No — it's a common and effective approach, but genre-based, era-based, or purely play-focused collecting are all valid ways to start. Pick whichever gives you a clear reason to say yes or no to a given purchase.
Most collectors don't plan their first year of collecting — they just start buying whatever catches their eye. That's fine, but a little structure early on saves a lot of regret (and money) later. Here's a practical starting point.
The single biggest early mistake is buying broadly with no direction, then realizing a year in that the collection doesn't feel coherent or satisfying. A focus doesn't have to be permanent, but having one gives every purchase a reason to exist. Common starting points:
This shapes almost every other decision. If you mainly want to play games, condition matters far less — loose copies are cheaper and functionally identical. If completeness and long-term value matter to you, you'll be paying real attention to CIB and sealed condition from day one (see our CIB guide). Most collectors land somewhere in between, and that's completely normal — just be honest with yourself about which side of that line a given purchase is on, so you don't overpay for condition on a game you'll never actually display.
Even a small collection benefits from being tracked properly — condition, region, and current market value per item, not just a mental list. Setting this up from the beginning (rather than trying to reconstruct it later) is far less work, and means you always know what your collection is actually worth. Gamevaro tracks all of this for free, across physical and digital games, with pricing pulled from real market sales rather than static estimates.
No — it's a common and effective approach, but genre-based, era-based, or purely play-focused collecting are all valid ways to start. Pick whichever gives you a clear reason to say yes or no to a given purchase.
Only if completeness and display value matter to you specifically. If you mainly want to play games, loose copies are cheaper and work identically — you can always upgrade condition later on titles you especially care about.
Always check sold prices, not asking prices, before a purchase — see our video game price guide. Unfamiliarity with real market value is the most common reason new collectors overpay.
It's worth it from the start. Setting up tracking early avoids duplicate purchases and means you never have to reconstruct condition/region details from memory later.
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