Do any of you collect any retro media?

[MegaHiro91]

For example I have a decently huge collection of my favorite childhood cartoons on VHS, and in general have huge nostalgia for the media. How the cassettes look, their bulky design, how they feel to hold and the sound they make when you rewind them. I love everything about them to an almost obsessed/absurd degree, and have even begun a project where I downgrade some of my DVDs and Blu-Rays onto VHS for the novelty.

Here is the first custom VHS cover I designed myself. Made in Photopea with a template I found on Google, and then printed on Glossy Paper. Some of the text got a bit smushed and the screenshots aren't perfect. I think I need a better printer. But for a first attempt I don't think it's half bad.
(And yes, I vastly prefer the bulky but protective clamshell design over the fragile cardboard sleeves found the US)

What about you? VHS? Vinyl? Cassettes? Laserdisks?

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

I collect VHS tapes (you wouldn't believe how much of my collection came from literally the trash!), cassette tapes, vynil records...

 

[Prism_Red]

My grandma had collection of TV drama and music laserdiscs, too bad the player broke around mid 2000s, I have fond memories watching Journey to the West from that.

The most retro I got is just NES cartridges, and I don't really try to collect 'em, other than that I collect CDs too.

 

[miguk]

I used to collect games, VHS, DVDs, CDs, books, comics, magazines, and fragrance bottles. Now I have most of those digitized (haven't figured out how to do that with the bottles yet).

Also, for a short time I collected "trading cards" (as a friend called them). In a country I once lived in, they are business cards for a certain kind of business that you can find randomly in commercial areas (usually purposely dropped on the street). The hot women on the front make them resemble a sexy version of baseball cards.

 

[DunkeyKong]

Not sure, if I have though then most of it would be toys. But my uncles, grandparents and basically other than me, love having a huge collection of CDs whether it'd be Blu-ray or something similar from the "Cetak Rompak" stores (basically piracy)

 

[kuroninneko]

I dont collect physical media as much anymore but I do like to search the internet for Japanese retro gaming books translated into English. Things like comics and strategy guides and magazines. I try to make backups of what I can because one day the stuff might be hard to find especially since lots of it comes from the Internet Archive

Also I still have my Sonic the Hedgehog VHS tape. To me that will always be the real Sonic movie. Got it from Blockbuster and back in those days seeing any video game related movies was very rare especially anime movies.

 

[Yousef's iconYousef]

Hardware and controllers, sometimes radios. I occasionally buy old candy.

 

[Boog111]

I'm a fan of the old Dr. Who shows from the 70s and 80s. They're much cheaper on VHS than DVD so I have quite a few.

 

[Don Patch]

Oh lord, the DVD is retro...
Yeah, I have a huge trove of DVD and blueray that I'm currently digitizing.

 

[Alex1111]

Uhm, are PS3 games retro yet? i have plenty of games, mostly racing games. But apart from that i plan to buy my favorite albums in CD and if possible a CD Sony Walkman + headphones! first album i want to buy is Songs For The Deaf from Queens Of The Stone Age

 

[boglin]

I started collecting records not too long ago and have a nice little shelf going, mostly Japanese fusion. I'm on a tight budget though so it's more bargain hunting than anything, and I started buying CDs as well direct from Japan once I realised how cheap they could get.

 

[Yukyon]

Aside from games, I do collect CDs, VHS, DVD, I do also have a Video CD or two somewhere as well I'm sure...

 

[7eve70rd]

What is the definition of collect?
Purchase and never sell over a lifetime?
Intentionally seek out a specific format like VHS or CD?

Is the goal to have a large number of items to fill a wall with?

I gather media that I might want to enjoy in the future. This is mostly used books and CDs because I like the artwork on the covers.

 

[MegaHiro91]

What is the definition of collect?
Purchase and never sell over a lifetime?
Intentionally seek out a specific format like VHS or CD?

Is the goal to have a large number of items to fill a wall with?

I gather media that I might want to enjoy in the future. This is mostly used books and CDs because I like the artwork on the covers.

If you wanna be pedantic I could write a thesis on what exactly I mean by the definition, but because I don't wanna write a thesis on every topic they sporadically comes to my mind, I leave it up to you guys to determine what YOU define it as. I mean, everyone should know what is meant by "a collection", but at the same time everything can also be cut into teeny tiny pieces. If I asked "What is your favorite colour", would you ask back "What do you define by 'favorite'?" Some things should just be self explanatory without looking up a lexicon.

With that out the way, you're into books and CDs? Cool! Also I sometimes too buy something just because I like the cover art. I recently got into vinyl but it sure as hell ain't because of the cover arts. Most of the covers I've seen look like you caught someone in the middle of a sneeze or a yawn.

 

[Skeetos]

Been in a rough spot financially so not so much anymore. I have the old South Park VHS tapes that only went to halfway through Season 2 and the Chef Aid album which are pretty cool. A holy grail of mine that I want at one point in my life are the Manga's that served as a prequel to Crash Bandicoot 2 in Japan. Those 2 books are cool as hell.

 

[tropicalavera]

I still have a fairly sizeable LP collection from back when I was very much into crate digging back in the late 2000s - but I cannot remember the last time I even bothered checking out vinyl at a store, flea market, or whatever.

I'm with Jeffrey Lewis on this one...

"nowadays that stuff's so expensive - I don't bother to try. Everything's reissued and plus everything is priced really high."

I think these days i'm generally a little more ascetic (read as: poor) and so don't look to expand my collections, and even my retro game collection has been considerably downsized.

 

[7eve70rd]

If you wanna be pedantic I could write a thesis on what exactly I mean by the definition, but because I don't wanna write a thesis on every topic they sporadically comes to my mind, I leave it up to you guys to determine what YOU define it as. I mean, everyone should know what is meant by "a collection", but at the same time everything can also be cut into teeny tiny pieces. If I asked "What is your favorite colour", would you ask back "What do you define by 'favorite'?" Some things should just be self explanatory without looking up a lexicon.

With that out the way, you're into books and CDs? Cool! Also I sometimes too buy something just because I like the cover art. I recently got into vinyl but it sure as hell ain't because of the cover arts. Most of the covers I've seen look like you caught someone in the middle of a sneeze or a yawn.

I'm interesting in the nuance of the idea of collecting.

I recently sorted thru my aunts collection of glass and other antiques she purchased in the 1990s. Many of that stuff was on consignment and the remaining unsold inventory went to auction. It filled her home until she moved out when her health failed.

The topic is about collecting retro media and not tennis shoes or salt and pepper shakers.

The retro media I collected the most of from 2017 until today are VHS. Second hand thrift and charity shops seem to not accept them anymore so my active collecting has slowed.

I've adjusted my attention to music CDs. There are more working CD players around me (including DVD) than working VCRs so I can justify bringing home a few CDs.

In a long afternoon of retrospection and self justification for owning far too many physical objects I must express that yes I do collect and yes I am a collector.

 

[boglin]

I still have a fairly sizeable LP collection from back when I was very much into crate digging back in the late 2000s - but I cannot remember the last time I even bothered checking out vinyl at a store, flea market, or whatever.

I'm with Jeffrey Lewis on this one...

"nowadays that stuff's so expensive - I don't bother to try. Everything's reissued and plus everything is priced really high."

I think these days i'm generally a little more ascetic (read as: poor) and so don't look to expand my collections, and even my retro game collection has been considerably downsized.

I only started fairly recently but I have to agree, everybody knows the value of everything so prices are brutal for anything remotely popular. It's still fun to hunt for deals though, but I can guess it's probably a completely different feeling to what crate digging used to be.

 

[MegaHiro91]

I only started fairly recently but I have to agree, everybody knows the value of everything so prices are brutal for anything remotely popular. It's still fun to hunt for deals though, but I can guess it's probably a completely different feeling to what crate digging used to be.

Well, sometimes what YOU are looking for isn't popular and therefore decently priced. I recently visited a dollar store (or the equivalent thereof) and found the original version of "Have You Ever Been Mellow" for 10DKK (roughly $1,39). Nothing rare or special, but I thought it was a cool find.

 

[boglin]

Well, sometimes what YOU are looking for isn't popular and therefore decently priced. I recently visited a dollar store (or the equivalent thereof) and found the original version of "Have You Ever Been Mellow" for 10DKK (roughly $1,39). Nothing rare or special, but I thought it was a cool find.

Very true. Sometimes you like something not a lot of others like, or sometimes you find something new to you before it gets 'discovered' and the price blows up. That's why I'm always looking around, you never know!