NES Pickups - June 10th, 2015

Quick update on the collection.  Another successful transaction with JT or is it TJ?  Anyway I've bought a few lots from this seller through online ads and tonight I received 7 games that I didn't have.  New additions are as follows:  Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Captain Planet & the Planeteers, Day Dreamin' Davey, Hook, Sky Kid, Spellunker, and Spot.

Standouts from this lot would be Day Dreamin' Davey, SPOT, and Captain Planet & the Planeteers. I base this not on the playability of these games, but rather the fact that those three are titles I don't see too often in the wild.  My collection app rates these all between a 7 or 8 out of 12 (yes, that's right, it is a 12point rating system) for rarity.  In addition to the games themselves, I was also happy that 3 of the games came with cardboard Funcoland sleeves. Because Funcoland became gamestop in 2000  (and because they are cardboard and not the standard plastic construction like the original nes sleeves) I find these artifacts to be hard to come by.  I also did not grow up anywhere near a funcoland so when I come across these items it is a bonus.

Nes Carts:  513

Licensed games:  474/687

Nes Pickups - June 8th, 2015

Today I received a package in the mail from Etsy!  This box was the culmination of 2 months worth of correspondence with the seller.  I started off by inquiring about a game she had listed back on April 6th.  After I got a quote for shipping to Canada the seller mentioned that she had some other games that she hadn't listed yet.  She sent several pictures and I ended up getting 3 games in the lot.  It took a little bit of coaxing to get the item shipped off, but it finally arrived today and I couldn't be more excited.  She had mentioned she would throw in a nintendo related item for my patience, but I had no idea she was going to put in all of the extra trimmings she did.  The box contained:  the 3 games I ordered, an extra game (Super Mario/Duck Hunt), 2 sticker packs, a Yoshi Pez dispenser, a Pacman Keychain and a "10-doh" collectible figurine.

One set of stickers says they are from 1992.  The other set look to be from Donkey Kong Country for the SNES and come from Yugoslavia!  The 10-doh figurine is a Lootcrate Exclusive called:  1point 21 jiggawatts and is a clear take on the Back to the Future movies.  The Pez dispenser is Yoshi from the Super Mario series.  This one is very cool because it also adds to my wife's amazing Pez collection nicely! I'm rambling on and on and this is just the throw-ins. But they are very nice to say the least!

The etsy lot added 3 new games to my collection:  Tiny Toons Adventures 2: Trouble in Wackyland, Where's Waldo and Arkanoid.  Of the 3 I think Arkanoid is my favorite.  It represents another port from the Arcade world and unseeded one of my games on the rarity list (according to my game collection app). Even though the lot took a little while to reach me, the meticulous care she took in shipping and all of the extras she sent more than made up for the delay!  Etsy, though a haven primarily designed for Crafters and Artists, is a great place to find deals on retro games.

Nes Carts:  506

Licensed games:  467/687

NES Pickups - June 3rd, 2015

I can't say enough about the integrity and helpfulness of the retrogaming community.  I've mentioned in past entries that I have recently been networking through social media both locally and afar with other like-minded collectors and game enthusiasts.  This has been equally invaluable to gaining knowledge and acquiring new games.  A friend of mine has made it a wonderful habit to comment me on any posts she sees that are nintendo-related on Facebook.  This has given me a leg up on other eager game collectors in my town and resulted in several new additions to my shelves.

The pickups this week are the end result of a full-circle trade that began several weeks ago.  One of my newest contacts has traded with me more than a few times and because he doesn't want to sell me the games he sets a trade value on them and takes doubles of mine in trade.  The last such trade resulted in me getting a less common game and in return he just took 3 of my doubles.  He said he would hold them as collateral for such a time that I might have something he was interested in.

Well recently he decided he didn't want to collect nintendo games anymore and listed several of his games.  Thanks to the heads up from my friend I was able to write him within an hour of them being listed.  He worked out a deal with me for the only trade-bait that I had of interest (a fairly uncommon double).  I valued the game at about $45-50 and instead of giving me the 3 I originally asked for in trade he ended up giving me a total of 7 games.  This is the integrity I alluded to at the outset of this post.

He knew that the 3 games I asked for only equaled about half what the game I was going to give him was worth so he gave me an extra game plus the three collateral doubles I had given him a few weeks prior. In his words: "You were also interested in Life Force so I'd do all 4. I could also return your 3 games I kept for collateral from our last trade and that should make it pretty close to being even". I was taken aback by his generosity and thanked him for the deal!

 

Highlights are likely not what you might expect; I actually was most excited to replace my extremely shabby copy of Mappy Land as I've always been partial to arcade ports and this is one that I am glad to have a nice fresh new label of.  It took better than 2 years to find a suitable replacement but it was worth the wait.  Obviously a close second would be the two new titles I added to the collection:  Battle of Olympus and M.C. Kids. From what I can see watching the reviews of these two games they are somewhat under appreciated titles in the NES library.

Nes Carts:  503

Licensed games:  464/687