We spoke to Justin Do, the guy who’s collecting every Nintendo DS in the ‘class of’ groups

If you are a member of any of the “UNC Class of ___ ” Facebook groups, you’ll probably recognize the name Justin Do. He’s been in almost every UNC group making a peculiar request, similar to the one below:

“dear unc,

some of you may know me as the kid who collects nintendo ds’s. i am proud to announce that i am 1% of the way to reaching my goal of collecting 600 nintendo ds’s.

the momentum of this project and the outreach of my fellow tar heels has been incredible and i’m here to ask for your help once again.

if you’re going home over spring break and have a nintendo ds that you’d be willing to contribute to my cause, i would be eternally grateful.

sincerely,
justin”

Do just wants to collect em’ all. (Sorry for the terrible Pokémon joke.) Intrigued by his Facebook posts, I sat down with the collector to ask him more about his fascinating hobby.

What made you want to start collecting Nintendo DSs?

I went home for winter break and I found my first Nintendo DS that I owned. It was the first gaming system I ever bought. I was, like, seven and I remember saving up for it. I just had a lot of nostalgia for it, so I took it back to campus with me and something just told me to ask people if they had any and if they were willing to give it to me. It’s just such a ubiquitous and nostalgic childhood item that I thought other people would relate to and maybe be willing to share with me. As it turned out, they were.

So, how many have you gotten so far?

Right now, I’ve collected about 9 or 10.

Have your friends been helping you with it?

Yeah, they have. They’ve been pointing me towards Craigslist posts and stuff like that, which is kind of funny.

You mentioned an organization you wanted to found – what’s it about?

There has been a student organization relevant to this that I’ve been thinking about founding. It’s still in the planning stages, but it’s something that I think I can pretty reasonably get a faculty sponsor for and get enough interest in. It’s a club about collecting. Just because collecting is kind of a ubiquitous activity and there are a lot of things that people collect, whether it be mugs, sneakers, Nintendo DSs. It’s just an activity that I think a lot of people can relate to and I think a community for that would be something that there would be a market for.

What’s your favorite Nintendo DS model/color?

My favorite model is probably the first one I got.

What’s your favorite game to play on it?

I’ve been a big fan of Legend of Zelda my entire life, so that’s probably my favorite, but truth be told I don’t play a ton of games anymore in college. It helps me stay in touch with my childhood desire to play games without actually doing so.

What are you going to do with them once you’ve collected them all?

That’s a great question. It’s not really a collection I’m going for with a completionist attitude. Really, I’m just adding items that peak my interest. It’s a collection that will never really be finished, but it’s also a collection that I’ll always be satisfied with, so there’s a nice little balance there.

So if you have something to tell our readers, what would it be?

If you have a Nintendo DS, hit me up. Also, stay on the look out for a collector’s club in the future.

Well, you heard it here first, folks. If you have any Nintendo DSs or collect a lot of cool things, hit up Justin Do. I will personally be giving him my light pink Nintendo DSi that I used to play My Sims on the bus while on middle school field trips, so DO IT.