12/31/12 - Finally picked up a factory sealed RoboWarrior, another childhood fave.

And now a drumroll please, a box I needed still, and in my opinion one of the hardest to find in mint condition on the NES. I have been looking for about a year and every boxed copy on eBay had major damage/wear, except 1, maybe 2, and I missed those. Almost every copy out there has flaking to the delicate blue-purple color on the box - this one has some on one corner, but it's very minimal. It's a Taito flaking issue I have determined, specifically on this title. Anyways, I finally found this copy from a guy in New York City, outside of eBay altogether. Totally a bitch box to locate, thus I am very proud to have finally found a minty Qix.

You know, I've had a Minty Qix for about 3 years and I told myself the same thing. It was a huge PITA to find one and I said I'd never let it go unless the offer was crazy. Glad to see someone else appreciates it too.

Progress is always looking good!

1/7/13 - I have received some very important packages in reference to my NES collection today. OK, let's begin with my package from Superbobby. He sent me from Canada VERY QUICKLY and SECURELY, 3 boxes I wanted to upgrade to mint ones. Well, he didn't disappoint, these are solid mint and all 3 are tough as hell to find... Bomberman II, Felix the Cat, and Dragon Fighter. My Felix and DF boxes weren't so shabby but my Bomberman II box was shit so this will take an ugly box out of my collection that was a complete sore thumb and now a 10/10 box to take its place!!

Next, another member here named JSchumada has sent me a Mega Man 3 box. I now have all the Mega Man boxes and this was one of the last 20-25 boxes I needed. In damn good condition. So thank you Mr. J Schumada!

Upgrade my avg. cond. Xenophobe to sealed. And last, 2 more boxes I still needed, both cheap when found but very hard to find especially Werewolf. I waited and waited and waited for a mint copy with the comic book and couldn't find one so I took the next best route.

These accumulations bring in dupes so I will be adding a Dragon Fighter empty box, Bomberman II empty box, Felix empty box, Werewolf cart and manual, Castle of dragon cart and manual, and a CIB Xenophobe all for sale/trade.

I hope you post some pics of all this together when you are done. Great finds so far!

Thanks twizer! Getting realllly close now my friend! It has taken extra long since my goal wasn't to just get all the games in any old condition but rather to get them mint or new for long term historical archiving.

1-8-13 - Out of needing some 20 boxes for a licensed/unlicensed set, 7 boxes still needed for an unlicensed set. I settled on a Mission Cobra box with some wear because I have been unable to find a sealed or mint one. If one does pop up I'll be making a bid. Anyone got an uncirculated Mission Cobra for offer? Anyways, I still need one more box for my Bunch set. Bunch is a bunch of shit to be honest. Besides that, I still need RBI Baseball 3 for my Tengen set, Death Race for the AGCI set, OSS, Robodemons and Secret Scout for Color Dreams, and Impossible Mission II (SEI Version). Unlicensed is much harder to do than licensed because the boxes are not nearly as common and they are very hard to find mint or sealed.

1/14/13 - Thanks Super Bobby! Got my mint Cowboy Kid box!! Beautiful!!!

1/18/13 - Thanks NA member Penguin for this one. A factory sealed Short Order/Eggsplode. I am keeping my other copy to play since this my favorite Power Pad title - Short Order is a ton of fun!

1/18/13 Part 2 - I had a great lunch break! Stopped at one of my favorite shops and a buddy of mine immediately pulled me from the handheld aisle and had me take a look at the game they just got in. A boxed Princess Tomato mint as hell. I played dumb because I was embarassed to say I had two mint copies already. Not too exciting, but then low and behold I see that the person who traded it in also traded in a bunch of other NES titles. Mint as hell. I ended up picking up a few that I could upgrade or re-sell. Totally Rad 8$, Fester's Quest 1$, F-15 5$, Guardian Legend $2.50, and Pipe Dream $2.50. So that's $19 for the 5 games!! I am going to finally inventory my duplicates fs ft this weekend. It's now going to be around 300 NES titles and 100-150 boxes.

Awesome thread man. I love seeing you inch closer and closer to a complete CIB set.

If you have any cart only dupes I need quite a few, Princess Tomato is one of them.

I'll be making a list of my NES inventory this weekend and it will consist of 300+ games, approx. half with boxes and/or manuals. I will def. let you know what I have when the list is done. I seriously haven't updated my inventory in 6 months so everything I amassed (almost everytime I get a new game it's sealed and I just pull the existing copie(s) and leave them aside in a corner).

Thanks dude! I enjoy sharing my progress and am glad others are having fun following along. It takes a bit of work to get pics and document everything so as long as at least 1 guy enjoys it, it's worth it to keep the posts coming!!

1/24/13 - 6 of the mintiest boxes I have ever seen. Love when people keep their stuff like this for 20 years. Rally Bike, Mupper Adventure, Dig Dug 2, Flying Dragon (Alt. artwork cover), Burai Fighter, and Battle Chess. FYI, these are all upgrades.

How close are you to finishing?

It's about 1 licensed cart and 5-10 licensed boxes. And about 4 unlicensed carts and 5-6 unlicensed boxes.

I guess the question to ask is "how much more mint can it be?"

* a bit of a Spinal Tap reference

1/28/13:

A mint as fuck Castelian box and Destiny of an Emperor CIB. I needed Destiny's box, so that's another knocked off the list that is shrinking to the single digits!



I received one of the few licensed boxes I still needed...  the Namco version of Pac-Man. I held out for a mint copy and here it is... now just need Ms. Pac-Man mint and I'm almost there...



Also received in one fell swoop, the entire Nintendo Power Flash set. This is the Canadian version of the Nintendo Fun Club Newsletter. All 9 issues ever made are pictured here. It cost me a lot of money but I'm ok with it since I had none of them prior to today so I am not going to have to deal with duplicates or filling in missing issues, which is a very tedius and expensive venture when it comes to collecting magazine sets (GamePro anyone?)

^ Really awesome set man. I've never even seen the Nintendo PowerFlash version before. Definitely post any paper finds you get here please.

Yeah I saw that you grabbed those Power Flash's. I missed that damn $90ish BIN by a minute before someone killed it.

3/7/13 --- Yikes! I was hoping 2013 would be full of updates but it's March already and an entire month since my last arrival. I've been pounding away at other things such as my magazine, newsletter, and hint book hunting and kinda put NES on the backburner.. temporarily.. hopefully. Earlier this week I got a Wacky Races poster, which I made a thread for in Collector's Corner. But today I did get an item I have been after for quite some time. A MINT and COMPLETE Mighty Bomb Jack. Good lord, this one is never mint and always missing the damn map (my old copy being the perfect example). I can safely say I feel 50% better about my Tecmo woes. I *STILL* need a mint Solomon's Key and the map I have also needs upgraded badly. I missed 3 MINT ones so far this year because I was not able to snipe in on them in time. The next mint Solomon's is mine. As for Mighty Bomb Jack, here she is:

3/22/13 - Two very hard to find mail-in hint guides for the NES. Dungeon Magic: Sword of the Elements is a 9/10 both on my list and on Dain's list in the ezine. Rightfully so, as I have never seen a copy of this before and boy did I try. Some sick dude just happened to have 2 copies and was willing to sell me his extra, ehehe..

4-15-13 - Finally knocked another one out! I've been waiting for a nice mint Super Spy Hunter box for a long time and finally found one. I have a few more arrivals this week and next that will be bringing me closer to the end.

I was wondering where you been with this. Almost there man. Whats going on with an SE CIB?