Video Game Collecting & Price Trends | VGPC.com Blog

Moonwalker Prices Rise To Heaven With Michael Jackson

2009-06-30T11:46:00.007-06:00

Michael Jackson died on June 25th 2009 at the age of 50. Within minutes of his death, prices for Michael Jackson's Moonwalker increased almost 600%. The prices stayed high for the next couple of days but have since started coming back down.

Moonwalker Prices On Ebay: June 25th 2009

Click For Bigger Chart
On the morning of June 25th there was an ebay sale of $14.99 for Moonwalker. Michael Jackson's death became public knowledge around 2:20 PM PST. Within an hour and 30 minutes all the low priced store listings for Moonwalker had sold for less than $30. By 3:56 PM, less than 2 hours after the initial announcement, Moonwalker sold for $100 on ebay. At the end of the day the highest price for the game was $199.99.

Moonwalker Prices On Ebay: Before & After His Death

Click For Bigger Chart
Before MJ's death, the prices for Moonwalker were consistently in the $20-30 range. The average sale price peaked on June 26th at $131. It has steadily dropped back down to the $60 range, which is still more than double the average price before Michael's passing.

Volume of Sales Picks Up Too

During the 4 days before Jackson's death (June 21st to June 24th), there were five sales of Moonwalker on Ebay. On the 25th there were 16 sales and during the next four days (June 26th to June 29th) 101 copies of Moonwalker sold.

Will Moonwalker prices go back to their pre-death prices or will they settle at a new, higher price because of all the attention paid to collectibles related to the King of Pop? Only time will tell.

Thanks to our loyal reader James T. for suggesting this article.

How I Got Nintendo World Championships Gold

2009-06-23T11:39:00.003-06:00

I recently bought Nintendo World Championships Gold and was able to reunite the Gold and Gray cartridges together. I'm sure they missed each other. The process of getting the Gold cartridge was actually pretty interesting and full of emotional highs and lows so I thought I would share it with the VGPC readers.

The NWC Gold I bought was the one recently listed on ebay. I contacted him about the condition and the history of it. I wanted to know where he got it and call those people to see if they could verify that it was authentic. After some due diligence and talking to two other people who owned this cartridge, I was confident it was real. I gave him an offer of $17,500, which was quite a bit lower than his asking price of $25,000.

He said he would think about it but wanted more for the game so he was going to wait for some more offers. Over the course of 3 weeks I called or emailed him once a week to see where we stood. A few offers emerged that were higher than mine, but they were bogus (probably just kids using their Mom's email accounts). On May 24th he emails and tells me he is going to sell it to someone else who is going to pay $18.5K in cash and pick it up locally. At this point I figured I would never hear about the game again and had lost my one chance of getting the Gold Nintendo World Championship.

Seven days later on May 31st, the seller emails me again saying the $18.5K offer fell through. It was a scammer trying to pay with Western Union and then have a "friend" pickup the item. My offer was now the best one and the seller decided to accept for $17.5K. I had just come to grips with the fact I wouldn't get the game and then everything changes in an instant. This definitely wouldn't be the last of the emotional highs and lows.

On June 1st we agree to complete the transaction via escrow.com. I wire my money to the escrow service on Monday June 8th (I was at E3 the week before so couldn't send the money any sooner).

The next day I expect shipment, but hear nothing from the seller. I give him a one day grace period and tell myself "maybe he had to work late, don't worry about it".

June 10th rolls around, still nothing. I call him. He says "I will mail it tonight". A FedEx tracking number is emailed to me that night. I get really excited, "I'm finally going to get the game". About 10 minutes later an email comes from FedEx - "Shipment Cancelled".

The next day the seller tells me it finally shipped and gives me the address he sent it to. THE ADDRESS IS WRONG. It is my neighbors place. I call him to see about changing the address and he tells me "Sorry, I've decided not to sell it. I love the game too much."

I tell him I feel cheated because we agreed to the terms, I sent payment, and he's been dragging his feet for more than a month since I first spoke with him. Plus I'm down a couple hundred dollars in escrow fees. We end the call and I am really upset the rest of the night.

The next day, June 12th, I email him saying we have a contract and I will not accept his cancellation. He calls me 15 minutes later apologizing repeatedly saying he felt really bad the rest of the night because he felt like he had cheated me too. He says he will ship it that night via FedEx overnight with guaranteed 8AM delivery. I'm a bit skeptical but double check he has the correct address and pray for the best.

That night FedEx emails with a tracking number again. 1 hour, 2 hours, 3 hours go by with no cancellation email. I refresh the tracking page on FedEx about 100 hundred times and finally it shows it was actually picked-up. I might finally get the game!

The next morning at 7:30AM the FedEx man comes to the door. I'm holding my 7 week old baby, probably have a ridiculously big smile on my face, and sign for the package. I quickly open everything up half expecting some other problem.

Nintendo World Championships Gold is neatly packaged inside with a custom built display case and looks just as good as I imagined it would. I have the "Holy Grail of Gaming" and the emotional ride is finally over.

Earthbound NES Promo Cartridge

2009-06-23T08:17:00.002-06:00

A seller on ebay is listing a ton of rare promotional items and samples. The one that caught my eye was a promo cartridge for Earthbound NES. That's right, NES.

Nintendo made a few of these Earthbound NES cartridges to show a shows like E3. Earthbound NES was never released because Nintendo decided to focus on the Super Nintendo. Most of these promo cartridges were destroyed but this one lives on.

It is definitely rare and a great collectors item. The ebay seller says the last one sold for $1,000. I can't verify that, but that price sounds about right for an item like this.

See Earthbound NES Auction

Scribblenauts Review E3 2009

2009-06-04T08:59:00.006-06:00

My favorite game at E3 2009 so far has been Scribblenauts. Its a puzzle game or sorts created by 5th Cell (makers of Drawn to Life and Lock's Quest) and published by Warner Bros. There are multiple stages you have to solve by writing something down and using that object to solve the puzzle. For example, you have a whale stuck on the beach. You need to get it back in the water to complete the level. You then write down "train" and a train appears in the level, you get inside and push the whale into the water.

What makes the game so great is you can write down any noun and it will appear in the game and behave the way it should in real life. If you write down Vampire it will show up and attack any human. Zombies will attack people too and turn them into other Zombies. Trampolines make you jump. Wings make you fly. And meteorites destroy the whole level and kill you.

My first time playing I solved some of the puzzles. They were very simple and only took one or two items to solve, but you can solve them anyway you want. The advanced difficulty level requires you to beat each level three times in a row without using the same item twice so you have to get much more creative.

The 2nd and 3rd time I played Scribblenauts I just created stuff on the title screen to see how they interacted. Here is my test to see who is stronger a vampire, a unicorn, or a werewolf.

We also found two things that either weren't in the game or broke it. Laryngoscope, which is a medical device used to look insides someones throat, was not there. The developer was really surprised because 130 other medical devices are in the game. We also tried to attach wings to a motorcycle with some glue and then ride it off a jump. We jumped on the motorcycle the game froze. The developer actually thanked us for breaking it though.

Scribblenauts is one of the most creative and entertaining games I have played in years.

Tatsunoko vs Capcom Wii Video and Images

2009-06-03T21:16:00.003-06:00

This article was written during E3 but I accidentally saved it as a draft instead of publishing it. Here it is for those readers who asked about Tatsunoko vs Capcom.

Tatsunoko vs Capcom for the Wii was shown at the Capcom booth at E3. The game looked like a very solid 2D fighter and was almost as popular as Marvel vs Capcom 2 if the line to play the game is any indication. I don't know any of the Tatsunoko characters but the all the main Capcom characters are there, Mega Man, Ryu, Chun-Li, and Viewtiful Joe.

The game is a bit jaggy in the background but the action is very fluid. The damage scoring in the game seems a bit ludicrous though. As this picture shows, there was a 4 Hit combo and it dealt 3.5 Billion in damage. Why not make it 3.5 Quadrillion Billion Million?

Below is a video of the game in action.

Muramasa Demon Blade Pictures

2009-06-03T21:03:00.004-06:00

I found a way to get the pictures from my camera for Muramasa Demon Blade. Below are a couple pictures of the game and the signage at E3.

Muramasa Sign at E3 2009

Muramasa Boss Battle

E3 After the First Day

2009-06-02T21:10:00.004-06:00

The first day at E3 is now done and I am back at the hotel relaxing a bit. I will start off with some bad news for our readers and some of the publishers they were interested in. UFO Interactive doesn't have a booth at the show, Xseed and D3 have small meeting rooms but no games on display. Unfortunately I won't be able to give any impressions on these games because they aren't at the show.

I did get to play Muramasa: Demon Blade and was very impressed with it. The art style is beautiful. Each sword has different strengths and unique special attacks. There is also some strategy involved in changing swords. Every time you change swords you automatically attack every enemy on screen with a super attack. You can only change swords at certain times though so you need to use it wisely. I took some pictures of the game in action, but forgot my camera-to-PC so the images will have to wait until I get back.

I didn't get a chance to play the other Ignition games yet, but will leave my impressions as soon get a chance to try them.

On a positive note for VGPC readers. I will have around 4 or 5 extra Muramas: Demon Blade tote bags. They are all black with the Muramas logo on the back. If anyone wants one, email me with your address. I will ship them to the first people to send me the info.

I'm Going to E3. What Do You Want to Know?

2009-05-29T14:56:00.002-06:00

I will be going to E3 next week which is always fun. Three days of playing games, seeing future releases, getting free stuff thrown at me, and meeting fellow gamers. During all that fun I plan on writing a few blog posts about some games I'm interested in or might be interesting for game collectors. I will also post some short reviews on my twitter account.

Leave a comment below letting me know what games you are interested in. I will try to get to all of the games and consoles you suggest. Take some pictures, maybe some videos, and give my impressions on the blog and twitter.

Nintendo World Championship Gold Tracked

2009-05-20T13:49:00.003-06:00

For the last year we've had Nintendo World Championship Gold in our database but it has never shown up on the website because there were no recorded sales that we knew of. I have since verified two sales for the NWC Gold cartridge in private transactions. They didn't sell on ebay, but between two collectors directly.

We added these prices to our database for users to see and track because Nintendo World Championship Gray cartridge is the most popular game on VGPC. I'm sure people want to know the prices for the much more expensive and coveted gold cartridge too.

Virtual Console's Effect On Game Resale Values

2009-05-11T20:10:00.004-06:00

What effect does the Wii's Virtual Console service have on the resale price of the original games? Does the price drop because people can buy the game on the Virtual Console (VC) instead? Or do more people hear about the game because of the new release which increases the demand for the original too?

We found there is no statistical change in resale prices after Virtual Console games are released.

The games dropped in price an average of 9.6% (see table below) but there was so much variation in the 60 different games we analyzed that statistically speaking it wasn't significant. Here is a chart showing the percentage change for each game.
You can see in the chart above that there is no obvious pattern to the changes in price. Some games increased in price, others decreased in price.

Below is a chart that shows the distribution of the price changes. The largest number of games decreased between 0% and -20%.

Price Changes For Virtual Console Releases Compared To All Games

We also compared the change in price that we saw for games released on the virtual console to all games during the same time period. The chart below shows the average resale price change for every game (the VC release chart is shown again for easy comparison).

We ran a statistical test to see if the difference between the average change for these two sets of numbers was significant. The test showed no statistically significant difference between the average price change for games with VC releases and all other games. Meaning Virtual Console releases don't change resale price.

Why Don't Virtual Console Games Change Resale Prices

For the Virtual Console to significantly change the resale price of the original games, it needs to change the supply or demand for the original game. It needs to cause more people to buy, more to sell, fewer to buy, or fewer to sell. Here are several reasons why the Virtual Console MIGHT NOT change resale prices.

1. The overlap among Wii and retro console owners isn't very big
I'm sure there are some Wii owners who own an NES, SNES, or Genesis (probably many readers of VGPC), but I don't think the average Wii owner does. Because of this Virtual Console games coming out won't stop these owners from buying the original game or encourage them to sell a copy they already own.

2. The Virtual Console isn't that popular
Nintendo has never released solid numbers showing how many downloads the Virtual Console has for a particular title. Super Mario Bros for NES sold about 40 million copies world wide. If the game was only downloaded 50,000 times, it won't have much effect on the resale price because it is such a small number by comparison.

3. Gamers want to have physical copies of their games
The people who buy the old game cartridges might not want to own a "virtual" copy of a game. If they are only interested in the original cartridge for nostalgia, collecting, or some other reason; the VC release won't effect their decision at all.

Charts Showing Prices Before And After Virtual Console Release

Below are a few charts showing the prices for the original games before and after the same game was released on the Virtual Console. The prices shown are a seven day moving average to reduce daily price swings and make the trends easier to see.
Super Mario Bros 3 for NES
Shining Force II for Genesis
Super Mario RPG for Super Nintendo
Mario Golf for Nintendo 64
Earthworm Jim for Genesis
Donkey Kong Country 3 for Super Nintendo
1080 Snowboarding for Nintendo 64
Ninja Gaiden 3 for NES

Table of Changes In Resale Price After Virtual Console Release

Game	System	Before	After	Change
Super Mario Bros. 3	NES	7.13	10.23	43%
Axelay	SNES	7.19	10.98	53%
Sonic 3D Blast	Genesis	2.52	1.04	-59%
Vegas Stakes	SNES	0.38	0.38	0%
Ecco Jr.	Genesis	2.97	2.12	-29%
Pokémon Snap	N64	2.21	3.47	57%
Cybernator	SNES	8.43	6.84	-19%
Alien Storm	Genesis	1.87	1.75	-6%
Blades of Steel	NES	0.80	1.35	69%
Donkey Kong Country 3	SNES	18.25	19.95	9%
Rolling Thunder 2	Genesis	7.72	7.47	-3%
StarTropics	NES	1.20	0.86	-28%
Pac-Attack	SNES	3.42	5.41	58%
Super Street Fighter II	SNES	13.95	11.15	-20%
1080° Snowboarding	N64	3.39	1.85	-45%
Harvest Moon	SNES	59.99	84.04	40%
Ninja Gaiden III	NES	14.00	19.54	40%
Phantasy Star II	Genesis	7.98	5.84	-27%
Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards	N64	13.37	10.91	-18%
Super Turrican	SNES	10.94	2.44	-78%
Spelunker	NES	2.85	2.13	-25%
Super R-Type	SNES	1.45	2.23	54%
King's Knight	NES	1.95	1.47	-25%
Cruis'n USA	N64	3.70	3.92	6%
Bases Loaded	NES	0.32	0.78	144%
Yoshi's Cookie	NES	3.42	3.35	-2%
Mega Turrican	Genesis	5.46	5.4	-1%
River City Ransom	NES	20.35	15.12	-26%
Phantasy Star III	Genesis	6.73	9.37	39%
Double Dragon	NES	4.42	4.09	-8%
Renegade	NES	0.85	1.45	70%
Pokémon Puzzle League	N64	5.28	4.77	-10%
Sky Kid	NES	3.25	2.73	-16%
City Connection	NES	1.00	0.99	-1%
Dig Dug	NES	8.00	8.00	0%
Donkey Kong 3	NES	5.27	5.58	6%
Splatterhouse 2	Genesis	26.81	22.31	-17%
Mega Man	NES	16.98	31.93	88%
Clu Clu Land	NES	1.57	1.99	27%
Super Mario RPG	SNES	38.32	33.32	-13%
Mega Man 2	NES	5.98	7.5	25%
Super Dodge Ball	NES	10.48	9.98	-5%
Vectorman	Genesis	1.34	2.45	83%
Super Turrican 2	SNES	40.62	14.62	-64%
Mario Golf	N64	8.77	9.91	13%
Shining Force II	Genesis	28.31	29.32	4%
Secret of Mana	SNES	50.64	28.8	-43%
Street Fighter II Special Champion Edition	Genesis	1.33	1.33	0%
Earthworm Jim	Genesis	4.34	8.11	87%
Mega Man 3	NES	6.49	8.46	30%
Space Invaders	SNES	2.19	3.04	39%
Forgotten Worlds	Genesis	4.37	3.66	-16%
Boogerman: A Pick and Flick Adventure	Genesis	5.07	5.63	11%
Phantasy Star IV	Genesis	13.97	13.15	-6%
Zoda's Revenge: StarTropics II	NES	4.05	6.00	48%
Kirby's Dream Land 3	SNES	31.43	34.69	10%
Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse	NES	14.48	5.68	-61%
M.U.S.H.A.	Genesis	107.12	59.33	-45%
Mercs	Genesis	3.70	3.66	-1%
Life Force	NES	3.07	3.25	6%
OVERALL AVERAGE		11.56	10.45	-9.6%

Data Notes: This study includes all Virtual Console games released after October 2007 for NES, SNES, N64, and Genesis. Games released prior to October 2007 are left out because we don't have prices before that date. We also excluded a few other titles released after that date because we didn't start tracking their resale prices before they were launched on the VC.

The "Start Prices" are the 7 Day average price 30 days before the game launched on Virtual Console. The "End Prices" are the 7 Day average price 60 days after launch.

Gaming Holy Grail Up For Sale

2009-05-07T12:27:00.004-06:00

A seller on ebay just listed 1 of the 11 copies of Nintendo World Championship Gold. This is the holy grail of video game collecting and ranked as the most expensive video game on several different lists.

The list price is $25,000 which is pretty steep but might sell. In 2007 this game sold with 24 other cartridges for $21,400.

I would have loved to see a real auction instead of a fixed price listing but it will be exciting to see if this game ends up selling.

See Nintendo World Championship Gold Auction Now

Sega Master System Prices

2009-05-05T09:05:00.003-06:00

Last night we added the Sega Master System to our list of consoles and games we track prices for. We have roughly 300 Master System games in our database and 120 of them have prices so far.

We are also tracking the price of the Master System console itself.

See Sega Master System Prices here

Marvel Vs Capcom 2 On XBL & PSN Lowers Resale Prices

2009-04-29T09:26:00.009-06:00

Marvel announced that the classic fighting game Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 will be released on Xbox Live and the Playstation Network. Marvel Vs Capcom 2 is one of the most expensive games on the Dreamcast, Playstation 2, Xbox and is sought after by collectors and considered one of the best 2D fighters of all time. The question for collectors who own the original game or want to buy it is; will the downloadable games affect the price of originals?

The initial results look like Marvel vs Capcom 2 for Dreamcast, PS2, and Xbox are all losing value after the announcement. The charts below show the prices during the past couple years for all three original games plus the prices during the last 24 hours.

Marvel Vs Capcom 2 for Xbox

Marvel Vs Capcom 2 for Playstation 2

Marvel Vs Capcom 2 for Sega Dreamcast

The used prices for all three original versions dropped since the announcement. The PS2 version dropped 14%, Xbox version 3.9%, and Dreamcast version 11%. Yesterday the prices for the PS2 were the lowest they have been since December 2006! The Xbox and Dreamcast games are only $1 or $2 more than the lowest prices seen in two years.

Will the prices continue to decline or is this only temporary?

There are lots of collectors who want the original versions of the game, but most gamers will probably choose the downloadable versions on XBL and PSN because they will have online play, HD upscaling, and widescreen support. Gamers can play one of the best 2D fighters of all time, with more options, and less money if they download it. So fewer people will be buying the original game on Dreamcast, PS2, and Xbox.

Rarity Factors: New Releases In Series

2009-04-18T12:15:00.009-06:00

New releases tend to increase the price for older games in the same series. Gamers are excited for the new game coming out so they buy the older ones too.

A very good example of this is the Resident Evil franchise right before the release of Resident Evil 5 for Xbox 360 and PS3. The chart below shows the resale price of Resident Evil 1 for PS1. There is a very obvious increase in price prior to RE5's release.

The same can be seen with Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 3, RE Code Veronica, and Resident Evil 4 before March 2009.

In past articles I've analyzed the same price increases in Pokemon games after the DS games launched. And you can see a few more examples below.
Street Fighter Anniversary

Call of Duty Finest Hour (when both CoD 4 and CoD World at War came out).

This same general pattern holds true for many other games. Sometimes the price increase happens more before the new game. While other times it happens more afterwards. But within a month or two of a big release, the past games in that series will almost always see a resale price increase.

How Long Does The Price Spike Last

After a few months the prices usually come back down to normal levels. The chart above for Call of Duty Finest Hour shows the resale prices quickly coming back down in the second month. Metal Gear Solid for PS1 shows the same pattern.

Other games show different patterns. Super Smash Bros Melee starts dropping in price immediately after Brawl launches.

Persona 2 on the other hand only had a small increase in price the month after Persona 4 released and then went back to the same exact price range as before.

How to Use This New Releases Information

Gamers can save some money when shopping for their games or make more money selling some of their collection if they take advantage of this information. If you want to play a game before a new game in the series is released, buy it a couple months early. If you want to sell a game in your collection you can generally get more money for it by selling it the within a month of a new release.

Leave a comment below if you know any other good examples. Or maybe a game that bucks the trend.

Outage Overnight

2009-04-11T06:13:00.002-06:00

VGPC was down for about 6 hours last night (from 12:11 am to 6:12 am Mountain time). Our database server ran out of disk space and stopped servicing requests. I guess storing 27 million video game price points and 4 million sales records takes more space than we thought.

New Releases: Nintendo DSi

2009-04-07T16:38:00.004-06:00

The Black and Blue Nintendo DSi's are definitely the two biggest releases this week. Unlike some of Nintendo's other consoles, it appears there are plenty to go around and resale prices are just slightly below the new prices. That is welcome news for people looking to buy a DSi.

New Web Server

2009-04-03T17:01:00.002-06:00

Hopefully you didn't even notice, but VGPC's website is now running off a shiny new server from Linode. This frees up some server resources paving the way for more accurate price data from Half.com Thanks to Linode, as always, for making the transition smooth.

New Releases: Guitar Hero Metallica

2009-04-03T11:19:00.004-06:00

Guitar Hero Metallica came out this week for every major console including Wii, Xbox 360, PS3, and PS2. Dance Dance Revolution Disney Grooves came out for the Wii also. The game probably isn't anything earth shattering, but Dance Dance Revolution Disney Mix for PS1 sells for about $100 sealed and $50 used. Maybe this new version on the Wii will become a collector's item some day too.

Nintendo DS New Releases

PSP New Releases

Major League Baseball 2K9 | Prices on Ebay & Amazon

Xbox 360 New Releases

Guitar Hero: Metallica | Prices on Ebay & Amazon

Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust | Prices on Ebay & Amazon

Wii New Releases

Playstation 3 New Releases

Guitar Hero: Metallica | Prices on Ebay & Amazon

Air Raid | One of Top 10 Rarest Games Ever

2009-04-02T15:10:00.005-06:00

On ebay right now a seller has listed an Atari 2600 system with 25 games. One of those games is one of the rarest and most expensive games of all time, Air Raid. The game can sell for more than $3,000.

Follow the auction here to see how much it sells for this time.

Air Raid is the only game released by a company called Menavision. It is the rarest Atari 2600 game ever commercially produced.

Commodore 64 Added

2009-04-01T12:24:00.003-06:00

We added more than 500 Commodore 64 games and the Commodore 64 System to the VGPC database.

Right now there are about 150 with prices. As we see more prices for more C64 games we will add them to the comparison list too.

With this new update we have more than 14,000 games, systems, and accessories in our database!

250 Classic Arcade Games In The Middle of Nowhere

2009-03-29T20:28:00.012-06:00

Manitou Springs Colorado is a small town of a little more than 5,000 people. But it has the greatest arcade I have ever seen.

I was going with my wife for a relaxing weekend away. Manitou Springs is your quintessential small town with a little Main Street, small shops, bed and breakfasts, etc. I thought we would stay the night, have a good dinner, and see a few sites.

COmnteer

I had no idea that in the middle of the main street is an arcade lover's dream. There are more than 300 classic arcade cabinets, pinball machines, skee-ball, and other midway type games.

Everything from 1 cent football games from the early 1900's to table top Space Invaders to Guitar Hero. Pinball machines themed after Superman or Elton John. Rifle shooting games, love testers, foosball, racing games, and fighting games. There were games I remember playing when I was growing up and games I have never seen before.

Arcade Is Outside & Inside Five Different Buildings

enkrates

The whole arcade is spread through-out five different buildings and the outside spaces in between. Some of the cabinets even had snow on them (which was a bit sad to see).

Lines of Pinball Machines

MV Jantzen

Rows of pinball machines. This room was dedicated to pinball and the penny, nickel, and dime games. Everything cost the same that it did when the games were first made.

Elton John's Pinball Machine - Captain Fantasic

jamesandtim

Apparantly Elton John had his own pinball machine.

Almost Every Capcom Arcade Fighter

The arcade had almost every single Capcom arcade fighter. Street Fighter II to Marvel vs Capcom and X-Men vs Street Fighter.

Classic Arcade Basketball

Before electronics, arcade's had games like this. You control the white player who is fed metal balls from the pipe to his left. The yellow player moves from side to side with his hands in the air. You pull the trigger to shoot the ball. Very simple, but pretty fun.

Skeeball Hall

MV Jantzen

The outside of the Skeeball and ticket redemption center at night time.

Gorf - Arcade Game I've Never Seen Before

I've never seen Gorf before. It looked like a Galaga type game. It was constantly making sounds the whole time I was there.

Arcade Shooting Games

jpundt79

More rifles than an NRA Convention.

Nintendo Super System - 3 Games in 1

This arcade game had Super Mario World, F-Zero, and Super Tennis in the same cabinet. It didn't have a joystick but had two controllers that looked similar to an SNES controller.

Penny Bouncy Horses

flowercat

There were even 30 of those penny horses they have at grocery stores, but not just horses. Every type of airplane, train, car, tiger, elephant, hippo, and dragon you could imagine. When I was there a little boy was methodically riding every single one.

New Games Added For 3DO, Atari Lynx, & Intellivision

2009-03-28T11:03:00.000-06:00

This week we added games to our database for 3DO, Atari Lynx, and Intellivision.

Our database now has 172 3DO games, 84 Lynx games, and 113 Intellivision games. Not all of them will show up when you visit those system pages because we don't have prices for some of them yet. When we do get prices you will see them in the price list the next day.

We also added the systems to our price list but didn't add any accessories. If you know of some important accessories for these systems please let us know.

The systems are now in the "more consoles" section of the menu.

When we added these items to the database we put them all into the "Action & Adventure" category. If any 3DO, Lynx, or Intellivision fans want to give us the real genre's we would love to change them. Please email us and we will send you a file with all the games for each system so you can add the genres.

Lastly, we want to give a big "Thank You" to Robert Stevens for emailing us a list of all the Atari Lynx games. We appreciate your help making this community better. We are currently working on adding more Jaguar and Game Gear games to the database and adding a new section for Commodore 64. Hopefully we will have those up soon.

New Releases: Pokemon Platinum

2009-03-27T10:54:00.003-06:00

The biggest release this week is definitely Pokemon Platinum. The 3rd Pokemon game for the Nintendo DS. Like everything else Pokemon related it will sell millions of copies to fans all over the US.

I'm also intrigued by Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles for DS and Wii. I enjoyed the Gamecube Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles when I played with three other people, but none of my local friends will be buying this game. It definitely sounds like a game enjoyed with other friends.

Nintendo DS Game Releases

Playstation 2 Game Releases

Monsters vs. Aliens | Prices on Ebay & Amazon

Pimp My Ride Street Racing | Prices on Ebay & Amazon

Ultimate Ninja 4: Naruto Shippuden | Prices on Ebay & Amazon

PSP Game Releases

Tenchu: Shadow Assassins | Prices on Ebay & Amazon

Xbox 360 Game Releases

Monsters vs. Aliens | Prices on Ebay & Amazon

Stormrise | Prices on Ebay & Amazon

Wanted: Weapons of Fate | Prices on Ebay & Amazon

WWE Legends of WrestleMania | Prices on Ebay & Amazon

Wii Game Releases

Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars | Prices on Ebay & Amazon

Cate West: The Vanishing Files | Prices on Ebay & Amazon

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time | Prices on Ebay & Amazon

Monsters vs. Aliens | Prices on Ebay & Amazon

Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 | Prices on Ebay & Amazon

Playstation 3 Game Releases

Command & Conquer Red Alert 3 Ultimate Edition | Prices on Ebay & Amazon

Monsters vs. Aliens | Prices on Ebay & Amazon

Stormrise | Prices on Ebay & Amazon

Wanted: Weapons of Fate | Prices on Ebay & Amazon

WWE Legends of WrestleMania | Prices on Ebay & Amazon

Video Games Will Sell For Comic & Baseball Card Prices

2009-03-25T15:57:00.018-06:00

On March 14th, 2009, Action Comic #1, the first comic book featuring Superman, sold at auction for $317,000. In 2007, a Honus Wagner baseball card sold for $2.8 million. And some day soon, video games will be cashed in for similar outrageous prices.

Not every video game will sell for thousands of dollars. Not every comic book or baseball card fetches these high prices either. But, some video games will likely sell for more than $100,000 or even a million dollars some day. Most likely it will be a game like Nintendo World Championship, which already sells for $20,000.

Expensive Collector's Items Need to Be Rare

The most expensive baseball cards and comic books are rare. There are only between 50 to 60 T206 Honus Wagner cards and fewer than 100 Action Comic #1's known to exist.

Nintendo World Championship Gold and a few other video games definitely meet this criteria. There are only 26 NWC Gold cartridges in existence and 90 NWC Gray cartridges. Only five copies of Air Raid for Atari 2600 have ever been found. Another handful of video games also fit the "rare" distinction, giving them immense worth.

The Item Needs A Good Story

Some games, comics, baseball cards, and other rarities only have one or two copies in existence because they were prototypes and never actually released. But, that doesn't automatically make them valuable to collectors. The item needs a good story behind it to entice collectors.

Action Comic #1, for example, is the first comic book to feature Superman. It’s considered the first superhero comic. Honus Wagner is thought to be one of the greatest baseball players of all time. He also forced the American Tobacco Co to stop production of the baseball card because he didn't want to be associated with tobacco. Both great stories.

Nintendo World Championship has a great history too. The game was part of a Nintendo promoted competition where gamers from all over the country competed to get the best score in Super Mario, Rad Racer, and Tetris. The game stopped players after six minutes and twenty-one seconds. The finals were held at Universal Studios and the 26 winners received NWC Gold as one of their prizes.

Mass Market Popularity

Tomorrow's collectors are today's common fan. Since the 1900's, baseball card trading and collecting has been a favorite of boys. When those boys grew older and had more disposable income they were willing to spend a lot more money on their collections. Previous owners of the Wagner card included Wayne Gretzky, Wal-Mart (they purchased it for a baseball card promotion), and the CEO of an investment company. Comic books have been very popular since the 1950's so kids who became fans of comics during this golden age are now in their late 50's and 60's (an age when many people have their highest income).

Research by the NPD Group in early 2008 shows that 72 percent of Americans play video games. So there are millions of gamers out there who can help increase the price of the video games eventually.

Value Increases With Time

Time helps increase the value of the best collectibles and is the leading factor currently holding back video game prices. The Honus Wagner card was released in 1909, so it has been on the market for exactly one hundred years. During the 1930's the Honus Wagner card sold for $50. Using the $2.8 million price in 2007, the card had a compounded return of 15.3% per year over the last 77 years.

Action Comic #1 is 71 years old this year. It's compounded return since 1938, when it originally sold for 10 cents, is 23.5%.

Time is indeed the factor keeping video games from the ski-high prices baseball cards and comics are now raking in. Video games became popular in the 1980's with Atari. And it wasn’t until a decade later in 1990 that the Nintendo World Championship took place. NWC cartridges were given away and there are no records of the original prices the game sold for so it is hard to calculate a percent return for the game so far. Assuming you could have offered one of the winners of these cartridges $1,000 for it the rate of return would be 17.1%. Right in between Honus Wager and Action Comic.

Given Enough Time NWC Will Be Worth $100K or More

Nintendo World Championship (and a few other games too) have all the makings of valuable collector's items. There is a very limited supply. It has a great story behind the game. And it has popular appeal with millions of people who play games. The only thing keeping NWC Gold cartridge from selling for more money is time. In ten, twenty, or thirty years when kids who grew up playing NES games have money to spare, they will be the collectors willing and able to pay top dollar prices for these treasures.

More Consoles Available In Menu

2009-03-23T14:33:00.006-06:00

We've been tracking prices for some Atari 2600, Virtual Boy, and Sega Game Gear games for quite a while but many of our users probably didn't know that because they weren't listed in the system menu shown on every page. We've fixed this and kept the menu free from too much clutter.

We added a link at the bottom of the menu that says "Show More Consoles". Click that link and additional systems will show up in the menu. Below you will see an image with the changes.

We moved some of the less popular systems into this drop down menu like NeoGeo, Sega CD, and TurboGrfx-16. We did this to make the most popular systems easier to find.

We will be adding more games for more systems during the rest of this week so look for the new additions inside this "Show More Consoles" menu.

Unfortunately we cannot get this feature to work with the blog page. The link will take you to a list of all the consoles, but it won't show the drop-down list.

Video Game Collecting & Price Trends | VGPC.com Blog

Moonwalker Prices Rise To Heaven With Michael Jackson

Moonwalker Prices On Ebay: June 25th 2009

Moonwalker Prices On Ebay: Before & After His Death

Volume of Sales Picks Up Too

How I Got Nintendo World Championships Gold

Earthbound NES Promo Cartridge

Scribblenauts Review E3 2009

Tatsunoko vs Capcom Wii Video and Images

Muramasa Demon Blade Pictures

E3 After the First Day

I'm Going to E3. What Do You Want to Know?

Nintendo World Championship Gold Tracked

Virtual Console's Effect On Game Resale Values

Price Changes For Virtual Console Releases Compared To All Games

Why Don't Virtual Console Games Change Resale Prices

Charts Showing Prices Before And After Virtual Console Release

Table of Changes In Resale Price After Virtual Console Release

Gaming Holy Grail Up For Sale

Sega Master System Prices

Marvel Vs Capcom 2 On XBL & PSN Lowers Resale Prices

Marvel Vs Capcom 2 for Xbox

Marvel Vs Capcom 2 for Playstation 2

Marvel Vs Capcom 2 for Sega Dreamcast

Will the prices continue to decline or is this only temporary?

Rarity Factors: New Releases In Series

How Long Does The Price Spike Last

How to Use This New Releases Information

Outage Overnight

New Releases: Nintendo DSi

Nintendo DS New Releases

Playstation 2 New Releases

PSP New Releases

Xbox 360 New Releases

Wii New Releases

Playstation 3 New Releases

New Web Server

New Releases: Guitar Hero Metallica

Nintendo DS New Releases

PSP New Releases

Xbox 360 New Releases

Wii New Releases

Playstation 3 New Releases

Air Raid | One of Top 10 Rarest Games Ever

Commodore 64 Added

250 Classic Arcade Games In The Middle of Nowhere

Arcade Is Outside & Inside Five Different Buildings

Lines of Pinball Machines

Elton John's Pinball Machine - Captain Fantasic

Almost Every Capcom Arcade Fighter

Classic Arcade Basketball

Skeeball Hall

Gorf - Arcade Game I've Never Seen Before

Arcade Shooting Games

Nintendo Super System - 3 Games in 1

Penny Bouncy Horses

New Games Added For 3DO, Atari Lynx, & Intellivision

New Releases: Pokemon Platinum

Nintendo DS Game Releases

Playstation 2 Game Releases

PSP Game Releases

Xbox 360 Game Releases

Wii Game Releases

Playstation 3 Game Releases

Video Games Will Sell For Comic & Baseball Card Prices

Expensive Collector's Items Need to Be Rare

The Item Needs A Good Story

Mass Market Popularity

Value Increases With Time

Given Enough Time NWC Will Be Worth $100K or More

More Consoles Available In Menu