When Do You Trade In Games?

Recently I've had a change of heart in relation to my somewhat OCD collection mentality. I've kept around an obscene amount of media I've purchased for years. I own just about every CD I've purchased in the last 10 years. I've got several boxes in my closet filled with movies I probably only watched once and will probably never watch again. And my game collection since my Gamecube purchase? Virtually untouched until recently.

So what made me change my mind? I'm broke. Seriously broke. I've got a 360, a PS2 with a shit ton of games I still haven't played, but no real money to spend on the NEW AND EXCITING TITLES coming this summer. And by this summer, I mean games that have came out anywhere between 2001 and now. Of course, who can blame me? I'm a poor high-school (soon to be college) student with a weak ass job, faced constantly by the threat of $6 gas prices in the near future. I ain't got shit. But I'll tell you what I do have: a whole lot of old vidjergames.

Now I resolved myself to not simply grab my box with every GC game I've ever bought and hand it to the FYE clerk. I'd say most of my pack-ratish nature owes to some bad experiences I've had trading in GOOD stuff. Back in the N64 days, I traded in Ocarina of Time for another game. Within 2 weeks, I was tired of whatever game I had bought with the money (it was the N64, so it couldn't have been anything fantastic) and was already longing to return to Zelda. Even now, I'll get the random urge to go and play Metal Arms or Metal Gear Solid or some other game from a billion years ago. So definitely a no on games I know I still love.

So I had to come up with a qualifier. A question I could ask myself in relation to the games that would allow me to sell off my worthless games and keep the good ones. And I found it. Didn't take to long either. What games do I regret buying? That's where the money was. And readers, I hate to say it, but I had no shortage of games that fit the criteria. These weren't necessarily games I immediately hated the second I hit the start button. Being the kind of person I am, someone who doesn't like to admit it when he wastes his money on something that totally wasn't worth it, I had often times tired to convince myself that the game I'm playing was actually good. Spiderman on the Gamecube? Yeah, this is pretty cool. Right guys? Right? James Bond 007: Nightfire? Yeah dude. This is just like Goldeneye. But prettier.I also found myself turning in a lot of racing games. I'd like to write an article about the subject, but in summary, I don't like racing games. Most of them are over too quickly; there's not much else you can do once you've raced all 10 or so tracks the game ships with (not counting all the mirrored tracks and whatever nonsense most games ship with). So, as much as it probably horrifies people, I packed up Mario Kart DS, STARSKY AND HUTCH (yeah, I know right), and Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2.

And of course, threw in a couple movies I wasn't all that happy about, like the totally awful fullscreen Manga Video release of Ninja Scroll. Overall, it's been a pretty big success. I'm beginning to think I'm the local FYE's number #1 supplier of Gamecube games. Of their extremely small collection of 10 or so games, at least half of it was mine. And the best part of the story? My copy of Starsky and Hutch is going for $11. That's 2 dollars more than I paid. At Target. Regular price. Fantastic.