This man is my hero

aw man... why can't some guy pay $15,000 for my worthless shit!

As a collector...

/me looks behind him at ~$1000 worth of imported MegaTen games and infront at $1000+ worth of imported consoles.

...yeah, it's a addictive.

Ah, people with more money than they know what to do with. Don't get me wrong, collecting carts is as good a hobby as any, but $15k is 3/4 my yearly salary.

Wow, this guy puts me to shame. I've got 35+ consoles, but 130 *that's* crazy.

What's his day job? I mean, if you have the money, spend it on what makes you happy.

That picture is full of fail for not having a blown up version.

@TwilightSea: I know!! I want to see!!

couldn't he hire someone for half that price to just steal it?

@TwilightSea:
Epic agreement to that...i'll trade my NES for a car,any offers?

That is THE RAREST GAME KNOWN TO MAN, people!
I WOULD KILL for it!
It's the kinda thing you'd buy only if you won the lottery, but apparently he has spare change....

I'd actually really like to see that guy's collection in a museum-esque space. Glass cases and what not, but playable on vintage CRT television. That would easily be a worth $5 admission.

This is why I limit my collecting to consoles and games that I plan on playing, even if only once, and never paying more than the original retail price.

"Look at this. It's worthless - ten dollars from a vendor in the street. But I take it, I bury it in the sand for a thousand years, it becomes priceless."

@Garo: Unless "this" happens to be a copy of E.T. for the Atari. Or maybe that's been their strategy all along...?

FUCKING BRILLIANT, ATARI! Looks like their whole plan was to make a comeback in 2984.

i clicked on TFA only in hopes of a larger image of his wall of POWAH. what a letdown. uber fail.

Do we have any idea what this guy does for a living?

I'm sorry, but cart collecting is just foolish. It's like collecting the shipping crates that famous paintings come in.

I stop collecting stuff after a natural disaster struck my home :(

@Atrius: Thats depresssing, I mean your salary. I thought my job paid peanuts.

Money comes from where!@?!?!?

130!? I thought the xbox was the only console ever made

130 systems? Counting each Pong clone as a new system maybe?

Seriously though, someday this guy is gonna go, my God, what do I need all this crap for and realize he spends more time polishing his collection than actually playing anything. But, to each his own.

I wonder what his wife thinks.

@icepick314: And actually get away with it? Highly unlikely. Anyone you can hire in that price range is no professional and is going to get caught. No one in their right mind is going to go to jail to protect you for a measly 15k, that requires more money, or at least the promise of more money, or power, ect. Threats also work, in my experience.

In fact threats are almost required. Think, if there is a lucrative market for this merchandise, even on the black market, and this thief you have hired is worth his salt, he knows a reputable fence or two and could just as easily make a quick buck by cashing in his/her recently acquired illicit good(s).

Remember, in the world of crime you are either two steps ahead or you are taking it where the sun don't shine.

Why so serious?

As a major game collector with a complete xbox 360 collection and over 6,000 games.... Even I can safely say only a complete PSYCHOPATH would pay 15,000 dollars for ONE game.

Is collecting shit anything more than capitalistic hyper-materialism? Or is it some kind of obsessive compulsive disorder? (If so, wouldn't be easier to collect something cheap?)

I just don't get the thrill of it.

@anonymousryan: I'm with you, although I do have a modest collection of games (60 or so, I think). I've never paid more than retail, and many I've gotten on the cheap. Started collecting all the consoles and respective games when I was in high school but sold most of it off before I hit university. I'm just not in that kind of position, and while I'd love to own a video game museum, now is not the time in my life to prepare for it.

Also, I've never made that much money in a year in my life. It's kind of disgusting.

If I had enough money for something like that, I think id have a much sweeter looking 'trophy' room.

@Captain Wrong:
@FightingChance:

Amen. I wonder how well beanie babies are holding their value these days?

He should open a museum with all that crap so he can write the cost of it off on his taxes.

And you know hes some douchebag that lives in Redmond or Palo Alto.

ummm so what game is it though?

He's probably European.
Every european has a couple of euros to spare :D

This is a psychological problem (due to a trait from our evolutionary past). And if any of you have it I urge you to sell everything that you do not have a strong emotional connection to right now. You will regret it later in life. "The things you own end up owning you."

(Speaking with a certain amount of experience)

More like a cliff.

@Billkwando: Amen. I wonder how well beanie babies are holding their value these days?

Same as those Bicentennial quarters. Actually if you watch those house-purging shows (Clean House etc.) they always toss the Beanies at a sale for $0.50 or so.

Of course they also try to force people to get rid of any and all videogames as well.

I only collect shit I can *wear*.

Nobody's gonna see this guy's stupid console collection.

@clintonskneecap:

The GOLD Powerfest '90 Nintendo Game Championship cartridge. It's a special cartridge that plays through Rad Racer, Tetris, and Super Mario Brothers with special restrictions.

The Gold version was an extremely limited promo item from Nintendo Power back in the early 1990s--I think it's under 100 copies ever made.

@anonymousryan: I'm mildly autistic and obsessive-compulsive with obsessive collective tendencies.

Seriously, I have stacks of TV Guides and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle backing boards. I can't throw ANYTHING away without having a nervous breakdown.

I've owned a copy of this game since the early 1990's. It came from one of the employees of Tengen that went to the NWC finals but ultimately lost. A long time ago my copy was showcased at the SciTech museum and was set up in a display case. A few years ago I insured the game for $13k... it looks like I need to call the adjuster and bump it up.

$15,000? That's crazy, but at the same time, inspiring.

ive got a gold colored Zelda cartridge collecting dust somewhere in my basement..is it worth the energy of selling?

I remember reading about this guy in Edge. Insane jealousy aside, it's exactly what I'd do if money was less of an object. Kudos to you sir.

Wow, I was in that championship! Can't believe that was almost 20 years ago. Of course I failed miserably on the first level, but I was just a kid so whatever.

does anyone know what GAMES or GAMe was on the cart???

@rainofwalrus: Yeah, no kidding. All I wanted to see was the obvious thing -- the games!

@Lixie: I wonder if he ever has got laid

Man, 15K, for just a little piece of electronics and plastic, and there are kids on the other side of the world dying from hunger

@canuckistani: I do have one toooooo, but 'll be keeping this one 4ever. The rare thing is, I don't know where it came from, i never bought it, I learned of Zelda on the Snes, and one day, this game pupped up when I was cleaning my room. That was like 13 or 14 years ago

@TomSkylark: He runs a gaming developing company I think in NYC

@cjlopez: If he has $15k to blow on one cart, I'd say he has plenty of money to woo the ladies.

@uberwolf0: 1990 Nintendo World Championships.

26 were made and sent to Nintendo Power readers, meaning that not only is there a very small number of them, but they could be anywhere. It's a perfect holy grail for collectors.

Anybody who can blow $15,000 on a single cart they're likely to never actually use really needs to have their head examined. I couldn't live with myself for having utterly wasted more money than some entire families make in a year, on a piece of fucking plastic.

Got money like that to burn: donate it to a proper charity, better yet: start one youself. Stop wasting precious shelf space on shit you don't need. There's people starvin to death out there, and you rationalize 15 grand on a videogame you'll never play? Shame on you...

@Marion517 wrote:

"I mean, if you have the money, spend it on what makes you happy."

Or you know, spend it on something that makes the world a better place for someone other than yourself. The only excuse here is that this guy has an obsessive/compulsive or hoarding disorder. In that case, spend some of that coin on getting real psychiatric help. That's not a collection on display in that pic: it's evidence of a potentially serious disorder. Or it's just the byproduct of gross affluenza and a perverse need for monetary self-indulgence, which in itself is truly disgusting.

You don't drop that kind of green on a videogame cartridge unless you can't wait to brag about how much you paid for it, or have a major mental problem. Regardless- this is something to be reviled, not celebrated. Were that me, there wouldn't be a living soul other than the seller who'd have any idea I was that frivolous.

He can spend %15,000 on a single golden cart, but he doesn't have an SLR or any high resolution camera to take pictures for us to marvel at that collection?

@Linnard: So you have Asperger Syndrome than? I thought maybe a few of you had it, it only comes natural with deep obsessions.

I wonder if he plays any of these? I also think "The Angry Video Game Nerd" has a massive collection and a studio that can afford to buy games for him.

@James-WDDG: Do you have the PS3? I don't see it there. There was another guy, the man who sold off thousands of games and systems and he too had every single system but the PS3. It's as if collectors hate it or something.

@kylo4: I have no idea if it's Asberger's or autism; they're actually a lot more different than you'd think.

I never had it diagnosed. I know I've got one of the two, but I honestly don't want to know specifics--I'm functional, I have a day job, a valid if limited social life, and average health otherwise, so I'm happy assuming and not knowing. It's not like it's really treatable anyways.

I will note though...

I spent $92 on a Japanese TurboDuo and 5 games.

I spent $53 on a Famicom and $85 on a Famicom Disk Drive.

I spent $89 on Shin Megami Tensei If for the PSX in the Special Edition box.

I would never. Ever. Spend $15,000 on one thing. Never. Even in my worst moments I can safely say that I wouldn't buy a complete library of games for that, let alone one that's not even particularly playable and is so limited I'd be afraid to have it out in the light.

I suppose if you're flush you're flush, and you're lucky in some sense. My golden rule? If it's over $100 or it interferes with the mortgage payment, it's out. Gotta set a guideline somewhere.

I'd never want to be so rich I can spend my money on random crap...

@Lixie: Ha. Haha. Oh, that's rich.

@Linnard: You'd probably have AS than (sorry for going off topic here) judging by what you've said. There are even those with AS who make a huge salary, so it's possible. People with HFA have many deficits that those with AS don't have. If you simply cannot pick up on some social cues, have some motor difficulties and have obsessive interests that you know everything about, plus a vocabulary beyond your years, than that's it. They actually want to separate AS from Autism in general, feeling that it no longer fits.

(I did a lot of research on this and have read books)

Some people just blow their money. Didn't Steven Spielberg buy a Picasso painting or something?