Part of the reason this blog got so off track is that I spent two weeks in Massachusetts, where all my Earthly priorities kind of went out the window. I spent a lot of that time cataloging my East Coast game collection, since my records of what exactly I had were a bit spotty. I also felt the need to take one big picture of it all, since I somehow forgot to do that when I put it all in boxes five years ago. Tried to get the same angle as the only picture I have of when I first started getting serious about collecting.

The mythical East Coast half of my collection. Someday both halves will link up and it will be glorious.

Anyway, one of the first things I did upon arriving in Massachusetts was go through the Magic cards sitting in my dad’s basement and pull out anything worth money. I was actually quite surprised at what I found, more than a few $5-$15 cards that were only worth a quarter back when I actually played. I took everything I could find down to my buddy Seth’s store: X9 Games in Hadley, MA.

Seth’s store is my personal hookup for games. Why? Because Seth doesn’t have a ton of floor space, so he has piles and piles of un-priced games chilling in the back room. Every box holds random treasures which he probably should be selling on eBay to pay his rent, but hey, more for me! I ended up getting about $2000 in cash/credit for all the cards, and though I probably should’ve socked some of that away to pay some bills… how could I resist with these goodies waiting to come home with me?

This is just the “good” stuff he sold me. Plenty of random commons/uncommons were snagged as well.

Unfortunately (though fortunately for my wallet) the rest of Massachusetts was kind of a bust gamewise. I did pick up a large stack of PS2 / Xbox stuff at a flea market for $5 a title, stuff like Blue Dragon, Bullet Witch and SMT: Nocturne which I expect to rise in price as time goes on. Sadly, I didn’t have time to visit Video Game Castle in Chicopee, MA, which has been a mecca for me over the years. I remember purchasing Suikoden II from them for $25 back in the day… what a beautiful memory.

$5 randoms. I now stupidly have triplicates of Way of the Samurai, Neo Contra, and Fatal Fury vol. 1. Anybody wanna trade?

Other than that though, I haven’t made any major purchases in 2016. Been scouting for an original copy of Bayonetta 2 with no luck thus far. Picked up a few randoms on eBay. Found a real cool flea market an hour out of town which I will have to document further on my next visit.

@nickfil about $110 for all this crap pic.twitter.com/yHU78KB1qY

— Vito Gesualdi (@VitoGesualdi) February 20, 2016

And I was lucky enough to get a Fire Emblem Limited Edition, which is now going for outrageous money on the eBay. Feel kind of bad for any collectors who missed out on that one, who wants to buy those games separately?

One last thought, I seriously considered picking a console collection to “complete” this year. For instance, Game Boy Advance is probably my favorite thing to collect for, and I’ve held off on buying a complete Ninja Five-O and stuff like that because of the price tags (I’ve got two loose copies to trade though!). Thing is, I think I enjoy collecting at random, and not making big purchases unless I can get some sort of small deal. For instance, I’m ready to lock in on a Mega Man X3 cart if I can find one for under $200, but I don’t want to drop $250 on one just for the sake of “completing” something.

That being said, taking a look at my Dreamcast want list… I could maybe complete it by year’s end if I get aggressive on scouting eBay listings. GigaWing and GigaWing 2 are the big ones… also E.G.G. which I know I had a goddamn copy of and I must’ve sold it. Hmm… I guess we’ll see!

– Vito Gesualdi