WATA load of...

[waltzoid]

First things first: I'm not a major follower of the video game collectibles/auctions market. The most exposure I've had to it was the occasional mention of shady eBay sellers on Pat Contri's "Completely Unnecessary Podcast" a few years ago. I don't know if he's still working on that, but I think this article I read from Nintendo Life about a recent Sonic the Hedgehog auction might be right at home in that category.

The very idea of Sonic the Hedgehog, one of the most common Sega Genesis games of the early '90s, selling for anything higher than $100, much less six figures ($400,000 for a mint copy of Sonic? $1.5 million for a sealed Super Mario 64?!), is completely laughable to me. And when you factor in the possibility of the market for these "WATA-certified" auctions being goosed by employees running the auctions and grading systems, that's when you really start to see raised eyebrows.

Personally, I think I'll stick to the bargain bins and flea markets to get my rare/uncommon game fix, regardless of their alleged condition.

(Sources for all articles: Nintendo Life)

Comments

[sarajayechan]

Seriously? Vintage stuff can be worth a buttload of money, but that's pushing it.

[waltzoid]

I think the biggest folly about game collection/speculation (again, strictly speaking from an outsider's perspective) is the belief that "old = rare = worth lots of $$$". The Atari 2600 and NES are especially susceptible to this considering their impact on gaming as a whole.

Games like Super Mario Bros. or Ms. Pac-Man were everywhere when you and I were kids. I'll bet at least 1 in 4 retro gamers had at least heard of those games, if not watched someone at a friend's house play them. No one was starving for "more Mario" back in the day. And with almost every modern Nintendo console offering Mario Classic in some form, this reeks of a misguided attempt to create the impression of rarity that never existed.

[sarajayechan]

I didn't think of that! But it's a good point, old doesn't always mean rare. I remember having a little trouble finding Super Mario for the NES at one point but I DID find it, and it was pretty cheap.

On the flipside, I went through my old American Girl stuff and looked online to see what was worth money, and anything from the pre-Mattel era is considered worth paying hundreds of dollars for. IMO this makes sense because it's more "this was made by the original creator" than "it's old".

[waltzoid]

The standalone Super Mario Bros. carts weren't as easy for me to find. My NES was bundled with a cart that had SMB and Duck Hunt on it. A few years later, Nintendo had a set that also came with World Class Track Meet. My cousin owned it, but we were never allowed to play it because the Power Pad was too noisy.

[pan2000]

Holy shit. And then there are emulators where people play these for free...

But even from a collectable standpoint, I think there are much cheaper solutions for games you can find everywhere.