Inspired by the (profoundly depressing in some ways) sale thread of Jodo's, I'm curious how many here still have large collections of game soundtrack CDs?  I know a number of the "old guard" from this forum have sold off sizable portions of their collections over the years, but I'm curious who all is left and what new people are actually accumulating physical albums these days. 

Below is a link to my vgmdb - everything there is either on some Ikea shelves upstairs or still within the game packages for bundled things downstairs where I keep my video games.  Despite the large quantity, I do listen to a lot of them pretty frequently.  I have a tendency to spend hours sitting at my table or desk working on work for school when I'm at home, and vgm is always the perfect thing for that.  I cycle through all kinds of different things depending on my mood, and I can think of very few things from my own collection I'd even ever consider parting with, even after all these years!

http://vgmdb.net/db/collection.php?do=view&userid=5378

How about any of the rest of you guys and gals?

Just over 10 years have passed since I started collecting stuff (and still do) - now I have over 500 game-related soundtracks. They're basically permanently in storage (since .mp3s are too convenient) and at this rate, will probably be buried with me when I die, Ancient Egyptian-style (I have no intention of selling it barring extreme financial circumstances). Looking at it pragmatically, my collection probably mostly exist just to satisfy my materialism.

I don't keep my list on vgmdb and the albums I own are pretty random so I won't bore you with the details/hack-job copy-paste. That said, I do have two passions/specialise in two sorts of items:

My S.S.H. collection (click for photos) which is still sadly incomplete.
My game music live concert DVDs/BluRays (which I do pull out to watch from time to time):

VIDEO    KD-079    DVD    1    Beatmania IIDX: Visual Emotions    Konami        Preowned
VIDEO    KD-081    DVD    1    Beatmania IIDX: Visual Emotions 2    Konami        Preowned
VIDEO    KD-115    DVD    1    Beatmania IIDX: Visual Emotions 3    Konami        Preowned
VIDEO    KD-126    DVD    1    Beatmania IIDX: Visual Emotions 4    Konami        Preowned
VIDEO    KD-154    DVD    1    Beatmania IIDX: Visual Emotions 5    Konami        Preowned
VIDEO    KD-033    DVD    1    Beatmania IIDX: Visual Works Vol. 1    Konami        Preowned
VIDEO    KD-273~4    DVD    2    Beatmania Summit - Beatmania IIDX Premium Live    Konami        Preowned
VIDEO    SQEX-20004    BRD    1    Distant Worlds - Music from Final Fantasy - Returning Home    Limited Edition        Preowned
AUDIO    SQEX-20005~6    CD    2    Distant Worlds - Music from Final Fantasy - Returning Home    Square Enix        Preowned
VIDEO    SQEX-20011    BRD    1    Distant Worlds - Music From Final Fantasy - The Celebration    Square Enix        Preowned
VIDEO    NW10102840    DVD    1    Falcom JDK Band 2010 Live in Liquidroom    Nihon Falcom    Ｏ    Preowned
VIDEO    CABD-0001    BRD    1    Falcom JDK Band 2011 Christmas Live in Yokohama Bay Hall    Nihon Falcom        Preowned
VIDEO    CABD-0002    BRD    1    Falcom JDK Band 2012 Super Live in Nicofarre (Limited Edition)    Limited Edition        Sealed
MISC        Misc        Neck Strap + Ticket Holder    Limited Edition        Sealed
VIDEO    CABD-0003    BRD    1    Falcom JDK Band 2012 Super Live in Nihonbashi Mitsui Hall 2012.07.27    Nihon Falcom        Sealed
VIDEO    JBL-TDVD    DVD    1    Falcom JDK Band Live "Rebirth"    Nihon Falcom        New
VIDEO    ALDC-TDVD    DVD    1    Falcom x JDK TV - Acoustic Live DVD Collection    Nihon Falcom        Preowned
VIDEO    SQEX-20007    DVD    1    Final Fantasy XI - Vana Con Anniversary 11.11.11 at Katsushika Symphony Hills Mozart Hall    Square Enix        Preowned
VIDEO    SJBM-11001    DVD    1    Guilty Gear X BlazBlue Music Live 2011    Star Jam Corporation        Preowned
VIDEO    XQAJ-2001    DVD    1    Jill's Project Live "Crazy Me" - 2006.06.10 Live Station Meguro    Mandrake Root        Preowned
VIDEO    VTBL-2    DVD    1    Kajiura Yuki Live 2008.07.31    Victor Entertainment        Preowned
VIDEO    PCXP-50136    BRD    1    Linked Horizon - Luxendarc Kikou (Limited Edition)    Pony Canyon        Preowned
VIDEO        DVD    1    Mario & Zelda - Big Band Live DVD (Nintendo Dream Vol. 101 2003.11.21)    Nintendo        Sealed
VIDEO    KDDV-00001    DVD    1    Motoi Sakuraba Live Concert - Star Ocean & Valkyrie Profile    Team Entertainment        Preowned
VIDEO    ANZB-3181    DVD    1    Persona Music Live - Velvet Room in Akasaka Blitz    Limited Edition        Preowned
VIDEO    ANZB-3182    CD    1    Persona Music Live - Velvet Room in Akasaka Blitz - Bonus CD    Aniplex        Preowned
VIDEO    ANZB-3183    DVD    1    Persona Music Live 2009 - Velvet Room in Wel City Tokyo    Limited Edition        Preowned
VIDEO    ANZB-3184    CD    1    Persona Music Live 2009 - Velvet Room in Wel City Tokyo    Aniplex        Preowned
VIDEO    ANZB-3185    DVD    2    Persona Music Live 2012 - Mayonaka TV in Tokyo International Forum    Limited Edition        Preowned
AUDIO    LLDS-3250    CD    1    Persona Music Live 2012 - Mayonaka TV in Tokyo International Forum - Bonus CD    Aniplex        Preowned
VIDEO    ANZX-3185    BRD    1    Persona Music Live 2012 - Mayonaka TV in Tokyo International Forum    Aniplex        Preowned
AUDIO    ANZX-3186    CD    1    Persona Music Live 2012 - Mayonaka TV in Tokyo International Forum - Bonus CD    Aniplex        Preowned
VIDEO    LNBM-1060~1    DVD    2    Persona Music FES 2013 in Nippon Budokan    Mastard Records        Preowned
VIDEO    PPM-002    DVD    1    The Black Mages Live    Square Enix        Preowned
VIDEO    PPM-006    DVD    1    The Black Mages Live - Above the Sky    Square Enix        Sealed
VIDEO    DERD-10001    DVD    1    The Black Mages III - Darkness and Starlight Live    Dog Ear Records        Sealed
VIDEO    PPM-003    DVD    1    Tour de Japon - Music From Final Fantasy - March 12th - April 16th 2004    Square Enix        Preowned
VIDEO    DERD-10002    DVD    1    Uematsu Nobuo no 10 Short Stories    Dog Ear Records        Preowned
VIDEO    SQEX-20001~2    DVD    2    Voices - Music From Final Fantasy    Limited Edition        Preowned
VIDEO    SQEX-20003    DVD    1    Voices - Music From Final Fantasy    Square Enix        Preowned
VIDEO    CALD-1    USB    1    Falcom JDK Band 2011 Summer Live in Nicofarre    Nihon Falcom        Preowned
VIDEO    CALD-2    USB    1    Falcom JDK Band 2011 Christmas Live in Yokohama Bay Hall    Nihon Falcom        Preowned

800 and counting. My biggest issue being storage. I think the last 5 years of stuff I've bought us either in a crappy spillover shelf or a large box on my couch.

I'm sitting AROUND 400-500 or so. I built up to around 500 at one point (mostly from forum sellers in the early 2000's), sold close to 100-150, then sat on that for awhile. I took some time away from collecting VGM, especially during the period with the pathetically-weak US dollar and where I was coming to grips I wasn't enthusiastic about anything new coming out. Then I saw the cheap give-away-esque prices some of the albums I wanted for the longest time go for (particular Zunata, Konami, Square and Falcom CD's from the 90's) and have been steadily adding over the past couple years. There's a small list of "holy grails" I've slowly been chipping away at (Jodo netted me Cyber Core and an original Falcom Special Box '89, which were major sore spots on  said list).

All I got to say is, if you've listed albums on VGMdb and didn't bother to list prices, there's a good chance you've missed out on getting a sale or two from me over the past couple years.

Edit: I actually now remember what sparked me getting back into adding to my collection. I was looking all over for a lossless rip of Alphabet Planet and I wasn't finding one. Then I found out how to order off of Amazon Japan. The album went for very little on that market (think I paid about $10 for it), so I queued up a handful of other odds and ends I had been looking for and came away with everything I wanted. Then I was like, "hey this is fun...I should keep doing it."

lol, among you oldtimers, I have not done as well.

If I hadn't had that rough financial time, I'd still be sitting pretty on that beautiful CAVE Collection too ... an extra 37 albums of pure goodness (some more pure and goodly than others).

I keep my collection on vgmdb VERY accurate, thorough, and up-to-date. I also have it split digital and physical, so you know what's sitting on a shelf vs what's some bandcamp soundtrack on my HDD.

http://vgmdb.net/db/collection.php?do=view&userid=8

My physical collection shows at 198, just under 200 (it'll be at 200 once my SE albums Adventure of Mana & SaGa Orchestral arrive). That includes any album that vgmdb will list, so there are some chiptune and loosely-vgm-ish albums on there (at first glance I saw a Chipocrite CD and a Protomen album).

My digital collection, existing largely thanks to Humble Bundle and the Loudr VGM bundles, is at a whopping 377. Some stand-outs in that collection for me are those import soundtracks that never got physical releases (FF Dimensions, DODONPACHI MAXIMUM MBS Ver2.02 Soundtrack), and then ... tons of amazing indie soundtracks. The arrange albums too. I love the too "FZ" albums for FEZ, the Indie Game Mashup, Blocks That Matters' "Reworks That Matter," and "The Scythian Steppes" for Sword & Sworcery.

When I look at my physical collection, the only things I *really* want are the box sets that I will likely never be able to afford: Breath of Fire (11 discs), Wizardry (6 discs), Ar tonelico kurt hymneth (6 or 7 discs?), the stupidly large GUST box (44 discs). I'd have to be facing eviction to consider selling my current box sets: SaGa (20 discs, with the Disc 1 sleeve signed by Uematsu because FF Legend / Makaitoushi SaGa is one of my favorite Uematsu works!), Seiken Densetsu (18 discs), DQI-IX Symphonic Suite (10 discs), The Ys III / Felghana Box (8 discs), FFXI Premium Box (7 discs), Masaya / Langrisser I-III Box (6 discs).

(I'm also still very sour about Konami canceling the Suikoden box set...)

So yeah, that's me. About 200 physicals, most of them single or double disc, a handful of larger OSTs, and then those mega-boxes listed above.

Ramza

EDIT/PS -- I am also marginally interested in this boxed set: http://vgmdb.net/album/55803 -- even though it has anime material and drama. I played this visual novel on Vita and WOW WOW WOW, this is excellent stuff. The music for it is great too, I've always loved Takeshi Abo (a 5pb regular, Ever17, Never7, etc). I want to play Steins;gate 0 very badly now, I hope it comes to the US relatively soon.

~350 plus all the Castlevania-related ones, I guess 400 or so. Always looking to upgrade my favourite albums, since I used to not care about the bundled items (stickers etc.) and registration cards. Now I know I should have!

(I stopped updating my VGMdb list out of laziness a long time ago
http://vgmdb.net/db/collection.php?do=view&userid=208)

Not much time to listen to anything though, I would, but the collection is split in different places so the album you want to listen to is never around when you're there!

Since I've never ever kept anything new/sealed, I will do a rip onto my PC, which can then go to iPod or elsewhere for easy listening. For every, single, CD.

(note that I actually DO delete them once I sell them. There are many days I wish I didn't have this policy. But it's more my own ethics than the law that drives me to do so.)

It's funny you mention this because I've been trying to do this lately. I do have mp3s from albums I did own or have never owned... but I'm trying to make them the vast minority and they pretty much are now.

I've actually seen a number of people who are vehemently anti-piracy but don't consider ripping and selling while keeping the rip to actually be a problem...

As for my 'collection', I have nearly 4000 physical owned CDs (that's discs, not 'albums') on top of many digital downloads, though this is across classical, all soundtracks (film/anime/game/etc) and jazz/other. For game music specifically it's a little under 350 physical discs.
The way I save on space is that all 'normal' CDs are in sleeves rather than jewel cases. It's a HUUUUUUUUUUUUGE savings, like, my collection takes up maybe 1/3rd the space it otherwise would,

I threw ethics out the window a LONG time ago. It got to be too much of a headache. Only rules I follow:

1. If it's an Indie/small artist I follow and the price is reasonable, I buy the album. This is VGM and otherwise.

2. If the album is provided as a favor, I don't share/spread it unless I get explicit okay from whoever gave it to me. I rarely upload/share ANYWAY, but...Same goes for small artists (see above).

The availability/want-factor of an album does influence my buying decisions. Usually the stuff I buy is either unavailable as a lossless copy or has a degree of special meaning that it absolutely warrants owning a hard copy. Generally speaking though, if an album I download is f---ing excellent, I'll naturally lean towards buying a copy for myself (reasoning being, if I lose my hard drive and all my various backups, I can still rip a copy for myself).

Hmm...I end up with about 16 Staples boxes worth of CD's when I box everything up...4 of which are VGM/anime. I want to say that puts me around 1500-2000 discs? I'm in dire need of good media shelves/space to properly display everything.

I haven't posted much under this name; you might remember me as Hitori.

I have at least 533 albums: http://vgmdb.net/db/collection.php?do=view&userid=14816

I'm pretty sure that's not my full collection, though, but I don't know how many are missing. It's been about ten years since I've bought more than a couple per year. Which is a shame, because it's so much easier to get them now that I live in Tokyo. I really ought to sell some, but I'm lazy.

I'm over 800 VGM albums as well, though I haven't updated my list to reflect it.  I don't have the list up on vgmdb so I've avoided messages regarding it, though I am thinking that I should update so that perhaps I could get some suggestions for albums I should look for (right now there's about 2 dozen albums and some of those are almost completely impossible to find/never seen them for sale).

http://vgmdb.net/db/collection.php?do=view&userid=12270

A modest 200 game soundtracks there, CD owned unless the release was download-only. I still love collecting them, though it happens slowly since I like to get some familiarity with a game before buying its soundtrack. I hope I never sell them off, but look after each one as if I will one day.

I sit at just slightly under 300 VGM albums

http://vgmdb.net/db/collection.php?do=view&userid=2408

There was a time when I got 2 packages full of stuff from Otaku.com a week and I used to get a bunch from sellers on here too. Most of what I want I find relatively easily but the instant I have to do a Yahoo Auction is when I fall off the board.

All of my CDs are in a big Egg box just chilling under other Egg boxes and CDs of other genres of which I have way too many of. When I get into a new place one day I hope to dedicate a room to comic books and VGM so I can show off some of my bellezza.

Super Analyzer tells me that I have 1,005 albums right now so I guess around 700 isn't dedicated to VGM.

The only album I regret missing out on was the Order of Ecclesia soundtrack. I'm still flummoxed that there was no proper release for it. I have half of the album from the CastleVania box set but man is it disappointing.

Super Analyzer
http://download.cnet.com/Super-Analyzer … 81506.html

This is a small piece of Java software that analyzes your iTunes library and tells you statistics of the library you have been growing including how old, at what rate it has been growing, what time of day you prefer to play music, most common words in music.

My top 5 are
Theme
Battle
Ending
Stage
Boss

And also your most played albums.

In any case this place will always be VGM home to me.

At my peak I believe I had 150 albums. A lot of it being Digicube releases. Still rather fond of those. I've sold off a ton and now have maybe 50? And my vgmdb wishlist would only bring it up to 75 maybe.

I'm somewhere in the 800 physical album range as well. Haven't really added much new in a while: most of my collecting comes from seeing an old album from a game I liked on YJA and setting up a bid. I've kept my collection in a large CD cabinet, which holds all of my VGM CDs (about 2/3 of the space) as well as some of my
dance music CDs (the other 1/3).

I almost never listen to music at home because there is never a moment's peace at home (we have two younger kids that constantly need attention). My collection really is a display case of CDs that I don't listen to. But it's hard to get rid of it because I still have an emotional attachment to it. It represents an important part of my life.

My opinions about my collection have fluctuated over time. At one point, I thought about what would happen once I died, and the hassle that my heirs would have to go through to unload the whole collection. I ended up selling quite a few albums during that time that I now regret. I realized that a lot of those albums still have value to me, even if its purely sentimental, and that counts for something.

Wowsers! So, let's see. Roughly 4 ounces a CD, 3200 ounces, so 200 pounds of game music...

I started collecting VGM later than probably almost everyone here: in the Fall of 2014.  18 months later, I'm at roughly 500 physical albums, which is a lot more than I ever thought I'd own at the start.  There are another 250 or so on my wishlist, and if I account for stuff I don't know about yet, I suspect I'll top out around 1000 albums total.

I do wish I had more time to listen; like Crash, I've got a family at home.  That said, I find VGM a pretty convenient hobby - in that I can listen while I'm doing other stuff.  I'll admit it's not my wife's favorite genre, though I'm still intent on finding an album that she actually enjoys

Speaking of really large collections, here's the list of the largest collections on vgmdb:

http://vgmdb.net/db/statistics.php?do=l … collection

with the largest collection sitting at over 6000 albums.  Beyond that, there is also this user (below), whose collection purports to comprise over 15000 albums (unfortunately, the collection is private):

http://vgmdb.net/db/collection.php?do=view&userid=4899

Guaranteed 50% of the people that are over 1000 albums in their collection are using the collection feature to catalog their digital collections.  That list is a bunch of internet dick swinging.

This. Personally I'd only list a digital album in a list like that if the digital rendition was the only version in existence.

I think, for as much as I love VGM, I'd have trouble coming up with another 500 albums I would want to own. 100? Yes, definitely. I need to fill some holes in. 200? Okay, throw a ton of rarities/impulse buys/curiosities in there and I'll probably be there in 3-4 years. 300? Really stretching it. Maybe if we start counting up all the individual Game Sound Museum singles (ha!) and throw in all the cheapo Falcom/Twinbee Paradise/Tokimeki drama CD's that can be had for a song (double ha!), I can really bloat my count up. 400? 500? No way. Even with an unlimited amount of disposable income, including digital albums I buy and counting anything that gets sold between now and then, I'd have trouble with that.

I guess that's the balance of being both a collector and a fan of the music.

So, can people break-up their large collections into genres or styles? Most of my music is classical in nature. I'm a fan of RPGs and those happen to be mostly in the classical style for various reasons. Then of course there are some great albums such as

Sekaiju no MeiQ SUPER ARRANGE VERSION
http://vgmdb.net/album/4588

which are fusion. I like to keep an open mind, but I really don't have a large collection and am happy to be Thoreau-ising my collection

I'm sure most people lean to certain styles, but VGM consists of pretty much every style of music, so sorting that into genres would be a pretty ridiculous undertaking... especially if you considered some of the bemani albums' song genres as actual genres...

Don't even know what a "bemani" album is...

I find it both easier and less stressful to just buy new stuff as it comes out.  Unless I'm really bored or really interested in something I don't even bother checking secondary marketplaces, it just takes too much dedication and time for me to bother. 

I average about an order a month from CDJapan and I went through and found 13 orders I made which consisted of 38 total albums in 2015.  I buy mostly based on artist.  Everything from Hisaishi.  Almost everything from SQEX, Sakimoto, Sugiyama, Kanno, Hamauzu, etc.  I'm very keen on box sets just because of how convenient they are in amassing a great quantity of source material in one purchase instead of having to hunt down copies of everything (again, time, dedication).  I bought the Gust box set just because it was easy despite never hearing much of the music from any of them (except the one Kikuta had a part in). 

In real slow months or quarters where there just isn't anything interesting coming out, I'll randomly purchase things based on popularity, recommendation, exploration or just complete random.  I bought the Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet soundtrack because it was a slow period and I just liked the cover and it's been one of my favorite albums of the last 5 years.  I bought the Taira no Kiyomori "box" (5cds) because I saw someone recommend it and listened to some samples on YouTube and I now *LOVE* it.  I bought the Attack on Titan movie score just because that series seemed to be popular at the time and I'm not really a big fan of it at all.  I bought the Death Note movie OST around the same time because I have a soft spot for Takayuki Hattori... the list goes on.

I prefer it this way because I'm less likely to have to go back in 5, 10 years and be like "dang, really missed an opportunity to get that when it was current so now i have to look on secondary markets".  Seems like a pretty good methodology if you aren't too worried about fiscal responsibility and generally know what/who you like.

A vast majority of items in my collection are in the orchestrated or arranged style, or just classic nostalgia SNES RPG era stuff.  Mostly the "cinematic" type stuff.  I don't really like much of the rock, fusion arrange stuff and I pretty much detest some of the worldly instrumentation styles like Celtic or some of the shit on the SQ albums (Beer SQ was the album that made me stop buying that garbage series) or the DQ Brass series stuff.  Piano and orchestra all the way.

beatmania, pop'n music, guitar freaks & drummania, and dance dance revolution are the main series of Konami's Bemani branch... or basically the only part still releasing games, albeit ones we don't get in the west unless you have a good arcade nearby.

I would honestly say there aren't enough artists or franchises out there that I would seriously drop $30 or so on their album on day one. I'm lucky nowadays if I find 10 new releases a year that seriously interest me (not counting retro stuff). It's a combination of quality and lack of personal attachment. But I still regard the whole 90's as a decade of reverence for VGM and it sparked many upon many albums that, to me, are legendary. I like owning a piece of history, I like owning albums that "matter", if that makes sense. There was just so much going on. The Japanese composers and sound teams were at their peak, melody was at the forefront, arranged albums bloomed like cherry blossons in spring and the industry was booming with great franchises. I remember discovering STC for the very first time in 1998 and learning about each franchise or game that existed, outside of my own American NES/SNES exposure. It was overwhelming (particularly given my lack of resources to acquire new music) and at the same time, provided a true rush of discovery that I have yet to experience in any other hobby, especially once I came to grips that "OMG, videogame music...on a CD...mind. blown."

As a personal aside, I've warmed up to the "classic" orchestral arranges, but not enough to pay the prices that some of them command (the OGC's most notably). They just don't get enough listening time to occupy the resources they command.

I must also preface the above by saying I feel the same way about metal music nowadays. I am absolutely brutal with judging new metal...I'd say for every fantastic new band I find, there are about 20 (30? 40?) totally forgettable ones I sift through on Youtube. What ends up getting my hard earned cash has to earn every penny of it.

At the beginning of the year I started trying to organize my collection.  I managed to get through one pass and get everything reboxed but did not have time to properly list what I have before I ran into other issues with life that took priority. I do know I need to consolidate and sell stuff at some point because I found I had some duplicates.

Storage has always been a bitch. I'm using 12 large apple boxes because I haven't been able to find anything remotely practical to put this all in. Seriously, if you can make friends with someone at a supermarket try and get some if you're only concerned with storage and not display. If they can get you clean ones after they air out for a day or two they're awesome. The ones I have hold about 300 standard cases spine up and I stack a few loose caseless discs or dvd cases on top. They're more sturdy than typical cardboard boxes and I can stack them 3 high without worry the box is going to give and crush under the weight.

Considering DiscSox at some point to reduce size but they are pricey. On the other hand they're the only sleeve I've seen designed to store the entire CD sans jewel case.

I'm one of the suckers that still buys Japanese CDs. Can't seem to shake the habit. I track everything in a spreadsheet, but not everything is catalogued yet, so I'd estimate around 1,400 albums, 95% of which are VGM related. I used to be really vigorous about tracking down every single CD in a series no matter how rare, but now I'm pretty lazy and just buy the easy to get new stuff.