The Retro Video Game Market Has Officially CRASHED

[Code Monkey | 2,011]

2 hours ago, ThePhleo said:

Well....again "ackshtually"

There's two box designs.

It's never brought up because it's a redundant callout, but during the switch from Circle SoQ to Oval SoQ the layout of the back changes near the bottom.

NES Logo is completely different, copyright block and legal text changes, position of the NES-GP thing. Lots of stuff moves around.

 

BUT, yes I agree with you on this point.

You're gonna love what I'm working on when I publish it because I do split up "Box Changes" as unique editions, and everything else as variants.

The purpose is to make variants take a back burner position again, yet document that they exist. The structure of my database works like this.

 

GAME - The overall game, regardless of region

REGION - The "lockout" region, North America, PAL A, PAL B, Famicom, and "Others"

RELEASE - What we consider "subregions" or "marketing region", so the USA Release, or the Canadian release, or the Greek release (etc.)

EDITION - Think, Big Box Gyromite vs. Small box, or Blue box Untouchables vs. Black Box.

VARIANT - This is where all 12 of the SMB box variants I listed go. Yep, only one edition but 12 variants.

So to draw it all out...

I guess @Brickman you are correct...I am a little mad.

You forgot one level deeper........print runs. Each variant may have been reprinted multiple times with differing date codes on the tabs. So one variant may have multiple print runs. That's how I'm separating mine in the mobile application.

[ThePhleo | 2,185]

22 minutes ago, Code Monkey said:

You forgot one level deeper........print runs. Each variant may have been reprinted multiple times with differing date codes on the tabs. So one variant may have multiple print runs. That's how I'm separating mine in the mobile application.

It's addressed a different way.

A "Variant" of a "Game" isn't just a box. It's a whole pattern of CIB contents.

Also, I'm writing down date codes as a mutli-line entry on the box's page like this:

Known Date Codes (for this box variant): [No Code], 81021, 90122, etc. etc.
Known Bottom Flap Codes(for this box variant): [No Code], 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

Edited November 17, 2023 by ThePhleo

[YOURTURN | 1,256]

1 hour ago, Link said:

I think the people in that space of collecting have taken the narrowest aspects of print runs from the book world and the comics world and cards and coins and everything else and combined them to give every single minimal detail as much weight as possible.

Tell me about it. When I was heavy in Transformers the biggest topic I would read was which "production variant" of Optimus Prime was the true first release. [This link is all I can find on the subject.] In all cases the means of having a "first release" Optimus Prime is based more on which Diaclone (not Microman) overstock variant somebody is willing to buy.

Which is why I am happy not dealing with stuff like that anymore. Because at the end of the day, it's all fun and games until somebody calls Optimus Prime a "former Microman toy". And then "chairs" start to fly around, people take sides as it stopped being about a print ratio for that product, and the mod who lost has to be Jerry Springer.

[Estil | 1,265]

11 hours ago, Link said:

Like what are you envisioning here? No !s allowed? No words in CAPS? A list of forbidden words like “destroys”? (as stupid as I think that one is in the clickbait usage) Is there a tally count with a threshold? How do you even begin to define this?

Nothing like that, just good ol' fashioned common sense judgement/discretion.  Perhaps something along the lines of Ebay's (very important!) rule regarding keyword spamming.  For example, these really annoying ones whose video title make it sound like a celeb is dead or dying when in fact they are totally alive and well.

Edited November 17, 2023 by Estil

[spacepup | 2,405]

3 minutes ago, Estil said:

Nothing like that, just good ol' fashioned common sense judgement/discretion.  Like these really annoying ones whose video title make it sound like a celeb is dead or dying when in fact they are totally alive and well.

I don't have any issue with Karl's, but I do have an issue with those that are very very intentionally deceptive - and the ones making you think someone is dead, are absolutely deceptive and inappropriate.

[Estil | 1,265]

1 hour ago, spacepup said:

I don't have any issue with Karl's, but I do have an issue with those that are very very intentionally deceptive - and the ones making you think someone is dead, are absolutely deceptive and inappropriate.

Exactly.  Focus on the ones that are really flagrant about it.  This isn't all that much different from Ebay's (very important!) rule regarding key word spamming.

[Doctornick | 419]

The more the market goes back down the more annoyed my wife has become with my purchasing habits.  Unfortunately I can't retire on my sealed Home Alone 2 now though.

[GPX | 1,370]

I don’t think the market is crashing in the real sense. More likely the market manipulators are going into hiding or lying low, with all the spotlight currently shining on the games market. So prices are more “normalizing” rather than “crashing”. 

[DarkKobold | 191]

On 11/10/2023 at 10:38 PM, Dr. Morbis said:

Yeah, but the first Superman (Action Comics #1) is absolutely undisputable, whereas the release that you're calling the first SMB is not actually the first SMB; that label belongs to the first print run of the game in Japan on the Famicom, which seems to have been conveniently forgotten by the hype train.  It's not even a name change or code change either - the exact identical game with the exact identical name had already been released!

Of course Mint sealed NES games will always be worth something, it just isn't going to be seven figures for generations to come like all the WATA/Heritage talk had been leading many to believe...

I'm a little late to this conversation, but... 

This FRIST PRINT!!!11eleventy SMB is also really the heart of the sealed game explosion. They sold it to themselves for like $100k, and then had the media run a bunch of articles about how they agreed to buy it from themselves for an absurd value, and that makes the price super-duper real. Then they did that a few more times, and got a bunch of rubes to fall in line. 

So, they not only pumped the market monetarily, they also set out to change "what matters" in NES collecting. I don't remember anyone giving a shit about print runs. NWC and Stadium Events were the grails to talk about. 

So my question is, now that the emperor has been shown to not be wearing clothes, are we going to go back to talking more about stadium events, and less about print runs? 

[final fight cd | 187]

2 hours ago, DarkKobold said:

I'm a little late to this conversation, but... 

This FRIST PRINT!!!11eleventy SMB is also really the heart of the sealed game explosion. They sold it to themselves for like $100k, and then had the media run a bunch of articles about how they agreed to buy it from themselves for an absurd value, and that makes the price super-duper real. Then they did that a few more times, and got a bunch of rubes to fall in line. 

So, they not only pumped the market monetarily, they also set out to change "what matters" in NES collecting. I don't remember anyone giving a shit about print runs. NWC and Stadium Events were the grails to talk about. 

So my question is, now that the emperor has been shown to not be wearing clothes, are we going to go back to talking more about stadium events, and less about print runs? 

I too found it interesting that a group of collectors who never collected video games before came in and completely changed the way the vast majority of people collect.  I’m not part of any inner circles, so maybe print runs were always a thing to some groups, but looking back, I never recalled any discussions on NA pertaining to print runs.  Now everybody getting massive boners for first prints.

Dem boners are also going strong for Kobe and Madden. Like, when did anybody ever care about those games?

but if you don’t evolve, you’re gonna die. And I’m not gonna lie, the influence has also worn off on me.  The other week I saw a boxed  legend of Zelda.  The blood started to flow a little bit. My first thought: is that a first print!?!? 

Edited December 6, 2023 by final fight cd

[a3quit4s | 4,102]

24 minutes ago, final fight cd said:

I too found it interesting that a group of collectors who never collected video games before came in

Karl says this is one of the signs of a bubble, when people who get involved who have no interest in what is being bought or sold. They are just there to make money. 

[Hammerfestus | 3,852]

I find it difficult to believe that anyone “collecting“ and paying large sums for a circle r vs an oval r could possibly be involved for any reason other than as a quirky investment.  I’m small potatoes but I know some of you have pretty monstrous collections in terms of both size and value.  At the end of the day the dudes with the beautiful collections crafted through obsession in the quest for the ultimate game room are the ones with whom I feel kindredship not the guy insisting I’m supposed to care about his first print that he payed way too much for.

[benstylus | 11]

On 12/6/2023 at 12:48 PM, final fight cd said:

I too found it interesting that a group of collectors who never collected video games before came in and completely changed the way the vast majority of people collect.  I’m not part of any inner circles, so maybe print runs were always a thing to some groups, but looking back, I never recalled any discussions on NA pertaining to print runs.  Now everybody getting massive boners for first prints.

Dem boners are also going strong for Kobe and Madden. Like, when did anybody ever care about those games?

but if you don’t evolve, you’re gonna die. And I’m not gonna lie, the influence has also worn off on me.  The other week I saw a boxed  legend of Zelda.  The blood started to flow a little bit. My first thought: is that a first print!?!? 

I think I'm the opposite.  I see a game and I start thinking "I wonder if it got a Greatest Hits release i can get instead"