So, after 8½ years, I've finally displayed my CIB SNES collection

[Steven]

Well, half of my CIB SNES collection, anyhow. Last weekend, during the 3-day Labor Day weekend, I set out on a quest to finally pull my SNES cartridges, manuals and boxes out of their hiding places (i.e. bins, boxes, cabinets) and finally, I sat down to assemble and piece them together. I was inspired by Youtube movie critic Chris Stuckmann when I saw his N64 video this past June. He had his N64 CIB games covered in spiffy looking sturdy clear box protectors. I went on to contact Dan Godkin from RetroProtection.com, put in an order for 200 and began my quest to display my collection finally... after 8½ years.

So just to preface this... I have around roughly 400 complete SNES American games with their original boxes and manuals. I only put together 200 this past weekend, and plan to do the other 200 sometime later this month or next. I am done buying, essentially. I really haven't bought anything since 2012's 3 Ninjas Kick Back box. Most of these games, manuals and boxes were procured in 2006-2007, when they didn't cost me much, especially when compared to today's prices. For example, I got the Hagane box and manual for like $10 total back in 2006 :)

I'm not going for a complete collection, as that never interested me. I only wanted to buy games I was ever curious about and wanted to own (still ended up being a good 55% of the SNES library).

OK, enough yapping, on with the pictures!

http://www.rvgfanatic.com/mediac/400_0/media/DIR_2207565/238cb831a3044db1ffff80afa00140f.JPG


Here's how it began Friday night... right before the big 3-day weekend. BTW, I love the feeling I get on Friday nights as soon as I wrap up the work day. There are few feelings better in the world than "punching out" on a Friday, knowing you have the next 50 or so hours to relax, hang out with loved ones, play the next video game on your queue, or take care of various projects around the house. LOVE THAT FEELING.


http://www.rvgfanatic.com/mediac/400_0/media/DIR_2207565/238cb831a3044db1ffff80b2a00140f.JPGhttp://www.rvgfanatic.com/mediac/400_0/media/DIR_2207565/238cb831a3044db1ffff80c4a00140f.jpg


I had kept all my SNES stuff hidden away all these years. It was time to finally put them together. It became a 3-day project. Finally, on Monday night it was completed...


http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o139/SFCGamer/LDWAfter_zpsd320dcd5.jpg


I stood back to admire it for what felt like 30 minutes. The retro gaming geek inside me wanted to shed a virtual tear, lol. It was so beautiful, and I sort of kicked myself for waiting almost 10 years to do this. But, doing it so late did give me a chance to be reflective, as I flipped through over 200 box covers and manuals... lots of memories came roaring back to the surface. Of how I acquired a game, of the memories I had playing these games over the years. It was awesome to recall.


http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o139/SFCGamer/LoWe11_zps8e14e15e.jpg


BTW, I know, I need to put them in ABC order. That's the next weekend project, along with putting up the 200 others still waiting to be assembled. Oh, that black box with no label at the bottom right there is Robocop vs. Terminator, which was the only SNES game to come in a special "hard shell" box if I'm not mistaken. It's also the only one without a label on any of its sides.


http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o139/SFCGamer/LoWe13_zps46b0ef81.jpg


Can't wait to get the other half of my collection boxed together and then put them all in alphabetical order. Gonna look real sweet. BTW, Riddick Bowe Boxing is an interesting one. I think it might be the only SNES box that doesn't incorporate a traditional "mostly black" side. I thought that was kinda cool. It sticks out. You look at it and it catches the eye because it's different. I haven't played the game yet myself, but I've been wanting to since 2006 when I first bought it, lol. And I've heard some decent things about it. Playing through my SNES library is essentially a lifetime project! I've played maybe 200 the last 8+ years, and still have about 200 more to play/beat. It's the library that keeps on giving.


http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o139/SFCGamer/BoF2col_zpsee554039.jpg


Look at that! Just gorgeous :)

As a gamer, there are few things more satisfying than to walk into your game room/cave and scan your hundreds and hundreds of complete games. It's like you took a time machine back to the '90s when you were a kid standing inside a SOFTWARE ETC. gawking at all these titles, dreaming of the day where you could own even just a fraction of them. Today, many of our collections rival the ones we saw in gaming stores back in the day. Even, surpassing them. It's a trip! It really blows my mind when I sit and think about it for a moment. One guy put it best years ago when he said "I feel like I'm fulfilling my childhood dreams."

It's an awesome feeling to finally see my SNES collection displayed. I love knowing I can pick any of these games to play at any time, whenever the whim strikes. And, it just looks badass. I know SNES boxes get a bad rap but, maybe it's because I grew up with them, I personally love the way they look. Now, how fragile they are, not so much. But the look itself, I dig.

I still gotta box the rest of my stuff up and put them all in ABC order. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me. It was a really fun Labor Day weekend project... one of those gaming-related weekends that you'll remember forever. Don't you just love those? They're the best, especially the ones where it kind of falls into place naturally.

I also did a brief write-up of this on my website and shot a 4 minute video. Feel free to check out either below:

http://www.rvgfanatic.com/7443/1893806.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=al24ka93ek8

[Retromangia]

Hey brotha man! First off.. sweet ass collection you have there. I can just imagine the feeling you get now every time you look at it. lol.. It's like Toys'R'Us in the mid 90's...

I can really relate to your story man... right now I have all my games tucked away various boxes, bins, and drawers...pretty much in any area of the house I can squeeze them into. They've been tucked away for at least 5 years ...but over the past year, I've been SLOWLY organizing them... getting them ready to one day.... one day, be displayed on a shelf in all there glory... with box protector's of course ;)

As I go though my games.... the memories of where i bought them, the deal i got on them.. come roaring back.. and i love it... it's amazing how you can remember where you were, and who you got them from... just by looking at the game in your hands.

And coming home on a Friday, after a long work week... and just knowing you have that free time to do whatever it is the hell you please... well that feeling is hard to put into words.. but I totally feel ya on that!


take care,
Retro

[Tanooki]

Love it, nice to see that. I feel you on having things and not being able to see or enjoy them. A decade ago I had to peel off well over 1000 games and they weren't so easily stored viewable as it was, and I had all the boxes/manuals to N64/GBC forward and books+stuff for before that and all that paper was kept in closet shelves stacked to the ceiling. Even with it small compared, before being where I am now with a room, my walk in closet had a small wall just with all the stuff jammed on it rudely with more in a shoes under tote below the bed. The little I have now (300-310 games) now are up on a shelf along with my other gaming trinkets and stuff and it's fun, also easy to get into when you can get to it fast.

[stargate]

Beautiful collection my friend. :)

[kamakazi5]

Awesome post and collection. When you talk about that feeling as a kid standing in a Funcoland or Toys R Us with all those games surrounding you, it's the exact reason I love collecting. I don't have tons of time right now to play but just walking into my entertainment room and seeing them all is a great feeling.

[Arkanoid_Katamari]

Awesome collection. Always cool to see a nice SNES collection.

So, does anyone out there or on youtube or something have a complete SNES set? I've never heard about anyone procuring it. I love the SNES and I'd collect more for it if it wasn't so pricey. I own about 630 games now, I still buy games like they're goin out of style, but I'm really only interested in finishing an NES set. Which I know will get expensive, but even a good 500 NES games, I'm happy with. All the other systems I own I'm really only interested in getting games I wanna play.

Perhaps if and when I get more space to hold more games, I'll go more hardcore, but for now I only have so much space.

[Rickstilwell1]

Awesome collection. Always cool to see a nice SNES collection.

So, does anyone out there or on youtube or something have a complete SNES set? I've never heard about anyone procuring it. I love the SNES and I'd collect more for it if it wasn't so pricey. I own about 630 games now, I still buy games like they're goin out of style, but I'm really only interested in finishing an NES set. Which I know will get expensive, but even a good 500 NES games, I'm happy with. All the other systems I own I'm really only interested in getting games I wanna play.

Perhaps if and when I get more space to hold more games, I'll go more hardcore, but for now I only have so much space.

Remember, Byuu used to when he made his emulator but he sold it to a NintendoAge member.

[byuu]

Steven, those are perfectly sized shelves for the width! I love it! I remember your snescentral post on 3 Ninjas. I got mine from buying an eBay lot of 400 boxes and manuals. Ended up having to trade the manual for it in order to get the last missing boxes I needed.

...

I had a full CB set for NTSC-U (US, Canada, Mexico.) About 725 games with box and cart. Of those, around 625 of them had manuals. I was completely out of cash, so I couldn't finish the manual collection then. I sold that and built an even greater set.

I now have a full CIB set for NTSC-J (Japan.) All 1,442 games with box, manual and carts. All prize carts, all not for sale carts, all special edition and deluxe editions, all re-releases, etc.

This is the new wall of doom:

http://i.imgur.com/V7FJrKVl.jpg (http://i.imgur.com/V7FJrKV.jpg)

A lot of people don't like the SFC set because it's in Japanese, but I adore it many times more than the US set. The box art was orders of magnitude better, and so many absolutely amazing games are Japanese only. Tales of Phantasia, Star Ocean, Final Fantasy V, Terranigma, Chaos Seed, Far East of Eden Zero, DoReMi Fantasy, Magical Pop'n, Rendering Ranger (I hate it but others love it), on and on.

[Greg2600]

Terrific collection!

[Tanooki]

Good job byuu. Haven't talked to you in a long while, had no idea you actually cracked that Japanese set entirely as that's even more impressive with all the quirky stuff. It maybe a pain with certain games with the language, but overall you get the non-watered down experience.

With the newest beta3 of the v2.0 firmware on the Retron5, some of those Japanese RPGs among others can be run in english every time if a IPS exists as it'll boot one if you feed the system it from a SD card into it's storage which is just astounding.

[Steven]

Byuu,
HOLY COW! That's an awesome collection! I knew SFC had over 1,000 games, but I never knew the number was 1,442. Nice display. It's like an old school library where you need a ladder to reach the items on the top shelf, haha. OK a little hyperbole but yeah, that's the kind of stuff we love walking into especially after a long work day. It's like a haven or refuge.



Hey brotha man! First off.. sweet ass collection you have there. I can just imagine the feeling you get now every time you look at it. lol.. It's like Toys'R'Us in the mid 90's...

I can really relate to your story man... right now I have all my games tucked away various boxes, bins, and drawers...pretty much in any area of the house I can squeeze them into. They've been tucked away for at least 5 years ...but over the past year, I've been SLOWLY organizing them... getting them ready to one day.... one day, be displayed on a shelf in all there glory... with box protector's of course ;)

As I go though my games.... the memories of where i bought them, the deal i got on them.. come roaring back.. and i love it... it's amazing how you can remember where you were, and who you got them from... just by looking at the game in your hands.

And coming home on a Friday, after a long work week... and just knowing you have that free time to do whatever it is the hell you please... well that feeling is hard to put into words.. but I totally feel ya on that!

take care,
Retro


Wow, we're like kindred spirits, man. Your situation sounds eerily like mine, lol. Yeah, definitely box and protect your stuff. Once you display it, post some pics! Yeah, looking at my collection takes me back in time... best part being knowing that you're essentially the store manager so to speak, and when you "lock up," the games are literally all yours. Bought, and paid in full. No loans, no more payments. The hard work has been done already. Great feeling.

Yup, it's crazy how all those old and even obscured memories will pop right back to mind just by picking up a game, looking at the back of the box or flipping through the manual. I had many 2006 flashbacks as I packaged my games together. Lot of Craigslist and flea market memories from the "good old days." Consider this, when I started back in early 2006, I was still an undergrad college student. That's a LONG time ago now, lol.

Can't wait for Friday night already ;)

[byuu]

So I was meaning to reply to Rickstilwell1, but in hindsight I realize I may have stolen some focus your post Steven. Sorry about that =(

> With the newest beta3 of the v2.0 firmware on the Retron5, some of those Japanese RPGs among others can be run in english every time if a IPS exists as it'll boot one if you feed the system it from a SD card into it's storage which is just astounding.

Oh, neat. I heard it contained an internal hash list of bootable games. But with an IPS, you can turn any game into any other. Hopefully someone will use Alcaro's emulator detector on it. Spoiler alert: it's going to be detected as Snes9X :P

> but I never knew the number was 1,442

The exact number is really fickle. It depends on whether you count eg Thracia 776 vs its deluxe box set as different games, if you count not-for-sale games like Kunio-kun Tournament Special (between 8 and 25 were made), if you count the single existing gold cart of Yam-Yam, whether you count Nintendo Power, BS-X Satellaview, Sufami Turbo, etc etc etc.

But yeah, roughly around 1,442.

> It's like an old school library where you need a ladder to reach the items on the top shelf

Correct. I can't reach the top shelf without a chair, and the second from top is quite hard. The wall is 8' long and goes up 9' high.

It took a long time to come up with a shelving layout that could fit nearly all of the games on that one wall. I still needed an extra bookcase for some games, plus all of the special packaged games. Japan was *way* worse than the US in that regard.

> that's the kind of stuff we love walking into especially after a long work day

It has a funny smell to it, for sure. When I stand next to it, I actually kind of get worried that the shelves are going to collapse and I'll be crushed to death by games :P

I have twelve 2.5" galvanized steel screws directly into studs holding up those shelves on steel beams, but I'm still terrified that they'll give out at some point :P

Each game weighs between 8oz and 1lb or so, thus we're looking at ~700 - 1400lbs on those shelves.

> The hard work has been done already. Great feeling.

Honestly, to me, I think I really enjoyed the chase more than the catch.

Don't get me wrong, it's really great having the set. But I really enjoyed the **extreme** difficulty of tracking down Japanese prize edition games with distribution counts between 8 and 200 copies in the world. Had lots and lots of help, too.

[gameofyou]

Yeah, you really should have done that years ago, especially if you have the room to display them. I don't go as far as alphabetizing my games, but I do group them by type (action, RPG, ...ect).

[Ponyone]

I so totally thought the topic said "Ive finally PLAYED my cib snes collection" boy is my face red. Great collection though

[kainemaxwell]

What are those plastic cases to protect the boxes? Impressive man, I salute you!

[Steven]

What are those plastic cases to protect the boxes? Impressive man, I salute you!

I got them from RetroProtection.com. Dan Godkin runs that site and is a great business man. Very polite and fast to respond. I'm totally satisfied with the box protectors and have already put in another order for 175 more. They make the boxes look even better and I feel right knowing they're protected. For anyone who has lots of SNES or N64 boxes, I highly recommend RetroProtection.com. It's a worthwhile investment!

Well, like I said, I ordered 175 more protectors and also bought 100 white tray inserts. Gonna try to box up the remaining 180 or so games I have. My CIB SNES collection is right around the 380-390 mark. Should be finished by Halloween and I'll bump this thread whenever I have new pics of the full set up.

[kainemaxwell]

I got them from RetroProtection.com. Dan Godkin runs that site and is a great business man. Very polite and fast to respond. I'm totally satisfied with the box protectors and have already put in another order for 175 more. They make the boxes look even better and I feel right knowing they're protected. For anyone who has lots of SNES or N64 boxes, I highly recommend RetroProtection.com. It's a worthwhile investment!

Well, like I said, I ordered 175 more protectors and also bought 100 white tray inserts. Gonna try to box up the remaining 180 or so games I have. My CIB SNES collection is right around the 380-390 mark. Should be finished by Halloween and I'll bump this thread whenever I have new pics of the full set up.

Yeah i'm starting to use the cases they have for my atari and tengen nes stuff.

[Emperor Megas]

I had a full CB set for NTSC-U (US, Canada, Mexico.) About 725 games with box and cart. Of those, around 625 of them had manuals. I was completely out of cash, so I couldn't finish the manual collection then. I sold that and built an even greater set.

I now have a full CIB set for NTSC-J (Japan.) All 1,442 games with box, manual and carts. All prize carts, all not for sale carts, all special edition and deluxe editions, all re-releases, etc.

:hail::hail::hail::hail::hail::hail::hail::hail::h ail::hail::hail::hail::hail::hail:

I swear, this forum humbles collectors like no other.

[Niku-Sama]

just curious on total cost for the plastic boxes with shipping included, cause I imagine with that many its a weighty shipping bill

[WCP]

I say order them chronologically.

[Flam]

http://www.videogameboxprotectors.com/

I've bought from these guys before, only just for NES and Famicom, but I've been really pleased with their product

[celerystalker]

These collections make me happy. :)

If you haven't read Steven's stories about his collection, you're missing out. The stories are fun and poignant, and it's nice to know that other people have their memories and feelings from their history all tangled up with a video game background. The stories from his childhood, losing and making friends, and developing feelings that don't always work out will make you feel like you know him a bit, even if like me you're a guy from Missouri who couldn't pick him out of a lineup.

[tom]

Respect, awesome collection. Those plastic covers set you back a bit, I only got 10 of those.
The SNES is Nintendo's best effort.

[rhetoric]

This is amazing collection - congratulations !

[Satoshi_Matrix]

It's impressive in the sense that any collection of items is impressive, but......why?

I just don't get why anyone would do this. These are cardboard boxes for pete's sake. They're meant to transport the game from the store to the home and then into the garbage. You're essentially displaying garbage.

I do get Genesis clamshell CIB collections, but for SNES? Those boxes are so flimisy and useless. Why even bother?

Not to mention the absurd amount of money that was no doubt spent on acquiring a collection of disposable cardboard.

If you wanted to display SNES games in a case, a much better solution would be universal media cases and prints from thecoverproject. A better uniform look, and plus, the cases were made of hard plastic, not flimsy cardboard.

[Tanooki]

Well in byuu's defense if that's targeted at his picture I do remember he started with the US-NTSC stuff and went to Japanese in order to make a digital library of every single box, cart and manual possible all scanned in high quality so that's how one would end up with that and a good reason WHY. The money that went into the first then was flipped into buying I'd imagine much of the second. A bit harsh calling it displaying garbage, but I get it, it is packaging after all and only meant to be short term durable to last being thrown in a box, then out of a box and onto a shelf or whatever to get transported home and be tossed out unlike the game and manual. It's a downright despicable amount of puffed up cash value due to the ravings of the last few years, but if you go back pre 2010 much of any of it would be totally attainable at original retail or less and that's totally cool and closer to 2000 +/- some years the costs to most would be crap money because people would have been actively ditching it for the first 3D gen systems.

[celerystalker]

It may be garbage, but it's really pleasant garbage to look at. There are a lot of things about video gaming that I don't "need." It's a recreational hobby. None of it is necessary to life. It just makes me happy, and if having boxes makes others happy for the nostalgia or whatever reason, if it adds to their happiness, I'm good with it. Will I ever understand why so many boxes are worth more than the games themselves (outside of the obvious supply and demand)? Not really, but it's not my money.

[kainemaxwell]

It's also a form of art.

[Spartacus]

Those are both quite impressive and dare I say, beautiful collections.
I've always felt that great collections are the ones that can produce angst in others.

[Emperor Megas]

That was a really surprising post, Satoshi_Matrix. I mean, you're a game enthusiast, a long time forum member and a youtuber with a dedicated gaming channel (I'm assuming you're the same youtuber with that handle), right? What I'm getting at is even if you don't value original cardboard cases, I'd think that you would at least understand WHY some other collector do. This is about art, nostalgia, history, passion, and preservation. It's really that simple, I think. Calling it "garbage" just seems a little unnecessarily hostile to me. This is something that people are passionate about, and even though I'm not, I consider it a positive thing. A person could do a lot worse than preserving history and collecting novelties for personal fulfillment with his money.

Don't get me wrong, I think some aspects of collecting is bonkers, but I try to be understanding. Granted, I think permanently slabbing games in a plastic brick is beyond lame, so maybe I don't have quite as much room to talk.

[gameofyou]

It doesn't really matter to me what the game case is made from. The case is a piece of video game history, and can be appreciated for its artwork and design.

Reproductions, no matter how high the quality, will always be inferior to having the real thing, in my opinion.

[Satoshi_Matrix]

That was a really surprising post, Satoshi_Matrix. I mean, you're a game enthusiast, a long time forum member and a youtuber with a dedicated gaming channel (I'm assuming you're the same youtuber with that handle), right? What I'm getting at is even if you don't value original cardboard cases, I'd think that you would at least understand WHY some other collector do. This is about art, nostalgia, history, passion, and preservation. It's really that simple, I think. Calling it "garbage" just seems a little unnecessarily hostile to me. This is something that people are passionate about, and even though I'm not, I consider it a positive thing. A person could do a lot worse than preserving history and collecting novelties for personal fulfillment with his money.

Don't get me wrong, I think some aspects of collecting is bonkers, but I try to be understanding. Granted, I think permanently slabbing games in a plastic brick is beyond lame, so maybe I don't have quite as much room to talk.

I guess you could call the cardboard boxes "art", but then again, you could call anything art. A collection of thumbtacs with painted tops could be called art. Granted it IS about nostalgia and passion, but in the end he's still preserving thin cardboard that were only made to temporarily transfer the game cartridge from the store to home, and then be thrown out, hence why I said its garbage that was denied its usual fate and instead assembled together.

The amount of effort and MONEY involved in this makes the entire prospect of a collection of SNES boxes in my view as you put it, bonkers.
But if this is his passion project then hey, that's cool I guess.


The way I see it, the world is becoming increasingly digital based. In the not so distant future, games and movies will be entirely digital, no physical copies at all. My nostalgic memories for the physical based world I grew up in in the late 80s and early 90s tells me this is a sad fact, but the adult in my says that this is good for the world and will drastically reduce clutter.


I'm not quite willing to accept a digital only game future just yet, but I do think there's a happy medium. My physical collection of games consists of only what I deem practical. No cardboard boxes for retro games, no useless feelies, no collector's edition statues, and no games in my collection that I don't like or will never play. For this reason the entire concept of owning a full set of all the games released for a system is completely nuts, even if you're talking about a system with a small library that has a ton of great games like the Neo-Geo Pocket Color. If you try and collect a full set, you'll still end up with utter crap like Neo Dragon's Wild and other gambling simulation junk.

[Tanooki]

Same here I don't quite accept it yet either, except when stuff is very cheap. I would be happy with a medium ground on it too, and that would be where people who care about having a backup can download and archive things like gog.com allows you to do. There you have the locker, the files in it are upgraded, and you can go back for them later if you wish or not or just use the locker like steam does. Steam is a weird middle to the middleground as it's very hit and miss which things will or will not run without their drm front end loader.

[celerystalker]

While I agree that digital is where just about all media is headed, I wish it wouldn't. I'd like it if games didn't require online connection just to play alone. I'd like it if all games got at least moderate print runs of physical copies. I'd like to see a business model like with a lot of movies, where you buy the disc and either get digital copy included or a download code to redeem as a pack in. I wish alm books did the same; buy a real copy, get a download code for your tablet or reader, and just charge me a little more for my physical edition than just the digitak. I could live with that. Sell me a disc for $50 with digital copy or let me download a purely digital edition for $30-40. I don't mind paying the difference for publishing costs.

[Tanooki]

I don't mind the publishing costs either and I see no problem with it other than the fact they're cheap and it saves a lot even if they can pass off much of the costs to the buyer as they have to hope there are enough real buyers to cover the physical.

[Satoshi_Matrix]

While I agree that digital is where just about all media is headed, I wish it wouldn't. I'd like it if games didn't require online connection just to play alone. I'd like it if all games got at least moderate print runs of physical copies. I'd like to see a business model like with a lot of movies, where you buy the disc and either get digital copy included or a download code to redeem as a pack in. I wish alm books did the same; buy a real copy, get a download code for your tablet or reader, and just charge me a little more for my physical edition than just the digitak. I could live with that. Sell me a disc for $50 with digital copy or let me download a purely digital edition for $30-40. I don't mind paying the difference for publishing costs.

I'd like all that too, but it just isn't realistic. Publishers just aren't willing to take the risks on producing games that aren't well established franchises or from well known developers.

Look at the Shantae series for a perfect example. Shantae was what I argue the best game on GameBoy Color and the single best 8-bit game ever made, yet it did not sell well at all due to its timing and the fact it wasn't part of an established franchise. It's high quality/low sales ratio denied Shantae Advance from ever seeing the light of day, and pitches for Shantae on GameCube, then DS were also turned down for the same reason.

The only reason Risky's Revenge, Pirate's Curse and Half Genie Hero exist at all is because they can be distributed digitally without the overhead costs of producing physical games.

I am a huge Shantae fan, and would totally support physical releases of anything Shantae related, but that isn't a realistic wish.

In many cases, digital games are made when the games simply wouldn't exist at all otherwise.

[Kirlia]

That's an amazing collection. Treasure it always!

[Genesaturn]

Most impressive! I wish I came across boxes SNES games or just boxes in great condition. It doesn't happen to often though!

[Steven]

just curious on total cost for the plastic boxes with shipping included, cause I imagine with that many its a weighty shipping bill

It actually wasn't that bad. I got 200 boxes for $142 shipped in the US... or 71 cents a protector. Not a bad investment in the long run.



I say order them chronologically.

Yup, I have in the past couple months. The pictures taken from September 2014 were just me shoving the games onto the shelf in random packing order. It looks much nicer now in ABC order.



If you haven't read Steven's stories about his collection, you're missing out. The stories are fun and poignant, and it's nice to know that other people have their memories and feelings from their history all tangled up with a video game background. The stories from his childhood, losing and making friends, and developing feelings that don't always work out will make you feel like you know him a bit, even if like me you're a guy from Missouri who couldn't pick him out of a lineup.

Dude, that is seriously one of the best things I've ever heard anyone say about my work. Thank you. That was a compliment for the ages, and one I'm definitely saving :)



It's impressive in the sense that any collection of items is impressive, but......why?

I just don't get why anyone would do this. These are cardboard boxes for pete's sake. They're meant to transport the game from the store to the home and then into the garbage. You're essentially displaying garbage.

I do get Genesis clamshell CIB collections, but for SNES? Those boxes are so flimisy and useless. Why even bother?

Not to mention the absurd amount of money that was no doubt spent on acquiring a collection of disposable cardboard.

If you wanted to display SNES games in a case, a much better solution would be universal media cases and prints from thecoverproject. A better uniform look, and plus, the cases were made of hard plastic, not flimsy cardboard.

Sato, I too was caught a bit off guard with this comment. But it's all good. But like someone else said, calling the SNES boxes "garbage" is a bit overkill, but maybe that's just me. There are plenty of SNES box collectors out there. I can't argue that they aren't flimsy, but I strongly disagree with the comment of them being "garbage." In the end, yes, it's just a piece of cardboard, but having the original content from the '90s and from when I was a kid is priceless to me.



This is about art, nostalgia, history, passion, and preservation. It's really that simple, I think.

Bingo. You nailed it. I love the fact that I can walk into my game room and feel like I'm walking into my childhood Software ETC. or Toys R Us circa 1994. Awesome feeling. Also it feels like I'm walking into a Super Nintendo library/museum. There's nothing like it for me.



The amount of effort and MONEY involved in this makes the entire prospect of a collection of SNES boxes in my view as you put it, bonkers.
But if this is his passion project then hey, that's cool I guess.

Actually, the amount of effort and money involved is not nearly as crazy as one might initially think.

I actually acquired a great majority of these boxes in 2007 for cheap from a nice lady named Jenn in Minnesota. She sat on a gold mine, and sold over 200 boxes and manuals to me for a good bargain. Some were purchased off eBay, but we also had a lot of "offline" deals made, too. It was unbelievable how many boxes/manuals she had, and what good condition they were still in. It was one of the best eBay/non-eBay deals of my gaming career.


http://www.rvgfanatic.com/mediac/400_0/media/DIR_1840243/75d55f9ab9b55c26ffff81c9a00140f.JPGhttp://www.rvgfanatic.com/mediac/400_0/media/DIR_1840243/391ad86ab9b5bd5dffff8184a00140f.JPG


If I started buying boxes post 2009-ish, I probably never would have finished. It would have cost me too much. Sure, I did pay a lot for all my SNES boxes, but believe me, it's maybe 10% of what people are paying nowadays. All in all, I consider myself pretty lucky. PS- After 11 years being on DP, this is my 3000th post! :)

[Tanooki]

That's really the truth of it, if you tried to buy boxes on Nintendo cardboard from their first two systems pre-2011 it was attainable and not wallet strangling, but most sane people, or at least people who don't have unlimited like cash flow would find it not fun and very hard to do since that time period. Sure there's a good bit you can still buy CIB, even today where it's at or under the original retail which is fantastic, but the stuff that's over it is a mishmosh of complete shit titles, trendy titles, or stuff that's mascot/franchise based and gets a big old bump that make them painful.

Since around December I've picked up CIB - Mario Paint, (CB) Wolfenstein, Arcana, and in the mail is Civilization, and also there's the game+manual for Firepower 2000 too on the way. I had a CIB Bust A Move, now without box as it was so far gone it was falling apart. That's the limits of my old game buying in a very long time for home systems from the pre-CD Nintendo era. Why? Prices suck. Why the boxes on those? Because the price was like unacceptable to me not to buy them. As you can see though none of it is the drool worth pain based stuff, yet they're still great titles. Today getting a collection is a disaster unless you're loaded, own a business full time having others bring it to you, or you're a heavy flipper in one of the dwindling areas large stocks of stuff still come up without insane price tags on it. It's best just to be patient, buy only what you really will want and want to use, and go with it.

I used to have a crap load of boxes, not the NES, as a kid I made an entire 2 shelf cabinet my stuff was in, into a giant collage of box awesomeness. SNES, GB through GBA, N64...that stuff I kept until I couldn't keep carrying it around with me any longer after coming out to KY after 2002. I hate to say it but none of it really got sold, it was useless shitty paper to people so it went to the dump. Fancy how the 'garbage' to many, still is garbage now, but not to everyone as some want the trash because the art is worth it. I'd be happy if I had them still, though even with as big a room as I have now they'd still be in a closet and maybe rotate a few out.

These days the few boxes I have, they're sideways on a shelf top and all that is the GBA stuff I have, and then Mario Paint sits wide above those and the 2 SNES boxes I have are in the cabinet again for space reasons but I think I should pull them out because Civlization looks awesome when it pops up and the Wolf3D and Arcana art looks cool.

[Gentlegamer]

I'm not a box collector (the only boxes I have are the games I am the original owner of), but that is a beautiful collection. As you say, it's also an example of what was achievable before all the collector inflation set in.

[Steven]

That's really the truth of it, if you tried to buy boxes on Nintendo cardboard from their first two systems pre-2011 it was attainable and not wallet strangling

Yup!



I'm not a box collector (the only boxes I have are the games I am the original owner of), but that is a beautiful collection. As you say, it's also an example of what was achievable before all the collector inflation set in.

Thanks. I was very lucky in that the SNES fever zapped me back in January 2006... I seemed to have beaten the nostalgia rush of many of my peers who would get back into that scene a number of years later. Back in 2006-2007, man, it was quite the great time to be snatching up SNES stuff. Mind you, probably not as much of a gold mine as the early 2000s must have been, but still a damn good time no matter. 2011-ish was when the market simply exploded. I remember games and boxes like Hagane and Wild Guns blowing up. And I'd walk into my game room, look for the box hidden in some bin and go "damn, I got that for what, 5 bucks back in '07? Good times."

So when I was finally piecing together my collection this past September, I was literally pinching myself each time I dug out a Dracula X, or a Harvest Moon box. I was so damn lucky to have gotten them for relatively peanuts back when the market hadn't yet exploded. Jenn was my best, though. In one fell swoop, I found a seller who would go on to sell me 200+ mint-ish boxes and manuals. It was like getting 50% of my collection completed and made the rest much more bearable, possible and realistic. Just imagine crossing off like 200 games off your list to be boxed. It was euphoric. Sometimes in life you're the lucky person who happens to be at the right place right time. It's kind of crazy to think if Jenn had held onto those boxes and manuals half a decade later... how much she could have sold them for. On the up side, there was no way for her to know the future, I saved her the "hassle of the clutter" and the items definitely went to an appreciative new owner, even if it took me nearly a decade to finally piece it all together. It's corny but... I always think of Jenn from Minnesota whenever I stand back to admire my collection. Part of me wonders what she's up to these days, and I hope she's doing well. My collection may not have been possible were it not for total dumb luck of running into her on eBay. Or at the very least, she saved me a lot of time and money. It's always awesome getting things you desire in bulk.

I often wonder how she came across so many mint SNES boxes/manuals in the first place. Did they all belong to her son? Did she run into them at a garage sale? Flea market? Did she use to own some kind of mom and pop? Or did she clear out a mom and pop selling these suckers? I never asked at the time but wish I had. I'm not sure which story I'd like to believe, but it usually involves a mom and pop shop of some sort, heh.

[Tanooki]

I went into a SNES buying run in 2010-end or 2012 with a few after the fact, very few. I got lucky though because in Dec or 2012 I grabbed up both for $50 each (game only) Wild Guns and EVO. Look where those went within 6 months and since. That was my wakeup call in 2013 to informally call it quits. I buy still, but only buy wisely and stuff I want or I can get so cheap it's worth having to have or to flip if I am so lucky as this area has no 'wild' games really. I'm pleased I kept various games from the retail get go that got ugly, a notable one being Dracula X and the manual too.

I basically rode the waves of explosion into insanity. I started flea market running in 2010 when I was out in CA religiously every single Sunday morning with just a $20 bill on me, and $2 went to get into the place. What I didn't use I rolled over and kept it just for there. The NES didn't get fubar there until later in 2011 early 2012 all because of one (seriously) greedy douche who went with family to sucker all the people there, then open up a 2 space wide tented booth in the middle with his just bought stuff with sticker prices on them that match today. It never recovered, bounced somewhat back but it was roached. I could take that $20 and end up with 5 or 10+ NES games, some with the books and sleeves still, and SNES, GB->GBA and N64 was about the same. In time my $20 would not get me anything some weeks or it would be a 1-2 game thing, killed the gravy train. I did end up keeping originally all the NES stuff, got up to like 330 or so when it hit me I was wasting my time and money as 95% only got turned on to check function, not play. I rapidly offloaded them and spare systems online and locally which went into doubling or more the existing SNES stuff I had which got me the soon to be screwed up SNES game pricing stuff. When SNES got hot I went towards random picks and mainly handheld since no one seem to give a crap about gameboy if boxes aren't involved, and with a honeybee then Retron5 I went to the Famicom too.

I dodge the bullet and if there's too much going on I just back off and let other people get mowed down.

[Gentlegamer]

Steven, I wonder if you have any boxes that do not yet have covers made at thecoverproject.net. If you feel charitable, you should take a look at what they may need and see if you can make high res scans that can be made into custom covers. For example, it was only recently that someone was able to get a high quality scan of the Final Fight 3 box to be made into a cover.

Just a thought.

[gameofyou]

Thanks. I was very lucky in that the SNES fever zapped me back in January 2006... I seemed to have beaten the nostalgia rush of many of my peers who would get back into that scene a number of years later.

I feel the same way about my Sega Saturn collection. I am lucky that i started collecting Saturn games when i did. Prices have exploded a few years after I had picked up everything I was interested in. Timing is everything. I wonder how much Sega Saturn Magazine issues go for these days? :)

[ProjectCamaro]

Steven, I wonder if you have any boxes that do not yet have covers made at thecoverproject.net. If you feel charitable, you should take a look at what they may need and see if you can make high res scans that can be made into custom covers. For example, it was only recently that someone was able to get a high quality scan of the Final Fight 3 box to be made into a cover.

Just a thought.

Excellent point, that would be a huge help for the community.

[Gentlegamer]

I believe I see Brain Lord on your shelf, that's definitely a game we need good scans of to make a cover.

[Nesmaster]

I'm about wrapped up with my NES stuff, so I've been snagging some SNES games that I feel deserve a second chance, games I never tried or very briefly via emulation, as well as the shooters. I'm really enjoying digging into the library, after largely ignoring it in favor of the NES and N64. Space Megaforce came last week, Sonic Wings and some others are coming from Japan, and I'm looking to eventually add the Pocky & Rocky duo to the collection. That's the short list at the moment.

Love the collection Steve. The uniformity of the boxes is really cool to see all lined up. I loved how boxed stuff makes it feel like walking into your very own rental store. :)

It was more challenging in those days if you wanted something CIB, these days most everything is available, it just costs more. In 2004 it took me like a year to get a complete Little Samson, that was in buying a boxed one and waiting for a manual listing. Now you can throw down $1200+ and get one almost any time.

[Tanooki]

I'd think people paying $1200 on a late NES game needs to see a shrink. :) That's a really nice list of what you just got and do want as a snes short list. I've never played P&R2 but I have the others or had (aerofighters) before. Japan can save you good money on games the garbage try and sell super high for a US copy of such as Sonic Wings. And obviously you have plenty of good stuff we just got hosed out of as well. Ys games, Macross, Sailor Moon titles if you like that, 3 twinbee games, 3 parodius titles, 3 goemon games, spriggan, fist of the north star 6 I once had was good, just plenty of goodies.

[Nesmaster]

Got two of the Parodius games coming, but I feel I can do better than BIN for Oshaberi.

I'm also toying with getting Macross - Scrambled Valkyrie. It's a little bit higher but it looks incredible. Still a lot cheaper than lots of US titles though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJO7qg0a0pw

Aero Fighters is solid, but at $400 for a loose cart, I grabbed a CIB Sonic Wings for 7% of that cost.

What can I say, I have the flash carts but I still prefer physical carts.

And $1200 for Samson is bonkers, I'm hoping we see a cool down in the future on most things. Even 2010 pricing was much friendlier.

[Tanooki]

I prefer physical too. Aerofighters I used to go on about enough because back when I was buying back some SNES losses just a couple years ago I kept shoving that off because even at $200-225 at the time for the game alone was unpalatable for me because it's not incredibly long or high end interesting as far as shooters go. Problem is predatory flippers ginned it up as a super limited release and one of the most amazing vertical shooters on the SNES and it just went nuts. It's what I consider the last of my 90s purchase losses I wish I had back, but I will NEVER pay that shit eating price for it ever. I was never going to pay $150+ for Earthbound at the time I found it 2 1/2 years ago for $2 so you just never know is the way I look at it. (Sam for Samson as it's a really fun one but fuck that price, even the Famicom game is now $90-120 due to it going that high.)

[calthaer]

This collection is truly a thing of beauty. Maybe not to everyone, e.g. Satoshi...but I think it's marvelous. Today, some people collect paper stock certificates as a piece of memorabilia, because stock is now completely digital. Games are going that way, too. In the times of the SNES, the packaging truly was a work of art, and sold the game. I understand the strong feeling of nostalgia end reminiscence of good times of yesteryear, and am glad that this gorgeous collection evokes those sorts of memories in Steven. Glad these games are in the hands of a good owner who cherishes them.

[Tanooki]

Good point on stocks. Before those went that way, railroad stocks went away from high quality paper. Back in the 1800s and some of the 1900s they were a piece of pure art with high quality steam engine art and other things on them I've seen people will just frame because they look cool. People even do it with old paper money too like the ever rarer (in good shape) Confederate dollars.

[Gentlegamer]

I think this thread is an example of something that would make a good front page article. Nice photos of a boxed collection and commentary on collecting back in 2006 compared to now.

[Tanooki]

I can do it, I think.

If I were to lift the original post, drop it into the columns section and make the post, when the site re-freshes it will throw it up on the main site. My only concern would be lifting the images if the links would still work.

If he's ok with it I can read back here later on and see about republishing it with due credit.

[Daria]

This collection is truly a thing of beauty. Maybe not to everyone, e.g. Satoshi...but I think it's marvelous. Today, some people collect paper stock certificates as a piece of memorabilia, because stock is now completely digital. Games are going that way, too. In the times of the SNES, the packaging truly was a work of art, and sold the game. I understand the strong feeling of nostalgia end reminiscence of good times of yesteryear, and am glad that this gorgeous collection evokes those sorts of memories in Steven. Glad these games are in the hands of a good owner who cherishes them.

I like NES boxes because I feel they are truely little works of art, SNES though? I mean sure there's nostalgia there but for the most part the artwork was usually nothing more than a huge SNES logo and a game logo. I find very few boxes aesthetically appealing. Nintendo was moving their packaging in a much too standardized homogenized direction for my taste. I sold off what SNES boxes I had and have never looked back.

That said, the OPs collection looks very nice the way he has it displayed.

[Tanooki]

I kind of agree but there are probably around a 1/3 of the boxes roughly that are good pieces of art, some surely are duplicated as the cart sticker and manual cover, but they're still artistically well drawn stuff like the 80s/early 90s NES box art. It kind of comes down to which game you're looking at if it's not just a clear cut and paste job. Stuff like Wolfenstein, Civilization and Arcana have some nice art to them in a old big box PC art type way. Certain games like Street Fighter II have that old arcade game poster art feel still. There's even good anime/cartoon art like Chrono Trigger or Mickey Mouse games have. Yet there's a lot that feel like clip art/cpu render crap like Stunt Race FX or just straight up damned lazy like Final Fantasy 2 and 3.

[Steven]

This collection is truly a thing of beauty. Maybe not to everyone, e.g. Satoshi...but I think it's marvelous. Today, some people collect paper stock certificates as a piece of memorabilia, because stock is now completely digital. Games are going that way, too. In the times of the SNES, the packaging truly was a work of art, and sold the game. I understand the strong feeling of nostalgia end reminiscence of good times of yesteryear, and am glad that this gorgeous collection evokes those sorts of memories in Steven. Glad these games are in the hands of a good owner who cherishes them.

Thanks! Work's kept me super busy, but I can't wait until things slow down a bit so I can just spend a weekend admiring the shelves full of nostalgic goodness and pull some random (new) games to play :) You know, on a lazy Saturday or Sunday afternoon. Sometimes, those are the best gaming memories/experiences. A calm, still weekend morning where you just have a chunk of free time for a little bit.



I can do it, I think.

If I were to lift the original post, drop it into the columns section and make the post, when the site re-freshes it will throw it up on the main site. My only concern would be lifting the images if the links would still work.

If he's ok with it I can read back here later on and see about republishing it with due credit.

I'm certainly OK with that. You have my permission to do so. Thanks, that's truly an honor!

BTW, in the latest RETRO issue (#6, being shipped now), I made Letter of the Month and there's a pic of my collection. They also offered me a chance to possibly do a collection feature in a future issue. Crazy!

[Tanooki]

Well. Done and done. Whenever the server handshakes between the other hosting the main page you'll be front page material. Enjoy the limelight. :)