Super optimistic sales

[Joshihatsumitsu]

As a collector of games old and new, rare and common, it's only natural that this fool and his money would part.

Just recently I was hunting down a PAL version of Dragon Quest VIII for the PS2, a game I have always wanted but never really got around too, and I managed to find a secondhand copy, in pretty near-mint condition, with the manual and all the other things included for a reasonable $35 AUD.

However, in this hunt, I came across an eBay listing that was offering a brand new, never-been-opened, mint condition, PAL version of Dragon Quest VIII for the PS2. And the price: $2500 AUD.

There was nothing special about it; just a regular PAL copy of a PS2 game. Not a special edition. Not limited release. $2500. Australian dollars. You can convert if you feel the need, but you get the idea.

Other games this particular seller had: Persona 4 - PS2 for $1500. The very recently released SNES mini - $250, perhaps the closest to reasonably priced.

As someone who collects Neo Geo games, arcade boards, MVS, etc, etc, no Playstation 2 game is worth $2500. Not by a long shot. Not even close. An AES copy of Garou: Mark of the Wolves on average cost well north of $1000, even if it was in crappy condition. A PCB of Tatsujin costs less than that, and is considerably more rare than Dragon Quest VIII. It's just something that makes me laugh: I don't think I will ever develop the confidence to be so audacious in my life!

Which brings me to the obvious community question: what are some of the more "optimistically" priced games or gaming paraphernalia that you have personally come across, whether it be vintage or contemporary?

[Suits]

Loads, I come across a lot of what I feel to be overpriced stuff.

However, the market is a rollercoaster. Stuff tends to shoot up and out of control almost at random sometimes. Then stuff tends to climb due to obvious reasons, like re-releases or re-masters.

Hardly reaching the echelons of prices that you’re talking about but recently a few of the Original Xbox games have doubled in price due to the impending backwards compatibility program coming to the Xbox One affecting the desirability of the original games like Crimson Skies. These are the sort of fair, market increases I think are fascinating and faddy.

I find as a collector it’s trying to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to platforms in trend. Over the last year or so GameCube bits have seen a steady and constant increase, with a few titles reaching over the £100 mark now and becoming much harder to find copies of as they are falling onto the shelves of collectors.

Touching on your eBay mate, it’s a bit of a common tact amongst collectors here in the UK to draw attention to themselves or self-publicise their collections to put up massive, crazy auctions like that. Generally, they have no intention of selling the said item but it draws attention to them in the collecting community to see their items linked on Twitter or in posts on forums. Internet points if you like.

I love it. I love it all .

[Flabyo]

There are several Megadrive games I really want to get for my collection that are always the wrong side of what I'm (currently) willing to pay. None of them are super extortionate, just that they're in 'collector' price range rather than 'I want the cart to actually play the damn thing on my original hardware' range.

Examples:

Mega Turrican (Essentially Turrican 3, appears to have been so late a release that not many copies made it into the channel)
Castelvania Bloodlines (The MD's only Castlevania game, that seems to artificially bump the price)
Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 (the non-ultimate versions is cheap as chips, the ultimate one seems to be a lot less so)
Sunset Riders (I cannot fathom why this one seems so pricey...)

[Joshihatsumitsu]

There are several Megadrive games I really want to get for my collection that are always the wrong side of what I'm (currently) willing to pay. None of them are super extortionate, just that they're in 'collector' price range rather than 'I want the cart to actually play the damn thing on my original hardware' range.

Examples:

Mega Turrican (Essentially Turrican 3, appears to have been so late a release that not many copies made it into the channel)
Castelvania Bloodlines (The MD's only Castlevania game, that seems to artificially bump the price)
Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 (the non-ultimate versions is cheap as chips, the ultimate one seems to be a lot less so)
Sunset Riders (I cannot fathom why this one seems so pricey...)

There are some similar "collector" prices with some PC Engine titles. And like yourself, I collect to play.

The one I found most curious was Tatsujin. When I bought my arcade PCB from Surugaya in Akiba (right next door to BEEP), the price I paid was ¥‎41904. A reasonable price for that game, or at the very least, a hell of a lot cheaper than eBay.

However, there was a PC Engine version of Tatsujin also available at the same shop. And the price, at least on the same day I was there, was a bit north of ¥‎44000. Obviously, a pristine copy, but still... geez.

Which makes me wonder: why? What makes the PC Engine version so special or unique, especially over the arcade version?

[Suits]

And like yourself, I collect to play.

Not that I think you're hinting here that some people simply collect to see the number go up, or that there is anything wrong with that, per say but it's something that I'm often asked by non-gaming friends, or even by the staff at CEX sometimes when I'm handing over a Shark's Tale and Harry Potter Goblet of Fire on the GameCube for £2.50 a pop;

“Are you even going to play that ?”

The perhaps mildly interesting fact is no, I don’t seriously play everything I pick up.

The reality is that it gets to a point, where you see games you don’t have and you do just pick them up, be it at carboots, charity shops or retro gaming stores.

Originally it started out as picking up 75p GameCube games simply for the cases. I do it less now as I have a reasonable stock of official cases to replace games that arrive damaged or could be upgraded. GameCube case’s are pretty unique and often command quite a high price when bought in bundles on eBay. 75p for FIFA 2005 for a spare case is a great deal.

When it comes to actually playing them, every game gets fired up, cleaned and checked over. It’s not often I get past the first 5 minutes of some of the games. My rule (although this is seemingly changing as time goes by and the prices go up) if I pay over £10 for a game, it’s getting a good chance and me and collecting mate go by the same rule.

By doing this I’ve come across some wonderful games and silly little moments that I look back on fondly. Gauntlet Dark Legacy is one of the more recent games that have I think about and Eighteen Wheeler I actually ended up playing all the way through . I’d have never played these in any other way.

It’s a hobby that sort of came out of nowhere and I’m not aiming for a compete PAL set but it’s certainly satisfying seeing the numbers go up and walking into places and wondering if I’m going to find Kirby Air Ride for £1.

[Sinclair Gregstrum]

As an active collector (and player!) of the Sega Saturn, I have a similar love/hate relationship with the retro pricing rollercoaster as others have voiced.

Generally things follow a simple supply and demand curve (less copies = higher value, and generally that means anything realised later in a console’s life cycle has a price premium attached due to smaller print runs). But there are some random examples you stumble across – was looking for a copy of Die Hard Arcade (arcade conversion of Sega’s 3D Streets of Rage-like brawler). Not a massively rare Saturn game that at the time was going for around £30-£40, but there was this one guy selling at a ‘buy it now’ price of £249.99. I actually messaged him and asked politely ‘why the premium?’. He said it was an incredibly rare edition of the game – a reprint that came in the second generation all-plastic Saturn game case rather than the original plastic/cardboard combo that ages so horrifically. To be fair I’d never seen one before, but he seemed deadly serious that this justified the monumental price hike.

Some people just live a in dream world…

The most I’ve paid for a Saturn game is c.£90 for the likes of Shining Force 3 and Dragon Force. I’ve got quite a few that are worth that or much more such as Panzer Dragoon Saga and Burning Rangers, but I either bought them back in the 90s at regular prices or in the years that followed before the Saturn scene went quite so bonkers.

I’d love to get hold of a couple of the JRPGs that made it over to the US but not Europe thanks to Working Designs but unfortunately the likes of Magic Knight Rayearth and Albert Odyssey are just silly money. In theory I could buy them, but you have to have limits otherwise where does it end?! Then there’s the Saturn conversion of Street Fighter Zero 3 – to this day generally considered the best ever port of that game but never released outside of Japan. Sadly just goes for crackers money that I could never bring myself to stump up, despite the fact there are plenty of perfectly decent versions elsewhere.

Generally I’ve got an ‘all thriller no filler’ policy when it comes to the games, and I only buy things I genuinely want to play. For example the Saturn is famous for it’s extensive library of outstanding shmups, but I’ve only got two in my collection (Parodius and Layer Section) as by and large they’re not really my bag (I’m shit at them basically!).

[Joshihatsumitsu]

Then there’s the Saturn conversion of Street Fighter Zero 3 – to this day generally considered the best ever port of that game but never released outside of Japan. Sadly just goes for crackers money that I could never bring myself to stump up, despite the fact there are plenty of perfectly decent versions elsewhere.

I have a small Saturn collection, so I was unaware of the prices for SFZ3, and I looked them up (well, eBay research level anyway), and geez... for those prices I might skip. I've come across the price for a CPS2 version, complete with original artset, for ¥21,990 (from one of my new favourite sellers - full disclosure: I earn no money or favours by mentioning them. I wish I did, because I like money ), which is soooooooo much cheaper. Just gotta watch those suicide batteries, but that would be the only issue.

As someone who owns a Japanese Saturn (with a step-down converter), I have to ask if you too are running a similar setup? (And also mention that Batsugun is expensive, but stupid-fun, even if you suck at it!)

[Flabyo]

Wasn't there a Dremcast port of SFZ3? Or am I misremembering? I'm sure the Lionhead test team had that on near permanent rotation in their lunch break room.

[ratsoalbion]

SFZ3 did also come to DC, yes. Although iirc the Saturn version is considered a more authentic port.

Also the Japanese DC version doesn’t display colour through RGB SCART (this was rectified for the much later PAL release)!

[Sinclair Gregstrum]

As someone who owns a Japanese Saturn (with a step-down converter), I have to ask if you too are running a similar setup? (And also mention that Batsugun is expensive, but stupid-fun, even if you suck at it!)

I use a PAL Saturn that's been modded with a switchless set-up to play all regions (PAL, and both Japanese and US NTSC), and can be flicked between 50 & 60hz. All the transitions are controlled via the reset button, which you hold down to switch between modes. You know which one you're in based on the colour of the power indicator LED on top. On a regular Saturn it just glows green for 'on', but on mine it can change to other colours depending on the region mode (eg. blue for NTSC-US).

I've also got an Action Replay as back up that again lets you play all regions and doubles as a 1mb & 4mb RAM cart for games that need it.

Batsugun's always intrigued but worried about spending that kind of money when I'll probably get out of my depth fairly quickly!

SFZ3 did also come to DC, yes. Although iirc the Saturn version is considered a more authentic port.

Also the Japanese DC version doesn’t display colour through RGB SCART (this was rectified for the much later PAL release)!

Yeah the Saturn version is generally considered to be the most accurate recreation of the coin-op in terms of visuals (most detailed sprites, most frames of animation), and of course the controller is great for SF games vs the PS1 and Dreamcast pads. I believe the DC version was actually a beefed up port of the PS1 conversion, while the Saturn got a custom one all of its own that actually came out after the others. Just a shame you have to drop at least £200+ to get hold of a copy! Plus I actually prefer SFZ2 to be honest so feels silly paying that money when I've already got SFZ2 Gold at a fraction of the price!

[ratsoalbion]

Also you can get the arcade perfect trilogy (and Pocket Fighter) on PS2 for very little money.

[Sinclair Gregstrum]

You can! The problems with that, for me at least, are the pad (I'm not brilliant at Street Fighter at the best of times - a PlayStation pad just makes things worse!), and the fact I don't have a PS2.

Not insurmountable problems if I really felt like solving them, but really SFZ2 Gold is probably all the Street Fighter I'll ever need (I'm half decent at that one!).

[ratsoalbion]

The pad thing is circumnavigated for me by owning arcade sticks for all formats!

But yeah, the Saturn version of SFA2G is just incredible anyway.

[Sinclair Gregstrum]

I wish I was decent with an arcade stick which would absolutely solve that one for me! One day I've promised myself I'll make a concerted effort to improve with one, but right now I'm an average pad player who is sadly even worse with a stick!

[KSubzero1000]

I'm far from a fighting game expert, but I would imagine that the pre-PS4 DualShock controllers would be very ill-suited for the genre on account of the imput lag caused by the analog buttons. I certainly notice the difference and tend to avoid playing arcade-style twitch reaction-based games on the PS2/3 for that very reason. Does anyone else feel this way?

[Sinclair Gregstrum]

Can't say I've noticed that too much but in theory it makes sense!

For me I've never liked PlayStation pads for Street fighter because of the poor d-pad (rolling your thumb around for moves when there isn't actually a diagonal present always feels imprecise to me) and the fact that there are only 4 face buttons meaning one attack strength ends up on the shoulder buttons.

In general I'm not actually a fan of PS pads full stop. Until the Dualshock 4 they've always been pretty light and flimsy to me, and the straight alignment of the analogue sticks has just never felt right for me personally vs something like the Xbox pads.

Still, different strokes for different folks!

[ratsoalbion]

Also, at least one Street Fighter professional - Yuffy - actually uses an original PS1 pad to compete with. This boggles my mind but I’ve seen it with my own eyes.