The [Tim] Atwood Collection
In any collectible field, there are a handful of sources of material that are of unusually high outstanding quality. The quality of these items exceed the remainder of available material to such a degree that examples from these sources are elevated within said collectable.Video games will also have collections that surface periodically that demand a special status within the hobby.
Within the last 2 years, Wata has recognized the Indiana Collection (1600 sealed NES/SNES games from a defunct video rental store) and the Carolina Collection (Founder of NintendoAge Dain Anderson’s video game collection).
Wata is proud to announce the third collection recognized on the Wata label: The Atwood Collection.
Longtime collectors will recognize the name Tim Atwood as a controversial figure in video game collecting. In the middle of 2016, Tim released pictures of some of the sealed cases he had, which really made quite a lasting impression on the video game collecting community.
Tim began accumulating sealed video games in the early 1990s and hasn’t stopped since. He was hired to clean out a warehouse in 1991, and while cleaning it out he noticed a pallet of unsold, still sealed NES case packs in the corner. Instead of throwing them away like everything else in the warehouse, he was able to just take them. Apparently, it took several car trips to get them all home.Tim recognized, early on, just how rare sealed video games were and the nostalgia they represent to so many people.
Tim became disabled from an auto accident in January 2000, which was when he began to actively collect. Now that eBay was around, Tim found an exciting new venue to buy and sell. He was a very active buyer and found large accumulations of sealed games early on, when the number of sealed video game collectors that existed was probably under 20 people. Tim accumulated all of these games without going to any video game conventions, which has made him a mysterious figure within the community. His first video game convention appearance was at TooManyGames in 2019.
Tim still plays video games today and even continues to buy some new releases, expanding his collection even further.
At Wata, we have enjoyed the privilege of certifying parts of The Atwood Collection and we hope you enjoy seeing games from this unsurpassed collection as they get certified and become dispersed in the marketplace. Happy Collecting!
