Intellivision White Label Variants

[silentshadow56]

I have a pretty good handle and idea of what the Intellivision white label variants are and why they exist etc., but I was looking to maybe get some pricing info on them? I know that it's not everyone's cup of tea, but there are collectors out there (like myself) that are OCD/meticulous enough to want to have all the different cartridge labels/revisions. I was actually able to stumble across INTV Funhouse which is an amazing site filled with a wealth of knowledge and after thumbing through the pages it seems the "rarest" white label variants are "Horse Racing" and "Las Vega Roulette" which just has a white label "Roulette" lazily slapped across the top. I was just curious to see if there was a rough idea on the fluctuation in their value if any at all.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[+intvsteve]

No idea about values. As to "rarity" be cautious about the comments on the site - those may reflect the author's own opinion at the time of acquiring the variant.

 

Super Series Big League Baseball (World Series Major League Baseball) is certainly really tough to get generally. Locomotion is tough, too.  I'm sure the usual round of suspects will chime in soon enough.

 

@JasonlikesINTV seeks the largest unique set of "double-labeled" carts - those white labels slapped over the originals

@Humblejack has a great list of the white label variants and the website is probably still missing entries for some of them

@cmart604 probably has all of them 12 times somewhere in his secret underground lair, if only he could find them

@Rev has probably given away or tossed out hundreds of them, just to spite cmart

@intellivotion @Spadafermo51 and @Intymike probably sent me scans 15 years ago that are still in the Outlook Express inbox on the machine I first used to start the website

[Atari_Bill]

As I understand it, Backgammon is a very difficult one to find. 

[silentshadow56]

58 minutes ago, intvsteve said:

No idea about values. As to "rarity" be cautious about the comments on the site - those may reflect the author's own opinion at the time of acquiring the variant.

 

Super Series Big League Baseball (World Series Major League Baseball) is certainly really tough to get generally. Locomotion is tough, too.  I'm sure the usual round of suspects will chime in soon enough.

 

@JasonlikesINTV seeks the largest unique set of "double-labeled" carts - those white labels slapped over the originals

@Humblejack has a great list of the white label variants and the website is probably still missing entries for some of them

@cmart604 probably has all of them 12 times somewhere in his secret underground lair, if only he could find them

@Rev has probably given away or tossed out hundreds of them, just to spite cmart

@intellivotion @Spadafermo51 and @Intymike probably sent me scans 15 years ago that are still in the Outlook Express inbox on the machine I first used to start the website

Wow, thank you! I really, really appreciate the insight as well as tagging some additional users. I'm thirsty for any and all knowledge any of the tagged people would be able to provide as I'm ALWAYS trying to learn more because I realize there is always something new too learn!

 

Thanks and hopefully some others can chime in!

[BSRSteve]

I don't really have anything to add on values except that the ones on my wantlist (in my signature) are the ones I haven't gotten yet. But I could have easily had stuff lying around that was rare "in the wild". But when I list items for sale, I will be very clear as to what manual and what label are there. 

 

My inventory list that is in my signature as well is not up to date, but if there is something there you need, let me know (especially if you have stuff I need in my wants)

[silentshadow56]

9 minutes ago, BSRSteve said:

I don't really have anything to add on values except that the ones on my wantlist (in my signature) are the ones I haven't gotten yet. But I could have easily had stuff lying around that was rare "in the wild". But when I list items for sale, I will be very clear as to what manual and what label are there. 

 

My inventory list that is in my signature as well is not up to date, but if there is something there you need, let me know (especially if you have stuff I need in my wants)

Nothing in particular that I'm looking for, but I do have a copy of Spiker if you're still looking

[+JasonlikesINTV]

Firstly, I'm assuming by white label variants you mean the Intellivision Inc games specifically, not the INTV Corp games (which can be quite rare and expensive, but aren't really variants).  I can't really speak to pricing other than that pricing for Intellivision Inc stuff isn't typically proportional to its rarity.  Most I.I. games are cheap and even the rarest (with a few exceptions) don't sell as high as you'd think.  Super Series is the priciest CIB and decently rare.  Beyond that, Backgammon is incredibly rare.  I've seen under 10 CIB and most had the common green cart label.  The white labelled Backgammon cart is probably rarer than Spiker, but likely wouldn't fetch $400-600 like Spiker has.  Not yet, at least.

 

There are others that are pretty hard to find, especially once you start looking for them ?. Here's an old, but good thread on rare I.I. games:

 

[silentshadow56]

6 minutes ago, JasonlikesINTV said:

Firstly, I'm assuming by white label variants you mean the Intellivision Inc games specifically, not the INTV Corp games (which can be quite rare and expensive, but aren't really variants).  I can't really speak to pricing other than that pricing for Intellivision Inc stuff isn't typically proportional to its rarity.  Most I.I. games are cheap and even the rarest (with a few exceptions) don't sell as high as you'd think.  Super Series is the priciest CIB and decently rare.  Beyond that, Backgammon is incredibly rare.  I've seen under 10 CIB and most had the common green cart label.  The white labelled Backgammon cart is probably rarer than Spiker, but likely wouldn't fetch $400-600 like Spiker has.  Not yet, at least.

 

There are others that are pretty hard to find, especially once you start looking for them ?. Here's an old, but good thread on rare I.I. games:

 

Now I'm not really certain at all! 

 

So Mattel sold Intellivision and then it back INTV Corp and that's when you saw the total library of games increase to 125 and that includes Spiker, correct?

 

So, that being said could you walk me through the typical iteration of releases/label template?

 

Say Roulette for example. Initially it was released under Mattel as Las Vegas Roulette. At the other end of the time line you would have Roulette l.l. 1974 USA with a cheap white label slapped over it?

[+JasonlikesINTV]

12 minutes ago, silentshadow56 said:

Now I'm not really certain at all! 

 

So Mattel sold Intellivision and then it back INTV Corp and that's when you saw the total library of games increase to 125 and that includes Spiker, correct?

 

So, that being said could you walk me through the typical iteration of releases/label template?

 

Say Roulette for example. Initially it was released under Mattel as Las Vegas Roulette. At the other end of the time line you would have Roulette l.l. 1974 USA with a cheap white label slapped over it?

Here's a decent read on the subject.

 

https://history.blueskyrangers.com/intvcorp/index.html

 

During the Intellivision Inc stock liquidation days there was a lot of nonstandardized labeling.  I believe they weren't allowed to sell anything with Mattel branding, so they printed up new cheap cart labels, manuals, and boxes.  A few of the higher selling games also got reprinted overlays with no Mattel logos, but I believe they kinda let things slide in the overlay department and didn't worry too much about the Mattel logos for most games.  As a result, there are numerous variants of cart labels and manuals as I'm sure they printed them up in multiple waves, each time changing a few details.  In some cases, where they were unloading stock of carts that already had colored labels, they just slapped a new white label over the Mattel one.  I found this pretty interesting and decided to collect these.

[silentshadow56]

@JasonlikesINTV, this us awesome! I'm loving it! Didn't realize intellivision was this nuanced!

[+cmart604]

3 hours ago, JasonlikesINTV said:

Firstly, I'm assuming by white label variants you mean the Intellivision Inc games specifically, not the INTV Corp games (which can be quite rare and expensive, but aren't really variants).  I can't really speak to pricing other than that pricing for Intellivision Inc stuff isn't typically proportional to its rarity.  Most I.I. games are cheap and even the rarest (with a few exceptions) don't sell as high as you'd think.  Super Series is the priciest CIB and decently rare.  Beyond that, Backgammon is incredibly rare.  I've seen under 10 CIB and most had the common green cart label.  The white labelled Backgammon cart is probably rarer than Spiker, but likely wouldn't fetch $400-600 like Spiker has.  Not yet, at least.

 

There are others that are pretty hard to find, especially once you start looking for them ?. Here's an old, but good thread on rare I.I. games:

 

Not sure how in the world I didn't weigh in on that old thread. What was I doing with my life??? ?

Seriously though, I concur with the others that Super Series (World Series), Backgammon and Locomotion are the rarest of the group. Amongst the sneaky rare/harder to find than you'd think they should be carts, I'd include Hockey. 

[+cmart604]

9 hours ago, silentshadow56 said:

I have a pretty good handle and idea of what the Intellivision white label variants are and why they exist etc., but I was looking to maybe get some pricing info on them? I know that it's not everyone's cup of tea, but there are collectors out there (like myself) that are OCD/meticulous enough to want to have all the different cartridge labels/revisions. I was actually able to stumble across INTV Funhouse which is an amazing site filled with a wealth of knowledge and after thumbing through the pages it seems the "rarest" white label variants are "Horse Racing" and "Las Vega Roulette" which just has a white label "Roulette" lazily slapped across the top. I was just curious to see if there was a rough idea on the fluctuation in their value if any at all.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Steve's website is both the best and worst thing that has happened to those of us that choose to go down the very dark path that is variation collecting for the Inty. ?

For a system with 125 games I'd guess I'm closing in on 1000 variations so choose your path wisely. ???

[+cmart604]

2 hours ago, JasonlikesINTV said:

Here's a decent read on the subject.

 

https://history.blueskyrangers.com/intvcorp/index.html

 

During the Intellivision Inc stock liquidation days there was a lot of nonstandardized labeling.  I believe they weren't allowed to sell anything with Mattel branding, so they printed up new cheap cart labels, manuals, and boxes.  A few of the higher selling games also got reprinted overlays with no Mattel logos, but I believe they kinda let things slide in the overlay department and didn't worry too much about the Mattel logos for most games.  As a result, there are numerous variants of cart labels and manuals as I'm sure they printed them up in multiple waves, each time changing a few details.  In some cases, where they were unloading stock of carts that already had colored labels, they just slapped a new white label over the Mattel one.  I found this pretty interesting and decided to collect these.

Sexy pic. ?

[BSRSteve]

15 minutes ago, cmart604 said:

Not sure how in the world I didn't weigh in on that old thread. What was I doing with my life??? ?

Seriously though, I concur with the others that Super Series (World Series), Backgammon and Locomotion are the rarest of the group. Amongst the sneaky rare/harder to find than you'd think they should be carts, I'd include Hockey. 

So, does Loco-Motion exist as a I.I. box?  

 

I have a Word Fun manual. Is there a cartridge (and a box)?

[+the1hatman]

3 hours ago, BSRSteve said:

So, does Loco-Motion exist as a I.I. box?  

 

I have a Word Fun manual. Is there a cartridge (and a box)?

I won an I.I. Word Fun in a lot from eBay. It was a baggie release and came with Mattel branded overlays and the original orange labeled cart. Only the manual was the black & white I.I. variant. Doesn't mean I.I. carts and boxes don't exist for it but I have never seen either and even the b&w manual is super rare. I think 4 have been found and reported on.

[+cmart604]

1 hour ago, the1hatman said:

I won an I.I. Word Fun in a lot from eBay. It was a baggie release and came with Mattel branded overlays and the original orange labeled cart. Only the manual was the black & white I.I. variant. Doesn't mean I.I. carts and boxes don't exist for it but I have never seen either and even the b&w manual is super rare. I think 4 have been found and reported on.

What Eric said. ??

[+intvsteve]

Yep... I.I. box for Locomotion has yet to be found. Same for Word Fun. I.I. Word Fun manual is one of the very toughest to find.

 

And how in the world could I forget I.I. Backgammon?

 

SNAFU is another one - though it seems the cart / manual are easier to find than the box.

[+intellivotion]

just to add my two Eurocents to the deep and exhaustive dissertation as usual...

AFAIK, the I.I. games which are orphan of one or more components (or at least they have never been seen until now) are:

 

- Checkers (existing: manual; missing/never-seen: label/cart, box and overlays)

- Word Fun (existing: manual; missing/never-seen: label/cart, box and overlays)

- Tron Solar Sailor (existing: manual; missing/never-seen: label/cart, box and overlays)

- Loco-Motion (existing: manual and label/cart; missing/never-seen: box and overlays)

- Frog Bog (existing: manual; missing/never-seen: label/cart, box and overlays)

- Tennis (existing: manual; missing/never-seen: label/cart, box and overlays)

 

As regards the rarity, I concur with everything that has already been said: SSBL Baseball, Backgammon, Loco-Motion are certainly the toughest to find, followed by Hockey, Snafu and Roulette. To talk about the white label variants (small labels, large labels, rounded corners, made in Singapore etc, etc) is another story

[+JasonlikesINTV]

I've said this before, but I.I. Sea Battle is deceptively tough to find.  And when you finally find one, it will be factory sealed.

[+JasonlikesINTV]

27 minutes ago, intellivotion said:

just to add my two Eurocents to the deep and exhaustive dissertation as usual...

AFAIK, the I.I. games which are orphan of one or more components (or at least they have never been seen until now) are:

 

- Checkers (existing: manual; missing/never-seen: label/cart, box and overlays)

- Word Fun (existing: manual; missing/never-seen: label/cart, box and overlays)

- Tron Solar Sailor (existing: manual; missing/never-seen: label/cart, box and overlays)

- Loco-Motion (existing: manual and label/cart; missing/never-seen: box and overlays)

- Frog Bog (existing: manual; missing/never-seen: label/cart, box and overlays)

- Tennis (existing: manual; missing/never-seen: label/cart, box and overlays)

That Frog Bog manual is my white whale frog...

[Intymike]

18 hours ago, intvsteve said:

and @Intymike probably sent me scans 15 years ago that are still in the Outlook Express inbox on the machine I first used to start the website

 

Ah, there it is where they landed. I will send you some new German stuff soon.  

[+Lathe26]

1 hour ago, JasonlikesINTV said:

That Frog Bog manual is my white whale frog...

Everything is on the Internet.  Case in point: whale frog

 

[silentshadow56]

So I'm on the blue sky rangers site (which is chock full of so much information so thanks to all!) and I'm finding the history section and the timeline section to not really line up properly. 

 

So 1983 Mattel Electronics starts to hemorrhage money in the first half of the year prompting them to replace management with Valeski being brought on as the Senior Vice President of Marketing. Unfortunately, he never even got the chance to make an impact as everything was already in play through the end of 1983 and after posting a 300 million dollar loss closes the doors of Mattel Electronics in January of 1984.

 

Valeski, having faith in the Intellivision brand if it's properly restructured, gathers a group of investors and purchases the Intellivision name, game rights, and inventory. It is here that Intellivision Inc. is founded, correct? Intellivision Inc. is short lived as once Valeski sold out of the preexisting stock that he purchased from Mattel he tested his theory that the market was primed for new games and released ones that were already finished, but never released. Upon that success he bought out the initial investors and restructured a final time as INTV Corporation in 1985?

 

Sorry, if above is a bit spotty as it's me just kind of piecing things together and thinking out loud, but would a simplistic timeline be appropriate as such:

 

Mattel Toys uses the brand name "Mattel Electronics" to sell it's intellivision console and games

 

Mattel Toys spins off Mattel Electronics as a separate company

 

Valeski purchases Intellivision name, game rights, existing inventory and forms Intellivision Inc.

 

Valeski buys out initial investors of Intellivision Inc. and forms INTV

 

Is the above ordering of events correct? I want to make sure I understand that and don't over complicate things before I segue way into my next question

[Intymike]

2 hours ago, JasonlikesINTV said:

I've said this before, but I.I. Sea Battle is deceptively tough to find.  And when you finally find one, it will be factory sealed.

 

This one?

[+JasonlikesINTV]

Sounds like a question for the BSRs.  Come to Portland this year and ask in person ?