Poll: Locally vs. Online - How did you build your collection? By percentage %

[acromite53 | 338]

Did you build your collection from games you've found locally while game hunting? Or do you purchase most of your games online?

In my case, I'd say 80% local, 20% online. I've spent a lot of time at games stores and conventions. I've done my fair share of thrifting as well. I use ebay for things I just can't get locally. Usually imports, CIB Genesis, Saturn, and Turbografx games.

Do you feel a stronger connection to your collection from game hunting in person? For me, I think there is. I can remember where I've bought almost every game in my collection. The process of game hunting is a big part for me.

Edited March 23, 2021 by acromite53

[a3quit4s | 4,355]

I don't really find jack shit locally living in such a populated area. I mean besides the 3 or 4 game stores around me which I buy from frequently. I would still say close to 80% is from online. 

I'm looking forward to yard sales being a thing again. Even though I never really find stuff it's just nice to be out and about on the weekends on nice days

[DefaultGen | 5,724]

I love buying in person to really get an idea of condition and hunt for deals. There are virtually no stores by me and the few there are don’t have good enough inventory for a fancy pants collector, they’re closer to Gamestops that happen to go back a few generations. I put 100% online.

Edited March 23, 2021 by DefaultGen

[Gloves | 12,260]

Online, easily 95% or more of it.

[nrslam | 485]

I picked 80% local, just because I did buy a few things online before the counterfeiters took over, but really its more like 97% local.

I feel sorry for collectors paying online/game store prices these days.

[DarkTone | 1,012]

Online was probably 90%. Finding older games in person isn't easy over here. 

[ThePhleo | 2,267]

I do a lot of local shopping and I'm willing to pay a small premium for in person goods, even still only about a 20-25% of my collection is locally purchased.

[Tanooki | 5,115]

I'm probably 20/80, would be higher but had to recover stuff over the years.  Back in the day and up into the early 00s I rarely bought from a few websites online and that includes ebay.  Until the end of 2002 I had local access to US and japanese stuff fairly well and until a die off in 2005~ I never sold a damn thing off and bought everything first (if not gifted) or second hand.  Even after the move here the first time the local stuff was pretty good, some decent mom and pops and they were super competitive lower than online or even at worst.

After all those losses a good 15 years of effort netted back a good bit, a solid amount though was done from the flea market back out west from 2010-2012 despite the start of the crap we deal with now hitting late 2011 into 12.  I could take a $20 there and walk out with anything from 4-10+ games with that one piece of paper, less when it got sour.  I mean hell I got Earthbound off a table loaded with dirty clothes and some boxed up EA PC games for $2...after moving got an immaculate guide for $60 (minus the pizza air freshener card removed.)  You just never know.  Had I never force dumped stuff I'd have said 70/30 online.

[RegularGuyGamer | 2,042]

I went with 60/40 of my collection built from online sales. Luckily I held onto a good amount of items from back when video games existed at yard sales that weren't priced out as ebay prices.

Most of my PS1/2, DC, DS & 3DS were a local pick ups including game stores. Same with the Wii and Wii U. My CIB Pokemon collection was all local finds. Even a good lot of my Sega Saturn collection was local finds. Basically all of my Atari 2600 collection was local expect for 2 games lol

I kept at receipts where I could and it's crazy to look back and see the prices I paid for Saturn games in 2012/13. I'm just glad I held onto what I did even though it was a fraction of the things I used to pick up. 

[Dr. Morbis | 2,120]

Many years ago, when older games were everywhere locally and I needed like everything I saw for my collection, I was about 95% local.  Over the years that slowly flipped as the local inventories dried up and the NES stuff I needed got to be more and more obscure, to the point that I'm at like 99% online nowadays, so it's hard to pinpoint a percentage for how I "built" my collection.  I picked 80% online because I feel like it's been over a decade since I routinely used to go game hunting and come back with stuff I actually wanted or needed from the wild.  When I look around my gameroom now, any item I see that I've had for less than ten years, is invariably an online buy...

[fox | 1,771]

30% Locally
30% When traveling or Cons
30% Digital (sales and freebies)
10% Online retail (Ebay/NA/online retailers)

Couldn't tell you where/when I got Castlequest, so I guess I'm not feeling it emotionally.  I remember the ones that were a great find or ones I had to drop a lot of money on.

Edited March 24, 2021 by fox

[Nintegageo | 583]

So online is the dominant one, however were I to pare down the collection to 100 or even 200 and not include the arcade cartridges, I think it might be higher to local games.

[fcgamer | 5,015]

I got about 80-90% locally. For me, most of that stuff means a lot more to me than the stuff I grabbed online.

 

[drxandy | 3,279]

I am prob at the 80 local 20 online. It might be 60/40 or somewhere inbetween because of imports. 99% of those for me are online because until the last year or so the local place wouldnt buy/sell them.

I would agree with a lot of peoples statements - definitely have a greater emotional attachment to finding locally, a lot of bigger names are cheaper to get locally, obscure stuff is easier to find online.

Edited March 24, 2021 by drxandy

[MrPeaPod | 121]

I've bought axiom verge and shakedown Hawaii for the wii u online. Those were the only two games I've ever purchased online. The other 1000 plus have been in person purchases

[Renmauzo | 1,206]

It's about a 60/40 split for me. The 60% is largely made up of games bought in their time like GBA, PS1, etc. Being poor growing up, much of my NES, SNES and Genesis collections are 50/50 local (stores) and online, but nearly all within the past 6 years (outside of the few titles I had growing up which I can count on one hand).

In recent years, it's gotten tougher and tougher to get what I want, with online becoming a necessity. So many in the US won't ship or sell to Canadians, there's virtually no local supply (I live on an island province of 135k people), and CAD is down nearly a quarter on the US dollar so everything costs more (and shipping a game even within Canada is $17-$20). There are so many disadvantages compared to our friends in the US that make online a necessity and still difficult at the same time; for about a year now, I've resorted to using a shipping service in the US so that I have a box for American sellers to send to, assuming I'm a US based customer.

Ultimately, the biggest challenge I face now that will guarantee the rest of my retro collecting is 100% online is that the last 20 or so games I'm after before I call it a day with the collection are proving to be next to impossible to find complete, so there's no chance local will be an option.

Either way, local or online, every game 'get' has a story and that's been a big part of the fun and the challenge. 

[fcgamer | 5,015]

For me, a large part of what I collect now depends on what I can find locally. I've honestly got more games than any person needs, so I don't need to import a bunch anymore.

[OptOut | 9,024]

I'd say my collection is made up, on a per title basis, something like 60% online, 40% local. I don't do as much local shopping these days simply because I don't have the time to go out, but when I do go out I usually buy more bulk. I also tend to buy a lot more local when I go back to the UK as well, depending on the shops I'm able to visit when I'm traveling around.

However, these days I buy a lot more online, just due to the convenience and also it's A LOT easier to round out sets buying online compared to local when you've rinsed all the local stores and there are some games that just simply aren't around. Also, due to the nature of my collection and collecting goals, I am often buying games and other items from overseas, so obviously that all has to be done online.

Now, if you know what you're doing, it's not even necessarily more expensive to buy online than local, depending on what you're looking for... I've got a couple go to online sellers that have beaten local prices on N64 games, and those local prices were already low to begin with! Obviously a lot of the stuff is more expensive, of course, but there are other ways to save money online too. I mean, if I go into a store and see a bunch of cheap games I might just buy them all even if I don't necessarily want them, whereas online I'm much more focussed on what I actually want. So, there's a balance there.

Personally, I find both online shopping and local shopping rewarding and fun in different ways. Local you get the excitement of finding things you didn't expect, there's a thrill of walking into a brand new store and not knowing what you're going to find. On the other hand, I find it very disappointing to go into a store and find just nothing I want, or WORSE to find something I actually DO want but the shopkeeper throws out a ridiculous high number.

Online is better for just sitting down when I'm on break and browsing endlessly, it is great to just take a look at what's out there and the range of items and prices. You get a FAR better sense of the market values of various titles by shopping around online, and you also notice games you may never have heard of or seen before, variants and all sorts of other things that buying local won't really achieve unless you are HARDCORE out there traveling up and down week after week, which is completely impossible for me.

So yeah I'm a fan of both local and online, and I gotta say I'm glad I live in Taiwan because both these methods are still cheap and fruitful ways to collect! The horror stories coming out of the US collecting scene right now make me shudder! 

[TDIRunner | 2,893]

For my retro consoles, probably 80% local.  Maybe even 90%.  For newer stuff, I'm obviously getting most of it online.  

 

In the past few years, I haven't been finding nearly as much stuff locally, but I've also been buying a lot less, so the percentage hasn't really changed much.  

[ZeldaFreak | 3,734]

If I'm not at 100% online, I'm pretty close. I started collecting back in early 2014, and even then finding decent deals locally was already pretty much a thing of the past. Most of the stuff you'd find would be stuff at or around the price of it online, and by that point you might as well just get it online since it'll probably be in better condition anyway. Plus I don't live in a super super populated area like NYC or LA, so there aren't a ton of places I can go to find older games or consoles, and there are very very few things like yard sales or conventions or what have you that might contain a few decent deals for stuff, much less games or consoles I'd actually be interested in in the first place. So yeah, I'm probably at either straight up 100%, or at least 98% to 99% online I'd say, and I don't expect that to change any time soon.

[Code Monkey | 2,131]

Maybe 50% online but my eBay usage went down to 0% a while ago because it became such a pain in the ass. Now I only deal with locals, conventions or forum members.

[YOURTURN | 1,258]

Currently? 100% online, including the games I either sold for non-hobby reasons or just gave away.

But in retrospect, and I am basing this on my 2017 hunt, I have to question if I can call those finds "local". 

[Reed Rothchild | 9,931]

I went through a couple hundred games.  It was about 33% local.

[Inzoreno | 102]

I think I am somewhere around 60-40 or 70-30 with the majority being bought in person. I have three GameStop locations within ten minutes from me and about five retro game stores near me that gives me plenty of opportunities to pick things up locally. Nevertheless, I do buy games online from limited print companies like Limited Run Games somewhat regularly, so they are a decent chunk of my collection. 

[goldenpp72 | 1,243]

Yay I fit in