Retro Video Gamer

I just watched this.  This is one ridiculous sale!  $870,000 for a sealed Legend of Zelda! 


Super Mario 64 for $1.56 Million!

Absolutely insane. Either someone has way too much money or they're just trying to manipulate the market.

I'm guessing the former!

Great article here talking about all of these huge sales.

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/report-alleges-auction-and-grading-fraud-is-behind-recent-surge-in-retro-game-prices/

It all seemed a little too fishy to me so I can't say I'm surprised.



Edit: this twitter thread is a great read too! https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/1429869892552044547

Fascinating.  it really seems rather unusual for games to sell for that much money.  There's a 50 minute video about this whole thing in that article.  I've saved it to watch it later. 

Yeah it's pretty crazy alright. I watched part of the video but I have to finish it still.

I watched the whole thing last night (more like listened to it while doing other stuff) and I thought it was both fascinating and disgusting that people do this.  Greed!!!!

Just finished watching it and yeah it's pretty bad. Some of these guys have been doing this for decades!

I know!  They are just experts at this crap!

Update:

QuoteBREAKING NEWS: National Video Game Scandal Deepens As Purchaser of Historic Super Mario Bros. Game Is Revealed to Be Co-Founder of Company That Graded It and Set Its Value

https://sethabramson.substack.com/p/breaking-news-national-video-game?justPublished=true

I think the jig is up for these guys lol.

That is quite an article!  This really needs to end.  It is absurd what they've done and just plain wrong.

I still don't know how to feel about collectable sales.  More than a few titles I've developed have sold for more than the cost of a small production run.  You barely break even as a homebrew publisher as it is then you see a single copy of your game sold for $200+ dollars..

What is a bit tiresome for me is that:

1) for me the purpose of the games are enjoyment and they aren't about money
2) often times the majority of discussion in FB and other forums are much less talking about game play and the game itself, but instead "how much is it worth" and "what are they going for/how much can I profit from it?" The answer to the first question, is "what is it worth to you?" Because that is what it is worth. And when someone finds games at a yard sale and then posts "how much are these selling for? The answer is: how much did you buy them for? Because that is what they are going for. If the person really intended to ask, "what is the maximum amount of money I can extract from someone by flipping this game?", I think that person should collect stamps or something instead as they take up a lot less room and wouldn't alter the game playing landscape.

I enjoy this forum because people here truly like games and have a lot of interesting information and discussions, including this thread.

You're right, @ArcadeAction .  That seems to be what the talk is about with many games. I guess it has to do with a collector mindset more than a gamer mindset.  I do agree with you that games are meant to be enjoyed. 

Sealed games are not for me but I can see the attraction. It's a natural progression from coins, stamps et al. Anything that has a function but may also have an attractive design aspect to it is ripe for collecting. There's the historical aspect of it too.

But yeah - not for me.  I am a player collector so there are people who think I'm stupid paying money for physical games when I can emulate but I like owning & playing and having what I have in good condition with manual etc.  But no matter how expensive my games are, I like taking them off the shelf, taking them out of the case and putting them into a console, picking up the controller and playing them on an old CRT. It just gives me pleasure and I can't analyse why.