NOA Super Mario Bros. 3 stategy guide?

[austin532 | 467]

This SMB3 guide has a spiral spine and looks professionally done. It doesn't look like someone made it. If they did, I'm not sure why. I wonder if this was a NOA version that was used by a game counselor or was a promo piece.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/275577294773?epid=1600612787&hash=item4029afcfb5%3Ag%3AHp8AAOSwpnBjCtsb&nma=true&si=tk1lH7nH%2FjK4nD80wNHMzQ%2B7H7Y%3D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

[Brickman | 4,003]

I’d say the seller probably went on archive.org and printed off a scan and put it in a spiral ring. And then someone actually bought it  a fool and their money etc etc

[CMR | 521]

Yea, I've never seen any NP strategy guide with spiral binding before.  All the ones I have, including this one, are square backed and glued.

[Tabonga | 2,325]

The dumb thing is that strategy guides with that sort of modification are actually more useful than originally bound ones.   They will lay flat for you and you can easily see the whole page.   I have a couple of guides that I got at thrift stores that were pretty beat up and falling apart.  I bought ring binders and and vinyl sheet protectors - then I separated the pages (about the only good thing about perfect bindings is that they separate really easily and cleanly) and stuck them in the sheet protectors.   Not worth sacrificing a good guide for to modify and they are certainly not worth what some hapless person paid for that one.

@OP - Whoever had that done likely took it to a print/bindery shop where the perforations were done with a machine.  Which is why it looks so well done.

Edited February 25, 2023 by Tabonga

[Link | 2,716]

Adding to what's said above, it has the cover price (as noted in the description), and everything looks identical to NP#13. There's no way this was an internal document.

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

Anyone with the right equipment can turn a regular issue of Nintendo Power into something like this.  If you want one just like this, take your copy to most any office store that does printing and binding and they'll do it for you.  I'd say all that was done here is someone carefully cut off the very edge of the issue where the "perfect binding" glues everything together, had holes punched for the comb binding, then put a comb binder on it and called it a day.  The clear gloss cover over the front is just SOP when something gets bound; there's more than likely a matte single color sheet of similar material covering the back (seems to be mentioned in the description but isn't shown in photos).  Average cost for printing and binding a manual with similar dimensions would come out to $5-10 each in an office store, doing it yourself will start out a bit more expensive (~$50-150 for the binding machine, then pennies for the comb binding itself) but average out to a lot less if you were doing more than a few things.

[Nintendopower4ever | 88]

All of the the copies of player's guides guides and Nintendo Power magazines I've bought that were used at NOA or directly from Game Play Counselors just had their desk numbers written on the front cover in black marker

[Makar | 1,946]

I just want to know who paid almost $70 for this

[austin532 | 467]

They probably thought it was something unique like I did.

[Vaosu | 104]

Yeah, just looks like a Nintendo Power was ran through one of these bad boys

https://www.amazon.com/MAKEASY-Binding-Machine-Bindings-Scrapbook/dp/B07N2HC76V/ref=zg_bs_1069562_sccl_2/141-4960337-6040841?psc=1

[Tabonga | 2,325]

I am guessing that someone had a relative who worked in a print/binding shop and got it done for free back when that guide wasn't worth much.  This would protect it and make it more useable for a kid.  Would have made sense it the goal was to provide a player with something more useable and durable.  The guide itself seems to be in good shape - so I guess it succeeded in that aspect and it wasn't a salvage of a beat up copy.

The seller may not have really known what they had and assumed something somewhat unique - looks like they are a mega seller of all sorts of things and as such likely don't specialze in much of anything -  they  didn't try to say it was rare or anything - they just set a steep price and the buyer filled in the blank on rarity on their own.  If one didn't classify this as "damaged goods" (as I think any knowledgeable collector would) the price is not that out of line with what intact copies have gone for.

 

Edited February 27, 2023 by Tabonga

[Tenjikuronin | 1,742]

NOA counselor copies generally weren't spiral bound -- they were just regular issues with markings on them (usually a desk number - occasionally a label with barcode).