/vr/ - Retro Games

[Anonymous No.846871]

So /vr/, I've been meaning to ask the experts on this. How exactly do games become "rare"? Like in our case, Flintstones: Surprise at Dinosaur Peak for the NES. I know this was exclusive to Blockbuster in the USA, but it existed in Europe as well, and recently people found them in South America. I also read that companies had to order at least 10,000 units, so would that mean 10,000 per region, or 10,000 in total? Because either way, that's a LOT of them out there, and certainly aren't worth $2,000 complete.

It's a shame, because it's a really good game. The only way you can play this on real hardware at an affordable price would be either buying a bootlegged cart, burning this onto an MMC3 cart, or buying a PowerPak.

[Anonymous No.846884]

Usually when games don't have a ton of produced copies. I don't know any game that has been produced a ton that is considered rare.

[Anonymous No.846894]

>>846884

Lots of people mistakenly believe Earthbound is rare when it has a large amount of copies (over 100k). In this way, if you simply say something is rare enough times, people will believe you.

[Anonymous No.846905]

I'd say if something is both hard to find complete and just cart I'd call it rare. If something is just hard to find boxed but carts are plentiful, I wouldn't call the game itself rare, just a boxed copy.

[Anonymous No.846907]

Not OP but this is a good thread to ask this in: Why exactly is Earthbound so expensive? Is it rare? On the Wikipedia page it says nothing about how rare it is or why it's so expensive, so what's the reason why it's so much damn money?

[Anonymous No.846912]

Rare games have a high ratio of public demand to low supply. A game with a million copies might be worth more than a game with ten copies if it's a game no one cares about.

You can manipulate public demand to increase or decrease value, however. Convince people at large a game is valuable, it'll sell higher, and the inverse is true as well.

[Anonymous No.846926]

Do digital releases affect a games price? Will earthbound drop in price once the VC release is out?

[Anonymous No.846927]

my experience in my 15+ years of collecting, is that cart only Dinosaur Peak isn't that rare (especially as rare as it's current price indicates). however finding it CIB in excellent condition is extremely rare. a box alone in perfect condition would sell for more than the cart.

[Anonymous No.846941]

>>846907
EarthBound is not rare. People act like it is (and sellers will even claim so), but EarthBound is not rare at all - at any time throughout the year there's an average of 20 or 30 copies on eBay alone. So don't get caught up in the "rare" hype!

[Anonymous No.846945]

>>846927
I remember when I saw F2 carts for $200 on eBay. I remember when Power Blade 2 was $80, as was Bonk and Fire N Ice. I bought Little Samson and Bubble Bobble 2 for around $120 each, and managed to sell them for a little more than they were worth; I needed the money.

[Anonymous No.846947]

>>846945
Need I add, LS and BB2 had their manuals as well.

[Anonymous No.846981]

>>846945
>I needed the money.

I hear that, I've sold and restarted my collection more times than I'd like to count. I always take a huge loss when I sell to. oh well, make a penny, lose a penny iag

[Anonymous No.846995]

>>846945
I bought Fire 'n Ice for like $4 at a game shop some time in the past three years, but I've never even laid eyes on any of the other games in physical form. Feh. Glad I have an Everdrive.

[Anonymous No.847007]

>>846926

MvC2 used to garner $60 for the PS2 version, $80 for the DC version and $100 for the Xbox version. Although the DC version was the as close to arcade perfect of the three ports and was the most printed (I believe), it had a higher value than the Xbox version since few copies were printed. Since the digital release (with online), prices have been slashed in half across the board and people are still having difficulty selling them at those prices.

The reason is that the people who wanted to play the game now can, and with online to boot, so demand for these once sought after games has dropped. They have next to no collectible value; the people wanted to buy the game so they could play. Now they can play the game for $15 or even less during sales. I forsee prices on these games continuing to drop in the second hand market, except for retro stores of course. They have no problem selling it for $100 and waiting for that one sucker to come a decade down the line.

[Anonymous No.847008]

fucking resellers, man. Fucking resellers.

Pathetic, good for nothing commoners with nothing to do that sweep the flea markets and garage sales, then turn around and sell them to people who actually want them for jacked up prices.

[Anonymous No.847009]

>>847007
Man, I remember seeing a MvC on PS2 for like $50 at gamestop used RECENTLY. I never understood their pricing.

[Anonymous No.847015]

>>846981
>>846995
Though the good news is, I bought a complete copy of Zombie Nation for $100, and this game goes for almost three times that amount.

[Anonymous No.847016]

**/vr/ TROOPERS PLEASE READ**

Answer this question.

Is there anywhere online or otherwise that lists the print run of games?

Is there anything that says how many copies were actually shipped vs actual copies sold?

[Anonymous No.847018]

>>847009

Sorry, I redid the post because I noticed I wrote it backwards. I actually saw MvC2 for Xbox in a retro store a few months ago for $50, so even those guys are realizing the digital release has killed demand.

MvC2 used to garner $60 for the PS2 version, $80 for the DC version and $100 for the Xbox version. The DC version was the as close to arcade perfect of the three ports and had the most copies printed (I believe). PS2 was worth less since there was no demand for it even back then, it was always seen as the shittiest port. The Xbox version was the rarest with the fewest copies printed, so it earned the most. Since the digital release (with online), prices have been slashed in half across the board and people are still having difficulty selling them at those prices.

The reason is that the people who wanted to play the game now can, and with online to boot, so demand for these once sought after games has dropped. They have next to no collectible value; the people wanted to buy the game so they could play. Now they can play the game for $15 or even less during sales. I forsee prices on these games continuing to drop in the second hand market, except for retro stores of course. Some of them no problem selling it for $100 and waiting for that one sucker to come a decade down the line.

[Anonymous No.847024]

>>847016
There isn't anything like that as far as I'm aware. It would be a lot of information to compile. I'm sure some where you can find this info for more popular games, but not all on one site for every game.

[Anonymous No.847031]

http://2ndhandreviews.weebly.com/4/post/2013/05/rarity-among-games.html

This article is a bit long but I think it explains the reality of video game rarity quite nicely.

>>847016

This information was rarely ever released for retro games. The best way to gauge if there is a lot of a game is if there is a player's choice version, which means at least 1 mil copies were made

[Anonymous No.847029]

>>847016
until something like this happens i'm skeptical about the actual rarity and value of each game

people will pay money for good games.

people will not pay a huge amount of money for shitty rare games.

[Spellstutter !!wVq+79kUQSw No.847036]

>>847016
That kind of information is hard to come by. The best you can do is check NintendoAge to see how prevalent a game is on eBay, and get a good feel for how many copies were printed. Everything ends up on eBay eventually.

[Anonymous No.847035]

>>847024
Where was that kind of stuff even released? I'd honestly put a good chunk of my own time into compiling something like that solely because I'm tired of getting 'disproved' on rarity because I can't give legit numbers on print runs and things like that.

[Anonymous No.847038]

>>846926
No, anyone who really wants a rare game just to play it will have it on an emulator.

[Anonymous No.847047]

>>847035
Only the companies that made the games would have exact records of (roughly) how many of any given game was made/printed. Some times popular games had sales figures released because they were selling a lot, but for the most part, you're not going to get hard numbers very easily.

[Anonymous No.847052]

>>847036

This is dumb, but what can I expect from a reseller? Seeing prevalence on ebay is going to give you a lot of 'double counting' since it's fair to say that the same copy will get sold on ebay more than once. Things exchange hands and will show up again and again. Especially now in today's market when everyone is trying to flip their games for profit. Also sites like that only check for completed listings, not ones that fail to sell.

[Anonymous No.847070]

>>846926
I doubt it. The VC is an emulator, and EB emulates fine on Snes9x.

[Anonymous No.847067]

>>846907
It is slightly uncommon, but resellers target it so hard that at this point that ebay is flooded with copies of it, all of which are constantly getting bought and put up at a higher price.

[Anonymous No.847072]

>>847070
That's pretty obvious. Some people don't think of it as an emulator though or don't emulate because "It's illegal"

[Spellstutter !!wVq+79kUQSw No.847071]

>>847052
It's dumb but at least it's some kind of information that's tracked.

[Anonymous No.847340]

>>846871
A lot of different reasons combined. Honestly at this point I'd consider any NES game that is complete in box and in good condition is a good find. Even crap like sports games or mario bros would be uncommon.
Easiest answer on NES games is like a lot of people said, short production run. Obviously Flintstones isn't going to sell like Mario, add to that it was a store exclusive here and it gets worse.
There's a lot of superficial reasons too, mostly been pointed out already. Fucking resellers drive up the price of games dramatically. If a shitload of people simultaneously try to cash in on vintage games because they're "worth money" then the price gets bloated. Look at TMNT Tourney fighters. I bought it in the early 2000s for maybe 10-15 bucks and apparently it's not a $90 game loose. Most likely form neckbeard resellers trying to profit from renewed interest in TMNT.
It's total bullshit but until there's a solution for games other than resellers on ebay/CL/whatever that's what it's going to be. A lot of people don't have local shops for collectible shit, let alone vintage vidya and/or the ones they do have jack up the price which only adds insult to injury because it gives the impression that what they charge is fair market value on games.
Recent cultural shit. A bunch of hipster faggots have decided recently that retro is cool and hip and have been buying stuff up, further inflating prices. Nerd blackface shows like Big Bang Theory make being nerdy 'cool' and it's obvious nerds play vintage games! That and the recent boom of reseller focused shows like Pawn Stars/American Pickers/Storage Wars/ect have people convinced that their random trash in the basement is a goldmine. (This is also why flea markets and yard sales have been dead in the water for the last couple years).

Shit like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95eUhuR8_ps
I don't know who writes this show, but I caught this episode randomly and my sides were on the far side of jupiter.

[Anonymous No.847343]

>>847340
Protip:

That guy killed himself a few weeks ago over a possession charge.

[Anonymous No.847380]

>>847340
I can't wait until the bubble bursts, so that I can get those rare games like Flintstones 2 and Little Samson for a good price.

[Anonymous No.847428]

>>847343
Making that relevant how?

[Anonymous No.847453]

>>847380
You and the rest of us. Games like that are never going to come down, or down much likely. But we'll at least be able to build/rebuild/fill out collections with games that are in that "I want it but I'm not paying $20-$30 for a 20-30 year old game that barely pushes the category of 'uncommon' " category.

[Anonymous No.847496]

>>846907
Because for some reason, people started playing it, and a lot of them went OMG GIYGAS SO DEEP YOU CANNOT GRASP THE TRUE FORM over sites like Youtube. So, it started being cool and trendy.

Not to mention, because the game wasn't really popular at the time, a lot of people didn't know about it until now. So eBay sellers could advertise it as OMG RARE SNES GAME and ignorant people bought that.

[Anonymous No.847552]

>>847340
>NES-001 IT'S THE FIRST MODEL EVER PRODUCED OMG
>gets told the truth about the value
>BUT MUH ONRAIN AUCTIONS
>gets told that sort of thing does not really happen often
>THIS GUY'S A FAKE, EVERYTHING ABOUT HIM IS A FAKE

And these guys get paid how much to make these shows? Did he even bother researching? Hell, did he even bother cleaning that NES before going to sell it?

[Anonymous No.847916]

>>847552
Yeah it wouldn't be half as funny without the end part. Uh....no owns a shop and likely has bought several dozen if not hundred NES systems. If there was an NES 001 by nature wouldn't that mean there's only ONE? Lol omg, got me laughing again about this.

[Anonymous No.847958]

>>847552
The guy saying the "fake" stuff was actually talking about the guy who found the NES. He doesn't show up in every episode, and nobody else really likes him.

[Anonymous No.851413]

>>847029
>people will not pay a huge amount of money for shitty rare games.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultima:_Escape_from_Mt._Drash

[Anonymous No.851419]

>>847552
>>847958
The guy you are talking about actually committed suicide because he had pending drug charges. http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv-movies/storage-wars-star-mark-balelo-apparent-suicide-report-article-1.1261894

[Anonymous No.851486]

>>847340
NES-000001 guize this is rare deeessss is furst nuntendoo dee esss evar built gaize 13000$ on jewbay gaize

[Anonymous No.853024]

>>851419

Shit dude. I didn't know he actually killed himself, I thought those jokes were just jokes

[Anonymous No.853436]

>>847340
Isn't the auction he was referring to was the one where there was a copy of stadium events in it or something? I remember reading about an auction like that a while back.

Also:
>first nintendo DS released
i cried

[Anonymous No.853445]

>>847340
Anonymous 06/29/13(Sat)14:00 No.853436
>>847340
Isn't the auction he was referring to was the one where there was a copy of stadium events in it or something? I remember reading about an auction like that a while back.

Also:
>first nintendo DS released
i cried