Buyer's Remorse #20 - The Trade Deadline

I can honestly say that this is the first time I've come into a blog post to talk about owning LESS games...

Weird.

Anyways, Tommy and had a discussion recently about the difference between being a "collector" and being a "possessor" of video games. I had read some comments online about this and it boiled down to the difference between owning a large amount of games solely for the reason that you did not have them, and having a collection that shows your personality and interests as a gamer. If there is no theme to your collecting, you're just padding the numbers and collecting by volume instead of quality. We like to joke about hoarding around here, but what's the point of mindlessly accumulating games if you don't plan to play them or you don't like the content of the game. For example: I really fucking hate baseball games, but I own a bunch of them for different systems. Ugh, why?  

A great collection could really show a stranger what you are into, and a little bit of your personality, just by looking through where you focus your collecting energies. I think I'm more proud of the games that I really love than the intimidating shelves of volume. I want someone to be able to pick up one of my games and say "Tell me about this game!" and I can answer their request with more details than just "Uhhh, I got it at Value Village for a buck..."

You have to read this in Morgan Freeman's voice...

To make a long story short, we sat and had a few beers and decided to look through our collections on GameFaqs to make a list of expendable games that we planned to get rid of. This would give a little more purity to our collections and maybe net us a few bucks towards something really cool. Before I downsized some games, I did however get kinda drunk and found myself on eBay one night at around 3am. I really need to stay off eBay when I've been drinking. At least what I bought was awesome and well priced. It was disc only, and I made a case.

Drunk online shopping = still a win!

I then started to make a box full of all the stuff I wanted to get rid of. It was about 20 games to start, mostly PS2 and Original Xbox. I also threw in all my doubles of games, magazines, manuals, etc. I got $40 for the box and never looked back. I also sold a 15 year old laptop for $60 and box of lame hockey cards for $100. I felt clean and redeemed. I was also accumulating cash as "The Trade Deadline" was approaching and I wanted a few extra bucks to seal the deal. What's "The Trade Deadline" you ask? Read on friends, and I'll fill you in...

Before we get to the big trade, I might as well drop a few more pics of some stuff I landed during a few chasing trips with Tommy. Check it out:

Monty Python on CD-i? Awesome!!

The most notable scores from above were my first Sega 32X game, Haunting on Genesis, and the Monty Python CD-i game. I'm a big fan of Haunting on Genesis and have been wanting to land it for a long time. I also grabbed a minty cart of Captain Comic on NES just to piss off Tommy.

The final reveal of the blog is the big trade that I made. I was able to reduce my collection of Xbox 360, Wii, and PS3 games and come home with a great new addition. EB Games was running a promotion where if you traded in 10 games, you got $200 off the purchase of a Wii U! The end of the promotion was fast approaching (The Trade Deadline), so I had to put my strategy together fast. I traded in some games I was "possessing" as well as the cash I made selling other junk and came home with an exciting new console. I also took advantage of the "Trade More, Get More" deal and ended up with another ninety bucks in trade credit as well. All together it cost me less than $20 out of pocket for everything you see below.

Does it really look just like Buddy Holly?

I've been thinking about getting a Wii U, but I knew that I would have to find one cheaply or exploit a promotion like this to acquire one. All the stars aligned and I can't wait to play it! Overall, it was a great week of spring cleaning and I really feel like I purified my collection to the point where even Morgan Freeman would approve...

Super Robot Tyson