Hello, My name is Riggs and I'm a retro video game collector. "Hi, Riggs." I love checking out yard sales, craigslist and stores like Ron's, Goodwill and Value Village. I rarely buy things from there, but you never know if you'll find that super "find" as I did just the other day.

I saw that someone was selling their Intellivision II + several games (3 of them were unopened) for a reasonable price. I've never owned an Intellivision, myself, but I had a friend who had one and made me jealous as so much of it was superior to the Atari 2600 I had growing up.

We worked out a price, worked out a meeting place and I couldn't get home fast enough to hook it up. I played it for a little while, checked out each of the games and was very happy with my find. Then unhooked it and put the collection in my closet with the rest of my collection.

Now, to be fair, I didn't know I collected video games. I just thought I had a lot of them. I didn't think I was a collector because I only bought games and game systems I would actually use and play. It wasn't until recently I found a game collector's group where, after reading a few posts, I thought to myself, "these guys are just like me. In fact, I have some of these that are worth a lot to these collectors." I never thought of looking up the value because I never had an intention of re-selling anything.

So, embracing this, I decided to be more pro-active on searching for the rest of my video game youth. Buying the things I grew up with and couldn't afford at the time. This Intellivision is definitely a jewel in my collection, but now the trick is to find how to score classic gaming stuff at the local stores.

Here's what I do to find classic games:
• I search through Craigslist at least once a day (Yakima doesn't update much)
• I search through Craigslist in Tri-Cities as I visit there often enough that I wouldn't mind the drive if it's worth it.
• I search Craigslist for yard sales and look to see if any mention video games of any kind (I found a Sega Genesis for a great price about 2 weeks ago this way)
• I visit Goodwill, Value Village and Ron's whenever I'm in the area.
• My friends and family know this so they spread the word that I like to buy that kind of stuff if people ever think about putting old Sega systems or Nintendos in their yard sale. I save them the trouble by just buying (or trading) it from them.

Here's what I need to do:
• I need to make friends at Value Village and Goodwill so they can email or text me when someone donates something I'd buy and get to it before anyone else
• I need to make a friend who buys storage lockers that might have this stuff packed away that they don't need
• I need to just own one of everything so I can be complete with myself.

So, maybe you collect comic books or old Transformers. Me? I collect retro video games. It's fun for me and provides a bit of a 'time-warp' when I play these classic games. I love my life and where I am now, but I can pop in an old Nintendo game and turn back into an awkward 12 year old once again.

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