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Hi Everyone!

After working in the video game industry for 20+ years, I've come up with quite a personal collection. However, I have no idea how to value games that never got released? I have pre-production eproms, signed games, etc. Is there a place to go to obtain value on rare items? I don't think Ebay is the best way to get a fair price.

Any feedback is appreciated.

Thanks!

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4 hours ago, oracleoflosangeles said:

Hi Everyone!

After working in the video game industry for 20+ years, I've come up with quite a personal collection. However, I have no idea how to value games that never got released? I have pre-production eproms, signed games, etc. Is there a place to go to obtain value on rare items? I don't think Ebay is the best way to get a fair price.

Any feedback is appreciated.

Thanks!

I'd second the post above.  You'll find buyers here, but really on ebay you even if the place sucks has the biggest market and will net you the most looks to buy and sadly they do kind of set the market value.  On those prototypes you posted, that's just up for grabs and luck.  You may get $50 or $500 out of one, though it would help noting if it's a final, and if it's beta spell out the differences as it may add value based on the game.  I saw you posted one final game that never got a release that was a Japanese title currently on ebay and I'm kind of shocked it's not higher already because of it.

I collect a lot of obscure items so I can probably tell you what they're worth but I don't understand why you don't just post it here and ask. I want to buy some of this stuff after just hearing about it.

5 hours ago, oracleoflosangeles said:

Wow, you have some impressive stuff, Tidaldreams. Maybe I should start an Ebay store....

Haha, I actually ran out of some of my best items (e.g., sealed Pokemon games). I might post some more with the holidays approaching, we'll see...

On 11/11/2020 at 7:37 PM, oracleoflosangeles said:

Hi Everyone!

After working in the video game industry for 20+ years, I've come up with quite a personal collection. However, I have no idea how to value games that never got released? I have pre-production eproms, signed games, etc. Is there a place to go to obtain value on rare items? I don't think Ebay is the best way to get a fair price.

Any feedback is appreciated.

Thanks!

As I mentioned to you earlier, in terms of prototypes and unreleased stuff, I'm about as knowledgeable as anyone out there. I don't believe there is a collector on this site that has more firsthand experience when it comes to prototype collecting.

On 11/11/2020 at 7:37 PM, oracleoflosangeles said:

I don't think Ebay is the best way to get a fair price.

I would agree that for things with relatively few people actively pursuing them the odds of an AUCTION on ebay getting you maximum value are slim.

But the nice thing about eBay is that once you do your price check with someone like BeaglePuss or CodeMonkey, you can do a BIN/best-offer listing at any value you want, and eBay will definitely be your highest visibility storefront for that kind of activity.

"New" collectors, potentially willing to spend more that seasoned veterans, are much more likely to find you on eBay than on a buy/sell/trade forum, for instance.

 

That said -- for some truly ridiculous items, there are specialty auction sites that appear to attract a higher tier of buyer.  I don't know where the dividing line is for when their higher fees become "worth it" -- but selling into the low-4-figures on eBay with BIN/best-offer listings is easy.

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I'm famous! I don't compare to Matt though.

Rare items are hard, I just bought a box full of R9 and R10 items and I feel like I got a good deal but prices on each item could be between $200 and $1000, there's no real way to tell at that level of rarity. We both settled where we were happy and that's all you can do.

If you're trying to ensure you squeeze every last $100 our of the sale, then rare items aren't for you. Not unless you pay someone to grade it, pay someone else to appraise it, pay someone else to auction it and then pay someone to market the auction. People with million dollar art don't just hope for the best, they get an appraisal and market the hell out of it.

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 11/12/2020 at 8:13 PM, Code Monkey said:

I collect a lot of obscure items so I can probably tell you what they're worth but I don't understand why you don't just post it here and ask. I want to buy some of this stuff after just hearing about it.

Well, up until recently I didn't have a firm list of all my games. I just put them in tubs and kept them there as I didn't have a large enough place to display them. Over time, one tub turned into two, three, four etc. In just the past few weeks, I've gone through all the games (sorting what is sealed, CIB, missing items, eproms (prototypes) etc. and have been putting them in a spread sheet (along with systems, controllers etc). I'm still tweaking the list but when it is done, posting them here isn't a bad idea. Thanks Code Monkey! I appreciate your input and everyone else who has responded. 

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  • 1 month later...
On 12/15/2020 at 2:19 PM, oracleoflosangeles said:

Well, up until recently I didn't have a firm list of all my games. I just put them in tubs and kept them there as I didn't have a large enough place to display them. Over time, one tub turned into two, three, four etc. In just the past few weeks, I've gone through all the games (sorting what is sealed, CIB, missing items, eproms (prototypes) etc. and have been putting them in a spread sheet (along with systems, controllers etc). I'm still tweaking the list but when it is done, posting them here isn't a bad idea. Thanks Code Monkey! I appreciate your input and everyone else who has responded. 

Be sure to post pictures of any interesting  items you have. I’m sure I’m speaking for many others here, we are very curious to see photos of some of the unique items you might have.

There’s lots of of junior game historians on this site, even if many of them don’t post often. And any interest that you rally up here may help you find more buyers.. it’s a win-win

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