Early Collecting Years

[CodysGameRoom | 2,008]

(Mods if there is already a similar thread please close/lock/merge)

I was just thinking about when I first really started to get into collecting and getting a bit nostalgic over it and thought I'd start a thread.

I have all of my childhood games but I didn't really start collecting until Summer of 2007. I still remember that Summer vividly. I was 22 years old and already getting nostalgic for my younger video game years. I had my first apartment on my own and was working a shitty teller job at US Bank. I would go to a lot of the local Retro game stores to look and maybe buy stuff here and there. We had 3 Gamer's locations, a semi-local chain called CD Tradepost, and a few other mom and pop shops. 

One day I walked into CD Tradepost and they had gotten this massive trade in, and I mean MASSIVE, of retro video game stuff. I was friendly with the manager so I asked him about it and he told me that they belonged to a person who had passed. His mother and father had brought in the collection to that store since he always frequented it. 

It was amazing. Tons of NES/SNES stuff in box, all sorts of consoles, Genesis, Saturn stuff, and things I didn't yet know existed or had barely heard of reading magazines as a kid. Stuff like Turbo-Grafx games, Sega Master System stuff, giant NEO GEO cartridges, and more. To this day probably the best trade in I've ever seen.

That kick started my collection. I purchased tons of stuff there. I remember buying Fire & Ice for like $4 and a complete Battletoads/Double Dragon for I think $10. I just got so many amazing deals. That's when the spark hit me to really collect. I also applied to work there part time and was hired. 6 months later, a different location had a manager position open up, and I applied, and was hired for that. I managed CD Tradeposts in my metro area from 2008 until 2015. It was a lot of fun and I was able to get some great things for my collection. 

2007-2010 was the sweet spot. Stuff was cheap and usually fairly easy to find. Gamers used to sell boxed NES/SNES/N64 stuff for the price of a loose cart. They used to sell like 90% of Sega Saturn games for $2.95 each, and I bought every single one I didn't already have. It was a glorious time. Then I remember one day I walked into Gamers and was bewildered to see that all the CIB games were gone. The explanation was that they didn't have room for the boxed stuff anymore and it wasn't worth much anyway so they threw away all the boxes. That was rough, haha. I was shocked and I was too late, those boxes were long gone. In my mind I hope some other collector around here was somehow able to get them and preserve them.

Then in 2010, everything got wild and prices just continued to go up with the whole retro boom. People started using eBay more and bringing stuff to my stores less. Other changes (like CDs and DVDs dying out) caused me to leave that job eventually but it was a good time mostly when I was there.

But I still remember those early collecting years and look back on them so fondly. Making my own lists of all the games for each system because I found conflicting information online. Browsing different websites to find out random information about all sorts of games I never knew existed like Cheetamen II. Finding a complete in box Virtual Boy at Gamers for $29.99. Setting up my very first game room when I had enough to fill it. And of course playing a ton of games for the first time that I never had as a kid. Some awful, some amazing. 

It was a wonderful time. 

Anyone else get nostalgic for their collecting beginnings? Anyone have some interesting or fun stories of how they really started getting hardcore into collecting?

[DefaultGen | 5,405]

I collected in high school around 2006 since it was the first time I had money. I didn't have any game stores near me, so it was all about Goodwill, thrift stores, and flea markets (never had much luck with garage sales for games, I don't get garage sales). Back then when I made a trip out it was whether I was going to find anything sweet, not whether I was going to find any games. I don't know whether to feel happy that kids going out these days are happy finding small lots of garbage PS2 games or sad that hunting for games in real life sucks now. I also used to spend many days just browsing like 3-4 different forums, where conversations were happening faster than I could keep up with them (Digitpress and GameTZ mainly).

Also, I would sit refreshing Ebay newly listed all day just waiting for any underpriced BINs. I didn't have any notification tool or anything fancy, I'd just look at literally every lot in Video Games. The best thing I got was a $500 NTSC M82 just randomly refreshing Ebay one day (which was still a great price when I got it, let alone when I was making minimum wage and it was the biggest score of my life). Could you imagine that happening now? I wouldn't have time for the page to load before someone bought it. I remember back then people thought replacing 72 pins was a good idea so I'd buy $20 Nintendos, put a crappy Chinese connector in them, and flip them for $50 with a few doubles I had lying around. I also distinctly remember pricing games out to the quarter. Gotta get $2.25 for Tetris, $2 flat is just too low.

Edited September 15, 2020 by DefaultGen

[docile tapeworm | 4,198]

the southern oricle the early years - proff engywook

[Trifecta | 235]

I wasn't really a collector until I found a mint condition Sega Genesis system put on the curb for garbage pickup while I was jogging in 2012. It had all the papers, plastic baggies and pieces needed to play. The person had threw away a PS1 system CIB as well. I experienced a huge nostalgic rush.

I checked online to see if anyone else was playing these old systems anymore. I found a website called Sega-16 that had tons of reviews, articles and a bustling forum. I really liked the Genesis when I was a kid, but I was more a NES and SNES kind of guy.

I started looking around for a SNES equivalent of Sega-16 and couldn't find one. So I started my own SNES website with reviews, articles and a forum just like Sega-16 had. But it never really took off.

But during that time I started to catch the collecting bug and now in 2020, I have more than 600 games spanning many systems in my private collection. I spent more money on video games in this time period than I would care to admit.

I sometimes wonder what if I didn't go jogging that day and never found that Sega Genesis system? How would my life be different right now?

Probably for starters I would have purchased my own house by now.

[CodysGameRoom | 2,008]

1 hour ago, Trifecta said:

Probably for starters I would have purchased my own house by now.

Haha. See I HAD to buy a house because my collection didn't fit in my apartment any more. 

[portabello | 99]

Not so much collecting nostalgia... but I do remember the late nighties seeing the $5 discount bin at the local grocery store full of sealed Game Boy games that weren’t selling well... kinda kills me to think how easy THAT would have been to snatch a bunch of those.

also similarity, the blockbusters in that same time frame and early 2000s that had clearance bins of used 16-bit rental carts that were getting phased out. Had I only known at the time!

[nrslam | 475]

I started collecting for real in the mid-90s when my wife dragged me into a Goodwill that had a full Commodore 128 system (computer, drive, monitor, mouse, manuals, and more) for $20.  I'd had a C64 since they came out in '82, and an Atari 2600 before that (bought in 1979 I think) but had always wanted a 128.  Luckily, it worked.  If it hadn't I would have probably quit right then.

This awoke a desire to try all the different systems I'd passed up or missed out on, first 8-bit computers then game concoles, and eventually (almost) everything.  In short order, I discovered that the myriad thrift shops (there were a lot more back then, and many independents) had tons of old retro gear: consoles for $2 to $5, games for 29 cents apiece.  Some places sold games by the bag - usually 8-10 games for $1.99.  I could hit 3 or 4 shops on my way home every day, spend $20, and have several bags of stuff to sort thru when I got home.  At some yard sales, retro gear was "free to a good home."

At the time, I didn't really know what anything was worth.  I remember walking away from what turned out to be quite valuable games (SNES Castlevania Dracula X CIB, for example) because they wanted $2.99 while all the other games were less than a buck.  No way was I going to get ripped off like that.

Finds slowly dried up, which is a good thing as I've now got way too much stuff.

[NESfiend | 1,515]

Mine is pretty boring. I popped into pawn shop and saw a yobo when they first came out. Bought that and 5 to 10 nes games they had on hand. Plan was just to make a weekend out of it. I already had a bunch of nes games on my wii at the time, but the games available on there were pretty limited. This was probably like 2010 or 2011.

Slowly kept buying games after that and got hooked on ebay searching and auctions. Prices were way better than today, but not stupid low like when most people here started. When the yobo gave out, I started looking for best original hardware and discovered and joined Nintendo age. Spiraled hard fast from there

[Renmauzo | 1,201]

I was very poor growing up, and mostly played rented games at friend's houses. The first game I bought new with money I earned was Chrono Trigger (from 92' - 95', all the money I earned from working went to help out my family, so I was able to get CT in '96). After that I started picking up things I had missed out on like LttP, Mega Man X, etc., and went all in on PS1.

Throughout the years, I'd pick up games here and there from the 80's and 90's, but other than the GBC, GBA and SNES games I had bought in the late 90's and 00's, my cartridge games were cart only. In 2016 or so, I decided to go CIB only, and I've been able to make that happen. I love the artwork, the manuals, the adverts...all of it. There's almost a ceremony in unboxing and getting ready to play a game, and that's what gets me every time; I'm comfortable with the incurred expense to get those great feelings of opening a game, reading a manual, and playing even today, especially since that feeling was so elusive when I was a kid.

[Spurgness | 12]

I started in about 07, pretty much the same story with having all my childhood games still, but what kicked it off for me, was going to my buddies house, and he was heavy into retro gaming at the time, we went out after school to the local Value Village, and there was a Sega Genesis sitting there with Sonic Spinball sitting inside it for $11.99, I had some Genesis games laying around from my childhood, but the console was long dead, so I picked that up and had the bug ever since. Every day on my way to work from school, I'd stop there and check for games and systems, a few weeks after I got the Genesis I found Super Mario World, Link to the Past, Super Metroid, and some sports game all priced at $3.99, you can guess what I left behind, right after work I went to a nearby card shop/game store and picked up a SNES for $40, pretty much since that first few months, I was balls deep into it for years til around 2016

I slowed down quite a lot and was pretty burned out by all the stuff going on in the communities back then, I took the last four years to keep to myself and enjoy my collection, eventually got into other hobbies such as Warhammer, building guitars, getting old cars road worthy. I've bought a handful of games here and there to add to the collection, but I'm seeing more and more shops stocking these games (And at reasonable prices), and it's giving me the itch again.

[Gulag Joe | 582]

I enjoy reading all of your stories. My collecting started in 2001. I bought a bundle from a guy for $50. In that lot came an Atari 2600 and NES that "didn't work". Luckily for me I knew how to replace the pin. All the "hit" games came with each, 15 games for Atari and 40 games for the NES (Tyson, Zelda, etc). Didn't get into sealed collecting until about 2007.

The very first sealed game I bought was Mortal Kombat for Genesis. I thought it would be a crucial game to have sealed considering the controversy surrounding it. I had the SNES version as a kid, so "no blood" was the downside. The SNES version set had much better gameplay, but I'll never forget playing it on the Genesis for the first time at a friends house and I believe the reaction was "WHOAAAA BLOOOOOOOD" and it was a big deal because all the daily talk shows on TV said all of us kids were having our brains warped.

[phart010 | 1,707]

The first iPhone came out in 2008. Even then it took a few years for people to switch from dumb phones to smart phones.

Prior to that looking up prices for games was done at your desktop pc at home, not at the flea market or at the point of sale.

[Link | 2,710]

I was in my second apartment, which was an awesome storefront. I was playing my childhood Nintendo and games a lot. Also playing ROMs at my job at an internet cafe, which my boss was totally into. He still holds game nights. 

I talked to a childhood friend back home — same one that I used to play NESticle with in our terrible computer programming class in high school — and he made me a NesterDC disc with every NES/FC ROM that somebody found and posted the disc image on some torrent site. Over 2000 ROMs including homebrews (which at that point were mostly demos. CMC80s and the like). Well, that was a lot easier than dealing with a finicky pin connector, so I gave away my old collection  

I started going through every file on the disc. Getting rid of duplicates, Japanese games that were heavy on text, games I didn’t like. I went back and forth on what to include or not. Never been an RPG guy so those were out, hey maybe I should give them a chance. I can play 3-D Worldrunner, but the fun factor is pretty low. I also made a custom theme for the disc. 

I took out extra buttons on one controller, so my friends would stop accidentally killing the game or changing the speed. My friend had also given me a bunch of DC games that he downloaded and burned. Between THPS2, Soul Calibur, and Nintendo, many fun days were had with friends and pizza and drinks. 

Fast forward six moves crossing the country twice, plus one burglary in which the Dreamcast was taken, I’m still playing NesterDC, but it bothers me that I can’t play Duck Hunt. It always has, a little. Duck Hunt isn’t a huge deal, but I never stopped playing it prior to the giveaway. So I decide I wanna get original stuff again. I always kept my boxes and manuals when I was a kid. I liked to read them. So I want those, too. 

By this time the trend was on and it was way too late for the good pickings, and I live in a city, so I had to turn to eBay. I checked thrift stores when I went (still do) but never found much except Wii stuff and mainly shovelware at that. I spent one day traversing the whole city (by bus!) to visit like 12 thrift stores and found not a thing. I remember stopping in a Trade-N-Games along the route and seeing a loose Megaman 1 in the display case. $80, which I declined.

One friend here was moving and selling most of his stuff. Stuff he did find in thrift stores before things dried up. I met him and we went back and forth, neither wanting to put out a number. Finally I did so, it was very generous to me and he immediately accepted. I was surprised but happy. I had maybe ten NES games before that but that really kickstarted my collection. At this point my search results were leading me to NA very often, so I had an account, and one of my first posts there was a Finders Keepers thread about it.

Edited October 4, 2020 by Link

[nrslam | 475]

11 hours ago, phart010 said:

The first iPhone came out in 2008. Even then it took a few years for people to switch from dumb phones to smart phones.

Prior to that looking up prices for games was done at your desktop pc at home, not at the flea market or at the point of sale.

Or, like me, you carried around several printed pages showing the 'value' of games you were missing so you could tell if you were getting a good deal.  I still do that.

[GPX | 1,369]

I blame Ebay for the collecting bug. It started around the time I joined which was around 10 years ago. 

Prior to this, I was purely a gamer, purely of the mindset I wanted to play the best games that are for me. It didn’t much matter if it’s a physical form, emulation form, original or bootleg, I’d played them all!

When I joined eBay, I remember going for the Megadrive games because they were my first platform passion back in my gaming days. Pretty soon, I  had realized the games were so cheap compared with the original retail price! So buying I did! Purchased all the games I loved playing when I was a kid  (Sonic, Streets of Rage, Shinobi, Golden Axe etc.), and all the games that were great that I had missed out on. Then pretty quickly, it spiralled out of control but in the context of “why not get a full set?” Then it spiralled out of control to the power of 10, in the context of “why not get full sets of all the great consoles?” Then it spiralled out of control some more..

Damn Ebay!

[Ninja Warriors | 86]

Great topic.  I never had an NES growing up (only SNES), and got the itch to buy an NES when I was in college in 2001.  Found one locally on EBay that I purchased for $50 (Seller agreed to meet me at a local Pizza Hut to save on shipping).  He threw in 20 games including some nice games like Castlevania III, and Battletoads.  On top of that he gave me his collection of Nintendo Power magazines including the 1st issue.  Back then, most people were just giving this stuff away.  I continued to play the SNES from my youth (still to this day I play seasons of Ken Griffey Jr. baseball, and brawlers like Ninja Warriors and Brawl Brothers), but I temporarily lost interest in the nes because I could not get my toaster to work consistently.

Fast forward several years (2006-2007) and I got interested in retro again from my brother in law.  He showed me a top loaded NES his dad found dumpster diving which he was able to get cleaned up and working.  Once I saw how well it played NES games, I was back in the mix.  Right around this time was when they held the 1st Too Many Games convention in Reading PA.  This was the pivotal moment in my early collecting years.  There was a seller with a box of all NES games for a $1 each (I remember pulling Mega Man I among many other games).  I also was able to purchase some high end items at great prices (even for the time).  Chrono Trigger for $40, Bomberman II in the NES for $10, Little Samson in the NES for $30, and a CIB Panic Restaurant in the NES for $20.  I remember running out of money before I could buy a super Noah’s Ark 3D for $20.  It was a crazy day, and if not for the convention, I would not have a Little Samson or Panic Restaurant in my collection today.

[Tanooki | 4,933]

18 minutes ago, Ninja Warriors said:

Great topic.  I never had an NES growing up (only SNES), and got the itch to buy an NES when I was in college in 2001.  Found one locally on EBay that I purchased for $50 (Seller agreed to meet me at a local Pizza Hut to save on shipping).  He threw in 20 games including some nice games like Castlevania III, and Battletoads.  On top of that he gave me his collection of Nintendo Power magazines including the 1st issue.  Back then, most people were just giving this stuff away.  I continued to play the SNES from my youth (still to this day I play seasons of Ken Griffey Jr. baseball, and brawlers like Ninja Warriors and Brawl Brothers), but I temporarily lost interest in the nes because I could not get my toaster to work consistently.

Back then it was for fun, a hobby, something to share enjoyment with others.  That's why when you got something, you didn't end up paying for the added box or papers, the little bags, foam blocks, and the rest.  People let stuff go because it was out of date and replaced by newer stuff or (later into the net days) playable by other means for free legally or not.  It was only after people found you could play off other emotions (fomo etc) to turn it into a cash grab for every crumb.

Back then that's why you got so much nice stuff for that $50 price and it was worthy, the sharing kicking in with those nice magazines to make sense of it all and help you enjoy those carts all the more.  You got back in on an excellent moment in time when that cash grab hadn't kicked in, which was really 2011/2012 so you could get so many nice things at a fair face value for such old goods.  At those levels you could splurge, enjoy, test and either like or hate that mystery in your hands, that moment of discovery was excellent with minimal risk.  That's why those earlier (10+ years back now about) collecting years were phenomenal.  If you got in during the mid90s when the earlier types started and through the 2000s it was fantastic.

[RegularGuyGamer | 2,013]

2 hours ago, GPX said:

Then it spiralled out of control to the power of 10, in the context of “why not get full sets of all the great consoles?” Then it spiralled out of control some more..

Ahem, you mean diversified your portfolio. 

[Ninja Warriors | 86]

2 hours ago, Tanooki said:

Back then it was for fun, a hobby, something to share enjoyment with others.  That's why when you got something, you didn't end up paying for the added box or papers, the little bags, foam blocks, and the rest.  People let stuff go because it was out of date and replaced by newer stuff or (later into the net days) playable by other means for free legally or not.  It was only after people found you could play off other emotions (fomo etc) to turn it into a cash grab for every crumb.

Back then that's why you got so much nice stuff for that $50 price and it was worthy, the sharing kicking in with those nice magazines to make sense of it all and help you enjoy those carts all the more.  You got back in on an excellent moment in time when that cash grab hadn't kicked in, which was really 2011/2012 so you could get so many nice things at a fair face value for such old goods.  At those levels you could splurge, enjoy, test and either like or hate that mystery in your hands, that moment of discovery was excellent with minimal risk.  That's why those earlier (10+ years back now about) collecting years were phenomenal.  If you got in during the mid90s when the earlier types started and through the 2000s it was fantastic.

I forgot to mention that I used Mike Etler’s NES rarity guide in my early collecting.  Came in quite handy and still holds up fairly well today.

[Super Nintendo Chalmers | 53]

Like many, I would always game with family and friends growing up and getting into my teens. Would play the occasional "mainstream" games at the time, be it COD, FIFA,Halo, etc with mates but we would spend just as much time playing Smash Bros Melee/Brawl, Mario Party 1-4, Bomberman, Street Fighter, Metal Slug and many more strong multiplayer titles well after their original releases. Single player games like Donkey Kong Country, Zelda, Banjo-Kazooie, Lost Vikings were others I would replay once every year or so.

Having already held a keen interest in retro already, following this I started seriously collecting and actively buying/selling/trading around 2006, got my first job in retail when I was about 15 so had more disposable income at the time than usual There was a local Cash Converters on the way to/from work where I would stop before/after work. That was the beginning and where those foundations were built and then it just evolved from there. Would keep an eye out for other second hand/op shop/thrift stores when out and about as well. Not long after discovered various collector forums, eBay, Gumtree and more places to find stuff and from about 2010 onwards more digital communities like Facebook gaming groups, the old NA,Retro MMGN, etc to converse, buy, sell and trade with other like minded people. 

Very lucky to have built the bulk of my collection(SNES, N64, GC, GB/C/A and a bit of PS1/PS2) before e-commerce truly taking off and with that increased interest/prices in the retro scene.  I've now pivoted over the past few years and am now focusing on certain Game Boy/ Color/Advance games/consoles, expanding my Donkey Kong collection(variants, merch, promo, employee items and anything in between) and any Nintendo promo/advertising items, of which the latter isn't really appreciated as much here in Australia compared to the rest of the world! That can keep prices down! All up it's been an enjoyable ride and a great outlet!

Edited October 4, 2020 by Super Nintendo Chalmers

[GPX | 1,369]

4 hours ago, RegularGuyGamer said:

Ahem, you mean diversified your portfolio. 

spiralling out of control, madness, delusional obsession, portfolio diversification...I struggle to see much of a difference these days..

[Tanooki | 4,933]

23 hours ago, Ninja Warriors said:

I forgot to mention that I used Mike Etler’s NES rarity guide in my early collecting.  Came in quite handy and still holds up fairly well today.

I remember that well and using it too.  I'd still trust that thing more or less as far as rarities go.  Back then there wasn't the motivation of greed to play some fidgety numbers game so unless some large pallet of whatever has shown up I'd think those grades more or less likely would still stand.  Those carts aren't dropping like flies so I doubt so much bitrot and act of god(or stupidity) based kills would wiggle them much either.

[Gulag Joe | 582]

On 10/3/2020 at 7:35 PM, Ninja Warriors said:

Great topic.  I never had an NES growing up (only SNES), and got the itch to buy an NES when I was in college in 2001.  Found one locally on EBay that I purchased for $50 (Seller agreed to meet me at a local Pizza Hut to save on shipping).  He threw in 20 games including some nice games like Castlevania III, and Battletoads.  On top of that he gave me his collection of Nintendo Power magazines including the 1st issue.  Back then, most people were just giving this stuff away.  I continued to play the SNES from my youth (still to this day I play seasons of Ken Griffey Jr. baseball, and brawlers like Ninja Warriors and Brawl Brothers), but I temporarily lost interest in the nes because I could not get my toaster to work consistently.

Fast forward several years (2006-2007) and I got interested in retro again from my brother in law.  He showed me a top loaded NES his dad found dumpster diving which he was able to get cleaned up and working.  Once I saw how well it played NES games, I was back in the mix.  Right around this time was when they held the 1st Too Many Games convention in Reading PA.  This was the pivotal moment in my early collecting years.  There was a seller with a box of all NES games for a $1 each (I remember pulling Mega Man I among many other games).  I also was able to purchase some high end items at great prices (even for the time).  Chrono Trigger for $40, Bomberman II in the NES for $10, Little Samson in the NES for $30, and a CIB Panic Restaurant in the NES for $20.  I remember running out of money before I could buy a super Noah’s Ark 3D for $20.  It was a crazy day, and if not for the convention, I would not have a Little Samson or Panic Restaurant in my collection today.

I had a saved search for sealed snes Ken Griffey Jr. Baseball that I hawked for YEARS, literally more than a decade. I managed to get one of the few V seams that ever showed up on ebay, but I'd def like to know what the population of that sealed game is given the few I've seen become available for sale. One came up recently for a buy it now for 450 but someone sniped it. I think once a searchable population report becomes available from wata, similar to what BGS and PSA have, that is when this hobby will explode.

[fcgamer | 4,723]

I started collecting back in 1998 or 1999, I remember the internet was still fairly new in our house, and then as luck would have it, a Funcoland would move in near to where my parents were taking dance lessons. So they'd drop my brother and I off at Funcoland, and we'd then grab a slice or two of pizza as well as a mountain dew while waiting for our parents to pick us up. Those were great times, and I must have collected around 450 NES carts and some other stuff too. Like others mentioned, I'd use the Etler guide to track everything.

By 2004 I just got burnt out, deals were mostly gone in my area, I then went off to uni and suddenly wanted money for other things, so I drastically trimmed down the collection, a lot. Very few regrets there, except I sold too early, too cheap. Who would have ever known?

By about 2007 I swore off of collecting anything, but something interesting would happen in 2011. Well, first off, my grandmother passed away that year. I also would finish uni that winter (long story why it took so long), and I think all of the cards just fell in place perfectly for me to take a chance and leave everything behind, i.e. moving to Taiwan with the intention of living there for keeps, having never been there before.

After a dramatic start, I'd eventually wind up working in a backwater town about an hour away from what now is the second-largest city in Taiwan. I loved my life there, but it also brought back the nasty collecting beast, this time much, much stronger.

Because I didn't speak the local language, lived in the middle of nowhere, having to rely on public transportation to get around, I didn't generally do much through the week, other than work and maybe go for a walk in the evenings, sometimes also playing guitar to pass the time at night, or reading. 

One weekend I felt nostalgic so I decided to download and watch the animated Aladdin movie, then I watched the rest of the series too. Another time I began thinking about Nintendo, so I asked a colleague, she helped me to order a cheap Famiclone with a multicart, about $15 total, it would change my life.

Things were initially fine and I was content until one weekend when I explored the town next door. I stumbled into a game shop, and they had a few unlicensed original Game Boy games sitting there, sunfaded yet brand new. I couldn't resist so I bought one of each, then when I did some research, went back and bought all five that they had.

A few weeks later I'd go to a neighbouring town about twenty minutes north of me, managed to have a local direct me to an old game shop there, and then over the course of the next few months bought out their supply of about ten to fifteen multicarts.

At this point I also began doing more research and began to see that 99% of the unlicensed original games, as well as bootlegs, originated in Taiwan. This made me even more interested, as I remembered reading about a lot of this stuff as a teenager years earlier, yet much of it wasn't available in the states.

One night while wandering around the city, alone, I stumbled upon the infamous dust shop that @OptOut and I know so well. It was loaded with tons of goodies back then, every month I was easily spending several hundred dollars there, and walking out with large sacks of good stuff. It was like Funcoland all over again. Even the more recent finds Optie and I have had there pale in comparison to those early days.

It was at that point that I decided to try to get every Taiwanense unlicensed original game, initially for Famicom, then also expanding to Gameboy and Sega Genesis.

I used to have off Thursday afternoons, so every week, I'd pick a new location and just ride the trains up and down the island. It was great, drinking a few beers on the train while lost in your own thoughts as the rice fields go passing by, then looking around these towns and finding so many interesting games.

In 2014 I decided byo go full set with licensed Japanese famicom games, as I felt bad for only having bootlegs and also Taiwanense originals. I mean, if I were a true Nintendo fan, I should have official carts, too, right?

By now things have dried up and the landscape has changed so much, it's not nearly as fun to go game hunting anymore. As a result, to get my "fix", I started expanding my collection horizons to other systems and machines that still have a decent supply of games available. It's not nearly as fun , as it starts to feel like it's collecting for collecting's sake, but as crazy as my game room might look, I do have some rough concept in my mind of what the end goal is.

[Jono1874 | 144]

I started collecting late in 2009. I had just graduated high school and was trying to start an eBay business of sorts that never actually took off. My starting strategy was to buy a bunch of cheap stuff to gain feedback so that people would feel comfortable buying from me. By cheap stuff, I mean NES games mostly. I bought several carts individually for a buck a pop and eventually got it in my head that I should start collecting.  Then I found NA, and kind of went berserk for a year.

I was living in San Diego, which was rife with NES games at that time. I managed to get around 115 games over the course of that berserk year. I hit up swap meets, craigslist, garage sales, and occasionally, NA. I'd buy stuff I didnt want and sell it to a local game store for credit to get games that were more expensive too. It was a good time and gave me something to do while I dealt with a breakup that had been particularly painful. Late 2010 hit, and with it hard times. I didnt bother collecting again until around 2016, which was kind of a shock. NES games were absurdly expensive online and the "in the wild" supplies dried up. I started collecting Gameboy games briefly instead because for some reason, they were still plentiful in my area.  I went back to NES collecting after I got a better job, but buying online over buying in person is kind of rough on me. Theres no excitement to it. It's just a situation where I'm checking stuff off a list. To mitigate this, I've began collecting wierd famicom stuff. The kind of stuff I'd read about on NESplayer.com when I was a kid. It's bizzare how I now have all this stuff that sounded like crazy talk to 10 year old me.

A disk drive for the Nintendo? Madness!

I still genuinely have trouble believing I have an FDS, which is absurd in retrospect but it is what it is.

And it's all thanks to a terrible business idea I had as a teenager. I could not be happier to have experienced what I did back then, and hope to experience more for years to come.