Which consoles DO NOT need to be included in EVERY Issue of VGTrader?

[videogametrader]

Hello everyone,

Video Game Trader is celebrating its 1 year anniversary. Woo Hoo!! We are still alive and kicking! Anyway, as the price guide grows, it takes up more space. I would like to ask all of you to vote on the consoles that you feel do not need to be included in every issue. Keep in mind we publish every 2 months. If you vote for a particular system, that does not mean we wont cover it. It just means that the price guide for that system may not show up in every issue. If you feel that ALL systems need to be included every issue, please post a comment. If we missed any systems that you think should be included, even if not every issue, please let us know.

Here are the list of systems we cover:

Atari 2600
Atari 5200
Atari 7800
Atari Jaguar / Jaguar CD
Atari Lynx
Nintendo NES
Super Nintendo
Nintendo 64
Game Cube
Wii
Game Boy B&W
Game Boy Color
Game Boy Advance
Nintendo DS
Nintendo Virtual Boy
Sega Master System
Sega Genesis / Sega CD / Sega 32X
Sega Saturn
Sega Dreamcast
Sega Game Gear
PSOne (Playstation)
Playstation 2
Playstation 3
PSP
Xbox
Xbox 360
3do
cd-i
ColecoVision
Intellivision
Neo Geo AES
Neo Geo Pocket Color
Odyssey 2
Turbo Grafx-16 / CD
Vectrex
TI-99 (Carts only)
Commodore 64 (Carts only)

Thanks for the first year!! Now on to year two!!

- Video Game Trader Staff

[Tupin]

I say stop doing the TI-99.

[j_factor]

I say you can axe the TI-99, Vectrex (most Vectrex owners already know the value of everything), Odyssey 2, Wii, PS3, and 360. The latter three aren't really worth tracking at this point IMO.

[gepeto]

Yeah I would do maybe a semi annually on the real older stuff.

[eugenek]

I would say keep everything, though I realize that's kind of a cop-out. If this is for absolutely necessary expense-cutting, I think it would be okay to cut out every system whose prices don't move much from month to month. Then perhaps you can put out an annual or quarterly issue with all of them.

As an aside, does anyone else think it's funny that when you buy the PDF issue of #10, the top two "Readers of this book also viewed" entries are "I Was Kidnapped By Lesbian Pirates From Outer Space Issue 1 (of 6)" and "Sex Secrets: A Husband's Guide to Lovemaking"? Ha! Poor fellas. I have only two words for you: The Shocker.

[Steve W]

I don't think you need to put in current consoles, since their libraries are still growing. Besides, rarity only develops as the years go by, and Wii/PS3/360 games haven't had that much time on the market for that.

I'd say you can cut the TI and C64, since they were primarily computers (even though the C64 did have a game console made from it that nobody ever bought). You can always add the Atari XEGS/8-bits into the mix, since the XEGS was almost/sorta a mainstream game console for a few milliseconds (hey, I bought XE games at Wal-Mart back in the day, I never saw C64 stuff there).

[Mobius]

Ditch the Wii, PS3, and 360 then pare down the PS2, Xbox, and GameCube to just rare/valuable/unusual/interesting titles. Maybe pare down the PS1 catalog to anything worth more than $7 or so, since it's such a large list. Do a semi-annual issue with everything, if you really want to expand coverage.

Or you can do the same thing that baseball card price guides did back in the 90s (and probably still do, but I haven't seen one in like 15 years). For every system, just list the ones that are rare/valuable/unusual/interesting. Cut everything that falls below a certain price and call the rest "Commons" and give an average "commons" price.

[The 1 2 P]

Take out all the Atari stuff. Oh, I forgot you're a retro mag.

[swlovinist]

I would ditch the new systems(360, Wii, PS3, PSP, and DS) and axe the computer stuff. You could do a whole mag on retro computing, which to me is a whole other category of collectors. The new stuff is really just not what the mag is about. Just my two cents.


Not for every issue, it would be nice to have a vintage price guide to the Odyssey, Channel F, APF, and Arcadia 2001.

I wouldnt mind seeing an occasional coverage of the Laseractive, Nuon and CD32, but I know that those are pretty obscure.

[Trebuken]

Yeah I think you too could skip the current gen, though those would be the ones you might just note the ones that are uncommon. I think you can eliminate one generation from each issue, cycling each generation. You also might have an annual/biannual issue to cover the more obscure stuff like the Fairchild/Nuon/Astrocade/etc.

You could also consider posting the systems you skip online.

Are you leaving some out due to cost? time it takes to maitain the lists? both?

[smork]

(hey, I bought XE games at Wal-Mart back in the day, I never saw C64 stuff there).

We didn't have Wal-Mart much by me during the C64 heyday, but I did buy alot of C64 at Target and TRU. I say leave it in.

[jcalder8]

These are the ones that I would drop but I would do every 3rd issue with all the systems. That way every 6 months there would be a complete list.

Atari Lynx
Wii
Nintendo DS
Playstation 3
PSP
Xbox 360
cd-i
Neo Geo Pocket Color
TI-99 (Carts only)
Commodore 64 (Carts only)

[mobiusclimber]

definitely get rid of the current gen systems. problem w/ them is that the price can change drastically in a month, usually dropping pretty low. older systems are a lot more stable.

[Atarileaf]

Take out all the Atari stuff.

Bite your tongue.

[Astrocade]

Have a "quick hit" section for the new gens that show significant market activity for obscure or surprise titles. For example if there's a game, something like "Jungle Jim in the Planet of Doom" that is (A) not widely available (B) is not the "hot" new title, and (C) probably isn't going to be printed out of its initial run, that a lot of collectors are clamoring for, then it would be nice to have a "market watch" type notification.

Obscure systems that aren't covered like the Emerson Arcadia, The RCA Studio II etc. should have some representation, even if it's not every issue.

[chrisbid]

i would say the more games listed the better

if you have to cut at all, have a low end cutoff... say 10 dollars and only list titles that are worth that amount or more

[bangtango]

Or you can do the same thing that baseball card price guides did back in the 90s (and probably still do, but I haven't seen one in like 15 years). For every system, just list the ones that are rare/valuable/unusual/interesting. Cut everything that falls below a certain price and call the rest "Commons" and give an average "commons" price.

Perfect answer.

You could include all the systems mentioned from issue to issue and to save space, you'd be able to list the highest priced (or rarest) games only for each of the lesser systems and ignore the rest.

Then once a year or so, you could potentially put out a full sized spread listing ALL the games including the commons.

[videogametrader]

I appreciate all of the feedback.. Keep it coming :) I toyed with the idea of listing all but "common" games but I just didn't like the idea of not showing all of the games. But maybe an annual "double issue" that has every game for every system listed would work.

Please keep the ideas coming.

[The 1 2 P]

Slightly off topic but I still haven't received my free issue of video game trader from two months ago. My address may read "the depths of hell" but we still get mail here, once in a blood moon.

[videogametrader]

Slightly off topic but I still haven't received my free issue of video game trader from two months ago. My address may read "the depths of hell" but we still get mail here, once in a blood moon.

I show that we sent it around late december. I will send you another. I still have your address from the last one.

Tom

[coreys429]

I wanted to make a small note. What about sports titles? Axing a lot of them because do we really need to know if Madden 95 for SNES is up? Only the important rare sports games I would keep like Tecmo Super Bowl for NES or the Madden Champion Edition for Genesis.