nick

Pop reports tl;dr: "Mine is shinier than the one the Jones' have down the street, mine is better! " -or- "Oh fuck, mine is not shinier than the one the Jones' have down the street, therefore mine is not quite as adequate as the one they have" Pretty idiotic human behavior but here we are in 2021 video game collecting

Who cares

2005 for me

Extremely cool thread. I was just telling an Indian friend about the Samurai and this is the thread that popped up on Google and I was showing it to them. I have never seen that many Samurai games all together in a single pic, let alone boxed/CIB games, let alone a CIB Super Mario Bros - amazing! Extremely cool stuff!

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Very nice! As an owner of a loose cart, what would be your predictions of the monetary value of a loose cart, and what would be your predictions on the monetary of a CIB copy, in this current 2021 market that we are in? Also, how many loose carts total have you seen in your lifetime, and how many CIB or boxed copies total have you seen in your lifetime?

Yeah, we're not talking about the HKGG versions or FamicomBox here.

I must say, you have one BEAUUUUTIFUL avatar haha. You must be a pretty smart person or something.

I don't know the last time one sold, I seem to remember one that was available in a Facebook group a few years back, maybe like 2016 or so, I believe it had the box with it (my memory is fuzzy but for some reason I think it didn't have a manual?) and I saw it get posted a few times over maybe like a ~month period before I stopped seeing it so I guess that's when it sold. My guess about "fair market" value is ~$3K for a used CIB copy (which used CIB is what I'd want). The Hong Kong games are dope but I don't think there's a huge market of people that collect them, Mah Jong is basically a stupid title where it isn't notable for any reason whatsoever other than the extreme rarity of it being an officially licensed Nintendo game, and people seem to be moving money away from CIB and into new/sealed or "investment" type games increasingly lately. I don't really see Mah Jong as a smart title to pick up for the investment value compared to other titles, and full set collecting is less popular than it's ever been. So despite that absolute insane level of rarity of it I don't think that the monetary value of it has also gone up that much in the overall game collecting market the way other games and items have. So that's why I am speculating $3K for its "fair market" value (like if it were hypothetically auctioned off) instead of like $10K or $20K or something like that. But this is just my judgement maybe I'm completely wrong IDK. Just speculating. . For an item like this though where literally only 1 copy would sell in maybe 5 years, if one were to change hands, it would really come down to what the seller lists it for and what a buyer decides to pay for it, so a hypothetical new sale price of it could really be anything. How many known copies are there of it? Isn't there only like 5 or so known copies that come with the box? How many loose carts?

Yeah agreed. Amazon and eBay are very VERY different beasts. There was a time where they were both sort-of-kind-of competing with each other. They still do compete in many ways, but they've both sort of found their own identities now too which is cool. The difference is: eBay is for antiques and collectibles. individual photos of each item are necessary. Amazon is for moving product/inventory. hopefully a fuck ton of product and in large quantities and sold QUICKLY. stock photos are fine. As time continues eBay will keep going down the path of being a marketplace for collectors and the collector markets, and Amazon will keep going down a path of offering products to be used for their utility purpose. For example, it would not make sense to sell a VGA or Wata graded video game on Amazon, because that's not what the purpose of Amazon is. For collectibles, it has to be eBay, and it's also more time consuming to sell antiques/collectibles, because each one sort of requires some level of individual attention to list and sell it properly (e.g. taking individual pics, writing a quick description, etc), and you can generally only get small quantities at a time (usually only 1) of collectible items that you'd list on eBay. For Amazon, you only have to list it once, and if you have a source where you can get 1000s of quantity of it, then once the listing is set up, then they just sort of sell on auto-pilot and it creates a machine that shoves $$$ into your bank account. It's much MUCH easier to make a fuck ton of money on Amazon.

I built one myself (it isn't publicly available, and isn't in a state where it would be publicly-usable currently) but it took fucking forever and eBay's API is shit and full of weird nuances and special cases (e.g. "for THIS listing you must specify the UPC", "for THIS listing you must specify the MPN", "for THIS listing you need to say if it's used or new but 'Like New' isn't allowed to be picked for seemingly no reason whatsoever", etc), and the only other place I had my inventory listed was an online store that I never publicly launched. I kept saying I was gonna integrate Amazon and a store point-of-sale system but never got that far. I don't care anymore. I'm just gonna list places manually from now on I think. It's not worth the time to me to try and fuck with eBay's stupid sucky overly-pointlessly-complicated API. There's also no good/easy way (that I've found) to update inventory sold on eBay in your local app, like the only way to do it (I've found) is to manually keep periodically sending requests to eBay to check the current quantities and if any have been sold or not. You'd THINK there would be a way to send some sort of simple HTTP request with some simple JSON data from eBay to an endpoint associated with your app that they have registered in their system, but NO of course it isn't that simple, because nothing is that simple with eBay. eBay's API documents are a cluttered confusing mess. Basically eBay is totalitarian and THEY want to be the place where you manage all your inventory and quantity and stuff. eBay wants to be the center of your inventory management system. eBay does NOT want any other 3rd party app to be the center of an inventory management system. So they make it super pain in the ass to do things unless you submit and let them be the center of your inventory management system (which is not a viable option for any good/smart business owner).

Hey that's my avatar! Well, almost.

PM Sent! I have quite a few games CIB available that you have listed on your want lists.

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Hey I'm reading over this thread and I just wanna say I miss you guys and that the ~2004-2010ish video game collector forum period was some of the best times of my life. <33333333333 It's nice to see a lot of familiar names.

Hi Dain!!!!! It's good to see you. Seriously it is. I'm sorry for the times where I was a shithead to you. Thank you again for your amazing NintendoAge which was our playground for a long time.

Well, we told the community about it and what we did with it, what more could possibly be asked for? After Mike Langenfeld sold it, he removed the repro label, so that it couldn't possibly be passed off or confused as being an authentic label by some future owner. The repro label using double-sided removable tape that we literally got at Staples was for improving the intrinsic value for Mike Langenfeld's collection ONLY. We literally just put in my authentic NWC Gold (with a label) into the color copier at Staples and hit "Copy" and then he found the tape in some random aisle and like 10 minutes later we were out of Staples. It's not like we were making any attempts to copy the exact paper or anything like that - the purpose wasn't to make a fake label. Then we came back to my house and he cut it out all carefully and affixed the repro label to his real authentic label-less NWC Gold. I have videos that I documented of us putting on the repro label and Mike cutting it out all carefully - which I made so I could share with the community and there would be no confusions which I assumed people would appreciate - boy did that work out well /s - if anyone wants to see these videos I can share. I also documented Mike and I driving up to New Hampshire to buy it, photos of the handoff between Thom and I at the GameStop in Claremont NH where we did the transaction, and some videos after of MIke's reaction holding it and how he felt being the new owner of a NWC Gold and stuff. I documented all this thoroughly. Our goal for telling the community all this was so that there could be no possible confusions about that our intentions was for improving the display-ability and appearance and that nobody could possibly think we were attempting to make a fake label, and so that the community would know that the lineage of that specific cart does NOT have an authentic label, but that the rest of it IS authentic. Mike is the one that suggested we put on the repro label. It was his call since it was his NWC Gold - I was cool either way. I can say that after I handed the Thom guy $17,000 and held a NWC Gold in my hands without the label and just the ugly glue residue, it felt like really shitty. I remember thinking to myself as soon as I held it "$17K... for this...? Is this even worth it? I guess it's good?". It didn't have that "FUCK YEAH!" feeling AT ALL that a NWC Gold should make a game collector feel when they hold it in their hands. But after it had the repro label back on it, when I held it, I remember feeling it "FUCK YEAH" - it made it feel awesome again. At that point I agreed with Mike that it was definitely the right call to do that - using double-sided removable tape which could be removed at any time. The way the community reacted to Mike is a big reason why Mike decided to leave the collecting scene. He also sent the NWC Gold away to VGA (with the repro label OFF - he said he was going to affix the repro label back on to the OUTSIDE of the VGA case after grading) to be graded, but they refused it because the VGA people read the thread where some armchair idiots were demonstrating their idiocy and speculating that the entire thing was faked from a NWC Grey and a Zelda because it was associated with me. So not only were people accusing Mike of all sorts of mean nasty words, but also VGA wouldn't grade it - the NWC Gold felt tainted at that point - even though it wasn't. Mike also basically couldn't get any "atta boys" and "nice collection man!" from people after that - which as minor of a thing as that MIGHT seem at first, is a big reason why we are involved in a community in the first place. When Mike decided to sell out, we arranged that I was going to buy it back from him. He listed it on NintendoAge and kept lowering the price from $17K and eventually down to $12K, so I was gonna buy it from him for $12K. I needed like a month to come up with the $, and Mike said OK, and in that month period that I was in money-raise mode Mike had sold it to some random person that I don't know who they are that said they would pay the $12K on NintendoAge and they paid Mike right away. So I was kind of pissed about that - but also at that point, Mike was just so over the entire scene, and wanted to be done. But honestly - at the time - that NWC Gold felt tainted - even though there was NOTHING wrong about it - I remember thinking like how bad that might have looked for ME if I did buy it back from him. On one hand, I'm sort of sad I didn't buy it and be able to own 2 NWC Golds (which I would have decided who the next owner of it would be - since I have no need to own 2 and I'm not a motherfucking investor hoarder), but I also didn't have to deal with trying to convince everyone it really was real when I would be the one benefiting from it being authentic. Now, some random person has it that I have no idea who they are, and guess what, I'm still saying it's 100% a real actual NWC Gold because it is.

Wait a second, the famous Portnoyd knows my name??? *gets an ego, then dies happy* Whatup whatup whatupppp =))))))

It is uncommon for sure. When I was looking for it, I didn't see any available of this rare box art design variation for a while, and then I saw one and I bought it for like $25. However like a few months after that I was looking and there were 3 of it available all for cheap. It's a type of item that can sometimes be a pain to find if there's a draught of it, or can be easy to pick up. I think the supply (albeit low) is much larger than the demand of people that want it, and it is still a pretty cheap item, but yeah it can still be a pain to find sometimes. Nick

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Hey man, good list! I'm currently 15 complete-in-box games away from the full North American GBA set. If anyone wants to know the last 15 I need, send me a private message and I would be happy to share that info with you that way. I would also add these ones which are pretty uncommon to find as well: 2-In-1 Fun Pack: Madagascar / Shrek 2 (not "Operation Penguin") 4 Great Games! Paperboy / Rampage / Marble Madness / Klax 6 Great Games! Pong / Asteroids / Yars' Revenge & Millipede / Super Breakout / Lunar Lander 6 Great Games! Risk / Battleship / Clue & Connect Four / Perfection / Trouble Cubix: Robots For Everyone Driven (Without Toy Car - Standard Release) Driven (With Toy Car - Variation) (Yes, both Drivens are a pain in the butt to find) Freekstyle Gekido Advance Magical Quest 3 Sabre Wulf (REALLY cool title too) Soccer Kid The Mummy Tom & Jerry Tales I'm sure I could make a more comprehensive list of uncommon/pain-in-the-butt GBA titles, but these ones come to mind for now. Also, I have nice condition CIB copies of these 2 available currently: Tweety & The Magic Gems Ozzy & Drix Both are pains in the butt to find as you indicated. However, at the moment, I am interested in trading only for other GBA titles I still need (not selling). Send a DM if interested. Thank you!! Nick

I'm sure there are a lot more out there.

Hey man, I just want to say that's pretty amazing. I have one of them..... I think Elevator Action LOL. Amazing to see the full set.