What defines a "shelf collector?"

[Rookie1]

I see a lot of people complaining about "shelf collectors" and how they ruin gaming or something like that. So what defines a "shelf collector?" I mean, arent we all in some way? I have a few hundred games, and obviously Im not rotating through all of them on a regular basis. A lot just warm my shelf. Also, after purchasing the retron 5, a few systems went back in their boxes and up on the shelf. Does that make me a shelf collector then?

I never heard this term until migrating in to the gaming community. In the toy community, we are all shelf collectors I guess. I buy a nice figure and put it on my shelf, and thats where it stays.

[Hardcore Sadism]

There seems to be a stench of elitism directed towards collectors and I don't get it.

Scalpers are a legitimate issue however. I'm not going to deny that knockoff consoles (famiclones) are often sold well over their actual worth.

[Rookie1]

I don't own anything rare by any means. Everything I have I would consider common. I pass on a lot, I'm not a completest, and generally only buy stuff I will play. But, like I said, I have a lot of stuff spanning 12 systems. I couldn't possibly play everything regularly, so most of the time things never get touched.

[Rev]

If you want to play games on a flash cart, I see nothing wrong with that. If you want to play on an emulator, cool beans. I've recommended both to people many times as they are cheaper options available to people who still want to play a particular game. I like to play on the original cartridge/disc on the original system and I see nothing wrong with that. If you're that concerned with a person's collection maybe you should reorganize your priorities.

I think shelf collectors are pretty much anyone who holds on to their games, period. Whether that is 20 games or 2000 games. I can understand why people get irritated that collectors are increasing the price of the games, however, I don't think collectors are the biggest issue of it and I understand why people like to hold on to things. I think the main reason games have gotten more expensive is people buying and immediately reselling games at a higher price. If I searched for a year to find a copy of Dynastic Hero, I'm not going to resell my copy after playing it. It was hard enough to find in the first place. I love having a library of games that I can play at anytime.

[Rookie1]

I have a few thousand games emulated on my psp. If I play a game on there that I really like, I will probably buy it. Most games I find are fun to play but not worth spending money on. I have sold off bits and pieces of my collection. I went through my NES games a while back and got rid of 20 or so which was about 1/6th of what I had for the system.

I guess I just don't grasp the mentality of it all. If I buy something it's because I want it. If it's a figure I want to display it so I can look at it, if it's a game it goes on my shelf waiting for me to play it.

[Gentlegamer]

A "shelf collector" is someone who cares more about being part of the trendy scene of classic game collecting, getting the "prestige" for owning "rare" games, rather than playing, preservation, documentation, and community. They are also the type to just plop down big $$$ on ebay BIN, rather than do old school hunting at garage sales, flea markets, or just plain be patient and look for something in the community. When they buy or sell, they are quick to cite "market price," from ebay or price charting, like they are trading some commodity. That's a "shelf collector."

http://venturebeat.com/2014/10/08/how-o ... ling-them/

This guy "collected" all that over just under two years... and then sold it for over $100,000. That's not a gamer. That's a yuppy instant collector, someone I have called Lord of the Collectards.

And guess what? This guy "NintendoTwizer," who used his wallet to amass a giant collection, then sold it for six figures... he joined a PC Engine community where the members do cool things like raffle PCE games for free (someone just raffled a working Turbo Duo, a $250-400 value) and started to try entering raffles hoping to get free stuff. Unfortunately for him, pretty much every raffle requires a certain post count or to be "known" to the community. Same goes for sales, sellers offer reasonable "community prices" that are quite a bit under "ebay market," but only if you are actually a member of the community to keep the resellers and leechers out.

Shelf collectors, collectards, are leeches on the game community and bring nothing good to it.

[Gentlegamer]

I don't own anything rare by any means. Everything I have I would consider common. I pass on a lot, I'm not a completest, and generally only buy stuff I will play. But, like I said, I have a lot of stuff spanning 12 systems. I couldn't possibly play everything regularly, so most of the time things never get touched.

You can't play boxes and inserts, collectard.

http://nintendoage.com/forum/messagevie ... did=153449

[Tron]

It's called envy. If some dude wants to spend his cash to put something on his shelf then that's his prerogative. If you want something then work for it & make it a priority. Don't hate on others for what you can't afford.

[SigSauerLover]

I've been collecting shelves for years. I have many types. Homemade shelves, CD shelves, DVD shelves, ammunition shelves, tool shelves, and even towel shelves. I have a huge passion for shelves. I will never give up my shelves. People look at us shelf collectors wrong. We're really nice people!

[Rookie1]

I don't own anything rare by any means. Everything I have I would consider common. I pass on a lot, I'm not a completest, and generally only buy stuff I will play. But, like I said, I have a lot of stuff spanning 12 systems. I couldn't possibly play everything regularly, so most of the time things never get touched.

You can't play boxes and inserts, collectard.

http://nintendoage.com/forum/messagevie ... did=153449

So wanting boxes for stuff I do have makes the games unplayable?

You are a special little guy.