Greg J. Schloesser:  Collections

Ever collect anything?  Stamps, coins, baseball cards, arrowheads, etc.?  I think at some point, most folks do collect something.  My mom collected decorative Avon bottles.  My dad collected doubloons.  No, not Spanish coins, but rather those round coins that are thrown from floats during Mardi Gras parades.  Quite a collection, too, including some of the very first ones ever minted and tossed.

I went through various “collection” stages:  football & baseball cards, stamps, and even those “Wacky Packages” stickers.  Remember those?  I was so enamored by these humorous “doctored” packages, that I would create my own.  Ahh, the hours of fun I had ... and the amount of bubble gum I chewed.  You see, each pack came packaged with a stick of sugary-sweet bubble gum included!

Once I really got into games, I began building my collection.  First, I purchased just about anything.  Now, however, I’m quite a bit more discerning, and am actually trying to reduce the number of games I own from its present level of 800 or so.  The main reason is space, and the realization that I honestly don’t need or want that many games.  I just can’t play them all with any degree of frequency.  So, I’ve been selling games at an increasing pace.  Of course, I’m still adding new ones, too, so my collection has remained fairly constant for awhile.

But is it a “collection”.  I don’t want to get into semantics here, but I consider a collection to be some sort of “set” or “grouping”.  Otherwise, just about anything could be considered a collection.  So, for my purposes here, I only consider games in a “set” or grouping to be a collection. 

With 800 games, some folks will insist that I am a “collector”.  No, not really.  I don’t purchase games simply to add to my collection.  There are exceptions, however.  I have endeavored to collect certain games in order to complete a set.  Here are my game collections:

3M “Block Logo” line.  I have all of these that were officially released in the early-to-mid 60’s.  I do NOT have Jati (as I refuse to pay the ridiculous price being asked for it), but it was never officially released.  I have played it, and the game is so-so.  Regarding the others in the line, I’ve played most of them, and they have held-up over time fairly well.

3M Gamette line.  Many of these are the same as in the regular line, but I couldn’t resist acquiring them all.  I still need to play a few of them, and have been tinkering with the idea of having a “3M Game Night” in order to play some of these older titles.

Alea. I keep the set intact, but am none-too-happy about the upcoming pirate game.  I played it at Essen and found it mediocre, at best.  It would have been a appropriate in the Ravensburger family-game line, but in my opinion, it is a few steps below the quality of games I’ve come to expect and desire from Alea.  Still, I have the compulsion to continue to collect them all.  I may break this cycle, however, as I’m really not keen on the upcoming release.

GameMaster.  These were released by Milton Bradley in the 1980’s.  There were only five games in this line, and I acquired them all when they were first released.  Four of the titles are decent to good, with the only aberration was the abysmal Broadsides & Boarding Parties.  The only things redeeming about that one was the miniatures and attractive board.

American Heritage.  These were released primarily in the 1960’s—with the exception of Skirmish, which was released to coincide with our nation’s bicentennial.  I acquired all five titles in this line, but am tempted to sell them.  I’ll likely never play them again, and they are just taking-up space.

Other than these, I do not seek to acquire other “sets” or collections.  I pick and choose the ones I think I will enjoy, and avoid or get rid of the remainder.  Unfortunately, I enjoy games so much, that my acquisitions still seem to be out-pacing my distributions.  Sigh.

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