Video Game Collecting & Rarity Guides and Articles

We Created a Sega 32X Page

2013-06-11T09:24:00.000-06:00

You have created a price list for all Sega 32X games.

For many years now we have been collecting prices on 32X games, but had grouped them with Sega Genesis because the Genesis is required to play 32X games. We treated it as a subsection of Genesis games with every item have 32X in the title.

Many users requested we separate the two and now we have done it.

Thank you for your steady stream of suggested features. It helps us improve the site and make it better for everyone.

E3 2013 Exclusive Skylander Figures Is Bronze Hot Dog

2013-06-10T17:23:00.001-06:00

Today Activision announced the details of the figure available exclusively at E3 2013. It is a Bronze Hot Dog.

The Chrome Spyro from E3 2012 sells for more than $150 and the 2011 variations sell for $700-750. One sold just yesterday for $721.

If you are attending E3 this year be sure to stop by the Activision booth and ask about the Bronze figure. The Skylanders Figure will probably be the most valuable swag you get at the entire show.

What Collectible Category Should PriceCharting Add Next?

2013-05-28T16:27:00.000-06:00

We are at the early stages of looking into some new collectible markets for PriceCharting to expand into. We do not have a set time frame for when this will be, but when we are ready we want to make sure we know what our users think.

Please take answer the questions below and give us your feedback.

Loading...

We've Updated the Rare Sega Saturn Game Article

2013-05-22T11:27:00.001-06:00

We've updated the rare Sega Saturn game article to show 20 games, their current prices, and what makes them so rare. The article includes some rare imports too.

Take the Saturn collector quiz:

What year were the majority of games on the list released? Hint: same year the console was discontinued.
What genre is featured on the list most often?
Which two games are the most expensive game in their series?

See if you can answer the questions then read the article to see how you did.

Xbox One: Where Nostalgia Goes to Die

2013-05-22T08:08:00.002-06:00

Do you remember finding your old Nintendo in the attic after years in storage. Hooking it up and playing all your favorite games?

Or maybe after spring break you brought your Nintendo 64 back to college and played with your buddies for hours.

Or you might have popped Final Fantasy VII into your PS1 to play through your favorite RPG.

None of these nostalagic moments in gaming will be possible with the Xbox One.

Microsoft announced the Xbox One yesterday afternoon and it has been confirmed that you will need to pay a fee to play used games and will need to verify internet connection every 24 hours.

Both of those services require Microsoft's servers to actively allow you to play the games. If the servers are not doing that you cannot play. In 10-15 years when Microsoft inevitability stops support for Xbox One, you will no longer be able to play games.

When you find the Xbox One in your attic after 25 years you will think "I remember this. Halo 6 was awesome. I should buy it and play it again." But the system won't let you play a used game because you can't pay the used game fee required for activation.

In 10 years when you bring the system to college after spring break you won't be able to play multiplayer Gears of War 5 because the servers aren't active to verify you own the game.

The Xbox One will be the first video game console - and the first consumer electronic product I can think of - with a definite death. At some point Microsoft will disable the servers and it will be useless.

Which Video Games Are Increasing in Price the Most

2013-05-20T17:28:00.001-06:00

During the 12 months video game prices have increased sharply for many consoles. The average SNES game has increased 35%. NES is up 23%. And the average N64 game is up 40%!

Games for non-Nintendo consoles have increased too, with Genesis up 14% and Saturn up 10%.

The average vintage video game has increased in price 9.5% during the last 12 months.

Are the increased prices evenly spread across games or are certain types of games increasing more than others?

For this article we looked at the price of the game to see which is increasing more expensive games or cheap games.

Before reading further, stop for a minute and ask yourself which games you think are increasing in price the most. Did you take a guess? Alright, continue reading.

Price Change of SNES Games Based upon Price in 2012

We compared the prices for every Super Nintendo game at the beginning April 2012 and the beginning of April 2013. Every game was grouped into ten categories based upon the 2012 price.

Decile 1 is the 10% of games with the lowest prices. Decile 2 is the next 10%. Onwards until Decile 10 which is the 10% of SNES games with the highest prices.

The table below shows the average price per decile in 2012. The average change in price from 2012 to 2013 and the % change.

	Avg. Price 2012	Avg. $ Change	Avg. % Change
Decile 1	$0.87	$1.01	116%
Decile 2	$1.24	$1.97	159%
Decile 3	$2.11	$1.61	76%
Decile 4	$3.13	$1.50	48%
Decile 5	$4.36	$2.30	53%
Decile 6	$5.64	$1.71	30%
Decile 7	$8.13	$2.01	25%
Decile 8	$11.46	$2.66	23%
Decile 9	$19.30	$6.37	33%
Decile 10	$92.74	$19.34	21%

As you can see the lowest priced games jumped in price by the largest percentage. The most expensive games actually increased the least, up only 21%.

Games like Populous, FIFA 96, and even Shaq Fu have increased substantially from their prices last year.

Expensive games like Harvest Moon and Lufia have increased in price quite a bit, but on a percentage basis it has not be as large a jump.

Historic CIB Prices for 100 Most Popular Games

2013-05-09T11:45:00.003-06:00

For the most popular games on our site we have gone back and reconstructed the historic prices for Complete condition games.

We used our new pricing methods to determine which historic listings were loose, complete, and sealed. And then compiled the prices every month based upon this data.

Below are a few more examples of CIB prices going back several years:

If there are any games you want to see historic CIB prices for please let us know. We can't update every single game, but we can take requests and add specific titles you want to see.

CIB Prices on PricingCart

We have also added CIB pricing as an option in our PricingCart. You can now value video game lots more accurately. If some of the items you are looking to buy come with the box and instructions you get an accurate view of what the whole package is worth.

To learn more about the PricingCart you can watch this demo video. It is available to all account holders for free so go ahead and create an account and try it out. It is the most popular feature on our site for account holders.

Buy & Sell Prices for Loose, Complete, and New Condition Games

2013-04-30T11:03:00.001-06:00

If you are a video game retailer with a paid account you see our recommended buy and sell prices for every game while you browse our site. With the addition of Complete CIB pricing, we updated our recommendations to show a buy and sell price for loose, complete, and new condition items.

The additional data makes it easy for you to know what to pay and charge for everything that comes into your store.

The data is displayed in a new layout as well which makes it easier to read and improves visibility on mobile devices.

If you want to see these prices, create an account and pay for a one-day pass for as little as $19.99. Monthly subscriptions are $49.99 and give you continuous access to the buy and sell prices while browsing the site.

Someone is Cornering the ClayFighter Sculptor's Cut Market

2013-04-29T11:32:00.000-06:00

As you can see in the chart above, Clayfighter Sculptor's Cut for N64 has jumped in price in April. After writing about the $1,100 ClayFighter Sculptor's Cut instruction manual that sold last week I decided to look into the sales a bit more to see what might be causing the price increase.

It looks like someone is trying to corner the market for Sculptor's Cut by buying a bunch of copies.

On April 21st, someone with the user name m***m and 486 feedback, bought 8 copies of ClayFighter Sculptor's Cut. That was every single copy of the game available at the time.

Here are the 9 items and their prices:
$135.00 - see it
$174.99 - see it
$189.95 - see it
$129.95 - see it
$199.99 - see it
$199.99 - see it
$180.00 - see it
$179.99 - see it

m***m also bid on one ClayFighter auction but was outbid at $222. That price is 10% more than the next highest sales price ever seen for this game.

With this buying spree the price increased from $135 in March to $176 in April. The intentions of m***m are unknown, but their actions have definitely increased the price for other collectors.

Only time will tell if this price sticks or is just a temporary spike. All the Sculptor's Cuts listed on eBay right now have starting prices of $180. Will there be any buyers?

The $1,125 Instruction Manual | ClayFighter Sculptor's Cut for N64

2013-04-26T10:25:00.002-06:00

Any game worth more than $1,100 would be very close to making our list of the most expensive video games of all time. But that much for just the instruction manual? That would be a record as far as I know.

An instruction manual for ClayFighter Sculptor's Cut recently sold for $1,125!

Why would someone pay so much for this particular instruction manual?

First of all the game is one of the more rare titles for Nintendo 64. ClayFighter Sculptor's Cut was a Blockbuster exclusive.

Anyone who rented games at Blockbuster remembers you usually received just the game in your rental box. The store would usually throw away the box and instructions. Or instructions that were included quickly got destroyed by customers. Instruction manuals for all Blockbuster exclusives are much more rare than manuals for regular games.

Interested to know how much the ClayFighter Sculptor's Cut box sells for? There is an auction for one on eBay right now with a current price of $720.

We've Updated the Rare PSP Game Article

2013-04-24T14:46:00.000-06:00

We've updated the rare PSP article with descriptions for the top rarest & most expensive titles and why they sell for a premium.

Can you guess which publisher has four titles in the top 10?
What about the genre that appears most often in the rare PSP list?

Read the PSP article and see how well you did on the PSP pop quiz.

Zelda Oracle of Ages & Oracle of Seasons Review

2013-04-23T12:24:00.001-06:00

Author: Logan Petty

Last week's Nintendo Direct had a plethora of interesting information for retro gamers. One of the biggest buzz was about the release of a 3DS sequel to The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.

With all this chatter about the new game, some of you may have overlooked the news about The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons coming to Virtual Console May 30.

A few weeks ago, I picked up a hard copy of Oracle of Ages at my local used game store for $13 (about $9 cheaper than ebay would have been). I am personally more interested in the actual games than the virtual ones, but this does open up possibilities for everyone who missed them to play them this summer.

In case you just missed out on these Game Boy Color classics, I am going to give you a brief rundown on what to expect and why they are worth playing.

The first reason they are worth playing; they are Zelda games. If that’s not quite enough to convince you, these games are unique within the Zelda franchise. They are actually meant to be played together, one after the other, with no priority on which one is played first. They use a password system that gives you passwords in one game to unlock items, upgrades, and other secrets in the other game.

Once you beat either game, you are given a password that, when entered while starting a new file on the other game, will alter dialogue and events in the game to make it into a sequel to the one you just beat.

In Oracle of Ages, Link approaches the triforce in its sacred resting place. When he does, the triforce sends him to a foreign land that needs the hero’s help. In Ages, that land is Labrynna and the oracle in danger is Nayru, the Oracle of Ages. In Seasons, Link is sent to the land of Holodrum to help Din, the Oracle of Seasons.

Whichever game you play first is up to you. Seasons’ dungeons are more combat-oriented while Age's dungeons are puzzle-oriented. The games play much like the other GameBoy Zelda game, Zelda DX. Link must go through eight dungeons while gathering essences needed to stop the villain. While the format of the two games together is unique, the game play is traditional and well designed.

If you are convinced now, the Virtual Console games will be out for America May 30. You can get them for much cheaper that way. If you are like me and would rather have the original versions of the games on physical cartridges, you can check around your local used game stores. Maybe you can find them for a good price.

If not, you can get them both for around $40 on eBay. Whichever way you decide to go, I hope you give these games a try.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Hyperstone Heist Review

2013-04-18T11:39:00.000-06:00

Author: Logan Petty

If you are an old school scholar, you have probably played or at least heard of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time, but did you know it has a cousin? The turtles had a run on the Genesis at roughly the same time. The game was subtitled The Hyperstone Heist.

I came across this game on accident while going through the rows of used games at a nearby used book store. It was three dollars, and I am a huge fan of the turtles, having grown up with Turtles in Time, so I grabbed it up. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I had stumbled across a hidden gem worth around $40 on Amazon and the cheapest eBay sellers offering it for $20.

Values aside, the thing that interested me the most was its uncanny resemblance to my childhood companion. As I looked over the box, I noticed a level that looked incredibly familiar. My first thought was Hey, that’s "Alley Cat Blues". Is this a port of Turtles in Time? At first glance, it is easy to wrongly assume that it is.

It is actually a different game with a different story. Sure, the story is just pasted over the same slides that start "Turtles in Time", and yeah, the character sprites, soundtrack, and animations are similar, but there are changes in the game. The biggest difference in the game is the level layout.

The levels are longer, divided into different stages before you face a boss. Despite longer levels, there are only half as many levels in the game as in its predecessor. This is well balanced however, because one thing the Genesis has over the SNES is the ability to make the game run faster at the cost of the vibrancy present in the Super Nintendo game. Because of this, characters and enemies move faster and the enemies are much less forgiving. Even though the game is shorter, the increased difficulty makes up for it.

I personally enjoyed the game despite my bias towards its older cousin. It was exciting for me to come across this game. It was like the day that you discovered there was a second Star Fox on the Super Nintendo. I was shocked that I had never heard of this game, yet I embraced it due to the legacy it was a part of. Though it did not feel as refined to me, that does not make it a bad game. I do not hold the view that it was just a Genesis knock-off, but as a separate game that throws back to its forbearers.

Will Earthbound on eShop Decrease Earthbound SNES Prices?

2013-04-17T09:28:00.000-06:00

At today's Nintendo Direct, Nintendo announced Earthbound would be coming to the eShop. This will be the first time Earthbound will be available outside of the Super Nintendo.

As you can see in the chart below. Resale prices for Earthbound have been increasing steadily for the last three years and sells for $200 in loose condition.

Will the virtual version of Earthbound decrease resale prices?

What happens to the price largely depends on who is buying the game and why they are buying it. Are they buying to play or buying to collect?

In 2009, Capcom released a download version of Marvel vs Capcom 2 on Xbox Live and PSN. Resale prices were cut in half within months and have never recovered.

It is evident that most people buying Marvel vs Capcom 2 were buying to play the game. They could download the game for a fraction of the current market price. The download wouldn't come with the disc, or box, or anything physical to own but if you just want to play the game that doesn't matter.

On the opposite end, a game that is being purchased buy collectors will not decrease in price even when it is readily available for download because people are willing to pay the premium for the physical cartridge.

Mega Man 5 for NES is a great example of this. It was released on June 2011 for Wii Virtual Console. Since then, loose cartridge prices for Mega Man 5 have gone up nearly 150%.

At the extremes, 100% of buyers could be purchasing to play the game or 100% could be buying to collect. In reality, the reason for a purchase falls somewhere in between. The extent of the price decrease or increase depends on where demand falls on that spectrum. Is Earthbound 80% gamers and 20% collectors, or 30% gamers and 70% collectors?

We will find out soon.

What do you think will happen to the price of Earthbound?

Kickstarter for Leaderboards and High Scores for Nintendo Competition Games

2013-04-10T15:02:00.001-06:00

Did you compete in one of Nintendo's video game tournaments from the early 90's and wish you could do it all again? Or, like me, did you miss out entirely and wish you could go back in time to compete? With a recently announced Kickstarter you might get this chance.

The project organized by Rick Bruns, a video game collector, and Byuu, the developer of an SNES emulator, will create a program that let's you compete internationally in Nintendo World Championships, Nintendo Campus Challenge 91 and 92, Nintendo PowerFest 94, Star Fox Super Weekend, and Donkey Kong Country Competition.

The program will emulate all of these games, provided you can get the ROM files somewhere, and record high scores and leaderboards.

If this sounds like the kind of project you would enjoy, go support the Kickstarter project today. They need to raise $5,000 to fund the development.

Complete (CIB) Game Prices Now on PriceCharting

2013-04-09T12:16:00.000-06:00

Almost a year ago we asked our users what features they wanted to see on the site next and overwhelmingly the results showed users wanted to see Complete CIB prices.

We are now showing Complete prices on the site!

Below is a brief description of where CIB prices can be found and a few other minor changes that CIB prices required us to make.

Main Complete CIB Price

The first change is very obvious. Between 'Used Price' and 'New Price' we have added 'Complete Price' and the volume of Complete listings.

Prices by Source

The section with prices per source has been changed to show all prices in one table. The first column is the name of the site, then 'Used', 'Complete', and 'New' columns with the most recent price at each location.

The 'See It' button brings you to the product page on that site where you can buy the game.

Completed Auctions for CIB Games

You can see all the successfully completed CIB auctions by clicking the 'Completed Auctions (CIB) tab.

CIB games are less common than game only listings. Right now that means there are fewer auctions listed, but within the next couple days we will be reclassifying all past auctions as well. In the future, this feature will show you a lot more historic sales than eBay. eBay limits their historic data to the last 30 days. As you can see in the image above, we have CIB Earthbound sales going back to 2012.

Please note the red 'X' next to each listing. If you notice an auction with an incorrect price or classified incorrectly, please click that red 'X'. It will flag the listing for manual review so we can fix the problem. This helps us keep prices as accurate as possible for all our users.

Coming Soon: CIB Prices in Historic Charts

This feature will be available by the end of the month.

CIB on the historic price charts. By default it will not be displayed, but click the grayed out CIB on the chart and you will see historic prices for this condition.

Because we just started tabulating the prices, the historic data starts now. We are looking into ways to recalculate the prices in the past based upon sales we can now classify correctly, but this might not be feasible with all products.

We hope the addition of Complete CIB prices will help you in your collecting. Please let us know what you think of the new feature in the comments below.

What Took So Long?

You might be wondering why it took a year to roll out CIB pricing. The feature required us to rewrite most of the backend for PriceCharting and develop some language processing to be able to determine when an listing is Complete.

We look at every auction title and amazon listing description to determine if the original box and manual are included with the game. This is pretty easy for people to do but fairly difficult for a computer to do.

Some people list CIB by saying "Complete" in the auction title, but sometimes they say "not Complete".

Some listings will say "With box and manual" or "w/ Box & Instructions" and sometimes "without Box + Manual".

Our system needs to correctly handle all of these, and many more variations, or the prices we show you would be incorrect. This system took a while to develop and test to make sure it was done correctly.

In order to handle this language processing and handle multiple prices, most of our backend needed to be rewritten to make it more flexible and scalable. This took a long time but it means our site is better equipped for more features in the future.

15 Rare Sports Video Games | The Most Expensive Sports Games Ever

2013-04-03T09:11:00.001-06:00

Sports video games are notorious for dropping in value really quickly. That Madden game you bought last year is probably worth 10% of what you paid and after a few years might be worth $3 if your lucky.

There are some big exceptions to this general rule. Some rare sports games sell for thousands of dollars. Below is a list of the rarest and most expensive sports video games and what makes them so valuable.

Most Valuable Sports Video Games

Stadium Events for Nintendo NES

New Price: $25,000 | Used Price: $2,200 | See Current Prices
Stadium Events is a track and field game for the Nintendo NES. Stadium Events was the second game designed for the Family Fitness mat (Athletic World was the first). But in 1987 Nintendo bought the rights from Bandai and changed the name to World Class Track Meet.

Nintendo stopped shipping Stadium Events and recalled all copies that had shipped but not all the copies were destroyed and a few ended up in customer's hands. The European version was never recalled and is much cheaper.

Spiker! Super Pro Volleyball for Intellivision

New Price: $N/A | Used Price: $1,599 | See Current Prices
Spiker Super Pro Volleyball is a volleball game for the Intellivision. You can play 2v2 or 6v6. The graphics were very advanced for the Intellivision era.

The Intellivision stopped production in 1984 and Spiker was released in 1989 and was the last game released for the system. The publisher, INTV, barely scraped the money together to publish the game at all and was unable to produce many copies.

NBA Elite 11 for Playstation 3

New Price: $2,250 | Used Price: $995 | See Current Prices
NBA Elite 11 is a NBA basketball game for Playstation 3. The game was to be published by EA Sports in 2011, but it was delayed and missed the start of the regular season. In late 2011 it was officially cancelled by EA.

Although it was never officially released, EA had shipped copies of the game to retailers and media for demo purposes. These copies show that the game is very glitchy and incomplete. Collector's aren't paying thousands of dollars to play a great basketball game, they are paying for the rarity.

Super Series Big League Baseball for Intellivision

New Price: $N/A | Used Price: $305 | See Current Prices
Super Series Baseball is for Intellivision. It was way ahead of its time with play-by-play, multiple camera angles, and picture-in-picture for runner's on base. All of this for a game released in 1982.

The exact same game was also released in 1983 as 'World Series Major League Baseball' with an official MLB license. The original 'Super Series' version from 1982 is much more valuable and harder to find.

Mountain Madness: Super Pro Skiing for Intellvision

New Price: $N/A | Used Price: $90 | See Current Prices
Mountain Madness: Super Pro Skiing was released for the Intellivision in 1988. It is an enhanced version of Skiing with 32 courses instead of just one. You could race any course as downhill or slalom and even design your own courses.

The game was released by INTV Corp, four years after Mattel shut-down the Intellivision division. By this point most Intellivision owners had stopped buying new games and almost all retail stores had stopped carrying them. Because of this the game was produced in very small quantities.

Super Copa for Super Nintendo

New Price: $2,000 | Used Price: $90 | See Current Prices
Super Copa is a soccer game for the Super Nintendo. The exact same game was originally released as Tony Meola's Sidekicks Soccer in 1993. It sold poorly as Tony Meola but not bad enough to be considered rare.

The game was rebranded as Super Copa for release outside the USA. Some collector's think the game was never officially released in the USA but it was rated by the ESRB, which only happens for games slated to be released here. Whether it was released officially or not, the copies available are very expensive and very rare.

NCAA Basketball 10 for Xbox 360

New Price: $210 | Used Price: $80 | See Current Prices
NCAA Basketball 10 was released for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. The game features Blake Griffin on the front cover and has broadcasting voices from ESPN and CBS. In February 2010, EA announced they would not release another NCAA Basketball game in the foreseeable future.

Every February and March prices spike for NCAA Basketball 10 as interest peaks with March Madness. It is the most updated NCAA Basketball game available. The Xbox 360 version is more expensive than the PS3 version.

James Buster Douglas Boxing for Sega Master System

New Price: $N/A | Used Price: $80 | See Current Prices
James Buster Douglas Knockout Boxing was released for Sega Master System in 1988. After Buster Douglas beat Mike Tyson, Sega quickly signed him to a deal and released a boxing game with his name on it. The Genesis version is worth hardly anything.

Buster Douglas boxing is the second most expensive game for the Master System and very hard to find. The game was released in 1990, which was a year after the Genesis was released. By this point Sega was only providing token support and didn't produce many copies of the game.

NCAA College Basketball 2K3

New Price: $20,000 | Used Price: $75 | See Current Prices
NCAA Basketball 2K3 was released for Xbox, PS2, and Gamecube but only the Gamecube version is rare. It is the only NCAA basketball game for the Gamecube.

In 2003, Sega decided to stop making sports games in their 2K line of games because of lackluster sales. The Gamecube games had sold the worst. Part way through production, Sega decided to stop the Gamecube version but continue making PS2 and Xbox. The few Gamecube games made were sold to stores but on a very limited basis.

International Superstar Soccer Deluxe for Super Nintendo

New Price: $192 | Used Price: $74 | See Current Prices
International Superstar Soccer Deluxe was published on the Super Nintendo. The game was released in 1995 and is a sequel to a very similar game released a year earlier. The Deluxe version added features like 2 player co-op, extra commentary, and small graphical improvements.

Both ISS and ISS Deluxe were trying to capitalize on the success of the World Cup in the USA in 1994, but neither sold very well in the USA. The Deluxe version is rarer than the original and incredibly hard to find complete with the box and instructions.

Other Noteworthy Rare Sports Games

Virtual Bowling for Virtual Boy | Used Price: $1,395 - Last game for Virtual Boy. Only released in Japan.
Exertainment Mountain Bikerally/Speed Racer for SNES | Used Price: $500 - Bike racing might qualify as a sports game, but we classify it as racing.
Punch-Out Special Edition for NES | Used Price: $300 - Gold cartridge released in a competition. Only released in Japan.
NCAA Basketball 10 for PS3 | Used Price: $54 - Same as the Xbox 360 game listed above, but not as valuable.
International Superstar Soccer for SNES | Used Price: $60 - Similar to ISS Deluxe but not quite as rare.

The list is ranked by the highest average used price and then highest average new price in the event of a tie.

Duck Tales Remastered Increases Original's Price 45%

2013-03-29T11:26:00.001-06:00

Six days ago Capcom announced Duck Tales Remastered was in development and would be released on Xbox Live, PSN, and Wii U eshop. Since the announcement, people have been clamoring to buy copies of the original NES classic. Duck Tales NES prices have increased more than 45% since the reveal.

The cartridge only resale price increased from $10 to $14.50 now.

The remastered version seems to have only increased prices on the original and not the sequel.

The sequel is not well known outside of game collectors and is already selling for $90 so this isn't very surprising. Duck Tales 2 is only being purchased by collectors at these prices.

Duck Tales Remastered Trailer

Updated Rare Dreamcast Game Article

2013-03-27T16:09:00.000-06:00

We've updated the rare Dreamcast game article with ten USA games and five Japanese games too, plus one piece of hardware for good measure.

Can you name the publisher that has 8 titles on the list?
What two genre's dominate the list with all but two of the top titles?

Read the article and see how you did on this impromptu game collecting quiz.

Rare BioShock Audio Diary: Only 4 Ever Made

2013-03-27T11:22:00.001-06:00

An owner of one of the four BioShock Audio Diaries is selling it on eBay.

Ubisoft made four of these real Audio Diaries as part of a BioShock 2 viral marketing campaign. The devices are used in the game to advance the plot or expand the narrative and this real life version is an accurate reproduction with actual audio recorded on it.

This is a very rare piece of gaming memorablia. It will be interesting to see the final price. Right now it is $830 with four days remaining.

Here is what the audio diary looks like in the game:

The marketing campaign started with a website showing some puzzles. People who solved the puzzles and mailed letters to the address contained in them would receive packages with masks or pages ripped from a book. Sometimes people would be told to meet an actor nearby who would give more clues and pieces. It was a very involved marketing campaign.

The owner of this BioShock Audio Diary solved a puzzle and sent it to Ubisoft. A month later he received a page torn from a book and then an actor dressed as a boyscout from BioShock presented him with a telegraph telling him to meet at a storage location with the code below deciphered.

At the storage location the owner and three other people received the Audio Diaries. Each one has this recorded on it:

My pawns, you have played masterfully. We have confounded(?) the Red Pawn in our tangled moves. Lynch is lost... but I at last am found. My hope restored. Now my pawns, if you are game, the game is on. The treasure that I stole from the kingdom shall be restored. Fallen Rapture may yet rise, and are we not worthy enough to raise it? If you dare to join me in Rapture, then I challenge you to meet me at the designated square. In the Golden State, in the city by the bay, when the month is 2, when the day is 6, when the hour is 5:45. At that precise moment in the evening, you will find me on Mary Street, between Minna Street and Natoma. Share this recording with the other pawns by any means you find.. and know that time is of the essence. Noble pawns, this is Orrin Oscar Lutwidge, one overjoyed leader, bound once again... for Rapture.

You can read more about the puzzle and the process from another winner at Nukezilla.

We Revised the Rare Gameboy Advance Article

2013-03-14T16:03:00.001-06:00

We've revised the rare & expensive Gameboy Advance game article with updated prices, descriptions of each game, and the reason it is so valuable.

Pop quiz for the day. Try to name at least three games on the list before looking then check it out to see how you did.

Rare Gameboy Advance (GBA) Games

Most Expensive Cartridge Game Ever Sells for $23,100

2013-03-12T17:07:00.001-06:00

Nintendo PowerFest 94 for Super Nintendo is the most expensive cartridge video game ever sold with a sales price of $23,100.

The game sold on eBay for $23,100, which surpasses the previous cartridge only record of $20,100 paid for Nintendo Campus Challenge in 2010.

Other complete in box and brand new games have sold for more, including Stadium Events and Air Raid, but this price far surpasses those game's cartridge only prices.

See a list of the most expensive video games of all time.

Nintendo PowerFest 94 For Sale at Auction

2013-03-05T16:00:00.000-07:00

We are selling our PowerFest 94 cartridge. The auction has started on eBay with a $0.01 opening bid and no reserve. I really hope more than one person bids :)

The opening bid is so low because we like to see the market determine the price for a rare game like this. Nintendo PowerFest 94 has never been sold in public auction, only through private transactions. This auction will finally answer the question "what is it really worth?"

We decided to sell because we had started receiving some offers to purchase the cartridge and we have already achieved our goals with owning the cartridge. As stated above, we prefer to sell via public auction instead of private transaction. We have notified the interested parties that the auction has started and hope they will bid along with other people who have not contacted us.

Even if you don't have a bunch of money to spend on a rare Super Nintendo game, place an opening bid so you can tell people "I almost won PowerFest 94., if only those other 50 people hadn't placed a bid!"

Rare E3 2011 Skylanders - Spyro, Gill Grunt, Trigger Happy

2013-03-04T16:23:00.001-07:00

In 2011, Activision tried to get journalists excited for their newest game by sending them an action figure for the game with a sticker on it saying 'Bring Me to Life at E3'. The game was Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure and these three Skylanders figures are now the rarest available.

Activision hired a PR company prior to E3 2011 to build excitement for Skylanders. The PR company mailed 1 of 3 figures to various gaming sites and news publications. The figures were either Spyro, Gill Grunt, or Trigger Happy. Each one had a sticker on the front that looked like this:

According to one of the journalists who received a figure and sold it on eBay, Activision probably made about 600 of these figures for distribution before and during E3.

If the number of copies is split evenly among the three versions there are only 200 of each figure.

Only the figures still in the original box are rare because the figures are identical to the standard Series 1 figures. Once the package is open they become indistinguishable from figures that sell for $4-5 each.

The purpose of the promotion was to open the figures and use them on the game at Activision's E3 booth. Because of this many of these were opened.

Nobody knows the exact number of sealed copies available for these rare figures, but it is probably close to 100-150.

Only two of these have come up for auction that I am aware of, both Trigger Happy. One closed at $62 last March and another sold for $503 with a Chrome Spyro from E3 2012.

Hopefully more of these E3 2011 Skylanders come-up for sale soon so we can know the actual value. My guess is they will be the most expensive Skylanders figures ever sold when they do sell again.

Thanks to DluA on DarkSpyro forums for much of this information on the 2011 E3 variants.

PowerFest 94 Reproduction Update

2013-03-04T13:52:00.000-07:00

It looks like the PowerFest 94 cartridge has been reproduced. After posting the bounty of $1,000 for a reproduction, RetroUSB has posted a video on youtube of the game being played on a Super Nintendo.

I have contacted them to ask for a copy of the reproduction so I can verify the four criteria required for the bounty. I will post another update when this has been verified and the bounty has been paid.

Hopefully these will available for sale to the general public in the near future.