Ok, I consider myself to be a collector, but I am the type of person to always push myself to the next level. I want to start collecting for older systems (essentially snes/genesis on down). I am hoping that you guys that actually collect these things can give me some tips. I also only have at the most 100 bucks a month to spend on games (I'm in college). When I say tips, I mean, does it matter that much to have the box and/or complete version of every game, or can I stick to carts. On the latter, I really don't want to just buy up stock piles of 2600 games from eBay that don't come from boxes if other collectors say that what I have is crap. I have seen some of you talking about auctions that sell like 500 games, and you guys say that the auction isn't worth near as much as its going for. Quality, complete, boxes or no, whatever.
Also, I know this part is in the wrong section (in a way), but I also want to add at least one prototype cartridge and a true beta (no burnt cds or anything), but I don't want to get things that are crap. How much does it cost, on average, for a prototype cart? Is there any way a college student with little income could get a NES one or something like that for less than $50?
Hopefully you guys can give me some damn good tips, and help me on my way to getting more games. I know my weak point in my collection is this. I just happened to look and see that I am pretty even with the average collector with newer systems, but then they get into NES/SNES/2600/etc. and all I can do is gawk. I seriously only have like 5-10 NES games, 10-20 SNES games, 20-30 Genesis games, and no 2600 games, nothing atari, no coleco, none of that. I need more of all the things I said, I need to up my collection, but I don't want to do it with utter crap, but then again, I don't want to try and track down everything one game at a time paying 100+ per game I track down.
Any help is appreciated fellas