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Most crazy prices you have seen......?


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So we have all seen prices go up for a while now, it's a weird scenario right now I think where so many people think that something is valuable that it becomes way more valuable than it actually is. I like to hit up a local goodwill on my lunch. They had a model 1 nes in the case with a stack of games. I got excited cuz I don't see that anymore I figure they just sell that online now. Excitement died quick. Every piece was individually priced. $79.99 for the system, $10.99 a piece for each controller and gun, $5.99 for the rf adapter and ac adapter (they were nice enough to sell them as a set), $7.99 a piece for about 7 common games. $24.99 for Donky Kong jr., and my favorite part $24.99 for Super Mario-Duck Hunt... I actually got mad... I had to have them open the case to see the prices. As I flipped through them I told the girl "I know you don't do the prices but I got to tell you these prices are nuts". She says "yea a few people have said that". I put them back and left. I kinda wanted to buy the chords and controller's just to be a dick and make it an incomplete system. What realy gets me is the next day it was all gone. I asked the same girl about it and she said someone shortly after me was excited to buy it all. I thought those prices were insane but I guess not since someone was willing to pay it you could say that's what its worth. Next time they get one I'm sure the prices will be even more inflated. Hell I can't even blame them thats just good buisness. Now I realy want to know about the person who bought it and why they were willing to pay so much. I've been collecting for years so obviously prices were much much lower. Am I way out of touch? What have you seen like this?

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For me what really boggles my mind is the price that Shantae for the Game Boy Color has been going for on eBay for the last few years. Loose carts have been going for around $300 and I'm absolutely befuddled as to why. I know that several popular YouTube game critics have proclaimed it the rarest and best game for the Game Boy Color, but I can think of several games that are harder to find copies of plus another game from the exact same design and development team that made Shantae (using the same graphics engine and similar gameplay mechanics) that goes for all of $4.

 

The more I think about it the more it seems likely that the only reason this one particular game is selling for such insane prices is because some popular YouTube personalities said that it was rare and valuable, and people blew their commentary way out of proportion. I can't seem to find a specific video to link to the insane jump in price, but whatever happened to make the collectors market lose their minds over this one game happened between January and February of 2009; since that's when the selling prices for loose Shantae carts went from $30 to hundreds of dollars in the span of a month. For the previous 7 years that Shantae had been on the market it always sold for $30 or less, but some mysterious event in early 2009 somehow made it's value increase tenfold nearly overnight. What the heck!?

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It kind of pisses me off that this is common practice for Goodwill now days. On the flip side, I do think they pay their employees decent for what it is. That doesn't make the price gouging right though. Then again, I suppose if they don't profit from it someone will come in and just flip it, like with anything else in the market these days. I love when you check out and they have the nerve to ask if you would like to donate even more money to them since you're paying them for something they obtained for free to begin with anyways. I'm probably getting too old for my own good with my get off my lawn ways.

 

I miss the days when you could find games for $1 each, complete computers for $5-$20 and everything else in-between.

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Then again, I suppose if they don't profit from it someone will come in and just flip it, like with anything else in the market these days.

 

There is a big difference between selling stuff at a higher rate than what a reseller will pay and selling stuff for way more than market value which is what Goodwill does all the time.

 

The splitting everything up really pisses me off. WTF good is a system w/out the adapter or controller? I seen an Atari last year at good will for $79.99 I laughed at them. I do think someone bought it at the half off sticker sale after about 4 weeks later though or they shipped it to another location. Goodwill does dumbass pricing. They will price a shitty sports game at $7.99 then toss an Ocarina of Time out there for $10.

 

I still luck out once in a blue moon. A few months back I got a super minty boxed Gyromite for $16.99. Don't ask me where the dumbasses got that price from. Any other day they have the worst ps2 games priced at $9.99.

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My Goodwill seems to have flat pricing on games, I think $2.99. Every now and then I'll get lucky and it'll be marked as a DVD or CD and priced a little lower. Savers right down the street from them seem to have their flat pricing at $4.99 for games, which is way too much for lower value common games but every now and then I can score a good deal on a more expensive game.

 

I think the craziest price I saw recently was Little Samson at a PAX South booth for $1,000. But that isn't too crazy since people idolize that game so much now and that probably is a fair price for it, but it was just surprising to see a crazy price like that up close and personal instead of hearing about it on a forum. Otherwise I see the typical Craigslist resellers thinking they struck gold but there's so many these days I can't even be bothered to remember a specific incident.

 

I guess if I had to point out one part of the collector market that really takes my breath away by how expensive the items have recently become it would have to be LCD/LSI games. Whether it's Game & Watch or even just Tiger LCD games, the prices are going through the roof for some of them. I never thought those cheap ass throw away Tiger LCD games would ever be worth anything in my lifetime. If you just look up "LSI game" in an ebay search you'll be surprised at the price that some of those games can command if they're complete in box.

 

Also, I agree with Jin on Shantae, the game is severely overrated but that's nothing new for high dollar collectible games, most of them are like that. Shantae is a good game, but not $300 good, hell I'd say it's not even $30 good. A much better game is Wendy: Every Witch Way. It was built on the same engine (I think?) and it has some really fun gameplay mechanics.

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I hardly see games at the Goodwill around here. If I do it's usually some ps2 Madden games for $10. LOL, I guess that fits the question.

 

A lot of goodwills sell on their terrible auction site.

I like how a lot (all?) of their auctions get bid up weirdly high, and then pop right back up for sale just after they end.

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Also, I agree with Jin on Shantae, the game is severely overrated but that's nothing new for high dollar collectible games, most of them are like that. Shantae is a good game, but not $300 good, hell I'd say it's not even $30 good. A much better game is Wendy: Every Witch Way. It was built on the same engine (I think?) and it has some really fun gameplay mechanics.

You are correct, the WayForward team that made Shantae also made a couple other good games using the Shantae engine and Wendy: Every Witch Way was one of them. The other one that I was referring to is Sabrina the Animated Series: Zapped! Both of those games feature the same graphics / sound engine and solid platforming gameplay as Shantae, but they sell for around $16 and $4 respectively. I'd really love to know what happened between January and February of 2009 to make Shantae jump from a fairly reasonable $30 on the secondary market to an astronomical $300'ish, but so far my research hasn't turned up anything.

 

Anyway, here's hoping that one day the YouTube hype wears off and some of the inexplicably expensive "highly collectible" games out there fall back down to the more reasonable prices that they used to go for.

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Oh, I've seen my fair share. Mostly on Kijiji (Canadian Craigslist). I live rural, the local thrift shop never has anything much in the way of gaming. But here's some highlights, all from the same person on the classifieds:

 

Gameboy Advance, just the handheld and nothing else: $150

 

Super Mario World for the SNES: $200 ("SUPER RARE". Go $%^& yourself, seller.)

 

Atari 2600 with some commons and 2 joysticks: $450 ("VINTAGE AND RARE". May your crotch be infested with angry hornets.)

 

Xbox 360, Slim edition with the 120gb drive and nothing else: $250 (What the hell are you smoking, you dim-witted lump of coal.)

 

And finally, my personal favourite from that same lunatic:

 

PS1 with 2 bullshit sports games and 2 controllers: $200 (I hope that PS1 spontaneously combusts in your hands.)

Edited by TPA5
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Craziest I have ever encountered was a Gameboy Tetris cart. Not even in particularly good condition. The old lady was asking 40 Euro. When I told her that it's a really common game, she just said I am full of shit and she has seen on the internet that these old games are worth a lot. I just said "Good luck selling it" and went my way to find (not buy) more Tetris carts for 50 cents each on basically every second booth on that flea market.

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I´m not sure where to put this one. Maybe here?

 

Vectrex shrinkwrapper 3D Imager for... One million euros.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vectrex-3D-Imager-Nueva-New-RARO-RARE-/252444283362?hash=item3ac6da11e2:g:oVAAAOSwgY9XdO1d

 

 

Dang. And this guy actually has something valuable for sale. But one million? I got nothin'

 

I was cruising a local game store last week and saw Super Mario Bros. selling for $700.

 

Right next to it was a copy of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (grey cart) going for $250.

 

An actual game store- not an idiot on craigslist or at a guy at a flea market- selling things for these prices is just mean. Someone who walks in for the first time is happy to find a local game store and be around like-minded people, only to find neither games to buy or people who think logically. :(

 

 

Craziest price I've seen? I don't remember but here are two:

 

$50 + shipping for a USB with ROMs downloaded on it: "10,000 classic games! Play them all for only $50!" Crazy only because a single google search could lead you to find that every game on it is available for free. (craigslist)

 

There is this guy at my local flee market who asked me one time as I was going through a box of random stuff (all overpriced): "You got a Super Nintendo?" I say yup and he says he's got some SNES stuff in his truck. He pulls out ONE GAME: Super Mario All Stars (yellowed and faded). "Super Rare" he says. "Can't find this stuff anymore." I ask how much is it because why not. He says $45. I leave. And this was before SNES games rose in price just recently.

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There is this guy at my local flee market who asked me one time as I was going through a box of random stuff (all overpriced): "You got a Super Nintendo?" I say yup and he says he's got some SNES stuff in his truck. He pulls out ONE GAME: Super Mario All Stars (yellowed and faded). "Super Rare" he says. "Can't find this stuff anymore." I ask how much is it because why not. He says $45. I leave. And this was before SNES games rose in price just recently.

"Rare" is such an overused phrase at flea markets. Another one I like is "yes it works". Don't ever fall for that one if you have no way of testing the item.

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I was cruising a local game store last week and saw Super Mario Bros. selling for $700.

 

Right next to it was a copy of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (grey cart) going for $250.

As the Xenobladers say, what a bunch of jokers. Let's not lose our heads.

 

I guess they're counting on one twit with more money than sense to come along and pay their rent for the month. I suspect they won't be in business for long.

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I forget but once goodwill had a crumy gameboy and couple of games and they wanted like 20 or 25 or something like that. I forget but really high. And once they had an atari 2600 for 26 or something. Just the unit and no controllers or anything. They refused to budge both times. And both were different stores.

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I believe in my area at least flea markets have become the absolute worst place to buy games. One I used to frequent has an indoor area with permanent resellers whose prices were always high. Outside it is more of a rummage style where if you're early and lucky you may score a deal. I went for the first time in a while a few weeks ago. And the outside sellers were clearly picked through only copies of Maden and shit left on the inside there were more resellers then ever and their prices were also higher then ever. They were stocked to the brim. All of the games were very high end ebay prices. Most had at least 20 copies of the very common but sought after titles... Mario, Contra. I believe they buy from the outdoor vendors before open and then flip them. Many of these vendors were not really even being shopped, but had some of the most elaborate shops in the building. So I believe they are also selling their stock on ebay. I assume this activity is going on at many flea markets in the country. Its interesting because they have a monopoly on the flea market game sales. With the hoarding nature of their inventory they own a large percentage of the available games. By selling on ebay they are able to have a huge impact of the going rates of these items since most thrift stors and game stores price their items off ebay. I'm not sure just how accurate my theories are, but I find the prices these days very fascinating. Most of this stuff is actually not rare at all hundreds of thousands even millions were made. I think that there is a scenario where there is a false perception of value. When enough people have that perception of value it actually becomes the real value whether its false or not. The good news would be that if my thoughts are accurate then that would make these prices unsustainable and the bubble will pop.

Edited by Dripfree
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Unfortunately it seems some sellers us the inflated eBay prices as a yardstick. There's one seller at the Flea Market I go to that always says "it goes for X on eBay" when I ask a price of something.

Most often though he'll come right down to a decent one. Other times it's just a waiting game, a Hanimex G7000 clone that was at the market three weeks ago was $150, last week it was $60.

 

One of the Cash Converters near me has had an Atari Jr for sale for ages, trying to get $99 with one joystick. Another had a Master System 2 with no leads up for $150.

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