To this very day, this deal was my most epic and fondly remembered. I don't think it will ever be topped, I honestly hope it does but I doubt it with the way things are now.

It all began as I was sitting in the lunchroom at work, just about to start my night shift. It was beautify fall evening and as usual, I was browsing Kijiji.  I saw the ad pop up at about 7:20pm and my shift begun at 7:30pm. I was in disbelief at the sight of this glorious ad, I also was doubtful I could actually snag it. Let’s just say it was for a whole lot of minty NES CIBs and Factory Sealed games. Jumping out of my chair would be an understatement for what I did, it was more like I rocketed to the ceiling!!!   I quickly ran to the parking lot, hopped in a work truck and lay down in back so no one could see me. I couldn’t be bothered with work at that moment.  Instead of emailing and risking someone else to slip in, I called the number on the ad and I offered to buy them all immediately. We chatted a bit and then we worked out a deal for the whole lot. I had enough balls to actually suggest a discount if I bought them all and he shockingly agreed. We agreed to do the deal early the next morning after my shift ended at 7:30am.

“Will this deal actually go down?” "Did he sell them to someone else??!?" My mind was racing all night with crazy thoughts. Needless to say, it was the longest shift of my life.  

Luckily, the location was very close to my house but even better, it was just down the street from my childhood Elementary school. This was going to be a mega nostalgic deal I thought to myself. The apartment was on the same street I walked up and down countless times heading to Dairy Queen and 7-Eleven as a kid. The 7-11 had a few arcades and pinballs machines, as was a popular hangout for all the kids and teens. Those were the epic Street Fighter 2 days.

The moment of truth finally came on that cool sunny morning. I drove there directly from work, half-excited and half-nervous. Once I arrived, I walked up to the door and rung the buzzer. The door un-locked with a pop and walked in and up to their apartment door. A guy my age and slightly bigger than myself opened the door and let me in. Normal enough looking apartment, I thought as I entered. His girlfriend/wife/spouse/lover/baby Mama/whatever was playing World of Warcraft while holding a baby. Okay cool cool, so far so good. He grabbed the old cardboard box and brought it to the kitchen table. I walked over to inspect the goods. I was hoping to do a quick once over and get out of there. This is where things went a bit, awry. Out of nowhere, he grabs Ironsword out of the box and chucks against the kitchen wall and then Fabio's face plops down on the kitchen table! It scared the living daylights right out of me.    

"That game sucks!!!" he exclaimed

In complete shock, I stood just there not wanting make a fuss. I had to play it cool since I could not jeopardize this deal no matter what! He then proceeded to take every single game out of the box and give his full review on the game. Painfully one by one….

"This one sucks too" "I played this one last night, its okay"

On and on it went as I kept my mouth shut, nodding along hoping he would not throw any more game at the kitchen wall.

Then out nowhere, without myself noticing the girl gets right up in my face showing off a sealed Metroid they also had for sale. "I bet you want this, ha ha ha!" (I did in fact want it. I wanted it very bad) 

I now had this girl in my face while the guy was giving me shit.

"You are just gonna sell these aren't you!?" "These are worth more then what I am selling them for you know!" “Why do you want them!” “I shouldn’t be selling these to you!”

I just put on a smile and deflected what I could as the scrutiny continued. It was a very intense environment. I just wanted the loot so I could get the heck outta there. I had pulled the cash out of my pocket and held it in my hand attempting to end this madness. He must have taken the hint because it worked. I paid with a smile. I gathered up all the games on the table including poor Fabio and darted out the door.

This was very early on in my collecting, before this I was more of a casual collector. Meaning, I was “collecting” games my whole life but getting them for free or dirt cheap but not like this. I never I will never forgot my first feelings of doubt and semi guilt. I had just dropped some "huge" money for the times, on old Nintendo games. What was I thinking? Those feeling very quickly dissipated as I glanced over to that old brown cardboard box full of glorious NES boxes. Might as well have been a treasure chest of rare sparkling gems. I had a wonderful victory drive down memory lane blasting NES music as I went.