Meet the collector of more than 50 classic TV show-inspired board games - Action News
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Meet the collector of more than 50 classic TV show-inspired board games

If you ever visit the home of Aaron Sanders, it likely won't take you long to figure out a way to spend time there. That's because the Windsor, Ont., resident owns more than 50board games all adaptations of hit TV game shows.

Aaron Sanders's oldest board game acquisition is from the 1950s

Meet the collector of more than 50 classic 'game show board games'

3 years ago
Duration 1:15
Aaron Sanders says his board game collection stems from his 'obsession' for TV game shows something that started after watching Wheel of Fortune as a child.

If you ever visit the home of Aaron Sanders, it likely won't take you long to figure out a way to spend time there.

That's because the Windsor, Ont., resident owns more than 50 board games that are all adaptations of hit TV game shows from current favourites likeWheelof Fortune and The Price is Right,to old-school classics includingTwenty One and Concentration.

Sanders'slove of game shows began as a child when he laid eyes on Wheel of Fortune.

"You see the colourful wheel, Pat Sajak, Vanna White turning the letters not touching them," said Sanders, referencing a time when the game show had yet to introducedigital letter boards.

Aaron Sanders says the oldest board game in his collection is Twenty One from 1957. (Sanjay Maru/CBC)

"So I've been obsessed with game shows ever since."

Sanders said he got his hands on his first "game show board game" when he was four: the 1999 edition of unsurprisingly the Wheel of Fortune. He collected about six more board games, but most of them got thrown away when his family moved from San Antonio.

His collection efforts restarted, however, when he landed in Windsor. His first local pickup was an '80s edition of Blockbusters, a board game based out of the U.K. that had somehow ended up at a Value Village in Windsor.

"My mom and I saw the price tag. It was three dollars. I'm like, 'Mom, you are never going to get this opportunity again to get a board game from outside North America.' So that was my version of begging her. She said yes."

No, your eyes don't deceive you. Sanders, holding the 1973 version of The Price is Right board game, has his own Plinko lapel pin. (Sanjay Maru/CBC)

It wasn't until college that his efforts really picked up. Over the past seven to eight years, Sanderssaid, he has collected 55 TV-based board games.

His oldest is based on the 1950sgame showTwenty One. You can see his full collection by watching the video above.

He's also collected multiple board game editions of the same game show. For example, he owns seven versions ofJeopardy!ranging from 1971 to 2003.

Sanders owns four versions of The Price is Right board game from over the years. One of them includes a dual-sided console that lets you spin the Showcase Showdown wheel and drop Plinko chips. (Sanjay Maru/CBC)