jonebone

Ironically, they sent an email today saying that Population Reports now available (who would have thought?)  But everytime I check for something it keeps spinning and I haven't had much luck.

It's a hangtab, you can probably count the number of confirmed copies on two hands.  It was nice condition too, so rare and desirable things go for a lot of money.

Does seem a bit silly for "WATAGAMES" to grade movies, maybe should be "WATAMEDIA" or something else now.

Though I blame CGC.  They are a pure greed company that wanted to expand into Games / Movies / VHS / DVD / etc just to simply under price the market and get a piece of the pie.  Only makes sense that Wata would follow suit after being bought out.  Word on the street is that VGA may expand into CIB grading formally too... because they see Wata / CGC making money off it.  Businesses are for profit so they go wherever they think they can make a little money.

I watched a Stallone documentary the other day and unfortunately he had one very real quote that hit me hard, especially as I've just turned 40.

"Life is addition up until 40, then it's about subtraction".  

Sad but true and you have to mentally prepare yourself to accept it.  While you're viewing it as your parents, its everyone sadly.  Most of your friends will eventually pass or you'll be the one to go.  Children grow up and leave the nest.  People retire and lose their social connections at work.  Parents are very important and I'm extremely thankful both of mine still alive (almost 79 and going on 70), but the point is that deaths or loss of connections is something we have to cope with as we age.

Make the most of the time you have as it's a finite clock.  Take some vacations or research some "things to ask your parents" lists, there's a ton out there.  I see my parents about an hour or so every week and typically the conversation is surface level "how's it going / what's new / so and so did this / etc.", but when you get actively plan some deeper stuff, you really learn.  This past Xmas season I asked really pointed questions about their childhood Xmas memories and learned some things I never knew before.  Just take things a bit deeper when you can and accept the fact that time catches up to us all. 

Nice Tib Sun, I still need a Mint one.  Got a raw sealed version and a Platinum edition sealed but neither are Mint.  My fave C&C game next to RA2.

I don't see this commanding a big value either, no provenance.  Same with the "Mario Party glove" that was a direct form Nintendo thing when kids were getting blisters in their palms from joystick rotation.  Someone tracked down it was just a plain white glove and hard to prove.

I believe Japanese controllers have the Made in China thing and could be frankensteined too.  That used to be a way to verify an e3 controller, the Made in China top but counterfeiters caught on with the swapping as well.

 I don't doubt it's legit, I just find it hard to believe someone would pay more than a couple hundred bucks since it's niche and not really proveable. 

I mean those sale prices are getting close to a decade old at this point, what would you expect.  I don't even follow this cart and $2k+ for a rarity that is argubly one of the system's "grails" is nothing but fair game.  You don't get get rares at half of 2017 prices.

Smaller by the day.  I've already turned a corner mentally with my collection as I approach 40 in the near future and know I don't want to take it all with me.  I'll always collect in some capacity but I don't need thousands of games.  I'm not sure where I'll end up, but a nice number to shoot for would be about 500-750 various items to me.  That's a much more manageable number that would be my goal.

Sorry for lack of pic but I'm big into Sierra and Command & Conquer.  Lots of other little odds and ends too but those are my staples.  Have nearly all of the King's Quest, Space Quests, Leisure Suit Larrys, Command & Conquers and Red Alerts sealed.  I'm not as active in PC as I was over the last 2 years though, most of my goals were knocked out by now.

On 1/22/2024 at 11:19 PM, attakid101 said:

Sucks that I gotta follow the Crazy Taxi original art guy but here’s what I got lol

I’d been looking for this banner for years. I found a couple during that time but the nice ones were too expensive, and the affordable ones were too ugly.

Finally found my Goldilocks. The reverse is just as nice as the front. That is to say, not perfect but display worthy. I feel I got a good deal on it.

I got one of those last year too, probably same guy?  Mine was unfolded and unstitched, but yes those SNES nylon banners are sweet!

Nice eye.  I love that it seems "authentic" to have some information, but I question those numbers a bit.  The Pure Evil is relatively common compared to the rest, I'm highly skeptical more Super Monkey balls were printed than it.  You also think that Sonic would have printed more than Super Monkey Ball... Sonic was much more of a bread winner wasn't it?

On 1/5/2024 at 11:43 AM, CT said:

https://sternpinball.com/game/jaws/

Pro is going for $7000 for North America only I believe.

Premium $9699

LE $12999 !

Wow they've gone up.  I have the LE Ninja Turtles Pin they made a few years back and I'm pretty sure it was like $9k.  Or maybe I paid $500 down and $9k on delivery, don't remember exactly.  But $13k is crazy.

... And I don't think I've played it in a year or two already.  They're cool but just as anything else, you get bored of things.

Very nice, is that Dr. Robotnik in the middle?  I could use one.

As someone who collects Genesis though, the demand really fell out of Sega a ton since the pandemic peak.  Still plenty of good ones there though.

On 12/30/2023 at 9:42 AM, MiamiSlice said:

I enjoyed playing Squish with my kids

I also recommend Very Very Valet 

Went with this recommendation and I must say it has been a heck of a game so far, great for couch co-op with wife and kids.  Its fast paced team play, controls aren't quite as tight as you'd like but it's a party game that doesn't need to be taken to seriously.  Thanks for that!

The easiest answer is to trim.  If you don't even know what you have and you are the "expert", how the heck will anyone else know what you have or what do to with it?  You owe it to yourself to get an inventory and at least start understanding what you have before you make decisions.

Reality is that the vast majority of inheritors won't have any attachment to the items and would rather have cash.  Or they may have attachment to a select few items in the collection but certainly not the entire pile.  It's also unreasonable to assume that the inheritor will have any passion / time / desire to look up values or to try and piece it out.  

Size also matters.  Put yourself in those the inheritor shoes, would you rather inherit 10,000 items worth $1 each or one item worth $10,000?  Obviously it's not that simple but the point remains.  If you were passing down something you'd certainly want it a bit more curated towards items of value.

Either way, the simple step 1 here is to figure out what you've got.  If you can't do that then you can't possibly expect anyone else to care about it either.

This isn't new, the non MAC PC version has gone for much more.

21 hours ago, Dr. Morbis said:

I think a more pertinent question would be: Do any new collectors go for full sets anymore?  Back when I started, it seemed like it was more common to go for full sets than not, and even the respondents in this thread that are still doing it mostly started years ago, and/or already attained most of what they were after in the first place.

New blood, on the other hand, seems to never go for full sets, which may be a generational issue (owning physical entertainment media isn't really a thing in our world anymore) along with the fact that devices like the powerpak now exist, and then of course there's the outrageous prices that most popular games go for nowadays.

Funny, this is the exact thought I had while reading this thread.

And no, I don't believe there's a lot of new collectors doing full sets.  The full set collectors usually got in many years ago when prices were cheap and set collecting was more feasible.  New collectors of today already see everything as expensive so they start with their favorites... just as many of us did many years ago.  The difference is that it's much more difficult to pursue that set so a lot people fan out to other platforms and such.

Thanks for the recommendations guys I'll check some out.

On the topic of shmup, that's one of my least favorite genres... but, we did download and beat Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime as a family and that was pretty good. That's one I'd recommend even if though it was a bit short.

To the Switch owners, any recommendations on fun local multiplayer (with kids) games to download?  Like $5-$10 range or so?

Already have all of the AAA Mario / etc stuff but figured I'd ask on the cheap indie stuff.  We did Untitled Goose Game, Uncooked 2 and other odd ones but I know some people in here have to have favorites.

I don't watch current wrestling but I did watch Beyond the Mat (1999) this week, and that was a must watch documentary.  I've also watched all of the WWE Rivals / WWE Documentaries that have come on cable the past couple years (forget the channel.)  Those are really great to get some behind the scenes insight into wrestling.

Oddly enough, HBK was my favorite wrestler all-time as a kid (Hogan close 2nd), but as an adult I've realized what shitty people they are.  I hated Bret Hart so much and while he's definitely extremely bitter about most things, he seems to be a solid human being.  HBK turned it around mid career but Hogan had so many jobs he refused to do and ideas he shot down that its sad.  

Only thing I'd be confident on is backwards compatibility and console / handheld hybrid again.  The DS was amazing successful for them so when the 3DS came out it was backwards compatible.  I'd suspect at least 4k / bigger harddrive but not sure what the "gimmick" would be.

From a marketing perspective, you want your game to appeal to as many as people as possible so you can maximize sales.  You do that with difficulty levels and that's how games are nowadays.  Usually standard is much easier and you can quickly ramp it up (or have achievements) for those who want to master a game and endure the punishment.

It's spoiled me as well, I don't enjoy playing games where you're forced to die so you can learn progression.  I can deal with a few restarts but when there's too many of them I just move on.  There are so many good games I haven't experienced that I don't wish to put in the effort to master any.

Also, not sure if this has been talked about, but what about games that were partially dependent on strategy guides?  Stuff like RPGs or "secrets" or speedrunning for cheats (like Goldeneye).  Back then you had to buy a guide or figure it out on your own, now you can find anything online or watch a video on youtube.  You don't have to grind those things out alone anymore.

I'll go Golden Axe simply because SOR4 was recent and amazing.  Could use a GA refresh.

Yeah, a while back it hit me that if I die my family won't care about my collection at all.  Thus I decided long ago I would constantly be in a trim status and just keep padding away at the savings fund.  I enjoy having a collection of value and would never sell it all, but no one needs thousands of games unless your a set collector (which I'm not anymore).  I don't want to pass that burden to my family if something happened to me so while we don't need the money either, I feel like I owe it to them to pay out a nice dividend to savings every month for their future.  Of course I still reinvest a lot of my sales as I'll be a lifelong collector... everyone needs a hobby. Just have to find balance and whatever you're most comfortable with.

6 hours ago, srh201 said:

I haven't graded anything. Figured I'd start with these beauties. All 1st release (except Wrecking Crew which is the 2nd release gloss sticker). I feel that I got robbed on a few grades, but it is what it is! Each cart is dead mint and maybe played once, if at all. Despite that, most cart grades were 9.4 or 9.6. boxes all graded 9.2 or better, so that was nice. 

I may send a few more in. Having them be super protected is nice, as I have a tendency of knocking stuff off of my shelves. I didn't think I'd ever get anything graded, but I'm glad these are slabbed and protected now. 

Long time no see, congrats!  Good ones to start with, I own 4 of those 6 in the same or better grade as well.  9+ hangtabs are nice and underappreciated IMO.  Anything 9.6 and especially an early black box is insane as well.