If you’re a collector, tracking things can be a fun part of the entire process. It can also be a huge nightmare, so having good tools for tracking your collection can actually turn a nightmare into something fun.
One of the indispensable tools that I use is PriceCharting.com. Back in 2018 when the Worth it or Worthless podcast started, we used to find our price data for the show on eBay. At some point, I finally discovered that PriceCharting actually tracked historical data and kept track of the average price of various games based on the average eBay sale.
While this is definitely helpful when it comes to simply checking the prices on random games for the show, it’s also become an essential place for verifying the going rate on what local shops and various sellers are asking for games these days. It doesn’t even require you to have an account, which is always nice these days.
Keeping Track
If all PriceCharting had was data on historic game prices, it would still be great, but when you actually DO make a FREE account on the site, things get even more interesting and the tools get even better. I personally use PriceCharting as the main way of tracking my collection. Not only does it show you the value of your collection overall, but it also allows you to sort/filter things by console and from the most expensive to the least, so you can easily see what gems you might have.
Pretty Pennies
After you’ve gone through the process of getting things entered, the site sends you an email every month letting you know what your collection’s overall value is and how it shifted that month for better or for worse. When you login, it also has arrows by certain items in your collection to let you know what items have gone up and down in value.
Wishing Well
The icing on the cake with PriceCharting for me is their wishlist feature. Not only is it a way to track the things you’d like to add to your collection, but it has the added benefit of sending you an email whenever a user lists a game on your wishlist below the going market price. In my experience, things tend to sell pretty quickly. It’s nice if you’re into selling games or if you’re looking for a deal on a specific game.
Power Tools
For the sake of keeping this post on-topic, I won’t go into too many details about the other features that PriceCharting has going for it, but it’s a great site overall for retro game collectors and I’d highly recommend exploring their other tools (like the eBay underpriced lot reports).
There’s definitely other tools out there for tracking your collection, but PriceCharting has by far been the one that I like the most. I’ve tried some different apps on my phone and they’ve all left me wanting for one reason or another. PriceCharting doesn’t have a proper app, but the site allows you to save it on your phone LIKE an app for easy access and it essentially works pretty much the same.
Closing Thoughts
Thanks for taking the time to read this. I hope you found it helpful! If you’re looking for more ways to make your retro gaming life a little easier, check out our other guides as well!
Happy collecting!
