NTSC-J collecting - a question for other members

[Kurasiu]

Hey DC friends, I would love to hear your personal opinion about one thing I've been scratching my head over recently. So, I decided to acquire a Japanese Dreamcast to my collection. Since I already have quite a collection of Japanese Saturn games, which look great on a shelf, I thought I might put some Japanese Dreamcast games as well.

I want to focus mostly on games I either remember fondly from my childhood, or just always wanted to get. And, to my dismay, I found out a whole lot of games I'd love to get my hands on just wasn't available in the NTSC-J territory. And I do really mean a lot. Hydro Thunder, Aqua GT, Unreal Tournament, Quake 3, Red Dog, Kao the Kangaroo, Star Wars games, Tony Hawk Pro Skater...

What would you do in such scenario? One of the solutions is to get an American copy of the said games to fill in the blanks* (since the CD cases are identical, anyway). Or just stick to PAL releases of the said games? (which sometimes are a tad cheaper, but harder to come by... Plus my shelf would be really mixed with all those different cases!). Or just give up on the whole idea whatsoever.

* - do American sellers on ebay are willing to combine shipment, and declare it as a gift, with a value lower of 30$ to foreign countries? Due to very crappy customs process, without it lots of my packages would be stuck in the customs office for a long time (not to mention additional taxes on my side). Japanese sellers almost always send it as a lower-value gifts.

[mazonemayu]

Here's how I did it: full PAL set + US exclusives + the rest Japanese (not complete yet)

[Bob Dobbs]

Here's how I did it: full PAL set + US exclusives + the rest Japanese (not complete yet)

That is the most logical way of doing it (see above).

[OGDCFAN99]

Being in North America, I have a complete US set + all PAL exclusives and 10 or so Japanese exclusives that don't have language barrier issues and were a must have IMO such as REZ (theres a PAL release but it was cheaper to get the Jpanese version), Ikaruga, Guilty Gear X, Capcom vs SNK 2, Napple Tale, Lost Golem, and a few others that I cant think of off the top of my head.