When did you start to collect??? (year)

[Arqueologia_Digital]

I don´t know if this thread exists, but i couldn´t find it, if exists...sorry...

The question is easy, when did you start to collect??? (year), and if you want, tell the reasons.

I had started in 2001/2002, after a long investigation and a life dedicated (well, not all my life hehe) to the VG and gaming.

So, when i discovered MercadoLibre (Ebay for Argentina) and i saw that people offered that machines...i couldn´t resist...

After that, i had created Arqueología Digital (http://www.arqueologiadigital.com.ar)

I want to read your posts!!!

Bye

Matías

[MarioAllStar2600]

I started collecting in 2000. I didn't get big into it untill 2001 one though. I was going for commons up untill CGE2k1, then I got really into the collecting scene. Ever since then it's pretty much been my life. :D

[Pantechnicon]

Well...1994 was the year I bought my 2nd Atari 2600 to replace the one I lost in 1988, but I wouldn't say I was "collecting" yet.

I'll say 1995. That was the year I discovered that the Goodwill next to my house was virtually loaded with all the things I always wished I had while growing up. That was the year I started buying large piles of carts, additional Atari consoles, etc. At the time, however, I was more interested in collecting old computers (the employees at Goodwill actually nicknamed me "The Commodore Kid"). I didn't switch exclusively to game and console collecting until 1999.

[jdc]

It was exactly the summer of 1996. It started when a friend of mine bought the brand new N64 and a copy of Super Mario 64. In 1997 I bought my own N64 and a copy of the brand new game Diddy Kong Racing. That started the madness. LOL

[imanerd0011]

I have been playing games for all my life, but I wouldn't call myself a collector until around 2002.

[Richter Belmount]

2003

[vintagegamecrazy]

Been playing games since kindergarden. Been collecting since I'm guessing 'round 1998 I think I was in the summer before my junior year, and I was working full time and found a boxed Jaguar for $25 and that gave me the collecting urge. Before that I had bought tons of nes games and accumulated a pile of them and sold the lot two different times but at the time was not in my true collecting sense.

[rick weis]

started collecting in 1978, 2 weeks after i got an atari 2600 for christmas.

Rick

[atomicthumbs]

1997/1998.

Age can't stop me. Just slow me down a little.

[o2william]

Hmm, well, my parents gave away my original Atari 2600 and Odyssey2 after I got my NES in 1987 (or maybe it was '88 -- can't remember exactly). Learning from that mishap, I vigorously held onto my NES and games, so I suppose you could say I started collecting in '87 or '88. But it wasn't until 1994 when the "scour thrift stores hunting for anything and everything" kind of collecting started. I started by picking up a 2600 and Space Invaders at a flea market, then made a monster find of 100+ 2600 carts (including a boxed Gameline modem) and haven't looked back since. 8-)

[nildem]

I started collecting seriously in 1998. I bought a bunch of Jaguar stuff on clearance and really took off from there.

[pacmanhat]

2004 for me. I'm still, as they say, a n00b.

[felix]

^^^ hes a vet compared to me lol.. Im going to start monday when I get paid 8-)

I actually never had any interest in collecting until I came here and started going through the forums here :)
I have always looked for something that I could collect, but never was interested in anything like comic books or sports cards etc.. I didnt even know there was a market out there for classic videogames. After reading a lot of these threads, I had a major nostalgia high and decided that im going to start collecting all my childhood games and all the games that I wished I had.. I also have a really good hookup seeing that one of my good friends actually owns/runs a classic videogame store in my local mall..

BTW, im going to get him to make an account here in the fourms, im sure he will flip out when he sees it :)

[SKVermin]

Though my playing days predate the Atari 2600, I didn't truly start collecting until around 1999. By this point, games were already my career, and my first son was born. I wanted him to be able to see how games got to where they are now, so he would understand how spoiled he was.

I still kick myself for having unloaded so much of my collection in the past, trading in games or outright selling them off. Had I known then that I was going to develop such an interest in KEEPING them, my collection would be much larger. Thankfully I never dumped my Intellivision stuff, but all my NES and most of the SNES and PS1 had moved on.

[maxlords]

1994 or 1995, when I sold my copy of FF3 for SNES, then realized that I wanted to play it. When I went back, it was gone, and I swore to never again sell a game I liked. And now here I am.

[felix]

1994 or 1995, when I sold my copy of FF3 for SNES, then realized that I wanted to play it. When I went back, it was gone, and I swore to never again sell a game I liked. And now here I am.

I actually did the same thing with my copy of chrono trigger :(

[Videogamerdaryll]

Over 20 years..
I've always been obsessed with collection games..
Starting way back when the Atari 2600 was released...

I've collected games on and off through the yrs,collecting like crazy then slowing way down...(dating slows collecting,playing)
......I'd say for the last 7 I've been collecting games,playing games like crazy...(marriage)

[RetroYoungen]

I started collecting in 1998 or thereabouts, when I discovered Funcoland. I would go to that store with lunch money often, sometimes literally 3 times a week, and usually buy SOMEthing for cheap. I started out collecting NES, and back in those days loose carts would be very cheap, and sometimes I found myself walking out with up to 6 carts or so.

I saved a LOT of lunch money... and now that location has become a GameStop. And no longer holds games older than Playstation released.

Dammit, I miss MY Funco...

[robotriot]

As soon as I got my Amiga in 1994 I started hoarding games (mainly for PC though which I got one year later). I didn't care if they were boxed complete though, I bought lots of magazine fullversions, so that probably doesn't count ;) I really started collecting either in 2000 or 2001, when I bought a CD32 and decided to get all games for it. It's a shame I can't remember which year it was exactly :/

[ozyr]

I've been hooked on videgames since 1978, when my parents bought me and my sister an RCA Studio II for Christmas. Don't have that one anymore, as it died years later.

Then got a 2600 about a year later. It died in one day. THen bought and Odyssey2- and stayed with it (and still have the original)! Then of course, there is everything that came afterwards that I could afford to get...

[briskbc]

I started in 1998. This is when I started to sell things like videos and video games on eBay. I had always loveg gaming but I never thought of collecting them because I didn't know what sort of resources there were out there. I don't reall like gaming mags so I left them alone until Next Generation came along. My interest in gaming compounded and I started hunting for info online bringing me to where I am today.

[SkiDragon]

Well you could say I started a while ago when I asked for an original NES when I already had a SNES. Nobody seemed to comprehend that.

But really, I'd say around 2000-2001. My friend let me borrow Shining Force and in the process of looking for a copy of my own I bought a lot of other games. Initially I think saying I was "collecting" them was only an excuse. That's not the case anymore, because I buy games that I have little intention of playing, if the deal is good enough.

[Sanriostar]

'93-94ish. Started reading rec.games.video.classic, Bought a freinds 2600, found the local Thrifts, ect.

[DigitalSpace]

January 2004 was the official start. I was buying SNES games so often that I figured I might as well start collecting them. A month later, I joined DP and shortly after that, I expanded to a few more consoles.

[anagrama]

'twas the summer of '97, and I was working in a local auction house.
I was still regretting selling my SNES about a year earlier, and one day found a NES with a bunch of games amongst loads of other stuff we got in from a house clearance. That set me thinking - "Hey, I bet no-one wants old videogames these days - I could probably pick up tons for practically nothing!". Inspired, I bought the NES and a couple of weeks later found a SNES and a Mega Drive. Haven't looked back since.

[Arcturius]

Couln't say an exact year but it would have been when I had my Amstrad CPC464 originally I had a good 300 odd games for it at one point then I had to get rid of it when I moved out as I didn't have room to keep them. }:(

[Damon Plus]

I´d say I started to collect seriously at some point of early 2003. Until then I collected some games I found, but I wasn´t really thinking in making my own collection.

[Arqueologia_Digital]

Over 20 years..
I've always been obsessed with collection games..
Starting way back when the Atari 2600 was released...

I've collected games on and off through the yrs,collecting like crazy then slowing way down...(dating slows collecting,playing)
......I'd say for the last 7 I've been collecting games,playing games like crazy...(marriage)

Wow...!!!

[Fuyukaze]

Back around 85 or 86 was when I started colecting games. I had got my Atari 2600 a few years before and kept buying games when ever I found them for a few $. The next thing I knew, I had over 100 games for it and it kept growing. By the time I was ready for the new system (NES) I had found myself with over 200 games. Unfortunitly I had to sell it to get my NES. A part of me regrets it, but a part of me doesnt.

[y-bot]

I started collecting in 1996 when I found an Intellivision at a thrift store to replace my broken chhildhood one.
y-bot

[kainemaxwell]

I belive it was around 2001-2002ish when I started getting mor einto things here at DP.

[Lord Contaminous]

Fall 1994.

The Movie Gallery chain (well back then it was called "Video World"). Several select locations had a little game dealer within the store called "Game Trader". This is when I was introduced to the preplayed game scene. NES games everywhere.

For some strange reason, because my mom's been dead for a year, the memory of the place seriously gets me misty eyed cause my mom and I used to hit Game Trader every weekend in 1995, even on some weekends make 2 hour drives to find other locations that have them. So my mom's also responsible for my game collecting, and my big ass NES collection.

[Qixmaster]

back in the fall of soph year of high school (1999). I was extremely sick of my N64 and wanted something new... or old. So, for my birthday my parents bought me NES and an intellivision from a garage sale. The NES came with about 35 games and the intellivision came with over 50 games and all the shit to dish on the system. If i remember correctly my parents didn't pay more then 20 bucks for all of it.

damn... i miss the days of good finds and cheap prices on games. Wish i would have started collecting a little earlier as it seems it was just about that time that ebay was taking off and people started hoarding games like a mofo.

-Josh

[pseudonym]

i started very late in 1999. i picked up a fair-sized stack of games at a flea market and built it up from there.

[AlexKidd]

I've been playing video games since I got my sms when I was 3. However I was pretty casual about it until 2003. All I had before that was an sms,genesis,psx and game boy color all bought new when they came out. And I only had a small collection (under 20) of games for each of these systems. Then one day in '03 I started playing a lot of my genesis and decided I want a copy of mortal kombat 2 for it. I went out to get my mk2 and ended up with a whole bunch of genesis stuff,some sms games,an nes and an snes. I was amazed how much cheaper this stuff was since I was a kid. At this point I was pretty much only into 8 and 16 bit systems and though everything new was evil. Then I played metroid prime and halo and realized I like all video games no matter how new or old they are. Two years,20 systems and 600 games later here I am.

[goatdan]

Good question!

I guess it depends. Actively, purposely collecting to complete a collection began with the Jaguar back in 1996 or 97. I can actually find the exact date because I wrote a review of the Jaguar when I got it that should still be online somewhere, although I didn't think I got serious about collecting all of the Jaguar games until a year or so later.

After that collection was pretty much done, I didn't buy anything else for collection purposes until 2001, when my Dreamcast fascination started. I'm very close to completing that collection now too, so I'll probably have a few years off before finding something else.

Back in the day though, whenever I would go to rummage sales with my dad (who is the Ultimate Star Wars Collector and is at Star Wars Celebration as I type...), I would always pick up any 2600 game that I didn't have for cheap, and would talk down people too. My dad helped me, and was very encouraging on finding these games. I probably ended up with about 50 games, most of which are pretty common, but it was a good time and I always kept them as mint as possible. The rarest one I found was probably River Raid II.

I haven't updated my 2600 collection since then because I want to keep it "pure" from my childhood, I guess...

I am also floating the idea of collecting the rest of the Neo Geo Pocket lineup, which I always forget that I have. I got some really good deals on the games at one point, so I'm only missing about three titles now I think. I might have to, just to say I did...

[retroman]

i have been playing for over 22years..i am only 26. my first system was the Intellivison 2....still have it today...i would say i started collecting when i was in high school..i kept on trading in stuff to get new stuff, then down the road i would want to play the stuff i traded in. Then i would go and buy back the stuff i traded in so that i could play it. Thats when i said why get rid of it in the first place. so thats when ....about 10 to 12 years ago.

[Chainsaw_Charlie]

I've been semi collecting since 93, slow pace though im more a gamer then collector

[cracked8ball]

I've been gaming since 1985 or so, but started collecting anything I could find for the NES back in 1996.

[Kamino]

i'd have to say 1991. That's when I Got a NES, and i didn't sell any games I had, right off the bat, held onto them.....and that's really how I define "collecting".
It's been hectic since the mid to late 90s, though.

[Policenaut]

I would say that because I still have all the games since I was a kid, I can say that I've been collecting since the Atari days. Collecting seriously, since '95. We all swith off and on, or slow down the pace a little bit because of the things we do in normal life, like dating, working, studying, marriage, etc. but for me, videogames is a way of life, is part of me.

[DTJAAAAMJSLM]

I guess I really started collection about three years ago. I had just returned to gaming after a brief hiatus. Since I finally had a job and money, I decided to buy some of the games I always wanted from my younger years. I've been addicted to tracking down goodies ever since!

[Boboduo]

I started in 1998/99, after realizing that thrift stores had
all the stuff I wanted when i was younger.

[GrandAmChandler]

I have always had an extensive collection since I was a kid, but I started REALLY hunting / collecting in 2000. I have over 400 NES games, several hundred Atari games, and rare stuff here and there. I will "Game On" forever.

[Nez]

I've been collecting since early 2003. I've allways kept the games from when I was younger as well so I had a decent head start.

I really got going when I purchased my first system with my own money. My Dreamcast on 12 9 2002. There was so many great games to buy I was just loading up. Now I have 13 more systems and 800 games that I never had before.

[-hellvin-]

I started in early 2004. I have been only collecting for a about a year and I've somehow amassed a rather large collection. My largest system is genesis which I am about 380 games strong and hoping to near complete by the end of this year.

[k8track]

Christmas, 1982. My brother and I received an Atari VCS with four games: Pitfall, Chopper Command, Combat, and Space Invaders. But I always felt like I got a late start, all of my friends having received an Atari the Christmas before. My obsession started in early 1982, and my brother and I bugged my mom the whole year for an Atari that Christmas. My mom was raising us by herself, so we didn't have much money, and they were expensive back then, so she got my dad and uncle to chip in for it. Still have the original box with original price tag--Osco Drug, $140 (but was on sale for $120).

I started getting video game magazines earlier that year; I still have my all-time favorite, Video Games Player #1. As much as I wanted an Atari, that magazine really fired my obsession with wanting a Colecovision. Even after I got my VCS, I was obsessed for years with Colecovision and finally got my first one in the fall of 1988, my senior year of high school.

I always use the 1982 date as the date I started collecting, but I didn't really start collecting in earnest until a few months later, when all these cheap games started flooding the stores; I could get a new game every week or so! Those were the days!

[Wavelflack]

Well, I never sold any of my games as I "grew up", so I suppose in that sense I've been collecting since 1981 (earlier, if you include electromechanical games like Hit and Missile).

As for collecting games in bulk numbers, it would be 1987. I had a friend who wanted to buy a NES, and offered to sell me a couple of shoeboxes full of 2600 carts for $5. I was such a tightwad (I had already saved up and bought my own NES) that I asked if we could look through his closet and room to see if there were any others!! He agreed, and we found another dozen or so scattered around his house.
All in all, I got 60-something carts for $5.
It was then that I realized that "Atari games" were basically being thrown away (thanks to the NES that everyone was drooling over), and that if I played my cards right, I could have tons of games for practically nothing. I started asking mom and dad to take me to Goodwill and Salvation Army, and asked other friends if they wanted to sell their old games.

I would say 80% of my collection was acquired between 1987 and 1995. Around 96 or 97, people started to become aware of the potential collectibility of games and stopped giving them up without a fight. The hunt then switched from classified ads and thrift stores to rental store clearance sales and so forth.

Anyway, the short answer is "1987".

[Mr-E_MaN]

I believe it was the two summers ago that I started collecting. My memory is so bad for dates like that, but I think I did join DP shortly after starting (Started collecting in August, joined here around Xmas), so if I am off on the year my join date will point that out.

I remember when I had 1 small shelf of NES games, and thought that was huge... now I have 3 wall size shelves filled with NES games and think that it is too small LOL Funny how things work like that. :D


EDIT: I guess I was wrong, it was three summers ago.... thanks join date from DP profile after I posted. :)

[Bronty-2]

starting playing around 1984 but wasn't really a collector until 2000/2001

[k8track]

It was then that I realized that "Atari games" were basically being thrown away (thanks to the NES that everyone was drooling over), and that if I played my cards right, I could have tons of games for practically nothing. I started asking mom and dad to take me to Goodwill and Salvation Army, and asked other friends if they wanted to sell their old games.

I would say 80% of my collection was acquired between 1987 and 1995. Around 96 or 97, people started to become aware of the potential collectibility of games and stopped giving them up without a fight. The hunt then switched from classified ads and thrift stores to rental store clearance sales and so forth.

Yep, yep, very true, my experience exactly. At that time the NES was so new and popular that people couldn't get rid of their old Atari games fast enough. I made out like a bandit in the late 80s and early 90s. I was collecting all that time long before it became "chic". I did the classified ad thing too and procured a ton that way as well. Those were the glory years! For me, things changed around 1994 when I first got on the internet and eBay was just starting out, and I discovered that there were other people out there collecting the same things as I, driving up the prices and demand. I felt very indignant that people were trodding on my pristine green pastures--I felt very territorial and liked having that hobby "to myself". Gradually I learned to (begrudgingly) accept it and live with it. In my opinion, the last two years have really gotten crazy and people have really driven up the prices on almost everything, like sharks in a feeding frenzy. Now you've got everyone hopping on the bandwagon, eBay grannies selling common 2600 games for unreasonably outrageous prices and the like.

[The_EniGma]

I've only started collecting this month really after fidning out the ps1 was the perfect console to collect for (imo)

Fun games
Graphics are ok
Easy to find alota titles
Cheap games

So i enjoy playing it and also collecting for it :)

[JB Lars]

1997. Got a Jaguar for $30 from Kay-Bee toys, got a SNES from a pawn shop for $20, and started snagging 2600 games from thrifts. Then I wandered into #RGVC, and it all went to hell. Thanks, AlanD! :D

[Rogmeister]

Well, I started playing games in the 1970's. I remembeer when I was laid off once during that decade that I spent an entire day at the arcade...from the time they opened until probably 7 that night or so. Boy, was I pathetic! I got the Atari 2600...sold it to a neighbor when I "graduated" to the 5200...and gave that up when I bought an Atari 7800. I'm not sure when this was but I eventually put it away and probably didn't play games for about 5 years.

Then, the year I began really collecting...1993. I had missed the entire NES era but, for some reason, decided it was time to begin playing games again. I think what did it was I found some 7800 games for a buck each in Big Lots so I started checking out what was also available. I chose the Super Nintendo and bought the system and one game, The Simpsons: Bart's Nightmare (yes, I still have that) and started in earnest. I bought a Jaguar the next year and there was no looking back. I was hooked and I haven't stopped playing games since.