I have conflicting impulses.
I’m a collector. I have multiple shelves in my house dedicated to Nintendo, lined with cases of games, amiibo, preorder bonus merchandise, or Club Nintendo rewards (remember those? They used to be physical).
My biggest console library belongs to Wii, and I hope to outnumber those games with Switch software this generation.
I’m also a tightwad. I prefer saving money over spending it. I don’t mind waiting months or years for things to go on sale before buying.
How does one balance the urge to collect games, when trading or selling them can help financially?
It’s a tough choice.
I’ve purchased 9 Switch games in the system’s first 7 months and sold 3 of them. Sure, it was opposed to my goal of expanding my collection, but they weren’t great games. I’d rather have a small amount of excellent titles than a larger batch where you don’t know what you’re going to get.
When deciding to keep a game or not, first acknowledge that it’s probably disappointed you. If it hadn’t, you likely wouldn’t be debating what to do with it.
Next, this question is super helpful: Do I want to introduce my kids to this?
Whether you’re a parent or not, it helps put things into perspective. Video game collections are best not when they take up a lot of space, but when you can proudly open up a box with your ten-year-old and tell him or her to pick anything; you know you’ll have a great time.
Do I want to play this with my daughter in fifteen years? No, it’s not the best one in the series. Sell this one. We’ll play the older version.
Keep the best, get rid of the rest! You’ll have more space and more money to put toward better experiences.
