Andre lives in France. He’s 32-years-old and works in law. Since the age of five he has been an avid gamer, with a strong preference for Japanese games, RPGs, and old-fashioned shoot-’em-ups.
For most of his life he has been collecting games. Last week, he decided to sell a significant proportion of his collection, a $1.22 million package consisting of full-sets for 22 consoles and game-devices -- a total of 7,000 games.
The collection includes a complete set of every game released in Japan on Nintendo systems from NES through to GameCube, as well as every game for every Sega system and a full, factory-sealed collection of all NEC games.
View attachment 111133
Full sets are included for such curiosities as Sega 32X, Game Gear, Virtua Boy, and PC Engine. As Andre puts it in the ad, "You’ll probably only see this once in a lifetime.”
In an email interview, Andre told IGN that although the collection is marked on eBay as sold - to an individual in Canada - he has yet to be convinced that the buyer “is serious” and may be putting the collection up for sale again.
Andre says, “The collecting began in 1994 or so. I collected with my twin brother up to around 2001, then continued the journey alone. I don’t collect things obsessively. I’m not what you’d call a hoarder, more like a completionist. I like to achieve challenges, and getting all games for a specific system was one.”
He explains, “First I’d buy the games I love, then all games from the specific companies who produced those games like Falcom, Square, Capcom and Konami, and then I went for the full-set of the game genres. Once finished, what was the next goal? Getting all the games for the specific system. When the challenge was too easy, for some systems I’d try to get them factory sealed.”
He says it’s impossible to say how much he has spent on games over the past two decades, but estimates “hundreds of thousands of dollars”. He supplements his income trading games via eBay and clearly understands the value of collections and rarities. Right now he has over 40 items for sale, ranging in price from $10 to $500.
Andre adds that, broken down, the collection probably isn't worth the asking price. The value is in its completeness and the difficulty involved in amassing such a treasure. “It was extremely difficult to find some games, because some never appear,” he says. “It can take four or five years to finally see one copy of the game you seek in factory sealed condition, and you’re lucky to not miss it. Sometimes there are only two or three copies in the world.”
View attachment 111134
So why sell the collection, and why now? “Because I felt I had achieved a goal,” he explains. “I got all the games for all the systems I loved. I did it only on the systems I loved. I won’t do it on Wii for example just because it’s a Nintendo system.” But he’ll still be keeping other games, duplicates of favored items. “This is not the entire collection I’m selling, just the Sega, Nintendo and NEC blocks of it.”
On his life as a gamer, he says, “I’ve been playing since I was five, but I play less these days than I did when I was aged between 10 and 25. I love Japanese RPGs, shoot-‘em-ups, fighting games and action platform games. The Ys series affected my life, as well as Japanese RPGs such as Far East of Eden 2, Emerald Dragon, Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Phantasy Star series’.”
For security and privacy reasons, Andre prefers to keep his identity out of the media. Already, with the initial sale looking shaky, he is dealing with some of the problems involved in selling such a high-profile and expensive collection on eBay. Selling a game collection for a million Euros ($1.22 million) comes with practical concerns, like how to receive payment.
He says, “I’d probably ship them by Fedex in individual box shipments, being paid in separate amounts with each shipment, perhaps ten percent at a time. It’d take a few weeks to make the delivery, but I think it’s the safest way, so every package can be fully insured.”
So, we are yet to find out who the mystery buyer is, or indeed if anyone is really willing to drop a million bucks on such a collection. Is Andre really confident that someone will pay such a fee? He replies with Gallic sang-froid. “Not until I am paid.”
For most of his life he has been collecting games. Last week, he decided to sell a significant proportion of his collection, a $1.22 million package consisting of full-sets for 22 consoles and game-devices -- a total of 7,000 games.
The collection includes a complete set of every game released in Japan on Nintendo systems from NES through to GameCube, as well as every game for every Sega system and a full, factory-sealed collection of all NEC games.
View attachment 111133
Full sets are included for such curiosities as Sega 32X, Game Gear, Virtua Boy, and PC Engine. As Andre puts it in the ad, "You’ll probably only see this once in a lifetime.”
In an email interview, Andre told IGN that although the collection is marked on eBay as sold - to an individual in Canada - he has yet to be convinced that the buyer “is serious” and may be putting the collection up for sale again.
Andre says, “The collecting began in 1994 or so. I collected with my twin brother up to around 2001, then continued the journey alone. I don’t collect things obsessively. I’m not what you’d call a hoarder, more like a completionist. I like to achieve challenges, and getting all games for a specific system was one.”
He explains, “First I’d buy the games I love, then all games from the specific companies who produced those games like Falcom, Square, Capcom and Konami, and then I went for the full-set of the game genres. Once finished, what was the next goal? Getting all the games for the specific system. When the challenge was too easy, for some systems I’d try to get them factory sealed.”
He says it’s impossible to say how much he has spent on games over the past two decades, but estimates “hundreds of thousands of dollars”. He supplements his income trading games via eBay and clearly understands the value of collections and rarities. Right now he has over 40 items for sale, ranging in price from $10 to $500.
Andre adds that, broken down, the collection probably isn't worth the asking price. The value is in its completeness and the difficulty involved in amassing such a treasure. “It was extremely difficult to find some games, because some never appear,” he says. “It can take four or five years to finally see one copy of the game you seek in factory sealed condition, and you’re lucky to not miss it. Sometimes there are only two or three copies in the world.”
View attachment 111134
So why sell the collection, and why now? “Because I felt I had achieved a goal,” he explains. “I got all the games for all the systems I loved. I did it only on the systems I loved. I won’t do it on Wii for example just because it’s a Nintendo system.” But he’ll still be keeping other games, duplicates of favored items. “This is not the entire collection I’m selling, just the Sega, Nintendo and NEC blocks of it.”
On his life as a gamer, he says, “I’ve been playing since I was five, but I play less these days than I did when I was aged between 10 and 25. I love Japanese RPGs, shoot-‘em-ups, fighting games and action platform games. The Ys series affected my life, as well as Japanese RPGs such as Far East of Eden 2, Emerald Dragon, Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Phantasy Star series’.”
For security and privacy reasons, Andre prefers to keep his identity out of the media. Already, with the initial sale looking shaky, he is dealing with some of the problems involved in selling such a high-profile and expensive collection on eBay. Selling a game collection for a million Euros ($1.22 million) comes with practical concerns, like how to receive payment.
He says, “I’d probably ship them by Fedex in individual box shipments, being paid in separate amounts with each shipment, perhaps ten percent at a time. It’d take a few weeks to make the delivery, but I think it’s the safest way, so every package can be fully insured.”
So, we are yet to find out who the mystery buyer is, or indeed if anyone is really willing to drop a million bucks on such a collection. Is Andre really confident that someone will pay such a fee? He replies with Gallic sang-froid. “Not until I am paid.”
