My Favorite Game is USED

I really do not have a favorite game, I have closets full of them. It is kind of an obsession so the weirder and rarer the boxed game, then I am an instant fan. I wish they were not so bulky sometimes, but half the fun is the artwork, instructions, and marketing graphics on the box top.

Now I am not one of those pristine collectors that insist upon every box be in ‘mint’ condition and every game piece factory produced. In fact some of my truly favorite games have been resurrected from the dead, especially by collector standards. One such game “Arch Rival” was missing a plastic cup that is an integral part of building a 3-D arch structure off the game board. The game was unusable without the piece but I bought the game anyway because everything else was there. I went home and proceeded to make a lightweight replica of the missing part, matching paint and all. Magically the game found life again and my kid used it many time throughout the years.

My goal is to make replica parts that, while not perfect facsimiles, still complete the game and make it fully playable again. I bought “Mall Madness” at a thrift store that was missing a lot of cardboard storefront pieces. They were not as important to the game, but even as an adult, the game lacks something without the idea of wandering from store to store completing your shopping. So I meticulously made cardboard storefronts that would fit the die cut game board but reflected our own personality which was very fun. That game surprised everyone in that it was fun to play even with the gimmicky electronic credit card machine. Most of the time if you purchase a $30 board game with lots of goofy battery operated parts, it is just a lot of glitz and cover for a poorly designed game. By buying used and making a few spare parts, we got to enjoy the same game and express some personal creativity, but for only a couple of hard-earned dollars.

The logical extension of course is that once your family starts fixing used games, it will become an obsession to find more games to return to service for pennies on the dollar. Further, if you are like me, you will want to combine features of several games and make up your own unique blended version with custom cards, play pieces and even BOX ART. Try it sometime with your family – it’s creative, fun, and depending on their game topic, educationally mind expanding. Uh … or at least CLOSET expanding – now where to put my new made up custom combo game, “Blog-Rival Madness”?