“It’s the thrill of the search, design, and nostalgia. It’s the thrill of searching for the games that are missing in my collection. The design of the machines and the retro cover art of the games. I just think it’s all cool. The nostalgia of playing the same games I played as a kid. For me, that’s the very essence of nostalgia.”
— Michael Westergaard Gudmann
Welcome to the first part of our beginner’s guide to video game collecting. Whether you’re a seasoned gamer or a newcomer, this guide will help you start your collection the right way.
The main issue with collecting video games, as with most collecting hobbies, is space to house your collection. Games and consoles take up a lot of space, especially if they are boxed. Ask yourself these questions first:
If you answered yes to all of the above then you can start thinking about what you are going to collect.
The answer to what you should collect often comes through nostalgia. Do you have a burning desire to finally complete Super Ghouls and Ghosts? Do you want to become a Tetris master? Or maybe you want to recapture the feeling of playing Sonic with your siblings. Whatever the reason, we’re here to help you get started on your quest.
Just like when you were a child and you declared allegiance to Sega, Nintendo or Sony a simple way to approach video game collecting is to pick one of these companies and dedicate yourself to collecting those first.
So which one should you pick as a starting point? Jump to Part 2, where we’ll explore how to identify and acquire rare games.
A beginner’s guide to video game collecting: Part 2 — Xbox, PlayStation, and genre choices
A beginner’s guide to Video Game collecting: Part 1 was originally published in Golisto on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.