Owner of world's largest Monopoly collection on the hunt for "Holy Grail" of sets
A Monopoly mad collector is on the hunt for the “Holy Grail” of sets.
Neil Scallan (UK) has got 4,379 of them – the world’s largest collection of Monopoly board game memorabilia.
But there’s one that has escaped his clutches so far - one created for the Australian rugby league club the Cronulla Sharks.
He told us: “The set that everyone is after, and even myself, is Cronulla Sharks from Australia.
“I was in the Winning Moves [game board company] headquarters in Sydney and they had one on the shelf and I was looking at it saying, ‘Please can I have it?’
“But he said, ‘It’s my own personal edition’.”
Neil does have a super rare set from the Park Hyatt Sydney hotel that you can only buy if you stay there - for £1,000 a night… plus the cost of the set.
Neil managed to get a message to someone who was staying there, who offered to buy it for him and send it in the post.
Neil standing next to some of his Monopoly sets
He said that one was another “Holy Grail” of the Monopoly world.
This is the fourth time Neil has broken the record, with previous counts of 1,677 in 2016, 1,999 in 2017 and 2,249 in 2018.
Surrounded by walls of Monopoly sets and wearing a top hat just like the one worn by mascot Mr Monopoly, Neil said: “My last count was 2018, I’ve been waiting six long years to have my sets counted and even though I was waiting, I was still buying sets and pushing the numbers up.
“Out of the blue, I got this message from Guinness World Records, saying ‘Would you like to have your sets counted?’
It was like winning the lottery. You might as well have bought me the Euro winning ticket – that’s how it felt.
Neil has been collecting Monopoly sets for 25 years.
As well as editions from around the world, he has special editions for TV shows like Game of Thrones and Dragon Ball Z, video games like Fortnite, Uncharted, and Sonic the Hedgehog, movies like Star Wars and even fast food chain McDonald’s.
On why he started collecting Monopoly sets, Neil said: “Firstly, it’s because I grew up with it and it’s a part of my history.
“I started with the standard set, then I’d get them from different countries as I was travelling.
“On the sets, when you’d go abroad, would be places that you’d visited so it was a nice double whammy.
“It was nice to have something which was a memento of your trip and all the places you’d been in a collectable.”
Most of Neil’s Monopoly sets are still sealed up.
He explained: “The youngsters do love playing them but for me, it’s getting them and having them sealed.
“But I still do love it. I’ll still have as much enjoyment as a child playing it.”
Storage of his sets used to be so overwhelming that he had to sleep with some of them on his bed.
Neil said that the reactions he gets from friends and family vary – some think it’s amazing that he has the record, while others think he spends too much money on his collection.
“My girlfriend thinks I’m crazy and says it’s too much,” he laughed.
“It started about 25 years ago, so if you think what I have over 25 years it doesn’t seem too much, but I would say over the last six years it really has snowballed.
“I wanted to try and get every set”
GWR's Will Munford inspects the collection
He even has a room full of duplicates and about 800 sets on loan to a museum in Belgium.
And Neil says he’ll continue collecting as long as he’s able to.
“For me, you should never regret what decisions you’ve made,” he said.
“I’ve never regretted collecting and I’ve enjoyed the chase of finding sets and struggling to organize getting them shipped to the UK.”
Neil is proud to have achieved a Guinness World Records title with his passion.
“Is that the be all and end all? Yes, it is,” he insisted.