Where I am, have been, and will be...

[Gemini-Phoenix]

Hi guys! My name is Gemini-Phoenix. You may have heard of me...

I've been away for a little while (well, two years actually! Did anyone notice?), but I haven't actually been too far away. Let's say I was just on hiatus and taking a bit of "time out" to deal with some RL issues and didn't feel I could give my all to the CE community during this time. However, I have still continued to perform my role as Social Network Liaison, and have actively maintained the Twitter and YouTube accounts during my time away from the forums


Short story long...


The Year Of Hell

2012 was the year of hell. We had some noisy & abusive Portuguese neighbours move in next door, who would argue and shout at their kids every single day, & beat each other senseless every evening. We felt like we were the ones being abused having to listen to it all. Needless to say, our efforts to get them evicted from the rented property were fruitless, so we decided that we would move house instead.

Now anyone who has ever moved house will know what a stressful experience that can be. Not only did we have to find somewhere new which was suitable, but we also had to show people around our property to find a buyer. I also had to pack up my entire video game and Dvd collection, and in such a way to avoid any casualties. The latter process took me the best part of four to five months to complete! Everything had to be wrapped carefully and packaged to avoid damage! I ended up renting a self-storage unit for nearly a year and I would make regular trips there to stash away box after box. I moved around 140 large boxes in total (each held around 65 Dvd-size games / films), and there it stayed until about three months after we had moved into the new place when I moved it all back again!

That was just the half of it. The new property needed a lot of work doing to it. Rewiring, plumbing, drainage, insulation, the works! It also needed a new kitchen and bathroom, which between them took us the best part of six months to finish! Other rooms also needed work doing to them, taking a good three or four weeks each between three of us working on them on our days off from work.

18 months later we are now in a comfortable place!


Hard work & dedication to the cause

I haven't stopped collecting throughout this ordeal. In fact, I probably collect more now than I ever used to, although my collecting habit have changed over the last two years. I now mostly collect video game CE's and Blu-Ray SteelBook releases, with the latter practically taking over my life as I am trying to maintain a complete set of UK SteelBook releases! It has become quite a chore to keep track of everything coming out, let me tell you! I currently have over 500 Blu-Ray SteelBooks!

I have cut down on the CE collecting a bit lately though, mainly due to not yet deciding which next-gen console to back as my default console of choice. I have neglected all multi-format releases so far, and the only next-gen CE's I have been buying have been console exclusives. That said, I find myself buying more PS3 CE's now than anything else!

It also goes without saying that this stuff is expensive! If G-P wants nice things, G-P has to earn them! Between August 2013-January 2014 I was working soldily for 6 days / 65+ hours per week just to keep on top of my pre-orders! I barely came out of it alive, but now we are approaching the same situation again where I will now be called to do the same in order to buy everything I want this holiday season!


Other collecting projects

As many of you already know, I have my thumbs dipped firmly in many different collecting pies! I haven't got time to keep on top of everything on a daily basis, so something usually has to give. I try to spread myself across all forums equally, but sometimes things don't quite work out that way. During the last few years I have cut down on my internet time considerably due to having to work so hard, and have only really managed to keep on top of the SteelBook collecting sites. Things aren't really any better now, but at least I am gradually trying to make more of an effort to find the time to get back into the swing of things!

My collection comes first though. If it's a choice between sitting at the computer all day talking about collecting, or going to work to afford something new for my collection, I will always choose the latter every time! After all, what's the point in sitting around talking about something unless I have something in my collection to talk about?


The G-P collection

The G-P collection is currently still sitting in packing boxes all around my house! The rest of the new hosue needed so much work doing to it, my new collection room had to wait until last, and will probably not be done up for a long while yet! However, the new room is much arger than the previous one, so I will be able to display things properly in an orderly manner!

The collection has also grown exponentially since the last time any of you guys saw it! New things come in all the time, and I now have so much that I don't even know what I have! Lol! We've all been there, right? Right?

Anyhow, here's a glimpse of some nice pieces of the collection, and also a set of how the old collection room used to look about a week before I started packing everything up to move house:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/xynthymr/sets/



Where I will be...

I hope that my schedule isn't going to be all that busy over the next few months, but of the last two holiday periods are anything to go by, I will be working all hours God gives me to be able to carry on being a consumerism sheep.

I plan on sticking around as much as I can, but unfortunately I am a very busy collector and cannot be everywhere all at once!




I will just say that although I may not always be around very often, I am usually not very far away! I am always lurking around CE.O and other collector's sites, and can always be summoned via the CE.O Twitter account. I can also be reached directly via eMail (ask a Mod), or via one of my secretaries: Vhal_x or SquirrelRaper, who can relay any messages to me!

[toxicatom5]

Yikes you've bene through lot and put in a lot of time/effort to get back to some normalcy. Glad to see you back in a larger capacity (or at least as much as life will allow)!!!

[KnightOfTruth]

Awesome to have you "back"! Thanks for the update -- I'm in a similar boat regarding space and such, so hopefully I'll have an equally great "end result" when all is said and done. Look forward to seeing all the new additions, thanks for the "teaser"!

[Twisted]

Welcome Back!!!..I see you were quite the legend on some other retro Nintendo game forums as well!!! ..I do remember seeing pics of jaw dropping collection of Nintendo games in the recent past!!!..thanks for the flicker link!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Gemini-Phoenix]

I have to admit, I am somewhat of a veteran collector, and have indeed been about a bit these last fifteen years! As my collecting habits evolve, so do the communities I frequent, and the more specialist they become.

Moving my epic collection was by far the most stressful thing I have ever done, and I would not want to wish that on anybody who has a similar sized collection! I was lucky that I was able to utilise self-storage, but others may not have that luxury. It did mean that I handled everything though, as I would not have felt comfortable with strangers manhandling precious boxes of delicate collectibles. I knew exactly what was in every box, and how I could stack them to reduce the chance of casualties


If I could offer one piece of advice to anyone looking to go through a similar situation, it would be to NEVER scrimp on the packaging! It's always better to be safe than sorry, and if it means having twice as many boxes which are well padded, then so be it! A lot of people make the mistake of thinking a box is all they need, but trust me, you will want to protect your valuable collection as best you can! I would also recommend double-wall boxes as well for rigidity

Anything which comes in a Dvd-style case, was tightly packed with padding around the inside of the box. These form a nice firmly packed "brick" which stack great, and you can put a lot of weight on top of them. More fragile games like Dreamcast, PS1, Gameboy, and N64 went in hard plastic under-bed storage "buckets" with lids. These naturally provided a rigid outer to protect from unnecessary bumps, & can stack 6-8 high depending on the weight. Most of my LE's and CE's went in the deeper variety, which were perfect and required minimal bubblewrap between items to prevent them from rubbing each other in transit.


I was physically separated from my collection for at least 6 months, during which time I suffered mild separation anxiety. I have had it back for the last 18 months, but the vast majority of it is still in the boxes I moved in. The only thing I have allowed myself to have on display is my Blu-Ray SteelBook collection. It seems such a shame to keep everything in boxes, but for the time being it's a necessary evil until I can find the time / money to do up my new collection room

[comaamen86]

do you not feel spread a bit thin

with steebook hunters and all the ce.org stuff

the twitter feed seems a bit of a wasted opportunity at the moment, one of my main gripes is that it still seems very uk centric and should def be more balanced with us and world release news/pricing etc

anyhow welcome back

[comaamen86]

Originally Posted by Gemini-Phoenix

The Year Of Hell

2012 was the year of hell. We had some noisy & abusive Portuguese neighbours move in next door, who would argue and shout at their kids every single day, & beat each other senseless every evening. We felt like we were the ones being abused having to listen to it all. Needless to say, our efforts to get them evicted from the rented property were fruitless, so we decided that we would move house instead.

sounds awful for the kids of that family living in a place of domestic violence

maybe call social services rather than housing for an eviction?

[comaamen86]

but dont want to come off to harsh on ya so some light banter