Con-soul Searching: To Trade or Not To Trade
How many times have you heard someone regret selling their NES or Atari 2600? They always seem to have sold it for a new system or game. It seems dumb now but at the time it must have been a good idea, right? I understand money can be tight and the lure of a new game or system can cloud your judgment but never get rid of your old systems. I am here to tell you that you will regret it someday.
I never had a lot of money growing up, but I managed to keep every game, console and hand held that I have ever owned (minus a few that were stolen). It wasn’t always easy either. My brother and I got our NES in 1989. I talked my parents into getting me a Game Boy for my birthday four years later. I wasn’t able to obtain a Super Nintendo until 1998 when I bought one from my brother and his roommate. Those were long droughts in my gaming lifetime. I remember going to the store every week and looking at Super Metroid and Kirby Super Star, dreaming about the day I would have a Super Nintendo. A few times I wondered if I should sell my NES and Game Boy for a SNES. What always stopped me was the thought, “how will I play Metroid and Metroid II: Return of Samus if I get rid of them.”
It just seems like people are too quick to get rid of games and systems simply because they don’t want to play them at that exact moment. It always bugs me when I see a newly released, used game in GameStop with a five dollar reduced price. I try to imagine the person that bought a brand new game, played it for five hours and decided that they would never play it again. It is one thing to decide you don’t like a game and need the money, but it happens so often. I just don’t understand it. I don’t know about everybody else, but when I spend that much money, I check ahead of time that I will enjoy it. The internet is a good place to start. You can find preview coverage and reviews for every game. Most have playable demos.
Maybe I am the one who sees things wrong. I look behind me and see several shelves that are nearly full of video games and DVDs. I am about to the point where I will have to buy more shelves or start putting things in a box in the closet. If I keep stockpiling games I will run out of room eventually. Is it worth it to keep my copy or Power Drome? I have never played it and only own it because I got it for two bucks. If it ever does make it into my PS2 it will only be for an hour or so, then I will never play it again. Eventually it will end up in a box in my closet, never to see the light of day. Is this a better fate for a game than the bargain bin at a game store? I can imagine I will only get two cents for trading it in. Since I have never given up any games, I am not going to start now. If several bad games end up in a dark closet, at least they will still be there if I ever decide I do want to play them.
What about my systems? I have a dozen consoles hooked up to my TV at the moment. Needless to say, I don’t have room for anymore. Someday I am going to have to decide which ones are going to get the boot when the next generation of systems release. I already have a separate TV for my Famicom, 2600, 5200 and my second PS2. Am I heading down a path where my whole house will be filled with nothing but video games and TVs? That would be awesome! Or would it? I kind of need a bed to sleep on after all. I suppose these systems will end up in a box someday with Power Drome. Again, they will still be waiting for me to play them someday.
I am glad I have kept all my old games and systems, but I am reaching a saturation point where I am running out of room. I am not the only one with this problem. Will is worse off than me in some ways. Like me, he refuses to get rid of games with the plan to keep them “just in case.” Some people are at the other end of the spectrum. They get rid of games when they are finished with them. Sometimes they regret parting with them. I guess there is a point in the middle that makes the most sense. Money verses storage space. I know I don’t want to find that middle ground, but it might come to selling games or buying a bigger house. That just delays things though.
The Great Friend Code Exchange
I struggle with this as well. I still have a lot of my Dreamcast and N64 games, though those are rarely played(they’re in boxes!).
Just this year, I decided I would give a “game-trading” website a try.
I traded off two games, and so far I’ve received two games back. I still have lots of “credits” left on the site, so I can try to get other games with those credits.
Not really sure how I feel about the whole thing though.
I don’t really like trading in games, but sometimes it just comes down to getting rid of a game you played through once and know that it will sit on your shelf for years or games that have been sitting on my shelf for months that I finally decided to get rid of for something I would actually play.
It’s not something I do very often, but every once in a while I’ll hit up Gamestop for a few bucks off my next purchase.