The Collector's Quest

By Johnny & Tyler

What's The Collector's Quest about?

Listen to the Collector's Quest Podcast! Your resource for topics on game collecting, information, news, sets, variants, etc. If you collect retro games, or any video games, give us a listen!

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The Collector's Quest episodes:

04.14.2024
CQ 245 - Games Are Affordable When You Don't Buy Nonsense
If you've ever said "Games are getting too expensive" are you talking about games you care about that matter, random hyped expensive trash, or the cost of trying to own literally every video game? The best games to collect are...
03.23.2024
CQ 244 - Are Game Conventions Even Worth It?
We're talking about game conventions and our thoughts on attending them for both commerce and sociability in preparation for the upcoming Midwest Gaming Classic. Sorry for the late post, I've been very sick this past week!
03.07.2024
CQ 243 - The Best Non-Game VG Collectibles
We're talking about every collecting category except video games: coins, stamps, comics, toys, cereal, etc. and what the best video game things in those categories are that come to mind. Over 3 minutes of research was done looking up video...
02.19.2024
CQ 242 - Collecting Controversy
We're talking about a few controversial games we haven't yet discussed to death including perhaps the first controversial video game in 1973's Gotcha to Wolfenstein 3D to whatever Gal Gun is. This episode is banned in Germany for multiple reasons.
02.09.2024
CQ 241 - Modern Games You'll NEVER Regret Owning
We're discussing some of potential "oh I wish I just got that when it was $8" games of 2000s and up. And also $3000 World of Warcraft server blades, which are sure to be a timeless collectible as well.
01.22.2024
CQ 240 - Old Men Complain About Collecting Rereleases, Reissues, and Rehashes
Two out of touch relics who collect old video games debate the merits of whether you should spend $64.99 on a reissued copy of NES Felix the Cat by Limited Run Games. No. No you shouldn't.
01.08.2024
CQ 239 - Rating "THE RAREST" Collectible Games
We are discussing and rating how worth it some of the "rarest" hype games are in game collecting from NWC to Pokemon Box to, for some reason, Devil's Third.
12.30.2023
CQ 238 - The Goals, Trends, and Prices of 2023
We're looking back at 2023: Our collecting goals, the price trends, the hobby trends, and the biggest sales of the year.
12.11.2023
CQ 237 - Collecting the EARLY History of Platformers
A.k.a "Ten Lords a Leaping" for the holiday season but I don't want people to skip the episode based on the title. We're going over an overview of platform games before Super Mario Bros., including some important but nearly forgotten...
11.26.2023
CQ 236 - A Conversation for New Game Collectors
It's a big episode of advice for new collectors like setting goals, avoiding hype, budging, and avoiding becoming a hoarder who thinks your pile of mass produced media is equivalent to a savings account.
11.14.2023
CQ 235 - Gifts you can ACTUALLY ask Santa for
We're going over the games, books, gadgets, and sundries of the season while Tyler tries to drag us into tangents. Be sure to ask your family for boxes to easily store all those bulk games you've been buying!
10.30.2023
CQ 234 - How Many NES Variants Can One Man Know?
Due to unforeseen circumstances this month we don't have a new traditional show yet, but we do have a long After Dark conversation we had with Joe about NES variants. So if you're wondering who "Joe" is or want to...
10.15.2023
CQ 233 - The MOST Iconic Halloween Game on Each Console
We try our very best not to pick a Castlevania game as the spookiest, Halloween-iest game on every platform except the BBC Micro.
10.02.2023
CQ 232 - A Very, Very 90s Halloween Episode
We're kicking off the season talking about the rare, the obscure, and the categories of games you might not even know exist. We chose some interesting spooky games to discuss this episode, and they just happen to be the most...
09.19.2023
CQ 231 - We'd Start our PS2 Collections with WHAT?
Taking in a blend of collectibility, history, relevance, influence, and Tyler's personal taste, we each come up the first 10 PS2 games we'd start our collections with. Is this the first time we talk about the Trance Vibrator??
09.07.2023
CQ 230 - Collecting Very "Adult" Games
Hide the kids and perhaps hide your ears. We are talking about porn games, from delightfully quirky Atari games, to the dark, dark origins of some of your favorite Japanese companies, to longtime grails like the Panesians.
08.22.2023
CQ 229 - Stop Buying Things You Don't Need
We are here to reiterate that unless you have a plan to corner a collectibles market, drive hype and speculation, and sell at a price determined by your business plan, you are not INVESTING in video games by filling your...
08.06.2023
CQ 228 - Western Licenses without Western Releases
McDonalds is one of the most American things ever, but the Famicom game Donald Land is a whole McDonalds platformer that never got released in America. We're talking about western licenses that never got western releases. You know, the import...
07.24.2023
CQ 227 - Why YOU, a normal person, might want to collect sports games
A basketball fan and a guy who doesn't watch sports cover four reasons you might collect perhaps the least collectible genre of video games.
07.09.2023
CQ 226 - It's Maybe A Good Time To Buy Games
Or as good as it might realistically get. Near term economic uncertainty aside, we're discussing some current and future factors that might have us looking back on today and saying "I wish I bought that before it blew up". Tools,...
06.25.2023
CQ 225 - The MOST Underrated and Overrated Collectible Games
Collecting is a weird hobby where the top things are often the top things just because they're the top things. We talk about, and disagree, on what some of the top things should and shouldn't be.
06.12.2023
CQ 224 - 3D Glasses: The Metaverse of the 80s/90s
We're talking about going straight into the matrix in the most classic fashion: with crappy little paper 3D glasses. We're talking about the most interesting games (and virtually every game) that includes pack-in 3D glasses.
05.28.2023
CQ 223 - 10 Sega Saturn Games We'd Start Our Collections With
We're talking about the first 10-ish Saturn games we'd collect at any budget because of all consoles maybe the US Saturn library isn't the best one to be poking around random cheaper games looking for gems.
05.19.2023
CQ 222 - Psychological Effects That Affect Collectors
We discuss the state of the video-screen laden amusement ride industry for 20 minutes, then go on to discuss a few psychological concepts that entrap us collectors like the sunk cost fallacy and endowment effect.
04.30.2023
CQ 221 - Disney Games (You've Probably Never Heard Of)
We're going deep into one of Johnny's niches: weird, weird Disney stuff. From various first appearances to inexplicable high quality Japanese exclusives to strangely rad computer games where Mickey has a gun.
04.17.2023
CQ 220 - Games You Simply Can't Collect
We're talking about digital games, mainframe games, lost games, and all manner of video games that we can't own that make our collections incomplete.
04.03.2023
CQ 219 - 10 Sega Genesis Games We'd Start Our Collections With
Hey, this one is a real episode! We're talking about the first 10 games we'd each start our Sega Genesis collection with, and what version of each. You'll never guess how many times Altered Beast on our lists!
04.01.2023
CQ 219X - So You Want To Collect Neo Geo
Learn what we know about Neo Geo. (This is the April Fools joke).
03.26.2023
CQ218 - When Are We Done Collecting?
We're talking about the Sisyphusian cycle of finding new sets, new interests, new consoles and never being done with acquisitions. Is there ever a point where we are done and happy rather than burnt out?
03.11.2023
CQ 216 - How Many of Our Games Will the Future Even Remember?
We look back at the 30s, 40s, and 50s and only the absolute apex of pop culture media is well known by the average person. Within our lifetime, the vast majority of the dozens (or hundreds) of games we all...
03.08.2023
CQ 217 - SideQuest Johnny AMA - Caution Not A Regular Episode
Johnny does an Ask Me Anything session with members of the CQ Discord. This is not a standard episode, it is not collector focused, it is just me telling personal stories that have very little to do with gaming and...
02.20.2023
CQ 215 - So You Want To Collect Gamecube
We dive into Gamecube and the world of $1,000 Mickey Mouse sports games, impossible to find Pokemon games, and one of Nintendo's most vibrant lineups.
02.05.2023
CQ 214 - Collecting the Most Influential Games Ever
We're talking about collecting some of the most important and influential games of all time (that are possible to own, sorry The Sumerian Game fans). We only have 14 games, so get ready to write in with outrage that we...
01.31.2023
Collector's Edition 2: Funko Pop Primer in Conjunction with The Dialogue Alley Podcast
A primer to give the ground work on how to collect Funko Pops. Listen to the Dialogue Alley Podcast where we go into detail about Harry Potter Funko Pop collecting. https://www.dialoguealley.com/podcast
01.23.2023
CQ 213 - Collecting Mail Order Exclusives
We're talking about games and merch you could only acquire via the antiquated, arcane, annoying process of sending away for it by mail, you know like the way your grandma used to order things from magazines.
01.09.2023
CQ 212 - What Was Cool to Collect in the Mid 2000s?
We're looking back at how and what COOL GUYS collected 15-20 years ago when we both started collecting. Before anyone cared about Hagane, Left Bros, and the yet-to-be-found sticker sealed Mario, everyone simply knew that unlicensed NES porn games would...
12.24.2022
CQ 211 - What Happened and What Did We Collect in 2022?
We're looking at how we did in 2022. Did we achieve goals? Did we fail with bad purchases? Did we FOMO? What happened in the market? If you don't care how we're personally doing as collectors this probably isn't the...
12.10.2022
CQ 210 - So you want to collect... Nintendo Wii
Wii wish you a Merry Christmas with a marathon length episode about perhaps the most popular, least collectible Nintendo console. Does it perhaps have more depth than you originally thought?? Or is it basically the small pile of games people...
11.27.2022
CQ 209 - 10 SNES Games We'd Start Our Collections With
In a world where collecting for disc-based consoles is more popular than ever, we're going back to basics to discuss in our opinion the ten most collectible CIB SNES games, major variants, and some other cool games besides.
11.12.2022
CQ 208 - CQ Holiday Gift Guide 2022
Check the notes below for a list of most things we discuss --> BOOKS: The JRPG Book ($50) HardcoreGaming101 Books (~$25) Game Engine Black Blook series ($35) The Making of Prince of Persia ($23) Video Game History in 64 Objects ($25) Sierra Collectors Quest I ($100) Family Bits...
11.06.2022
CQ 207 - Retro Game Collecting is Dead
Oh baby that clickbait. We're talking about the tastes, preferences, and shifting demographics of the game collecting scene and perhaps how "retro game conventions" would be better titled "video game conventions". Also, unrelated, the sealed market is a dumpster fire...
10.25.2022
CQ 206 - So You Want To Collect Halloween Games #5 Current Gen Games
What a horrible night to have a curse, Tyler is ill so Johnny goes it alone and talks about modern horror / spooky games you can collect that might be collectible in the future. Do You Like FMV and Limited...
10.11.2022
CQ 205 - Too Many Horror Movie Games from the '70s to '90s
We're talking about the history of horror movie licensed games, going back to Atari's Shark Jaws in 1975, a rip off of Jaws they weren't able to actually get the legal rights to. We're also talking about Magic's crazy new...
09.25.2022
CQ 204 - Price History is BS
CQ takes on the basic laws of economic supply and demand, surely we will win this fight. People are paying too high or too low prices for some things just because Pricecharting says so. Too many collectible video games of...
09.13.2022
CQ 203 - Collecting Games From Dead Genres
No genre is truly dead, but some genres are kind of dead, at least in the modern gaming landscape. We're talking about collecting some of the earliest and most prototypical examples of games from genres like rail shooters, point and...
09.01.2022
CQ 202 - Collecting 6 Rare Dinosaur Games That're Totally Cretaceous!
We promise it's not just JP: Operation Genesis and Dino Park Tycoon. There's good stuff! Note that if the episode title no longer includes the phrase "Totally Cretaceous!", Johnny went and edited the episode title. -Tyler
08.21.2022
CQ 201 - Reconsidering the List of 677 NES Games
We are going through the standard, sacred 677+91 list of US NES games and reconsidering some DOES IT COUNT situations using new constraints. Everyone get ready to delete Punch-Out!! features Mr. Dream from your lists!
08.02.2022
CQ 200 - The History of Our Collecting Goals
The three of us all started as garbage men and set collectors but we're talking about how our collecting mindset and what we've chased after has changed over time.
07.20.2022
CQ 199 - We're Making Less-Bad Collecting Lists
Ever the CQ topic, we're talking about organizing game list data, how hard it is to do, defining criteria, and letting your database be flexible with your changing opinions. Is it me, or is just the concept of a simple...
07.02.2022
CQ 198 - 10 NES Games We'd Start Our Collections With
We're talking about the ten NES games each of us would buy if we were starting over from zero and how much we would budget for them. No price limits, no compromises. We got a big insurance payout and we're...

What's The Collector's Quest about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

The Collector's Quest episodes:

CQ 245 - Games Are Affordable When You Don't Buy Nonsense

CQ 244 - Are Game Conventions Even Worth It?

CQ 243 - The Best Non-Game VG Collectibles

CQ 242 - Collecting Controversy

CQ 241 - Modern Games You'll NEVER Regret Owning

CQ 240 - Old Men Complain About Collecting Rereleases, Reissues, and Rehashes

CQ 239 - Rating "THE RAREST" Collectible Games

CQ 238 - The Goals, Trends, and Prices of 2023

CQ 237 - Collecting the EARLY History of Platformers

CQ 236 - A Conversation for New Game Collectors

CQ 235 - Gifts you can ACTUALLY ask Santa for

CQ 234 - How Many NES Variants Can One Man Know?

CQ 233 - The MOST Iconic Halloween Game on Each Console

CQ 232 - A Very, Very 90s Halloween Episode

CQ 231 - We'd Start our PS2 Collections with WHAT?

CQ 230 - Collecting Very "Adult" Games

CQ 229 - Stop Buying Things You Don't Need

CQ 228 - Western Licenses without Western Releases

CQ 227 - Why YOU, a normal person, might want to collect sports games

CQ 226 - It's Maybe A Good Time To Buy Games

CQ 225 - The MOST Underrated and Overrated Collectible Games

CQ 224 - 3D Glasses: The Metaverse of the 80s/90s

CQ 223 - 10 Sega Saturn Games We'd Start Our Collections With

CQ 222 - Psychological Effects That Affect Collectors

CQ 221 - Disney Games (You've Probably Never Heard Of)

CQ 220 - Games You Simply Can't Collect

CQ 219 - 10 Sega Genesis Games We'd Start Our Collections With

CQ 219X - So You Want To Collect Neo Geo

CQ218 - When Are We Done Collecting?

CQ 216 - How Many of Our Games Will the Future Even Remember?

CQ 217 - SideQuest Johnny AMA - Caution Not A Regular Episode

CQ 215 - So You Want To Collect Gamecube

CQ 214 - Collecting the Most Influential Games Ever

Collector's Edition 2: Funko Pop Primer in Conjunction with The Dialogue Alley Podcast

CQ 213 - Collecting Mail Order Exclusives

CQ 212 - What Was Cool to Collect in the Mid 2000s?

CQ 211 - What Happened and What Did We Collect in 2022?

CQ 210 - So you want to collect... Nintendo Wii

CQ 209 - 10 SNES Games We'd Start Our Collections With

CQ 208 - CQ Holiday Gift Guide 2022

CQ 207 - Retro Game Collecting is Dead

CQ 206 - So You Want To Collect Halloween Games #5 Current Gen Games

CQ 205 - Too Many Horror Movie Games from the '70s to '90s

CQ 204 - Price History is BS

CQ 203 - Collecting Games From Dead Genres

CQ 202 - Collecting 6 Rare Dinosaur Games That're Totally Cretaceous!

CQ 201 - Reconsidering the List of 677 NES Games

CQ 200 - The History of Our Collecting Goals

CQ 199 - We're Making Less-Bad Collecting Lists

CQ 198 - 10 NES Games We'd Start Our Collections With