Its weird to think.. Final Fantasy IX was the first one I bought on my own, and after that I only bought X and XII from the main series. Though upon investigating everyone else's answers, I bought Anthology, and Type-0, and I've bought Tactics twice. Once for PS1 and once for PSP. And at some point I got the FF1/2 cart for GBA on my own. As well as Crystal Chronicles

I inherited the first game from my older brother, but then lost it when they threw out my Nintendo stuff unecessarily (paranoid) after a house fire. FFIV and VI were bought for me used from a friend when he was selling his SNES and collection, and it also came with Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, Killer Instinct, and Zelda: Link to the Past. Not bad for $75 at the time

And my gracious mother kept me up to date regards to buying me Final Fantasy VII and VIII. With VII I taste tested it at a friends and fell so in love we bought the game and then put the PS1 on lay-away. Oh the anguish of waiting for that game

Its been an eventful series in my life..