Starting to collect once again...

zdan80zdan80
in Collector's Corner

Within the last year or so, I sold off all of my NES CIBs.  A good number of titles that I had ebay'd and found locally over the span of about 2 years.  So as of this morning, I had a grand total of 11 NES carts (DW 1-4, Lolo 1-3, Bub Bob, Dr Mario, Maniac Mansion, and Shadowgate...some of my favorites).

Anyway, earlier today I went to a flea market with my wife, and came across 5 CIB in good shape, talked the guy down to $18 for them all.  Tetris, Wiz & Wars, Mousecapade, MLB Baseball, Black Box Baseball sans hangtab.  Then on the way home at a resale shop, I came across a boxed Prince of Persia for $10.  So, I decided to start collecting again.  But I am limiting myself to only items I find in the wild.  With a strong preference to only Boxed/CIB, unless a great cart only shows up.

I am curious what kind of a collection I can build without using online tools  I am going to try it out this entire summer and see how far along I can get.   Anyone care to throw out a guess as to how far I can get by end of August?  I plan to hunt at least 2-3 days a month minimum, and once a month travel to at least one new area that I have not visitied before.  Finding things in the wild was always what drew me to collecting in the beginning anyway.  I am looking forward to this.

Comments

  • XedXed
    find in the wild makes it totally random

    a lot more exciting in my opinion, but also a lot harder to find the items you want AND in the shape you want them



    nevertheless.. good luck image
  • projectingstarsprojectingstars
    I can't ever find ANYTHING in the wild, but good luck! I think in my year and a half of collecting I've came across boxed games ONCE in the wild.
  • Mr. GimmickMr. Gimmick
    Originally posted by: projectingstars

    I can't ever find ANYTHING in the wild, but good luck! I think in my year and a half of collecting I've came across boxed games ONCE in the wild.



    Yeah I very rarely find CIB's in the wild, havnt really found any in the past year or so, found most of my cib's when I first started collecting. I think it is getting a little harder to find this stuff now but its still out there if you look hard enough.
  • zdan80zdan80
    Well..I have had 6 today, and I know of some others sitting on a store shelf right now that I didn't pull the trigger on, nothing great though. I generally have fairly good luck, and really when they are spaced out like that it makes even finding a common CIB fun.



    Like I said it's more of an entertaining experiment than anything, so we will see how it goes. Nothing beats the rush of a good wild find, like last year when I picked up a CIB Muscle for under $5 image
  • superNESmansuperNESman
    Well good luck, it's gonna be hard but I'm curious to see how successful you'll be this way.
  • MartonMarton
    I seems to find a lot of boxed games locally, but manuals seems to be much harder to get.
  • mb7241mb7241
    Best of luck with this. The last time I set up at the flea market, I came into a collector who did similarly with his collection, except that he was collecting only carts. He was up well into the 500s or so, if I recall correctly, after about five or six years.

    Edit:  This fellow was going off the old Etler list for his set (he didn't know the Myriad existed, and SE was listed as a B+ for rarity on his list o_O )...
  • absolutsydabsolutsyd
    Well, I am past 250 now and have found almost everything I own in the wild. Takes a long time, and the vast majority of my games are super common, but it is a hell of a lot of fun to find em imo!
  • xARSEFACExxARSEFACEx
    Good to hear you're back in it,man. All of your old games are safe and cared for. image
  • jonebonejonebone
    I too have NEVER found a CIB game in the wild, and I've been doing this for 8 months or so now...
  • Dr. MorbisDr. Morbis
    ^ And how many times in the last 8 months have you hit the fleas for that statement to mean anything?
  • arch_8ngelarch_8ngel
    Good luck! There are quite a few huge collections out there that were all amassed from finds in the wild. It's probably harder today than it was 10 years ago, but with tenacity you may still do well.
  • jonebonejonebone
    Originally posted by: Dr. Morbis

    ^ And how many times in the last 8 months have you hit the fleas for that statement to mean anything?

    There are no fleas around me, and there's only one thrift store within a half hour away.  I check yard sales on Saturdays when the whether is nice, and I know a guy who works at a pawn shop up the road but they never get anything NES.

    If you live a rural setting it's damn near impossible to find anything in the wild, something with the keyword NES might show up on craigslist once or twice a month for my area.
  • arch_8ngelarch_8ngel
    I thought you live in the DC area. By what stretch is that "rural"? image
  • jonebonejonebone
    Originally posted by: arch_8ngel

    I thought you live in the DC area. By what stretch is that "rural"? image


    I'm in Southern Maryland, town is called Prince Frederick specifically.  DC is a good hr + 15 minutes away from my house, about 2 hours away from where I work.  And besides, anyone from around here knows that you DO NOT want to go to DC unless you absolutely have to.  I would NEVER set foot in DC or Baltimore after dark...
  • srh201srh201
    jone, a kid i used to work with (before he quit) is a volunteer firefighter in prince frederick! small world! baltimore is fine after dark... depending on where you are. every big city has good and bad spots to it.
  • arch_8ngelarch_8ngel
    I guess my point is that there isn't a "rural" destination within 2 hours of the district. I would call those places "suburban" but definitely NOT rural.



    While there is plenty of real rural area in MD, it's mostly weighted towards the Delmarva peninsula.





    Anyway it's all semantics, and I'm just picking on you image
  • jonebonejonebone
    Originally posted by: arch_8ngel

    I guess my point is that there isn't a "rural" destination within 2 hours of the district. I would call those places "suburban" but definitely NOT rural.



    While there is plenty of real rural area in MD, it's mostly weighted towards the Delmarva peninsula.





    Anyway it's all semantics, and I'm just picking on you image


    Dude, I live on Seagull Beach Road, there's huge fields of tobacco / corn / soybean on my local road, and you even see Amish parking spots in some of the shopping centers.  An Amish parking spot is usually up front by the handicapped spots and just consists of a pole to tie your horse to.

    If that isn't rural I don't know what is! image
  • arch_8ngelarch_8ngel
    Huh, I've never been up that way but figured it was similar to the rest of the surrounding DC area (i.e. you need to literally drive 2 hours away from DC in ANY other direction to reach a "rural" destination)

    But looking at the satellite view in Google Maps, I would say that your neighborhood/area is "suburban" by comparison to what I would consider "rural" (having grown up in GA).  Suffice it to say, MOST people would agree with you that you live in a rural area, though image


    Funny coincidence...I also live on a "beach road", though mine is just called "Beach Rd".  If you look at the satellite maps, you're on the most northern peninsula along the Chesapeake Bay and I'm at the southern-most.  If I walk down to the end of my street at night I can see the lights along the Bay Bridge Tunnel.
  • the tall guythe tall guy
    I've got 200+ from the wild, it's pretty much all my collection is (barring a few trades and a couple purchases from other collectors). Granted for the longest time I wouldn't buy a game if I didn't want to play it, so it's a bit skewed, as I've been at least half-assedly collecting for 10 years. Only in the last few have I really gone at it, probably took my collection from 50 games to over 200, several of which are CIB.
  • smokinjoe24smokinjoe24
    you will have so much fun doing this. I pretty much have Arkansas covered except for a few places and I am ready to get going again. Once this wedding stuff is over on the weekends, I will get back in the game!
  • rasone77rasone77
    I live in ass crack ohio/west virginia and I have found some pretty decent CIB's in the wild. In fact aside from teh stuff I bought here recently and Bart vs. The space mutants I found all of them in the wild. Some of them I got from people I ran across at school who knew I collected. They'd sell me some stuff for super cheap. (Got Battletoads Final Fantasy, Ultima Exodus, Tetris 2, Dr. Mario all CIB that way. (as well as megaman x2, Donkey kong 1-3 Final Fantasy 3, Secret of Mana, and a handfull of other SNES titles all CIB from teh same person actually)



    Picked up L'emperor, Gengis Kahn, Conflict and Civ at a goodwill all CIB. SMB3, Ultima 4, and 5 at a flea market all CIB. The thing is I spend every weekend looking sometimes all day Saturday and Friday. I also tell people I meet that I'm always looking for games and 7 out of ten times someone will drop the name of a friend who has some they want to get rid of. Sometimes they didn't even realize people buy those old games and are more than happy to get rid of their junk.



    Nearly everything I own was found in the wild over the last 4 years and I have some pretty rare stuff and almost 400 different games. Bubble Bobble 2 (Found at a small town rental store for a couple bucks too bad it was loose) a Yellow Control Deck Test cart at a flea market for $6. Two Supervision pirates, Snow Brothers, MIracle Piano (almost had the whole thing but the guy wouldn't give up the keyboard I was even willing to trade him for a better one.) All 6 Megaman Games and a host of other treasures.



    If you're social about your hobby you'll find stuff you never thought you'd see outside of ebay. 9 times out of ten it will be much cheaper than buying them anywhere on the net. Another key to finding stuff in teh wild is to check where no one is looking. That rental store I got bubble Bobble 2 from was selling out there old games from nearly 20 years ago and the owner finally gave up on selling them individually because no one was interested for the last five years except me, the next time I came in I bought the last 40 or so games for 30 bucks. No boxes but still a good find most of my Wisdom Tree games were in tthere,


    If you're going full wild you've got to be proactive as hell and always thinking of new places to search. Good luck man I'm sure you'll do well.
  • FreedmanFreedman
    Ya, 90% of my collection is from the wild, local trades and local swap meets. Shipping to Canada is a bitch so I don't use Ebay and I only trade on NA with certain people who give me good prices cause their my friends and give good prices shipping to Canada.



    The key was finding a local NES community. I got real lucky with that, that's for sure.
  • zdan80zdan80
    Thanks to all for the comments...and glad to hear all my old games are still kicking it with you arse - including that Bandit Kings, which was my favorite ebay find over my entire ebay experience image



    Went to a thirft store middle of the week, nothing good NES related. Did find a new booth with a PS1 black label Chrono Cross and Oddworld for $7 apiece so I picked both of those up.



    Today at the flea market lots of new vendors out with the nice weather, only came home with one game, cart only Ninja Gaiden II for $2.



    Next week I start hitting some new stores a little further from home base.
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