rarity .. availability .... prices ... thoughts

jahfish · August 4, 2002

i guess the late events on the worldwide market and the lack of cash which seems to spead just everywhere makes a lot of people sell stuff .... plus this years anniversary ads up a hype around our beloved system

i think it is clear that in the last six months, a lot of people started selling their collections for financial reasons, plus the "atari-hype" more took over the sellers than the buyers. i mean that a lot of people heard about "a" hype comming soon, and all started selling stuff .... this has reduced the costs for many items .... on the other side there is more collectors appearing every day ...

so generally i would say that:

a) the demand for atari items has raised, though this takes affect on more common items (like pitfall, q-bert, pac man and space invaders) or the "well known rarities" (actually just a rarity of 4-5 that will sell for 5-10 US$ most of the time) than on really rare carts

b) a lot more rare carts pop up, because sellers think it's the right time to make good cash on the rare games after seeing one ending for high $$$.

often they are wrong and the items end for half of what they had hoped ...

c) there's so many atari auctions now (ebay.de 1997-2000: 20 pages a week --- ebay 2002: 50-80 pages, in usa even waaaay more stuff) that people start to have more luck on picking things cheap, because chance to miss good auctions are way bigger now for the majority that won't spend half a day going through the listing ... here, patience is your best friend: you'll find nearly everything cheap if you are patient enough. ok, exept for the really rare or unique stuff ..... don't wait for air raid, grab it immediately

d) we might start to split up availability and rarity .... these two factors sometimes differ a lot, so it might be usefull to explain that the rarity and the price are not always connected. for example the compumate. since it was listed loose for 80$ in the DP and a few boxed ones ended 50-150 US$ boxed, a lot of people started pulling out their own ones and also selling them on ebay ... there was a sudden rush .... and of course the prices fell down .... even a lot in the last months. you could get a boxed one for half the DP list price for a loose one ...

and we get to the final point: more demand, more offer ... the result is that there's a lot of stuff listed and sold, and it's the occasion, not to complain about lowering prices/values of your items, but to make your sets complete and raise the value again

i'm sure a lot of people are very happy about the atari boom and that they could finish their sets for certain compoanies, now having every title in box with instructions.

StanJr · August 4, 2002

On the flip side, therea also seem to be a lot more collectors out there gobbling up those extra carts. A few years ago, before I got back in, I'd go to flea markets looking for Star Wars junk and see a dozen or so atari games at each of the booths that sold such things. Now, if I go to the Flea Market for atari stuff, I am greeted with tumbleweeds.

There is as much a boom in atari collectors as there is sellers, so the availability is kind of being met by the demand. That's why I can't find a pitfall or other moderately rare game around here, either a collector has snatched it or some ebay profiteering weasel has snagged it. In a small market like mine, competition is a killer, especially when the amount of carts available is not increasing that much. And the promise of ebay profits is only spurring the growth of more sellers.

Times are still tough, the community is growing, but like everything else, give it a few years and we will be in the middle of a decline.

The atari boom is no surprise with the recent revival of MANY 80's franchises, GI Joe, He-man, Battle of the Planets, Thundercats. But like these other things, the market will flood with the stuff, then the bloom will fall off the rose, the best will still be left standing. Its like any other fad.

I'm focusing on getting my NES collection filled while I wait out the boom. In that field its a buyer's market right now.