(I didn't know where to put this topic so I put it in a popular forum.)
Dear Atari Age,
I would like to see a conditions guide made for us video game collectors. I used to collect comic books and am used to this when evaluating collectables. Apparently video games are too new to have an official price guide but a conditions guide could help not only in buying and selling more accurately, but to bring a price guide sooner. A conditions guide could also include manuals and boxes.
If I were to make a conditions guide I would make a mint loose cart the default value, say #1. I would then deduct all imperfections in three categories: Working, cart condition, and label condition.
Example: A cart with no deductions is worth 1 or 100% the default. If it doesn't work and the cart has writing, then I would deduct a set amount of numbers, say 5 for not working and 2 for writing. So the carts value is -7. Having a manual would add 2 to the value, and a box another 2 for a total value of -3. Each number would represent incriments of 10% from mint value so the game is worth 70% the mint value we give it.
Most of my games are near mint and working, but a few have torn labels and I don't know what to think of them. If I could put a number to it...
thanks for reading,
n8mac