BOARD GAME BARON

He's passed go and collected way more Monopoly sets than anyone else, yet this UK man is not done

- BY NOKUTHULA ZWANE-EJIKE

THERE'S something fabulously fitting about the scene that greets us when we connect via WhatsApp video call on a recent rainy Sunday afternoon.

Towering behind Neil Scallan are hundreds and hundreds of Monopoly sets – a jaw-dropping backdrop that immediately tells you everything you need to know about this delightfully eccentric man.

The 56-year-old DHL manager from the UK has, well, the monopoly on his favourite board game – and he has the certificate to prove it.

Neil isn't just a fan: he's the official Guinness world record holder of the largest collection on the planet. He owns 4 379 different sets which he estimates are worth around £400 000 (R9,2 million).

YOU tracked him down to talk about his obsession and Neil couldn't be more in his element than if he'd bought the priciest property on the game he adores.

"Do you know it's raining here as well?" he says, chuckling as thunder booms on both sides of the world. "Maybe it's someone laughing at us with a tear in his eye, thinking, 'Look at them two people down there having a good old chat about Monopoly'."

Neil, who was born in Devon and now lives near London, says his Monopoly madness began innocently enough. "My first-ever set was a Waddingtons red and white box set when I was about eight or nine," he says, referring to the British manufacturer of the game.

But it wasn't until 25 years ago that the collecting bug bit. "I was on holiday and every place I went to was represented on the Monopoly board of the set in the shops, so that's literally why I bought the set that started this whole thing."

So where was this place?

"Can't remember," Neil says. "I was travelling a lot at that time."

One of the perks of his job at DHL, where he's worked for 40 years, was getting discounted airfares and Neil jet-setted a lot – but his collecting passion has scuppered his wanderlust a bit.