The Carolina Collection
You may have seen a new designation on Wata’s labels, specifically “The Carolina Collection.” What is The Carolina Collection and why is it noted on our labels?
The Carolina Collection is a unique and exceptional archive of video game history with a particular focus on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). What makes this collection truly outstanding is rooted in the person that meticulously assembled it over many years – Dain Anderson, founder and highly active member of the NintendoAge forums. NintendoAge has acted as the hub of information and communication for NES collectors for over 15 years. Dain’s relentless passion for collecting and archiving the history of all things NES is undeniable to anyone that has experienced the collection in its entirety. Rare and valuable pieces range from several of the best known examples of the most highly coveted NES games to historical “paper” items that contribute to the fascinating evolution of at-home video gaming.
The collection gets its name from the pure coincidence that both the original curator (Dain Anderson) and current owner (Jeff Meyer) live in neighboring cities in North Carolina. Jeff is the founder of GoCollect.com (a leader in valuation and collecting tools for comic books) and a seasoned investor in golden age comics. Wata’s certification services opened the doors for GoCollect to expand and begin offering accurate valuation and collector tools to the video game community.
“Accurate and easily accessible information is the cornerstone of any mature collectible,” says Meyer, “and NintendoAge was the clear hub of the most complete information available through both their console archives and long-standing discussions found deep within the forums.”
After a long series of discussions around preservation and improvements an agreement was made for GoCollect to acquire NintendoAge. It was during this time that Jeff became aware of Dain’s amazing collection. “I was staring at a physical representation of the data we wanted to extract from NintendoAge and became overwhelmed with the collector instinct that I absolutely had to own and share this treasure chest of NES history.”
A deal was quickly struck between the two collectors that included a single, undisclosed purchase price in exchange for absolutely every everything Dain owned that was related to video games. Not just the “good stuff,” not just games, not just NES… everything. An entire, tightly packed conversion van was needed to transport the collection to the GoCollect offices.
The GoCollect team is meticulously archiving the collection, while using it and the NintendoAge web site, to develop a suite of tools that are sure to please the video game collecting community for years to come.
The Carolina Collection will be slowly exposed to the collecting community through a small handful of best-in-class auction houses and trusted collectibles dealers. Jeff intends to also hold a small selection of pieces himself for the time being, but promises to keep those pieces available for viewing online once all are well preserved and certified. Some examples of The Carolina Collection are currently being offered at CertifiedLink, a new Auction House branching from ComicLink that now offers certified video games.
As with many other Collections and Pedigrees, the history of The Carolina Collection and the provenance of many of these pieces matter to collectors. Dain’s impact on the community, video game collecting, and the documentation of video game history is unparalleled. Noting pieces from The Carolina Collection allows collectors the opportunity to own a piece of this landmark collection that was curated over close to two decades by one of the ‘fathers’ of video game collecting.
