MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
The Guinness Book of World Records’ officially sanctioned ‘World’s Largest Video Game Collection’ is up for sale.
Michael Thommason’s 11,000+ strong collection includes complete software catalogues for a range of platforms including Dreamcast, Saturn, Virtual Boy, Lynx, Jaguar, Turbo-Grafx-16 Super CD and Sega CD.
It also boasts near complete collections for Sega 32-X, Magnavox Odyssey 2, SuperVision, Vectrex… and Gizmodo. There are also titles for more or less any system you’d care to mention including Game Boy, SNES, Commodore 64, NES, Wonderswan, Mega Drive, PSP, Vita, Xbox 360, CD-I and many, many, many more.
Around a quarter of the collection is new and factory sealed and over 8,000 are boxed with manual.
Amazingly, the listing currently has a maximum bid of only $5,678 – although that hasn’t yet reached the reserve.
I operated seven independent gaming stores during the nineties and have worked for another chain for the last decade,” Thommason said. I also operated Good Deal Games online since 1998, having thousands of games cross my path. Whenever I purchased a game that did not directly come from the distributor I was able to look through all our inventory and pick out the nicest copy of a game, including grabbing the nicest box and manual. As a result, the games in my collection are mostly PRISTINE.
Although I am selling this collection, please do not misunderstand and come to the conclusion that I am leaving the hobby. That is definitely not the case. I love games and they are pivotal part of my identity. I will continue to champion them. I simply have an immediate family and extended family that have needs that need to be addressed. While I do not wish to part with these games, I have responsibilities that I have made to others and this action is how I will help meet them.
I’ve sold my collection many times in the past and still managed to capture Guinness’ attention, and it is entirely possible that I may again.”
