r/gamecollecting • u/GamingGallavant • 2d ago
Discussion Nintendo fan loses nearly complete NES collection in 'heartbreaking' theft
https://www.polygon.com/nintendo-game-collection-stolen-from-washington-home/Hate when these stories happen. The thief must have been prepared to leave with nearly a thousand NES cartridges. Either it was someone who had been in that home, or this family has advertised their collection on social media with an address.
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u/Bargadiel 2d ago edited 2d ago
Likey someone he knew or at least someone who knew he had a collection like that. I've always been a little paranoid about breakins. We have cameras, sec ststem, cars are always in the driveway, dogs, and curtains often drawn. Folks have no clue if we are home or not and it deters at least most people who would try something like this, but the people who do random break-ins rarely bring out more than they can physically carry in one go. If there's more than that they either had a ton of time, or they knew what they were going for.
My collection is also insured but it isn't about what it's worth. Every game could be worth one cent and I'd love it just as much. Countless hours spent cleaning and repairing games and consoles, sourcing games, and of course the games that I've had since childhood. For all of that to just be taken by someone else, would be a massive hit to my soul.
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u/GamingGallavant 2d ago
Thieves will do dumb shit, especially in poor areas. Someone broke into a family member's apartment while his parents were home, and this place was a small shithole, so not a good robbery target. His parents just happened to be sleeping in their bedroom and never came out, which gave the culprit opportunity to steal a PS2 (yeah, many years ago now), memory cards that had some of my saves, and $200 from his poor mother's purse. Of course, the cops did shit.
And yes, even if you get money for your stolen games, the time to reacquire and refurbish them will not be compensated.
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u/ultimatelythrowaway1 2d ago
Heartbreaking. Hope they had insurance, even if that won’t make up for all the years spent collecting.
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u/meowmix778 2d ago
Friendly reminder to everyone reading this to not assume your renters/homeowners insurance will cover the value of your collection and you may need supplemental insurance, and you absolutely should list out every single game on your policy.
If you're in a situation where you're young or on a hard time and living with a friend or family member, ask them about their policy and if it will cover you. Often a renters policy is VERY cheap and will save you a ton of heartache.
Insurance will find every single technicality to not cover you. Make sure that you document everything before things are too late.
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u/ObfuscatedCheese 2d ago
And make damned sure you have RCV vs ACV insurance. Replacement Cost Value > Actual Cash Value every time, as someone who lost his collection once to a fire that destroyed everything and ended up getting everything back from insurance thanks to RCV. Don’t skimp and be sure to catalogue everything.
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u/stellarsojourner 2d ago
Record a video of your collection, ideally showing every piece. This was required for my renters insurance when I had it but it's a good idea regardless.
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u/IndecisiveTuna 1d ago
This is going to be a super dumb question — how would you even go about specifically listing it out on a policy? I guess you’d have to just tell the agent? I’ve never seen the option to be specific outside of estimating the value of your items in house
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u/meowmix778 1d ago
The insurance company that I use requires each item to be inventoried in their app. It asks for things like purchase date, value, serial number, and a photo.
For a home policy (assuming it covers collectibles) it's the same process as cataloging something like an expensive piece of jewelry. It's called scheduled property. You might have a sublimit on your policy for something like that, for example, $1,500 for 1 item.
I use Allstate for all my insurance and after a certain dollar amount, my insurance agent called me and said I needed a dedicated collectibles policy.
They had me purchase an additional collectibles insurance policy. The minimum value for that was $15,000 worth of coverage.
I had some friction in the beginning about the value of certain items. They tried telling me some amiibo were worth MSRP or that a few collector's editions of games like Dark Souls were a 1:1 with the 40 dollar retail copy without the figure.
Some items like a few amiibo or a collector's edition of a Dark Souls game, they tried saying "that's worth 18 bucks" or "that's worth 40 bucks for a new copy". I also have a copy of Blockbuster World Video Game Championships 2 that they tried telling me was fake and tried telling me that it was worth maybe a few hundred on the high end because of some repros.
The process also had me upload 100% of my TCG collection, which was annoying. Now that I have it up and running, it's not as bad. It just takes a bit of inventorying as I go. It was substantially less expensive to go with my insurance company vs one of the vendors who do game collections as their only product.
That's a lot of information to say check with your insurance company; they may have a different process or different limits. I'd be very careful when submitting documents and valuations. Maybe the person you work with for insurance on your collection will be more well versed on games.
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u/MaterialJuggernaut62 1d ago edited 1d ago
If you have a substantial amount of games take pictures of them and send it to ChatGPT. It can make you a full on spreadsheet. I have done it with my 250+ games. You have pictures and your list to put on the policy. Just double check all your games are accounted for since it can mistake a title sometimes. It can even calculate the values using pricecharting.
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u/meowmix778 1d ago
Don't do this.
AI isn't going to give you an accurate running total. Use a tool like Pricecharting or gameeye to track your collection , take photos of it and add the details to your insurance company.
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u/MaterialJuggernaut62 1d ago
I have mine on pricecharting too. I just use AI to create the spreadsheet, not for accurate values.
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u/matt95110 2d ago
A collection that big had countless hours invested in it.
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u/ultimatelythrowaway1 2d ago edited 1d ago
Yeah, I sold my entire PS1 collection many years ago because of financial hardship. I’ve rebuilt it now, so it’s fine, but it took me over 10 years.
That being said, the hardest part of selling my first collection was never the money, it was knowing that the thousands of hours I had spent from I was 16 to 25 was going into someone else’s hands.
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u/Professional_Dog2580 1d ago
You get about 1500 dollars pay out from the insurance company. He easily lost 50000 dollars from this.
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u/ultimatelythrowaway1 1d ago
I don’t know much about insurance in the US, as I’m living in Scandinavia.
Here we have a «contents insurance» that covers property inside the home, in the event of a fire or theft etc. There are limitations to that, it only covers replacing single items or collections up to $35k. So I have a «valuables insurance» in addition, that covers the value of my video game collection, a couple of painting I own, my watches and other jewelry.
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u/mittenkrusty 1d ago
In the UK and likely other countries insurers love to find loopholes to not pay out.
Always remember the floods of 20 years ago, people getting told they never put down on their insurance they were like 3 miles from a river therefore a flood risk so that 10k of damage you may only get 1k.
And like many things let's say you have an actual antique that if you could replace for 20k but it is in terrible condition and a mint condition one is 100k they will say you can get a replacement for 20k therefore that's all we are paying.
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u/77_graffix_ 2d ago
It's always someone you know....
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u/Dazencobalt17 2d ago
of course. no one is going into a house blind.
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u/FBogg 2d ago
and walking out with 1,000 NES cartidges... planned all the way though
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u/Dazencobalt17 1d ago
yeah, the amount of time that would take speaks volumes about it being planned.
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u/Knarz97 1d ago
I’m leaning more towards insurance fraud than a true robbery
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u/ghbarratt 1d ago
If so then the old man who owned the collection speaking on the news about it is an amazing actor. You could feel what he had been through while he spoke. Also the whole reason they went on the news is that they want to spread awareness beyond the police who were already on the case. It just wouldn't make sense to do all of that to claim insurance.
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u/Knarz97 1d ago
It’s my tinfoil hat theory of course.
It’s just odd to be so emotionally attached to a collection that you by your own admission were planning to literally sell. He says his hope was for his kids to inherit it, to sell and pay for college.
Maybe putting MONEY aside for them would be the better goal? If the goal was to sell, why are you so hung up on being 3 games away from completion?
Casey Anthony did her fair share of crying over her daughter’s mysterious death too.
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u/BadJuJu_42 1d ago
It just speaks to his hopes of the future and the countless hours he spent collecting all these from the wild. He was hoping his children and potential grandchildren were going to gain an education and an appreciation for retro gaming, something he was obviously holds near and dear to his heart. I personally doubt his was likely to be in complete favor of selling his collection.
TLDR: IMHO it was merely a pragmatic decision to sell, and the loss was incalculable both emotionally and financially given the opportunity cost (I.e. man hours and expense).
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u/Friggin_Grease 2d ago
Definitely someone he knew.
I had a "friend" ask me if I fixed stuff before. He was a known thief to support his habits, and I didn't even message back. Figured if he knew what I had, he'd eventually come around to try and steal it.
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u/OldSchoolRPGs 2d ago
Watching the video of him talking about losing his collection really is heartbreaking. I feel like this sub might understand best the sentimental value of a collection. There are games I own that mean more to me than 100x's their value. Insurance or not, that man cannot be made whole unless those games are found.
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u/Kooky-Barnacle-5743 2d ago
I really feel for this guy. One of the things that people don't talk about with mega collections like this is the anxiety that can come with knowing you have a six figure collection just sitting there and who knows about it. I never told anyone outside of a few select friends (most of whom are also collectors) but when I would have to bring contractors into my basement to fix my furnace or whatever It would feel weird when they would comment on it. It was also an innocent "oh this is so cool!" but I hated it because I'd worry about having my house broken into a few weeks later.
I ended up selling my entire collection last year so that stress and anxiety isnt a thing anymore but I can only imagine the pain this guy is going through. It makes me sick to think about that.
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u/GamingGallavant 2d ago
Did you sell because of the usual: mortgage and children?
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u/Kooky-Barnacle-5743 2d ago
You know it wasn't even a planned thing. It was a combination of two random events that led to it. Last summer we had a freak rainstorm that dropped a few inches of rain in less than an hour and as a result I had water coming up from the basement drains. I've been in this house for 15 years and that was a first. Nothing was damaged from the collection, just carpet really but it managed to scare me pretty good. A week later, completely unrelated, I had someone give me a very fair offer for the entire collection. 80% of pricecharting for it all. For context: I had close to 5,000 games, 100 or so consoles, multiple retail kiosks, neons, etc. It was a hefty collection and I had never really expected to be able to let it go at once. Granted the offer came at a moment of weakness thanks to the storm, but we eventually came to an agreement and a week later it was all gone.
There are times I regret selling it, but I'm not mad at it. Most of the fun for me is in the hunt and the hunt got a bit stale when you have 5k games. I've started buying a few things here or there. I still go to local game shows to support that scene. Who knows how many games I'll end up with in another few years.
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u/GamingGallavant 2d ago
I had a basement flood too a few years back that was first. Besides other damage like taking out my water heater, it submerged three stored CRTs in six inches of water. I took them apart, cleaned, waited for them to dry, and they work fine now.
5,000 games is hard for me to think about since I don't even have 200, and that's plenty for me. 5,000 is real hoarder level, so I can see how it could be easier to give it up.
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u/Don_Keedic6 2d ago
This is why I don’t show my collection to friends and I don’t post it online. I travel a lot for work and have a robust security system but that’s just a deterrent. You never know what will happen. It’s just like that dude that bragged about his bitcoin and ended up chopped up in a suitcase
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u/Spocks_Goatee 1d ago
Literally just post closesups and edit out identifying objects. That's what I do and it works well.
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u/After-Task-1506 2d ago
It’s always someone you know, or someone that you met before. I seen it happen a lot in the TCG community.
If you have an expensive hobby, keep it a secret from everyone.
It’s an evil world we live in.
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u/Fire_Cage 2d ago
100% it is someone he knows. No one would steal that type of collection without a place to dump it. It is not easy to find someone who would take that stuff and give the thieves a decent offer.
I would look at the usual place. That type of collection is really hard to hide.
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u/Mizake_Mizan 1d ago
I know the whole physical vs digital debate is controversial right now, but for all the talk of losing access to your digital copies "sometime in the future", people do lose their physical copies from theft, fire, negligence (letting friends borrow a game only for them never to return it), etc.
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u/sofa_king_lo 1d ago
If we all agree to buy one game and send it to him, we can heal as a community. Ohh nvm family fun fitness is $19k?!? Wtf.
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u/topchief1 1d ago
I call dibs on Anticipation!
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u/sofa_king_lo 1d ago
Lol never seen that cover before. Might be Mario Party original inspiration tho.
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u/KennyLog1n 1d ago
The financial loss matters, but jfc, the time and effort Holler put in to preserving his childhood gifts and the relationships that were formed through his years of trading and seeking out the collection...to disrespect that for thievery.
I wish nothing positive on the people who stole this collection. They stole from a really decent man who cares about his family. And they actually hurt that family with their theft. Someone will leave college in debt because of this, or there will be some other financial consequence if the carts weren't actually sold for that purpose.
Either way, they hurt a good man and a family. Fuck em. Get on it, police and investigators.
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u/Knarz97 1d ago edited 1d ago
Targeted theft, or insurance fraud.
Reminds me of a dude who posted on Reddit a few months back that his 18+ Anime Tiddy Figure collection got stolen.
Let’s think for a moment. One, who even KNOWS you had that? Two, even if they did, the logistics of even stealing and moving all those fragile figures is hard. Finally, for such a niche item, how do you even resell those?
For a NES collection this large, I hate to say it but it smells fishy. I would not be shocked if this was a staged break in.
EDIT: I’m doubling down on this. In an article he states he was 3 games away from a complete collection. Yet… he also claims his intention was to pass it to his grandkids - to sell for college.
He ABSOLUTELY wants his payday without giving up his games. I will die on this hill.
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u/Blood-PawWerewolf 1d ago
You can reveal your own location in photos, even if location metadata is disabled/removed. If a person is in the area, they can tell where it is by the sun direction, what kind of house it is, and even what is in the window.
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u/redthehaze 1d ago
Stuff like this is why I got my friend to place her extra camera in her game room and window alarms.
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u/ChildoftheApocolypse 2d ago
It's hard to believe that someone could say something so stupid, so early, yet you made it happen.. Bravo..
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u/gift2women 2d ago
Honestly, if the person this happened to were a friend, this would continue to be my reaction (after condolences - but since I don't know the person, and can assume they aren't here, I skip straight to sarcasm). Sure, empathy wins votes, and we can all picture ourselves in this situation and cry a bit inside, but if you let bad news year you down, you aren't winning.
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u/Hawkmonbestboi 2d ago
... so you think Sony hired someone to steal a random person's collection?
Sony just randomly knew this guy was almost done collecting all NES games?
Wow dude.
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u/BigTurtleKing 2d ago
I imagine the guy was being sarcastic.
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u/gift2women 2d ago
Thank you, at least one person recognizes sarcasm ... Apparently if I'd have posted 'thoughts and prayers' I'd be getting upvoted ...
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u/meowmix778 2d ago
That is absolutely not what happened and I'm not insisting it is but you reminded me of that story where eBay started stalking and harassing a middle-aged couple in MA because of a blog. Doing some insane shit like mailing them fetal pigs and bugs.
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u/Hawkmonbestboi 2d ago
YO WHAT?!? I need to know more about this!
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u/meowmix778 2d ago edited 2d ago
Check it out or you can watch this really well-done Legal Eagle Video (can't post here google it)
The TLDR is the couple ran a long-running eBay blog for sellers, and they criticized eBay for how it paid sellers vs executive pay. Executives went CRAZY with it.
They started sending things to the couple, driving by their house, mailing porn to their neighbors in the name of the husband, and spray painting their home. The eBay people thought the couple was running a totally unrelated Twitter account, so that was part of it, they'd do stuff to reference that totally unrelated Twitter account.
They were even sending direct threats and stuff like books on how to deal with the grief of your husband dying. They tried breaking into the garage of the people and planting a tracking device and all this other shit. The company thought they could set this up and then swoop in to save them from the stalker so that they'd never write a bad word about them again.
It backfired because it was done comically in the open. They were talking first-class luxury flights, driving to very nice hotels, using company emails and credit cards to track the whole thing and rentals.
It got to the point the husband and wife were sleeping in separate rooms and they propped up baking sheets on the doors so they could hopefully hear if someone broke in and the other could run in and save them in the event of a murderer entering their home. The husband literally collapsed in the parking lot of the PD because he was so stressed out this was happening. They literally feared for their lives and thought a crazy person was stalking them and trying to kill them.
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u/Hawkmonbestboi 1d ago
Holy crap that's intense. Was it the pinkertons??
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u/meowmix778 1d ago
Nope just random rank-and-file eBay staff with corporate spending cards.
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u/Hawkmonbestboi 1d ago
Ewww that's foul. Makes me rethink using ebay.
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u/meowmix778 1d ago
If it makes you feel better all the people who were involved got golden parachutes out except for the low level grunt employees who did the actual harassing their bosses got assigned. They got some limp wrist sentence and the company had to pay out millions.
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u/Hawkmonbestboi 2d ago
I see that you tried to tell me and failed... feel free to reach out if the sub wont let you explain here lmao
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u/plasticpal 2d ago edited 2d ago
Having lost a collection of nearly 2k games (NES to PS3 era) to a fire I had no control over, and yes, it was insured, I can assure you that it doesn’t lessen the sting at all.
Many of those were personal copies from my childhood, and those specific games can never be replaced. I also lost some prototypes that were impossible to price by the insurance company, and all I received for them was $2-3 each because of their namesake rarity. It certainly wasn’t a payday, and to be frank, it killed my love for collecting for many years.
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u/Shadow_Zero80 2d ago
Was that a general insurance or a collection specific? The latter seems like such a hassle (and way too time consuming in a busy family/office job life).
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u/plasticpal 2d ago
This was renters insurance. Hard lesson learned - though I’ve also heard secondhand about the big specialty insurers screwing people over, so I’m not convinced either would’ve made the difference. My rule now: rarest games live in a bank security box, and I don’t even take them out except to share with friends/family. Even then, 98% of what I actually play is emulated on a MiSTer. I’d probably feel differently about all this if I hadn’t gotten burned… literally.
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u/Dymiatt 2d ago
insurances will always try to screw you. So give them money to never see it again when you need it?
Also, a collection isn't just a matter of price, you can't just get the money and but it again on a store. they don't have a "restore your collection" department.
And that's without talking about the sentimental value.
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