COLLECTORS

"Occasionally I sell games out of my truck......today was one of those days.   I call it "Gameway" instead of Amway!"   NOTE: CHECK OUT HER LICENSE PLATE!

The "hippy chick" beaded entrance to Lisa's board game room, which includes other collectibles like these vintage Magic Kits...

At right is her oldest board game, THE GAME OF PLAYING DEPARTMENT STORE, Parker Brothers 1898...

"I've been buying games my entire life, as far back as I can remember.   Every Christmas I would ask for 4-5 different games.   As a small child of about 4 years old, I remember asking for and getting the game "Chop Suey", which I loved to play.   It was one of my favorites growing up.   I would always make my dad take me to Korvette's to buy the latest game for my birthday or any other holiday I could get a gift for.   I've always had, and played, games my entire childhood.   As a teenager, I had the same group of about 10 friends.   Every Friday night we would hang out in one of their basements and listen to record albums.   After about 3 weeks of that, I suggested that everyone chip in and buy a board game.   They liked the idea, so we started buying a different game or puzzle every other week for about two years!    I taught them that we could still listen to albums while playing the games or doing the puzzles.   We built up quite a "collection" over that period of time, although never intending to do so".

Lisa's got some real "hard-to-find" games in her collection, like HAWAIIAN EYE, THE C.A.T., RAWHIDE, CAR 54, WHERE ARE YOU?, as well as THE FUGITIVE, THE LUCY SHOW, HOGAN'S HEROES, TIME TUNNEL and the hard to find GREEN HORNET QUICK SWITCH GAME....And does everyone have a copy of a Hasbro Munsters board game but me?...

"Almost every single day I do something with games to the point that I drive my husband crazy.   I buy, trade, and sell games on a very regular basis via ebay, the flea market, friends, colleagues, and my own yard sales.   I am constantly going through them, fixing boxes, finding parts, doing research.   So now that's why everyone knows me as 'The Game Girl'.   I've been a member of the AGPC (The Association of Game & Puzzle Collectors) for over 14 years.   I go to a very large flea market twice a week and am always coming home with something, or lots of somethings.   I go to many yard sales on Saturdays.   We have "game night" at our house once a month.   My truck(s) always have lots of games in them that have to be shifted around when I go food shopping!   There seems to never be an end in sight (as my husband will attest).   Amazingly, I still find many games I've never seen or heard of before, and I would say that happens at least once a week.   My husband would swear that I've had every game known to mankind pass through our house, but how wrong he is!!    That's the fun of it all, knowing that there's something new, different, and exciting around every corner".  

"My most cherished game is my Hawaii Five-O board game, that I searched over four years for..   I even have a t-shirt stating the same..   Everyone I know has known I've been looking for it, and then, just this past April, I finally got one, and in near mint condition!.   Soooooo exciting..   But then a funny thing happened..   Not even a month after getting it, I received a phone call out of the blue from a lady who had a Hawaii Five-O game for sale along with a Mod Squad, and she wanted to sell them as a pair!    I had to buy them since Mod Squad was on my want list also..   How about that? .   TWO Hawaii Five-O's within a month, and I wasn't able to find one for over four years!.   You just never know...".

"My favorite games are Dennis the Menace, and Pop-Up Store.   Not to play, just my favorites.   The thought of the Dennis the Menace TV show just brings back such happy childhood memories".

"Like I said, I've been a big fan of classic sitcoms my entire life.   Throughout the late 80's and the 90's I had the pleasure of meeting many, many stars at toy shows and other venues, of some of my favorite shows including Grandpa Al Lewis, Pat Priest, Alan Young, Connie Hines, Bernie Koppel, Erin Murphy, Mark Goddard, Jerry Mathers, and even going on a cruise with Peter Tork of the Monkees!   It wasn't until I was getting ready to meet Soupy Sales around 2000, that I thought of the idea of having my games autographed!   Soupy signed both of mine for me.   Then I saw a Shari Lewis game for sale on ebay.   The seller said it had some "scribble" on the cover, but I decided to buy it anyway, and when I received it, I realized the "scribble" was her autograph!   More recently I met three of the stars of the Sopranos.   They signed my tin game in silver marker.   Although I do have many of the autographs of the above people mentioned, they are not on my games.   Wish they were.   I don't know why I didn't think of that sooner!   Hindsight is always 20/20!"

Lisa's vast collection of period Magazines and Comic Books (on a vintage Comic Book rack!).   Most of the comic books are original from her childhood...

Lisa's (recently) long-suffering Husband Alan would like to add his perspective...

"Being married to The Game Girl isn't always fun and games.   Half my basement is a game museum with a collection of over 400 board games, many toys and the beginnings of several other mini collections.   The other half of the basement is 'Shipping Central', with Packaging materials, Scales and Postal stuff...   Bottom line, Basement is all Games and toys".  

"In the interim of her shopping and shipping, the first floor of my home has stacks of outgoing packages in the living room, incoming games in the Florida room, and Games to be listed are sometimes found in the dining room.   Did she mention she's been doing work lately for The Big Game Hunter, Bruce Whitehill??   Oh, she didn't?   Well, that has added about another 250 games to the piles over the last four months, plus countless others that have been shipped to museums all over the country".  

"On the second floor, our office is saturated with board games.   The spare bedroom has served as storage in the past, and the hallway is a constant rotation of board games coming in to be listed or heading down to be shipped, or worse....Kept!   Board games in my trucks, on the stairways and sometimes board games in the driveway.   I dig in my heels to keep the board games out of my shed and for the most part out of my bathrooms."  

"Whenever guests are leaving my home, I always extend the same offer to 'help yourself to a board game... please'..."

Alan Bloome, husband of The Game Girl