Are You Good at Buying Games?

While the core hobby of board games remains the actual playing of the games, there is definitely an aspect to the hobby involving buying, collecting, and maybe trading games. Thinking back on your board game acquisitions over the years, do you usually buy games that you enjoy?

Also, what is your methodology for buying games? Do you automatically buy or not buy based on certain criteria, like games by certain designers or games with minis? Do you always play a game before you buy it? Do you kickstart games? Do you read reviews or go by instinct? How often do you sell games?

I recall in 2007, the first board game mynex and I bought as a couples activity was red dragon inn. Enjoyable.
So based on the label, we bought tiki mountain, which was the worst game purchase ever.
Enter the age of tireless research on ToS.
After acquiring a couple hundred games, the majority of which were winners, it was time to get rid of most of them, since the only reason to amass such a largesse was "in case we have only three players who enjoy this particular mechanism".
Only keeping what I like. If others want something else, they can bring it.

So brand recognition means nothing to me, unlike how it used to. Designers, game companies, whatever. My criteria is based on reviews by trusted sources whose taste seems to match mine as the first step, then by trying it out before I buy as the second step.

I don't sell games much anymore due to the fact that my collection is so tight as it is. I'm at a comfortable place in my consumerism, mostly because not much is produced each year that I enjoy enough to merit purchase.

I buy mainly on subject matter, designer/developer, and publisher. Of the latter, there are a few auto buys ( Chad Jensen wargames, John Butterfield ) and far more NFW - no fucking way. Companies with shite reputation for playtesting/development ( Decision Games, some PnP like Paul Rohrbaugh ) I'll let some other fool take the plunge. Minis are not a pre requisite for euro/Ameritrash games. I don't necessarily play before I buy, which for wargames is usually the norm anyways .

There aren't many reviewers I trust or both to waste time with. Fuck video reviews and their infantile offshoot, unboxing videos. They can't edit an article so they just vomit random words onto YouTube.

As for selling games, for years I sold very little, but with a possible relocation on the horizon, I've been aggressively downsizing the last few years. I was at just over 400 at one point, now I am about at half of that. I sell almost exclusively FtF at conventions and Ebay only for high value grail type stuff, as the convention sales prices have taken a beating the last five years or so.

Kickstarter. Only did three - Up Front. 'Nuff said. High Frontier - was a clusterfuck for awhile, but finally came out. And Twilight Struggle. That's it, I am done. I've yet to see or play a single KS game that screamed "buy me". Fuck Kickstarter.

I used to not be so good.

My big board game purchasing period was from about 2004 - 2015. The time I stopped playing BB, to picking it back up. The writing was even on the wall prior to 2015 though and it was evident in the threads I was creating back at that time. Threads that got me a little grief and ridicule.

Anyway, I can't count the number of games that came and went through my shelves though I'm sure it's not as large a number as some others here, but I can remember the very few that I thought were actually good purchases. In fact, only five in an 11 year period:

Hammer of the Scots
Manoeuvre
Martian Rails
Castle Ravenloft
TITAN

Playing each of those was a rich new experience (to me) and they remain some of my absolute favorite board games.

What I realized was that I didn't care for the FFG over wrought style at all and cherished minimal components. Outside of Castle Ravenloft, none of those titles had bling and none complex systems to fight with. They were all very direct with few, varied components. Some chits, or some blocks, and some dice. Bam. Narrowing it down even more, I found that what I really enjoyed most was moving some units around (with even games like CDWs having too much cruft for me) and rolling dice. That's what Hammer, Manoeuvre, and TITAN are all about. So....why not just go back to minis? Move units around and roll dice. The cycle completed itself...or the snake resumed consuming its tail as my friend puts it.

Though I love the above 5 games...I don't currently own any of them. The 'Promise of Play' lost it's allure and even the few minis games I do own...I find ways to maximize their play or at least fiddle with the models. For me, it's a better return.

So, I do feel like I'm better at buying games because now I'm only buying stuff that I know will get used in some manner. I don't buy anything based on hotness, reviews, etc. I'm spending far less, but enjoying the gaming hobby much more. Shadow War looks awesome. I'm not buying it though because I'm not into the theme and the minis don't crossover into any other game I play. AoS Skirmish? Already got some figs...

I used to buy quite a bit more than I do now. I am at the point where I really don't want to add to the collection unless there is a good reason. I almost never kickstart any more thanks to looking at my history of kickstarter choices, and seeing that I regret almost all of them.

I previously never even considered selling games, since it's generally not a profitable exercise. But now I sell, or at least try to sell, some just to cull the collection down. I really don't want 200 games sitting around collecting dust. I really don't play very often.

As for designers, no one is an auto-buy for me. But Michal Oracz always makes me look.

I buy games like a champ. Getting the games to the table is another story.

I will look at Borg's stuff and Christian Marcussen games will get a look. I will buy every Dominion, Mice and Mystics, Arcadia Quest, and Red Dragon Inn expansion forever.

I think that I have reached a point now that a game buy will be a rarity. Black Plague/Wulfsburg at some point will be purchased, but there is no rush.

Board game buying and "collecting" is another topic I could go off on for days.

It's really rich for anyone who receives review copies to speak about buying habits, because there are a number of games I love that I've received for review. As a result I really don't buy much.

But I do try to grab things that other people I game with won't own, and I've gotten better at smelling what will and won't work for me. Campaign games, for example? Hard pass, part of the joy of board games is the variety. If I want something persistent, there's D&D, which gives me far more pleasure than any board game campaign I've played.

I like to think that I am good at buying board games, but I have more than a few older games that are difficult to get on the table and have probably become shelf toads. Maybe there is some confirmation bias, but I feel like most games that I have purchased within the last ten years were good buys and still get play from time to time. I suppose that I have become more aware of whether a potential purchase will actually get played or not.

My process of discovering games that interest me is primarily to investigate games that are mentioned here. Reviews here and session reports are very helpful, but I will filter what I read through my own interests, so a positive review by a F:ATtie may still result in a hard pass by me. I also look at components, because an unattractive physical design will repel me, which is why I will never be interested in Argent: the Consortium. Earth Reborn captured my interest until I saw the cards, which were ugly and suggested the need to learn an entire new alphabet of icons.

Fundamentally, I am looking for a game that will offer a story of sorts, which means that I have a huge preference for AmeriTrash and an aversion to both Eurogames and abstracts. I am not opposed to games with miniatures, but find them to be a worse value since I don't enjoy painting minis and would be just as happy with nice tokens or cardboard standees. Once I realized that CCGs use my wallet as a game component, I have avoided them, even if in FFG's LCG format. I don't Kickstart games anymore, but on a couple of occasions, I have bought a game that was originally a Kickstarter.

Well, due to budget constraints, I *have* to be good at it. I think I'm doing pretty well. The only time I've ever bought a new game on "day 1" is Descent 2.0, and I had extremely good experience with it.

While I do prefer certain theme, games usually have to have something that intrigue me. I can tell you, for each game I have, which part of the game made me interested. I read review everywhere, hopefully the negative ones, and also read the rulebook when available. I like Tom Vassel's reviews because I can see how the guy *feel* about a game.

The only kickstarter I've ever backed is the Band of Brothers one, and that's because I own the first two games, and I'm buying only the expansion. The only game I've ever unloaded (that is, I gave it to a friend) is the LotR LCG. The only game I've ever bought because of theme is Warhammer 40,000 Conquest.

Like some people here, I'm off buying board games, unless it's something I really like and it's cheap. Over time, they start to feel samey, and I rather play my old games than trying to learn a new one.

Which games are so well designed that they don't need to be re-learned? That's becoming a litmus test for me.

I mean, sure, there's bound to be some warmup time with a game you haven't played in awhile, but I've learned that the best games, the ones with actual skilled design considerations behind them, don't present too much of a hurdle for re-entry. When this is combined with evocative and/or mnemonic theme associations and paired with depth and variability, it enters evergreen territory for me. This is particularly important when I'm the owner of the primary library for my game group. I don't have the time to re-learn every damn game I want to bring to the next session. It either goes down easy or it never leaves the shelf.

Unfortunately, I've personally been slow to discern this aspect in games, and the cult of the new has been very effective in sweeping me along in its churn of designs, some successful, most of them forgettable, incremental, and complicated in ways that accelerate their half life.

I'm getting better, though. The taps have still mostly been turned off this year. I'm getting waves of Kickstarter product from last year that are mostly confirming the lessons I've already learned. Aside from some solo games that I'm still looking forward to (Kilforth, Darkest Night, Nemo's War), my eye is wandering toward a couple of 90's euro classics... and not much else for the foreseeable future. My measure of "being good at buying games" at this point is simply not buying them.

My game buying improved recently, in fact April was the first month in years that I didn't buy a single board/card game. The last one I got was Wing Leader Supremacy in March. I also quit my regular gaming group in February after my capacity for belligerent republicanism* finally ran out. I'd guess the balance between the fun of playing the games vs putting up with pretty terrible low-key behaviour finally tilted. I went out to some other, smaller groups with some sane people and that was a refreshing change. Still the obsession with board games in general has waned.

I spent a lot of time and money on the hobby, but that's typical for me**, and still cheaper than boozing two-three nights a week which is the culture I was raised in. I backed a lot of terrible Kickstarter games, bought a lot of dross*** because it was cheap/recommended (including on here, so it's not only the "fault" of youtube and podcast enthusiasts), or it looked cool at the time. You can't trust reviewers. I don't mean to be too disparaging witht that, but you can read a gushing review of a "Best Game of 20XX" and you'll see the author flogging it off in the forums/auctions six months later.

I bought a bunch of those Queen games that were on sale recently. While I think I'll never play Kansas Pacific, Chicago Express or Escape (the zombies one); San Francisco Cable Car and Paris Connection are keepers, so on balance that kind of worked out given the prices.

I suck at selling games, because I can't be bothered with the hassle. I did sell a few at GameFest/ORama a couple of times, but I can't be bothered with going to those events either, so currently a bunch of games have been going into the black bags then into the dumpster at work. Future generations of gamers might weep at the notion, but nobody wanted to play Hot Rod Creeps or Roadkill Rally anyway.****

I do have some games that definitely got their mileage. Shadows of Brimstone and Zombicide (Rue Morgue+others) have seen huge amounts of play, Terraforming Mars has been ridiculously popular and I still like the idea of playing it. Shadowrun Crossfire totally killed Lord of the Rings LCG for me. Argent the Consortium, Yedo, most/all of my GMT games are keepers. Many more games I really like, could never find a group to play regularly. My most recent purchases have been games that, if not designed for solo, can be played that way.

*I can't tolerate belligerent liberalism either, I just wasn't exposed to it weekly for three years.
**I probably spent more on one set of wheels and tyres for my Celica GT4 I had in England than my entire board game expenditure, ditto with my camera gear.
***Games from kickstarter I finally got and thought "WTF did I even back this" and some even went straight in the trash.
****And Tzolkin plus many more to come. I'm a monster, I know.
***** There is no *****

I go by reviews and often regret buying a game.

I used to sell them often when I was on BGG but I don't really go there anymore. I have less than a dozen games nowadays anyway so it's no big deal.

I do have to say that this forum have pointed me in the direction of some good games, Nostra City being one of them. I would never have even seen that game otherwise.

I'll buy stuff on the spur of the moment. I'm trying to change my ways and buy stuff that I know will get played, and I'm better about it. But sometimes I fall off the wagon and lapse on occasion.