This is going to be a little hard to explain. Some people who met me before would call me hypocritical if they came here to read this and I fully understand their point of view, but what I write here is honestly what I think. It's not easy to explain though and I'll make it as short as possible...
Being a collector was not just a hobby I took lightly. At first, maybe, but once it became more serious I started to see how that hobby was changing myself. As a serious collector, I always care about the condition of the games I buy - I refuse to buy incomplete or damaged games. So much dedication in assembling a good collection makes no sense without quality patterns, and I've set mine a long time ago. I'd rather buy everything in sealed condition but we all know that it's not possible so I focus in getting everything as close to "new" as possible, with tolerances of course.
My main concern in getting the games in the best possible condition only makes sense if I am going to take very good care of them and preserve them in the same condition I get them. However, there are WAY TOO MANY OBSTACLES in order to do that...
1. Most videogame retailers don't care how they take care of their games and special editions - even specialized stores treat some of them like trash that must be sold to anyone.
2. Same goes with national distributors who open games to place stupid mandatory stickers and crappy manuals.
3. Even the national law is against my principle of buying games in the condition I want unless I order them from a different country.
4. And then, there are the post service, we all know how bad they treat our packages.
5.To add to all that, there's the price of the games over here. This makes my task of collecting sealed games or limited editions a hard one. It disgusts me...
And this is how I learned an important lesson. First, I've learned to take very good care of my games. I realized that most people - people who specifically work with videogames, people who sell or distribute games -don't give a damn about their condition. I've seen GT5 Signature editions, rock bands, guitar heroes and all sorts of bundles, limited editions, boxsets, whatever, in a VERY bad shape even as soon as they get released, with alarms, stickers, price tags or protection stripes damaging the boxes. I simply DO NOT UNDERSTAND how those ignorant people expect to sell a 180€ limited edition that seems somebody was playing soccer with it on the release date. And that's just a tiny example of all sorts of things I've seen all the time EVERYWHERE. It's simply disgusting. Some editions clearly say "Collector's Edition" on their cover, yet ther are treated so badly... who is the collector that's going to buy those editions in trash conditions? Can those people be really called collectors?
But then I look around... and I realize that it's just not games that many people don't care about. Many people in general don't care about anything at all besides their own lives. They don't care if they drive "nastily", they don't care if they spit on the floor, they don't care if they smoke, drink or make too much noise, they have no sensibility for little details in life as much as they live fine with themselves and their tastes. They don't care about their wrong actions as much as they are in accordance to the law, just slightly off or even totally off if the circumstances allow it. They take many wrong actions on purpose just because they feel more comfortable in their daily lives by doing so. They don't face society as they should in my opinion... And I'm not talking about criminals or anything of that sort, that's a whole different level. I'm talking about regular so called "honest" people.
Being a collector has been like a self taught lesson to me that expanded to the way I live my life and how I am. The sensibility I gained for being a collector taught me many things including how to care about every step I take every day. I try to live my life seriously and enjoyable but always care about the little details that almost no one even thinks about. Some people just don't bother caring about too many things that go beyond their way of thinking. They lack that sensibility. For those very same people, I am stupid for spending so much money in games.
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