VGA rated NWC Gold cart on eBay

[goatdan]

For most of these collectors the NWC isn't the game they will play anyway. I owned an NWC for years and plugged it in once I believe and that was before reproductions were available.

That's true of I bet a lot of us on here, honestly. I have owned a Star Fox Competition Cartridge for years, and I play it maybe four times a year, usually right before the MGC to see if we can run a tournament on it there or something.

I've always also found it surprising that no matter how many times we use it at the MGC in tournaments, whether they are paid or free, and whether they have awesome prizes or not, almost no one plays it. Last time we used it, we had over 5,000 attendees, it was $2.00 to play and we gave out $100.00+ in prizes, and we had five people opt to play it.

They are cool to look at, but most people don't care to play 'em.

[Buyatari]

That's true of I bet a lot of us on here, honestly. I have owned a Star Fox Competition Cartridge for years, and I play it maybe four times a year, usually right before the MGC to see if we can run a tournament on it there or something.

I've always also found it surprising that no matter how many times we use it at the MGC in tournaments, whether they are paid or free, and whether they have awesome prizes or not, almost no one plays it. Last time we used it, we had over 5,000 attendees, it was $2.00 to play and we gave out $100.00+ in prizes, and we had five people opt to play it.

They are cool to look at, but most people don't care to play 'em.

Mike Gedeon used one at the CCAG game show here in Cleveland. At first I didn't think it was very popular either but then at the end of the show someone stole it. I just bet you who ever did it plays the game every day.

[Bojay1997]

I agree with you to the extent that just being able to play the original proto is only part of the value. Having said that, all of the non-working proto sales I have seen over the years have gone for little or nothing unless there is some very remote hope that the proto can be made playable again or repaired. Generally, protos don't come with fancy labels or elaborate casings, so unless you really have to have a typewritten label or a Sharpie covered casing, I can't see why you would be that interested in a non-working proto. I think for most collectors, including sealed collectors, there is an assumption that whatever you own would work if you ever opened it or tried to play it regardless of whether you ever do so or not.

I disagree with almost all of this rant. If the only value of the NWC is in the data itself, then everyone would be content with the reproduction version for $70 and no one would care about the NWC.

As for protos, I would gladly pay to own a non-working proto from my favorite franchise. Not a ton of money because I'm cheap, but a considerable amount more than $0. On released games with no differences, protos still sell for several hundred dollars (or more) on fan-favorite franchises (and even more for 1st party stuff). People aren't buying it because of the data which is identical to the released version, they are buying it because it is actually a 1 of a kind rare collectible that separates them from the other Zelda / Mario / etc. collectors.

On unreleased stuff, yeah of course the data is the bulk of the purchase price. But unreleased protos are just a part of the prototype pool, and you can't make all of your assumptions off of those alone.

[Griking]

Nothing better than exposing the EPROMS on a cart worth the price of a new car to naked sunlight. That'll work out great in the long run.

What interests me is whether that affects the value. Is a dead, gutted, and slabbed NWC cart worth the same amount as a whole, working one? And if so, why would anyone bother to pay that much for something that no longer fulfils its original function? Just because its rare?

These NA guys are nuts.

For the sake of argument I'd say that nobody that pays a few thousand for a video game does so to actually play it.

[BeaglePuss]

all of the non-working proto sales I have seen over the years have gone for little or nothing unless there is some very remote hope that the proto can be made playable again or repaired.

I've sold a non-working prototype of a released SNES title for $450 earlier in the month. I was able to salvage some of the data, but the cart has no hope of ever being playable due to the amount of bit-rot it suffered due to poor storage from a previous owner. I'm not saying this is the norm, but I figured I would reference an actual price point if given the opportunity.

[stardust4ever]

For the sake of argument I'd say that nobody that pays a few thousand for a video game does so to actually play it.

I agree. Just like those "SneakerHeads" who have to buy every single Air Jordan limited edition shoe to be released by Nike. The limited releases cause riots outside the store, and Nike uses the free publicity as a form of viral marketing. To me, a shoe is an expendable commodity meant to be worn until it falls apart, but for the people who collect the limited edition sneakers, they would dare not wear it; in fact the shoes may not even be the right size for the collector's foot. I also believe that video games are meant to be played. You plug it into the console and play it. They are extremely durable anyway, and 98% of loose non-working carts can be fixed by a little cleaning and TLC. I could care less if it still has the shrink wrap on it or not, so screw paying $500 for a sealed SMB3 when I can get the cart way cheaper: I simply want to play them! I own a duplicate of the original grail, only it's in a blue RetroZone cart with a Sealie Computing PCB instead of the real gold one. It's actually surprisingly addictive, but with the ludicrous prices the gold copies have been fetching, all I would want to do if I actually owned the real one would be to flip it: think of all the tons of games I could get for that price!!! Or pay off student loans, buy a new car, get married and have a nice honeymoon afterwords, make a down payment on a new house for the fiance/ future wife, etc...

As for the Action Comic analogy, if it's a used, unsealed copy of the comic with minor cosmetic wear, carefully place it on a flatbed scanner and scan each page individually, then distribute the pdf file on the Internet for others who can't afford paying top $$$ to enjoy it. Dumping an unreleased prototype is the same principal from an ethical standpoint. Both may be legal grey area, but if it were mine, I would want others to enjoy it too. The original will always be worth more than a copy.

[Bojay1997]

I've sold a non-working prototype of a released SNES title for $450 earlier in the month. I was able to salvage some of the data, but the cart has no hope of ever being playable due to the amount of bit-rot it suffered due to poor storage from a previous owner. I'm not saying this is the norm, but I figured I would reference an actual price point if given the opportunity.

Really, which game? Was there something unique about the case or some other reason someone would pay that much money for something that is now just a lump of plastic and other parts?

[TonyTheTiger]

If you are new to videogame collecting and buy a fake well then it could end up costing you a lot more.

Should somebody new to collecting even be considering an NWC cart? Talk about putting the cart before the horse.

For most of these collectors the NWC isn't the game they will play anyway. I owned an NWC for years and plugged it in once I believe and that was before reproductions were available.

Unfortunately, the game is terribly anticlimactic. The scoring is out of whack so Mario and Rad Racer essentially exist just to waste your time. The SNES competition carts, on the other hand, are amazingly fun.

[Buyatari]

People who keep saying that games are meant to be played watched Pinocchio once too many times growing up. These are objects. Objects have no purpose in life other than to be used however the owner so chooses. If you want to get picky you can say that the publishers did design them so they would sell and make them lots of money. Doesn't matter much because since when do we care what the publisher wants?

Played or played not the game itself cares not.

[Buyatari]

Should somebody new to collecting even be considering an NWC cart? Talk about putting the cart before the horse.

VGA has brought in some collectors new to videogame collecting. Some of which are what people refer to as power collectors. They may come from other hobbies used to the grading scale (comics,cards,coins etc) and they quicky buy up anything rare and desirable.

This is the reason why some Nintendo products have seen price hikes in the past few years not seen on Atari or Sega etc. As much as you guys bash NA it isn't just a small a group of guys on NA paying all this cash back and forth. There is new blood in the mix. A whole new group of buyers new to the hobby with money to burn. They may burn out and cash out. That remains to be seen but there are new buyers in the marketplace and they are looking for top items NWC included.

[stardust4ever]

Really, which game? Was there something unique about the case or some other reason someone would pay that much money for something that is now just a lump of plastic and other parts?

Some people will pay any ridiculous amount of money for something that's one-of-a-kind. Case-in-point, in 2006, somebody once put a piece of "holy" toast that somehow had the portrait of Virgin Mary on it up for auction on eBay. It sold for $28000 - That's a hella lot of money! Yes, someone actually paid top $$$ for an old piece of stale bread. People caught on to the trend and started using "toast" as an art canvas, with all kinds of images burned into them, which magically started popping up almost overnight on eBay, and most sold for nearly nothing. That original piece of toast is likely fully decomposed by now. Stoooopid buyers...

Source:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4034787.stm

[Buyatari]

Some people will pay any ridiculous amount of money for something that's one-of-a-kind. Case-in-point, in 2006, somebody once put a piece of "holy" toast that somehow had the portrait of Virgin Mary on it up for auction on eBay. It sold for $28000 - That's a hella-lot of money! Yes, someone paid $$$ for an old piece of stale bread. People caught on to the idea and started using "toast" as an art canvas, with all kinds of images burned into them, magically started popping up almost overnight on eBay, and most sold for nearly nothing. That original piece of toast is likely fully decomposed by now. Stupid buyers...

Source:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4034787.stm

Hardly counts. That was Golden Palace dot com who bought it just for the advertising of buying it.

[Bojay1997]

Some people will pay any ridiculous amount of money for something that's one-of-a-kind. Case-in-point, in 2006, somebody once put a piece of "holy" toast that somehow had the portrait of Virgin Mary on it up for auction on eBay. It sold for $28000 - That's a hella lot of money! Yes, someone paid top $$$ for an old piece of stale bread. People caught on to the trend and started using "toast" as an art canvas, with all kinds of images burned into them, which magically started popping up almost overnight on eBay, and most sold for nearly nothing. That original piece of toast is likely fully decomposed by now. Stoooopid buyers...

Source:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4034787.stm

Yeah, I know people will buy all sorts of things for crazy prices that most people could never imagine wanting let alone buying. Having said that, prototypes are a pretty niche product (i.e. most video game collectors don't collect them), so I'm just curious what this specific collector's motivation was for buying a non-working proto of a released game at almost $500. It just doesn't make sense as even among prototype collectors, I'm not aware of a big market for non-working games, especially for released titles.

[TonyTheTiger]

VGA has brought in some collectors new to videogame collecting. Some of which are what people refer to as power collectors. They may come from other hobbies used to the grading scale (comics,cards,coins etc) and they quicky buy up anything rare and desirable.

This is the reason why some Nintendo products have seen price hikes in the past few years not seen on Atari or Sega etc. As much as you guys bash NA it isn't just a small a group of guys on NA paying all this cash back and forth. There is new blood in the mix. A whole new group of buyers new to the hobby with money to burn. They may burn out and cash out. That remains to be seen but there are new buyers in the marketplace and they are looking for top items NWC included.

Pretty interesting. I always felt that VGA (and grading companies in general) is an instance of ultimate manipulation through an absolute fiction. Basically telling people that the only way their stuff will be worth top value is if they pay the entry fee to get the grade thereby creating a self-fulfilling prophecy where after one person pays that fee then everybody else has to do it to keep up essentially making the grading company a completely arbitrary tax collector on high rollers in a hobby. It's interesting then that it also has the effect of unifying certain high rollers who are just general "collectors" rather than married to a particular hobby. New blood in a community is always a good thing. Homogeneity, on the other hand...

[Buyatari]

Pretty interesting. I always felt that VGA (and grading companies in general) is an instance of ultimate manipulation through an absolute fiction. Basically telling people that the only way their stuff will be worth top value is if they pay the entry fee to get the grade thereby creating a self-fulfilling prophecy where after one person pays that fee then everybody else has to do it to keep up essentially making the grading company a completely arbitrary tax collector on high rollers in a hobby. It's interesting then that it also has the effect of unifying certain high rollers who are just general "collectors" rather than married to a particular hobby. New blood in a community is always a good thing. Homogeneity, on the other hand...

Well VGA doesn't just grade videogames. If you go to website you can see that before games they graded other things. Some of those hobbies are tapped out and at the very least it has made those other collectors aware that videogame collecting exists. Perhaps with one eye on VGA sales a few start to dabble and the influx had caused the prices to go up some. Seeing this more of them jump on board. So far it has been mostly Nintendo products. Some have suggested that things will only go so far before they implode but only time will tell. It is certainly making things around here interesting that is for sure.

[Greg2600]

Grading is a racket. It's that simple. It's one thing to authenticate, I support that, but to grade something on a scale is ridiculous. You can see the game with your naked eye.

[Panzerfuzion]

Speaking of NA does that fellow MinusWorlds have Asperger's? He's quite the creepy one. Any help would be great thx.

[Buyatari]

Speaking of NA does that fellow MinusWorlds have Asperger's? He's quite the creepy one. Any help would be great thx.

WTH does this have to do with anything?

If you are worried about creepy go hang out in the Brony thread you won't have to go to another website. It is over here in the off topic section.

[ApolloBoy]

Grading is a racket. It's that simple. It's one thing to authenticate, I support that, but to grade something on a scale is ridiculous. You can see the game with your naked eye.

Seconded. The whole grading thing is ridiculous and I hope these people realize that games are meant to be played, not to be gawked at on a shelf and entombed in a clear plastic coffin.

[The 1 2 P]

I wonder why it has no bids As for grading games, I have no problem with it. I don't buy graded games but I once got one graded just to experiment and it made a non-selling game(at $200) sell for more than three times what I was asking for it non-graded($650). And a recent check on ebay shows that graded games are indeed here to stay.