How long does it take...?

For those of you who have completed an NES collection, or are of some degree within finishing it, how long did it take you to get there?  How many years did it take to get from game #1 to game #however many you think makes up a complete set?  Also, for the completists, how long did it take you to get the boxes, manuals, maps, etc. for those games?

As for me, I bought my first NES game (Legend of Zelda) in 1991 at a flea market for $5.  Truth be told, I could've purchased a gray NWC that same day for the same price, but I was six years old, and knew no better.  I didn't start hardcore collecting until March 24, 2007, nearly 16 years later, when I figured I had just under 100 NES games, and could make a legitimate bid for a complete set in years to come.  Here I am now, and I'm sitting on 411 different games, as well as a number of variants, repros/homebrews, pirate multicarts, 5 Famicom games, 2 Famicom Disk games, and about a dozen PAL games...

Edited due to typographical error.  I can't stand 'em...

Comments

  • Wow, you know the exact date you started collecting, good job. With most people there's a slow transition, funny how you have a date remembered that you started collecting.



    Loose carts isn't too hard. You say you're past the halfway point, but you aren't nearly half way there. Finding the last 100 games will probably take you just as long as it took you to find the first 600 of them. It took me less than a year to get all the carts, probably closer to around 8 months. To be honest, I'm still missing about 10 games, and I've been missing those same 10 games for months now, but they're all easy pickups, so it's just easier to say that I have them all. I will get them eventually without any difficulty.



    As for boxes and manuals, I am still working on those. Many of us especially on NintendoAge are interested in CIB games, not loose carts, but of course everybody's interests are different. I've been actively collecting for about 18 months now and still need around 200 boxes and 150 manuals. Although, when I first started collecting, I was only interested in loose carts, but slowly transitioned into wanting to have every game CIB. I've been trying for the boxes and manuals closer to about 10 months.



    And I've been ACTIVELY collecting the entire time. I took a small break and played around with N64 stuff for a while, but for the most part I've kept a steady interest in NES.



    Good luck man.
  • It took me about 9 months to get all the carts... but I was buying games at a really fast rate. I've been working on the boxes for just under a year now and I still need about 200. However, getting the boxes for my NES games is just one of the things that I am seriously collecting for at the moment.
  • I have been collecting for about 4-5 years now I guess. I had almost all the games in 2-3 years minus like 5-6 titles that eluded me. I went for a cart only collection first and keep boxes/manauls when I ran across them. I have really went after finding boxes the last 2-3 months and am down to around 100 + variants. Once I finish boxes I will start on tracking down manuals I need. My logic is that boxes are much harder to find than manuals and I can't really afford to do both at once. I hope to have 98% of my boxes by the end of this year and do manauls all of next year. If and when that happens I am going to take a break on spending cash and save for a house. Then REALLY start my PAL collection, I have about 150-200 (never counted).

    ~~NGD
  • LOL, NGD -- you'll have the boxes and manuals within a few months, not next year! No way in hell you'll wait that long -- I just know you image
  • Your prob right, lol, but that is the "game plan" I haven't had a whole lot of luck tracking down boxes I need the last 2 weeks or so. I was doing great for a while but none of the ones I need have been listed, or they are for way to high BIN's. I really need to make out a manual needed list cause I could prob get most of those in a few weeks. image

    ~~NGD
  • Ive been collecting for about 8 years. Im a cheapo when it comes to buying games I got a good start when I picked up almost 400 cib games for 600.00 dollars. I havent paid a whole lot for any game. I think I even did ok on the rare ones. I would really like to complete my collection but if it takes another 8 years to find the last few items I need I can wait...Its nice to try and get a complete collection but other things take priority..I guess when a lot of you younger guys start having families mine will be on their own so Ill have the extra bucks.



    Prom cost me a stadium events cart lol



  • Ive been collecting for about 4 years now and have every game except for 4 games. bubble bath babes, peek a boo, myriad, cheetahmen. I started when i was 17 because i downloaded some roms and played some old childhood favs, and it really brought me back to the good ole times of going down to my cousons house and playing all these games when i was a kid. I had a front load NES when i was little too, but always remebered playing games with my older couson, casue he always had more hardcore games lol. I had battletoads, little nemo, mario 1 2 and 3, and remember renting gyromite, megaman, monster party, rampage, and paperboy all the time.



    Anyways when i was 10 years old i ended up selling all my stuff at a yard sale to get money to buy snes games lol. and kinda didnt play anything oldschool since until i was 17. But after playing those roms i decided i wanted to get a top load, (my couson had a top load) and then that xmas my parents got me a top load system and some games. I was thrilles, and then later that day we went to my cousons house the same day for xmas dinner that year, and i told him i wanted to get back into playing some of the old games we used to play. And he was like well if you want i still have all the games we used to play. lol And i was like "really! so he went in his closet and pulled out a bag with about 10 games he had we used to play>>>( he said he sold a few to friends a few years ago) But he still had all the ones i remeber playing the most>> (adventure island 2 (my fav game of course, North and South, Black Bass, mario's, demon sword, zelda, rampage and some others., ( Also his top load system was in there too! And i was like well how much you want for JUST the games. And he was like ehhhh you can have everything for $15.00 if you want it. NOW remember this was like xmas of like 2003 when toploaders were selling like INSANE. i was like OK lol so then i had 2 of them lol, the one my parents got and his. So later i ended up selling his for $170.00 on ebay lol and got some more games with that cash.



    Then i started looking around locally and starting finding TONS of stuff. I live in the boonies so finding stuff locally was EASY at the begginning. i was coming home with boxes of like 30 to 40+ nes games for like $5.00 a box lol. it was purely awesome! (i wish it was still that easy lol) seems alot has changed in the past few years. more people hunting and selling etc. But anyways in that time i also did a HUGE trade with a guy at gametz and that was what really started when i decided i want to COLLECT, as well as play. it was an intense trade and i got most of the rare nes games CIB all in one awesome trade. check out my website under "my finds" if you wanna see the details. ive told the story too many times lol.



    But anyways i mostly started with getting cart only at first, but now more recently ive been going after boxes and manuals. and i still need about 200 nes manuals and about 450 boxes. But i do have MOST of the rares outta the way, so hopefully it wont be too tough to get the rest. Only things that are gonna be tough is SE and myriad lol.



    Oh and for an update, my couson did later find out i sold his top load and man was he mad LOL. But check this out. This christmas, i had an extra top load, and i decided to put together a collection of EVERY single game i remeber him either having, borrowing, renting or whatever and i gave him a huge package at Christmas this year! Man it was a blast too! i ended up giving him a top load and like 28 games. All good games too, contras, north and south, zeldas, tecmo bowls, marios. It was real cool and man he was shocked! So now we both got all the games we used to play :-)
  • Hey Mark before I ship the other items out to you should I just go ahead and complete your collection? Humn... :-)



    Thanks Bronty, I got the Peek-A-Boo and Hot Slots today, they look great!



    If anyone knows of a Peek-A-Boo Poker box and instruction sheet for sale PLEASE let me know!!



  • ugh that picture hurts Erik, thats hurts man lol.
  • Time shouldnt become a factor in collecting if you try and complete your collection in a hurry you will probally go broke and burn out. If I only collected nes I would be pretty much done. The fun of collecting is the search
  • Originally posted by: Braveheart69



    Hey Mark before I ship the other items out to you should I just go ahead and complete your collection? Humn... :-)







    Thanks Bronty, I got the Peek-A-Boo and Hot Slots today, they look great!







    If anyone knows of a Peek-A-Boo Poker box and instruction sheet for sale PLEASE let me know!!




    welcome... nice pic! I think you got 4 out of 5 from me! image
  • i agree wrldstrman, the real fun IS the search. Man just isnt much better then waking up on a nice crisp saturday summer morning around 6:30, and crusing down the road, cranken some tunes, windows down, and wondering what nes stuff you might find at the flea market. Then its really cool if you head home with a car full lol. ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh i cant wait until this saturday lol.



    "man i feel like such a dork saying that, but its true lol"
  • Lol, you are correct Dan. The Sealed Cheetahmen, the CIB Myriad, and the Hot Slots and Peek-A-Boo Poker carts came from you. I got the CIB Bubble Bath Babes and the Hot Slots instruction sheet and Box from someone else, same seller though. Incidently the Hot Slots I just got through you came with an instruction sheet so I have a double of that. Would be cool if the Panesians were books like other NES and it didn't just look like a piece of paper. :-( Oh well!



    Mark, well even if you don't find anything at the flea market it should be fun sorting through the priority mail box your getting from me in the next couple days!

    ;-) Thanks again!!



    ~E~
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