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Hello all.
Work has been a bit brutal as of late and has required me to travel quite a bit. Though I work in the hospitality industry (hotels), I hate all aspects of traveling myself – packing for a trip, wading through the lines at the airport, cab rides to the hotel, having to iron every item for a meeting the next morning (of course I use the bath room shower ‘steam’ method to reduce ironing times). Most everyone has experienced these types of annoyances at one some point and gets the picture.
On my most recent trip, I had to buy some coffee at the airport instead of the ‘Cup of Joe’ dealer I usually frequent (a Shell gas station). Upon receiving my 10 oz coffee from the bagel peddler just in front of Gate 32, the clerk mildly informed me that it would be $3.15. “For a cup of coffee??” I said to myself. In my field, I am fully aware of the both the simple and complex supply and demand scenarios. This simple coffee purchase of mine was the best example of this theory as any other lesson learned within an economics class. Yes – I was running late that morning and probably should not have hit the snooze button that third time. It would have saved me $2.50. Not allot of money, but viewed in a different way I paid over 500% more for the same product I would have received from Sally at my local Shell station.
The telling of this most recent frustration of mine provides an appropriate segue to this article - Buying Decision Do's & Don'ts. To make this a little easier to read, I decided to bullet point a few main thoughts I have on this subject.
 Don’t Buy a New Video Game System the Same Day It Is Released
This is a cardinal rule (as seen with the Xbox 360 and it’s failure rate). I admit that I was the first one in line in 1993 at my local Electronics Boutique (there were very few dedicated video games at the time) to purchase the 3DO for $699. Learn from my mistake - it will save you allot of money, not too mention letting others test out the system for you and avoiding the ‘ring of death’ scenario for a respective system.
- Don’t Become a New Technology Addict
I grew up in a different time, when the operating system of a PC had to be booted from a 5.25” disk (DOS). As technology improved (PCs and video game systems), my need to have this new hardware mirrored this growth. I made many particularly bad decisions (especially in PCs) to try and keep up with the 'valley'. This is the same thing as buying a new car – the minute you drive out of the show room with it, it is instantly worth $7,000 less than what you paid for it.
- Don’t Purchase From an Unknown Source
You will have to do this at some point, but ensure to get as much reference information as you can, especially on those high-end purchases. A great resource in this area is the public selling forums (like we have here at RFG). Vice versa, you have to establish yourself as a trusted buyer. Always ensure to leave comments on all transactions.
- Don’t get into a bidding war on an eBay auction at 2 AM on a Friday Night
This does not warrant an explanation at all. I always joke with my brother and say that there should be one of those breathalyser car starter apparatuses attached to your computer whenever your fire up eBay or like web sites. A reading over .20 – access denied.
- Don’t Get Emotional
Leave all of your emotions at the door, especially when bidding on an online auction. Be prepared to walk away and not obtain an item. Getting all hyped up will only cloud matters for you and your decision making ability.
- Do Have Patience and Educate Yourself
This is a tough one to manage since the passion runs high on a number of items we are considering to procure. I have made some purchases to just complete a certain collection where I over paid for an item, sometimes grossly. There are times to pull the trigger, other moments when it is best to wait for the next possible transaction (which is most of the time). Do not get into bidding wars – determine a price that are willing to pay and be willing to walk. Do you research – this is key. Know what the value of an item is today as well as what was it's worth last year and the demand for it in the future.
 Do Keep All ItemsBoxes – Ensure CIB
As a pure collector, performing this action is of paramount importance. Having a CIB unit is worth as much as 1000% of one that is not when reselling (obviously depends on the item). Do keep everything in pristine condition – collectors know what came with the system and will pay you for it when the time comes. Also, if you do not have to rip open the plastic baggy that contains the manual, et al, then don’t. This will further increase your investment through time. Take the greatest care of your boxes and manuals – these are non-replaceable and the truly LN (Like New) games/systems command high dollars.
- Do Consider Shipping Charges Locations
Especially important for console/hardware collectors, this can add up to $150 in additional costs for some of the heavier units. Many times, the price of the shipping will not be able to be recovered when reselling a system in your country of origin. Again, do your research on both the seller and the country it is coming from.
- Do Keep Financial Priorities In Tact
Short and sweet here – you do need to pay the mortgage/rent. Don’t allow your passionate pursuit of an item to interfere with your everyday financial responsibilities. Give yourself a budget – save up for that special item – track your expenses and investment. Remember – no electricity, no video gaming.
- Do visit your local garage sales and flea markets
This is a dieing avenue for good purchases, but you can still land some pretty good deals from time to time. The local pawn shop is another semi-good avenue. Be prepared to sift through a great deal of crap to find that diamond in the rough. At the same time, establish strong relationships with these vendors (might have to make some bad, low money purchases at first to gain credibility) and then you can have them call you with their new finds (before they go on sale at their market/store).
These are just some of the things that I have learned from both great buying transactions as well as the ones I got buried upon. Today is a different day than it was 30 years ago, but a great many of the same lessons can be learned, and more importantly financially avoided. Exuding financial prowess with an aptitude in employing keen negotiation techniques will not only save you money, but will earn you respect.
I do hope this article assists and allows you to avoid some of the potholes that I have driven directly into in the past and still struggle to circumvent presently. I am sure that you have some other great tips to add - please share them and your comments!
My description of my current life at the moment that lead off this article will also be used to segue to my next piece – Balancing Life & Video Gaming. Just another something that I have yet to fully master. 
Until next time, happy gaming all!
Terry
PS. The "Noob" referral in the top pic was aimed at me, since I have made many bone head decisions in my time in this area (as well as in many others  )
 Hello all.
Gaming has been a test of diligence this past week. I have been working through another go around of The Elder Scrolls III - Morrowind GOY edition on my XB 360. I had spent roughly 20 minutes traveling all around the great world of Vvarendall to finally retrieve the awesome Skull Crusher war hammer. Right when I begin to enter the archaic structured home of some half-breed I am to suppose to deliver this relic to, all of my efforts are wasted due to the game freezing. Talk about frustrating! I am tired of this crap happening and I find that my patience is lacking when trying to re-indulge in the adventure/mission that I had previously thought I had accomplished.
This situation mirrors my real life realization that I am not the gamer that I was back in my heyday. Hence, this is a solid preface to the next part in the series - Erosion of the Gaming Skills: Reality Bites!
I guess this hit me first when my younger brother (he is 8 years my junior) eventually started to beat on me like a farm animal in Halo. When we first started playing this game, I routinely sniped his sorry ass from the hidden glacial recesses. I relied upon guile and stealth to defeat my opponent. And then self-reality punched me square in the nose - I had turned into one of those hated 'campers' in the Call of Duty (and like) online series. As my brother improved (by playing), I stagnated and only had time to play every now and again. Now I was the one being abused like a rent-a-car at his will. Anyone who has a younger brother can attest to this - beating on them is pure satisfaction. Now that the tables had turned, one of my sincere joys in life had been extinguished.
As I grow wiser (older), I find myself gravitating to slower paced games where I can utilize my best asset - the brain. No, I have not crossed over to the dark side and become a fan of edutainment titles. However, RPGs are right up my alley (as they have always been) and golf games (thank goodness for the return of the three-button method employed in Tigers Woods 2008 - old school!). I was a HUGE Tekken fan at one point in my gaming career, but being beat on like a red-headed step child is just not appealing to me anymore. I will admit, to the probable disgust of most gamers (and deservedly so), that I do employ cheat codes liberally. I do not do this to beat on my chest to say I conquered X game, but simply to be able to enjoy the great games that are being released in today's age. At this point in life, my time, patience and thumb-motor ability are resources that I do not have in abundance.
 This realization is not something new to me. As I entered into the working world and my career began to escalate, priorities obviously had to change. No more could I devote the necessary hours to master the key button combination required to decapitate a foe in Mortal Kombat or the timing of a certain jump to avoid a villain in Super Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. Sometimes I just don't have the time to master, or even become remotely proficient, in a game; other times I find that I simply lack the patience to perform the necessary trial-and-error functions to get better. Either way, this is a sad reality that gamers of all ages will eventually face - the gaming skills do erode.
One word of the advice to the young pups out there that enjoy looking to take down 'oldman111' in your latest online game of BioShock - be respectful. That will be you one day. Give 'creds' to us old-timers that are still out there on the playing field trying to enjoy the passion we both share - video games.
Next week's edition: Buying Decision Do's & Don'ts. Until then, be careful in your next CoD online game - you might just get your ass sniped
 As most of you know, I tend to write very detailed and somewhat technical articles on various video game systems, focusing primarily on the obscure releases. When writing one of my last System Overviews, a fellow RFG staff member recommended that I add a bit more color to my reviews; to add a bit more of my personality to them. I considered his thoughts in detail, but ultimately decided against incorporating this suggestion into my reviews. I want my reviews to be extremely objective, technical and informative for both the collector and gamer alike.
That being said, I do believe that the suggestion made by said staff member was correct, though I disagree with the forum that it should be delivered upon. The creation of this new series, "Thoughts from a 40 Year Old Gamer" will be my attempt to meet this new objective of allowing more insight into the thoughts and rants behind the reviews. Yes - this might be a short lived series, not due to the amount of years I have left to live (have to beat down those hecklers quick), but based upon community interest in this venture. Your candid feedback and input is welcomed from the onset of this endeavor. This first part will focus on the question I am asked the most - Do you own these systems and play them allot?
Yes - I do own all of the systems that I review. My collection is around 130 systems, with 85 or so of those being unique (systems with both proprietary hardware and software code for game development). I cannot say that I play them a great deal - work and home life rather cut into the free time to be able to play all of them. My game library is not near some of the monster collections here at RFG (I have around 1,000 games), but I do have games for every platform. I honestly don't play many of the obscure systems that much apart from when they were acquired, though I always do fire them up and play the games when reviewing a system.
No, I wasn't around when Ralph Baer was developing the first video game, but I do admit that the term 'vinyl' is an instantly recognizable term in regards to a music media type. Along those lines, the first system that my father got for me was the Texas Instruments TI-99/4A - a computer hybrid that accepted preprogrammed game cartridges but was more of a home personal computer. I'll tell you what - talk about disappointment! While my buddies were blasting through waves of enemies or avoiding mud pits on their Atari 2600 or Colecovision, I got to climb a mountain and avoid some crazy bears on my TI-99/4A. I can't really complain though - I did learn the BASIC and Q-BASIC programming language at a very early age (you could program your own games on the TI-994/A).
Well, I think that is about it for now. As you know, us old folks tend to retire a bit early in the evening and pop on the History Channel or PBS on our set top boxes (televisions). My next rant in this series - Erosion of the Gaming Skills: Reality Bites! (ouch!). Till next week, father time signing out.
PS. No, that is not me in the picture. I am old, but not quite what is pictured (yet).
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