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This last week I added another Odyssey^2 game to my collection. Monkeyshines!
I paid a buy it now price on ebay of $8.30 plus $3.50 shipping. It's CIB and in fairly nice condition.
[img width=700 height=525]http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8341/8214448954_de1f8dd4cb_c.jpg[/img]
This game leaves me with 6 to go for the complete US set. How many did I have left before this Monkeyshines!? I had been telling everyone 7, which makes sense right? In actuality it was 6. So I went from having 6 left to 6 left.
In my odyssey to get a complete set I had figured I should keep track of what games there were, what games I had and which ones there were left to go. Makes sense right? Fortunately there is some website on the internets helping me out with that. What was its name again....
More than half of my Odyssey^2 collection is loose but not much more than half. I've been kinda lucky getting as many boxed games as I have. Even my O^2 console came with the box. Collecting cardboard isn't super exciting to me, sure, I have my fair share of boxed game stuff but I collect to play and boxes aren't required.
So I had printed off this neat checklist of O^2 games to help me keep track of the games I needed. Adding new games to that one website I do with all games that come in but for quick reference I kept the printed O^2 checklist nearby. As time went on I would add games in by hand to the list as well as notes on how much I saw other games sell for and how much I paid for games I got. At one point I highlighted the games I didn't yet own. This piece of paper has been well used over the last year.
Somewhere along the line I bought a lot of several boxes and manuals. Now you're calling me out on whether I collect CIB or loose. Well, yeah, maybe I was confused with what I was doing but this lot was too good of a deal to pass up. It was, for the most part, boxes and manuals for games I only had loose and a couple I had yet to get. And was super cheap to boot. One of the manuals was for Monkeyshines! (remember this was earlier than the Monkeyshines! I just got) so I marked down on that checklist for one manual on Monkeyshines!
I think that catches us up to a week ago.
So I had it in my mind and on the checklist paper as still needing Monkeyshines! although the manual was in my possession. I saw one on ebay for a nice CIB one and did the buy it now thing. Then I checked that one website (RFGen of course). The website said I owned Monkeyshines!, game and manual though my head and checklist did not. So then I had to go to the source, the Odyssey^2 collection. Fortunately with the US collection only being 49 games it doesn't take long to go through. Sure enough, I already owned Monkeyshines!! How did this happen? I think I just bought it with several other games and forgot to mark it down on my sheet.
So now we are caught up on that story.
I guess the lesson is to keep track of your collection to avoid buying the same game twice. But I was doing that! See, I have a list! Clear as mud, right?
[img width=658 height=800]http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8345/8214465286_23287989d1_c.jpg[/img]
Were do I go from here? There are now (as there had been, haha) 6 games left for me to get. Here is a quick rundown:
Atlantis and Power Lords! - These two are the spendy ones. The O^2 doesn't really have rare games, but we call these two "rare" compared to the rest. These two come up several times a year on ebay and other places. They range in price from $60 loose for Atlantis to ambitious $150 buy-it-now's for CIB Power Lords! I'm not going to spend that much, so unless there is a garage sale find, I'm content with not owning these two. The other option is to get these games from a different region then the US, they don't show up as often but are a little cheaper.
Killer Bees! - This one is all over the place on price. I've seen it for $9 loose and about $60 for a boxed copy. It's regularly available for $30ish CIB on ebay. I'm just waiting on a good deal.
The Great Wall Street Fortune Hunt! - Also regularly available, but for more than I want to spend. This game is only a couple of dollars loose but is one of three O^2 games you need to get CIB because it is also played in conjunction with a board game. I've seen a very nice copy sell for $10 plus $4 shipping. I'm waiting for that sort of price again.
PT Barnum's Acrobats! and Keyboard Creations! - These two are only worth a couple of dollars. Even CIB they don't sell for much. Less than $10 or even around $5. The weird thing is they are just not showing up lately unless it's exorbitant buy it now prices. Actually, Keyboard Creations! hasn't come up much at all. I see it in lots on ebay and picture-less on amazon for too much $. Keyboard Creations! is one of the least valuable games, loose I wouldn't be surprised to see it for $1.
So those six games are what I have left. I'll probably try to get the cheaper four CIB, just because the price won't be that much difference. In the case of Keyboard Creations! I don't really want to pay $4 shipping on a $1 game. So now it's really just a waiting game.
Here is a picture of nearly all the Odyssey^2 games I own (four more are waiting to be scanned and entered into the DB). They are stacked two deep and there are some O^2 games from other regions as well:
[img width=700 height=525]http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8480/8214448780_0f08866445_c.jpg[/img]
Why collect for the Odyssey^2 instead of putting that time and effort into a more prestigious system like the NES, Vectrex or Casio Loopy?
Price. This could be the cheapest console to acquire all the games for. Nearly all the games are only worth a couple of dollars loose. Even if you want to go CIB the cost isn't too bad as long as you have patience.
It's unusual. Everyone that reads this is already in that small fraction of the population who considers themselves "game collectors" Why not be part of an even smaller group as well? You could imagine having conversations like this:
O^2 collector - "Nice to meet you. What do you like to do?"
Regular person - "Oh, you know, watch TV, play with the dog. How about you?"
O^2 - "Well, I like to collect old video games."
RP - "I used to have a Nintendo Cube. I gave it to my nephews."
O^2 - "Yeah that's a good system."
RP - "So you collect old games? Like for the Nintendo and Playstation?"
O^2 - "Well, yeah, but I also like collecting for the Odyssey 2."
RP - "Odyssey 2? Never heard of it"
O^2 - "It's pretty old, it came out in the late 70's"
RP - "We had an Atari when I was a kid."
O^2 - "Oh yeah? The Odyssey 2 was a contemporary of the Atari"
RP - "....was it called Intellivision?"
O^2 - ".....yes.....it was called the Intellivision."
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