Minicollections

Finally I have come around the main point I wanted to make when I started writing about collecting goals, lo those many weeks ago. It's something that is at once blindingly obvious and very exciting (well, I find it exciting, anyway). The idea is simple: define a small subset of stuff that shares some kind of common theme, and collect the best quality examples of it you can find. This technique has the advantage of being manageable, while giving you that sexy goal of "completion" that collectors love to strive for. I'm calling these subsets minicollections.

Examples of minicollections:
1. CIB examples of all the Atari 2600 games released by Imagic.
2. Complete copies of all the NES Mega Man games.
3. Mint copies of all the games you had as a kid.
4. Every licensed Pac-Man game for every system you collect.

The list goes on. The best part of minicollections is that they're endlessly flexible. Any theme that interests you can be a minicollection, and you can make them as small or as large as you please.

I've completed at least one minicollection, although it was big enough that the "mini" epithet may not be totally appropriate. I've managed to amass complete-in-box copies of all the original American Odyssey² releases. (If you're curious, the last piece I acquired was a Power Lords manual.) My next "mini" goal for it is to improve its cosmetic condition. Most of the games are in good shape, but a few labels are bubbled, a couple boxes are crushed, and so on. However, I expect this goal to remain incomplete for a long time, as mint O2 games are hard to come by.

I have other minicollection ideas in mind as well, but I think I'll save them for later posts.