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Man loses $500k of video games after mom chucks them out

A New York resident that had been using his parents' home to store an expansive video game collection has suffered an appalling loss this week.

An employee of J&L Game, a gaming store based out of New York City, New York, has realized that his mom has thrown out a substantial amount of a huge games and hardware collection he'd been storing at his family home.

"People are gonna die" the employee joked on Twitter. "I just found out my mom a few years ago there out ALL my PS1 games. 500+ games half still sealed. I am going to kill somebody."

According to the Twitter user, "well over $500k of games" have been thrown out since he last checked in on the collection." I left my old stuff in storage (my mom's home)," he explained in a Twitter thread.

"Today I found out she threw out my Ataris, Coleco, Intelli, Famicom, S Famicom, TGfx, PCE, NG AES, MegaDrive, Master System, basically every system and game I never took with me."

As if that wasn't bad enough, there was some non-gaming collateral in the clear-out, too. "She also threw out my two Marshall stacks, 14 pedals, Drum Kit, board, all my skateboards," the thread continues.

Apparently, a comic collection was also thrown. The lesson to learn here? If you're subscribing to the tried-and-tested "keep all your old stuff at a parent's house" method of storage, have a frank discussion about your collection's value, and your long term plans for it.

Planning on selling it? Donating it? Holding onto it for sentimental value? If you have any inclination as to its value, let whoever is in direct charge of it know – that way, devastating mistakes like this are less likely to happen.

If you're doubting the estimated '$500k' valuation of the collection, it's probably worth looking up just how much an original NeoGeo console will net you on internet auction sites these days...

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About the Author
Dom Peppiatt avatar

Dom Peppiatt

Editor-in-chief

Dom is a veteran video games critic with 11 years' experience in the games industry. A published author and consultant that has written for NME, Red Bull, Samsung, Xsolla, Daily Star, GamesRadar, Tech Radar, and many more. They also have a column about games and music at The Guardian.

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