Do you keep your games, or do you sell them on?

[replayme]

Just a quick question for you guys:

I know that games are incredibly cheap nowadays (where some can be had for not much more than the price of a pint), but what I would like to know is: do you buy games to keep (and to build a "collection"), or do you buy games as "casual" purchases where once you have completed (or gotten bored of) the game you decide to sell it?

I recently sold over 39 videogames, and the hoarder within me partly regrets it as I no longer have an extensive next-gen library. At the same time however, and whilst I do miss some of the games, I am relieved that I was able to get rid of a vast amount of games (most of which I had been bought on impulse) which I no longer played or had no time for.

So what I would like to know is, what are your game purchasing habits like? Do you buy your games to keep, or do you sell them on once they have outlived their usefulness. Why?

[TransatlanticFoe]

I have no time for the trade-in culture this generation seems to have embraced. Buy it, play it, complete it, trade it? No thanks. I have a Wii and a PC though, so one whose games don't hold value (keeping a game I've completed vs £3 off a £30 new game that'll be £15 in a few months - it's a no-brainer) and the other you can't really resell anyway.

However if a game's worth playing then it's worth replaying. Those I own and have completed but haven't had multiple playthroughs will no doubt get them once I've cleared my current backlog, as there's not much on the horizon I'm too bothered about (Wii is dead and I'm not touching Wii U for at least a year after release). As a kid, I sold off a few Master System games and only bought one of those (Scramble Spirits) again. I've only ever taken three games back to the shop for refunds - Sonic Chaos (defective), Strike Force Hydra (beyond terrible) and Gunbird 2 (bored the shit out of me).

Retro wise, I only buy the games I want to play - so why would I want to sell any of those?

[antron]

I keep games I liked playing, even if I'm bored with them now. But I don't really want a collection, I'd like to have as little as possible really. (but I guess that still is collecting)

[drauch]

I'm building an empire of crap I've collected throughout the years. They will find me dead, buried underneath it someday.

[professor ganson]

I like to horde and prevent others from enjoying goods that are sitting idly in my collection. But the main reason I have games lying around is that I rarely feel I've properly finished a game. I rarely play games that have a straightforward end to them.

[Moniker]

Yeah I tend to sell stuff off if it's something I know I'll never play again... a lot of RPGs and FPSes, most Rockstar games... FTGs and shmups, I keep obviously, and other arcadey stuff. But I've got a pretty good second hand place in town that doesn't rip you off, so that helps. I don't particularly care for collecting. Not games, anyway.

[njiska]

I very rarely sell my games and even then it's only if i really the need money. For the most part I keep everything I buy, good or bad, because I'm building a library. I probably haven't played half of the games I own, but it's reassuring to know they're on my shelf if I ever want to. Some of my favourite games were ones I bought for collection's sake and randomly played years later. Games like God Hand.

[Ruldra]

I find that I'll rarely play a game again once I'm done with it, so it's better to get rid of it. Some games I want to keep for their replay value (fighting games, pinball, a collection of games in one disk, etc) but I sell everything else. I hate hoarding stuff.

[DragonInstall]

I only keep games that have replay value, which for me are shmups and fighters. Most other games bore me too quickly, and if I do manage to finish it, there is absolutely no way I'll replay it without getting bored.

Of course this mainly applies to this generation, I still don't mind popping in some of my nes / snes stuff and go through them. Not sure if it's nostagia, or those games are just more appealing compared to ones made today.

[iconoclast]

I never sell my games. I have a ton of crap I'll never play again, but whatever.

[evil_ash_xero]

I only sell the ones I'm not too into(which has been a LOT). I keep everything I actually like. I will sell older games, if a quality upgrade(remake or HD version) comes out. However, I won't sell the older game, if the newer version doesn't have a physical copy(Ikaruga, Radiant Silvergun), or if the newer version is a little "off"(Under Defeat).

I'm very much into building a collection, but I want it to be a collection of games I really enjoy, and not just a bunch of rare stuff or whatever.

[CloudyMusic]

I'll keep anything that I think I'll want to play again someday (fighters/shmups and any games that I really like), or anything that I think will become hard/impossible to find again if I sell it (most Atlus games). I'll eventually sell most everything else. I have no interest in building a "collection" of things that I'll never play as I have enough shit cluttering up my house as it is.

[BulletMagnet]

Anyone on the forum here knows that I sell some stuff from time to time, though I keep a lot more than I sell...I probably ought to prune my shelves a bit more often, though I doubt I'll ever hit anything resembling equilibrium when it comes to income versus output.

[brentsg]

Option 3, not worth the time for the most part.

[drauch]

To be a bit more accurate, I do sell things, but on a rare occasion. Ya never know when you want to experience something again in, say, 5 or 10 years, so I keep anything I enjoy. If I hate it, however, it goes right out the door. Thankfully the latter rarely happens, hence the buried to death notion.

[null1024]

I almost never sell my games. The trade in thing has completely passed me by [it doesn't seem remotely worth it, and I remember having been offered $0.25 for a game]. Games I hate, I've given away. Otherwise, I tend to keep my stuff.

[CMPXCHG8B]

I keep games that leave a lasting impression. If it's worth remembering, then it's probably worth keeping.

Every single game sitting on my shelf has some sort of memory attached to it, with the associated feeling of nostalgia to back that up. For instance, I still remember that scene in MGS4 about half-way through the game when they disrupt the SOP system again on the river, or the image later on in the game of GW's AI core room filled with the auxiliary processors that initially look like tombstones.

I could prattle off a dozen lines from Portal or Portal 2, because the dialogue was genius. I remember how goddam fun it was to shrink enemies down in Duke Nukem 3D and step on them, or how awesome it was to liquify/freeze/boil guards in Crusader No Remorse and No Regret with various weapons of varying effects. I remember the claustrophobic feeling of needing to escape in Descent I and Descent II and the feeling of achievement that came with saving the inhabitants of Vault 13 after several weeks playing Fallout.

Ask me what the hell happened in Gears of War ("you shoot fugly monsters") or Killzone 1/2/3 ("you shoot nazis wearing gas masks") or Halo ("you shoot rainbow-coloured midget aliens"), and generally I have no fucking clue. Incidentally, I do not own these games anymore. If it wasn't worth remembering, then it's not worth the storage space on my shelf.

-CMPX

[Marc]

I had to sell a massive collection when I split with my first child's mother, and I could have wept at the time. These days I'm not so bothered. I buy and keep anything that offers me a legit way of playing Mame'd games, but this gen a game has to be really special (Deus Ex/Dark Souls) to convince me to keep it. Now I'm all for digital, dubious DRM aside. Best console I've ever owned is the 360 and as long as that hard drive stays alive I'm pretty much set.

[Shelcoof]

I keep things simple. If I really liked the game or if it is a part of a series of games I loved and enjoyed, I keep it. If I don't like a game it gets traded or sold or tossed in the garbage if I really don't like it lol

[Bloodreign]

I collect retro games only, I have never sold off anything for any reason whatsoever. This way I'll never be bored, I'll have a growing library of nearly 1,000 games (989 at last count) to keep me busy for the rest of my or the games life.

[Cuilan]

Replay value is the main reason I would keep something. I also keep games that made a very strong impression on me. If the gameplay isn't that great and/or if the experience wasn't powerful enough, I see no reason to replay it and thus keep it. It's also often the case these days that a good game will be fun to replay a hand-full of times (either singleplayer or multiplayer), but will end up getting old soon afterwards.

I use Amazon's game trade-in service since they usually offer good trade-in value, and it's less of a hassle to deal with than selling stuff on my own. And since I usually buy my games from Amazon anyway, the fact that they pay in the form of Amazon credit seems like offering extra value to me.

Some current-gen games I've done away with :

Call of Duty 2, 4, and Modern Warfare 2
Bioshock
The Orange Box
Uncharted Drake's Fortune and Golden Abyss
Metroid Prime 3
Gears of War
Mass Effect 1 and 2

Some current-gen games I will forever keep :

Mirror's Edge
Condemned 1 and 2
Bayonetta
Vanquish
Idolmaster
Most of my shmups
Most of my RPGs

[Skyline]

I only really sell games in three instances:

Need money for something (usually bills/rent/other debts)
Find the same game in better shape, with more complete packaging etc. (example: the $10 cart of Snowboard Kids that I sold off after getting the same game complete in box for $15)
Find the same game with a better revision (Thunder Force V PS1 vs. Saturn, etc)

I really need to comb over my stash at some point and weed out the games that I'll never play, or just plain suck.

[trap15]

I'm building an empire of crap I've collected throughout the years. They will find me dead, buried underneath it someday.

[xbl0x180]

I'm building an empire of crap I've collected throughout the years. They will find me dead, buried underneath it someday.

... and I HAVE been buried underneath a shelf unit that used to contain around 2000 music CDs


I don't resell games; even the crappy ones I keep for "reference" to see what games suck.

[cools]

I sell anything I've not used in 12 months. Meaning I'm behind with some worthless 360 games.

[BIL]

If I don't play it, I get rid of it. But 99.9% of the time if I don't play it, I never owned it to begin with. THANKS INTERNET! This is for mjclark:

[Mero]

I used to to sell and part exchange loads of games back in the early 90's but everything since then I've still got now.

[1up]

Im at a point in my life where gaming time is VERY limited. Work, kids and family stuff takes up a lot of time, so I have about 1 hour a day to play games. Im very into xbox 360 and interesting new games come out each month, so I can barely keep up. I play through 1-2 games a month and some arcade stuff on the side, so I have no time at all to revisit old favorites that I would like to revisit. So I sell games to buy new games. I did keep Fallout 3 and all the Mass Effect games. Dont know why as I will never have time to ever play them again.

I used to have a moderate consoles collection with all my favorite games for most post 8bit era consoles. Sold all of that a few years ago as it just sat there and I finally realised that there was no way in hell that I could ever go back and play those. It's a damn shame and I hate that I don't have more time to play but that's reality and I just have to accept it. Maybe one day when I retire I will have time for all those games I missed

[spadgy]

I'm a collector at heart. I'm trying to get into selling off a PCB as I buy a new one, but I find it very hard to part company with them!

[sjewkestheloon]

I try and purchase games carefully and so usually really like and keep them. There are some games that I finish quickly and feel no urge to play again which I then trade in off new purchases without regrets. I have just finished my second playthrough of Dragon's Dogma, got 1000/1000 gamerscore and seen everything that the game has to offer bar a few weapons that are not worth the grind. I can take down everything in the game with ease and I have done so many times so I feel no urge to play the game again. It will be traded in later today for a new game while the price remains high.

If down the line interesting DLC is released, or if there is a general update, I will purchase the game at a cheaper price point than I got when I traded it in and be happy.