“Rare” titles that you’ve found in the wild

[mbd39 | 2,030]

In the early 00s I bought various SNES and Genesis games from a video store for $5 that are worth money now. They were practically giving them away because there was zero demand. All with original box, some with manual.

Mega Turrican

Truxton

Contra Hard Corps

Sagaia

Gaiares

Zombies Ate My Neighbors (SNES)

 

 

 

[FireHazard51 | 2,053]

I got a CIB Pokemon Yellow at Goodwill for $0.50 (was $1 but had 50% off sale) in 2011.  I kept the receipt because I figured no one would believe me.

Edited August 20, 2021 by FireHazard51

[twiztor | 855]

21 minutes ago, FireHazard51 said:

I got a CIB Pokemon Yellow at Goodwill for $0.50 (was $1 but had 50% off sale) in 2011.  I kept the receipt because I figured no one would believe me.

pics or it didn't happen

[FireHazard51 | 2,053]

36 minutes ago, twiztor said:

pics or it didn't happen

Corrections....price was $2 but bought for $1.07 and the date of purchase was 1/16/2012 at 3:54PM

I was too lazy to pull the game out of the GBC that is downstairs.

Spoiler

 

 

 

Edited August 20, 2021 by FireHazard51

[16BitBricks | 59]

My 3 best in no particular order: Nothing truly rare, but more expensive stuff

I got a SCAT and Contra Force in a lot of 5 consoles and 50ish games for $250 total from a Facebook sales group post.

From a garage sale at the house I grew up in, my wife had to go (since I had a work meeting. I sent her there so I count it, lol) I got Earthbound in a lot with 4 or 5 consoles and a bunch of games for various consoles (70ish I think) for $100 total.

Lastly, not “rare” but I got a free original Pac Man cab when I went to pick up a nice condition Centipede arcade cab from a guy. He just threw it in!

Edit: All from 2016-2019

Edited August 21, 2021 by 16BitBricks

[Tenjikuronin | 1,755]

On 8/18/2021 at 3:17 AM, Exodus said:

I was at small video game shop many years ago and found a copy of R.C. Pro AM II CIB, had no idea it even existed tried to purchase the game in Store but the lady stated it wasn't ready to be sold and gave me a bunch of attitude as to why it was on the self I had no clue. The last time I ever stepped foot in the store I was trying to purchase some game forgot exactly what it was, Had a price Sticker on it, in the glass display case. Offered to purchase the woman pulls the game out and rings up a total $5 greater than the sticker (We don't have sales tax in my state) I asked for an explanation as to why the sticker price was different and she exclaimed the values change..... I declined the sale and promptly left. I advise staying away from "Recycled Video Games" in Newport OR. 

Sounds like Oregon's Weights and Measures need to stop buy and slap that lady with a fine.

[nrslam | 477]

More stuff than you can imagine. Every rare piece I own was found in the wild. Intellivision computer and demo unit from a church sale. Nintendo GameVision (is that what it's called? The Gameboy demo unit) from a storage locker sale. Atari/Imagic Previewer at a yard sale. Semi-obscure game systems like VIS, Virtual Boy, Supervision, Liesurevision and Channel F at yard sales. Yellow Zelda test cart, Honk Kong Mah Jong, Snatcher, Sculptors Cut,  multiple sealed copies of Sea Chase & Starion for Atari computers. All at thrifts and yard sales. Little Samson at a flea market. None of these cost me more than $5.

All the above were years ago. The only recent find, nowhere near as rare, was a stack of PS2 games that included the four .hack titles, some other RPGs, and a few less interesting titles for $25 at a thrift.

[YOURTURN | 1,257]

I have been to both Mandarake Galaxy in Nakano Broadway and Mandarake Complex in Akihabara. So long story short, the only rare games I did not really see were not Japanese. It also made their neighboring hentai department/branches feel redundant.

[croagunk | 798]

Haven’t really seen rare or expensive titles in the wild for super cheap. The best I’ve got is maybe around 8 years ago I got a loose Pokémon FireRed on GBA and a CIB Pokémon Colosseum on GameCube for $20 each from the same guy.

[RH | 4,980]

Best I've done was a huge lot a couple months ago of Atari, PS1 and a Wii console, all for $60. The shining gem was Valkyrie Profile in perfect shape and a couple other $50-80 RPGs. I sold Valkyrie Profile and was paid basically paid for a killer lot.

Not so much a pick up, but I'm pretty sure I'm the only guy on here or on NA that ever played New Leaf/Game Factory carts when they were in their test market. Going over to my Dad's house every other weekend, about once a month we'd rent a Genesis and get one game with it.  90% of the time was it Sonic 2. I remember on some occasions getting these weird carts I'd never seen before and it was many years later when I got into collecting did I learn what those were. It's a part of my gaming history I think was cool to experience.

Subsequently, if anyone has a New Leaf cart with Sonic 2 on it, I'd be interested. There's a fair chance it's one I played as a kid.

[Lincoln | 230]

I pulled a bunch nes and snes titles out of a local shop before people really caught on, Bubble bobble 2 probably the most notable.

Rarest would be the snes MKII nfr cart from a pawn shop, for $2 i think.

[WalterWhiteJr. | 1,169]

Sealed ocarina of time for $500 back before COVID. 

A lot I picked up for $700 in 2017 that included mint CIB earthbound and chrono trigger, sealed THPS3 for N64 and loose carts of super bowling and stunt racer. 

[DeChief | 6]

Back in 2013 - 2017 when I lived in Tokyo, I used to hit up all of the retro game stores in Akihabara once or twice a month. Trader 3 was usually the best place to find deals as their staff didn't seem to understand the unreliability of a cartridge connector and would routinely place perfectly working games in the 100 yen bargain bin (basically $1 USD). One day I was in the store, looking at their overpriced Neo Geo AES stuff in a glass case, when I saw some curious boxed games on the adjacent shelf. It turned out to be a whole bundle of games for the Commodore MAX Machine, an ill-fated Commodore computer that was released exclusively in Japan in 1982 just before the C64, selling in very low numbers (estimated between 10,000 - 15,000). The games were 500 yen each and worth about $100 USD at the time, now worth much more.

I also once found an orange original Xbox Live Beta memory card with its cap at that same store for 900 yen, that was pretty cool! 

It doesn't count as being "in the wild", but I found a great condition CIB USA copy of Super Mario World on Yahoo Auctions for about $5 once, it's one of the few CIB SNES games I've held onto. Why on earth is it so expensive now by the way?

Edited August 25, 2021 by DeChief

[A_Feisty_Pickle | 244]

One of my better finds was a Nintendo M8 demo unit. They had it for sale at a local game store that always overprices everything. It was sitting behind the register so I asked about it. They said it was "kind of" working and they weren't sure if the store owner wanted to sell it yet until they could get it fixed up, however they called the owner and he said he'd sell it for $300. Snagged it, brought it home, opened it up and gave it a good dusting. No issues afterward! Biggest surprise is when the employee I was talking with mentioned it had been sitting in the back room for a few months. I guess they never took the time to look it up and get the real value of it. Ultimately I ended up selling it which is kind of a bummer, but it paid for half of our honeymoon and I got to go to Japan for the first time, so I would say worth it. 

[a3quit4s | 4,127]

I bought Wacky Races at a game store in FL when I was on vacation last month. I got them down to $299 I think. I was one of the last 10 I needed when I was finishing up the NES set. 
 

Maybe last year when I was at a local game store in MD they randomly had Little Samson. I had one already at that point but it was still cool to see that in the wild. 

[MiamiSlice | 3,100]

Back in the day my brother and I used to find uncommon games at GameStop / EB Games before they were expensive. My brother bought Gotcha Force and Cubivore off the used game shelves. Meanwhile I bought Solatorobo when it was briefly available at retail. 

Pre-COVID I was able to look through the used game racks at my local GameStops and occasionally find some gems. I think the last uncommon game I found there was Draglade CIB for $14.99 used. I also used to take advantage of their ship to store service where if you found something at another store (through the website), you could ask if they would ship it to your local store. That's how I found a loose copy of Jewel Time Deluxe. Unfortunately both the stores I used to hunt at have since closed down. There's only one GameStop left in my area and it's inside a mall so very tiny, not much room to have any used inventory. 

I remember when I could find lots of games at Goodwill many years ago but it was mostly loose NES carts, usually nothing amazing. 

Edited August 25, 2021 by MiamiSlice

[Alder | 243]

Pro Sport Hockey, 5 screw Metal Gear, and Stunt Racer (N64) at Goodwill.

[kell | 102]

Original PS1 GTA. Found it at Target... in 2018.

Edited August 27, 2021 by kell

[the_wizard_666 | 1,325]

Over the course of nearly 25 years of collecting, I've seen every NES cart aside from Stadium Events and Myriad 6-in-1 in the wild, and plenty of others as well.  As far as rares I picked up over the years, Little Samson springs to mind ($40 was a great price for an $80 game ), as does the SMS version of Buster Douglas Boxing (traded a bunch of NES dupes in to a pawn shop for it).  Also got Sculpter's Cut in a trade, but that was with @Krunch ages ago, so I'm not sure if y'all would count that as "in the wild," even though the swap happened in my basement and not online.  Of course, I subsequently sold it to a local reseller when I needed quick cash, and saw it a couple times at his booth at a few local events, so that may still count in that regard

[RT | 3]

CIB Pokémon HeartGold on DS for $.5

[Naked Warrior | 288]

I feel like I've posted this before in another thread, but I got all of these for $1.99-$3.99 each from a Goodwill in Phoenix, AZ in 2017...Persona 2 would be by far the rarest/most expensive game I've ever found in the wild (I'm not counting game stores) - at the time it was like $85, but there are a few more bangers in this bunch...

[Krunch | 303]

12 hours ago, the_wizard_666 said:

Over the course of nearly 25 years of collecting, I've seen every NES cart aside from Stadium Events and Myriad 6-in-1 in the wild, and plenty of others as well.  As far as rares I picked up over the years, Little Samson springs to mind ($40 was a great price for an $80 game ), as does the SMS version of Buster Douglas Boxing (traded a bunch of NES dupes in to a pawn shop for it).  Also got Sculpter's Cut in a trade, but that was with @Krunch ages ago, so I'm not sure if y'all would count that as "in the wild," even though the swap happened in my basement and not online.  Of course, I subsequently sold it to a local reseller when I needed quick cash, and saw it a couple times at his booth at a few local events, so that may still count in that regard

Haha that's my thing I flip Sculptors Cuts from the wild.  I have found 3 in the wild including a CIB for $45.  I seen another one once for $100 in a game store when it was more like $180 but didnt go for it (though I shouldve since I thought it was like 130).  The other N64 CIB's I paid market rate or close to for.

I've bought a few decent other rares from the wild, these are some of my best.  Some are game stores but always undervalued and usually you gotta dig for it anyway.

Kid Kleetz really nice Box and Inserts $35

Panic Restaurant with no back cover manual $5

Pro Sport Hockey and Jimmy Connors Tennis carts in a $3 for 10

Tecmo Cup Soccer, found box and cart separately for $3 each

Metal Storm cart $7

Milennium Controller $40

Metal Warriors cart in a 10-game $40 lot

sealed Daikatana $220

bag of 7 Game and Watches - $4 total

Volleyball on two occasions once with Ninja Kid, Soccer CIB - $60 total, all same game store purchase on different price tags

Chubby Cherub CIB - $60

Cowboy Kid CB $25

Lethal Weapon Game Boy $5

Maxi 15 cart (garage sale) $3, pawn shop once too for $15

Mega Man X2 goodwill $3

Mega Man X3 in a $120 game/console lot, solid roster of other games

sealed Jimmy Houston's Bass fishing - game store $60

Hurricanes cart - $5 (sold it for $10 only a year later, d'oh!  This one really surprised me when I later found out its value)

Kid Klown, Godzilla 2 carts (rough) about $35 for the pair, game store same day as the tecmo cart

Rockin Kats Complete goodwill $4

Chrono Trigger $10 (along with bunch of other stuff)

Zombie Nation CIB - $60 trade/cash, hard to evaluate deal with game store.  Got a Action 52 CIB and other undervalued IB's same day.  I found another cart for $60 years later elsewhere

Earthbound box no tray, $30 game store this one still baffles me

Got EVO cart and box in 2 different random trades.  Didn't really trade anything super great, just sellable stuff like consoles and good games.  Now I just need a third trade for that damn manual!!!

[thenes | 1]

I have been collecting on and off since the late 90's so a lot of games were purchased long ago before prices are what they are now but some highlights that I can remember are: 

Carts
-----
$1 - Snow Brothers
$1 - Gun Nac
$1 - Metal Storm
$1 - S.C.A.T.
$1 - Pro Sport Hockey
$20 - Cowboy Kid
$20 - Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers 2
$20 - Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade [Ubisoft]

Sealed (Ungraded thus far)
-----
$65 - SMB 3
$200 - SMB 2
$200 - TMNT IV

[Code Monkey | 2,014]

I just thought of another one. I was at a gaming convention and saw someone had a Death Race on their table but the box was completely wrecked, it was held together with clear packing tape. I picked it up and it had no top so you could see inside it and it was just wrapped around and around with clear tape. The weight was quite heavy and I could see the Death Race cartridge was inside. I kind of chuckled holding the game and asked him what happened to it, he laughed with me and said he didn't know. I asked him how much and he told me it's basically worthless so he'd sell it for $10. SOLD!

When I got it home, the cartridge inside was perfect and there were 8 or 9 extra manuals, including a Galaxy 5000 manual, all in great condition.

[G-type | 2,539]

I found a copy of Death Trap at a 2nd & Charles