I've always been intrigued by these massive collections of the same-but-slightly-different things. I can't comprehend them. I try to keep my own collection restricted to the better edition, with the occasional double if there is significant differences in gameplay worth owning both. I don't feel I'm building a museum, or doing essential preservation work, I'm just trying to get interesting games worth playing. I'm a sucker for the alternative ways of playing, and as such I tend to have a lot of joysticks, paddles, lightguns and other stuff, but again they all serve a purpose, which is to be played. Now, granted, most of my collection is barely played, I only have so much time. But at least I have the illusion that they can be played if I so wish.
I started collecting after being tired of having full rom sets on my hard drive. I didn't know what was good or bad in the set and I always felt overwhelmed when I wanted to play something: what game, out of the several thousands in front of me, will properly entertain me? I barely played something for a few minutes at best, switching to yet another rom to test.
With this mindset, I felt a lot of relief when I started using wish lists, on Steam and rfgeneration: I don't own everything that is in my opinion worth owning, and to my great sadness my wish list grows faster than my owned list, but if I ever feel the urge to get them I know they are one click away and a couple of days of wait if I get them on eBay. I have a physical collection, and a virtual collection if you will.
