The world of Collecting has always been a niche environment, frequented by enthusiasts devoted to the purchase and preservation of peculiar objects, whose value fluctuates based on various well-defined factors, such as time, the context in which it was produced and, last but not least, the sentimental value attributed to it by the buyer himself, who set out in search of it.
In the video game field, a sector where collecting has become a full-time activity recognized by market trends and economic fluctuations that certainly do not leave anyone indifferent, the international community, not just the Italian one, is growing by leaps and bounds.
This is leading not only to a significantly important increase in the value of videogames, consoles, and accessories, but also to a strengthening in the number of existing collectors, often former videogame players who now channel their old passion into the tangible pleasure of buying rare and limited collectible pieces.
Quindi, con the increase in demand and supply, a pair that in this field can be attributed to the collector who embodies both the role of seller and buyer, video game collecting has taken on a defined and important form: the typical collector usually seeks products tied to their adolescence, demanding the highest quality of the packaging with which they first encountered that particular video game and used it as a player: the integrity of the item, with its manuals and case intact in the case of a video game, or the presence in the box of all the extra accessories if it is an old historic console, is the basis for a true collector.
Anche the terminology used is important: when a product is sold by other collectors without packaging, by convention in marketplaces and platforms it is referred to with the term "loose", which we could translate as unboxed.
Of course, it goes without saying that the prices of a loose collectible item will never be comparable to a "boxed" or sealed product, which, as the word suggests, is still intact and therefore of much higher value, having never been handled or altered.
Importantly and of considerable interest is also a practice that has been gaining ground for years among collectors, also in many commercial realities, dedicated to retrogaming in particular.
Or carrying out maintenance activities on collectible titles, for example replacing worn batteries, cleaning the electronics of consoles or cartridges, cleaning the packaging with label removers, and preserving the titles with special protective plastics, or finally having one's title graded by expert communities... (but this will be the subject of further analysis).
To conclude, the significant increase in collectors has made it necessary to create online platforms such as The Games Market, where the need to connect enthusiasts, buyers, and sellers can be met, a specialized place where one can meet other collectors and, above all, their collections, analyzing valuations and their changes over time, so as to expand one’s own collection with that piece long sought after.
