sp1nz

1 hour ago, OptOut said:

I THINK @DefaultGen said that the bidder on EBAY for the 30k SE cart was the one who didn't pay, NOT the million dollar Mario.

If the million dollar Mario doesn't get paid for, I am ASSUMING that @ExplodedHamster will tell us, at least he seemed to suggest he would in the other thread.

I'll be honest I did think for some reason it was referencing the Super Mario 64 even though the discussion just before was about Stadium Events. The Stadium Events is still HA+non-payment (so far), so the video timestamp fits it in that way. Moral of the story is to not trust that every transaction goes through and some games might even get "buried". I would still imagine some seller will make noise about it in case it happens, unless you are bound by some legal documents with HA.

5 hours ago, DefaultGen said:

Apparently the winner bidder hasn’t paid (someone on FB contacted the seller). Could just be shenanigans. If anyone’s making big buying decisions based on sales prices, you are truly in the wild west these days.

This part is pretty scary. Pat claims that he has a source that mentions in case of non-payment HA will offer to second highest bidder, then the third and so forth and if "no one" steps up to pay then HA might just hide the item because non-payments being reported in news would really hurt HA. Earlier Ian or Pat mentions that the main thing that matters for the interested parties in a sale like this is that the news have been made - well I imagine beyond the seller themselves, while they can profit of other sales due to the news, losing the big bucks of a record sale to non-payer would suck in any case.

Controlling the perception of folks via shady tactics is really really powerful stuff and very unfortunate when it works. Just in general in life's many avenues.

1 hour ago, Shmup said:

A few news places are reporting that within the first 90mins of pre orders opening the 256 and 512 models sold 110k between them. Unsure on the 64gb model numbers.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2021/07/html-holes-provide-a-glimpse-of-steam-decks-initial-preorder-numbers/

Anecdotal evidence from my steam feed: I think 3 of my friends potentially fit the initial 90 minute window and 6 friends + me came way after that. 137 people on my friends list. Worth mentioning that people can cancel the reservation at any time but I imagine they will pay for it unless something comes in the way.

2 hours ago, ZeldaFreak said:

Referring to your first point, if this thing sells, like, 5-10 million units, I would consider it a resounding success for Valve, honestly. Any more than that, and I think other big companies are going to try to get their piece of the handheld PC pie as quick as they can, which as I've said I think is the best case scenario, which is why I really hope this thing succeeds even if it isn't actually all that great.

Steam is not going to really profit off of the system pricing itself but are focusing on external aspects. Also it doesn't seem like they fear other companies jumping into the market in their wake but are embracing it - of course it's easier to think this way when you're first to market but it's definitely about more than just selling a system.

Couple relevant quotes with some filler word redactions:

"For us it's really how does the press react and what are they saying about it, what are they saying about it a year later. What's the perception - what are gamers saying - what are their reactions, what are our partners saying; are the kinds of things that are most helpful to us because our assumption is - these are long-term decisions that we're making about how we can contribute to the health and the vitality of this ecosystem and we're always gonna be successful as long as that's continuing to happen."

"So our view is, if we're doing this right then we're gonna be selling these in millions of units and it's clearly gonna be establishing a product category that ourselves and other pc manufacturers are gonna be able to participate in."

50 minutes ago, DoctorEncore said:

It seems a bit underpowered to function as a true portable gaming PC. Outside of the 16GB of RAM, the specs are much closer to those of a PS4 Pro than a PS5.

Yeah but Switch is also underpowered compared to PS4, so getting a PS4 tier handheld should be just fine with many people including me, like how're you going to make handheld PS5 at any reasonable price point when PS5 is not even that old.

50 minutes ago, DoctorEncore said:

So you may get Fallen Order running at 720/30 in portable mode, but it's going to look pretty terrible on a bigger screen. Also, Valve's Proton tool, which allows Windows games to run on Steam OS, leads to some significant performance downgrades and compatibility issues in many games. (https://www.protondb.com/)

I'm also extremely skeptical of the comfort of this thing. The control sticks are symmetric and high up on the device. It's also much heavier and larger than a Switch. The touch pads are a nice addition for PC focused games, but I doubt most people would get much use out of them.

These are more legitimate concerns, which I share. Anyway I'm not expecting perfection and I'm probably going to play way more indies than any AAA titles to begin with, so there should be enough cool compatible stuff I can enjoy playing in handheld mode. Also looking forward to using it for RetroArch with RetroAchievements.

Pretty hyped about this. I'm a big fan of the Steam platform and the price is very fair for a high spec Linux tablet alone, so I put a reservation on the 512GB model but there is a small chance that I will cancel it before the launch.

2 hours ago, GPX said:

The pandemic has officially spread to Ebay. The "Mario 64 sealed" pandemic, that is.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/224532286001?hash=item34472aca31:g:lhYAAOSwv-5g7Lol

Currently the one above is going at $35,000 USD with over 4 days to go. Interesting to note, within 10 minutes of the listing, there was 3 initial bids which jumped up to $10,000! Does the buyer not understand that you can bid in hundreds and not have to bid in thousands? And what's the hurry to bid up anyway?

Can already see that the 2***5 bidder has added new maximum bid twice while being top bidder, this is usually being overexcited / trying to assert dominance / lacking patience / second guessing your maximums - they're already going in with big maximums and second guessing their maximums even while in lead, and they have constantly challenged ex-leaders, if they get beaten they'll probably raise it again due to FOMO and more money than sense. Usually smart bidders know about "fair price" or have sensible maximums and snipe in the end only (or add an early bid to make it less likely a seller will accept backdooring) but they will usually bail if an auction gets too high in bids too early. Anyway 2***5 seems like they can be taken to town by someone not intending to pay - imagine a shill fighting hard against them and even winning the auction and then they get a second chance offer in the end and accept it without a clue but being happy regardless.

3 minutes ago, OptOut said:

Oh yeah...

Also, this is EVEN WORSE...

According to that article PSA ALSO BOUGHT GOLDIN AUCTIONS!!!

So, we thought the collusion between HA and WATA was bad? WE AIN'T SEEN NOTHING YET!!!

 

VHS tapes to the moon!

It's possible that red strip Super Mario 64 in 9.8 A++ is a white whale but there will be so many sealed copies near the top condition that many people will settle for 9.6 A++ or lower and it might be hard to keep the value at this level for the top condition ones. Well the future depends on these young high net worth people with the nostalgia for it or how well the investment is being kept propped up by investors with no nostalgia for it. But what will be a soft ceiling for a video game price and after how many years? This rate of growth won't last long and the market will get some corrections. I personally don't think the buyer made a sound investment but the world is too mad, so I guess I'll be wrong in the end.

1 minute ago, OptOut said:

Yeah, that's what I was thinking too. It doesn't necessarily require for the SELLER to be involved if someone is trying to pump a market, just a couple of interested parties with big bucks to put in.

I also need to reiterate, as I always have, that anyone selling INTO this market right now is doing the right thing, and should be applauded and congratulated. It's the buyers who are taking all the risks and making all the unusual decisions.

Thousand times this. But anyway the Super Mario 64 sale made most non-collectors, most collectors and even bunch of old school sealed collectors eyes roll. The ones that aren't surprised that much seem to be heavily invested in the market and have absurd expectations for the market already, so to them it's just natural progression or the way the hype machine they created was aimed to go. Crazy things can happen even in legitimate sales with no collusion or shady things in the back. And sure there is some classism with tiers of collecting, many people grew up with the game collecting from its inception, so the love for a medium being turned into a financial vehicle more and more and big investors buying up things they have no attachment to doesn't gel that well with old collectors but of course smart investing isn't about emotions - and it's jealousy / grumpiness for the rest, for market gaining steam or not being able to own what others own. Also when looking at some people talking like they know stuff, when it's apparent they don't, it will grind people the wrong way.

Anyway congratulations on the sale, hope the buyer comes through.

For most collecting mediums the valuable items are things that appreciate over time and people didn't consider them valuable at the time because the data wasn't in yet f.ex.

1. This cartoon character became successful and is still going strong 50+ years after the fact.

2. This sports player is or was godlike.

3. This playing card's potential was realized after many years and it was never reprinted.

And so forth. But for video games it now is: this character is the most popular character from the most popular game that sold the most copies. Wow did anyone buy that game and keep it sealed when it launched? They did? Wow sell it for 10 millions next year with plastic wrap because you forgot it in your closet or your uncle owns a shipping carton or whatever. It was never mystery to gamers that Super Mario Bros. is a great game. Though I'm not saying unopened SMB first print is common or even close but Super Mario 64, heck yeah.

It's like Super Mario 64 became "the video game Action Comics #1" before "the actual video game Action Comics #1" got there and it definitely didn't deserve it in my opinion - though earlier records are still records, so Super Mario 64 got a lucky break in being the million breaker. Maybe in due time it would've made sense that Super Mario 64 is priced at that, if it became apparent that there is such a condition rarity but now it's just supremely absurd sale. Then again many other collectibles don't even come "sealed", so it's easier to have condition rarity be cranked up to eleven for video games. Maybe people have too much bitcoin, maybe the background devils are even nastier than I anticipated, maybe someone is just super dumb - options, options. Another huge thing I wonder about is this: what will happen with lower condition copies of Super Mario 64? Do 6.0s start selling for tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands, how harsh will the condition premium be? 1.5 million straight for couple decimals? I'm curious. Will high grade CIBs become tens of thousands worth... for a million++ seller, clear as water, good game since its inception. Well it's funny to observe from the sidelines.

Maybe soon big sports collectors will jump in and pay millions for rare copies of sports games, when before it would've be 3-4 figure sales - just because they can pay it and want a thing. It'll be sports celebrities versus game mascots, who will flex the hardest, who will pay the craziest price, it'll be a competition unto itself. Hope not.

People would buy dog excrement if it was touted as the newest art piece from a hyped auction house partner artist.

I mean I recently put a Steam foil trading card for sale for 100€ AS A JOKE because I saw that one other card in the set sold twice for 60€... and it sold - I laughed for 5 minute straight, now the same shit is for sale at 10-12€ and is not selling (may I add that these prices are also insane and will come further down most likely to 1-3€ or just won't sell if they sit at the high prices). I also sold couple other cards in the set, I made 180€ profit on 3 cards and proceeded to spent it on the Steam Summer Sale. People are mad. Of course I am mad too for collecting digital cards to make digital badges with but it's like funny money thing and playing in a funny market on my favorite digital platform. The thing is for an oil sheikh it could've been funny money that he dumped on my cards but when I buy I look at the market graph, quantity on offer, gaps between prices, games popularity for future potential for increase or decrease in card price - more calculated than someone spending 10x or more today when he could spend 10x less tomorrow. The extra irony here is that if he felt time pressure to buy the cards, there still is one card in the set that hasn't even appeared in the market, so he played himself. But since he's rich he can spend as much as he wants whenever he wants and not care about the results too much.

Super Mario 64

Welcome!

You could check this thread in regards to your game boy list:

Also one thing I noticed that I didn't mention in there: Mickey Mouse and Hugo are sprite variants of the same game.

1. Yes - Nintendo was in partnership with Hyundai to release Nintendo games officially in South Korean market

2. My friend in Korea has mentioned that Mini Comboy items are very rare in Korea even for top dog collectors. I would assume we are talking of 3 digits for surviving carts max and 2 for CIB - however take my assessment with a grain of salt. I think Mini Comboy has the smallest library for Korean Nintendo stuff, like 10-ish games max as far as I remember. All in all I reckon that Mini Comboy games are some of the rarest licensed retail games there are.

3. In my eyes Mini Comboy carts should be worth 100$ or more, I doubt they'd go to a thousand but it's not really a market you can scout for going rates considering the rarity of the items in question.

4. Most Korean retro hardware and software had somewhat low sales considering pirate copies of games competed succesfully with officially licensed copies in the Korean retro market.

You can see a post about hardware sales numbers for a handful of years in here:

https://www.smspower.org/forums/7881-KoreanMasterSystemHistoryGamBoyAladdinBoy

You can delve more into the subject here:

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/korea/specials/special-find.htm

23 minutes ago, GPX said:

I don't like how "rich speculators" are all grouped into the one entity.

I mean, I consider myself part-collector, part-speculator, but come on...any sensible speculation does not involve the following formula:

- spend 2000% on a game (from previous value)

- then hope one day it goes up to 3000%

What happened to "buy low, sell high" principle?

I said more money than sense and über rich; richness is on a spectrum and I don't think I chucked every rich person into one entity. I don't have a problem with rich people or speculating, I have a problem with the obvious market manipulation that is happening. Sealed enthusiasts have been spending 4-5 figures for a long time on certain items but I don't think they are in the running for dropping high 6 figures for any one graded game, because they know better. I could be wrong.

3 minutes ago, jonebone said:

You also have to realize that people go in with each other sometimes, or that there are new companies that sell fractional sales of collectibles.

Not saying it'd be "easy", but one of those companies could buy that Zelda for $870k and then list it for $1M with fractional shares, say $100 a piece for 10,000 owners.  I bet those shares would sell out in a day, then the "market cap" on it is $1M.  The company who bought it gets back their investment and some and gets to pump it to the moon.

The sealed graded market on key titles is likely never cooling off.  What typically happens is one of these signature auctions goes off and everything close to relevant gets bought off ebay and then it cools for a bit until next signature auction.  I really thought some of these sales would underperform due to summer time lull and post-covid reopening but if that didn't do it then nothing will.

Great points and fractional shares are definitely pure investing. As a game collector I wouldn't ever want to co-own a game but these kinds of people who invest and speculate on the highest level (for better or for worse) definitely can and will do it. Still I imagine the ceiling is not super far away for a 870k Zelda, maybe we are talking of 2-5 million in x-yy years, if the madness continues. Lot of money to be made potentially but the risks are also extremely high from my point of view, since I believe the market is artificially catapulted into space from ground level. All you need is 2 people fighting over an item though and there's so much one can do to prop up their items value via shady tactics, such as having proxy shill bidder - maybe it's not smart to double dip on something you actually already own but dropping so much money to begin with feels like these people can gamble and keep their items relevant even if they are not. Let's also compare video games (a speculative market) to more established markets: the most expensive coin is like 10mil~, most expensive sports card is 5mil~ and most expensive comic book is 3mil~. From this lense it is like jet fuel had been injected into the video game investing - luckily this type of game collecting isn't for me and if it was then I wouldn't play with the sharks but look for sensible deals.

Only reason the market continues to heat up is because there are multiple people with more money than sense or ulterior motives for spending that much on those items. Appreciation of hundreds of thousands of dollars in a year or less is just stupid to me, even if in Zelda's case they are different variants. The insane premium for most items is for a literal plastic wrap. It doesn't change my view on the matter, if in a few years the same Zelda is worth multiple million dollars. Über rich people are just swooping into something that they don't know or care about beyond dollar signs. An unopened early print of original NES Zelda in great condition is ought to be worth a decent amount but these people be speculating - in future the circlejerk is near only place they can even sell to, but with enough incestuous hype I guess anything is possible. Let's put the plastic wrap on the 870k Zelda into perspective: you could probably buy every Nintendo CIB set in your region and still be left with a ton of money - would you rather have the Zelda or the Nintendo collection?

#1 MD

#2 SNES

Panorama Cotton came with a voucher you could mail to the company to get the cup. You can see it in the images here:

http://www.guardiana.net/MDG-Database/Mega Drive/Panorama Cotton/

That should also mean that every voucher that was sent in is gone now on top of the vouchers that got lost / thrown away.

Racketboy claims that:

"The game on its own is rare enough (about 5,000 copies were produced), but if you really want to show everyone up, try to find the game with the rare Panorama tea cup that was available initially for free to anyone that sent in a coupon to the publisher. Only about 300 of those tea cups exist and its presence with the game could increase the overall value of a complete package substantially."

No idea if that's even close to the truth but there are low print games that appear often or sit in listings, so it's hard to confirm or deny unless you see some official sales numbers yourself.

Picture of my game+cup for funsies (my game doesn't have any paperwork beyond the manual but I do have the generic cardboard box for the cup, it's just a white cardboard box with some light green paper shoved in and around the cup - those seem to be original since they're in the Guardiana pictures as well):

Hark thee, investors! Legitimate excitement!

Expecting everyone to overpay on everything means that the business will go under or that the owner can afford to sit on the games to make a bigger profit on each game. Quite often a game store owner with retro stock is a collector that keeps the business open to get dibs on rarities and/or higher condition copies for cheap and the rest is for the store stock. Getting deals for your collection as a store manager might mean that you're even willing to take losses on store profits. Trying to gouge on everything while having hidden stock too, well that's either laziness or bad business practice.

Like if you want to support your community via continued store existence and its taxes (debatable if your patronage is needed or if the store should stay open or if the taxes will be used in an intelligent way) then you can overpay a little bit, like 20% or whatever, but I see no point in supporting a greedy business when online buying exists. Paying higher prices somewhere can make small waves in the overall market, so supporting intentionally elevated prices could elevate general prices elsewhere. Local stores serve a purpose for people who can't or won't buy online or beyond their city but this also means that the stores will try to take advantage of that fact.

In your friend's store's case I would just pop in once in a while and check around. There might be something good for sale for slight overprice, fair market price or an actual deal but if there isn't then I'm not buying something just because. In the confirmed dick's store's case I probably wouldn't buy anything unless there was a game I had been after for years and it wasn't available elsewhere for similar or lower price. Checking the wares of any store even without purchases is enjoyable enough but it's definitely not necessary to have a store around if you're never happy with the stock or prices.

Beat the game on Normal (end screen in spoiler). Pretty fun game overall but definitely not the biggest fan of some of the cycles not resetting with death because the amount of available strategies with any given timer is not that high and therefore the improvisational qualities are diminished or non-existent depending on the level in question. Time to beat was something between 1½-2h.

Great trailer and the precision platforming looks right up my alley. Downloaded the ROM and I'm definitely interested in getting a physical copy too but I'll have to see how and where it will be sold of course.

I bought a bundle of 100 Japanese Mega Drive CIBs for 600€+125€ shipping from Spain in 2012, so no customs on top. Can't complain about the price per game and I only had a few JP MD games prior to that. Only one game appeared twice in the entire lot; Daisenpuu aka Twin Hawk. Most games from that lot are at least 20-60€ now and some are easily above 100€ even. The biggest win was Musha Aleste though, which can be 300€+ game nowadays. So Musha Aleste JP MD CIB with 40-60x~ value increase is my biggest one.

June arrivals:

13 minutes ago, phart010 said:

I have a Robot named Fight! and have played it extensively. I have really tried getting into it but is actually very frustrating. I you die, you lose all of your progress, items, and you can’t even backtrack because the map totally changes every time you die.

Honestly, I do not understand how the developer ever thought this was a good idea. After playing for a few days I just decided I’m not gonna play it anymore. Seriously, I must be missing something.

They’ve basically taken what should be a good game and ruined it. I hope someone can chime in and tell me there’s a hidden setting that makes the game feel a little less hectic 

Well it's the odd one out of the ones I listed for being roguelike metroidvania; randomized runs and starting over when you die. For me this sounds like a boon, but certainly that makes it less of a candidate for good time for pure Metroidvania enjoyers. Have you played other roguevanias, like Rogue Legacy? Do you dislike them too? Just curious, maybe it's that the game is bad or it's not just your cup of tea as a genre variation. I personally liked Rogue Legacy a lot, don't think I've played other roguevanias.

Of course I can't vouch for anything I haven't played but what I listed interest me, are generally well rated and more people might like to know they exist. Oh and another one that interests me came to mind: Record of Lodoss War-Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth-

I haven't played that much of the genre but I would like to give a shout out to Aquaria, since it hasn't been mentioned yet.

Other unmentioned ones (haven't played these yet but but am interested) A Robot Named Fight!, Aggelos, Dandara: Trials of Fear Edition, Environmental Station Alpha, Iconoclasts, Kunai, Odallus: The Dark Call, OUTBUDDIES DX, Pharaoh Rebirth+, Rabi-Ribi, Rain World, Sheepo, Super Win the Game and Valdis Story: Abyssal City.

I have to give my most adrenaline inducing stamp to competitive FPS in the form of:

ClanBase Summer Cup 2004 - Medal of Honor: Allied Assault: Spearhead - Objective Realism 5v5 Bronze Match.

My clan won the bronze. We had to play our worst map against a clan that is basically the best on that map (well there were only 3 competitive official maps out of which 2 were played per match but we were really not great at that map). Lots of unconventional strategies were used and that was a very nerve wracking and exhilarating match. I tied in MVP votes but my clanmate got the MVP due to having a nickname starting with earlier alphabet. I wish ClanBase still existed, so I could still see the stats and things.