Your best "I didn't know that was rare!" moments?

[BetaWolf47]

What are your best moments of finding something in the wild that you unsuspectingly found out was rare, later on? Or, perhaps, what are some items you bought new back in the day that you later found out were rare and valuable?

Mine was a few Saturn games I found back in 2008. Bought a dozen or so for $3.33 each, and three of them ended up being worth over $50, and some being worth around $30.

[wiggyx]

For me it's always stuff that I sold years ago and am looking to pick up again. Stuff like Demon's Crest, EVO, Earthbound, Final Fight 3, etc. Pisses me off. I should have just held on to those games. They weren't worth very much when I sold them 10+ years ago, so it's not like they paid my mortgage or anything when I unloaded them like they would today :/

[samspade]

For me it was digging up my old copies of Suikoden 2 and Spider-Man: Web of Fire. I bought them both long ago, (spider-man on clearance in KB toys) and had no idea that they were worth anything. It's a reason why I'm glad I held onto all my stuff over the years.

[SEGA_Queen]

Two cases stand out in my mind:

1) The Adventures of Lomax (PS1) - Picked this up for $7 at a local collectibles shop. It wasn't until I look it up in the DP rarity guide that I discovered it actually was an R6!

2) One Piece: Unlimited Adventure (Wii) - Now I knew this was rare when I bought it for $12.99. But I didn't realize it was going for so much money online! (It's currently selling for an average of $60.)

[Space-Ace-13]

2 come to mind that still haunt me today! They both happened when I first started getting into retro gaming.

Bomberman 2 - NES - Saw it for $7, but I'm not a big bomberman fan so I decided not to pick it up, I found out later that day that it was selling for around $70, I tried going back to get it, and it had sold already.

Wacky Races - NES - Saw 2 copies in the same store each for under $10, I had no idea they were rare until months later and by then they were long gone... haven't seen a copy since. They are on ebay around $100.

Since these 2 situations I bought NES and SNES rarity guides on my phone so I always know :wink 2:

[frogofdeath]

Weren't rare or valuable at the time of purchase, but I bought Conker's Bad Fur Day new ($19.99) and both Legend of Zelda Oracle games new (don't recall, but definitely discounted and want to say picked up both for $20). Both purchases were when N64 and GBC games were on their last legs and these were all games I had always wanted to play. Still have all three, complete, in near pristine boxes.

Conker's BFD seems to be holding steady for cart only copies ($50) though CIB copies seem to have a wide price range. Still, if I were to sell today, one of the few games I would ever make a profit off after buying new. Same for the Oracle series, though these prices seem to be currently more unpredictable.

[Drixxel]

For me it's always stuff that I sold years ago and am looking to pick up again. Stuff like Demon's Crest...

Haha, Demon's Crest is highly priced now? This very thread's an example of one of these moments for me. A friend and I who lived in different cities used to exchange Christmas presents of super-cheap-but-interesting games we found locally at the time (late '90s, early 2000s), one year I received a boxed copy of Demon's Crest and I don't think more than a five bucks would have been paid for it.

[wiggyx]

Haha, Demon's Crest is highly priced now? This very thread's an example of one of these moments for me. A friend and I who lived in different cities used to exchange Christmas presents of super-cheap-but-interesting games we found locally at the time (late '90s, early 2000s), one year I received a boxed copy of Demon's Crest and I don't think more than a five bucks would have been paid for it.

It totally is :(

Goes for like 50 bucks loose. Lameness :|

[Aussie2B]

Hmm, I don't think I've ever been that impressed learning of the rarity of something I've found. For those with collections as big as mine, you're bound to have some R7's and R8's, and considering how cheap it is to acquire many games with those rarity ratings (and easy with stuff like eBay), it's not that exciting. If I stumbled across an R9, that would get my attention, but those seem to be at a whole other tier of rarity and not something you're likely to just come across by chance.

I'm more likely to be surprised by value, although I'm more aware of values of things I don't have than things I do, haha. I'm more likely to be surprised learning that a game I've had for a while has shot up in value. But in terms of buying something without knowing what I had, years ago I bought a copy of The Neverhood for PC just because I remember reading the Hardcore Gaming 101 article on it. I figured maybe it'd have some value if it has a following but at least it'd hopefully be a good game even if it didn't and maybe my fiance could enjoy it. I distinctly remember just tossing the bag on the floor of the car. Had I been aware of its value, I would've been a bit more careful with it, haha. Anyway, I was very pleased to learn that I could sell it for $50 (seeing as I don't collect PC games), and that gave me my first hit in PC game flipping. Since then, I try to be a little more savvy about PC game prices and keep my eyes peeled for games I can flip since many trips to the thrift stores and such have no console games to be found and PC games give me something to look for.

[SNESMaster]

I got a copy of Stack-Up for the NES for Christmas one year along with a bunch of other NES stuff. The same year, I got Metroid Prime: Trilogy, and the following I got Super Mario All-Stars for Wii.

[BlastProcessing402]

Two copies of Conkers, one cart only (dog ate the box) one CIB. Both bought used for cheap from Blockbuster (remember them? lol)

[DeseoParadise]

Phantom Air Mission of NES

I buy a pack of games from a boy and there were some games that I will sell because I don`t like them and one of them was Phantom Air Mission.

[theclaw]

Well among my weirdest finds was Nippon Oozumu Kakutouhen, some PS2 sumo wrestling. How the **** that ended up in this country.
Nobody wants it. But among the many things I'll never see again local (like Initial D Special Stage more recently).

[The 1 2 P]

Aussie touched on this but when you have a large collection(500 games or more) you are bound to have some rare stuff in there. But unless you are actually looking for something you rarely notice. When I was looking for a copy of Bust A Groove 2 several years ago I found out that not only was it rare but so was the first one(which I already owned). I was able to get the second one for a decent price and since then both games have still increased in price. Had I already owned both(instead of just one) I would have never known how much they are worth since I wouldn't have been actively looking for a copy.

More recently and during this gen I have been a bit surprised by stuff that has become rare not long after being released, such as Metroid Prime Trilogy, Super Mario All-Stars limited edition and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Ultimate Sith Edition. I'm not even sure if any of that stuff is actually rare but the prices seem to suggest so.

[shogungb90]

Well I had onenof those wtf its rare moments with earthbound which I got for free from a friend years ago and then I saw what it was selling for and it shocked me. Same with snatcher i picked it up at goodwill for a few bucks not knowing how much it was really worth its crazy how valuable some stuff has become.

[Jaruff]

Nintendo 64 test cartridge I found at a flea market for $5 last year. Knew it was uncommon but didn't realize the rarity until I did some research. Ended up selling it several months ago for $500+. Actually wanted to keep it but I wanted/needed the money more. Funny thing is I bought it from a flea market reseller who wanted $5 for N64 commons and $10-15 for Mario/Zelda/etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_G25maLL1A4

If you watch long enough, you'll hear me become impatient. Humming the test sounds, bitching at the screen, etc. I went on a tirade at the very end but cut that part out. Figured prospective eBay buyers wouldn't want to hear that. LOL

[Captain_N77]

No biggies really. And not so much rarity, but value.

I got a lot of approx 55 Atari 2600 games for $55 off of craigslist a few months ago. Ram It was in the lot, which I see goes for about 25 bucks now. I think its a DP rarity of 5 or so.

When the PS2/GC/XBX gen was kicking off, the local Toys R Us was clearing out the old stock and had some good deals on some games. I got Majora's Mask for $20, and both Perfect Dark and Conker for $10 apiece. Was really surprised to see how much Conker can go for these days. I never really cared for the game very much, but I'd never consider selling it unless it was going for ridiculous amounts. I also got Chef's Luv Shack for $1 and I still think I might have overpaid for it.

Some games I got, both from Ebay and local stores years ago also surprised me when I checked their values recently: Earthbound, Ninja Gaiden Trilogy, and Mighty Final Fight. Earthbound and NG Trilogy were real shockers to me. I remember NG Trilogy I got a pretty good deal on, paying $36(that included the shipping I believe). Earthbound I was paying on the high end at that time, $55 + about $5 for shipping.

[wiggyx]

nevermind

[SparTonberry]

Well, the worst was probably when I passed up Namco Museum Volume 5 for PS1 at GameStop when I first started to buy PS1 games. (since that was the only US console version of Legend of Valkyrie)
Only copy I ever saw offline. :(

[Firebrand118]

I have had gargoyle's quest II for many years and while it is one of my favorite games of all time I didn't realize it was so rare until recently.

[Tanooki]

I'm sure I have a few, but one that sticks out I suppose is the copy of Dracula X I have that I bought new/retail back in the day. No box anymore of course, but the game and manual are in amazing shape. I was surprised around even 5-10 years ago finding crazy people already lining up with a benjamin at retail wanting that darn game. I just won't let it go, like it too much.

[wingzrow]

PAssed on alien vs. predator just this morning for the Super Nintendo. Who knew it was worth $15-$20?

[Steve W]

I've got three instances that pop into my head right now.

(1) I had found a third-party Atari 2600 game in a Movie Trading Company store, where nearly all of their pre-NES carts tend to get the blanket price of $1.99. About a month later I'm looking through the Video Game Trader magazine and I look up the game, Rescue Terra I, and find out it's one of the more collectible games on the system and goes for something like $120.

(2) Shortly after buying an Atari Jaguar, I kept up with all game development for the system and had my eye on a game that sounded pretty interesting, called A.I.R.C.A.R.S. that was supposed to come out late 1994. Well, Atari rejected it because it was such a poor game (and let's face it, Atari didn't exactly have high standards) and eventually the developers made batches themselves and sold them by mail. I bought one, played it a small amount, then set it aside feeling a bit like it wasn't worth the wait. Then a few years back I look at the rarity listing to find that it's pretty high up there, since most people had the common sense to stay away from the stinker of a game.

(3) I was out at the local flea market at the booth I had previously bought a boxed Astrocade at, and looking at the NES carts (which I don't collect for and shouldn't have been wasting my time with) I saw a weird looking cart that I thought was worth the three bucks he wanted for it (well, technically it was five altogether for the cart and a CD from comedian Pablo Francisco, but I consider the NES game to be the larger fraction of that five bucks). It was a Myriad Six-In-One cart. Minutes after posting about the discovery on Atari Age I had two people send me PMs wanting to buy it, so I knew I had something good and rare. I held on to it for some time but then my car's air conditioning went out and I couldn't take another Texas summer without it, and I had my sister put it up on eBay since I've never bought or sold anything there before or since. I had about three messages from people all over the world asking me to end the auction early and sell it to them under the table, which I refused. Eventually that loose cart sold for $660! I never even played the game, since I don't have a working NES.

[101011]

Mine would be a DK 64 yellow "Bananna Bunch" controller.

I picked it up at a Value Village thrift store for a couple of bucks. It was about a year after that I found out what I had. I remember that day though... I stopped at a local games store on the way home and thought about bringing it in to trade with some other stuff I had found. I didn't, I guess because it was different? I don't know. I usually know or find out shortly there after what I've found but for some reason, like I said, it was about a year later that I found out what they go for. Funny thing is, I recently sold it to that same store. It's probably worth more now than it was then however.

[Astrosmash]

There's probably others, but offhand, buying Brigandine: The Legend of Forsena for PlayStation new for $29.99. Now it seems to be going for anywhere from $80 to well over a hundred, depending on condition. Great game too.

[kedawa]

76in1 for NES.

I had always just assumed that all bootleg multicarts were as good as the 76in1, just with different numbers of games.
It wasn't until years later that I discovered how utterly shitty most multicarts are, and by that time my brother had lost track of the 76in1.

[BetaWolf47]

I have had gargoyle's quest II for many years and while it is one of my favorite games of all time I didn't realize it was so rare until recently.
Heh, I want that game. I actually have it factory sealed, but I want a copy I can play, dangit!

[Tanooki]

Ehhh it's a game just open it up and play it. It's a weird one in that it's a fun and well made post-SNES release NES title from Capcom that has no value. It's not like it's a sports title or something while others like Snow Bros, Mighty Final Fight, and the Duck Tales and Rescue Rangers sequels go for a heap.

[BetaWolf47]

Ehhh it's a game just open it up and play it. It's a weird one in that it's a fun and well made post-SNES release NES title from Capcom that has no value.
Loose (http://www.ebay.com/itm/GARGOYLES-QUEST-II-2-NES-NINTENDO-GAME-/230825232021?pt=Video_Games_Games&hash=item35be418695) and CIB (http://www.ebay.com/itm/Gargoyles-Quest-II-The-Demon-Darkness-Nintendo-1992-/130747307139?pt=Video_Games_Games&hash=item1e71259483). Not falling for it.

[dementia_]

I recall picking up a CIB Lords of Thunder for Sega CD for $5 at a thrift store. I had no idea it went for $60-$70.

[Tanooki]

Falling for what? Sorry I'm not an uptight collector who wants to play the predatory reseller fox, or the crank that will slab a game in airtight plastic like it was a picasso with the questionable graders at VGA who don't even follow their own set standards.

I see a game I want I'll play it. If I see a sealed one someone isn't gouging on and it's cheap, I'd open it.

[Firebrand118]

Ehhh it's a game just open it up and play it. It's a weird one in that it's a fun and well made post-SNES release NES title from Capcom that has no value. It's not like it's a sports title or something while others like Snow Bros, Mighty Final Fight, and the Duck Tales and Rescue Rangers sequels go for a heap.

Wow that would make the value plummet. Not cool man.

[Atarileaf]

I'm not a big Intellivision fan but I did pick up some CIB games from a local online ad for $4 each and a few were kind of rare, especially CIB and in mint shape like Worm Whomper, Triple Challenge, and Fathom all of which I eventually sold for some serious coin - ie several hundred bucks.

[Scotterpop]

Oh man, just a few weeks ago I passed on picking up a Gamecube component cable from a local thrift store for about 5 bucks. I had NO IDEA it was worth upwards of $100. A component cable worth that much... really?!? Still kicking myself for that one...

[scaleworm]

Oh man, just a few weeks ago I passed on picking up a Gamecube component cable from a local thrift store for about 5 bucks. I had NO IDEA it was worth upwards of $100. A component cable worth that much... really?!? Still kicking myself for that one...

I'll one up that. A game stop, local, dumped all of their boxes for GC and DS...just carried discs/cards for older systems. I always ask for them when I am there. Got a FREE from the store in house garbage can (they think I'M the Ass) a blue GC nintendo component cable....
EEDEE-Ots

I love the trash... their trash...

[RASK1904]

When I first stated collecting Nes I had a friend give me my Bandit Kings of Ancient China. Who knew that was rare? Not me. It is stiil the only one Ive ever seen. Thanx again, Dave.

[Tanooki]

Wow that would make the value plummet. Not cool man.

Maybe I don't view video games as an investment like gold, oil or stocks. It's a game, I say play it and enjoy it as the designers intended. That's all I'm getting at. I thought this was more of a gamer site whereas NA is more collector oriented.

[Aussie2B]

It's sort of 50/50, but even if someone is more of a gamer than a collector, I'd think people would be more inclined to sell a sealed game and use a portion of the money to buy a used copy rather than open up the sealed game and flush money down the toilet.

Reminds me of a member we used to have who would buy all of his games to play, except he was insistent on buying everything brand new because he was uncomfortable with the idea of used goods. So he'd pay the super high prices to get classic games sealed only to immediately rip off the plastic.

[Tanooki]

Eh well I can respect that, you never know where things have been.

I for one, I bought all the bits and triwings needed to crack open any Nintendo or Sega(I have a SMS) cart and I give them a nice sterilization inside and out with 91% alcohol. I don't want that stuff on my hands or in the system either mucking it up. I figure if I can get it clean enough I'd put my mouth on it, it's good. Perhaps if I was just rolling in $100s like the money man on those Geico commercials I'd do what that guy does too but I'm not.

There's one dude over at NA who on occasion buys brand new games and opens them up to play them, but he also does it partly to spite people who get all up in other peoples business for daring to open up a sealed game like it's their right to do so given it's not their property. He cracked open a VGA case on a Gun Nac a couple years back, and then just sealed copies of Stinger and Panic Restaurant(this one done at the trade show while others starting having varying reactions from amusement, stunned, or actually mouthing off or screaming like it was murder.)

[Press_Start]

Bomberman 2 - NES - Saw it for $7, but I'm not a big bomberman fan so I decided not to pick it up, I found out later that day that it was selling for around $70, I tried going back to get it, and it had sold already.

Wacky Races - NES - Saw 2 copies in the same store each for under $10, I had no idea they were rare until months later and by then they were long gone... haven't seen a copy since. They are on ebay around $100.


Ugh. I remember buying both of those for around $20 and $30 respectively....in the last year or two alone. Even back then I thought I paid too much, still do now. Heck, a Parodius CIB (PAL) jumped from $40 to over $100 (http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nintendo-NES-Parodius-/251130600110?pt=UK_PC_Video_Games_Video_Games_JS&hash=item3a788cdaae) in the last 30 days.

Are we sure there ain't a whole network of resellers/collectors pricehacking to ridiculous heights? I mean $30 games becoming $100 gold bricks in a short time period smells very fishy, imo.

[Emperor Megas]

A friend of mine gave me his copy of Panzer Dragoon Saga back in the day, and tossed the manual because he dropped it in the ground outside of his apartment and it got wet. It wasn't ruined or anything, just wet. He was being an asshole that day, so I didn't feel like saying anything about it (he's the type of guy that just looks for any reason to get into an argument about anything). Of course neither of us have any idea it had a fairly limited run.

I purchased another manual to complete it a few years ago for about 30 or 40 bucks. I don't remember exactly how much, but it was awesome to have a complete copy of the game for under 50 bucks.

He gave me Burning Ragers and a bunch of other Saturn games as well. This is around the time the Dreamcast was all the rage.

My Popful Mail for purchase from EB for less than 20 bucks, and I'm pretty sure that goes for a fair price now. M.U.S.H.A. I just bought because I never owned it but friends had it back in the day. I bought my copy for maybe 20 bucks about 9 years ago, and that thing goes for ridiculous prices, especially around Christmas time.

[theclaw]

Just found another surprise looking at my stuff. Keep a watch out for wrestling Attitude Era DVDs. Look at prices on Wrestlemania X-Seven now! :onfire:
I've also got Wrestlemania 2000 and Royal Rumble 2000, though not cheap either, they don't hold a candle to that.

[Esquire Fox]

Berenstain Bears for the Atari 2600. Picked it up from a local Pawn Shop many months ago. Came to find out it was considerably rare, ranking R7 on the Digital Press rarity guide.

[Carnby]

I bought at top loader NES for 20 dollars. I had no idea it was the rarer version.

[MachineGex]

Most of the NES stuff that has gone thru the roof in the last few years. Many of them mentioned in this thread. Anyone know of a good place to find values of NES games that are over $20 in value??? I am sure I have passed up on a few wacky races this year....

[Space-Ace-13]

Most of the NES stuff that has gone thru the roof in the last few years. Many of them mentioned in this thread. Anyone know of a good place to find values of NES games that are over $20 in value??? I am sure I have passed up on a few wacky races this year....

So frustrating isn't it?

[csgx1]

Years ago, my brother(not into video games) was at a flea market and called me asking if I wanted a box of Panasonic 3do systems for $25. He said there were 3 Panasonic consoles: 1 black and 2 white. White Panasonic systems?....I didn't think too much about it and told him to grab it since it was cheap.

When he gave me the box, the white systems turned out to be prototype Panasonic M2 FZ-DR21 testing drive boxes. My dumb ass didn't know what the hell they were and stupidly gave one away back then. I held on to the other one and a few months later, I realized to my surprise what exactly it was and how rare they are.

Still kicking myself for basically giving one away.:grrr:

[madman77]

I don't get too caught up in rarity stuff, but back in the 90's I went to E3 and won one of the gold N64 controllers at the Star Fox competition. After Nintendo released the gold console and controllers I assumed my controller was the same thing so it was tossed in a plastic bin of video games and forgotten about. Only recently when I started collecting N64 did I realize I had a big rarity on my hands.

[The 1 2 P]

It's sort of 50/50, but even if someone is more of a gamer than a collector, I'd think people would be more inclined to sell a sealed game and use a portion of the money to buy a used copy rather than open up the sealed game and flush money down the toilet.

This is the point I always try to tell people about sealed games. You don't need to be a collector of them in order to use them as a valuable commodity. If you find them cheap pick them up, sell them and use that money for whatever you really want, gaming related or otherwise.


Reminds me of a member we used to have who would buy all of his games to play, except he was insistent on buying everything brand new because he was uncomfortable with the idea of used goods. So he'd pay the super high prices to get classic games sealed only to immediately rip off the plastic.

I remember him. It wouldn't of been a big deal if he was just buying sealed commons but he was buying sealed rares like Radiant Silvergun, Panzer Dragoon Saga, etc.....just to play them. Even if I was rich I wouldn't do that. But my mentality has always been to have opened copies of the sealed games I collect just for playability purposes.

[SparTonberry]

I remember him. It wouldn't of been a big deal if he was just buying sealed commons but he was buying sealed rares like Radiant Silvergun, Panzer Dragoon Saga, etc.....just to play them.
Oh no, treating a video game like a video game.@_@

[Aussie2B]

It's not about treating a video game like a video game, it's about being smart with your money. If you were left a perfect condition, perfectly sealed up copy of Action Comics #1, would you treat a comic book like a comic book, taking it out of the plastic, handling it with your bare hands, flipping through the pages casually as you read, chuck it on the table when you're done, throw it loose in a backpack to carry it around, etc. etc. or would you recognize its value and preserve what you have? If you had a sealed copy of Stadium Events, would you rip off its plastic just because it's a video game, or would you keep it sealed in order to preserve the value, whether you keep it or sell it? If you're rich and can throw away money left and right, cool, but I personally have never had that luxury. The thought of doing so would just make me sick to my stomach. If I got a sealed game that's worth way more sealed than opened, no way in hell am I removing the plastic.

[pseudonym]

I agree with you 100%. :)

My own "I didn't know that was rare" moment was years ago. I bought Athletic World Family Fun Fitness version complete on Ebay for $10, stored in a box in my basement because I thought it was just another crap licensed NES game, it was only a few years later on Nintendo Age that I found it was pretty rare. I think I ended up trading it for about $80 worth of stuff at the time (2005 maybe).

[Tokimemofan]

Mine has to be the Wide Boy 64, I already was buying an NPDP cart (I knew that one was rare) but I almost passed on the Wide Boy 64 thinking it looked knockoffish. That thing paid for my Xbox 360!

[geezuzkhrist119]

The only time I can think of at the moment is when I bought a loose copy of Michael Jackson's Moonwalker. I got it like 4 or 5 years back from GameGuy (thanks again buddy). When MJ died I decided to look up the game on online. Ebay was selling for like 100 bucks loose and a complete copy was like 200. I was like WTF I hit the jackpot. I only paid 5 bucks for it in the first place.

After all the hype about MJ's death, I looked on ebay again to see that the game dropped in price muchly. I was disappointed and sad but whatever atleast I got a good game

[Aussie2B]

Yeah, that was one of those quickly-take-advantage-of-the-moment situations. I thought it was pretty obvious that it would go down in value as his death was less and less recent. I've never had a copy of Moonwalker, but if I had, I definitely would've flipped it then and waited for an opportunity down the road to pick up another copy. It's like when that PSP Gripshift was useful in modding PSPs. The game was practically worthless before that and it's practically worthless now, but for a short while it shot up to around 50 bucks. I bought the copy at my local GameStop and flipped it immediately.

[The 1 2 P]

Oh no, treating a video game like a video game.@_@

You completely missed the point but Aussie summed it up nicely.

[SparTonberry]

I agree with you 100%. :)

My own "I didn't know that was rare" moment was years ago. I bought Athletic World Family Fun Fitness version complete on Ebay for $10, stored in a box in my basement because I thought it was just another crap licensed NES game, it was only a few years later on Nintendo Age that I found it was pretty rare. I think I ended up trading it for about $80 worth of stuff at the time (2005 maybe).

Probably only worth something if you have the original print box and manual. The cart is not rare, because unlike Stadium Events, Nintendo reused the FFF carts for the first print run of the Power Pad version.

[A.C. Sativa]

I've got three instances that pop into my head right now.

(1) I had found a third-party Atari 2600 game in a Movie Trading Company store, where nearly all of their pre-NES carts tend to get the blanket price of $1.99. About a month later I'm looking through the Video Game Trader magazine and I look up the game, Rescue Terra I, and find out it's one of the more collectible games on the system and goes for something like $120.

(2) Shortly after buying an Atari Jaguar, I kept up with all game development for the system and had my eye on a game that sounded pretty interesting, called A.I.R.C.A.R.S. that was supposed to come out late 1994. Well, Atari rejected it because it was such a poor game (and let's face it, Atari didn't exactly have high standards) and eventually the developers made batches themselves and sold them by mail. I bought one, played it a small amount, then set it aside feeling a bit like it wasn't worth the wait. Then a few years back I look at the rarity listing to find that it's pretty high up there, since most people had the common sense to stay away from the stinker of a game.

(3) I was out at the local flea market at the booth I had previously bought a boxed Astrocade at, and looking at the NES carts (which I don't collect for and shouldn't have been wasting my time with) I saw a weird looking cart that I thought was worth the three bucks he wanted for it (well, technically it was five altogether for the cart and a CD from comedian Pablo Francisco, but I consider the NES game to be the larger fraction of that five bucks). It was a Myriad Six-In-One cart. Minutes after posting about the discovery on Atari Age I had two people send me PMs wanting to buy it, so I knew I had something good and rare. I held on to it for some time but then my car's air conditioning went out and I couldn't take another Texas summer without it, and I had my sister put it up on eBay since I've never bought or sold anything there before or since. I had about three messages from people all over the world asking me to end the auction early and sell it to them under the table, which I refused. Eventually that loose cart sold for $660! I never even played the game, since I don't have a working NES.

Myriad 6-in-1 isn't anything special. Here's my review of it:
http://nesquester.blogspot.com/2012/08/npc-acsativa-caltron-6-in-1.html

[treismac]

While this won't blow the socks off of anyone reading at home, here goes. A while back, my childhood friend in the Air Force gave me his Turbografx-16 collection before he deployed. Amongst those games is Darkwing Duck. Uneventfully, I later was perusing eBay for TG16 games and I was surprised to see Darkwing Duck selling for over $50 across the board. I ask myself, didn't my friend give me that game. I check, and viola. I do indeed have a semi-valuable hucard sitting in a container with others that has gone and remains unplayed for years.

[sega dude]

Last year, I got a copy of Herzog Zewi for $0.25. I later found it at a Play N Trade for $30. Looked it up on a rarity guide and found out it was somewhat rare.

[Robocop2]

Year later when I found out the copy of Action 52 that my mom bought me when I was young was actually valuable. Of course it was long gone at that point.

[BetaWolf47]

Most of the NES stuff that has gone thru the roof in the last few years. Many of them mentioned in this thread.
Makes sense, though. The system has been discontinued for almost 20 years now. It's not unlike how a 60's or 70's Corvette goes for tons more than it did back in the day. I imagine once the labels of these games are starting to decay, even games like Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt will be worth a few Jacksons.

[Carnby]

Another moment I had was finding a complete copy of Bioshock Limited Edition for 30 dollars. The Big Daddy was sealed too. I believe the store based the price on the average copy on Ebay, which are usually incomplete.

[geezuzkhrist119]

Year later when I found out the copy of Action 52 that my mom bought me when I was young was actually valuable. Of course it was long gone at that point.
I feel your pain. I had that game as a kid. My mom sold all my NES stuff to buy me an snes.

Daaaaaamn you moooooom!!!

[StarBlazer]

When I started collecting in 2000, I was only interested in my childhood systems, the 2600 and Colecovision. In a thrift in a bad part of town that I visited once every week or two. I kept passing on a boxfull of Emerson Arcadia CIB games. Never heard of the system...wasn't interested. A few months later , I had really gotten bitten by the collecting bug. I went back to that store and they were still sitting there. About 8 CIB title's in a Emerson Arcadia shipper box. Wound up paying only $6 for them. Must have sat there for atleast a few months. That would never happen nowadays!

[NoDanaOnlyZool]

I bought the N64 "glove" from a church yard sale last year for 50 cents. I had never seen it before and only bought it because I saw it had a n64 connector.

[old_skoolin_jim]

He cracked open a VGA case on a Gun Nac a couple years back, and then just sealed copies of Stinger and Panic Restaurant(this one done at the trade show while others starting having varying reactions from amusement, stunned, or actually mouthing off or screaming like it was murder.)

Please tell me this is on YouTube somewhere... :popcorn:

[old_skoolin_jim]

On-topic, my best instance would be buying a sealed Buster Douglas Boxing for Master System from the video store in my hometown for $3 (part of a 4-for-$10 deal, actually... 90% of my SMS library came from that store but I digress...), circa 1996. Fast-forward to 2009, and I see it's one of the rarest/most valuable games on the system... fliiiiiped that isht.
Kinda surprised/disappointed to see it has kept on increasing in value... I sold it then (opened, of course, because I wanted to play it when I bought it in 1996) for $75, and now I see it going for roughly double. Oh well! Such is life.

[Spidey80]

Not sure if this could be considered rare,but since I never knew this game even existed until I found it at Play-N-Trade in 2008,I`ll count it as rare...Poker Face Paul`s Gin for the Game Gear.

I already knew of the solitaire,poker,and blackjack versions of the PFP series,but not the Gin one.