I've been playing games most of my life. So, what got me into video games is a mystery.
What got me into collecting is a different story. I'll give you the Readers Digest version.
My parents are incredably frugal (read: cheap) people. My Dad actually bought generic Kool Aid on more than one occasion. Kool Aid was $0.05 a pack and he wants to get the cheap stuff because it's $0.03. There are just some things you don't skimp on. Anyway, my parents are cheap and that rubbed off on me. After saving and paying $50 or $60 for a game, there was no way I would sell them or trade them for something newer. I still, to this day, have never sold or traded a game for less than I paid for it. So, I have every game I've ever bought new. That was the start of a collection without even realizing it.
Fast Foward >> a few years. I was in college and a friend came around asking if I still had my old Nintendo games. Of course I did. He offered $2 a piece for the whole 40 or 50 I had. Of course, I said no; but I did trade my R.O.B. for a boxed Star Wars for the NES. (I had a good start on a Star Wars collection at the time) One weekend I went with him to some flea markets and pawn shops looking for games. This was awesome! He got a pile of games for something like $20!
This inspired me. I pulled my old NES out of retirement and when through the classics. I had forgotten how great this thing was! Then, I hit a pawn shop or two, a flea market here and there, and a used game shop had opened up in town. The pieces fell into place. I was hooked. It started off with buying the games I never had a chance to play, but quickly evolved into buying every NES game I saw. I wanted a complete collection. Then, my friend that started all of this was moving into a smaller place, and didn't have room for his collection. I got first dibs and a great price. I was pumped to bring my old R.O.B. back home where he belonged. I was a NES collector for a long time.
Take another Fast Forward to a little over a year ago. I was nosing around a GoodWill and found a Sega Saturn with Virtua Fighter for $10. It was too good of a deal to pass up. That was a big mistake. My NES collecting mutated into Video Game collecting. So here we are today with piles and piles of video game stuff. I even refused to buy Sony stuff, and ended up with 3 Playstations.
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