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I agree Mario and Zelda are neck and neck, but I’d have to give the nod to Mario, and it would seem to me 5-screw Zeldas are a significantly more “common” than first print Marios. I could definitely see a high grade sealed TM Zelda go for huge money, though. That and sticker sealed Mario are gonna be the standard. And gold NWC, which I think is lame, but that’s just my opinion 😁.

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33 minutes ago, jonebone said:

And last but not least, why is everyone putting Mario at the top of the hill?  It's Zelda for me.  This isn't Sega where it's Sonic and no one else or Xbox where it is Halo and no others, Nintendo Mario and Zelda are your 1A and 1B.  The gap between Mario and Zelda will close.  If Zelda had a sticker on it, would it also command absurd money?  Kinda of demonstrates the point here... 

 

I don't agree with this at all. Mario is the mascot of Nintendo and the most recognizable character in gaming. The sales of the Mario series absolutely dwarf Zelda.

 

Mario sits on top of the hill for ALL of gaming and it's not even close.

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I think Mario easy beats Zelda in the importance category (which is what this first print hype is all about right). Mario launched the console and took 8-bit gaming to the next level. Mario is the one on Nintendo signage, not Link. Even SMB3 I'd argue is a more iconic NES game than Zelda if it's just down to what's the most recognizable/beloved game.

SMB would win by default anyway though because it's the one with the rarest variant.

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11 minutes ago, RalliArtEvo said:

 

I don't agree with this at all. Mario is the mascot of Nintendo and the most recognizable character in gaming. The sales of the Mario series absolutely dwarf Zelda.

Mario sits on top of the hill for ALL of gaming and it's not even close.

I'd sell all of my Mario games before selling Zelda and it's not even close for me either.  Everyone can have their opinion and that's the beauty of it.  The point being what's the number 2 for Sega?  I can't even think of a #2.  Xbox?  Gears of War?  Don't know.   Mario and Zelda are about as close as a 1 / 2 punch for any console.

Sales can be misleading due to packins and each system sold counts as a sale for that game.  Lately it's been much more neck and neck.  Wind Waker may have beat Sunshine and same could be said with Breath of Wild over Odyssey. 

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2 hours ago, jonebone said:

I'd sell all of my Mario games before selling Zelda and it's not even close for me either.  Everyone can have their opinion and that's the beauty of it.  The point being what's the number 2 for Sega?  I can't even think of a #2.  Xbox?  Gears of War?  Don't know.   Mario and Zelda are about as close as a 1 / 2 punch for any console.

Sales can be misleading due to packins and each system sold counts as a sale for that game.  Lately it's been much more neck and neck.  Wind Waker may have beat Sunshine and same could be said with Breath of Wild over Odyssey. 

Vectorman brah!

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2 hours ago, jonebone said:

I'd sell all of my Mario games before selling Zelda and it's not even close for me either.  Everyone can have their opinion and that's the beauty of it.  The point being what's the number 2 for Sega?  I can't even think of a #2.  Xbox?  Gears of War?  Don't know.   Mario and Zelda are about as close as a 1 / 2 punch for any console.

Sales can be misleading due to packins and each system sold counts as a sale for that game.  Lately it's been much more neck and neck.  Wind Waker may have beat Sunshine and same could be said with Breath of Wild over Odyssey. 

 

Are we discussing which franchise you subjectively prefer or objective facts on who has more significance? I guess I'm a little confused on what you're trying to argue. Mario is the mascot of Nintendo, this isn't up for debate. He has headlined his own series and also appeared in numerous franchises which include games in almost every genre imaginable. Super Mario, Mario Kart, Mario Sports, Mario RPG, Mario Party. They are building a Nintendo theme park at Universal Studios which is themed entirely around Mario. Go to Nintendo's own website and everything is Mario themed in both Japan and North America.

 

Both Mario Sunshine and Mario Odyssey outsold Wind Waker and BoTW respectively BTW. BoTW came out 7 months prior to Odyssey and still lags behind Mario. Mario Kart is the top selling switch game. https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/finance/software/index.html

 

Mario is on top of the hill no matter how you look at it. Zelda is absolutely a second tier franchise in terms of overall impact on gaming as a whole. You could even make the argument that Pokemon is actually the 1-2 punch and not Zelda. You are certainly welcome to having your opinion about which series you prefer (which i'd agree with you as I value Zelda more) but looking at the overall picture, Mario is in a class of his own.

 

 

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1 hour ago, RalliArtEvo said:

 

Are we discussing which franchise you subjectively prefer or objective facts on who has more significance? I guess I'm a little confused on what you're trying to argue. Mario is the mascot of Nintendo, this isn't up for debate. He has headlined his own series and also appeared in numerous franchises which include games in almost every genre imaginable. Super Mario, Mario Kart, Mario Sports, Mario RPG, Mario Party. They are building a Nintendo theme park at Universal Studios which is themed entirely around Mario. Go to Nintendo's own website and everything is Mario themed in both Japan and North America.

Both Mario Sunshine and Mario Odyssey outsold Wind Waker and BoTW respectively BTW. BoTW came out 7 months prior to Odyssey and still lags behind Mario. Mario Kart is the top selling switch game. https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/finance/software/index.html

 

Mario is on top of the hill no matter how you look at it. Zelda is absolutely a second tier franchise in terms of overall impact on gaming as a whole. You could even make the argument that Pokemon is actually the 1-2 punch and not Zelda. You are certainly welcome to having your opinion about which series you prefer (which i'd agree with you as I value Zelda more) but looking at the overall picture, Mario is in a class of his own.

I'm talking purely about the collectible value of the franchise, and Zelda and Mario will always rival each other. It's the 1A and 1B arguement.

Yes Mario is the mascot, I'm not arguing that. Yes Mario sold more, it's easier to pick up and play. A 3 year old can play it and maybe beat level 1, you have to be a lot older to get anywhere in a Zelda. Got that too.

But what was Zelda? It was a Gold cart with a special see thru box. Nintendo didnt do that to others (except Zelda 2). That was a WOW! thing as a kid, it was marketed as a collectible from day one.

Fast forward to N64, OOT was the first Nintendo 1st party game with a collectors edition if I recall. Another objective fact. Marketed to collectors. Im not even sure when Mario got his first collectors edition. Wii Mario 25th anniversary maybe? Yet Zelda has had direct collector marketing for over 30 years.

And who's paying 4 or 5 digits for games? A gamer or a collector? Not the gamer. At those levels they are being bought for collectibility and it's a much tighter race than you think.

End of day Mario is the Nintendo icon yes, but Zelda games a a huge deal and there will always be people lining up to buy them as collectibles in mint condition. They are 1A and 1B.

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A little off topic, but do people not trust / are mad at certifiedlink ?  The reason I think this is the stickers on eBay appear to be going to competitive pricing.  Someone even paid $125 for that matte sticker gyromite !  The wata 7.5 went for $250, and a wata 4.5 went for $95 at that certified link auction.  
 

just confuses me. 

AF3A0060-F851-4C20-88D6-FADE8607411E.png

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4 minutes ago, FooFghtrs33 said:

A little off topic, but do people not trust / are mad at certifiedlink ?  The reason I think this is the stickers on eBay appear to be going to competitive pricing.  Someone even paid $125 for that matte sticker gyromite !  The wata 7.5 went for $250, and a wata 4.5 went for $95 at that certified link auction.  
 

just confuses me. 

AF3A0060-F851-4C20-88D6-FADE8607411E.png

Yoinking that matte sticker for a third print Mario..  

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Moderator · Posted
6 hours ago, jonebone said:

Not directed solely at you but let's lay out the perfect storm that created sticker mania.  The hype will never be as much as it was, ever.

You had massive amounts of uneducated new money piling in, an article hyping them through the moon, and populations that did not exist.  

Buyers will only get more educated as time goes on.  They will be more selective with their money.  That's already happening.

Article hype, you will never get the hype rivaled from a brand new article that documents the variants.  People get all giddy about the new undocumented territory, you cannot repeat that.

Populations... no where to go but up.  I mean that in a literal sense.  If you got 10 confirmed copies today, one more increases it to 11.  You are never going to decrease the population.  Sure some will try to hoard but that's a different topic entirely.  Also, as population increases, the lower grade copies will lose value.  Glad Wata finally raised prices so hopefully some of the 1.0 box junk will stop getting graded.  

Not to mention the natural churn we'll have as people collect the set and get bored and move on.  May not apply to Mario directly but stickers as a whole.  Everyone knows the thrill is in the hunt and owning the item gets boring.  That's why people cash out of hobbies (comics) into others, to experience the fun of collecting.  You'll see some cash out of stickers as people move on to other things.  If there's only 10 confirmed but there's always 1 for sale, it's not really that rare on the market. 

And last but not least, why is everyone putting Mario at the top of the hill?  It's Zelda for me.  This isn't Sega where it's Sonic and no one else or Xbox where it is Halo and no others, Nintendo Mario and Zelda are your 1A and 1B.  The gap between Mario and Zelda will close.  If Zelda had a sticker on it, would it also command absurd money?  Kinda of demonstrates the point here... 

I agree with a lot of what you said until the end. Mario is the face of Nintendo and far more collectible because of it. 

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If I had the goods; I’d sell every single Mario I came in contact with....Zelda’s on the other hand are going to be passed down to my future generations...it’s not the franchise, but personally every time a new Zelda is released, it reminds me how enjoyable playing video games can be. I wouldn’t own a Nintendo console to play A Mario game...I buy Nintendo to play Zelda.

furthermore, who all remembers the Mario television series back in the day. Best part of the week were the Friday Zelda clips.

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Agree with Jone on the sticker hype.  I was floored on the initial prices brought in on sticker seals, and even sold a few that I owned to cash in on some of the hype, but ultimately, it was apparent from the start that players (buyers) were moving into a territory that they knew very little about....and that is not a pun to them in any way....it’s just how this hobby has worked......for the entire time I’ve been into collecting games....and I’ve even been a victim to it (I can’t tell you how many dozens of times a trend on some weird variant discovered on NA caused me to spend a hundred dollars or more, just to find out they were plentiful 😂).  The two constants that I have noticed in our hobby is that both sealed, and insanely mint CIB are always short in supply, therefore, have steadily increased in price for a decade.  I also like the point Bronty brought up about new/sealed games....:they are untouched, never saw the light of day, with no ability to “improve” the grade outside of a gentle cleaning.  I also remove all stickers from my games when possible, and have found flaws (wrap tears) strategically hidden under stickers several times in the past on some games I bought—-so many things to be aware of when getting into video game collecting.  I thought there were a fair amount of great deals on Certified link this go around, and, had I not invested in the mega man w/no wrap (I needed a circle seal to complete my set regardless of where the 9.4 ends up) I would have bought a few of them like the boulder dash and a few others.

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12 minutes ago, 1upped said:

  I thought there were a fair amount of great deals on Certified link this go around, and, had I not invested in the mega man w/no wrap (I needed a circle seal to complete my set regardless of where the 9.4 ends up) I would have bought a few of them like the boulder dash and a few others.

Gotta ask, a "Sealed" game with No Seal appeals to you as a sealed collector?  It is not something I would ever own personally, I can't consider it a sealed game without a seal.  I get that they are trying to market it as a "New" game (that has never been opened, yet it was clearly a reseal), but the "Sealed" nomenclature is misleading.

I guess it just splits reseals into two categories, reseal that was opened and resealed and reseal that was never opened and resealed.  I just can't get behind it myself.  I'm a MM2-MM6 graded guy too and understand the struggle of not owning MM1, but I'd rather play the waiting game.

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It depends, if the flap has no crease, and it’s never been opened or touched, it has some appeal to me depending on the title. The MM & my Mighty Bomb Jack are two examples of games I can appreciate, albeit not as much as my sealed games. In terms of MM, I have 1-6 sealed, but my MM1 is oval, and now I have a half hazard “complete set”.  I also have a few games, a Duck Hunt and Gyro straight from a deluxe w/no wrap, and they are clearly new and nicer than any examples out there....but again, no wrap.....so these are some of the weird/unusual examples and certainly a personal taste....definitely the title(s) for me.  

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On 11/13/2019 at 9:21 PM, Bronty said:

One thing you can’t take away from sealed is that no one has touched it.    

That's right. I've had some sealed games though that suffered from water damage and had mold growing inside. Likewise, there's the battery situation. Sealed doesn't always guarantee pristine innards.

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On 11/13/2019 at 8:21 AM, Bronty said:

 

One thing you can’t take away from sealed is that no one has touched it.  

Hate to break the news.....but that's not true.

Seems like every NES game was touched at least a few times on the assembly line. BARE HANDED no less.

Check out 6:47 on this video....

 

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1 hour ago, ThePhleo said:

Hate to break the news.....but that's not true.

Seems like every NES game was touched at least a few times on the assembly line. BARE HANDED no less.

Check out 6:47 on this video....

 

Unless the employee on the right wearing the gloves packed the game 😂—guess the mystery will never be solved!

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11 hours ago, ThePhleo said:

Hate to break the news.....but that's not true.

Seems like every NES game was touched at least a few times on the assembly line. BARE HANDED no less.

Check out 6:47 on this video....

 

That’s a cool video and I remember it well.   Obviously I meant since it left the factory.   

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22 hours ago, fcgamer said:

That's right. I've had some sealed games though that suffered from water damage and had mold growing inside. Likewise, there's the battery situation. Sealed doesn't always guarantee pristine innards.

I’ll take my chances compared to used where I know the innards are beat up most of the time

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13 minutes ago, Bronty said:

That’s a cool video and I remember it well.   Obviously I meant since it left the factory.   

I knew what you meant, I was just being cheeky was all.

Still...who knows what else those people might have touched at that facility. Can you imagine if they were also packing FAMICOM that day...the thought horrified me.

Then again in the video it seems they’re packing Canadian games...so maybe it’s ok.

Also, just right after that scene there’s a Canadian Zelda in the background of the VP of NOA, Peter Main...traitor

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On 11/16/2019 at 10:29 AM, fcgamer said:

That's right. I've had some sealed games though that suffered from water damage and had mold growing inside. Likewise, there's the battery situation. Sealed doesn't always guarantee pristine innards.

It does if you never open it! Ignorance is bliss, baby. 

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On 11/16/2019 at 7:21 PM, ThePhleo said:

Hate to break the news.....but that's not true.

Seems like every NES game was touched at least a few times on the assembly line. BARE HANDED no less.

You have no idea how much you've hurt me by posting that video lol.  I still hold that my unopened disc based games have never been touched by bare human hands.

 

On 11/15/2019 at 8:30 AM, jonebone said:

Gotta ask, a "Sealed" game with No Seal appeals to you as a sealed collector?  It is not something I would ever own personally, I can't consider it a sealed game without a seal.  I get that they are trying to market it as a "New" game (that has never been opened, yet it was clearly a reseal), but the "Sealed" nomenclature is misleading.

This is definitely an issue with consoles, many of which have no seals or stickers.

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