If you had the money & were so inclined...

[Gemini-Phoenix]

If you had the money & the time... Would you perhaps be inclined to buy up all the copies you could find of an already rare game, in order to create the illusion that a specific game were actually much rarer than believed?

For example, provided you had the cashflow, would you perhaps buy up every original copy of NWC (NES) you could find, and hoard them? Would this then make any other existing copies rarer? Or increase the value of copies already owned? Likewise, what about sealed copies of games like Chrono Trigger (NTSC U SNES)? Obviously aiming to buy as many copies of NWC as you could is a much easier task as you know exactly how many copies exist, and thus every aquired copy would increase the value of remaining copies owned...

Would anyone be so selfish though? It's a thought which has passed through my mind many a time when watching videogame auctions for rare games such as this, and I think to myself: "If only I had unlimited funds...". I have seen many copies of NWC for sale over the years, and just wondered whether any one person ever considered buying all of them? Especially all of the gold NWC carts, few as they are.

Also, if you were inclinded to do such a thing, and had the funds, would you keep it a secret? Obviously if people caught onto what you were up to then there could be repurcussions amongst the various gaming and collecting communities, so would you perhaps collecct such things in secret and only let on that you owned one copy, when in fact you may actually own multiple copies of a rare game?

[ProgrammingAce]

If you had, say $150,000 to buy all of the NWC carts, there would be far better and more secure ways to increase your investment. So no, that would be retarded.

And if you had unlimited money, why would you worry about making more money?

[Rickstilwell1]

I know of a silly person on another board who is obsessed with Final Fantasy 7 so they bought like 50 copies of it or something weird. They talked about how many varients they had found but IMO it's a bit obsessive to keep that many of the same game for personal purposes.

At least that's a game that can now be downloaded off PSN and has been rereleased as Greatest Hits over the years.

Other than that I never heard of anyone doing such a thing unless it was a store who wanted plenty of copies to sell off. Having plenty of rare games in stock at a store attracts customers (and thieves lol)

[Cryomancer]

Some guy seemed to be doing this with Magical Chase awhile back...he bought like every copy that hit ebay.

Personally I think it's both pointless and sort of a dick move to your fellow members of the hobby. However there is a nice inverted situation like this that has happened, where one person ends up buying a crate of otherwise uncommon games and then sells them off to everyone else. Didn't that happen with Cheetahmen or something? That's cool.

[backguard]

I had someone try to do this with me. I found 4 new, non-gh Silent Hill 1 cheap as ___ in Philadelphia. Put 3 of them on ebay and kept one for the collection.

Some guy messages me asking about how many I have because he would like to (and I quote) "corner the market" on them. Stupid and lame.

[c0ldb33r]

I DO have the money and I AM so inclined.

I'm going to do it with Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt.

Wish me luck!

[Malon_Forever]

Some guy seemed to be doing this with Magical Chase awhile back...he bought like every copy that hit ebay.

When I was looking to get a copy of Clay Fighter Sculptor's Cut, the same user on ebay kept buying up all the copies. This was pretty annoying since it seemed he/she would pay whatever amount of money for each copy.

I came to the conclusion that he/she wanted 63 and 1/3 copies! :D

[ProgrammingAce]

There's another economic problem with this theory...

Let's say there are 12 gold NWCs. After you buy the first 5 or so, people are going to start noticing. When you go to buy the 6th one, the price will have gone from $15,000 to $25,000. The 7th will be even more expensive. As you keep buying the game, you're not only creating rarity in the overall marketplace, but for yourself as well.

If the only two people on the planet who own the game are yourself and DreamTR, Dream's pristine copy will go from $40,000 to $1,000,000

[TonyTheTiger]

And if you had unlimited money, why would you worry about making more money?

You clearly have never seen Wall Street.

But, in all seriousness, I agree. It would be a terribly inefficient way to turn a profit.


If the only two people on the planet who own the game are yourself and DreamTR, Dream's pristine copy will go from $40,000 to $1,000,000

Then you eventually end up in a situation where the only people who own anything will just flat out refuse to sell for any reason short of extreme financial hardship. If that ends up happening then the item may as well not exist at all for pricing purposes since nobody who doesn't already own one will ever be able to obtain one through a means not involving actual theft. So, yeah, I agree that it's really not a sound plan.

[The 1 2 P]

I know of a silly person on another board who is obsessed with Final Fantasy 7 so they bought like 50 copies of it or something weird. They talked about how many varients they had found but IMO it's a bit obsessive to keep that many of the same game for personal purposes.

He's actually a member of this board too.


I had someone try to do this with me. I found 4 new, non-gh Silent Hill 1 cheap as ___ in Philadelphia. Put 3 of them on ebay and kept one for the collection.

Some guy messages me asking about how many I have because he would like to (and I quote) "corner the market" on them. Stupid and lame.

You should have told him you'd sell them all to him for a huge markup, like $300 a piece. That should have sent the message loud and clear;)

As for me, I once bought about three versions of the Japanese import version of Perfect Dark for N64, all complete. The second one was just to replace an imperfection on my copy and the third one I got cheaper than the other two. I actually thought about trying to buy any I saw on ebay but I decided there was no need for that and I sold the extra copies for a nice profit.

[Daria]

I would like to think that no amount of money would turn me into a total asshat.

[calistarwind]

I DO have the money and I AM so inclined.

I'm going to do it with Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt.

Wish me luck!

That was the most I have laughed all day! Thank you.

[XYXZYZ]

I DO have the money and I AM so inclined.

I'm going to do it with Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt.

Wish me luck!

Years ago I met a guy who was doing just that. He was wearing a belt and ammo sash type thing that were full of SMB/DH cartridges. It was at an anime convention in the mid 90s.

[Kid Ice]

If you had the money & the time... Would you perhaps be inclined to buy up all the copies you could find of an already rare game, in order to create the illusion that a specific game were actually much rarer than believed?

Like, for instance, Berenstain Bears for the VCS?

[TheDomesticInstitution]

I'd probably travel the world and chill it with the video games for a while.

[Kitsune Sniper]

I know of a silly person on another board who is obsessed with Final Fantasy 7 so they bought like 50 copies of it or something weird. They talked about how many varients they had found but IMO it's a bit obsessive to keep that many of the same game for personal purposes.

Eskobar? Yeah, he's pretty damn crazy. :P

[TonyTheTiger]

A person wanting to do this may as well just buy a one of a kind. If only one known copy of something exists, buy it and then you have legitimately cornered the market. You can freely name your price. But even then, you have to consider what a potential buyer is willing to pay. Even if you have the only copy of X game/prototype in existence, you probably will never find a buyer willing (or able) to pay $1,000,000 for it. So even after cornering the market you still have to bow to what people are willing to pay if you ever care to sell what you've just acquired.

[ryborg]

I have a friend who used to work for a MAJOR world-wide sports card/memorabilia shop. They would do exactly this, and at least in the genre of sports crap, it can be very profitable if done correctly and covertly.

[unwinddesign]

I think it would definetely work, but only on something that had a limited print run and also had a print run that can be measured.

Trying to buy every sealed copy of Chrono Trigger wouldn't work, because there's probably a few hundred of them in the wild (at least), and who knows when someone digs through old store stock what they could find. If someone finds a case of Chrono Triggers in storage, there goes your investment value...

With the NWC cart, it's possible, but only if you do it covertly, as Ryborg said. You would make money, but only if people didn't start to catch on...

[digitalpress]

I've already bought up all of the Air Raids and Gauntlets for the Atari 2600. Working on GameCube NCAA 2k3 (go ahead, laugh and let's meet again in 10 years).

So I suppose it's possible. You just have to find the *right* game to horde. Silly to try anything Mario or Final Fantasy, either loads of people already own them or THINK they're hording them already.

[Haoie]

That's terrible!!

Worst kind of selfishness.

[Ed Oscuro]

Some guys did this with furniture, but nobody knew about the particular maker and he wasn't churning pieces out in video game numbers (not even close) so they were able to effectively hoard and then stimulate the market. You want to develop the market for video games past the already inflated public perception of the value? Good luck!!

[jcalder8]

If I had that much time and that much money then I would. But it would only be after I had complete collections of pretty much every system, then it would come down to seeing if I could get a complete collection of NWCs.

I wouldn't do it for the money just for something new to collect.

[backguard]

I've already bought up all of the Air Raids and Gauntlets for the Atari 2600. Working on GameCube NCAA 2k3 (go ahead, laugh and let's meet again in 10 years).

So I suppose it's possible. You just have to find the *right* game to horde. Silly to try anything Mario or Final Fantasy, either loads of people already own them or THINK they're hording them already.

You will never get my sealed NCAA 2k3 :P

[TonyTheTiger]

I've already bought up all of the Air Raids and Gauntlets for the Atari 2600. Working on GameCube NCAA 2k3 (go ahead, laugh and let's meet again in 10 years).

So I suppose it's possible. You just have to find the *right* game to horde. Silly to try anything Mario or Final Fantasy, either loads of people already own them or THINK they're hording them already.

NCAA? Even that sounds like a huge undertaking. Backguard's sealed copy, I have a couple used copies, a good number of people on this site probably have a fair share and you never know who out there just happens to have one and has no idea what the story is behind it. But, hey, good luck if that's a goal of yours.

I still think, however, that the value of an item will plateau even if one person does corner the market. Let's say there are 100 copies of something and in the general market they're worth about $200. So if I invest about $20000 to buy up every single copy then that means I can now name my price. If I'm reasonable about it then, sure, I can get maybe $300 for a copy now. Once people get saavy to the fact that either they deal with me or don't get the item they'll play ball.

But everybody has a limit. It's entirely possible that if I say each copy costs $1000 a piece I won't find a buyer because nobody would value the item higher than they'd value the $1000 in their wallets. I still need to set a realistic price that both matches what a buyer is willing to pay for the item and also a price that people who would be interested in the item could realistically afford.

Granted, if you could sell at $1000 making $800 on a $200 investment is not a bad deal at all. But you can't do the math and say $1000*100 = $100000 - $20000 initial investment = $80000 profit. Because as you start selling off copies the market is now being revitalized which just might drop the price. Fewer people are now interested in buying from you.

It still can be profitable (and will be if the long term dedication is there) but I don't think it's an efficient get rich quick scheme which I think is what the topic is asking about.

[Iron Draggon]

just do what I do... buy sealed copies and open them... do this enough times and there won't be anymore sealed copies of anything... sealed prices go up, and fellow collectors thank you for making their sealed copies more valuable!