Re: A note on investment potential

by pooch Mon Sep 01, 2008 7:12 am

I never invest in sealed games. I do not expect them to rise in value, I just remain hopeful that they retain their value so when I grow out of this hobby at least I can get back what I paid for.

What you really should do is take the time we spent on looking on Ebay for bargain to learn about investing in financial instruments yes!

, if you can get 10% a year, you will double your capital in 7 years time.

by type-r Sun Sep 14, 2008 9:27 pm

Great post Imp. I completely agree with all that you said.

by The Imp Mon Sep 15, 2008 2:26 am

Since this topic has attracted a little bit of interest again, I'll just qualify what I had said earlier (I made it sound as though it was stupid to invest in video games; that's not quite true):

All investing requires a research component; usually, time spent studying the market. Investing without research isn't investing; it's gambling.

Since a lot of people who "invest" in video games spend a significant amount of time at garage sales or flea markets or pawn shops or - in modern times - on eBay and in forums, this means that those people are:
1. More qualified investors of video games than others who did not spend any time researching that market
2. More qualified at investing in video games than in other forms of investment that they have not put so much research into

So, if you spend a lot of time researching the video games market to complete your collections (or simply as a hobby), you essentially get your investment research component for free; you already did your research (for another purpose, but still applicable).

So, if you don't have a job or hobby that educates you on other investment types, then you'll be more "efficient" at investing in video games than anything else. Might as well put that knowledge to good use if it can make you some money, eh? Sure, you're not going to be storming the investment tycoon seminar circuit on the back of video game trading, but that doesn't mean that you can't have your hobby maybe pay for itself, or perhaps even more than that, if you give it some thought.

The Imp wrote:Video Games, sensibly traded, can make okay investments. But if they are being traded *only* as investments, they are inferior to other, established investment vehicles.

Thus, while I still believe as I said already, this does not mean that you shouldn't invest in video games, or that you should invest in anything else. It only means that if you're just in it for the money, it's probably not going to be enough of a motivator for you, since the same amount of effort would probably yield better returns via another mechanism. But if you love it anyway, you certainly can make money at it, and there's no good reason not to make money doing what you love, if it means that you can do more of what you love that way.

by Sammelhammel Wed Oct 08, 2008 11:24 am

I think in these times with all the bankruptcy of the banks and the fear of the people that the money could lose value, collecting sealed games (or collecting anything else) is a very good step Smile