Your best "I didn't know that was rare!" moments?

[BetaWolf47]

What are your best moments of finding something in the wild that you unsuspectingly found out was rare, later on? Or, perhaps, what are some items you bought new back in the day that you later found out were rare and valuable?

Mine was a few Saturn games I found back in 2008. Bought a dozen or so for $3.33 each, and three of them ended up being worth over $50, and some being worth around $30.

[wiggyx]

For me it's always stuff that I sold years ago and am looking to pick up again. Stuff like Demon's Crest, EVO, Earthbound, Final Fight 3, etc. Pisses me off. I should have just held on to those games. They weren't worth very much when I sold them 10+ years ago, so it's not like they paid my mortgage or anything when I unloaded them like they would today :/

[samspade]

For me it was digging up my old copies of Suikoden 2 and Spider-Man: Web of Fire. I bought them both long ago, (spider-man on clearance in KB toys) and had no idea that they were worth anything. It's a reason why I'm glad I held onto all my stuff over the years.

[SEGA_Queen]

Two cases stand out in my mind:

1) The Adventures of Lomax (PS1) - Picked this up for $7 at a local collectibles shop. It wasn't until I look it up in the DP rarity guide that I discovered it actually was an R6!

2) One Piece: Unlimited Adventure (Wii) - Now I knew this was rare when I bought it for $12.99. But I didn't realize it was going for so much money online! (It's currently selling for an average of $60.)

[Space-Ace-13]

2 come to mind that still haunt me today! They both happened when I first started getting into retro gaming.

Bomberman 2 - NES - Saw it for $7, but I'm not a big bomberman fan so I decided not to pick it up, I found out later that day that it was selling for around $70, I tried going back to get it, and it had sold already.

Wacky Races - NES - Saw 2 copies in the same store each for under $10, I had no idea they were rare until months later and by then they were long gone... haven't seen a copy since. They are on ebay around $100.

Since these 2 situations I bought NES and SNES rarity guides on my phone so I always know

[frogofdeath]

Weren't rare or valuable at the time of purchase, but I bought Conker's Bad Fur Day new ($19.99) and both Legend of Zelda Oracle games new (don't recall, but definitely discounted and want to say picked up both for $20). Both purchases were when N64 and GBC games were on their last legs and these were all games I had always wanted to play. Still have all three, complete, in near pristine boxes.

Conker's BFD seems to be holding steady for cart only copies ($50) though CIB copies seem to have a wide price range. Still, if I were to sell today, one of the few games I would ever make a profit off after buying new. Same for the Oracle series, though these prices seem to be currently more unpredictable.

[Press_Start]

Bomberman 2 - NES - Saw it for $7, but I'm not a big bomberman fan so I decided not to pick it up, I found out later that day that it was selling for around $70, I tried going back to get it, and it had sold already.

Wacky Races - NES - Saw 2 copies in the same store each for under $10, I had no idea they were rare until months later and by then they were long gone... haven't seen a copy since. They are on ebay around $100.

Ugh. I remember buying both of those for around $20 and $30 respectively....in the last year or two alone. Even back then I thought I paid too much, still do now. Heck, a Parodius CIB (PAL) jumped from $40 to over $100 in the last 30 days.

Are we sure there ain't a whole network of resellers/collectors pricehacking to ridiculous heights? I mean $30 games becoming $100 gold bricks in a short time period smells very fishy, imo.

[Drixxel]

For me it's always stuff that I sold years ago and am looking to pick up again. Stuff like Demon's Crest...

Haha, Demon's Crest is highly priced now? This very thread's an example of one of these moments for me. A friend and I who lived in different cities used to exchange Christmas presents of super-cheap-but-interesting games we found locally at the time (late '90s, early 2000s), one year I received a boxed copy of Demon's Crest and I don't think more than a five bucks would have been paid for it.

[wiggyx]

Haha, Demon's Crest is highly priced now? This very thread's an example of one of these moments for me. A friend and I who lived in different cities used to exchange Christmas presents of super-cheap-but-interesting games we found locally at the time (late '90s, early 2000s), one year I received a boxed copy of Demon's Crest and I don't think more than a five bucks would have been paid for it.

It totally is

Goes for like 50 bucks loose. Lameness

[Aussie2B]

Hmm, I don't think I've ever been that impressed learning of the rarity of something I've found. For those with collections as big as mine, you're bound to have some R7's and R8's, and considering how cheap it is to acquire many games with those rarity ratings (and easy with stuff like eBay), it's not that exciting. If I stumbled across an R9, that would get my attention, but those seem to be at a whole other tier of rarity and not something you're likely to just come across by chance.

I'm more likely to be surprised by value, although I'm more aware of values of things I don't have than things I do, haha. I'm more likely to be surprised learning that a game I've had for a while has shot up in value. But in terms of buying something without knowing what I had, years ago I bought a copy of The Neverhood for PC just because I remember reading the Hardcore Gaming 101 article on it. I figured maybe it'd have some value if it has a following but at least it'd hopefully be a good game even if it didn't and maybe my fiance could enjoy it. I distinctly remember just tossing the bag on the floor of the car. Had I been aware of its value, I would've been a bit more careful with it, haha. Anyway, I was very pleased to learn that I could sell it for $50 (seeing as I don't collect PC games), and that gave me my first hit in PC game flipping. Since then, I try to be a little more savvy about PC game prices and keep my eyes peeled for games I can flip since many trips to the thrift stores and such have no console games to be found and PC games give me something to look for.

[SNESMaster]

I got a copy of Stack-Up for the NES for Christmas one year along with a bunch of other NES stuff. The same year, I got Metroid Prime: Trilogy, and the following I got Super Mario All-Stars for Wii.

[BlastProcessing402]

Two copies of Conkers, one cart only (dog ate the box) one CIB. Both bought used for cheap from Blockbuster (remember them? lol)

[DeseoParadise]

Phantom Air Mission of NES

I buy a pack of games from a boy and there were some games that I will sell because I don`t like them and one of them was Phantom Air Mission.

[theclaw]

Well among my weirdest finds was Nippon Oozumu Kakutouhen, some PS2 sumo wrestling. How the **** that ended up in this country.
Nobody wants it. But among the many things I'll never see again local (like Initial D Special Stage more recently).