DarkKobold

On 1/20/2023 at 11:29 AM, Gloves said:

Thus far zero likes on my post asking for a like if someone is eligible for that charm, so... 

I'm now eligible for the full charm, 12 of 12, if that counts for anything! 

Well, it finally happened. The one owner of REBEL in the US decided to part with his copy. There's apparently 2 boxed copies known worldwide, and 2-3 loose carts known worldwide. It's never been dumped, so there's no ROM floating around out there. (I intend to change that)

I wish there was a better story beyond "It popped up on eBay, and I bet the house on it." I'm just super thrilled, as I've been talking about this game for the last 8 years of collecting. This is the peak of my collection, and I can't imagine adding anything I would value more than this. I paid a lot of money for this, but still feel like I got it for an insane deal, given how it's the only copy that's ever been on eBay. A complete in box Magical Chase sells for more than this, and that's on eBay 1-3 times a year.  My final bid was.... much, much higher than I won it for. 

Bump as Christmas is coming soon! 

I'm going to bump this, because the market seems to be taking a nose dive. MUSHA CIB sold recently for $500. There's a James Buster Douglas that sold for $913, and one sitting on eBay for $1100. Crusader of Centy sold for $1,742, which is less than half of what it was selling for mid pandemic. 

Needs more Super A'can

Specifically multiple copies of Rebel Star.

I'll never get 2008 and 2009 NES, but hoping to get this for a reasonable price. Missed out on one for $200 last year  

Color Dreams, unironically.

Secret Scout was an interesting Metroidvania that kept dead enemies dead. So many of the games are bad, but still beatable, and come with interesting physics to learn.

Has Bunnyboy made any mention of an Xmas 2022 cart? 

Definitely seems like the market is slowing way down. September/October/November have usually been slow months, but there seem to be some precipitous drops lately - 

https://www.pricecharting.com/game/sega-master-system/james-buster-douglas-knockout-boxing#completed-auctions-cib

https://www.pricecharting.com/game/sega-genesis/crusader-of-centy#completed-auctions-cib

https://www.pricecharting.com/game/playstation-2/rule-of-rose#completed-auctions-cib

The prices on these fluctuate quite a bit, but we're not seeing them even get close to the previous highs. 

I mean, if you're collecting to collect, then the green labels are a blight on this earth, meant to make angels cry and devils laugh. It's meant to torture the soul of completionists who have to spend 3x more to get colors to match. Garish, outlandish colors were chosen by Satan himself to make these abominations stand out on your shelf, and torment you with their inferiority. 

But, if you're collecting to play, probably best to go with greatest hits. 

Another heavy hitter off the SMS list - Why this game is so rare is beyond me. The only really interesting part of it is it's uniqueness. Unlike a ton of games of the era, it's not just a port of the Game Gear or Genesis game, it's its own unique title. 

47 minutes ago, goldenpp72 said:

Been accumulating these for months but finally put them away, I only have 19 games I still want on Game Boy so I will never see a shot like this occur naturally again. 

Damn, what's the story on Amazing Tater? Did you sacrifice a goat to get it? 

Been working towards a complete US/PAL Sega Master System set. This beauty came in recently. Bought it based on a stock photo, so was super stoked when it showed up super mint. 

On 11/17/2021 at 5:18 AM, OptOut said:

Covid bucks all spent, Christmas coming up, massing debts and missed work hours compounding???

Do I smell a recession on the horizon? 

I don't think so. The great resignation is going on. Jobs that would typically pay minimum wage are offering $12-20 to get workers. We're seeing upward mobility of lower income people that hasn't been matched for years. If wages are able to outpace the rising cost of living, we'll see inflation, especially in things that you otherwise could live without, like video games.

20 minutes ago, ExplodedHamster said:

This is an issue here. Many are saying that people like Jonas are "conflicted out," yet there are really few better people positioned to give information on what's out there. People who have collected and amassed these items are the ones who would be in the best position to know how difficult things are or are not to obtain. There's really no other way to get around that than the population reports, but people in these positions, such as Jonas, Minus, myself, Bronty etc., have been pretty consistent that we welcome pop reports. I think the NES population report that dropped pretty much speaks for itself. Yeah, there's more out there, and there's VGA and what's left ungraded to consider, but the numbers after 3 years and an insane amount of publicity are what they are. There's an assumption that people who own games are saying these are rare because they own them, as opposed to they started collecting them because they were rare. 

But, I'll say it again. Personally, I am very happy we have at least one major piece of data, and I'd absolutely love to see everything released and will be glad when it is. 

Here's the problem, he wasn't discussing the rarity of sealed games, he was discussing with Karl the content of his videos, which is all about unethical business practices. Having a good video game collection doesn't make you an expert in FTC guidelines. And that's were the conflict of interest comes into play.

32 minutes ago, MinusWorlds said:

How so? 

His instagram, while fun to follow and impressive, is ~2/3rds WATA graded games. He probably has one of the largest WATA collections out there, if not the largest. If videos like the Jobst materially effect prices of WATA games, jonebone stands to lose a lot of value to his collection.  

3 hours ago, MinusWorlds said:

Karl,

I don’t want to go down the rabbit hole too much on some of this, but Jonas (jonebone) does bring up some fair points. He’s also one of the most educated and knowledgeable collectors in our hobby. He has also been critical of Wata when he has issue with some of their practices. So he’s def not a Wata lemming either.

 

A simple view of his instagram also shows a pretty huge conflict of interest, however.

It's important to remember that we're also in the pre-Christmas lull. I don't trust any pricing "predictions" that don't take time of year into account. The same thing happens in Real Estate, apparently. If these numbers hold into January, then there's a trend downward. If not, then it's just the season for cheaper video games.

https://blog.pricecharting.com/2009/11/happy-lowest-game-prices-week.html

On 10/23/2021 at 4:27 PM, GPX said:

Additional point, part of the blame is on the resellers who are basically pricing up ALL their inventory, including items where no one has bothered to click on the BIN for the past 12 months. Yet, they still price it up anyway...

It creates a false illusion where “everything is going up”, when in fact, only certain select hyped up items and sealed/graded games are the main focus of demand of high spending.

 

I also disagree with this. People who know what they're doing only look at sold listings. People have been overpricing their listings on eBay since the inception of eBay. You have dumbasses like Video Game Quality who listed shit at 3x the going rate. That has never had any affect on the actual market. The only way a reseller could be at fault is if an impatient buyer hits "buy it now" on those insane price listings, therefore validating the dumb price. It's all just hopes and wishes until someone buys.

On 10/23/2021 at 4:14 PM, GPX said:

The HA/WATA connection is certainly a driver of everything going up. There is absolutely no doubt about it. Though that’s just one side of the equation. The other side is about the hype and the “news” (which is disguised-hype, basically) where games are turning into million dollar items, and “you could be the next millionaire from just looking inside your closet!”

The hype is the driver of all speculation and who do we reckon has started this mass hyping?

You see, I disagree. People buying Home Improvement on SNES aren't speculating. Maybe the hype and articles have reminded people that they love video games, and collecting sounds fun. But no one is buying shit-tier rares for SNES in hopes they go up. That's beyond absurd to me.

FWIW, I think this is slightly different than the "bubble talk" that's been going on since 2010 or earlier. This is more that all video game prices are straight up invalid, due to WATA/Heritage. It's one thing to claim that video game prices are inflated, it's another to claim that video game prices are inflated in a nefarious or illegal manner. A speculative bubble can occur without bad actors who are trying to arbitrarily pump a commodity for their own gain.  We may still be in a bubble with non-graded stuff, but it isn't the fault of WATA/Heritage.

Also, it really felt that things slowed down around 2018. NES/SNES game prices had seemed to stagnate, and it seemed like the hobby had hit peak crazy, prior to the pandemic.

Let me start by saying I absolutely believe that the graded game market is being manipulated by big money. That's not the point of this thread.

With people stuck at home during the pandemic, game collecting is more popular than ever. Additionally, Americans were given an extra $3200 to spend however they wanted. It's no wonder game prices are skyrocketing. However, after the Karl Jobst video, you have a ton of people who think that Super Mario Land 2 went from $10 to $15 due to the evil WATA cabal pumping prices. The reality is, demand is at an all time high, and there's just not enough supply to go around. 

It's infuriating to watch people quote the Jobst video when common but popular games go up in price. No, Deniz Kahn is not the reason you're paying $150 for Pokemon XD. There was a thread on Reddit recently about SNES Home Improvement spiking in price. The irony was that the redditor who was posting didn't even stop to consider he was part of the problem. Clearly he was looking to buy (i.e. part of the demand), while claiming that no one should be interested in that stinker of game.

I hadn't expected the Jobst video to turn everyone into a conspiracy theorist, but apparently, that's the new norm.

On 9/20/2021 at 6:44 PM, AnimalHouse said:

 

This was a good distraction from watching the news, nothing ever good. Haitian migrant crisis growing on the border, new covid daily deaths, the missing hiker woman found and bf missing, stock market in the red, humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan and [edit]

WE DIDN'T START THE FIRE! NO IT'S BEEN BURNING SINCE THE WORLDS BEEN TURNING!

On 12/7/2019 at 5:06 PM, tordur said:

Assuming we're not talking about the HKGC versions - I know (believe I remember) one cart sold back in 2009 for around 800 euros. but that info is probably of little use to you.

I heard as a rumor (read in some Facebook thread somewhere) that one sold for 3000 euro some years ago (cart only), but don't know how valid it is. Honestly seems unbelievable.

So the above info is all smoke and mirrors and hearsay - But:

If you're looking to do a NES fullset, consider swapping the Hong Kong Version of Mah Jong with the Famicom Box version. The Famicom Box version is inside a gorgeous black NES cartridge AND it's a 72 pin game. Essentially every bit as much a NES game as the Hong Kong version at a fraction of the price!

If you want it to be more uniform in looks with the other NES carts, go with the Famicom Station variant, which is a gray cart.

 

This is what I did for my "NES Worldwide fullset." However, it doesn't feel the same. HK MahJong is just too out of reach for me.

On 10/4/2021 at 11:02 AM, DefaultGen said:

Just like SE, the right time will be a few decades from now when everyone who cares is dead, lol. My game collecting strategy is going to be living forever so I can finally cash in on cool rare 80s junk.

I also would guess it's worth more than $3k loose, but at the same time it boggles my mind the price increases we've seen and that Sachen lot continues to not sell. Even multiple Sachen bros I talk to are like "Oh yeah yeah, I'm gonna get that"... yet there it sits unsold with some of the absolute rarest Nintendo games ever made while Day Dreamin Davey has apparently become a 5 figure game. Stuff without shrink wrap is just garbage these days.

I mean, look at the lack of movement on Mr. Gimmick vs. Little Samson. Gimmick, imo, is the much better game, but LS has doubled in value, while Gimmick hasn't really seen a massive spike, it's stayed relatively stable. The truth is, the NA fullset (with or without Stadium Events) is a far more attractive target to the general collector than any of the fringe stuff, like Sachen, PAL exclusives, and etc. I mean, Gluk games are still super cheap, despite being incredibly rare.

39 minutes ago, CodysGameRoom said:

Thanks but don't rob me.

I would never!

Strange question, but do you like vacations? I like vacations! Got any planned soon?