Look at these prices...unreal right ?

[GPX | 1,369]

1 hour ago, Naked Warrior said:

I don't believe the current prices for anything not sealed/graded are hugely inflated...I think people forget about the demand side of the equation...they look at CIB Pokemon games going for $300+ and they think, Why?  There are literally millions of those...but they forget how the videogame market evolved, and the wave of demand that could be coming.

Most of us were probably NES generation (I would have been 6 or 7 when it first was catching on in the US), but back then, and thru my middle/high school years there was still a lot of stigma around videogames - I didn't meet one girl/woman who regularly played videogames until I was in college.  Pokemon came out in 1998 - my final year of high school.  For kids who were 7-10 years old in that timeframe, I feel like that was the turning point when video games went from a niche/nerdy time waster, to a full-fledged cultural phenomenon, not only for boys, but for girls as well.

Now those 7-10 year old kids are 30-33 years old...just starting to make the kind of money that allows them to buy the things they've always wanted...or the things they've lost/had to sell over the years.  And there are at least double the amount of them (men AND women) that there were 10 years ago when we hit our 30's and started buying NES/SNES.

Anecdotally, I work in an industry that is almost opposite of the videogaming industry, but the 20-something women who start work with me almost always have some videogaming experience.  For many it is Pokemon, some had Animal Crossing.  A lot of them played Wii when it came out.  All of them play games on their phone.  They always have a good time playing Mario Party or You Don't Know Jack, or other non-twitchy games.  And the 20-something dudes are the same as we were when we were 20, except they have a ton of appreciation for "old school" games...(although I find they only ever want to play N64 (MarioKart, Goldeneye, NBA Hangtime) or Gamecube (Melee, Super Strikers)).

That's why I'm so certain your "Marios/Pokemons/MarioKarts/Mario Parties/fun co-op experiences" will continue to rise - not as fast as in the last year or anything, but the people's frothing demand for these games always increases!

No one is saying everything is fake regarding prices. There is likely to be truth in the rising prices for various factors. What some here are mocking are the prices on some items that are 20-50 times their previous values 1-2 years ago. There is a high degree of suspicious behavior when such dramatic rise occurs. 

A lot of people assume that “rich people can have the power to do what they want”. But usually rich people browse around to get some idea of “market values”. They don’t just go blindly spending for the sake of spending. 

Imagine the scenario of billionaires being bored and they jump on the games scene today. They fight it amongst themselves and Mario 660K has now become 100 million dollars. People then predict it will become 1 billion by the end of this year....Anything can happen, right?

 

 

[Dumars2001 | 164]

Nes Kung Fu WATA 7.5 white seal (later print) sold for $4800. Another crazy sale! It didn't last long and someone just bought it at the seller's asking price, without even messing with the best offer option. Sealed stuff is being bought up on everything these days, especially the older systems!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/324592794652?hash=item4b933cfc1c%3Ag%3AKasAAOSwG59ge2vu&nma=true&si=AFE28odtOjHeYSejMOkVwsZpUsA%3D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Edited April 29, 2021 by Dumars2001

[docile tapeworm | 4,198]

is that "more $ than scense"?

[AdamW | 713]

So here's a possibly fun thing: as some of you know I've been tracking certain Pokemon listings on eBay very extensively. Today I tweaked my population survey to exclude listings I could tell were of the same item, to improve accuracy...but while debugging it I realized the information is pretty juicy in its own right, so I made it its own little function that lets me track flippers. I wonder if I can pitch a show to HGTV. Here's some juicy highlights of flipped listings so far:

Game: Pokémon: FireRed Version, print: #1 ((WA)AGB-BPRE USA)
Sealed: False, pgserial1: 000087824
Cart: NA, manual: AGB-BPRE-USA, end date: 2020-12-27, price: 139.99 - https://www.ebay.com/itm/184598916277?nordt=true&rt=nc&orig_cvip=true
Cart: AGB-BPRE-USA, manual: AGB-BPRE-USA, end date: 2021-02-06, price: 499.95 - https://www.ebay.com/itm/133646006691?nordt=true&rt=nc&orig_cvip=true

Wood Floor Guy (twobrothersgames) is in the flipping game - bought that copy for $140 in December, added a cart, sold it for $500 in February.

Game: Pokémon: Blue Version, print: #1b (U/DMG-APEE USA)
Sealed: False, condition: 75, grader: WATA, inventory: 574401-003
Cart: DMG-APEE-USA, manual: UNK, end date: 2020-03-23, price: 150 - https://comics.ha.com/itm/a/122012-17869.s
Cart: DMG-APEE-USA, manual: UNK, end date: 2021-04-15, price: 1225 - https://www.ebay.com/itm/224422345939?nordt=true&rt=nc&orig_cvip=true

Flipping MVP here - that's a WATA-graded 7.5 CIB of the "Blue text" Sandshrew print of Blue, bought from HA for $150 last March, sold for $1225 on eBay two weeks ago. (Of course there may have been intermediate flips, my eBay data only goes back to November and I don't track sales outside of eBay and HA).

Game: Pokémon: FireRed Version, print: #5 (AGB-BPRE USA-1)
Sealed: True, condition: 94, grader: WATA, inventory: 577102-001
Cart: UNK, manual: UNK, end date: 2021-01-17, price: 2040 - https://comics.ha.com/itm/a/7239-97071.s
Cart: UNK, manual: UNK, end date: 2021-02-15, price: 4724.8 - https://www.ebay.com/itm/284184494495?nordt=true&rt=nc&orig_cvip=true

WATA 9.4 sealed Player's Choice FireRed, flipped from HA to eBay in less than a month at more than twice the price.

Game: Pokémon: FireRed Version, print: #2 ((WA)AGB-BPRE USA-1)
Sealed: True, condition: 80, grader: WATA, inventory: 574371-004
Cart: UNK, manual: UNK, end date: 2021-02-22, price: 2160 - https://comics.ha.com/itm/a/122108-18083.s
Cart: UNK, manual: UNK, end date: 2021-04-29, price: 4136.33 - https://www.ebay.com/itm/284240540387?nordt=true&rt=nc&orig_cvip=true

Nearly as good of a result on a WATA 8.0 FireRed second print (that's a wireless-adapter-included print, most people don't know the difference between #1, #2 and #3, they're all variants on the wireless-adapter-included theme) - HA to eBay, two months, nearly double the money.

There are some failed flips and current attempts as well, but those are the juiciest successes / most evil price gougers (delete according to your opinions) so far...:P

[A_Feisty_Pickle | 244]

1 hour ago, AdamW said:

So here's a possibly fun thing: as some of you know I've been tracking certain Pokemon listings on eBay very extensively. Today I tweaked my population survey to exclude listings I could tell were of the same item, to improve accuracy...but while debugging it I realized the information is pretty juicy in its own right, so I made it its own little function that lets me track flippers. I wonder if I can pitch a show to HGTV. Here's some juicy highlights of flipped listings so far:

Game: Pokémon: FireRed Version, print: #1 ((WA)AGB-BPRE USA)
Sealed: False, pgserial1: 000087824
Cart: NA, manual: AGB-BPRE-USA, end date: 2020-12-27, price: 139.99 - https://www.ebay.com/itm/184598916277?nordt=true&rt=nc&orig_cvip=true
Cart: AGB-BPRE-USA, manual: AGB-BPRE-USA, end date: 2021-02-06, price: 499.95 - https://www.ebay.com/itm/133646006691?nordt=true&rt=nc&orig_cvip=true

Wood Floor Guy (twobrothersgames) is in the flipping game - bought that copy for $140 in December, added a cart, sold it for $500 in February.

Game: Pokémon: Blue Version, print: #1b (U/DMG-APEE USA)
Sealed: False, condition: 75, grader: WATA, inventory: 574401-003
Cart: DMG-APEE-USA, manual: UNK, end date: 2020-03-23, price: 150 - https://comics.ha.com/itm/a/122012-17869.s
Cart: DMG-APEE-USA, manual: UNK, end date: 2021-04-15, price: 1225 - https://www.ebay.com/itm/224422345939?nordt=true&rt=nc&orig_cvip=true

Flipping MVP here - that's a WATA-graded 7.5 CIB of the "Blue text" Sandshrew print of Blue, bought from HA for $150 last March, sold for $1225 on eBay two weeks ago. (Of course there may have been intermediate flips, my eBay data only goes back to November and I don't track sales outside of eBay and HA).

Game: Pokémon: FireRed Version, print: #5 (AGB-BPRE USA-1)
Sealed: True, condition: 94, grader: WATA, inventory: 577102-001
Cart: UNK, manual: UNK, end date: 2021-01-17, price: 2040 - https://comics.ha.com/itm/a/7239-97071.s
Cart: UNK, manual: UNK, end date: 2021-02-15, price: 4724.8 - https://www.ebay.com/itm/284184494495?nordt=true&rt=nc&orig_cvip=true

WATA 9.4 sealed Player's Choice FireRed, flipped from HA to eBay in less than a month at more than twice the price.

Game: Pokémon: FireRed Version, print: #2 ((WA)AGB-BPRE USA-1)
Sealed: True, condition: 80, grader: WATA, inventory: 574371-004
Cart: UNK, manual: UNK, end date: 2021-02-22, price: 2160 - https://comics.ha.com/itm/a/122108-18083.s
Cart: UNK, manual: UNK, end date: 2021-04-29, price: 4136.33 - https://www.ebay.com/itm/284240540387?nordt=true&rt=nc&orig_cvip=true

Nearly as good of a result on a WATA 8.0 FireRed second print (that's a wireless-adapter-included print, most people don't know the difference between #1, #2 and #3, they're all variants on the wireless-adapter-included theme) - HA to eBay, two months, nearly double the money.

There are some failed flips and current attempts as well, but those are the juiciest successes / most evil price gougers (delete according to your opinions) so far...:P

Might see myself on that list someday... Snagged these recently and trying to decide if I should hold on to the Crystal and Silver or flip them. Only one I needed was Gold (and now the only CIB I'm missing is Fire Red)

 

[AdamW | 713]

aha, a name for a database entry

I graded that Crystal as 5.8...one in similar condition sold two days earlier, minus the packins, for $447. So you could probably make something on it, yeah. Would you take an offer for the two game-specific packins alone, actually? I need them to complete my double-ended Crystal...:D

edit: BTW, you wouldn't make the list probably unless I remembered this conversation and examined it carefully. Usually I can only catch flips if they have a grader or seller inventory number, or if they're FireRed, LeafGreen or Emerald and the serial number on the player's guide offer is visible. I've caught a couple of others just because the boxes had very distinctive wear/damage that I remembered seeing before (I assign these made-up inventory numbers for tracking purposes).

Edited April 29, 2021 by AdamW

[A_Feisty_Pickle | 244]

Gonna keep it together for now but I'll shoot you a message if I change my mind! 

[AdamW | 713]

agh, eBay people don't care but you don't know the pain I go through every time I look at the Pokeshelf and think of the void inside my nice Crystal box where those pieces of paper should be...

[Tanooki | 4,933]

@AdamW Name for the database?  Did you happen to track what I have, or just what gets popped up on ebay/mercari(etc) that sells?

[AdamW | 713]

I just call it gvt, for "game variant tracker". The code is at https://pagure.io/gvt , my actual database is not public at present (I might post it at some point, I guess). I currently track only eBay and HA listings, I haven't added mercari because their site is awful and they have no public API (AFAIK) so dealing with relists and sold items would be a drag. The goal isn't to have a comprehensive database of Every Copy That Exists, really, it's more about getting a sense of populations and contents of the different prints, and tracking prices.

[dvertov | 205]

On 4/27/2021 at 10:40 AM, MiamiSlice said:

Bleh. I'm not into this. It just drives up the prices of Japanese games anyway, as the demand shifts over, and plus I would be buying a bunch of stuff that looks nice but I don't actually have any sentimental attachment to it. And also, the resale value is not the same... I've seen people with stacks of Japanese games struggle to find other buyers (outside of obvious stuff like Pokemon)... if you ever decide to let it go, it's harder than letting go of US stuff. 

I'm not sure it's still true that the resale value is not there, at least for good condition items. I accumulated a good-sized Famicom collection over the last few years and I've recently sold off a few items fast, and for very good margins over what I paid for them. It doesn't hurt that covid has made shipping from Japan even more expensive than it used to be, so being a domestic US seller has added value now.

Also, there's nothing wrong with collecting stuff just because it looks nice. I love Famicom carts partially because they look so much better than boring NES grey stuff, and the games are still (mostly) the same ones I grew up with regardless.

[CodysGameRoom | 2,008]

WHAT IS GOING ON

https://www.ebay.com/itm/333972890358?_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20160908105057%26meid%3D5743e539271b445282f66b45766f7e52%26pid%3D100675%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D15%26mehot%3Dpp%26sd%3D333972890358%26itm%3D333972890358%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D2380057&_trksid=p2380057.c100675.m4236&_trkparms=pageci%3Aba5bd7b8-a9c3-11eb-8cbf-e2c3274bd7bb|parentrq%3A234494001790ab8e2250358efffeeb8c|iid%3A1

[Khromak | 768]

Holy shit. They call that mint? There's visible bubbling on the front of the cart. And it's going for $2400 and still has a day left. I should really consider selling my Little Samson at this point. That's like...half of a sealed black box Tennis at this point!

[RH | 4,903]

46 minutes ago, dvertov said:

I'm not sure it's still true that the resale value is not there, at least for good condition items. I accumulated a good-sized Famicom collection over the last few years and I've recently sold off a few items fast, and for very good margins over what I paid for them. It doesn't hurt that covid has made shipping from Japan even more expensive than it used to be, so being a domestic US seller has added value now.

Also, there's nothing wrong with collecting stuff just because it looks nice. I love Famicom carts partially because they look so much better than boring NES grey stuff, and the games are still (mostly) the same ones I grew up with regardless.

I am always a bit shocked at how much cheaper many Japanese games are from their US counterparts.  True, most people will never care to try to play these games, but it seems to be universally agreed upon that for most games, especially from Nintendo, the art on these games look far better.  A lot of people collect for shelf candy.  Even though it might take you two months to get your shipments, I just can't believe the number of people collecting Japanese games seems so low compared to the US stuff.

Again, I'm not expecting prices to reach parity with the US, but a lot of Japanese stuff can be picked up for 10% or less of a US game and, again, on the shelf it looks immensely better.

[AdamW | 713]

@Khromakoh man, I could fill a thread with ridiculous eBay condition claims. The funny thing is that it's a terrible thing for the seller to do - if you call it mint you're basically giving the buyer a free pass to return it no questions asked if they can point out a single tiny flaw anywhere. Ditto if you call it "very good" but it's clearly been run over by a truck. It's just dumb.

I've noticed Japanese sellers tend to list anything that's not absolutely flawless as "junk", presumably for this reason - gives the buyer less chance to claim a refund/return.

[Khromak | 768]

Hopefully the buyer gets the game, beats it, then returns it for a full refund because the condition was misrepresented. You're right @AdamW this stuff is rampant all over eBay. People say all kinds of BS about the type, condition, completeness, etc. of their games.

[CodysGameRoom | 2,008]

That Little Samson went for $2,900.01. I don't know what is going on, lol. I'll never get one at that price, I can tell you that. $1300 was already a big maybe.

Edited May 2, 2021 by CodysGameRoom
Mixed up titles of unreasonably priced games.

[captmorgandrinker | 1,649]

47 minutes ago, CodysGameRoom said:

That Stadium Events went for $2,900.01. I don't know what is going on, lol. I'll never get one at that price, I can tell you that. $1300 was already a big maybe.

Did you mean Little Samson?

[Avgn Gamer | 669]

On 4/26/2021 at 8:47 AM, DefaultGen said:

Here's a video called "My Sealed Game Investments" with a few of these too. Imagine how many people are going to buy "1 to play, 1 to keep sealed" of BOTW2 after all this madness too.

This guy's voice really pisses me off, it's like this dude is talking like a really bad jewelry channel host or an influencer. It's unbearable 

Edited May 1, 2021 by imabadguy1

[Code Monkey | 2,010]

On 4/30/2021 at 11:33 AM, AdamW said:

@Khromakoh man, I could fill a thread with ridiculous eBay condition claims. The funny thing is that it's a terrible thing for the seller to do - if you call it mint you're basically giving the buyer a free pass to return it no questions asked if they can point out a single tiny flaw anywhere. Ditto if you call it "very good" but it's clearly been run over by a truck. It's just dumb.

I've noticed Japanese sellers tend to list anything that's not absolutely flawless as "junk", presumably for this reason - gives the buyer less chance to claim a refund/return.

I see multiple games listed as sealed and the seller shows a photo of the cartridge and manual still inside the baggie.

[Code Monkey | 2,010]

$200 for the Mike Tyson letter.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-MIKE-TYSONS-PUNCH-OUT-NINTENDO-PAPER-LETTER-INSERT-ONLY-NO-HOLES-NO-GAME-/265106807215?_trksid=p2349526.m4383.l44720.c10&nordt=true&rt=nc&orig_cvip=true

[Andy_Bogomil | 815]

The condition thing has always been pretty bad but it's just terrible these days. Listed as 'like new' and you can see the corner wear from the thumbnail pic.

[Strikezone1 | 154]

14 hours ago, captmorgandrinker said:

Did you mean Little Samson?

He had to have meant LS. $2,900 for SE would be a steal! 

Still crazy that a LS sold for that much.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Little-Samson-Nintendo-Entertainment-System-1992-Mint-Rare-NES-/333972890358?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49286

 

[guitarzombie | 924]

I wish we could find these people and interview them.

[LifeGame | 760]

On 4/30/2021 at 10:59 AM, Khromak said:

That's like...half of a sealed black box Tennis at this point!

Not anymore