So far I've been collecting retro games for about 3 months. I have around 100 NES games. 10 CIB. I have lots of genesis CIB, Sega CD CIB, SNES, Dreamcast CIB, etc. I've found a few useful tips for collecting that I don't really see anywhere else.

#1. Make yourself a bank account or just personal stash where you set money aside for collecting. I often syphon money every paycheck into my paypal account. I do it little by little so it doesn't cause any problems to my daily life.

#2. Watch the trends yourself. You can't just look at some price guide. Often times it is WELL below the price you could realistically purchase that item for. Often times spending as little as 1 or 2 dollars more will significantly increase the quality of your item. Remeber, this is YOUR collection. If you can tolerate items that are significantly less than perfect then it will save you a ton of money. I just have to believe that in 20 years when you go back and look at your collection, you will wish your item was better than it is.

#3. People often suggest staying away from internet auction sites for collecting because sellers usually know the value of an item and you're not going to get any special deals there. I think that is sound advice for a speed collector. For someone who is stashing money, doing their homework on specific items they want to buy and just waiting... internet auction sites are great. Just wait until the item you want comes along at the price you want to pay.

This brings me to the ConsoleTrader.com's golden rule of collecting. High Quality, Reasonable Price, Time is a Factor. CHOOSE TWO. <---Fair warning... give this site credit if you use this.