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Post by soup on Dec 7, 2015 20:35:07 GMT
Hello good folks and retro Sega enthusiasts.
As I announced at my entry a few days back, my plan is to accumulate a complete collection of UK PAL releases, 269 titles which whether right or wrong includes the likes of Great Soccer(Card) and Smurfs 2. I have given myself 10 years to achieve this. Disclaimer - If you are likely to find this thread boring or tedious, please just ignore it, I know there’s a good chance that no-one will give a rats arse, that’s fine, it’s just a way for me to keep a focus on my goal more than anything. If you are interested, then thank you and welcome.
First things first, I’m not a pure completionist, perfectionist or whatever you want to call it!? What I want is a full library of playable titles. In an ideal world all my games would be mint CIB, however this isn’t an ideal world so although desirable I’m not going to be paying double/treble for the sake of having instructions and in some cases I will print replacement sleeves. I know to some on here this will sound blasphemous but I’m a gamer first collector second and I really don’t want to spend the small fortune to have gradable quality games, I just want to have a nice looking couple of shelves to play.
I’m expecting the collection to rise pretty quickly at the start and then slow when I start getting into needing to locate the harder to find / more expensive titles, but 10 years is a long time. A lot of the games will come from ebay, however I’m lucky to have a really good indie shop a couple of miles from where I live and also pick up the odd game from car-boots and charity/thrift shops. I also have a couple of mates into the retro scene, one in particular I trade with quite regularly as he’s good at picking up bits I’m after.
Having a MS2 with Alex Kidd MW built in and no CRT tele at the moment, the majority of the phaser and 3D games will be left until later in my timeframe. (If not picked up in bundles.) Also Alex Kidd MW and Great Soccer (Card) will be somewhat on a back-burner for now unless I snag them for a couple of quid somewhere, yes I know how unlikely that is! An original Master System is on my shopping list but it’s a hard sell to my better half for a CRT, space being an issue too.
I have a pretty good start with a collection of over 50 games and a few more on the way at the moment. (I’m not including anything not physically in the collection as over the last year I’ve been let down by ebay sellers a couple of times, winning lots at prices they aren’t willing to sell for. Have learnt not to count my chickens… as they say!) The number at the bottom of each update is a running countdown of games left.
Starting list:-
Action Fighter Aladdin Alex Kidd: High Tech World Alex Kidd in Shinobi World American Baseball Andre Agassi Tennis Bank Panic Bubble Bobble California Games Casino Games Chuck Rock Cloud Master Dynamite Dux E-Swat Enduro Racer F16 Fighter The Flintstones Galaxy Force Ghouls’n Ghosts Global Defence Global Gladiators Golden Axe Golfamania Golvellius Great Golf Heavyweight Champ Indiana Jones The Lucky Dime Caper Maze Hunter 3D My Hero The Newzealand Story The Ninja Olympic Gold Pacmania Populous Prince of Persia Psycho Fox Rampart Renegade Rescue Mission Secret Command Sega World Tournament Golf Shanghai Sonic Sonic 2 Sonic Chaos Spiderman Super Kick Off Taz-Mania Teddy Boy The Terminator Time Soldiers Tom and Jerry Wonderboy in Monsterland World Grand Prix World Soccer Zaxxon 3D ZIllion 2
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Post by Stan on Dec 8, 2015 3:05:25 GMT
Hahah have fun! I remember when I completed my collection, my Lucky Dime Caper gift set was a legendary steal, as well as Smurfs 2. Haven't been personally following the prices these days, but based on what I saw about a year ago I'm sure it's still quite high, so in 10 years you should find things much easier, in general.
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Post by Centrale on Dec 8, 2015 5:06:17 GMT
Sounds like a fun plan! I'm also enjoying a slow pace at gathering games. Patience really pays off when it comes to finding the best deals, and I feel like I enjoy each game more if I'm not in a rush to just fill up a shelf with as many as possible all at once.
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Post by soup on Dec 8, 2015 19:15:13 GMT
Update...
Out Run CIB eBay win arrived this morning. Went and met my mate at lunch who gave me Wonderboy in Monster World, cart only. Result! Never played it before, but enjoyed ten minutes of it when I got in, what's with the 45 digit passwords though? Would have been a nightmare back in the day, thank god for phones with cameras! Traded my spare/dupes at the local game shop, came out with Assault City CIB (Not phaser) Appears I still suck at it, much practice needed. Also picked up 4 spare clamshell cases. Great day!
...208
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Post by Retrobob on Dec 8, 2015 20:24:11 GMT
Good luck.
Don't overpay.
Take your time.
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Post by flatapex on Dec 8, 2015 21:18:17 GMT
I spent just over a year looking for master system bargains and got quite far- power strike 2 complete for £3 :0
I have a question- are you going to buy bundles or just jump at bargains when you see them?
I can give you a fair amount of tips (and I am sure I speak for a few guys on here when I say if you go to events, we will help you find good deals there), I try and go to events in the north, have been struggling in the last few months as a health condition has robbed me of my voice since July and could last for another 2 years
I bought a ms1 base unit for £6 by being prepared to supply my own leads, psu and pads, all of which were donated from other systems i owned.
You are doing the right thing being prepared to buy cart only, if you have decent trades and paypal funds you will get a lot of good deals when the time is right, the way most people fall down is by trying to do too much too soon
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Post by soup on Dec 9, 2015 13:38:35 GMT
I spent just over a year looking for master system bargains and got quite far- power strike 2 complete for £3 :0 I have a question- are you going to buy bundles or just jump at bargains when you see them? I can give you a fair amount of tips (and I am sure I speak for a few guys on here when I say if you go to events, we will help you find good deals there), I try and go to events in the north, have been struggling in the last few months as a health condition has robbed me of my voice since July and could last for another 2 years I bought a ms1 base unit for £6 by being prepared to supply my own leads, psu and pads, all of which were donated from other systems i owned. You are doing the right thing being prepared to buy cart only, if you have decent trades and paypal funds you will get a lot of good deals when the time is right, the way most people fall down is by trying to do too much too soon Firstly, I'm sorry to hear about your health and wish you a speedy recovery. Power Strike 2 for £3, Wow, I can only dream to be that lucky! To answer your question, a bit of both really. I do love bundles but have found that most of the time they have some (lots)of the common games I already have in them and often go way beyond what I can warrant paying. I'm quite happy to grab odd games when I see them for what I think are good prices. I really haven't a lot of spare cash to throw at this which is part of the reason for the timeline, so waiting for bargains is a necessity, I find it also increases the enjoyment aspect for me as with an unlimited supply of cash there would be little sense of achievement in just buying them all at retail. Being pretty new to the retro scene I haven't made it to any events yet, it does seem a bit of a baron wasteland being stuck in the east midlands with most events I see being either London or Leeds. I did have a peep at a collectormania (or something like that) in Milton Keynes a couple of years back and found the prices to be way out of my league. Being a true bargain hunter does have it's downfall sometimes!
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Post by soup on Dec 11, 2015 14:21:13 GMT
Having been quite active on eBay over the past couple of weeks, partly due to present shopping, I was expecting to have a few more turn up by now, beginning to think I may not be getting some of my bargains. On a plus note the postman brought me R-Type this morning, boxed but no instructions. For the last hour memories have flooded back to me, maybe I'm just old and slow now but I'm sure it used to be easier!
...207
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Post by rupert on Dec 11, 2015 23:04:15 GMT
Having been quite active on eBay over the past couple of weeks, partly due to present shopping, I was expecting to have a few more turn up by now, beginning to think I may not be getting some of my bargains. On a plus note the postman brought me R-Type this morning, boxed but no instructions. For the last hour memories have flooded back to me, maybe I'm just old and slow now but I'm sure it used to be easier! ...207Great game, easily in my top 10. Has it all for me - graphics, playability and music. Infact the Mark III FM version of the music is fantastic!
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Post by soup on Dec 15, 2015 18:22:46 GMT
Today has been a good day, it saw all my eBay bargains turn up!
Cool spot (No instructions) Fantasy Zone: The Maze (Cart only) James Pond II: Robocod (No instructions) Lemmings (No instructions, needs new sleeve) Wonderboy 3: Dragon's Trap (Cart only, however I had spare sleeve and instructions from a bundle ages ago, so cart makes it CIB)
Nothing left outstanding in the post now so would not be surprised if this is my last update before Xmas. Sorry if this get in the way of the box art polls!
...202
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Post by Kenneth on Dec 15, 2015 19:17:42 GMT
For the beginning, I would highly recommend not buying games frequently, but rather go for bulk lots even if it does mean buying once every two months: you will save a lot of money on shipping, get a lower "price per game" and maybe even have a couple of spares to trade with other fellow collectors It's great that you can now check ebay finished auction by selecting only the sold items, helps getting a precise idea of what goes for how much. For instance, I've been buying tons of megadrive games this year with a price limit of 5 euros per complete games including shipping (a friend buys me the consoles to resell them after having added a switch mod) which actually ended in an average of one bulk lot every month.
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Post by ryanretro on Dec 15, 2015 22:36:34 GMT
yeah I'm all about the bulk buying also, this week I picked up a console with 18 fully complete games for 80 quid, once I sell the console the games will work out at 3 or 4 quid each.
I enjoy hunting the games down. Thinking I've got a good deal. If money was no object I reckon I would still do it this way rather than just buy it now everything.
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Post by soup on Dec 16, 2015 16:17:09 GMT
For the beginning, I would highly recommend not buying games frequently, but rather go for bulk lots even if it does mean buying once every two months: you will save a lot of money on shipping, get a lower "price per game" and maybe even have a couple of spares to trade with other fellow collectors It's great that you can now check ebay finished auction by selecting only the sold items, helps getting a precise idea of what goes for how much. For instance, I've been buying tons of megadrive games this year with a price limit of 5 euros per complete games including shipping (a friend buys me the consoles to resell them after having added a switch mod) which actually ended in an average of one bulk lot every month. I totally hear you about buying larger bundles but find often the prices get too high to warrant serious consideration. I can quite honestly say as far as I can remember, Wonderboy 3 (from my latest update) is the most expensive game I've ever bought on SMS at £5,(free P&P) I only paid that as heavily encouraged from a mate about how good it is. (This statement excludes the dozen or so games I bought back in the day as a kid, I think I paid something like £28 for Pacmania ) I tend to try to buy things at half what I think they are worth, check recent sold on eBay(uk) for 'fantasy zone: the maze'. Think mine was the only cart only listing. I'm also chasing a few games that no doubt I'm looking back at with rose tinted glasses, but want to add sooner rather than later as I really want to play them. At some point for certain games I think I am going to need to loosen the purse strings a little. I'm hoping my partner has one wrapped up under the tree for me too, fingers crossed! I like the idea of having duplicate games to trade with other collectors but find the duplicates are usually always: Sonic, World Grand Prix, Rescue Mission, Olympic gold and Super Kick off. Great games but pretty much worth nothing after postage and expenses, more hassle than it's worth to re-sell. The only decent dupe I've ever had was Psycho Fox which I swapped with a mate for Streets of rage 2. (SMD, Unfortunately!) I do enjoy bargain hunting, whether that be single games or bundles I'm happy. I also like having the odd game turn up in the post, kind of gives me something to look forward to and also helps keep me focussed. (Something I often find difficult.)
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Post by Kenneth on Dec 17, 2015 15:56:14 GMT
yeah I'm all about the bulk buying also, this week I picked up a console with 18 fully complete games for 80 quid, once I sell the console the games will work out at 3 or 4 quid each. I enjoy hunting the games down. Thinking I've got a good deal. If money was no object I reckon I would still do it this way rather than just buy it now everything. Indeed, most of the fun comes from hunting games and find bargains I always thought it was pointless to buy games just to buy games at expensive prices: if you want to put the price, you can get almost anything instantly, absolutely no fun in it
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Post by kungfukid on Dec 24, 2015 22:08:40 GMT
You're probably a bit like me in that collecting itself always interested me, but I have never been interested in variants, just having one complete copy of each game. Your timescale is probably quite realistic, when I returned to the system around 2000 after neglecting it for 4 or 5 years I had around 30-40 games, and I finally finished my Euro collection around 2010 / 2011 (can't remember exactly when). That said, I think perhaps I was fortunate that prices were significantly lower when I was seeking out even pretty uncommon games around 2002-2008, many of the same games now are two, three, or even four times the price for the same games! Good luck, if you're dedicated you'll get there!
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