VGA rated NWC Gold cart on eBay

[wiggyx]

This just seems absurd to me. You guys and gals have any feelings about it one way or another?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140740735543

I wonder if this will get picked up by the now infamous "negotiator"...

[Parodius Duh!]

Yeah my feelings are all graded games are bullshit and this asshole can shove his gold cart straight up his ass.


Why are the internals exposed? so the cart cvan be exposed to light damage and never work again? asshole.

[Greg2600]

Of course it's absurd. The people who deal in this stuff have no life.

[SpaceHarrier]

People can do what they want with their stuff, but yeah. This is like having a beautiful wife, but making her forever pose naked, leaning against the wall, and also slicing her in half so you can see her internal organs, as if that makes her somehow sexier..

[Colorado Rockies]

It looks retarded. If you are fortunate enough to own a NWC gold cart why the fuck would you break it apart like that?
I despise VGA as well

[skaar]

Like I said in the other thread, it's like gutting a puppy to show your friends. Just dumb.

I also liked how it was done "for display" then flogged almost right away after everyone called him an idiot.

[Gameguy]

I also liked how it was done "for display" then flogged almost right away after everyone called him an idiot.
Few people called him an idiot on Nintendo Age where he bragged about it, unless the tone of the thread changed since I've last read it. Most people thought it was awesome for some reason, probably because the case was shiny.

[Griking]

I've never been a big fan of the whole grading thing but after seeing the amount that some graded games have sold for on eBay there's no denying that it increases a game's value to some people.

They say that a fool and his money is soon parted. I blame the buyers, not the sellers.

[wiggyx]

Few people called him an idiot on Nintendo Age where he bragged about it, unless the tone of the thread changed since I've last read it. Most people thought it was awesome for some reason, probably because the case was shiny.

Nintendo Age = hardcore VGA faboys. That's all they talk about over there it seems. I think the VGA was invented just for them.

[G-Boobie]

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.

[goatdan]

This just seems absurd to me. You guys and gals have any feelings about it one way or another?

Can't say I'm surprised to see it up on eBay. A lot of the VGA stuff seems to go there after the first person gets it graded to sell for lots of money.

I sort of get the VGA thing. I mean, I have also collected both cards and action figures for a long, long time and that sort of stuff is common in those worlds. Having said that, I don't like sealed collecting in video games, so... yeah. I also can't say I own one graded anything for my other collections, although I do have a bunch of brand new action figures -- the difference to me though is that they look better displayed in packaging (usually) than they do out of it, so...

If your deal is that you want to grade it to look at, then great -- grade it and look at it. It's your stuff. This is just weird though -- I don't know of anyone who likes to check out their cart's internals all the time. We'll see if the game sells or not, and we'll see if it was worth it, I guess.

[Gameguy]

What interests me is whether that affects the value.
According to the thread on NA, it won't affect the value. It's just something for display that won't ever be played anyway even if it wasn't sealed in a case.


I've mentioned in another thread on this that people into retro games pretty much collect for one of two reasons. Either for preservation or for display purposes. The NA guys mostly focus on display purposes, who has the nicest looking collection to show off to strangers or to stare at to stoke a personal ego at how great they are for being able to own something not everybody else does.

It's like when you hear about celebrities that buy a pet tiger because it would match the decor in their living room. You just think these guys are nuts and completely out of touch with reality.

[Jaruff]

Damn, I should have had my N64 test cartridge graded before I sold it recently. Might have doubled my money. LOL

More power to the guy though. If someone is willing to pay that much for it, then I congratulate his wife on the many pair of shoes she will buy with the money. I personally would not have split the cart like that but it'll attract someone.

[theclaw]

Limited VGA use for real historical preservation intent, fine. I can even understand the prices on some games from a rarity point of view.

Still for display/history purposes a non-graded comparable service is more sensible. Description and number adds money without changing the game's shape.

[stardust4ever]

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. No bidders yet. Not surprising with a starting bid of 17 grand. That cart is worthless if the ROMs don't work. I'm happy enough just owning the Retrozone reproduction. Just curious, how many minutes of direct sunlight exposure does it take to erase an EPROM? I was under the assumption that a complete erasure required a 15-minute exposure underneath a germicidal UV-C lamp. UV-C is entirely blocked out by the Ozone layer, but small amounts of UV-B can penetrate it. I sincerely hope those display cases have UV protection, not only for the EPROMS but also for archiving box/label art. One could find out real quick by shining a black light through one and placing fluorescent material behind it.

In terms of ionization energy, not actual intensity...

heat > IR remote > candle < incandescent light bulb (visible) < fluorescent lighting (visible) < black light (harmless UV, but can fade some inks) < tanning lamp (suntan) < direct sunlight (sunburn) < germicidal UV lamp (kills stuff) < x-rays < gamma rays

I'm assuming that lesser energy radiation would need higher doses than higher-energy radiation to do equivalent damage. So could airport X-rays also damage EPROMs?


According to the thread on NA, it won't affect the value. It's just something for display that won't ever be played anyway even if it wasn't sealed in a case.

I've mentioned in another thread on this that people into retro games pretty much collect for one of two reasons. Either for preservation or for display purposes. The NA guys mostly focus on display purposes, who has the nicest looking collection to show off to strangers or to stare at to stoke a personal ego at how great they are for being able to own something not everybody else does.Don't judge all NA'ers. I've got tons more posts on NA than I do here, but I don't hoard games that I don't intend on playing. The practice of paying ridiculous quantities of money for factory sealed games that will never be opened particularly baffles me to no end. Same with insisting on having a complete set. Heck, I'll usually sell a game back to the store if I don't enjoy playing it; whether it's rare or not, it gives someone else a chance to enjoy it more than I do. Megaman series comes to mind as great games that for me have zero replay value. I had Megaman 1, 2, & 3 at one point, but I sold all three of them because they were all impossibly hard to play, even with a Game Genie.

[G-Boobie]

No bidders yet. Not surprising with a starting bid of 17 grand. That cart is worthless if the ROMs don't work. I'm happy enough just owning the Retrozone reproduction. Just curious, how many minutes of direct sunlight exposure does it take to erase an EPROM? I was under the assumption that a complete erasure required a 15-minute exposure underneath a germicidal UV-C lamp. UV-C is entirely blocked out by the Ozone layer, but small amounts of UV-B can penetrate it. I sincerely hope those display cases have UV protection, not only for the EPROMS but also for archiving box/label art. One could find out real quick by shining a black light through one and placing fluorescent material behind it.

In terms of ionization energy, not actual intensity...

heat > IR remote > candle < incandescent light bulb (visible) < fluorescent lighting (visible) < black light (harmless UV, but can fade some inks) < tanning lamp (suntan) < direct sunlight (sunburn) < germicidal UV lamp (kills stuff) < x-rays < gamma rays

I'm assuming that lesser energy radiation would need higher doses than higher-energy radiation to do equivalent damage. So could airport X-rays also damage EPROMs?

Don't judge all NA'ers. I've got tons more posts on NA than I do here, but I don't hoard games that I don't intend on playing. The practice of paying ridiculous quantities of money for factory sealed games that will never be opened particularly baffles me to no end. Same with insisting on having a complete set. Heck, I'll usually sell a game back to the store if I don't enjoy playing it; whether it's rare or not, it gives someone else a chance to enjoy it more than I do. Megaman series comes to mind as great games that for me have zero replay value. I had Megaman 1, 2, & 3 at one point, but I sold all three of them because they were all impossibly hard to play, even with a Game Genie.

You don't need to entirely erase the EPROMS. Just enough to render the data unreadable. I'm sure that the slab itself blocks most UV light, but if the right bit reads one, not zero, because its been hanging out on a wall across from a east facing window for a year, your super rare cart no longer functions. And that's incredibly stupid.

This is very much like someone pulling the staples out of Action Comics #1 and framing each individual page. If you're not entirely into comics, its a cool novelty. If, on the other hand, you're into comics history, its a fucking crime.

I can even see slabbing a whole, un-disassembled NWC cart: its kind of preservation. What this asshole did isn't preservation. It's carefully shellacking a corpse, and proudly hanging it in your den. "Hey guys, check it out! I ruined a piece of gaming history so I could sell it for a little more money!"

[AceAerosmith]

If someone spends even the minimum bid of $27K, they are truly a moron. That $27K could buy a lot of other playable games and systems.

[jperryss]

It irks me that he's owned the cart for 10 years, but played it as recently as a few months ago, meaning that he dissected and slabbed it ONLY for the sake of making it unique and jacking up his asking price.

He could've easily sold this cart as-is and let the buyer do what they want with it. This was a stupid thing to do with such a rarity, and I hope it doesn't sell for anywhere near what he's asking for it.

The Action Comics #1 comparison above is dead-on.

[jonebone]

Now, now, if any of you actually read the threads on NA, you'd know many of us thought it was a silly idea, myself included. It's just that the mods tend to come down with an iron fist to prevent arguments from spiraling out of control, which is actually a good thing. Constructive criticism is great, but jealous and spiteful comments are just childish. Grow up a bit.

I also thought exposing the EPROMs was tremendously stupid, but some experts have chimed in and mentioned only UV light should damage them. I don't know or really care, but it still seems silly to me.

However, one important thing for any NWC or prototype owner to consider is that all of these carts are ticking time bombs. Today we can argue about how much a non-working cart would devalue the item, but in the not too distant future, all of these carts will be non-working. Does that mean they are magically worth $0? I think not.

People haven't come to grips with reality yet, but these will still have value regardless of their working condition. Prototypes really scare me the most, because once that data is gone... does it still have any value? That's a much more interesting debate IMO.

[wiggyx]

Damn, I should have had my N64 test cartridge graded before I sold it recently. Might have doubled my money. LOL

More power to the guy though. If someone is willing to pay that much for it, then I congratulate his wife on the many pair of shoes she will buy with the money. I personally would not have split the cart like that but it'll attract someone.

This is something that I'm curious about now that the VGA has started grading games that were never in retail packaging in the 1st place. A test/proto cart would be the next logical step in non-new grading.

[stardust4ever]

If someone spends even the minimum bid of $27K, they are truly a moron. That $27K could buy a lot of other playable games and systems.Truth is, if they listed it with a BIN price of 17000, someone would have probably snatched it up by now. 27000 is too much FYI! Sad thing is, a bidding war would have probably drove the price up just as much if not more.:onfire:

[Buyatari]

On one hand new buyers who don't know the history of who owns real NWCs and how to look for fakes will appeciate the fact that it has been authenticated by someone. On the other hand most sealed games look better in VGA cases but if you ask me this one looks like shit.

I don't see this one selling.

[wingzrow]

Weren't rare, nearly one of a kind games like this printed on eeproms? Don't eeproms kind of, i dunno, ERASE when exposed to light?

I don't see how any fan of NES games who has any respect for the history of an item like this would ever dissemble the game like this, let alone continue to do it.

[G-Boobie]

Now, now, if any of you actually read the threads on NA, you'd know many of us thought it was a silly idea, myself included. It's just that the mods tend to come down with an iron fist to prevent arguments from spiraling out of control, which is actually a good thing. Constructive criticism is great, but jealous and spiteful comments are just childish. Grow up a bit.

I don't care about comics, really, but if I walked into someone's house and saw that they had disassembled Action Comics #1 and put the unbound pages into tasteful, art deco frames to hang on their wall, I'd call them an idiot. Same with this dude. He took something that's a bit more than a simple commodity; a piece of history with, what, fifty or so pieces known to exist, and wrecked it. Good job.

That's neither childish, nor spiteful. It's the truth, and calling it otherwise will not change it. I admit that doing so was entirely his prerogative as the owner, but it's still within my rights to call him an idiot, because that's how he's acting.


I also thought exposing the EPROMs was tremendously stupid, but some experts have chimed in and mentioned only UV light should damage them. I don't know or really care, but it still seems silly to me.

Simple sunlight produces enough UV light to mess up an exposed EPROM over time. Like I said, you don't need to entirely erase the EPROM; just frag enough of the data to render the cart unplayable. Hang that fucker on a living room wall, and it'll be unplayable pretty quick-like, and never mind what the VGA says about the UV protection of the slab. Even the RISK of it should have given him pause.


However, one important thing for any NWC or prototype owner to consider is that all of these carts are ticking time bombs. Today we can argue about how much a non-working cart would devalue the item, but in the not too distant future, all of these carts will be non-working. Does that mean they are magically worth $0? I think not.

Consider that, outside of the members of a very few NES collecting sites, no one gives a shit about owning an NWC cart, because the cart itself is completely irrelevant. It's the data that's on there, the game itself. I'll grant that a non-working NWC cart might be worth something years from now to a select, highly specialized group of NES collectors, but a non-working proto? Hell no. It's ONLY VALUE is the game on the cart, or disc. Once that's gone, it's dead, inert, worthless plastic. Your average proto isn't on some master "completion" list to be checked off. To collectors, they're 'investments' or novelties.

This is why I get so angry with prototype owners who hoard their protos. That fourteen ounce piece of plastic and silicon is worth exactly zero dollars. It's what's on it that counts, and the history of it. We'll never get to play Resident Evil 1.5 because some asshat is hiding it under his bed because he's afraid that it won't be worth as much if it gets put up for everyone to play. This is a crazy concept to me. especially considering the inevitable loss of data... and therefore the loss of their 'investment'.



People haven't come to grips with reality yet, but these will still have value regardless of their working condition. Prototypes really scare me the most, because once that data is gone... does it still have any value? That's a much more interesting debate IMO.

Some value, maybe. Not $27,000 in cold hard cash. Eventually, it's just going to be the guys on NA selling their carts back and forth like some kind of continual, checking account draining circle jerk, pretending that it's OK that none of their carts work anymore because the very fact that they USED to work makes them valuable somehow.

I feel bad for people like that. Hey, guys! Remember when the reason we used to own games was because we like to PLAY THEM? Wasn't that awesome?

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Um,

wouldn't it cost LESS than $27,000 to get a gold NWC and have it graded/slabbed?

[Buyatari]

Um,

wouldn't it cost LESS than $27,000 to get a gold NWC and have it graded/slabbed?

It should. If you know where you can find one that is for sale.

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

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

It should. If you know where you can find one that is for sale.

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

Right, of course. I'm saying best case scenario of real cart and reasonable cash-in-hand deal.

The most recent sales of gold NWC on record seem to be less than $27000, I know the grading/slabbing service is expensive, but not several thousand dollars expensive.

[G-Boobie]

Um,

wouldn't it cost LESS than $27,000 to get a gold NWC and have it graded/slabbed?

Indeed, but this entire episode has shown us that the seller is not equipped with a functional nervous system.

[Buyatari]

Right, of course. I'm saying best case scenario of real cart and reasonable cash-in-hand deal.

The most recent sales of gold NWC on record seem to be less than $27000, I know the grading/slabbing service is expensive, but not several thousand dollars expensive.

These are hard to price. They only come up for sale every now and then and there are often price jumps with new sales. Still if you are asking if it is overpriced I'd say yes if only for the fact that it hasn't been bought.

[jonebone]

This auction isn't over yet guys, I'm still 50/50 on whether it sells or not. Considering the insane inflation rates that I've seen in the NES scene, $27k for an NWC Gold actually seems undervalued to me. The only problem is that this display can actually be hindering the sale IMO.

If someone put an NWC Gold up for $27k in it's normal shell in Very Good cosmetic shape and with screenshots verifying it's working order, I'd bet money it sells.

[jonebone]

Consider that, outside of the members of a very few NES collecting sites, no one gives a shit about owning an NWC cart, because the cart itself is completely irrelevant. It's the data that's on there, the game itself. I'll grant that a non-working NWC cart might be worth something years from now to a select, highly specialized group of NES collectors, but a non-working proto? Hell no. It's ONLY VALUE is the game on the cart, or disc. Once that's gone, it's dead, inert, worthless plastic. Your average proto isn't on some master "completion" list to be checked off. To collectors, they're 'investments' or novelties.

This is why I get so angry with prototype owners who hoard their protos. That fourteen ounce piece of plastic and silicon is worth exactly zero dollars. It's what's on it that counts, and the history of it. We'll never get to play Resident Evil 1.5 because some asshat is hiding it under his bed because he's afraid that it won't be worth as much if it gets put up for everyone to play. This is a crazy concept to me. especially considering the inevitable loss of data... and therefore the loss of their 'investment'.


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.

[BeaglePuss]

Weren't rare, nearly one of a kind games like this printed on eeproms? Don't eeproms kind of, i dunno, ERASE when exposed to light?


No, they contain EPROMs. Two different things.

[wiggyx]

This auction isn't over yet guys, I'm still 50/50 on whether it sells or not. Considering the insane inflation rates that I've seen in the NES scene, $27k for an NWC Gold actually seems undervalued to me. The only problem is that this display can actually be hindering the sale IMO.

If someone put an NWC Gold up for $27k in it's normal shell in Very Good cosmetic shape and with screenshots verifying it's working order, I'd bet money it sells.

How much?

I've got 20 bucks that it doesn't, at least not for nearly the 27K starting bid.


No, they contain EPROMs. Two different things.

Man, there needs to be a sticky with this info. This causes confusion on a regular basis on so many gaming forums :/

[XYXZYZ]

Player-2? Hey, I know that guy! He's Player-2 here on the DP forums. He used to have a great classic game shop here, but it's since folded and I haven't seen him since. He was a nice guy.


And waitaminute! That NWC cart is missing the original screws! Somewhere, in that guy's house, there are a set of three screws worth $1,000.00 each...

[wiggyx]

Everyone keeps asking about the screws LOL!

He says they're actually screwed into the cart inside the coffin.

[skaar]

I think a 5 screw variant should be worth more.

[Rickstilwell1]

I think a 5 screw variant should be worth more.

He probably screwed himself out of 5x the amount of money by taking it apart? "Huh huh huh screw."

[goatdan]

Some value, maybe. Not $27,000 in cold hard cash. Eventually, it's just going to be the guys on NA selling their carts back and forth like some kind of continual, checking account draining circle jerk, pretending that it's OK that none of their carts work anymore because the very fact that they USED to work makes them valuable somehow.

I feel bad for people like that. Hey, guys! Remember when the reason we used to own games was because we like to PLAY THEM? Wasn't that awesome?

To be totally fair, this happens with every collectible at some point. It becomes collectible because a certain group of people start to want it, and it drives pricing up. Eventually, as the group that has the nostalgic connection to that era either gets what they want from it already, or stops collecting it, or decides it is time to sell, you see prices drop somewhat, and demand lower. You can already see this with Atari 2600 carts -- 10 years ago at the MGC, it was all that everyone wanted to look at. We would bring about 100 carts, and sell about 25 of them. This year, we brought 200 2600 carts and we sold three of them. And for a lot of the stuff, our prices are cheaper now than they were then. Oh, and there were about 5,000 extra people at the show too.

Nintendo has done the exact opposite, and I figure it will continue to hold it's value pretty well for a while because unlike Atari, which basically died in the early 90s and most people have forgotten about, Nintendo keeps driving demand of their own stuff thanks to them referencing their history often in their own titles and stuff like that. Who he heck is the Robot on Mario Kart? Holy crap, they made this!? I want one!

I would be very surprised though if in about 30 years, NES games were worth half of what they are worth now.

But again, that's cool -- if you collect for the reason that you want to collect, and collect the stuff that you want to collect, there is no issue with doing whatever you want. It doesn't mean that you'll necessarily get the value you want for it later, but you can do whatever you want with it.

Oh, and I'd just like to also add... a few years ago, we were seriously considering doing the 'grading' thing with the GOAT Store right about the time the VGA site started offering to do it, with the thought that we could do so a little cheaper and we were sure we had a good background to do so. But, after seeing the prices it cost to encase a game and get it graded, we thought that no one would ever be willing to pay that much.

Whoops.

Ah well, I don't really believe in that sort of thing anyway, so I'm sure I'm not the best guy to do it :)

[treismac]

Eventually, it's just going to be the guys on NA selling their carts back and forth like some kind of continual, checking account draining circle jerk, pretending that it's OK that none of their carts work anymore because the very fact that they USED to work makes them valuable somehow.

I feel bad for people like that. Hey, guys! Remember when the reason we used to own games was because we like to PLAY THEM? Wasn't that awesome?

It was awesome, wasn't it?

Merely collecting games you enjoyed from childhood without actually playing them is a perverse form of nostalgia. Games have a purpose. Fulfill that purpose or collect stamps, baseball cards, or some other non-interactable item.

There have been a good bit of apt analogies used to capture something of the stupidity of this dissected NWA cart, but I want to contribute one more. Having a golden NWA cart and rendering it unplayable is like marrying the hottest trophy wife you can afford, and then castrating yourself. She might look good on your arm, but what's the point, man?

[Buyatari]

It was awesome, wasn't it?

Merely collecting games you enjoyed from childhood without actually playing them is a perverse form of nostalgia. Games have a purpose. Fulfill that purpose or collect stamps, baseball cards, or some other non-interactable item.

There have been a good bit of apt analogies used to capture something of the stupidity of this dissected NWA cart, but I want to contribute one more. Having a golden NWA cart and rendering it unplayable is like marrying the hottest trophy wife you can afford, and then castrating yourself. She might look good on your arm, but what's the point, man?

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. As people said before at this point it is just a trophy of the hunt. When I wanted to play games I played Halo. When I found something I really wanted I sold The NWC but it went up from 4k to 12k in that time. Today it is more like 20k but I don't regret selling it. It was fun to show off every now and then but that was about it.

This isn't like cutting your wife in half or your dick off. This is putting a hot centerfold poster on the wall of the bedroom and still having a wife. One to look at the other to have fun with. These guys who buy these still play games but many don't play classic games. Box it up or whatever because chances are it wasn't going to be played anyway.

[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.

[Jaruff]

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.

I have to study the markets a bit more but I'm leaning towards having some items graded in the future just for resell purposes. If someone is willing to spend double or triple the going rate because I spent $20-30 (or whatever it is) to have the game professionally graded, more power to them and more power to my wallet.

Maybe I should get some of my Genesis stuff graded and start asking outrageous prices for them. LOL

[stardust4ever]

Well, there's 20 minutes left if any last minute snipers out there are dumb enough to bite...

So whenever a video game is graded, it is sealed away permanently encased in plastic forever? I thought typically only factory sealed games got this treatment. If it's CIB open, that would be a sad day indeed for people who actually buy games to PLAY them. Reminds me of Sleeping Beauty in the glass coffin, but no prince's kiss to ever rescue her... :(

[Jaruff]

Well, there's 20 minutes left if any last minute snipers out there are dumb enough to bite...

So whenever a video game is graded, it is sealed away permanently encased in plastic forever? I thought typically only factory sealed games got this treatment. If it's CIB open, that would be a sad day indeed for people who actually buy games to PLAY them. Reminds me of Sleeping Beauty in the glass coffin, but no prince's kiss to ever rescue her... :(

From what I remember in the listing, the seller stated it could be removed from the case, put back together, and played.

[LimitedEditionMuseum]

I dont understand why people get so upset. Most people look at US like we are crazy for spending only $100 on old NES games that they think are crap? If someone wants to spend one million on the same thing we collect, just on a much higher level, how can you criticize them? The grading thing is split in every form of collecting, cards, Hot wheels and vintage toys. I think the thing that gets us mad about the grading is thats when you start to take a love for the hobby and make it about money. I have a huge vintage Transformers collection and I HATE when people say "wow, those are worth some money"
I hate it!!!!!!!!!!!!! I collect mint in box but not mint in sealed box because I want to actually see the item inside. On the other hand, if you have an item so rare, it should be preserved the best way possible and that is to slab it. I have an Xmen #1 and I would be crazy not to slab it to keep it from deteriorating.

[Bojay1997]

I dont understand why people get so upset. Most people look at US like we are crazy for spending only $100 on old NES games that they think are crap? If someone wants to spend one million on the same thing we collect, just on a much higher level, how can you criticize them? The grading thing is split in every form of collecting, cards, Hot wheels and vintage toys. I think the thing that gets us mad about the grading is thats when you start to take a love for the hobby and make it about money. I have a huge vintage Transformers collection and I HATE when people say "wow, those are worth some money"
I hate it!!!!!!!!!!!!! I collect mint in box but not mint in sealed box because I want to actually see the item inside. On the other hand, if you have an item so rare, it should be preserved the best way possible and that is to slab it. I have an Xmen #1 and I would be crazy not to slab it to keep it from deteriorating.

I just strongly disagree that slabbing a game is the best way to preserve it. The reality is that unlike books or comics or baseball cards, video games are made of not only paper and cardboard, but plastic and metal. Those components by their very nature will deteriorate over time and actually begin to react with each other and break down. Shrink wrap is an even more serious problem because there is no known way to prevent it from breaking down, shrinking or deteriorating over time. So, while a comic book might be able to be preserved in nice condition for perhaps hundreds of years, a video game cannot be. As such, people paying outrageous amounts of money for graded games are investing in something that will not last a lifetime and has very little long term value unfortunately.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

I'd bet money it sells.

Hope you didn't bet money, because it didn't sell.

[goatdan]

Played or played not the game itself cares not.

This has to be my favorite DP quote of all time. Kudos, oh Jedi Game Master ;)


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

Yeah, and buying it was worth WAY more than $28k to them. Look, someone just mentioned Golden Palace dot com bought it. Go there and check it out!

Actually, true story -- I was working as a tech at the time, and one of my co-workers heard about that piece of toast and bought virginmarytoast dot com or something like that and was planning on putting it up as a little joke site. Cost him I think $12.95. Shortly thereafter, the toast blew up the news media, and when GoldenPalace won the auction, they immediately contacted him to buy the name. I believe that he got $2000 for it too.

You can't underestimate how much advertising something like that is worth to a company. And an online casino? It totally makes sense.

[stardust4ever]

I just strongly disagree that slabbing a game is the best way to preserve it. The reality is that unlike books or comics or baseball cards, video games are made of not only paper and cardboard, but plastic and metal. Those components by their very nature will deteriorate over time and actually begin to react with each other and break down. Shrink wrap is an even more serious problem because there is no known way to prevent it from breaking down, shrinking or deteriorating over time. So, while a comic book might be able to be preserved in nice condition for perhaps hundreds of years, a video game cannot be. As such, people paying outrageous amounts of money for graded games are investing in something that will not last a lifetime and has very little long term value unfortunately.I beg to differ with you about the longevity of cartridges. The original NES and SNES carts will still be around long after the Wii/GC/Xbox/PS discs are old and so brittle that you cannot remove it from the case without cracking the disc. Atari 2600 carts from the 1977 launch still work, and the gray plastic of NES caes are just as robust. PCB boards are known to last even longer. Some of the earliest PCB components and logic chips ever manufactured still work. Same with transistor radios. Much of the CD and DVD media purchased even from as late as the 90s are already developing cracks around the spindle. these hairline cracks will slowly grow over time, even without handling, and once they reach the silver data layer, the disc will be rendered unreadable. So it is quite likely that the original game cartridges will outlast your latest Xbox360, Wii, and PS3 games. In 2050, all current gen games will be yellowed, cracked, cloudy plastic and entirely unplayable, yet retail NES carts (not protos) will continue work. Ever seen 30-year-old plexiglass? It's so yellow and cloudy you can't see through it. CDs, DVDs will be the same way.

What I don't agree with about the VGA philosophy is sealing off the carts so that they cannot be played, and collecting for display or preservation only. Yes, opening and playing will devalue a sealed game, but not loose carts. While one could argue that action figures, etc are meant to be played with as well, with video games, it's all about the data on the cart; the box, manual, and cart label are just the icing on the cake. As an interactive media, it just doesn't make sense not to play them. It makes me wonder if video game collecting is at a similar state as baseball cards were in 1990. People used to pay huge amounts of money for trading cards, but now the hobby is mostly bust, and all but the rarest and oldest of cards have deflated in value the past ten years.

I'm surprize with the economy the way it is, more people aren't selling off their collections. Most vintage collectables have devalued with the failing economy, yet NES collecting seems to be the one genre that has bucked the trend and gone up instead of down.

EDIT: Nobody bought it. Go figure. Do it he right way and re-list it with a 99 cent minimum, and let the bid wars commence. For a BIN, $17,000 is a fair price, NOT $27,000!

[Gameguy]

I just strongly disagree that slabbing a game is the best way to preserve it.
Unless those cases are filled with argon gas I doubt they'll help preserve anything except by keeping people from touching them with their grubby hands. If there's air in the case, it will continue to slowly deteriorate. Cases and comic bags just help with handling them better, you just want those to be acid free so they won't assist in the degradation.

[goatdan]

It makes me wonder if video game collecting is at a similar state as baseball cards were in 1990. People used to pay huge amounts of money for trading cards, but now the hobby is mostly bust, and all but the rarest and oldest of cards have deflated in value the past ten years.

Card collecting got into what it is because they grossly, grossly overproduced most of the cards in the 90s, and then sold them to "collectors" as an investment that they were meant to sell in ten or so years for tons of money. Card companies started producing too many sets, and people caught on that they weren't rare, and everyone started dumping inventory.

When that died out, card companies started producing cards that had to be extremely rare to get people interested again -- like "hey, this contains part of a base, and we're only making 100 of them!!" or something. It has sort of worked, enough that now Panini and Topps have both reintroduced really cheap sets of cards to try to get kids interested in collecting them again.

It was when card collecting when from hobby to investment that the trouble began, and it cost a ton of card companies their business.

Game collecting definitely doesn't follow the same trend. I don't know anyone who was buying tons of NES games back in the day because Nintendo was promising that in 10 years they could get hundreds of bucks for them. They produced what there was demand for.

[Bojay1997]

I'm sorry, but "much" of the CD and DVD media purchased from the 90s on is cracking? That's not even close to accurate. I have many CDs from the dawn of audio compact discs in the 80s and none of them are brittle and cracking as you describe. While there are certainly examples of CDs and other optical media that go bad over the years (and there are plenty of sites that list the well known culprit discs as they tended to be from particular print runs or batches), there are also plenty of cartridges that have gone bad. My point was that none of this stuff was designed to last for decades and certainly with many game cartridges now pushing 40 years old, it's unlikely that sticking them in a plastic shell (which has air holes by the way if you're talking about a VGA case) is going to somehow preserve them forever. Air pollution, moisture and humidity, light, odor, mold, vermin and all manner of other factors destroy plastic, paper and cardboard over time. Similarly, very few people are having loose cartridges graded. In fact, I don't even think VGA will do that unless the game was originally sold that way.

I could care less about the argument regarding games being just for playing. People are free to collect games in whatever way they want. Some people derive enjoyment and nostalgia from owning sealed games. That's cool. Some people want to play their games and have no interest in boxes or instructions. That's cool too. None of that changes the fact that every one of these cartridges and discs will fail at some point regardless of whether you stick them in a plastic case or not.


I beg to differ with you about the longevity of cartridges. The original NES and SNES carts will still be around long after the Wii/GC/Xbox/PS discs are old and so brittle that you cannot remove it from the case without cracking the disc. Atari 2600 carts from the 1977 launch still work, and the gray plastic of NES caes are just as robust. PCB boards are known to last even longer. Some of the earliest PCB components and logic chips ever manufactured still work. Same with transistor radios. Much of the CD and DVD media purchased even from as late as the 90s are already developing cracks around the spindle. these hairline cracks will slowly grow over time, even without handling, and once they reach the silver data layer, the disc will be rendered unreadable. So it is quite likely that the original game cartridges will outlast your latest Xbox360, Wii, and PS3 games. In 2050, all current gen games will be yellowed, cracked, cloudy plastic and entirely unplayable, yet retail NES carts (not protos) will continue work. Ever seen 30-year-old plexiglass? It's so yellow and cloudy you can't see through it. CDs, DVDs will be the same way.

What I don't agree with about the VGA philosophy is sealing off the carts so that they cannot be played, and collecting for display or preservation only. Yes, opening and playing will devalue a sealed game, but not loose carts. While one could argue that action figures, etc are meant to be played with as well, with video games, it's all about the data on the cart; the box, manual, and cart label are just the icing on the cake. As an interactive media, it just doesn't make sense not to play them. It makes me wonder if video game collecting is at a similar state as baseball cards were in 1990. People used to pay huge amounts of money for trading cards, but now the hobby is mostly bust, and all but the rarest and oldest of cards have deflated in value the past ten years.

I'm surprize with the economy the way it is, more people aren't selling off their collections. Most vintage collectables have devalued with the failing economy, yet NES collecting seems to be the one genre that has bucked the trend and gone up instead of down.

EDIT: Nobody bought it. Go figure. Do it he right way and re-list it with a 99 cent minimum, and let the bid wars commence. For a BIN, $17,000 is a fair price, NOT $27,000!

[Parodius Duh!]

For the price you could literally buy every other existing NES title, all the European exclusive releases, and probably the vast majority of Famicom carts except for maybe a Gold Rockman 4.

[wiggyx]

From what I remember in the listing, the seller stated it could be removed from the case, put back together, and played.

Yeah, if you smash it with a hammer. I call those things coffins for a reason ;)

[G-Boobie]

I'm sorry, but "much" of the CD and DVD media purchased from the 90s on is cracking? That's not even close to accurate. I have many CDs from the dawn of audio compact discs in the 80s and none of them are brittle and cracking as you describe. While there are certainly examples of CDs and other optical media that go bad over the years (and there are plenty of sites that list the well known culprit discs as they tended to be from particular print runs or batches), there are also plenty of cartridges that have gone bad. My point was that none of this stuff was designed to last for decades and certainly with many game cartridges now pushing 40 years old, it's unlikely that sticking them in a plastic shell (which has air holes by the way if you're talking about a VGA case) is going to somehow preserve them forever. Air pollution, moisture and humidity, light, odor, mold, vermin and all manner of other factors destroy plastic, paper and cardboard over time. Similarly, very few people are having loose cartridges graded. In fact, I don't even think VGA will do that unless the game was originally sold that way.

Agreed. Data loss occurs in a variety of ways, and certainly some discs will end up dying before their advertised time, but I'm looking at a CD from 1994 right now that works as well as the day I bought it. Optical media (we're talking about factory manufactured optical media: burned discs are a different story) is a pretty long lasting format.

The moral of the story is: take care of your shit and it won't die.

To clarify my point on the NWC cart's value: I could care less about how this idiot chooses to treat his property, except that he had the scrotum to dismantle it in a way that clearly hastens its decay, and THEN tried to sell it for what people seem to agree is ten thousand dollars more than the value of a non-wrecked copy. He did this with his chest thrust out proudly. That's nutty behavior for someone who clearly collects rare video games and understands their value. It makes no sense.

From some of the replies, it seems that my idea of what constitutes value in a game is different than others, and even if that weren't true, I communicated my opinion poorly. From my perspective, the cart is only worth it's asking price if it's whole and functional. I don't buy a luxury sports car and pay ten thousand dollars more than the price of a road-ready model because the previous owner took out the engine and tastefully arranged the components in a shadow box. I don't do this because the car no longer functions. It's worth LESS THAN A WORKING CAR. That analogy gets worse when it's a classic Mustang. Car nuts would freak out.

If two people were each selling a gold NWC cart, and one of them doesn't boot, it would sell for less money. Significantly less, I'd be willing to bet. This is because it's less than whole. It's broken. It no longer fulfills it's function. End of story. This guy took a rare, valuable cart, and did damage to it, and then tried selling it for thirty percent more than the value of a whole cart, and he justified this by saying that it's been "preserved". That's also crazy.

No one bought it. Next time, champ, try selling the cart without the slab, screwed together, and provably functioning. I bet your cart sells that time.

[BeaglePuss]

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?
It was a Donkey Kong Competition prototype cart that was in a case similar to that of the SNES Campus Challenge. I was contacted by a member of Atari Age when the game wasn't even being advertised for sale. He must be a big fan of either Donkey Kong, SNES, prototypes, or comp carts. Whatever the reason, I wasn't about to turn down that type of money for a paperweight.

You mentioned in a previous post that you've seen non-working prototypes sell for next to nothing in the past. Do you happen to recall any of those sale or have any links to such sales? I'm just curious as I don't know of any such prototype sale in recent history, and I tend to be pretty active in those type of things.