Hasta la vista baby!!!

[fcgamer | 4,804]

I've had this thought in my head for quite some time, I've even chatted with @OptOut about it before. I've been wanting to make a post about this for awhile, but I'm honestly not sure if I can properly express what I'm getting at, so I'll just post and clarifications can be added later in the discussion, as needed.

Things started a few years back when I was reading a blog post from a guy named Sean, an English expat living in Japan. He had been going for a licensed Famicom full set, and this actually inspired me to go for one, and I bought a lot from him. Anyways, this blog entry had basically stated that at shops such as Super Potato, by now the "items in the case" aren't really top-shelf items anymore, rather they are second tier or whatever.

IIRC, he suggested that a lot of the items had been bought by western collectors, either stopping off in Japan on holiday, or thanks to those Japanese eBay sellers selling mostly abroad.

I've seen a similar situation locally, in Taiwan. I'd venture a guess that (excluding "lost" copies in basements or dusty shops), there are more Super A'can games in the hands of western collectors than actually here on the island. 

Then I remembered how some NWC cartridges had ended up abroad (no idea if they're back in the States or not now), to a guy in the Netherlands, a guy from Australia, etc.

Even personally, I have two copies of a rare (bootleg) Famicom game that was translated into Polish language back in the early 90s, owned by an American expat with no Polish roots, living in Asia.

A large portion of me feels that this is just life - if you've got the money, you can buy the game from wherever around the world for your collection and call it a day. 

On the other hand, there are other times when it makes me feel weird. I mean, I have no nostalgia for some of these items, whereas others DO have nostalgia for this stuff. And what about preservation, museums, etc? A few years back someone translated a Japanese book on famicom into Chinese, then added a mini book (maybe forty pages) on Taiwanense games - not only was it terribly incomplete, some of the pictures of the cartridges were horrible, and I could have provided a much nicer picture if asked, but likely as an outsider, they either didn't know or were afraid to ask.

I guess I'm just curious if anyone has ever thought about this before, basically the country's video game "national treasures" leaving home only to end up abroad for keeps. 

 

[dvertov | 210]

"Nostalgia" is just one type of value that makes up a thing's worth to someone. I didn't grow up in Japan, so I have no nostalgia for Famicom, but my FC collection has tremendous value to me regardless. By the same token, I've seen plenty of Japanese and other international Instagram users collecting North American NES releases for what I'm assuming are similar motivations. Should that bother me? I see it (and social media certainly helps) as an international community of retro video game nerds who share a unique appreciation for these things beyond their own personal histories with games. As long as the items are ending up in the hands of people who value them, I think it's great. I don't really care why they value them.

Also, "for keeps" is relative. Things change, and we're not exactly talking about the treasures of the British Museum here. It's possible the retro game trend dies down in the US and suddenly you've got internet companies set up to sell American-owned Famicom cartridges back to Japanese buyers. Who knows?

[fcgamer | 4,804]

13 minutes ago, dvertov said:

Also, "for keeps" is relative. Things change, and we're not exactly talking about the treasures of the British Museum here. It's possible the retro game trend dies down in the US and suddenly you've got internet companies set up to sell American-owned Famicom cartridges back to Japanese buyers. Who knows?

While I definitely agree on the first bit, as a collector myself, it's this second part that I don't necessarily agree with.

I personally think that once the games are "out", they aren't likely going back, even if the person loses interest and sells off, dies, etc. Here's my reasoning for that:

To use myself as an example, my gaming collection was bought from collectors all over the world, ranging from Saudi Arabia to Argentina. If I were to suddenly pass away tomorrow, likely my brother would be left in charge to sort out the mess of games, maybe he'd employ one or two other collector friends he knows I have, as well as the help of this community. But he wouldn't have the knowledge or ability (due to language barriers, etc) to get in touch with collectors from Asia, South America, Russia, etc. So the whole thing would shift hands a bit, but still remain more or less as is.

I see it very unlikely that once items from "hard to access" areas make it out, that they're ever going back.

[docile tapeworm | 4,210]

[phart010 | 1,718]

5 minutes ago, fcgamer said:

While I definitely agree on the first bit, as a collector myself, it's this second part that I don't necessarily agree with.

I personally think that once the games are "out", they aren't likely going back, even if the person loses interest and sells off, dies, etc. Here's my reasoning for that:

To use myself as an example, my gaming collection was bought from collectors all over the world, ranging from Saudi Arabia to Argentina. If I were to suddenly pass away tomorrow, likely my brother would be left in charge to sort out the mess of games, maybe he'd employ one or two other collector friends he knows I have, as well as the help of this community. But he wouldn't have the knowledge or ability (due to language barriers, etc) to get in touch with collectors from Asia, South America, Russia, etc. So the whole thing would shift hands a bit, but still remain more or less as is.

I see it very unlikely that once items from "hard to access" areas make it out, that they're ever going back.

I’ve thought about this before. I agree once the games leave their region, the chances of them returning to their region is less. I think the free market knowingly or unknowingly prices this in.

You used to be able to import Famicom games for dirt cheap. Japanese sellers have known that people outside of Japan were interested in buying their stuff for a long time, but only recently started inflating prices on stuff for online sales. Supply on certain games has probably been running short so they have to account for that in their pricing.

In a market like Japan, second hand games have always been cheap because the sellers could always depend on low margin high volume sales. People would basically play the games and then trade them back in. If a game was bought and traded back in 5 times over the course of a year at low margin, that’s just as good as selling it once for high margin.

However with international buyers pulling the supply out of Japan, the domestic market has less stock to circulate within their country and hence there will be less frequency of trade ins in Japan. This has caused the prices overall to increase, but I think Japanese sellers are also selling at an additional premium for exporting games since it will essentially be pulled out of circulation once it is exported 

[docile tapeworm | 4,210]

smoke em if you got em 

[GPX | 1,376]

This is the harsh reality of being a “collectible”. It no longer belongs to its country of origin, but to a global market with the end owner being the one with the most passion and/or biggest wallet. 

You also can’t discount the fact there maybe rich Japanese collectors out there, and they might one day buy back some of the rarest NTSC-J games, sitting somewhere in Asia, US, Europe or Africa.

 

[Abelardo | 155]

Globalization has made purchasing anything from overseas easier than ever so demand is adding up, it's just a fact that some stuff will leave a certain country indefinitely but in return some stuff previously unavailable is getting into the country as well. Japan are obviously the prime example of this, huge videogame culture so lots of consoles and games have been constantly consumed by the Japanese, severely reduce living space in urban areas meant old video games were quickly regarded as junk taking space so an overwhelming amount of games are constantly getting discarded, for westerners the Japanese releases factor in a lot of eye candy and everything seem really cheap, even for non-collectors I can absolutely imagine the scenario were a tourist visiting Japan comes across a game store and picks up a few of his favorite games as a souvenir, so naturally some stores started to focus on selling overseas since there's demand.

[PII | 1,929]

I've thought about it, but prolly too little for present day or too much for the future.  Imagine for a moment how bad this would get in the event of the "Matter Transporter" being perfected and introduced to private/public use.  Stuff wouldn't even have to be 'put up for sale.'  There'd be "Assholes" from elsewhere buying up everything rare; entire countries would be "Looted."

[Gulag Joe | 585]

I'm pretty sure this was the plot of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

[dvertov | 210]

21 minutes ago, PII said:

I've thought about it, but prolly too little for present day or too much for the future.  Imagine for a moment how bad this would get in the event of the "Matter Transporter" being perfected and introduced to private/public use.  Stuff wouldn't even have to be 'put up for sale.'  There'd be "Assholes" from elsewhere buying up everything rare; entire countries would be "Looted."

If we’re in a world with matter transporters exist, I’m assuming we also have matter replicators, so you wouldn’t need to collect originals when you can make an atomic-level perfect copy. Can’t wait to read the forum posts on those real-vs-repro debates.

[Gloves | 11,997]

Just now, dvertov said:

If we’re in a world with matter transporters exist, I’m assuming we also have matter replicators, so you wouldn’t need to collect originals when you can make an atomic-level perfect copy. Can’t wait to read the forum posts on those real-vs-repro debates.

You can't assume that the existence of a transporter guarantees the existence of a replicator. Conservation of mass and all that. 

[phart010 | 1,718]

4 minutes ago, Gloves said:

You can't assume that the existence of a transporter guarantees the existence of a replicator. Conservation of mass and all that. 

The transporters are actually replicators. They just incinerate the original and create an exact copy at the destination. They just won’t admit it because, ya know, PETA

[Gloves | 11,997]

2 minutes ago, phart010 said:

The transporters are actually replicators. They just incinerate the original and create an exact copy at the destination. They just won’t admit it because, ya know, PETA

[PII | 1,929]

Belated apologies to fcgamer for nerding up your thread to the MAX here.  We already have "replicated" shit ie. repros and clones and everdrives oh my, and I still can't get a copy of Swamp Thing on the NES for a decent price even though I'm the only person I've ever been aware of on or off-line who actually likes playing it.  @fcgamer  I was gonna put that last point in your other post today but won't bother now.  Anywho, my sci-fi mind likes to ponder this one from time to time so I figured why not share...

[Brickman | 4,104]

I think this has been happening with collectibles since they became a thing really. Look at artwork, some countries have hoarded artwork from artists from another country.

This has already happened to Japanese games. The worlds biggest known Japanese collection was curated by Adol, a Frenchmen who sold it to a US Museum.

I don’t really see a problem with it because it just means more people around the world get to enjoy something instead of been locked in one country.

[guitarzombie | 929]

3 hours ago, PII said:

 and I still can't get a copy of Swamp Thing on the NES for a decent price even though I'm the only person I've ever been aware of on or off-line who actually likes playing it. 

I do too.  Ive beaten it numerous times.

[DefaultGen | 5,569]

Actual art and history museums have tons of stolen one-of-a-kind cultural artifacts. Looking at you UK! I’m not too worried about keeping mass produced media in its country of origin. Foreign games belong one place: my shelves!

It would be weird to stop yourself from buying a Roman coin, a British stamp, or a Gutenberg Bible because your area of interest isn’t where you live.

[PII | 1,929]

1 hour ago, guitarzombie said:

I do too.  Ive beaten it numerous times.

You an me brotha.  You da first, an you da man.

[docile tapeworm | 4,210]

2 hours ago, guitarzombie said:

I do too.  Ive beaten it numerous times.

 

44 minutes ago, PII said:

You an me brotha.  You da first, an you da man.

i mean i gave it a good 20 minutes and actually tried...that first stage though....never played it again.

[PII | 1,929]

2 minutes ago, docile tapeworm said:

i mean i gave it a good 20 minutes and actually tried...that first stage though....never played it again.

Play Simpsons Bart vs the world, vs the space mutants, meets radioactive man in that order ( or switch the first 2 around ) ; then and only then will you be ready for the elemental terror known as ...... .... ... .. ¡SWAMP THING!

[phart010 | 1,718]

2 hours ago, PII said:

Play Simpsons Bart vs the world, vs the space mutants, meets radioactive man in that order ( or switch the first 2 around ) ; then and only then will you be ready for the elemental terror known as ...... .... ... .. ¡SWAMP THING!

Oh my God that sounds terrible 

[Dr. Morbis | 2,104]

8 hours ago, PII said:

and I still can't get a copy of Swamp Thing on the NES for a decent price even though I'm the only person I've ever been aware of on or off-line who actually likes playing it.

I like Swamp Thing quite a bit and go back to it once in a while.  I like the music, background graphics, eerie atmosphere, cool cutscenes, and most importantly, the sluggish controls that accurately represent how it would feel to try and move around if you looked like you were part of a living swamp...

[PII | 1,929]

2 minutes ago, Dr. Morbis said:

I like Swamp Thing quite a bit and go back to it once in a while.  I like the music, background graphics, eerie atmosphere, cool cutscenes, and most importantly, the sluggish controls that accurately represent how it would feel to try and move around if you looked like you were part of a living swamp...

Ok, alright; apparently you're the Other one.  That makes all two of you.  Now I just need all those other folks to get rid of that NES cartridge they hate playing but love having on the shelf all at the same time so the price will plummet...