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Sometimes I see ntsc-u/c gamecube games listed by European sellers and they go for a bit lower then those sold by American sellers, I guess probably they move slower due the combination of region lockout and shipping cost. But I need international shipping anyway, so for me the best price is to order an ntsc-u/c game from a European seller. For some reason, it seems like most of them are the Canadian releases (right now I see four different uk based sellers selling an ntsc-u/c F-Zero GX, all of them are the Canadian versions). Are there any differences between the releases? If I buy the Canadian release now, will the memory card save block work with the US version if I ever switch over?

First of all, know that these are very worthy inclusions for a backlog! For me LA was the most enjoyable in the franchise, so judging by that I'm sure you'll also like OOS and OOA. There are a couple of differences to consider for which order to play them. There might be a couple of "spoilers" here I give as examples to illustrate my points, but really things that see in the first 1-2 hours of gameplay: As you said, Seasons focuses more on action and Ages focuses on puzzles. The main overworld mechanic in Seasons is that you control the seasons, and the main mechanic in Ages is that you travel a couple hundred years back and fourth in time. So in Seasons you want navigate a specific are and then you need to change to summer so that the lake will dry, then change to winter so that snow will pile up making a bridge for you, etc.. In Ages, you talk to someone in the distant past who needs a map of some region in order to help you progress, but this region was only charted in the future, guess what you need to do... Holodrum (the overworld in Seasons) feels much larger than Labrynna (the overworld in Ages). I think technically they are the same size, but Holodrum feels like it has more "random exploring" in it. In Holodrum you get "lost" because there are a million directions you go, in Labrynna you get lost because you while you know where you need to get, you don't know how to some specific obstacle in your way. One excellent youtube reviewer I saw put it this way: "Seasons is more about 'ooh, what is that? I wanna go find out' and Ages is more about 'wow, how the hell do I do that?'. The dungeons in each game also reflect these elements. In terms of thematic motifs, I felt that Seasons has more of a hippie vibe and Ages has more of a mystery vibe. Which ever game you play first, you'll keep your magic rings in the next. Some magic rings are badges with no purpose, some give you power ups. Some rings can be found in both games, but the most powerful ones are exclusive to only one of them, or exclusive to the whichever of them is the second one. Since most rings mainly affect combat, they seem to be more useful in Seasons. Also, in the second game you play (whatever the order) you can get more extra levels of upgrades (i.e. carrying capacity for seeds and stuff like that). This also seems to be more helpful in Seasons. So it's easier to do Ages first, and then start Seasons with all the rings that help in combat and an opportunity to get max upgrades. So for your question (what order to play them) - I'd play the better one last. Which one of them is "better" really depends on you and what elements you like more. The second game you play will make slight alterations to the plot (only adding stuff) to tie up with the fist, so it'll be more enjoyable if you keep the best for last. Personally, I went with Seasons first because I liked the thematic motifs of Ages better. This was a good choice for me, but more so because I enjoy the feeling of navigating the overworld in Ages better than navigating the overworld in Seasons (point (3) above).

Right now I'm at the middle of Zelda:OOA, linked game (finished OOS earlier). I know a lot of people don't care too much for them but I really feel like they are underrated. To me they feel like perfected sequels to Link's Awakening. I think they are not memorable because the only place where they did innovate over LA was in the whole "linked game" mechanic, and probably most people didn't buy the both games back in the day to get this experience, plus it's a very late release. Still, very enjoyable and I also really like all the thematic motifs in both.

This one: https://www.ebay.com/itm/F-Zero-GX-Nintendo-GameCube-2003-/333874864868?epid=245286967&hash=item4dbc7e22e4%3Ag%3Ai7wAAOSwa5RgFw08&LH_Auction=1&nma=true&si=V6ZfvfRQvDpD%2FhXYRbNwMr7Uhtg%3D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557 afaik they go for around $60 complete on auctions (and I mean really complete, and for this one it's impossible to tell by the picture if all the inserts are included). I'm curious, is there something about this copy that makes it a rare variant / error / whatever? Or just people who really hate their money? I'm used to seeing ebay anomalies, but not at these levels for common used games...

I think people are bored staying at home, and they are looking for exciting stuff to do. Plus, people cut on a lot of expenses due to the whole situation. Maybe a lot of them always had the potential to be interested in collecting [whatever], and they got to doing it only during this time. And this happens in all levels of income - people with average income buy up all the nice condition games causing an increase in price, people with high incomes buy those pokemon cards from their childhood, and people with very high income but sports stickers (sorry, these are stickers meant to be placed in an album, and no one will convince me otherwise :P). Also, you need to take into account that while most people feel like shit, they are not financially hurt. Now, before anyone bashes me - of course there are a lot of people who lost their jobs or suffered cuts due to the crisis., But still, most (as in - more then 50%) didn't. This pandemic has hurt the lives of almost everyone, but most of the time not the financial aspect directly. So actually, a lot people can afford to spend money on material luxuries that make them feel a little bit better in this this whole shitty situation. Well, that's at least my take on it.

yeah lol and at least for vdeogames people only loose money, in other places: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/coronavirus-face-mask-fake-turkey-medical-supply-shortage-covid-19-a9423426.html

Added a couple of gb/a games, a milky blue Japanese gba, and couple of manuals for games I already have

Sorry man, but yes, it's completely fake. The dead give away is the color. This comes from the same type of plastic they use for fake pokemon stadium 2, which is "glittery". The loz:mm plastic is gold, but doesn't have these glitters. It does sound like a run of bad luck though... did you at least get your money back from all these fakes?

Thanks for the info, I've made a note for myself to look into it

What does that mean?

Why not the opposite? If someone scams me I can file a dispute through paypal, and if that fails go to my credit card company. Also, I thinking not only about it but also about information security. I tend to trust paypal in terms of technology, but I don't trust random websites, so I prefer to pay with paypal and not expose my credit card information to one more party. Also, I really don't trust ebay, given how awful and glitchy their system is.

I really don't get this, how hard is it for people to set up paypal? Also, why would anyone want to put in their credit card number when they can add a layer that provides more security.

That's completely true. But I think most people who buy old games and systems aren't collectors. So they'll prefere, say, a re-shelled gameboy more then an original with scuffs. You'll prefere the original, I'll also prefere the original, but I tend to believe most wouldn't. The norm you're talking about is the norm in this forum and probably also in other collecting communities. But this is still only a small portion of the wider retro gaming community. It sucks that it's like this...

One more thing to consider, is that you are all looking at it from a collector / historian viewpoint. But that represents only a small minority among old game enthusiasts. Most people who like the nes don't collect for it, and so they don't see the value in original items the same way you do. Not an exact example, but still related: I saw some guy in a fb retro gaming group who psted a pics of his private "pokemon display". He had cards from the WOC era, and sealed boosters. In his display, he also had boxed "copies" of the gen 1 gb games. One box was European, three boxes were American. Now you may wonder - four games? Did he have one of them double? Nope, the fourth was the well known American release of Pokemon green... And I really scratched my head over it - why would some who spends this amount of money on cards would put a fake game on display? When I asked him he said that he doesn't care for the games, he never had a gameboy so he never played them, and he only likes the cards. He wanted them in the display cause it looked cool. I think the other boxes were legit because when I zoomed in they didn't look new. He said he paid full price for red, blue, yellow and bought green from aliexpress. Later he added g&s in plastic ds cases.... (not the hg&ss, he baught the "original" g&s in ds cases...). He said he didn't want pay 400$+ (or whatever) for the legit copies and also that he liked the ds style cases better... Obviously, this guy saw value in owning original tcg products, but completely didn't care for original games. But this is because he is a card collector, and has no interest in games. Now, I consider this as really bad taste. My preferences are exactly the opposite from this guy. I consider modern fakes to useless junk that should be put in the recycling bin (same for the nwc cart of course). I share the same respect and value for original items that most people here have. But still, I believe we are a minority for valuing those things. Most people simply don't care, and they'll a put an "american pokemon green" and "pokemon silver in ds case" alongside original cib copy of red, just to make the display in their living room "nicer". They aren't even deceiving themselves - they simply saw no value in the original item to begin with.

Ebay states a lot of stuff in their toc which unfortunately seems to have no hold in reality I agree with you that it's wrong to sell this on ebay. You may fool someone, or you may sell to someone who wants to scam others. I just don't agree that the creation of the item is morally wrong in itself. It might be illegal but at least for me that's irrelevant. I'm talking about whether or not it's wrong morally. Btw, on the topic of ebay - how do you guys report items? I remember once I saw a fake n64 game. Nothing surprising because there are tons of these, but the seller didn't even mention it's fake and listed it as "used" (one popular whitewashing term for "fake" today is "brand new" as far as loose carts go). Also, he sold it for it $50 which was higher even then the price of real cart. After I looked at the item he "sent me an offer" and I got a bit mad and tried to report it. Now, I swear to god I tried 3 different browsers (ff, chrome, chrome on phone) and none worked. This was pretty ironic to see this epic fail of ebay - you can't even report listings.

Are you against fan fiction? And what if someone writes fan fiction and also sets up a patreon? If we do this black / white, then we'll quickly come to the conclusion that Nintendo was right to go after youtubers posting "let's play" videos (and I think most people will agree that saga was ridiculous, even though technically it's stolen ip). There is a lot of gray area here, and the context matters. How much was distributed? How much did the person making it profit from it? Was the drive behind it making a passion project, or was it just a lazy way to make cash?

It's easy to see these are fake. What I think causes all the outrage is mainly that now people see that this is possible and that if someone wants to, he can create an exact copy. But in that way, it's shooting the messenger. This would have happened eventually anyway. The scammers will create exact copies sooner or later, and it's hard to believe they getting their inspiration from some hobbyist who seemingly did this for her own fun (though I also find it hard to understand why someone would like to own this) .

I still have a hard time considering even the n64 / ps "retro".

Patience is key. You seem to have it so you'll have no problem I'll be completely surprised if modern Pokemon TCG sets will sell for more then retail a couple of years from now. As you've said yourself, it's hyped, a lot of people are going to buy it. Most of them will lose interest and want to sell it someday. If you'll still have interest then, you'll be able to get it cheaper. You also have other collecting hobbies. Maybe every once in a while the unlikely thing happens and something that is hyped as collectible today will keep it's price or even increase. But on average, most of these stuff will lose value. So since you can't know in advance what direction any of it will go, I believe the safest bet is to wait. Of course, if you really want it now that's a whole other topic. But if time is not a big issue, and you are only worried that they'll be harder to get for a reasonable price in the future, then imo they will actually get cheaper and easier to get as the year pass.

Or just buy it later. Don't worry, with the videos that @The Strangest posted, it seems like you'll be able to get them a couple of years from now for much lower then retail when these smart investors need to liquidate.

I was under the impression that for many of those participating in this, winning / losing here is measured not by the earnings of the retail investors, but by the losses of the hedge funds who shorted.

I guess you guys are right. In my country there are only two retro game stores, pretty small, located in non central area, and I think most their business is with regular costumers. So they have to be fair in order to keep their costumers. I guess if you have a store in a big city and most of your business is with one-time costumers, you can inflate prices and still keep the business going.

I agree with everything you wrote except for this part. Really, it seems that the guy was just unaware of the prices and that the store owner took advantage of it. This is not like inflating prices on ebay where one types in a search and can see immediately that $30 is way too much for a loose copy of this game. After all, a ds game can cost $30, and it's not an unreasonable amount to pay for a game you want. Sure, he could go and check the prices on ebay, but most people trust brick and mortar stores to be reasonable and fair with their costumers. It seems that the seller here just took advantage of this trust.

Totally carzy, gold/silver sold 23.1 million copies (together), crystal sold 6.4. So there are about half as many copies out there of crystal then there are of silver, yet it goes for 3 times the price. I mean, you do get catch a Celeby in crystal. But $70 for a Celeby? This is one of these games that I know I'll eventually get, and I don't have even the slightest of fomo's for not buying it now. It's highly unlikely that a game that sold this well, and that has good alternatives, will ever go higher then that.

You mean like this guy over here? https://www.ebay.com/itm/Pokemon-Stadium-N64-1995/133443502925?epid=8020&hash=item1f11da434d:g:wAAAAOSwYcRe7Rp5 I honestly find it sad that people have such low standards of quality. Not realizing that your game should sell for discount, and instead trying to sell it for about 2 times the value of a standard cart.