Hallo everyone!
Even though I've been a member since 2003, I've never officially introduced myself. My name is Alex, I'm 25 (as of May 29 of 2005) and I live just south of Fort Worth, TX in Cleburne.
I graduated high school in '98 as valedictorian of my small class of 32. Went on to college at the University of Texas at Arlington where I started out in architecture and loved it. But that love faded with frustration after 3 years even though my grades were good. I thus switched to Psychology. I received my Bachelor of Science degree in May of 2004. After that I became an insurance agent in property and casualty. Now, I am starting my own business in Health and Life supplemental insurance.
I began my love for collecting at the age of 10 yrs old, but NOT as a video game collector. It started with baseball cards. In particular, Topps cards. You could get 10-12 cards for 0.50 cents at the store. I did everything I could to find a Nolan Ryan. Oh the wonderful days of collecting baseball cards when it was FUN.
In 1990, I also happened to receive my FIRST NES with Super Mario Bros. 3 at Christmas! What a wonderful Christmas that was, cause I also happened to get all the Ninja Turtles with the sewer playset We never had much money, but my mom wanted me to have a great Christmas that year, God bless her heart. She would die in 1992 of stomach cancer at the young age of 35.
Through the 90's, I took to collecting comics and adoring Spider-man, even attaining the second holy-grail in spidey comics, Amazing Spider-man #1 from 1963! I bought it off eBay in 1998 for $1900! My FIRST eBay transaction! Unfortunately, he had advertised it as a Very Fine, but it only turned out to be a Very Good 4.0 (but when I did need money later on, I was able to sell it for $2400...I miss that comic though )
My resurgence into video game collecting began when I dusted off my old NES in 2001. I had money for once, so I would be able to go to the fleamarket and buy as many as I could for $3 a piece. I remember my first guide being a FuncoLand newspaper price guide, which lasted me for a year and a half. Oh good times.
As far as gaming genres that interest me: puzzles, strategy, platformers, RPG's, space and side-scrolling shooters, and quirky games that break the mold.
Favorite games include: Qix, Mario's Picross, Advance Wars 2, Super Mario Bros. 3, Mega Man 1-6, Contra, Katamari Damacy, Chrono Trigger, ICO, Intelligent Qube, and many others!