Related buyer guides
GlossaryWhy Collectors Chase Black Label PS2 Games Over Greatest HitsTwo copies of the same PlayStation 2 game, side by side on a shop shelf. Same disc, same manual, same everything — except one spine is black and the other wears a red stripe. To a casual buyer they're interchangeable. To a collector, only one of them is the copy. That red stripe is the Greatest Hits banner, and learning to read it — along with Platinum, Player's Choice, Nintendo Selects and the rest of the budget re-release family — is the fastest way to level up from "person with old games" to
playstationHow to Collect PlayStation 2 Without Drowning in ShovelwareTake a blue-bottomed disc with you to the next retro fair. A worn PS2 laser will keep reading silver DVD games for months after it starts failing on the blue CD pressings, so a console that boots the seller's copy of a big DVD-era title can still be quietly dying. Thirty seconds with a blue disc tells you more than any "tested and working" sticker ever will. That test matters because the PlayStation 2 is still the most open door in collecting. It's the best-selling home console ever made, with
nintendoHow to Start Collecting Nintendo Without Losing Your MindTry to destroy a loose N64 cartridge. Short of power tools, you'll struggle — Nintendo moulded that grey plastic like it fully expected the thing to be hurled down a staircase, which, in the average 1997 living room, it was. Now look at the cardboard box the cartridge originally came in. Three decades of attic damp, price stickers and enthusiastic children have made surviving boxes the real prize. That tension — indestructible game, fragile packaging — is the whole story of Nintendo collecting.