MarkM2112's response in another thread got me to thinking about this.
While collecting games, did you ever get a game before you got the game system that you needed to play it on?

I've done this several times myself. Back when I had a stack of NES games for trade, I sent some in to BRE (I think) who had a deal that if you bought some number of games, you could get your choice from a list of games free. I sent in my games and bought some others for the NES and picked out Galaga '90 for the TurboGrafx. I didn't own the system at that time and it wasn't until 3 years later tht I found one at a garage sale.

Another time, I found a copy of R-Type for the GameBoy on the road while riding my bicycle through town. Sure enough, a couple of years later, I was the owner of a GameBoy.