Your collection - post a photo - show us what'cha got!

I've been struggling to find a viable insurance option for my collection as well. I have been using Allstate for my renter's insurance, but when I told them the approximate value of my game collection they flat out told me that it wouldn't be covered.

They tried looking into their collectibles rider as well but, after a couple days of looking in to it, they told me that it couldn't be used on games.

Needless to say, I'm in the market for a new insurer.

Vinny - out of curiosity, did you tell your insurance company the value of your collection? I've heard from a few collectors who were verbally told something similar by their insurance companies, but then when a claim was made the insurance company treated all of the vintage games like any other old tech (i.e. outdated and depreciated to the point they are virtually worthless like a VHS tape or stack of CDs).
 
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if you know what the total value of the games you have is cant you tell the insurance what it is worth and see if they will cover that much for just the collection. i heard that others get insurance for collectables so they don't end up getting such a low amount. i would be pissed off too. $300 would not even cover my most expensive game with how much prices have risen. i need to insure my collection too but i not sure what the total value is since i have new and old games. i have over 2000 games so i would guess about an average of $10 per game so the value is around $20K but that does not include all the systems or controllers. then i also have an anime dvd/bluray collection with a bunch of older out of prints worth over $100 a piece.

Invicta 61 said:
I was told I would need additional insurance for collections. As for my currency collection, I had over $1,300.00 FACE VALUE in old star notes, silver coins, etc. stolen and they said they could only cover $300 because that's all the policy would cover for cash stolen. I needed an additional policy for collectible currency.

They may not think of video games as having much value. I know I would be pissed if they tried giving me $300 for my gaming collection when just one game is $300.
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I need to look into insurance for my collection at some point. Not just the video games but the statues, comics, and comic art. I have a few pieces in the 5 figure range of value that I need to figure out sooner rather than later.

 
Insurance is an interesting topic. 

90%+ of my collection is being stored at my parent's place.  While they have insurance on the house/etc., I'm sure it wouldn't cover my things.  It's one of those things I've been meaning to look into getting covered.

I have a $10K renter's insurance policy at my apartment...but I'm wondering if that coverage is too low.  (I'm sure it is.)  I have no idea how they'd treat the value of the games I have in my apartment.

 
Renters insurance covers a certain amount stored outside your house, such as your car. My storage unit is covered by my renter's insurance, from what they told me. I think it's only up to about $4k if it's not in your home. I lumped the value of my games and figures into the insurance policy when I bought it, but I don't actually know how they treat that either. Guess it's a AAA trip soon.

 
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When attempting to insure high-value collectibles, the carrier will NEED to see that there is actual value, not just perceived/claimed value. I.e. They will want/require a "professional" appraisal, which will cost you, the home owner/renter a ton, and that's if you can even get someone to do so within their guidelines.

There may be exceptions, but that's what I've found to be true if your collection has moved into the 5-figure+ range of value.

Squarehard said:
I need to look into life insurance in the event I get crushed to death by my collection one of these days.
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How are those ceiling shelves coming along? ;P
 
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Callidus said:
Vinny - out of curiosity, did you tell your insurance company the value of your collection? I've heard from a few collectors who were verbally told something similar by their insurance companies, but then when a claim was made the insurance company treated all of the vintage games like any other old tech (i.e. outdated and depreciated to the point they are virtually worthless like a VHS tape or stack of CDs).
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When buying the insurance, I just asked about it and they noted in my personal property coverage that I had a substantial game collection. They asked that I keep proof of what I have in pictures. I didn't actually tell them the value of my collection, b/c I honestly don't know but my total claims cannot exceed my coverage. I'm guessing it's gotta be at least 20K (which is only $10/game) to 30K.

It's true that insurance companies will pay as little as possible but if they ever try to pull a fast one, you can bet I'm getting a lawyer. My coverage for an addition 30K in personal property only increased my premium like $10 a month.

Reality is though, I don't think I know anyone who dealt with insurance companies and game collections. And it would be a huge pain to figure it out if I ever had to make a claim.

 
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I know we posted about this a few months ago, but I spent some time going through some my collection and managed to find two expensive SEGA games that had a single small spot of disc rot on them. Luckily it wasn't Keio, Snatcher or Popful Mail but I think this just pushed me over the edge to decide on eBaying a good lot of them over the next year. I don't feel confident that more of them won't become damaged by time over the next 5 years or so makes me think I should do it now before it happens.

I literally let out a "nooooo" when I held it up to the light and saw it.

 
Dokstarr said:
I know we posted about this a few months ago, but I spent some time going through some my collection and managed to find two expensive SEGA games that had a single small spot of disc rot on them. Luckily it wasn't Keio, Snatcher or Popful Mail but I think this just pushed me over the edge to decide on eBaying a good lot of them over the next year. I don't feel confident that more of them won't become damaged by time over the next 5 years or so makes me think I should do it now before it happens.

I literally let out a "nooooo" when I held it up to the light and saw it.
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Great, I completely forgot about that... between disc rot and all the questions on insurance, I don't know why I should bother collecting.

I only have like 40 Sega CD/Saturn games, and I've seen disc rot on only one game but that was a few years back. I need to take another look and see if any more have developed. I'm also curious if this started developing on some older PS1 games... I know those have their own "dye" probelm and said dye probably make it harder to see but like you, if there's rot involved, I might dump my games.

 
One of the games was in good/okay condition disc only. So I could understand that maybe from the previous wonder mishandling it. But the other one is 100% mint except for the little pinhole spot.

 
Vinny said:
Great, I completely forgot about that... between disc rot and all the questions on insurance, I don't know why I should bother collecting.

I only have like 40 Sega CD/Saturn games, and I've seen disc rot on only one game but that was a few years back. I need to take another look and see if any more have developed. I'm also curious if this started developing on some older PS1 games... I know those have their own "dye" probelm and said dye probably make it harder to see but like you, if there's rot involved, I might dump my games.
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Disc rot for games are primarily a problem with Sega system discs, so I wouldn't worry too much about the PS1 games all that much.

Rot is also not going to be as likely as long as you properly store them, and you don't live in an area where whether could cause a problem on deterioration with your discs.

I've yet to have any problems with any of my games, so meh, don't worry too much about it if some of the above scenarios don't apply to you.

 
Disc rot is caused by chemical break-down though... external factors have little to do with it (with the exception of the obvious, like leaving your games out by the sun... or pouring acid on them). Kinda like the yellowing of plastics.. it's happening but there's no way to say when.:whistle2:k 

 
Vinny said:
Disc rot is caused by chemical break-down though... external factors have little to do with it (with the exception of the obvious, like leaving your games out by the sun... or pouring acid on them). Kinda like the yellowing of plastics.. it's happening but there's no way to say when. :whistle2:k
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Oxidation also plays a part in it too, which leads to those chemical breakdowns, so weather certainly can impact it depending on where you store something, how it's store, etc.

That being said, none of my games have disc rot, so there's that. :p

It's just like you guys are all being so incredibly cynical about disc rot that it's starting to put me off a little. ~_~

 
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Squarehard said:
Oxidation also plays a part in it too, so weather certainly will impact it when it where you store something, how it's store, etc.

That being said, none of my games have disc rot, so there's that. :p
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I didn't even know you had any Sat/SCD games... what other secrets are you keeping from us?:whistle2:k I've only seen it on Sat games, never saw it on a SCD game... not sure if one is more prone than the other. I might actually play a disc rot Sat game just to see what effects there are, if any.

I always thought oxidation occurred after disc rot... disc tor is actual physical damage resulting in gaps between the data/protective layers. But looking at some Wiki about it, it looks like it's all classified under the same thing: your disc is fucked.

 
It actually happens on Dreamcast games too, so it seems to be a pretty standard problem with Sega discs, and mostly with CDs.  I don't really have a way to store my Sega CD games, so I rather just keep them in a box since their cases are so fragile, I feel like they'll just crack if I leave them out, lol.  You know what I mean. :p

Also, disc rot doesn't guarantee that the disc will be unreadable.  Depends on where it happens, etc, etc. rawr, blah, pew pew.

 
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I sorted so many of my gaming magazines last night. (Someone was looking for a back issue.)

Nintendo Power, EGM, and Gamepro were my biggest piles. I really liked PSM, and Gamefan (though I don't have too many). Tips & Tricks was also good.

My "rarest" magazine (if there is one) is GameGo magazine. I think they only made one issue. It would've been a great magazine.

















 
Squarehard said:
Also, disc rot doesn't guarantee that the disc will be unreadable. Depends on where it happens, etc, etc. rawr, blah, pew pew.
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It's a data disc so it depends on what data is corrupt. It could be nothing if it is outside of the pressed data, or it could be something small that you never notice or it could be a game breaking problem.

My games are stored very nicely in the original cases, etc. and I found a spot on a 100 dollar plus game. Disc is 100% mint except for that spot with a perfect case (damn those longboxes, etc). So it can happen even on perfectly stored games treated perfectly.

Looking online you can see it also happens occasionally to PS1 games and apparently is pretty common with first generation blu-rays.

At this point the only rational decision is to burn the world and download all our consciousnesses into the cloud.

 
Disc rot is one of those things you can't avoid, you can only draw out as long as possible. Unless of course we start getting commercial media on M-disc BD-R. Then your collection can outlast you, your theoretical future heirs, and probably human civilization. ;)

 
I lost my nintendo power collection in the great flood of 2000. When I needed space in 2001, I tore out the ads from mags and kept the important bits. Now I regret doing that. I do have probably the entire run of PSM. Next generation/NextGen was probably the best gaming mag IMO, but they were part of my great purge, so I probably only have pieces and parts of them.

 
reaperztoll said:
Disc rot is one of those things you can't avoid, you can only draw out as long as possible. Unless of course we start getting commercial media on M-disc BD-R. Then your collection can outlast you, your theoretical future heirs, and probably human civilization. ;)
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Seems like the biggest contributor to disc rot sooner rather than later is the production process. There's apparently issues with WB made HD-DVDs from late 2000s having disc rot.

slowdive21 said:
I lost my nintendo power collection in the great flood of 2000. When I needed space in 2001, I tore out the ads from mags and kept the important bits. Now I regret doing that. I do have probably the entire run of PSM. Next generation/NextGen was probably the best gaming mag IMO, but they were part of my great purge, so I probably only have pieces and parts of them.
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I had to purge a ton of my old mags... they just took up a lot of space. I only kept a small run of PSMs from the PS1 days, when it was actually good. I also had a lot of one-off magazines. Never thought they'd ever be worth anything.

 
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Vinny said:
Seems like the biggest contributor to disc rot sooner rather than later is the production process. There's apparently issues with WB made HD-DVDs from late 2000s having disc rot.

I had to purge a ton of my old mags... they just took up a lot of space. I only kept a small run of PSMs from the PS1 days, when it was actually good. I also had a lot of one-off magazines. Never thought they'd ever be worth anything.
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I had all the rare Sega Saturn games and started getting rid of them about 3 years ago because several were developing disc rot, I've had Criterion DVDs develop it, I've had regular CDs get it, I don't feel confident any of those are going to last long term. I haven't looked at Blu Ray aside from the enterprise data storage side of it but hopefully it's better.

Talking about magazines, I had/have tons of long boxes full of them. Had the entire run of EGM, Gamepro, Nintendo Power, Gamefan up to a certain point. Then I just stopped reading them and threw away a huge amount of them. I'd say I regret it but they took up a stupid amount of space and I was never going to use them again for anything. I've still got a few longboxes of them though, need to track those down at some point

 
I thought I'd post my collection at this point. I do have some manga, but since my shelves are a train wreck I really don't want to photo those right now (need to pick up and vacuum too, sorries)

Also I couldn't get a pic of my PS3..I got that off Cowboom before they became Best Buy Outlet; it's a slim, and came with a controller.

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This is my setup other than my PS3 slim. My brother got that fatty PS2 for a steal from a thrift shop; $10 with no cords, I paid him $30 for it once we knew it worked. (He was looking for gas money at the time) I'm still hunting a official Sony video cord for that PS2 though. Also the games on the shelf in this picture actually belong to my brother; he's very generous about lending me his games; he's got a huuuge collection downstairs, all bought when they were new. (I need to clean out some backlog so I could play his .hack games, for instance. He has the whole series!)

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My current PS games collection; all three systems. I hope to snag Persona 4 off Amazon after the current barrage of good RPGs calms down.

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My DS/3DS games collection. Yes, I have a couple some would go meehh at..My brother got me that cooking one b/c he thought I could use it as a cookbook, meh..there wasn't any recipes in that 'game' I could use. And Personal Trainer Walking..well, that was one of my attempts to get in shape. I'll try again though.

As for my 3DS..it's a original purple one. I forgot I didn't get a pic of that either. Haven't seen a compelling reason to upgrade yet, tho I may get the new Ninty system when it comes out. All depends on the games.

 
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I don't have any pictures of my own to post, but since Shipwreck doesn't post here, I figured I'd share the video he posted on Twitter:

https://t.co/anD7Y9b9LM

maryadavies said:
This is my setup other than my PS3 slim. My brother got that fatty PS2 for a steal from a thrift shop; $10 with no cords, I paid him $30 for it once we knew it worked. (He was looking for gas money at the time) I'm still hunting a official Sony video cord for that PS2 though. Also the games on the shelf in this picture actually belong to my brother; he's very generous about lending me his games; he's got a huuuge collection downstairs, all bought when they were new. (I need to clean out some backlog so I could play his .hack games, for instance. He has the whole series!)
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The regular composite cable? I might have an extra.

 
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encendido5; that's what I'm looking for so I can get a little better picture from plugging it into that VCR, I'll pm you so we can talk about it. ^^

Elessar; I actually don't own a vita or vita tv. I am on the hunt for my own PSP at the moment though; been borrowing my brother's hacked PSP, but I'm just using it to play UMDs. I don't like borrowing systems simply because he might want to play it sooner or later, and I don't like fights. I'm mostly a Nintendo girl when it comes to portables, just so you know. ^^

Borrowed games don't seem to cause arguments as long as I don't drop them on the floor or something, borrowing systems has caused a argument or two in the past. Not sure why..I try to treat anything I borrow pretty gently and try to take care of whatever.

[Edit] Thought I'd better get the rest of my stuff anyway. I missed enough that I fished out my digital camera one more time.

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This was the result of my brother loaning me that game for a while, I bought that off Ebay since he didn't have the strat guide. I mean to get my own copy of that Zelda sooner or later. Prolly again..after the RPG barrage that's coming in the next few months.

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I had to take down a box full of my knitting stuff to get a pic of that. Yes, that's all the re-releases of the Sailor Moon manga. Been meaning to buy the Viz re-releases of the original SM anime too but well, things happen.

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These were all bought when they were new. That GBA SP still works, and one of these days, I mean to comb the two local gameshops that aren't gamestop (Gamers, The Secret Game Shop) and thrift stores and see if I can find some more games for it.

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Just so every one knows, I have the PC/Steam version of FFXII-2 due to "I don't want to pay for over the top DLC that has story in it" reasons. But it's the same game so that strat guide helped me beat it. I kept it since it looks nice. ^^

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My DVDs other than Big Hero 6 (that's also my one blue ray right now since I got a blue ray/dvd pack; my nephew luv luvs that so we keep it in the living room) and my Magic Knights Rayearth manga. The first series's box is a biiit ripped up, I need to find the scotch tape and tape up one side. Again. >< But I do read them now and then, so I guess some wear and tear is normal. ^^ In case you're wondering, the Magic Knights Rayearth manga is the Tokyopop translation, and I've had trouble with the first series box since day 1, even tho I bought it new. Just wish I could find the scotch tape, I must of had to tape it 3 or 4 times. :/

 
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I used to collect Strategy Guides years ago and ended up selling them off. So I decided to start getting them again so in the last year I've been grabbing ones for games I like or just look good and the price is right. I get only Hardcover/ Collector's Editions for my collection so it is pretty small at the moment. I got all these for under $10 each except for Pillars of Eternity which I paid $40 for. GTA V is sealed and the small Arkham Origins book is an art book.

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Coworker gifted me some eBay fodder that he didn't want to sell.  Made a little over $300.

After watching for a couple weeks, I finally won a set of Gamecube component cables...$202.  Hurt to pay that much, but I'm tired of watching these auctions.  (Actually, most had been ending between $230-240, so mine wasn't as bad.)

 
it gives you a nice picture on a hdtv but i don't think it is worth the price. at least your sales covered it so it didn't come out of your pocket. i was able to find one bundled with a system and controller for $40. i heard someone is making a component cable for the gamecube i forgot where i seen it though.

Rig said:
Coworker gifted me some eBay fodder that he didn't want to sell. Made a little over $300.

After watching for a couple weeks, I finally won a set of Gamecube component cables...$202. Hurt to pay that much, but I'm tired of watching these auctions. (Actually, most had been ending between $230-240, so mine wasn't as bad.)
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I'll probably find a Gamecube with them in a the wild now.  :lol: 

That is always something I look at when checking on the consoles.

 
Lord Darias said:
I used to collect Strategy Guides years ago and ended up selling them off. So I decided to start getting them again so in the last year I've been grabbing ones for games I like or just look good and the price is right. I get only Hardcover/ Collector's Editions for my collection so it is pretty small at the moment. I got all these for under $10 each except for Pillars of Eternity which I paid $40 for. GTA V is sealed and the small Arkham Origins book is an art book.

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Ugh... I forgot I still all my guides back at my parent's place. I really wish I hadn't invested so much in older guides... seems like most of them aren't even worth owning anymore. I started eBaying a few but they're such a pain to sell since most only go for $10-15 and after shipping (gotta pack them carefully), not much of a return. Nearly all of the ones I picked up ended up being worthless, while most of the ones I passed on actually have some value to them.

 
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Vinny said:
Ugh... I forgot I still all my guides back at my parent's place. I really wish I hadn't invested so much in older guides... seems like most of them aren't even worth owning anymore. I started eBaying a few but they're such a pain to sell since most only go for $10-15 and after shipping (gotta pack them carefully), not much of a return. Nearly all of the ones I picked up ended up being worthless, while most of the ones I passed on actually have some value to them.
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I recently sold off quite a few strategy guides and made close to $300. The biggest chunk of that was an unopened Legendary Skyrim guide that went OOP and I had bought for $30 off Amazon way back when it came out. Realized with prices reaching up to $150 for it new, I sold it for as much knowing that it would tank once they announced a new guide for the remaster. Sure enough, everything went to plan and I have an order for $30 on Amazon for the new guide that is purely a reprint with a new cover lol.

 
Jodou said:
I recently sold off quite a few strategy guides and made close to $300. The biggest chunk of that was an unopened Legendary Skyrim guide that went OOP and I had bought for $30 off Amazon way back when it came out. Realized with prices reaching up to $150 for it new, I sold it for as much knowing that it would tank once they announced a new guide for the remaster. Sure enough, everything went to plan and I have an order for $30 on Amazon for the new guide that is purely a reprint with a new cover lol.
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Which is what I don't get... seems like some newer guides go for so much but with all the re-releases (GotY editions, remasters), those guides end up getting reprinted and improved upon-- not to mention that there are some digital/mobile guides that are much better. I get some people want physical but I don't understand the value when there's a high chance of a better guide coming in the future.

I have a ton of PS1/PS2 guides, most of them barely go for anything more than MSRP.

Speaking of guides, I should probably organize my collection. I don't have much but in total, it's probably guide a bit.

 
Here is my small guide collection, mostly thanks to the CAG guide on penny guides  :)   I haven't looked for them in a long time.  I think I paid close to retail on the first five here, but the rest were all penny guides.

FFXII looks backwards because only this side has the title.  I could flip it, but then it would be upside down.

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Here are some more guides.  I used to have about 20 more issues of NP, starting from issue 5 or so.  Sadly, I threw them away when cleaning house.  

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I still have a ton of guides boxed up. At some point, i need to see what some of them are worth. Once I finish basement in new house, i'll probably display some of them, mostly hardcovers.

 
I just added 3 more to my collection for pretty cheap.

Fallout 3 Collector's Edition 8.99

Fallout New Vegas Collector's Edition $5

Mass Effect 3 Collector's Edition 5.99

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I have been buying and selling guides for about 2 years now and I still have no clue why some are real expensive and some are really cheap. My White Whale is the guide mentioned above. The Skyrim Legendary Hardcover collector's guide. I refused to pay the $150 they were going for and was looking out for one all summer at sales and just couldn't get one. $40 is my top price that I will pay for a guide. It is what I paid for my Pillar's of Eternity Guide which goes for around $200 on Amazon. I have owned the collectors editions of Fallout 3 and New Vegas about 3 times now and I end up flipping them on Ebay for about $70 together. 

 
I know I have some AC with artbooks that used to sell high as well as 10+ of the Uncharted guide. Probably 10 or so of the SMG HC and about 20 of the army of 2 with the graphic novel. I got massive drops at Best buy during that era and they even liked me getting the stuff. They used to call me the "penny guy" and literally filled a cart for me of penny stuff. That store ended up closing, because it was old -even though they had some of the highest sales in the US because of me and some other CAGs buying/trading so much.  I was able to snag a lot of the shelf liners when they closed as well as a borderlands display.

I know some of you have seen it before, but for those who haven't:



 
I know I mentioned it a few pages back that I couldn't find some of my long box SEGA games - well I think I found them all. To the earlier photos with Keio and Snatcher you can Albert Odyssey, Dragon Force, Guardian Heroes, Space Ace , Dragon's Lair, and Cadillacs & Dinosaurs (plus a bunch of random junk ones).

 
Dokstarr said:
I know I mentioned it a few pages back that I couldn't find some of my long box SEGA games - well I think I found them all. To the earlier photos with Keio and Snatcher you can Albert Odyssey, Dragon Force, Guardian Heroes, Space Ace , Dragon's Lair, and Cadillacs &amp; Dinosaurs (plus a bunch of random junk ones).
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I recently bought a mint Albert Odyssey from Goodwill for $100 and I sold it on Ebay for $255 so that should give you an idea of how much your copy is worth. Also from the same Goodwill they had a mint Dragon Force for $100 and the guy that bought that sold it for $160.

 
I never thought trying to combine collections from two diff locations would be such a pain... 5 months into this new place and still not even half-way done unpacking. 

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Moving is a bitch...  that's why the vast majority of my collection is in my mother's garage right now.  Not moving all that shit again until I buy a house.  I don't think I have enough room in my apartment anyway.

 
SlaughterX said:
Moving is a bitch... that's why the vast majority of my collection is in my mother's garage right now. Not moving all that shit again until I buy a house. I don't think I have enough room in my apartment anyway.
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I had that luxury for the longest time but my parents are moved from IL to AZ and are gonna sell their old house within the next year so... no more free storage for me. My hope was I could finally sort stuff by system and whatnot but that ain't happening due to all sorts of random CE box sizes.

salty tbone said:
That shelf is worth more than my car. Which is more a burn on me but that's still awesome.
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Hahaha... that can't be true. The only things worth anything are the LoU Post-Pandemic Editions and the Ni No Wizard's Edition. Most of that other stuff is probably barely over what I paid for it.

 
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