On Collecting Video Games

So, I have a lot of video games. About 500+ to be exact, across around 20 different consoles including handhelds. What can I say, I just love video games. I have ever since 1991 when I played Sonic The Hedgehog for the first time on my Sega Genesis. Over the years I had many, many games that I eventually sold away only to be re-purchased in my adulthood. I'd say I've been collecting seriously for about 5 years now, and my stockpile has gotten quite big since then.

Here's some somewhat dated pictures of the bulk of my collection, though I have a good amount more not pictured as well. Also, these are fairly old, so it has gotten quite a bit bigger since then.

I've noticed that a lot of collectors usually have a certain focus in their collections- for example, you have many collectors that focus on NES games primarily. I don't really like to choose anything in particular to focus on; if it's a video game, a console, accessory, or some other miscellaneous video game item, I'll take it. I suppose a certain centerpiece of my collection is my near-complete Sega 32X library, but the 32X is so weird and obscure (and has such a small library too) that most people don't look into it too deeply.

I have some modern gaming consoles, but I mostly focus on retro- what I know, what I grew up with, and what I love. Call me an old fart, but games have gotten too complicated for me these days and they aren't fun to me anymore. I prefer the simpler times and also discovering old classics that I never played before.

I buy a lot of my games from a local game store, and if you happen to live in the New York/Long Island area and are a hardcore gamer, I highly recommend checking them out. Besides that, I mostly buy from ebay or Amazon.

I know the best way to find good deals is the scour garage sales and swap meets, but I just don't really have the time or patience for that. If that makes me a bad collector, fine, but I find it easiest to just surf the web or go to my local store, even if I have to spend a little more.

Besides collecting great games that I always enjoyed, or awesome games that I never played before but are notable for being good, fun games, I like collecting interesting things like multi-colored controllers or special edition consoles. For example, as you can see in the picture, I have the ice-blue edition Nintendo 64 and the NES toploader.

I also enjoy collecting imports. I don't have many, but I do have a Japanese Sega Mega Drive with a few games for it, among some other items. I really like playing the original, Japanese versions of games that I love, especially if they have differences from the American versions. I don't know, something about playing a game how it was originally intended or was never even released outside of Japan (or Europe, for that matter) just really fascinates me.

I also have a lot of unnecessary extras, but not of the same thing. For example, I have 5 different versions of the Sega Genesis, none of which are the same but will all play Genesis games- the Genesis models 1, 2, and 3, the Mega Drive, and the Sega Nomad. I also have 3 Game Boy Colors, 2 Game Boy Pockets, and 2 Game Boy Advances, all differently colored.

My ultimate goal for collecting? Well, simple really, to have the greatest video game collection ever. I know it's pretty unrealistic, but hey, striving to be the best never hurts. I know I'll probably never own a Nintendo World Championships cartridge or have a complete Neo Geo library or anything super extreme and amazing like that, but the bigger my collection gets, the closer I get to that goal.

Right now, finances and school (and a combination of those two) have kept me from pushing my collection to the next level, but I hope to get there some day. And I don't think I'll ever sell anything I own, I've done that enough in my life. Rather, I hope to pass on my collection to someone who will love it as much as I did, maybe a grandchild or niece somewhere far down the line. You know, to help preserve the history of great video games.