In the world of video game collecting (not VGM, but actual games), it seems like there are some folks who have absolutely enormous collections.  Here is an example of what I'm talking about:

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In that world, it seems like there are lots of collectors who have a thousand plus games, and even some with 10,000, such as this one:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/1 … 08766.html

When it comes to VGM, are there any known collections out there which are absolutely enormous, e.g. on the order of 10,000 albums?  My suspicion is that there aren't any collections this large, (at least not outside of Japan), though I was curious enough to ask nonetheless

In one of "The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers", the author found an individual in Japan that has more than 6,000 game music albums. I don't recall where in the books the article is, but I remember being blown away. If anyone has a Famicle Parodic 2 complete with obi, it's almost certainly that person.

As far as collectors in the west, it seems like a lot of the ones I've known to have large collections sold off all or part of their collections.  Also, unlike games themselves there is no "full set" to aim for.  I have over 900 which I consider large.

I've been collecting for 20 years and have around 1,400 total albums. I would imagine that's on the larger side of the spectrum, but I wouldn't be surprised if there are current or former members of this board that have much more.

FWIW, I have around a thousand albums, which I consider a big but not enormous collection.

So when did you start?  For being relatively new to the board that is an awful lot of albums.

Tangentially, how are people deciding to buy albums?  At this point while I'm sure there are plenty of albums I would like that I don't know about per se, I'm running low on albums I'm purposely pursuing as must gets.  Honestly I was thinking about opening it up to suggestion, but I don't know the easiest way to do that since I don't have my catalog on vgmdb.  Getting albums just to have more nor keeping redundant albums make much sense to me.

I started a little less than 3 years ago.  That means I've been buying VGM at the rate of one album a day, which seems like a lot.

If I'm being honest with myself, I think there's a decent chance I'll eventually hit the 2,000 album mark.  However, my interests are restricted enough (mostly pre-Playstation stuff) to ensure I don't get much beyond that.

Yup, you've still to hit the burnt out phase.  The fact that you've gotten so much in such a short time also means you're either wealthy or more likely at the point in your life with a lot of disposable income.  I know I was buying a whole lot more before I had a mortgage haha.

Well, Rrolack has also been buying a lot of doujin/indie/cover albums which are easy to inflate your count. It really depends on who you are talking to because I know some people don't consider that part of VGM collections because they're not commercial produced soundtracks.

Doujins are a lot more frequent and cheaper to amass. For example I just bought 4 soundtracks + the goemon box recently and the total came out to $300. I could have easily bought 30-40 (new) indie/doujins for that amount. Hell, I could get even more if they were used.

It should be about the music, not the size of the collection. But that's what you ultimately realize once you hit the burn out phase

This.

At this point I really just buy 5-10 retail albums every 3 months (for the last 10 years or so), as they come out, of artists, series, or studios that I'm confident will put out quality music. It's far too much time and effort to bother trying to find older albums, and I'd rather just wait for a reprint, box set, collection, or otherwise. There are only a few artists I care about where I'll actively pursue older albums but even those I don't make a significant effort to do so, or already have most of what I want/care about.

I don't think I've hit a burnout phase but mostly because this is what I've always been doing. When I first started I got some older stuff of artists I like or nostalgic stuff that I played in my childhood, just to start a collection, but have since stopped. I don't really understand people who buy stuff just to up their counter. Doing what I do I don't even have enough time in a day to listen to everything I buy, I can't imagine what the point is if you buy so much more than that. Or the people who insist on buying sealed and/or "complete" soundtracks (with obi, etc.). At that point you're just showing off that you have more money than everyone else and you're just filling a hole in your shelf.

There is a justification for being concerned with the number of albums one has because it can provide for an understanding of what one has versus what exists. If you know what exists, which is catalogued on vgmdb, then you can understand the percentage of what you own compared to what exists. It's humbling to get these numbers because even if you own 1,000 physical albums, you'll learn that's insignificant when compared to what exists, and thus, your knowledge of game music is still quite poor.

Also, by being concerned with numbers, the whole world of "top 10 lists" or "greatest album ever" can be brought into a better perspective. Since the total number of game music albums is known, and they are broken down into types at vgmdb, people that join in ranking albums could first state their possible knowledge level. For example, if you own 475 official non-doujin albums that are either CD, tape or vinyl, then your percentage is about 5%. In other words, you have access to 5% of what exists. So when a 5% person starts saying such and such is the greatest album ever, the community can see that 95% of what exists is not being considered by that person.

The amount of music you own has 0 bearing on your knowledge of video game music. You could have gained knowledge anywhere else -- existing, well documented vgmdb.net entries; YouTube streams; downloaded media; discussion on forums; Owning an album doesn't give any more weight to someones opinion at all. The only thing it shows is you have a vested financial interest in the hobby vs. someone who just downloads or streams. That's it.

And to keep building on this... a 10,000 album collection could contain
~ 15x Every Final Fantasy album released: 678 albums

How much square feet would you need to store 10,000 albums? You could build a small room with the obi strips with all that material...

But the total number isn't known.  There are still albums missing from vgmdb, and not just doujins either.  I just lost out on this the other day: a warcraft promo music cd.

I also have at least two official albums that aren't on vgmdb yet either (and not new ones either), so while it's the best resource, there are still holes.  I probably would have added the missing info only whenever I have tried pointing out mistakes, or offering better condition covers for the picture I've had it ignored for the most part, so I get the impression people don't really care (which they don't).

I would agree that the relationship between how much VGM someone owns, and how much knowledge someone has about VGM, is very weak at best.  I would also point out that the vast majority of all VGM has never been published as a soundtrack, and thus can't be collected or bought by anyone.

It's a good question as to what "counts" as a collection.  For example, Amazon.co.jp obviously has a lot of albums, maybe even 100 copies of some albums.  So should a store's inventory count as a VGM collection, or not really?  It seems like the answer is "not really" if we're talking about a corporation like Amazon, but how about an individual like otaku or champs_de_pins?  They might consider themselves to be both a dealer and a collector.

What about digital albums, both free ones or paid ones?  If I download 10,000 free VGM albums from Bandcamp, do I then have an enormous collection? 

When I asked the original question, I'll admit that I wasn't thinking too specifically about what is and isn't a collection.  Though if I were told someone had 5,000 albums, I would think it was much more interesting if it were an individual collector (not a store), physical albums (not digital), and not 5,000 copies of the exact same album

I mean, I think people are getting off on tangents.  Digital can count for albums you have I suppose but doesn't really count as a "collection"... nobody counts roms as a real game collection afterall.  Vendor stock is also not a collection.  If for some reason someone wants a case of a soundtrack for themselves it should be counted in the collection, but no idea of anyone who would do that.  I treat a collection as something that's been curated.

Well, my collection takes up a LOT less space because I got rid of all the 'common' jewel cases and use sleeves.

^ basically this.