You could say the same about arts, mangas or Pez dispensers.
Having owned and sold a large Super Famicom and vinyl collection I can definitely say that collecting is (was) way more fun than owning.
Do art, manga and Pez collectors pay almost six figures for beat up junk? For stuff that isn't even readily identifiable? For context, these carts have previously sold for between $10K and $20K. In much better condition too.
The only conclusion I can come to is that rabid video game collectors are a special kind of stupid.
I wouldn't call collectors who act out of irrationality stupid since you have to look at the motivation behind a deal situationally — I'd just say it's on the edge of being an unethical waste of money.
> I wouldn't call collectors who act out of irrationality stupid since you have to look at the motivation behind a deal situationally — I'd just say it's on the edge of being an unethical waste of money.
Unethical? Huh? Ethics is concerned with morality; with right and wrong. There's nothing inherently wrong about paying large sums of money for beat-up bits of electronics. It's just plain ol' stupid.
There are loads of ethical systems that condemn wastefulness of money; the US has had at various points at least a plurality, if not a majority of people ascribe to moral systems derived from puritanism, so at least in the US, it is unsurprising to hear someone saying that wasting money is unethical.