Hmmm. Upgrades.

I started collecting original PlayStation games in 2015.

Back then, money was tight. I was more interested in having the games to play and talk about than I was about quality or “completeness”. I guess, while I was collecting games, I wasn’t really a collector, if that makes sense.

10 years later, things are markedly different. I have a decent job. I bought a house. I have a dedicated “retro room” for my older games and consoles. And… now I’ve transitioned into being more of a collector. I strive to find complete and clean copies of games, whether they’re new to my library or– in the case of the four games in the photo– upgrades to what I had.

Did I need these games? Do I need to upgrade? Not really. I’m a very under-the-radar collector. My social media presence is small, and I’m not collecting for metrics. At the same time, the OCD in me looks at a game that is missing a manual– as Vagrant Story was– and felt the urge to upgrade it. I look at a game like Fisherman’s Bait, that had some scratches on the disc, and saw a great chance to upgrade when I spotted a clean copy for $4.

Incredible Crisis was an upgrade in condition. The case, manual, and disc are pristine. My “old” copy is very good, with the only blemish really being an old FuncoLand pricing sticker that I couldn’t remove… but it was very hard to walk away from a copy that looked as good as the one I found.

At some point, I’d like to look more closely at my collection and determine more upgrade opportunities. After 10 years, it’s worth going back and evaluating the games I own to see where better copies might make sense. Upgrades from loose discs to complete copies is also a goal of mine, but some of the games are fairly pricey (Alundra, the Breath of Fire games, Chocobo Racing, and others).

Upgrades are part of the collecting journey. It’s fun to share these.