Roger Holler spent 40 years trying to build the perfect NES collection. With just three games left in his quest for a complete library, tragedy struck at his home in Puyallup, a small city near Tacoma, Washington. He and his family returned home from an out-of-town trip to find their house had been broken into and their entire collection was missing.
Holler tells local news station KING 5 that the collection included over 860 NES games and "was valued between $50,000 to $100,000." The family has reported the theft to local police and is speaking with their insurance company, though it's unclear whether the collection was covered.
Regardless, Holler's emotions after the theft are clear. "I shake, I get headaches, I get all this stuff," he says. "I don't even want to look at them. The shelf, I want to rip that shelf out and get it out of my house because I know what was there."
He says he's been collecting NES games since he was 11, when he received his first NES console as a gift from his mother. "To me, this week, it feels like I'm losing my mom again," Holler says. "Similar, but it's different. Your parents are your loved ones, but this was my other love. This was my other child. I have three boys, but this was my other child. I started this before they were even born."
The local report isn't clear on the contents of the collection, but there is an image of the shelf from before it was robbed bare. There are some doubles in there – there would have to be, since the North American NES library only consists of 675 games – and given Holler's valuation, I suspect that his collection included some of the platform's most notable grails.
The median value of an NES game is about $16, according to PriceCharting – spread across 860 games, that comes out to around $14,000 in current market value. The fact that Holler puts a far, far higher price on his collection suggests that he had acquired some of the platform's most infamous collectibles, which include $1,000-plus rarities like Little Samson and Flintstones: Surprise at Dinosaur Peak.
"It was going to go to the grandkids," Holler says. "It was ultimately going to be for them. For their college education – whatever the case may be – that was what the end goal was going to be for."
But now, he says, "I don't think I will ever collect another thing again in my life."
Members of both the local and broader gaming community are trying to brighten the family's spirits, however. Fox 13 Seattle helped a local collector deliver a small collection of 40 NES games to the Hollers in an effort to kickstart a new library. Content creator A Gamer's Basement has started a GoFundMe to help cover the cost of replacing the collection.
"Let’s come together as a community and make Roger whole," the campaign's description says.
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