When banking on nostalgia, how does a company decide what games to pull from the vault? If you're Capcom, one way is to scout eBay to see for what games fans are willing to fork over mad cash to add to their collections. Capcom's John Diamonon tells MTV Multiplayer: "Sometimes we see games on eBay, and that's how you see what games people are willing to spend $80 on."

Of course, this isn't the only tool Capcom uses, else we'd all be playing Marvel vs. Capcom 2 HD Remix (drool). "It's certainly not the only thing we do," he added. "But sometimes we look there to assess the market value of a game." It's encouraging to see Capcom keeping its fingers on the pulse of the community, giving us hope that maybe someday Cannon Spike will get some love as well.

Video game collectors have just been given a golden opportunity (and another thorn in their significant others' side). Nintendo of Canada is cleaning out their warehouse and is auctioning their collection of brand new, sealed retro games, with all proceeds going to United Way charity. The auctions, totaling 421 games in 24 different auctions, break down as follows:

• 70 NES games over 4 lots
• 169 SNES games over 13 lots
• 182 GameBoy games over 7 lots

As of this writing, the highest bid in any auctions is US $1,013 for a collection of NES games that includes Mario's Time Machine, Dragon Warrior IV, The Great Waldo Search and – this is the big draw, folks – George Foreman's KO Boxing. There's some great games in the other lots, too, with Addams Family and Lost Vikings activating the most synapses in our nostalgic minds.

Joystiq got in touch with Nintendo of Canada to confirm the auction is legit, so what are you waiting for? Bidding for all lots ends June 5.

Codemasters and in-game ad firm Engage have announced that the upcoming Race Driver: GRID will feature integration with the eBay Motors marketplace, allowing players to buy and sell in-game vehicles in a "realistic setting." GRID's love affair with eBay doesn't stop there, with the online auction house also sponsoring a race series in the game called "The eBay Motor Muscle Series," allowing players to the race the eBay Motors Mustang GTR concept car in downtown San Francisco, Long Beach, Washington D.C. and Detroit.

Codemasters describes the inclusion of the eBay Motors marketplace as an "essential element" and "a revolving plot point" in GRID which players will use to "continually upgrade or swap out vehicles," though whether or not sniping auctions out from under other drivers will be included remains to be seen.

What's VGA, you ask? No, it's not Spike's Video Game Awards. It's the Video Game Authority, a group that issues grades based on the condition of old video games, in a manner similar to action figures and trading cards. After paying a fee, gamers send in their beloved collectibles, which are graded and sealed in tamper-evident acrylic cases, marked with the official hologram of the organization. The first of these VGA-graded items are currently up for auction on eBay.

Currently available are near-mint copies of Super Mario Bros. 3, Final Fantasy, Metal Gear and others, all in the 75-85 grade range. Final Fantasy is notably already up over $200, and Super Mario Bros. 3 isn't far behind. If nothing else, those NES games look damn sexy in those plastic cases.

Read - First VGA Graded Games Hit eBay [GameSniped]
Read - BigHedToyz [eBay]

All right, here's the situation: You're staging an NES-themed musical (off-Broadway) and the big finale requires a shiny, new Power Glove for all 40 members of the chorus line. You already have access to one unopened Glove that your grandmother gave you as a present in 1995 (way after it was a hot-ticket item), but you need the other 39 before the end of the month or the opening night of your show will be ruined!

This is the only situation that we could think of to justify anyone bidding on the lot of 39 sealed, Japanese Power Gloves that recently showed up as a bulk lot on eBay. Apparently we're not imaginative enough, though, because the Australia-based auction already has four bids with a high offer of AU$90.88 (not including the hundreds of dollars in shipping costs). Maybe we're just not "bad" enough to realize the economic and cultural potential of owning what is most likely the world's largest collection of sealed Power Gloves in one place. So we leave it as an open question to our commenters: What would you do with 39 Power Gloves?

[Via GameSniped]

Having sported a host of unique games and out-of-the-box online connectivity way back in 1999, the ill-fated Sega Dreamcast is unsurprisingly placed on many a gamer's pedestal. Of course, such praise is purely figurative and easily topped by the actual pedestal of sorts found in a Dreamcast demo unit. No longer standing proudly in a store, just such a full-sized stand (complete with two controllers and region-free console) is now was up for grabs in an eBay auction.

You'll need a van to do the grabbing, mind you, as seller "no_effects84" is only entertaining pick-ups from his Leicestershire home in the UK. If you're in the area and have at least £230 ($456) to spare, the stand should make for an excellent conversation piece in your living room -- more so if you have Seaman running on it. Heck, the only thing holding us back is the bidding war with UK Resistance that's sure to ensue.

Update: It has since been sold for £300!

[Via Engadget]

We apologize for the crummy picture -- if you can find a better image depicting Gamma Attack, an Atari 2600 game which is apparently in smaller numbers than los Chupacabras, then we'd like to see it. According to eBay seller Wyatticog, there's less than 20 of this particular cart in existence, which may or may not justify his asking price for the game -- a cool half mil.

We don't doubt that the game is rare, but $500k is a ton of loot. With that kind of expendable income, we could buy a small island, a Crysis-ready PC, or 8,000 video games that are actually worth playing. Unless there's some eccentric millionaire out there with an uncontrollable boner for games from the President Carter era, we doubt this one will fly off eBay's virtual shelves.

Obviously, owning games on the Wii Virtual Console is a lot more convenient than having dozens of cartridges for a variety of classic systems laying around the house. But does it make fiscal sense as well as organizational sense? To find out, the folks at Vintage Computing & Gaming compared the price of current Virtual Console selections to the going rate for the same classic carts on eBay.

The results, unsurprisingly, showed an average savings of about 50 percent over the eBay price across the VC library. Sure, you're paying a few extra dollars for ultra-common clunkers like Double Dribble, but you're saving nearly $200 on ultra-rare games like Bonk 3: Bonk's Big Adventure. In fact, Turbo-Grafx fans can save roughly 75% buying their library on the Wii rather than eBay.

Of course, as VC&G points out, games bought for the Virtual Console have functionally zero resale value, so those interested in collectability should shell out the extra money. Those interested in actually playing the games, however ...

So, you think your classic gaming collection is pretty complete, huh? You think your unopened Vectrex and mint-condition Fairchild Channel F make you a true collector, do ya? Trust us, your collection means nothing unless and until you own your own Entex Adventure Vision.

Released for about two seconds back in 1982 (only about 10,000 were produced), the LED-based tabletop system is currently being sold on eBay complete with all four available games for a "Buy it Now" price of $5500. Amazingly, the auction has been up for nearly three days with no buyers, seemingly showing that people would rather put a down payment on a car than play a monochrome, 150x40 resolution version of Defender. There's no accounting for taste, we suppose ...

[Thanks, Steven R.]

We try not to highlight eBay auctions unless they're absolutely ridiculous, and this one takes the (lying) cake. That broken potato chip is being auctioned off as Pac Man, and of course someone has placed a bid for it to the tune of $100. Are the winning bidder and auction holder co-conspirators? We really, really hope so. (Thanks, Brian) Check out the highlights for today:

Joystiquery
DS Fanboy Lite: Jan. 6 - Jan. 11
Joystiq Podcast 033 - CES 2008 edition
Today's crossover video: Soul Calibur Star Wars

News
PSN Thursday: Folklore keeps telling tales, demo Stardust in HD
Assassin's Creed DS is 'Altair's Chronicles,' a prequel
SCi pulls out of buyout talks, stock plunges following Tomb Raider delay
Alone in the Dark delayed until September
Jaffe comes out for a unified game console standard
Wal-Mart 'ends' $20 Smash Bros. Brawl pre-orders
Nintendo, Sony sued for alleged patent infringement
Metal Gear Solid 4 in 'last push' for Q2 release
Resistance 2 to feature 60-player online, 8-player co-op, 2 campaigns
Kane & Lynch sells a million copies; [obligatory reviewer firing joke goes here]
Blue Dragon DS delayed indefinitely
Apollo Justice doesn't object to Feb. 12 release

Rumors & Speculation
PS3 could get downloadable Sony Pictures Television content in DivX format
Analyst: PS3 production costs dropped by 50% in a year

Culture & Community
Warning: You've got to read to play Harvey Birdman
Turn real drums into a Rock Band drum controller
EGM editor Dan Hsu talks about 'blackball' editorial
Nyko's wireless Wii nunchuk wins CNET's CES gaming award

In case the recent video of Buzz Aldrin snuggling in zero gravity with a guy in a Mario costume wasn't enough proof, here's another piece of evidence that proves, given enough time, the house always wins. The Gamecube belonging to one Gary Coleman, star of the small screen, is now up for grabs on eBay. Yeah, the GameCube, the same system you can get for a song and an egg salad sandwich at your local GameStop.

Of course, this listing doesn't just teach us a valuable lesson about life. We also learn that at one point, Gary Coleman purchased Robots. So, you know, maybe getting rid of his GameCube was for the best.

[Thanks, Dustin]

Update 2: As many commenters have figured out, and the seller has now confirmed, the box that was sold includes a demo version of the game that has a limited song list. The demo unit has been relisted with the corrected information.

Update: Seems the auctioneer has since halted bidding on the item. We're trying to find out what's going on.

It seems that not every Best Buy manager knows exactly what to do with those demo units that are beginning to seep into the stores. A shopper at a Marina, CA Best Buy was shocked to see a boxed copy of the Xbox 360 edition of the game sitting among the Guitar Hero III boxes. He was even more surprised when the game rang up for $180 at the register. He's put the spoils of his trip on eBay (relisted here) complete with multiple confirmation pictures that include the receipt and the seller's eBay username (plus one, above, with his cat).

We're not sure this eBay auction will stay up, what with street dates and eBay's sometimes liberal cancellation policy being what they are. Still, if you have some extra cash lying around and just can't wait until Nov. 20 to start rocking, it's worth a try.

[Thanks Thomas]

[Via Megatonik. Thanks, Zizzy]

We really wish this wasn't an eBay auction item, but it's still incredibly cool nonetheless -- and 15% of the final sale goes to Child's Play, so we don't feel that guilty featuring it. Anyway, this is an actual modded PSP which, beyond the accoutrements, was painted in an "18-step process" and then tarnished to match Kratos' armor. Currently the system is up to $590 so it's inching to the combined cost of four PSPs; but it's the labor, detail and charity aspect that make it a nice deal.

Beyond the paint job, the unit also features red LEDs in the shoulder buttons which stay lit through playing and charging time. The modder says he used Sony's premium rechargeable power pack so the accent lighting didn't hurt the battery life. Beyond that there's a bunch of hand sculpted elements so that it fits "comfortably in the hands." It also comes with a second faceplate which mimics Kratos' tattoos. Certainly a nice piece of art and an obvious, albeit nerdy, conversation piece.

[Via PSP Fanboy]

Got $5,000 burning a hole in your pocket? That's roughly what it will take to open bidding on the mother of all Sega Saturn collections on eBay right now. Besides 256 games from all three regions, including rarities like Radiant Silvergun and Panzer Dragoon Saga, the auction includes three actual consoles (including a white one that can play burned games and VCDs), six controllers, memory cards, light guns, multitaps, a steering wheel and even a mouse. That's a lot of defunct Sega goodness right there.

If you're still balking at the price, consider that the winning bid includes free shipping to the U.S. from Australia. Because really, if you're gonna spend thousands of dollars on a classic system collection, the shipping is what will put you over the edge of reasonable expenditure.