Calculating PS1 game values? Opinions or advice please!

[Valkyr47]

i recently decided to go through my massive ps1 collection and catalog everything, including value. I do not intend to sell any games, ever, i just want to have a rough idea of the value for two reasons:

1 - i can claim it on my homeowners insurance so if my house burns down, i would be able to get enough money to start rebuilding the collection again.
2 - As a collector i just want to know... it would be cool to know how much money i have sitting on these shelves, ya know?

So anyways i couldnt think of any easy ideas for figuring price, so im relying on EBAY. I basically do a search by title, BUY IT NOW only (auctions are not a good source because many start out way cheap, or if its between a couple fanboys the prices get TOO HIGH).

I pick only ones that show real photos and are of the same quality as mine (Aka black label, excellent condition, complete set, etc etc). I then add up ALL of the prices of the games that match, and divide by the number of matches. In high school this was called the "Mean" i believe, correct? I then figure that this number is right in the middle and safe to consider its estimated value.

is that a good way? here is an example of what my database pages look like, and the value i got for "Rival Schools United Be Fate" using this method, which is somewhere in the middle of my collection (value wise):

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f257/LedZepFan7183/database.jpg

Im just using Excel, and i threw in all the game information and stuff just for fun and to make it feel like a REAL database. any opinions?

sorry if this post is too long, just wanted some advice

[suckerpunch5]

holy crap.

[MrSparkle]

id say that sounds like a fairly straightforward way of calculating a games value.

that value is indeed called the mean, another name for it simply being average.

[sylvestor]

values change according to the market.Video game collector magazine will give you values of most american games.It's updated quarterly.

[Valkyr47]

holy crap.

Is that a good holy crap, or a "dude you need a life" holy crap?

haha

[8-bitNesMan]

Is Rival Schools really worth $44? If so, wow wow wi wow!

[Valkyr47]

Is Rival Schools really worth $44? If so, wow wow wi wow!

I dont know to be honest, maybe.. maybe not

i got 44 by averaging out all the EBAY prices for the game in complete, good condition

Its so weird because some games that strike me as being valuable arent, and vice versa

im starting to think that maybe ebay buy it now prices arent a good guide

i have avoided buying a collector guide because i figured they are a ripoff to pay for information i should be able to find on the internet... but maybe thats the better way to go

its just amazing in the internet age of information, how hard it is to find out something so simple.. how much these damn games are worth

[PapaStu]

Well there are different levels of value. Ebay values won't hit with all the walk into a store ect values. Besides, how long did you track those ebay values? If you do a single snapshot, and it was an off weak (lots of copies, or none, for the time period) your value will be off. Just relying on BIN's isn't smart as I see way more overpriced BIN listed items than I do ones that sold in a normal auction format for less than going rate.

Personally I think that 44 is a bit high for Rival Schools, but thats me.

Besides how many PS games are you talking about here? 50? 100? 750? I'd not even think about trying to pin down all my stuff in that regards for just the PlayStation, in case of an insurance issue. I've got a list of what I own, and should something happen, i'll work with them from that.

Buying the DP:Advanced guide (though a tad bit out of date $$ wise) isn't a waste, hell all the stuff is online searchable right now for free just to your left, and those prices are updated way more often than the guide which was published in 04 (its really good for gauging rarity). Besides PS games are still relatively 'new' in the grand scheme of things, the values arn't all flushed out by any means.

Values are never simple because you've got to factor in distribution, quantity, how good/bad a game is, popularity ect ect ect.

[carlcarlson]

Rival Schools is worth $30-$35. How did I come up with that number? I searched the completed listings on ebay and only considered the items that sold. I do a lot of selling on ebay and this is how I get all of my prices. Throw out the lows and the highs and choose a value right in the top 2/3 (assuming your copy is complete and in good shape). I rarely come up with a bad value using that method (ie, my games almost always sell). I just eyeball this, doing the math would take way too long.

PapaStu is right, using active buy it nows is a bad idea because those are generally high. Heck they would have already been snatched up if they weren't a little unreasonable. Also, never (ever ever ever) use ebay store values. Those are almost always insane.

[Valkyr47]

Ok, so when you go through and average out the completed listings, do you take into effect both auctions and buy it now items? i mean buy it nows are sometimes higher, but technically someoned WAS willing to pay that much so...

[theChad]

Man, I wish I would've known Rival Schools was rare. I modded my friend's Xbox for him some time back and put a PlayStation emulator on it. He gave me a few games he wanted on there, and yeah, one of them was Rival Schools. He said once he had it on his Xbox he was just going to give it to one of his friends who wanted it. I could've at least offered him a bit of cash for it...

[Valkyr47]

The reason i ask, is because if i use AUCTION ONLY and add all prices then divide by number, i get 26 bucks

if i include buy it now and then use that same formula i get 30 bucks

naturally i would like to say my game is worth 30 bucks more than 26

also, it still feels like im getting ripped off because there are several sold for 40 bucks, but the average gets brought down by the lower ones..

maybe i can do the mean to get 30 bucks, then take the absolute highest listing and average those two out? that would make it 35 even, is 35$ for rival schools complete mint sound correcT?

[eugenek]

The reason i ask, is because if i use AUCTION ONLY and add all prices then divide by number, i get 26 bucks

if i include buy it now and then use that same formula i get 30 bucks

naturally i would like to say my game is worth 30 bucks more than 26

also, it still feels like im getting ripped off because there are several sold for 40 bucks, but the average gets brought down by the lower ones..

maybe i can do the mean to get 30 bucks, then take the absolute highest listing and average those two out? that would make it 35 even, is 35$ for rival schools complete mint sound correcT?

If you're going to cook the numbers that elaborately, you might as well just make up all the values. The mean plus the average of that mean and the highest sale price...now really. Are you really interested in the true typical value or just getting bigger numbers?

[Valkyr47]

i want a true estimated value, but i also dont want to shorthand myself at all

im just looking for ideas thats all

so lets say i do a TRUE mean value

Im still going to take the absolute highest and absolute lowes value out of the equation because some are just obscenely high, and some people get lucky extremely low prices...

should i do buy it now or just auction?

[willowmoon93]

There is also a site called http://www.videogamepricecharts.com/ which seems to be pretty good as far as calculating ballpark prices as far as places like ebay & amazon are concerned. Click on the "methodology" tab to see how their prices are derived.

But I really like Digital Press' price guide as far as the info about the games themselves. A lot more interesting read, but some of the prices are a little off, which I'm sure will be corrected in the upcoming guide.

[Valkyr47]

Digital Press is WAY off IMO

Thats the problem with video games, there has never been like a single standard guide to values... plus games value are really based on how badly someone wants something

like for example... the digital press guide says twisted metal (the original) is worth $5 complete. But i have the original longbox copy in near mint condition and complete... you REALLY think i would sell that for $5? lol

i wish i had never started caring what my games are worth, but i do now

[eskobar]

The problem of taking BIN games is that they are inflated at least 15% on ebay and paypal fees, i you took that percent off you have a more real value ... but considering the fact that the value of some games increases over time is also a good consideration to check every year the value.

Sure, you can find a rival schools in 5 ... or 15 or 20 if you are lucky to find one, but for a big percentage of gamers ebay is the only option.