Dear Digital Press, Why is Earthbound so Expensive?

[Querjek]

DP Community,

There is a strange terror afoot.

Its street name figurehead presents itself as the sole yoyo-bearer in a popular fighting game series. He looks cute and innocent but his button eyes scream first-party RPG with a cult undersanding to most who've followed 1995 in console gaming. The sequel to this game was supposed to be pretty decent but it won't be seen in another language outside Japan for a long decade or so, I would wager.

I used to own this game and I thought it was pretty good. The humor was solid yet the mechanics were plain, but effective. A true kids' comedy on a console was a hard find in my 1995 Ohio childhood. I made it to Fourside before I glitched myself out of beating it. I ran into a tunnel haphazard and despite some bus interacting with my characters there, I could neither return to Threed nor further the story into (presumably) Fiveton.

In the midst of 2006, I bought that game for a decent price. Soon thereafter, I made the same mistake that I made as a child to Funcoland toward that Nintendo-made game that I so long for today. So, DP Community, other than for the awesomeness of the story, please explain to me why Earthbound is selling for upwards of $140+ on eBay right now. Sure, it's a good game, but more than double its retail?

P.S. But please don't rub in how bad it must feel for me to have sold mine in 2008 for $xx. I was stuck in the tunnel again and the profit off it seemed unmatchable.

[wiggyx]

As I understand it, there was some sort of Earthbound trophy or something like that in one of the Super Smash Brothers games and that introduced all the sub-30 year old kiddies to it. I don't care for SSB, so I haven't seen it for myself.

"It's teh retroz!!!"

[j_factor]

Because fuck you, that's why.

Seriously though, the game doesn't merit its price. It's uncommon but it's not that rare. I paid around $40 for my copy, and at the time I hesitated to spend that much on a loose cartridge. I'm glad I did, because I would never get it at today's prices. I like the game a lot but I've never paid over $100 for a game. I don't know how much Super Smash Bros has to do with the price. I don't remember when exactly I bought my copy, but it was definitely less than ten years ago, after there had been two Smash Bros games. And I paid in the normal market value range, it wasn't a fabulous deal.

I don't recall exactly when the price went through the roof, but maybe Mother 3 and/or Contact for DS had something to do with it. Or maybe it's just because the SNES market in general has gone way up, and EarthBound is disproportionately affected due to a lack of any re-release in English, unlike most SNES games, especially first-party ones.

[schnuth]

It seems to be just simple supply and demand. Not enough copies to go around unfortunately.

[Rickstilwell1]

Wikipedia states that in the USA it only sold 140,000 copies and blames it on the Playstation and Sega Saturn causing people to lose interest in 16 bit platforms. I wonder if that quantity is true? At least RPGs are easy to emulate without errors when compared to action based games and stuff. So No BFD.

[j1e]

According to my Paypal records: Earthbound (loose) - $48.49 shipped - 1-18-06

Still got the game I won on eBay that day with numerous bids by folks, too. It's in excellent condition, it's fun as hell, and never would've thought about selling it once I played it. Yes, I'm one who would probably spend $100+ bucks on it these days knowing how fun it is.

[jonebone]

Beats the hell out of me too. I grabbed a CIB for $250 in 2009, played it, beat it, and even thought I overpaid for it then. It was a solid game with plenty of humor, but I'm sure there are equally fun games with a fraction of the price tag.

Luckily, the collector in me kept hanging onto it. I almost sold for $400 in late 2010 but I have a thing for RPGs and figured I'd regret it. Even so, this price makes absolutely no sense, we all can agree on that.

[Mayhem]

SNES + RPG + Nintendo published + no appearance on Wii VC = price

Although yeah, it's got a bit silly recently...

[SparTonberry]

Wikipedia states that in the USA it only sold 140,000 copies and blames it on the Playstation and Sega Saturn causing people to lose interest in 16 bit platforms. I wonder if that quantity is true? At least RPGs are easy to emulate without errors when compared to action based games and stuff. So No BFD.

The advertising actually deterred people from buying it.

The other thing was that in 1994-1995, NoA's slogan was "Play It Loud!" and most of their ads revolved around toilet humor.
"Super Game Boy is like Game Boy on steroids!"
"the other guy's racing game (obviously Virtua Racing) only lets you pick your nose."
"(regarding Super Pinball: Behind the Mask) You can even play it naked."
Since EB was a fairly new IP (and RPGs weren't that popular to begin with), it suffered worse from NoA's crappy advertising and the game's scratch-n-sniff ads upset some fans to avoid the game (or at least write the editors complaining about the ads).

[wiggyx]

The advertising actually deterred people from buying it.


The ads for EB really put me off now that you mention it. It seemed WAY to kiddie for my taste at the time.

[furcointalk]

I've heard that other valuable games came down a ton in price on they were re releases or available through virtual download.

I read that once FF 7 came out on DLC the ps1 game prices came down 50% this also happened with other classic genesis and nes carts. once shadow of the colossus and ico were re released out for ps3 the ps2 versions went down by 50%

is re release on a new console or dlc that much of a danger to value collecting?

[wingzrow]

Released in the U.S.A but not in Europe
Fairly uncommon
No Chance of Re Release due to copyright issues
Trying to make a reproduction cartridge triples the enemy encounter rate and eventually deletes your save
Rabid fanbase due to it being a very good game
Came with a very nice large box and entire game guide
All uncommon SNES games seem to be going up in value
Mother 3 Fan Translation caused awareness in the game making people go backwards to experience it

I think that's pretty much all the factors I can think if.

[j_factor]

Wikipedia states that in the USA it only sold 140,000 copies and blames it on the Playstation and Sega Saturn causing people to lose interest in 16 bit platforms.

I really doubt Playstation and Saturn had anything to do with it.

[Shulamana]

Trying to make a reproduction cartridge triples the enemy encounter rate and eventually deletes your save


I'm fairly certain this was patched out ages ago.

[xelement5x]

Released in the U.S.A but not in Europe
Fairly uncommon
No Chance of Re Release due to copyright issues
Trying to make a reproduction cartridge triples the enemy encounter rate and eventually deletes your save
Rabid fanbase due to it being a very good game
Came with a very nice large box and entire game guide
All uncommon SNES games seem to be going up in value
Mother 3 Fan Translation caused awareness in the game making people go backwards to experience it

I think that's pretty much all the factors I can think if.


You forgot Ness in Super Smash Brothers, that's basically what piqued the mainstream interest in the game and in my opinion what continues to drive demand and pricing.

[wingzrow]

Ah, right. I totally forgot about smash brothers.

You can see how many things are going for and against the game though.

[BlastProcessing402]

Released in the U.S.A but not in Europe
Fairly uncommon
No Chance of Re Release due to copyright issues
Trying to make a reproduction cartridge triples the enemy encounter rate and eventually deletes your save
Rabid fanbase due to it being a very good game
Came with a very nice large box and entire game guide
All uncommon SNES games seem to be going up in value
Mother 3 Fan Translation caused awareness in the game making people go backwards to experience it

I think that's pretty much all the factors I can think if.

Oversized box + fullsized guide = shoots the price up for CIB versions, since lots of people threw out or lost that stuff

and even thought that shouldn't affect cart only, when CIB goes up, people may think carts should go up too