NES collection fetching thousands on eBay
by Ludwig Kietzmann 
{ Jan 29th 2007 at 3:15PM }
What's the price of nostalgia? Well, it runs to the tune of over ten thousand dollars and largely resembles a pile of 670 NES cartridges. eBay Canada user, sonyabscott, is auctioning off an instant NES collection consisting of the system itself, all the known accessories and every single licensed, North American NES game (despite the auction's claim of "every game ever made"). At the time of writing, the auction has 82 bids and stands at $15,300.
Purchasing 670 games on the Wii's Virtual Console service would amount to $3350, though that would likely be accompanied by years of waiting and a strange desire by Nintendo to release the likes of Casino Kid and Fisher Price: I Can Remember. If you want to empty your lungs into physical NES cartridges (especially 670 of them), you'd best smash open that piggy bank and start bidding.
[Thanks izzyb412.]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Jamesonite @ Jan 29th 2007 3:34PM
I think there are a few games not on that list. I know the awful X-men NES game is missing.
Revolution @ Jan 29th 2007 3:27PM
Why would anybody want to spend that much money on a Super Nintendo 0.5? Everybody knows that it doesn't use TRUE HD!!!
Hugs and kisses,
Fred T.
moofree @ Jan 29th 2007 4:03PM
I wonder how this hit Engadget a day before Joystiq.
http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/28/every-nes-game-ever-on-ebay/
Derbeste @ Jan 29th 2007 3:32PM
So......anyone STILL think VC is overpriced?
Derbeste @ Jan 29th 2007 3:37PM
Revolution:
You forgot something...
"zOMG this doesn't even have online play! It's not TRUE fun!
kissing your butthole,
TRUTH
HappyJack @ Jan 29th 2007 3:46PM
Goddamn it... where'd I put that magic lamp?
hegemonyhog @ Jan 29th 2007 4:00PM
Seriously, I can get all these games for free on my PC. With save states.
Stupid EBay.
Revolution @ Jan 29th 2007 3:48PM
Derbeste,
LAWLZ! I'm at work and I LOL'd, you bastard!
;-)
hahahahaha. Priceless.
Derbeste @ Jan 29th 2007 3:57PM
oh...and one more thing...
For those that bother to do the math...
you will find that assuming the FINAL price is $15,300, that puts each game at $22.80.
VC is selling classic NES games for $5 (hell, even N64 games are less than half of what this guy is buying them for).
Furthermore, you don't even have to buy an NES, accessories (just use the wiimote), and you don't have to hyperventilate blowing in the old cartridges.
So I say again.....does anyone STILL think the VC is overpriced??
mr mobius @ Jan 29th 2007 3:58PM
that does put a new perspective on the VC games
wonder if any person can top that collection (ie every NES, SNES, N64, Gameboy, GB color, GBA, DS, Gamecube and Wii game ever released in a region).
Skwurl @ Jan 29th 2007 3:59PM
#1
Rotfcopterlawlzomgz.
Genius @ Jan 29th 2007 4:01PM
@#2
Yes. Its one thing to collect cartidges, and quite another to collect shit to fill up virtual space. Kind of like downloading a color scan of a Honus Wagner rookie card and trying to say its worth as much as the real thing.
Derek @ Jan 29th 2007 4:04PM
#11
Mmmmkay.
I understand where you're trying to go with that analogy, but it's a tad flawed.
That said, I still think the VC is overpriced.
Patrick @ Jan 30th 2007 7:41AM
Derbeste: Not exactly. You have to keep in mind that your $22 per cartridge figure is based on an auction that would include all kinds of rarities that will probably never show up on the VC. For a more realistic picture, just go to your neighborhood flea market. You can find tons of good stuff in the $5 or less range.
Windmill @ Jan 29th 2007 4:09PM
Does this include those super rare games, like that one about some Olympics?
Derbeste @ Jan 29th 2007 4:09PM
Genius...
Did your mom drop you on your head as a child? On purpose????
VIDEO games ARE VIRTUAL! There is NO FUCKING DIFFERENCE between putting the info on a cartridge and putting the info on a 512 MB memory stick!!!
The point is, unless you are a pirate (aka...a THIEF), you can't PLAY these games for a cheaper price that what Nintendo is currently offering on the VC.
And as for the baseball card collecters bullshit theory....have you seen how the prices of those have plummeted too? People now realize how retarded it is. This guy is retarded too for paying this much for something he will be able to get for 1/4 of the price.
droptop GP @ Jan 29th 2007 5:44PM
@ #12
I think the joystiq writers just surf other game / tech sites and report their findings here.
I rarely find any original or exclusive content on joystiq.
PhoenixJ @ Jan 29th 2007 4:11PM
He's wrong;
He doesn't have Ducktails or Startropics.
Revolution @ Jan 29th 2007 4:14PM
#16 PhoenixJ,
Am I the only one that thought Startopics kicked all ass?
kiwi @ Jan 29th 2007 4:16PM
"He doesn't have Ducktails or Startropics."
191) Duck Tales
540) StarTropics
I love gscentral.org @ Jan 29th 2007 4:20PM
Beats my collection of 200+ Gamecube titles.
dantebk @ Jan 29th 2007 4:15PM
I don't really have room for a video game collection in my apartment, but I have considered having a collection "one day"
That said, I don't want EVERY NES game ever made. I'd just want all the ones I played when I was a kid, plus all the classics and top games I never played.
Waynes World NO.
TMNT 2 The Arcade Game YES.
The Last Ninja NO.
Double Dragon II YES.
... and so on...
Genius @ Jan 29th 2007 4:16PM
And what I am saying is it costs TOO much, I could give a shit if Nintendo is offereing it. Offering it or not its too damn much. I dont get a cartridge I can bring to a friends house, I dont get a instruction manual I can read wherever I want. I dont get jack squat except some space taken up on my Wii. So YES it is overpriced considering what I get for the money. Yeah there is a difference, despite your obvious effort to justify spending $10 for a 10-15 year old game that in cart form costs less at any flea market.
AirIntake @ Jan 29th 2007 4:23PM
There is a big difference between collecting the physical cartridges vs the games themselves. A collection of physical cartridges is no different than an action figure collection, they are both on display, and not really meant to be played with. VC games are NOT the same at all. You can't display your VC games collection in your basement to friends as nerd bragging rights.
Tom @ Jan 30th 2007 9:07AM
670 games... That's a whole lot of blowing...
Tony @ Jan 29th 2007 4:30PM
t's a stupid argument to begin with. The guy with the rookie card post had the right idea.
If you're going to collect and/or trade
something, you're going to want the physical version of that item. People aren't going to be able to trade you and you'll have zero "street cred" as it were.
If I was to buy some digital version of a
comic book, I couldn't just print it out and go to a convention and expect any dealer to pay you for it. For all intents and purposes, on a market, VC downloads are entirely worthless. If you cannot understand how a tangible item is are different from a virtual
download, I'm not sure what would convince you.
As it stands, we don't even know how Nintendo is going to handle this on future systems. I'm paying $5 for NES games (some of which individually I CAN get for $2.50 shipped... I'm looking at you, Urban Champion), but I'm not
really collecting them in a normal sense. I cannot claim to have invested anything, there's nothing to sell, there's nothing to trade.
For all we know, Nintendo won't even carry them on to the next system.
An example: Let's say I spent the $7,000 to get all of these on the VC (assuming they're ever all available). Once I have them, then what? They won't accumlate any sort of value, I cannot sell them to anyone or transfer them to another person's Wii account.
If the person putting these up on eBay simply had bought digital versions of these games, he wouldn't even be able to do this auction in the first place.
Derbeste @ Jan 29th 2007 4:39PM
Ok...fine. I'll tell you guys what then...
I'll pay you each $2 in CASH to drive around and find me an original copy of the classic Zelda. I love playing that game. Does that sound worth it? How about $5? Hell..you all should be jumping at the chance to do that for me since $5 is so much for them. No? How about $22.80? That's what this ebay guy is paying for a physical cart. You all should be squeeling like girls right now to find them. I got cash here man....I'll wire right to your bank accounts. Think about all the profit you'll make after you find the flea market with it there.
Wait......Are you guys even old enough to DRIVE?
In case you haven't figured it out yet....
Convenience of having a download right to your home is a value in and of itself. That's before you even start up the game.
Anymore bright ideas?
Slaziman @ Jan 29th 2007 4:39PM
Yes he could
"Auctioning a Wii with all VC games purchased..."
Jason @ Jan 29th 2007 4:49PM
screw your VC
RockNESX v2.0
romnation.net
cash still in your wallet
suck it
MrBlank @ Jan 29th 2007 5:00PM
That much WITHOUT the boxes or manuals?!? Ha.
White Rose Duelist @ Jan 29th 2007 5:01PM
Yes, it's cheaper to steal something than to buy it. Are you folks really proud that you can pirate games?
wait in the car @ Jan 29th 2007 5:03PM
@Jason
How can I can get my computer to send a signal to the TV in my living room without running a line through the house. Also, are 100% of the roms on romnation glitch-free with no threat of virus/spyware/adware being downloaded as well?
Jason @ Jan 29th 2007 5:08PM
Dude is missing one of the hardest to find games out there. A game called Bubble Bath Babes. It had this topless chick and played alot like bust a move. Last time I checked, that game alone was worth about 400 bucks without the box. 775 with.
Intentless @ Jan 29th 2007 5:09PM
The hard copy of a game will always hold a substantially higher value than the virtual copy. It may be more convienient but saying I have the entire digital catalog of a comic book series holds no true value compared to saying I have every issue original in mint. You can't "collect" digital properties only physical. So yes you arn't a collector so the online version has more value to you but to a collector the cartridges have a higher value.
Davs @ Jan 29th 2007 5:27PM
No boxes = no thanxes
ackmondual @ Jan 29th 2007 5:21PM
I wonder how much of this stuff the seller got brand new at MSRP, at bargain, and as gifts. Would venture several guesses...
if he's an early adaptor, he's gonna come shy of breaking even. Else, if he hit up FuncoLand and cheap wins on Ebay ($12 for 3 games w/S&H included), that's some profit for him
Rubang B @ Jan 29th 2007 5:26PM
I've seen Bubble Bath Babes WITH THE BOX for only $300 at the Classic Gaming Expo. But I didn't buy it.
Rubang B @ Jan 29th 2007 5:32PM
There are 675 licensed NES games in North America. A couple aren't on Nintendo.com's master list, but they definitely have the Seal of Quality. One is Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!, which was completely replaced by the regular Punch-Out!. Also, when Nintendo was suing Tengen and ordered them to stop making licensed games, the judge ruled that they still had the license until the trial was over. So Tengen spit out 3 games really fast before they lost and got sued into oblivion. So Nintendo was pissed and pretends those games didn't happen, so they're not on Nintendo.com's master list either, but they were licensed by Nintendo according to the law, and they have the Seal of Quality on them.
So this nerd's missing 5 games.
I've got 300 NES cartridges and haven't spent $1,000. For every game that costs $20 there are 6 or 7 that cost $1 OR LESS. This auction shouldn't even be getting $5,000.
Spartan 1308 @ Jan 29th 2007 5:37PM
VC is still overpriced Derbeste. Several people have mentioned that the physical copies are more valuable than the virtual copy and that alone should be reason to give you pause, but I'll give you another reason.
Ebay bidders are stupid. Don't get me wrong, you can get some great deals. When it comes to collection auctions and some other items(like PS3s), people get out of control. They bid b/c they want to win, not b/c they actually believe they are paying a fair price. Those cartridges wouldn't sell for anything like that individually or even in small bundles of say 5 to 10 games. Ebay bidders are stupid.
AirIntake @ Jan 29th 2007 5:44PM
Just a note to Derbeste and White Rose Duelist and other like them:
There is a HUGE difference between pirating new games, and downloading ROMS. Pirating new games robs the developer of the money they require to recoup development costs, make a living, and to continue making more games. Copying a ROM does none of this. The developers have already made their money off of the game 20 years ago. In most cases with ROMS, such as VC etc, the people who originally made the game receive nothing. Sure, Nintendo and the modern owners of the IP make money, but the original development studio and the people the worked for it in 1985 make jack shit.
Splinter @ Jan 29th 2007 5:52PM
Pffft, he doesnt even have Bubble Bath Babes.
He missed quite a few of the rare ones listed here:
http://www.racketboy.com/retro/2006/09/holy-grails-of-console-game-collecting.html
Brian @ Jan 29th 2007 6:18PM
@3 - He does have X-Men.
"369) Marvel's X-Men"
BPM @ Jan 29th 2007 5:52PM
The auction...
IT'S OVER NINE THOUSAAAAAAAAND!!!
... US Dollars.
At #31 - Jason:
Bubble Bath Babes is not an officially licensed NES game.
Joe @ Jan 29th 2007 5:59PM
The value of anything is determined by those who are willing to buy it. Yes, $22.80 is way too much for most of those games in my opinion, but if some one buys the collection, then those games were worth $22.80 to that person.
Same goes for VC games. A lot of them are over priced in my opinion (pretty much all the first generation NES games except Ice Hockey), but if some one is willing to pay the price, then Soccer was actually worth $5.
And the same goes for modern games. Have you ever seen a new game that you were mildly interested in, so you decided to wait on getting until after either the price went down or a used copy became available. That because you thought that $50 was too much for that game. That's why Super Smash Bros. Melee took forever to drop in price: because so many people still thought the $50 (then finally $30 for a long while) was a fair price for the game.
I've been a quasi-collector of NES games for a few years now. I'm at about 165 games right now. And even though I think $22.80 is too much... although your math is off because there are accesories included such as ROB and the Power Glove which I would easily pay $40 for each of them without doing any research as to what the price tends to be.... Anyway, even though I think $22.80 is too much, I can see why some one might want to pay that much since it can be really hard to find some of those games, and it gets harder every day as more places that you used to be able to buy them from faze out the older use games.
JD @ Jan 29th 2007 11:21PM
"You have 10783 of 10783 known Nintendo Famicom/NES ROMS (V2.01)"
Pfft. My collection woops his collections ass, and fits on a 256MB memory stick duo to boot. First person to big 10 bucks gets it.
BPM @ Jan 29th 2007 6:17PM
Joe, I bought a R.O.B. for $20 from a local shop, and Power Glove for $15 from another place. To get the best deals on old stuff, try to find local businesses that sell used games (GameStop, etc. won't cut it). Or even pawn shops! I got three great NES games for unbelievable prices from one: Bubble Bobble for $4, Kirby's Adventure for $3.50, and River City Ransom for $2.50!
Mr Khan @ Jan 29th 2007 6:25PM
And people wonder why i refuse to sell my GameCube
I could wait 15 years, then sell it for more than i bought it... (hey, if it can happen to the Saturn, it can happen to GC, how much do rare Saturn games go for, again?)
And the only redeeming thing about the VC price is the fact that, given the space you're limited to, the price fits how much you can actually fit on there (512 MB - Wii's OS, and yes, the Disc Channel, Mii Channel, and Photo Channel DO take up space, put in a 512 MB SD card, and you have more "blocks" than you do given a clean Wii memory)
And don't give me that you can just put them on an SD card, because you can't run them from an SD card...
Now, once Nintendo gets around to adding compatibility for USB Hard Drives, when i actually have the space to splurge, then i'll be mad.
Jason @ Jan 29th 2007 7:07PM
Huh, guess you guys are right, those are only offically licensced games. Guess I need to look closer at some things. Oh well.
Of course, there are a few unlicenced games that collectors (Such as myself) wouldn't mind having. Like the Tengen version of Tetris or, like I said, Bubble Bath Babes.
At this point I think I better stop getting nerd all over the Joystiq comments.
Quick note however, if you're looking for 8-Bit NES games on the cheep, then check out http://www.vintagestock.com *plugs his employers*
The ZeroCorpse @ Jan 29th 2007 7:21PM
Ripoff for the seller. `Probably spent over $30,000 amassing this collection if purchased at MSRP. They're selling at a loss.
Figure $30 - $40 per game, multiplied by 670.
Not that cool, after all.
Goober @ Jan 29th 2007 7:30PM
#7 - First of all just because the final sale price of the auction divided by the amount of games = $22,80 in no way means that each NES game is worth that amount. Most NES games are somewhat common and are worth from pennies each (Super Mario Bros) to a few bucks each. A small minority of NES games however are rare are can be worth hundreds or thousands of dollars each to the right buyer. But by no means does this mean that each NES game is worth $20
Secondly, when a person buys a collection like this they're not doing so just to have a lot of games to play, that can be done for free with emulation. They do so because they want something authentic and physical that they can look at and hold in their hands. These are collectors items. In all honesty, playing the game itself is only a small part of the desire of owning them. While VC games allow a person to play a game it doesn't satisfy any of the real needs of a collector.
So to answer your question, yeah, I do believe that charging $5 for a virtual copy of a game that most people have paid for countless times already is just too much.