Well I started at about 11 years old and I don't even remember how I got ahold of a red basic boxed set (that was over 20 years ago

).
My parents didn't have alot of money, and living in Vermont there were no game stores back then.
Once I started working (mowing lawns at 14 or 15) my collection started to grow slowly (1st edition).
During my 4 years of college we ran games 5 nights a week, and I ran 3 of those nights in a number of different systems (too many to name and changed every couple of months).
I have a fairly large collection of 1 thru 3.5 edition and many non D&D RPG's (TORG, Top Secret, Gama World, Paranoia, Toon, ...etc.).
Now I am a Database Developer/DBA with a decent income and I can buy books that I want but I don't have the time to game as much as I would like. I get to play a couple of times a month if I am lucky, but the collection continues to grow.
For some reason a house, wife, and life in general has decided to cut into my game playing time
I also have boxes full of CCG's, a number of armies for a variety of mini games, and a good sized stack of Board Games.
In fact one whole room in our house stores the pile of stuff I have accumulated over the years.