Limited Run Games

[zeppelin03 | 314]

12 hours ago, Tanooki said:

Do we know if these repairs from all the rental payors about the digital game will be fixed on the pressed physical release?  I've never bought new from them before but being PD I jumped on the standard one.  I wonder if it will come out on time, or be a classic LRG mess of waiting through delays.  Yeah, I don't trust them or like the business model much but what are you going to do?   I still kind of wish I had Yooka-Laylee but it's hard to pay so high on a game that's often 75% off on GoG.com

I've bought many games from Limited Run only to sell them because of steam/gog sales. The $10-15 premium for physical isn't worth it to me either when it will be discounted very soon after release. 

They do always deliver on the promised product though. Great for those interested in a physical console release I suppose.

[MiamiSlice | 3,097]

2 hours ago, zeppelin03 said:

I've bought many games from Limited Run only to sell them because of steam/gog sales. The $10-15 premium for physical isn't worth it to me either when it will be discounted very soon after release. 

They do always deliver on the promised product though. Great for those interested in a physical console release I suppose.

I have two theories for why the price drops happen for the digital versions whenever these limited print physicals ship out:

- to discourage resellers

- to give collectors a cheap digital version so they can keep their physical sealed and still play the games

Theory 2 sounds crazy and dumb but usually by the time the physical ships, the digital version has already been out for months, so it’s like the only people who care anymore are the collectors who have a hard time unsealing their precious physicals.

[DarkTone | 986]

OH COME ON!

[MiamiSlice | 3,097]

Say what you will but that baby will be sold out in a day

[Startyde | 175]

5 minutes ago, DarkTone said:

OH COME ON!

Where do you see that.

[ICrappedMyPants | 302]

5 minutes ago, DarkTone said:

OH COME ON!

You can cancel another preorder if you get the CE. However, I’m not into statues and the extra swag.

[Startyde | 175]

2 minutes ago, MiamiSlice said:

Say what you will but that baby will be sold out in a day

Sold out in 3 minutes you mean.

[DarkTone | 986]

2 minutes ago, Startyde said:

Where do you see that.

Was posted on their FB.

[Startyde | 175]

3 minutes ago, DarkTone said:

Was posted on their FB.

Thanks, just saw it. Everything I've seen of SoR4 makes it look...ok. But this is a nice set for fans.

[Redmond | 152]

I warned ya.

Would like to see some reviews on SOR4 first tho before dropping that kinda coin tho.  

[dvertov | 208]

I know this topic has been talked to death elsewhere, but why do people buy these collector's editions anyway, especially if you're never going to open them and play with all the extra toys? Aren't the only people who collect them other collectors? And if that's true, how sustainable is the market for these things? My mom still has a whole basement shelf of my "collector's edition" baseball card sets from the '90s I wouldn't be able to sell for $10 a box these days. How is this different?

[zeppelin03 | 314]

20 minutes ago, Redmond said:

I warned ya.

Would like to see some reviews on SOR4 first tho before dropping that kinda coin tho.  

I hear you.  I want to be excited for this release but something about it has me holding back.  Need to see some reviews and what people think after a month or two.  Enough games lately have been regarded differently after the initial hype dies down. 

[B.A. | 1,139]

7 minutes ago, dvertov said:

My mom still has a whole basement shelf of my "collector's edition" baseball card sets from the '90s I wouldn't be able to sell for $10 a box these days. How is this different?

The main difference between your baseball card example and this is right in the title of this thread (and the company name) "Limited Run".  There was nothing limited about 90s baseball cards, they printed millions of them. 

[MiamiSlice | 3,097]

I know this topic has been talked to death elsewhere, but why do people buy these graded games anyway, especially if you're never going to open them and play with them? Aren't the only people who collect them other collectors? And if that's true, how sustainable is the market for these things? My mom still has a whole basement shelf of my Atari games from the 70's I wouldn't be able to sell for $10 a box these days. How is this different?

[RH | 4,921]

4 hours ago, MiamiSlice said:

I have two theories for why the price drops happen for the digital versions whenever these limited print physicals ship out:

- to discourage resellers

- to give collectors a cheap digital version so they can keep their physical sealed and still play the games

Theory 2 sounds crazy and dumb but usually by the time the physical ships, the digital version has already been out for months, so it’s like the only people who care anymore are the collectors who have a hard time unsealing their precious physicals.

Theory two actually doesn't sound crazy to me.  Think about it.  The game is to make money.  They lose nothing by not letting someone download something.  By offering a much cheaper downloadable copy, they got your $35-100 from your initial physical purchase and now they can snag an extra $5-20 from you just by getting your attention. It's actually a smart business move.

Edited April 28, 2020 by RH

[dvertov | 208]

2 hours ago, B.A. said:

The main difference between your baseball card example and this is right in the title of this thread (and the company name) "Limited Run".  There was nothing limited about 90s baseball cards, they printed millions of them. 

 

1 hour ago, MiamiSlice said:

I know this topic has been talked to death elsewhere, but why do people buy these graded games anyway, especially if you're never going to open them and play with them? Aren't the only people who collect them other collectors? And if that's true, how sustainable is the market for these things? My mom still has a whole basement shelf of my Atari games from the 70's I wouldn't be able to sell for $10 a box these days. How is this different?

 

My apologies -- I guess when I said "collectors edition" it wasn't clear that I was talking about sealed, numbered, "limited edition" boxes specifically made for the collector market; i.e., exactly the type of thing we're talking about here. They're worthless now because the only people who bought them were collectors who kept them in pristine condition as the market became wildly oversaturated with premium product, so they've just been taking up space for 25 years on shelves.

Look, I'm not trying to judge anyone or harsh anybody's mellow, I'm just asking. If your goal in buying these things is to open them and play with the stuff, that's fine. I'm just curious about the appeal of collecting huge CE boxes if the plan is never to open them. With the baseball cards, my excuse is that I was a teenager who thought I was making a prudent investment decision and it didn't pan out. Do you flip them on eBay? Do you just have a lot of space and like the look of the boxes? I'm honestly curious.

[B.A. | 1,139]

27 minutes ago, dvertov said:

My apologies -- I guess when I said "collectors edition" it wasn't clear that I was talking about sealed, numbered, "limited edition" boxes specifically made for the collector market; i.e., exactly the type of thing we're talking about here. They're worthless now because the only people who bought them were collectors who kept them in pristine condition as the market became wildly oversaturated with premium product, so they've just been taking up space for 25 years on shelves.

I guess I need specific examples of what you are talking about, as none of the 80s and 90s baseball cards that I can think of fit what you are describing. Current baseball cards absolutely DO make artificial rarity, variant numbered cards with a different colored border, that type of thing. Only collectors would care about those and they do indeed sell for big bucks.

[dvertov | 208]

29 minutes ago, B.A. said:

I guess I need specific examples of what you are talking about, as none of the 80s and 90s baseball cards that I can think of fit what you are describing. Current baseball cards absolutely DO make artificial rarity, variant numbered cards with a different colored border, that type of thing. Only collectors would care about those and they do indeed sell for big bucks.

I don't know, it's been maybe a decade since I bothered to look at most of it. I am absolutely positive I several boxes of cellophane-wrapped, numbered editions of very shiny worthless junk. I've also seen many collectors-only markets implode over time just among my own family members, from "special edition" Beanie Babies to hand-woven baby wraps (ask my wife about these f*****ing things). Again, I'm not trying to judge, just curious if people are speculating or what. In fairness, I don't quite understand collecting graded games either, but as those are, uh... "organically" rare items (as opposed to "intentionally" rare?) I feel like it's a different type of product? I could be splitting hairs here.

Side note: I'm a huge fan of LRG and similar publishers and own several SE releases (sadly all used now). I'm sure some digital-only guy reading this thinks I'm a sap for that. My excuse is this comes from +15 years working in video production, which gave me an eternal distrust of digital-only media. The words "Quicktime Codec" alone are enough to make me want to throw a keyboard through a window. Thanks to that, I prefer my favorite games physical. You know, just in case.

Edited April 29, 2020 by dvertov
clarity

[MiamiSlice | 3,097]

1 minute ago, dvertov said:

I don't know, it's been maybe a decade since I bothered to look at most of it. I am absolutely positive I several boxes of cellophane-wrapped, numbered editions of very shiny worthless junk. I've also seen many collectors-only markets implode over time just among my own family members, from "special edition" Beanie Babies to hand-woven baby wraps (ask my wife about these f*****ing things). Again, I'm not trying to judge, just curious if people are speculating or what. In fairness, I don't quite understand collecting graded games either, but as those are actually rare items (as opposed to artificially rare) I feel like it's a different type of product? I could be splitting hairs here.

I don’t have answers to all your questions but I can tell you two things:

- Artificial rarity just means you forced something to be rare by producing it in a small quantity. It doesn’t mean the end product isn’t rare. Rarity is a function of numbers, nothing else.

- Lots of people are speculating on these things. Plenty. Some do quick flips, some are playing the long game. I’m not defending it, I think it’s dumb. But there’s plenty of this.

[dvertov | 208]

1 minute ago, MiamiSlice said:

- Artificial rarity just means you forced something to be rare by producing it in a small quantity. It doesn’t mean the end product isn’t rare. Rarity is a function of numbers, nothing else.

Sure, that's why I indicated both are still rare. Artificial scarcity is still scarcity. My point was that I don't think they're exactly the same type of product from a collecting POV, which may imply different motives for collecting, different implications for long-term value, etc.

[Redmond | 152]

I don't usually opt for these massive new collector's editions sets that take up a lot of space.   I'm also not really a big fan of statues, and so it seems very samey for all of these sets to include them.  I'd prefer it be more of a replica or something iconic relating to the game instead ( the Pip-Boy for one of the Fallout collector's editions, for example, is more in my wheelhouse ).  As for SOR4, I'll probably pick up a couple of barebones copies even if it's a dud, just in hopes that SEGA realizes there's still a lot of support for the franchise in general.

Speculating on value to me is more about doing a gut check of what is truly desirable/valuable and what I perceive that will be able to stand the test of time.  Like the '90s thing, a lot of people were speculating on the #1 issue of some hero nobody's ever heard of, and there were so many foil/lenticular/holographic covers that the notion of a "special" edition lost its luster.  Meanwhile, the key comics were probably going up at that time and maybe seemed to have exorbitant prices in comparison to where they had previously been, but a person would've undoubtedly been shelling out hundreds of dollars for a single comic like X-Men #1 or anything Silver/Bronze/etc age versus buying up hundreds of the new $1 ones.

 

 

[avatar! | 1,819]

SoR4 is $35 for the game, $60 for the classic edition, and $150 for the LE. I agree it will likely sell out quickly with a large chunk of people opting to resell it at some point. I wonder how many people will actually open the LE? I'm guessing a much smaller fraction than those that keep it sealed. 

[DarkTone | 986]

Sadly I WOULD be in that group. But I have no room for it. Also, this thread needs more photos. 

[avatar! | 1,819]

2 hours ago, DarkTone said:

Sadly I WOULD be in that group. But I have no room for it. Also, this thread needs more photos. 

More photos? 

[DarkTone | 986]

33 minutes ago, avatar! said:

More photos? 

Of any limited run games you guys have.