How To Collect Video Games

If you choose to collect video games as a hobby to pass the time, either to play them or to just keep the unopened copies nailed to the wall as works of art, then here are some tips to keep in mind, since I've been down that road before.

I now only buy rare games for my brother for Christmas and his B-day, and occasionally buy them to sell later on ebay for a profit. What you want to do is be professional about it, by going to all of the game publisher sites that you know of, and read all of the news, or press releases of that company in order to get hot tips on special editions, or one time special offers, or where you can get a signature from a creator, at an event. Getting game news online is better than getting news from a gaming magazine, because you're not looking for mass market games but instead the diamond in the ruff, that nobody knows about. And also the internet has infinite information to look through, from every lesser known company, to harder to find news articles.

But the bread and butter of the collector would be to search for any limited edition games that any particular publisher has in stock. But don't worry if it isn't in stock because often when an online publisher's store (such as capcom.com) is out of stock of the limited edition, there is usually a lag time before the other "indirect" online retailers of the same limited edition game(i.e. bestbuy.com, walmart.com, target.com)run out of the game. Also they sell it at the same price as the publisher sells it at. The following link is a good site for seeing all of the other online retailers of games, for when the games are either out of stock at the brick and mortar stores, or out of stock on the publishers site. Follow this link to Nintendo's "Where to buy games" page.

It's also always a good idea to estimate how many copies of the game were produced, to check for rarity, before buying, by seeing how long it was in print, and how many retail stores carried the game. For example limited editions usually have a production run of only a few months, while the regular editions of the same game have a production run of potentially years. But the true holy grail video games only have 100 or less copies made of them and are either won in a contest or are one of a kind test cartridges or were never released. Also sometimes games are only available online at various sites, or sometimes as a "gamestop.com" online exclusive, making them instantly rare. "Panesian" was a mail ordered company back in the day, with only a small market that actually bought the games. So it's best to buy new games that are rare and to just hold onto them in a collection, or until the Christmas season after they went out of print, to sell on ebay, when demand is high.

But I'd say that video games are a very safe investment because of the fact that even if they don't go up in value, you can always get out of the game what you originally invested into it, as long as the game is still in unopened condition. But for used video game collecting, I always go to a nearby "gamestop/ebgames" store after looking at game prices on ebay and memorizing them. Because I usually find at least one "used" and rare game at gamestop that is worth more on ebay than they're selling it for at the gamestop/ebgames store. Also the true genius of "gamestop" is shown by how you can buy a used game at their stores and return them within 1 week, essentially offering a free videogame rental. I'm surprised that the actual videogame rental stores haven't gone out of business yet.

When selling on ebay complete sets usually sell for full price, and are more sure of selling on the first auction. There are 2 reasons for this: (1) When you have multiple items in an auction(such as a match set of etrian odyssey I &II both in unopened condition, and their strategy guides also) there is less shipping and handling costs per item since they're all in one auction. This makes the customer happy and more willing to pay full price. And (2) A complete set is always more collectible especially in good condition and 100% complete. There are lots of rich people out there that have their own personal museum at home of their favorite collectible, and only want the best of the best, not to mention actual museums. And because of the demand going up, from the competition between these collectors on your 1 of a kind auction, the price goes up.

Here's an incomplete list of publishers and easy links to all of their sites:

Publishers: This info gotten off of the Nintendo website of "new game releases" for all Nintendo systems, under each games info. This is an "incomplete" list of video game publishers, and there may be more publishers for different systems than Nintendo systems.

www.capcom.com
Mastiff
Lucas arts
Ignition enetertainment
THQ
Electronic arts
Ubisoft
Sega
Nintendo
Atlus
Activision
Activision value
Midway games
The adventure company
Destineer studios
Gamecock
Disney interactive
South peak interactive
2k play
Koei
Eidos interactive
Namco bandai games
Natsume
Nis america
Empire interactive
Konami
Square enix
DTP entertainment ag
Abstraction games
Telltale games
Tomy corp
Ufo interactive
Empty clip studios
atari
Sierra entertainment
Majesco entertainment
Majesco sales
Hudson entertainment inc
Crave entertainment
Xs games
Ghost fire games
Game loft
D3 publisher of america
Code masters
Jv games
Zoo games now green screen games
Snk playmore usa
Oxygen games
MTV games
Brash entertainment
Vir2l studios
D2C games
Destination software now greenscreen games
Red octane
High voltage software inc
Neko entertainment


Hear say companies: Or rare companies that could be the next “Panesian”. Historically the best collectible games have been made by companies that you've never heard of, that are from another country. But of course the game has to be made in English. Rarity is more important than fun, when it comes to an ebay auction. But fun games can also be rare(usually unopened or collector's limited edition):

Platinum games
Summitsoft
Atlus games. Probably not the rarest but a good company to collect.
More rare companies will be added as I find them.

Research, research, research.

Bookmark this post, for easy reference.

Also see: "infinite free videogames", and "free stuff".

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LATER ADDED:

Collecting games is similar to collecting cars, some people want the drivable, updated parts models, some want the show models that are in mint condition, and some want the all original models, as if they just came off of the assembly line, from 50 years ago.

Video game special editions. Here's a "list of video game collector and limited editions" on wiki.

Good search phrases are: “gamestop preorder” , gamestop collectors edition(good),special edition, collectors edition, limited edition, premium edition,

Some collectible games that are about to be, or have just been released are:

Prince of persia limited edition preorder only

Grand theft auto iv special edition. Get at a gamestop brick and mortar store

Metal gear solid 4 limited edition. Get at a gamestop brick and mortar store

Resident evil 5 collectors edition gamestop pre order 3/13/09

Final fantasy 12 collectors edition at google shopping 45$ new

Fallout 3 pre order before 10/28/08

Soul calibur iv premium edition google shopping, 80.00$ already out, not worth it

Street fighter iv collector’s edition gamestop pre order ships 2/3/09, 80.00$

Mass effect collector’s edition (xbox360) at gamestop online only in November 08, 70.00$

Devil may cry IV collector's edition, out of print but still available at bestbuy.com.