Import inflation or legitimate value?

[recorderdude]

I've been going for a complete sonic game gear collection now for a while, and I'm almost there. I've gotten just about every title that has some legitimate value based on rarity (labyrinth, tails adventure, blast, drift 2) and only need a few more commons (drift 1, mean bean machine) but I'm also stuck with trying to find a cartridge of tails skypatrol.

Being an import, I knew already it would be a little pricier, but I've seen imports of the first sonic drift go for (literally) five bucks, figured it couldn't be too hard to come by.

...there is seldom a single seller on ebay that lists it under $100.

I've heard claims on other forums the game has no legitimate value and is rather common in japan, averaging the yen equivalent of $5-10, and that these exorbitantly high prices are mainly due to importers setting their own prices, but there's usually around five copies on ebay at any given time, so it can't be all that uncommon.

Now, there are TONS of GG games with legitimate rarity value, such as megaman, which averages $50-60 fairly. There's seldom any on ebay, usually 1 or 2 max, reflecting its rarity.

So, this brings me to the main question of this topic: Have any of you come across resellers exploiting a popular franchise to jack up prices on imports from the series, or are these games really worth that much?

[an_turtar]

An online shop I use a lot has Tails Sky Patrol for 2,300 yen (boxed with manual). With no box or instructions it's 530 yen. So yes, your ebay friends are hiking up the price.

I used to sell quite a lot on ebay when the exchange rate was $1 = 116 yen, but now that it's down to 78 yen per dollar, and when ebay starting making things more difficult, I just stopped. I also used to take orders from people, so they'd say they want certain games, I would drive around Japan looking for them, ordering them online etc. and when they got them they'd complain about slight imperfections that I couldn't have known about when buying. So I gave up on that too.

The prices of "rare" games are crazy though, check out the X68000 and FM Towns games. I used to sell mine for between 10 and 20% of the prices I see now. Still can't find anyone to buy them though.

[recorderdude]

Ah, that's very good to hear. I actually have a friend in japan looking for a cart for me at the moment so I'm glad it's not actually all too expensive.

I can imagine obscure, JP-only systems like the FM Towns and Sharp X68000 would have ridiculous prices on uncommon titles. Seems like any old japanese computer-based system's going to be at least a little bloated when it comes to online sales.

[an_turtar]

Ah, that's very good to hear. I actually have a friend in japan looking for a cart for me at the moment so I'm glad it's not actually all too expensive.

I can imagine obscure, JP-only systems like the FM Towns and Sharp X68000 would have ridiculous prices on uncommon titles. Seems like any old japanese computer-based system's going to be at least a little bloated when it comes to online sales.

Yeah, the more obscure Japanese systems can have mad prices, but they're really not that much over here. FM Towns games cost more than X68000 ones though. I've just listed some games on Yahoo Auctions tonight. I've priced them way below ebay prices, because I want them to sell. Also, I don't have to worry about shipping overseas.