Video games, like DVDs and BluRays, are a very addictive proposition. Like the old potato chip ad used to say, “Betcha can’t eat just one,” and once you start piling up your favorite titles, it’s difficult to hold yourself back and stop.
Now Sports Illustrated tells us that Michael Thomasson has been certified by the Guinness Book of World Records, which now has a Gamer’s Edition believe it or not. Thomasson has a haul of 10,607 games.
Thomasson teaches game history and game design at Canisius College in Buffalo (bet you didn’t know there were classes on this), and he actually sold off his collection twice, first to buy a Sega Genesis, then again years later to pay for his wedding.
Thomasson buys two games a day on average, and he keeps himself on a budget of $3,000 a year. As Sports Illustrated and The Huffington Post tell us, his collection is worth $700,000 to $800,000. It’s a trip to think that so many little plastic cartridges could add up to this kind of money. The real question is how much does a collection this big cost a collector? We don’t want to know, because it’s scary to think we could have bought a nice house with all this disposable income…