Good day fellow gaming geeks and geekettes. it’s The Applemonkey. Now I have a good question… What is just as grand as playing videogames?? Is ‘throwing an endless supply of ice cold water balloons at Carlos?’ or ‘entering a weekend long POG tournament sponsored by Yoo-Hoo?’ Those are some intriguing events, but just not as good! Game collecting, however, is the answer.

There are many styles you could collect videogames. From retro to the now. Strategy guides to art work. And of course, the common to the rare. Game collecting could be causal for some and to the extreme for others. In this article, I would mention a few items, you geeks and geekettes might ponder on. So go grab yourself some sweet nectar, called Ovaltine and enjoy…

 ITEM#1- XBOX 360 FACEPLATES With all the accesories the 360 has to offer, the faceplate is the most collectable. The common one’s you could easily find for cheap, but the HTF’s, hard to finds, do fetch a high price tag. Ghost Recon, PGR3 and of course, the E3 05, are the faceplates a collector might venture for.

ITEM#2- HANDHELD BUNDLES The DS turned into the DS Lite and now becomes the DSI. The PSP have changed models just the same, but with the PSP Slim around the corner. Handhelds, in a collectors’ eye, do have several rarities. Those rarities are in the form of bundled systems. The PSP has the Star Wars bundle, Guitar Hero bundle and my opinion, the Hanana Montana bundle will be one of the rare bundles. The DS contains the Nintendogs bundles, (regular DS and DS Lite), the Zelda bundle and also the Brain Age 2 bundle. At the present moment, these bundles are not in high demand. In due time, these bundles will be treasured.

 ITEM #3- STRATEGY GUIDES It seems that almost every game that comes out, it must also be accompanied with a strategy guide. You really need to do your research on these, especially with the new strat. guides. Brady have been releasing several strats in limited edition form. Great example, Kingdom Hearts 2. Not only did they produce a L.E., but made a L.E. in the L.E. Huh?! They made 4 different color covers, and having the ‘White’ cover rare. I could go on, but you need to do your own research, SUCKA!!!

*EXTRA CREDIT*                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        DON’T GET ME STARTED ON THE IMPORTS TO THESE SOME OF THESE ITEMS!! well you did, so here I go… There are different marketing and promotion schemes for every country. The best example is… The limited edition Crisis Core and Dissidia PSP bundles. In Japan, they prefer RPG’s more. Hince the reason for these two bundles to be released, and such a gorgeous way as well. Don’t forget about the DS. The DS is also riding the Final Fantasy series, with their own bundle set with, Echoes of time. The packaging for this, is simply, mediocre. Then there is, Baby Bape. An extremely popular colthing company in Japan some how were capable to collibrate with Nintendo and to release two different types of DS Lite systems. There are two colors. White was released to the public in a limited release. As for the Gold, it was released to Baby Bape members. They are both rare, but the gold edition, is just impossible to find!!

 I must admit, there are many items that carry the title “Rare”, but consider the following… Never let another do the research for you in collecting!! You must take the time and do the research, so you would not only, notice a good find from a joke, but also feel proud with your collection!!.

So there you have it… hopefully, this article, might get you interested in collecting!! I must admit, you will be spending much time researching and searching for the items, but the result, it is ever so pleasant!!!

Now go make yourself some ants on a log!! = celery + peanut butter + raisins!!

Thnx for reading!!! from the, Applemonkey!!