their collection. Collectors are. Gamers are defined by how much they play games.

Good video. Thanks for putting yourself out there

[Kees_Hazyvill]

I've got the same feeling as you, but... my game hobby is my everything... every time I come in and check the games and consoles that I have, it's such a pleasure to look at, and it gives me such a good feeling... I just can't sell them even though I think about it so now and then... it's a once in a lifetime collection, and you just can't buy it back when it's all sold... and that drives me nuts just thinking about that... so I know how you feel... do what feels right for yourself, but just don't do it too fast... think about it carefully before you make this step. Wish you the best, man 👍

[SolidNate]

I think many of us are reaching the age of around 40 years old and we realize "oh wow, I'll be lucky to live another 40 years. I only get a chance to play through maybe 1-3 games per year? Holy cow. I'll never have a chance to play all this stuff. It really sucks but it's best to now get rid of it."

[duncfunk]

2 words for you and your situation - Steam Deck. Play it handheld, dock it, emulate anything, play your whole Steam library, run windows on it. It can run Cyberpunk with the right settings but will easily handle older titles like C&C. I've been a pc gamer for years but I love playing on my Deck now.

[hanes]

This is what I did a decade ago; I nowadays still buy and play modern games, but only keep the ones I loved and may want to replay in the future (Witcher 3), then sold the games I never would replay or go back to (uncharted 4). So say my ps4 collection is like 40-ish games.

[SchemingSkelly]

I hit 40 in September. I feel you. I have been trimming down my collections and saving money, picking and choosing only specific games that I KNOW I will play day one. It is a very hard thing to realize that your favorite things are no longer as important as other things in life (time, kids, family, etc.). It sounds cliche, but this is growing up.

[Slick_Tails]

Hey man, I've been a longtime subscriber (used to go by Soho Jin) but it's been a long time since I've left a comment on your videos. I've watched bits and pieces over the last few years, but for this one, I decided to watch it in its entirety.

I have my own gaming collection of a few hundred across all the main Sony platforms (PS1 - PS5 & PSP / Vita). Yep, I've always been a Sony fan. Growing up I'd sold off most of my PS1 & PS2 games, always looking for the next big thing, "the newer games will always be better" mentality. When I got my own place around 10 years ago and suddenly had a lot more space, I decided to rebuy my old childhood systems and build up a game collection. It's been at least 10 years since I've bought a digital game, and I remain a staunch supporter of physical games. Sites like Limited Run Games and others have had me buying up physical copies of indie titles (Have recently bought a GBA with the advent of GB/GBC/GBA games getting released), adding to my multiple storage boxes worth of games.

But then, that's not my only collection. I also have almost 1000 volumes worth of manga, plus a bunch of board games and card games. I have tons of DVDs and Blu-rays. I even have roughly 100 or so Playstation magazines from back in the day, and I currently collect Tabletop Gaming UK magazine. I _like_ having a large collection. Or rather, I think of it as an archive, or a library. I like the thought of having all these games, stories, glimpses into the past, right at my fingertips. I'd dreamed of having something like this when I was a kid, and now I finally have it.

The thing is, I know that I will never have the time to truly enjoy all this. I have games that've been sitting unopened for several years. I have board games that I haven't played yet, and others that I've played once or twice and then packed away. One of the books I'm currently reading I bought from Amazon back in 2016. I have all these grand plans, these thoughts of spending as much of my free time devouring all this content and enjoying myself, but I never have the time. I have work to do, family and friends to visit, writing projects to work on, or sometimes I'm just so tired that I end up not doing anything. Yet I keep buying more stuff.

My manga collection is the one I'm most inclined to consider cutting down on. It hurts because when I first discovered manga, it completely changed my outlook on the comic medium. It was a revelation. I'd been reading DC and Marvel stuff, plus a few graphic novels, but manga completely blew me away and I began to obsessively collect volumes. But nowadays I've moved on to reading classic literature, and most manga feels rather trivial by comparison. But some of my box sets look so good, and maybe I'll read them again when I'm older...

What you said about older games having more allure to you is something I can relate to. I think a large part of it is that back then, games were consistently advancing. 3D games were a whole new world. Brand new genres sprung up. We got voice acting and cutscenes. New game mechanics, new levels of realism, bigger, better, more detail, new ideas that defied expectation, more, more, more! The future always looked bright and many new games took huge strides and set bold new standards. I played the original Tomb Raider on PS1 last year, a game from my childhood that I was never able to beat, and was shocked by how good it was.

Modern gaming is all about compromise. Oh, you can have your top of the line graphics, but in return you're getting a smaller game, season passes, loot boxes, less content, ridiculous bugs at launch, etc. Ah, but you don't have to deal with that stuff. You have the indie scene, which has plenty of unique ideas and interesting gameplay. But in return your games are going to look old, or be a rehash of other, better retro games, or only be a few hours long, or lack the detail of their AAA counterparts, etc. No longer are games just getting better. They're getting a bit better at something, worse in others, but we have to understand that developers can't work miracles and they need money, blah blah blah. This was never a talking point back in the day. You would never have situations like Skull and Bones or Suicide Squad where people can point to decade-old games and how much better they were in almost every conceivable aspect. That simply never happened.

In a weird way, I kind of hope that gaming goes all digital in the near future. It'll give me an excuse to not buy any more games and simply work through my collection, maybe buying the odd retro game that I never got the chance to play when I was younger. Or I can go back and replay the classics that I truly love. Or just catch up on games that I just haven't had the chance to play.

I'm not about to get rid of any of my collections any time soon. I just don't have it in me right now. But if you think it'll do you some good, I'd say go for it. Work your way through and pick out the stuff that you know you'll never play again and whittle things down bit by bit until you reach a number you're happy with. I wish you all the best.

[desktorp]

I had a huge shelf full of old games that I never touched and I realized that I hated being surrounded by it and that I wanted the space. I sold almost all my video game stuff except SNES, NES and Atari, which I boxed up and stuffed in the closet, but just last week, I started selling that too. It will feel good to finally be rid of it all. Emulators have been good enough for many years.

[feloriene]

A lot of this speaks to me too. I've been a subscriber of yours since way back and for a while, I was on a journey to 'recollect my childhood', then the pressure to keep up with the pace of modern releases was a thing for a while. Now that I approach my 4th decade, I've found more joy in clearing out the old, the stuff that doesn't bring me joy. Now I carefully curate a collection that I love, and not just for the sake of collecting. Be a curator of what you love, not a collector. <3

[cobym]

I'm in the middle of something similar. I'm moving, and I just cannot justify the amount of space an entire game room takes up. I've picked the "all killer, no filler" selection of games for the consoles I'm keeping, and selling everything else. I've only sold a little bit, and I already feel a ton lighter.

[AceFondu]

For me, it's just mentally comforting to know that I can pop in any of these games any time the fancy strikes me. But, I also am aware this is just a mental game I'm playing with myself, and if I let go of them it wouldn't be the end of the world. Especially, understanding that most of them I haven't touched in 20, or in some cases 30+ years. The older they get the more often I find myself playing them on emulators too, often with enhancements or higher fidelity anyway. I am still keeping everything for now, but if I had to sell them I would.

[julianjuez]

This video speaks to some of us in such a deep way that even the comments section is amazing. Thank you!

[theflyingninja]

I sold my games collection over the last few years, and managed to make enough to put down a sizeable deposit on a house. And my collection wasnt even 1/4 of yours.
And I don't miss my games at all. In fact, I feel quite free.

[Youtubax]

As a 41 years old gamer myself if there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years (in order to keep my hobby as much healthy and financially reasonable as possible) is to ONLY buy games I like. I used to fall for games I wasn’t even interested in only because they were good deals on Amazon and Ebay or because they were considered a ‘must have’ by the community. Nonsense.
Being a real gamer doesn’t mean you have to own every game you missed when you were younger or have all the great titles from EVERY genre.

Reality is A: You won’t find the time to enjoy all those games or B: You will simply not enjoy them because it’s perfectly normal to not like certain things in life.

Cheer up and keep enjoying your games in a way that doesn’t make you feel bad.

[tomparkin]

My game collection was never even remotely a fraction of yours, but I had a fairly substantial physical media collection in general - a lot of these were films that I’d pre order on Blu ray after seeing it in the cinema - which I’d never even (or rarely) rewatch.

As for games - as I got more used to adult life, working, forming a relationship, routines etc - my time and energy became more and more finite. Games take up a lot of time as it is, and the idea of replaying most of them (or even playing them for the first time) was starting to burn me out and seeing them on the shelves started to overwhelm me.

At first I thought this would be sorted by selling my physical collection and buying them digitally to save on space - but I eventually came to realise that format doesn’t matter, it’s to do with value and replayability - and that requires both time and energy.

Nowadays I also want to focus on other hobbies, and just give myself time to breathe in the evenings - I don’t really have much energy for games outside of that - UNLESS it’s something I can’t stop thinking about (basically any FromSoft game).

I realised that buying games for the sake of it isn’t fun - buying games that I want to play and have time for IS. So I stopped buying games - big games especially - even if they went on sale, I’d only buy it if I’d want to play it at that instant (exceptions for my all time favourites), and for anything I’d want to play if assess whether I really had the time and if I’d want to play it in a month.

Once I cut my losses by ditching my backlog and selling 95% of my physical media, a great weight was lifted off my chest and it gave me more room to focus on life in general. Ultimately you’ve got to be realistic.