Jap Megadrive titles: rarity and what they are worth?

[s.m.f]

Hi everyone. My first post here, so have understanding :)

These are not for sale at the moment, but I am having thoughts on wehter or not I should continue with my megadrive collection or not(only 22games or so), but I am having some trouble finding out proper values at some of the games, all japanese, CIB. Would appreciate help.

these are the games:
Battle mania
Maximum Carnage
Rainbow cotton
Robocop VS Terminator
Contra Hard corps

My main collections are Aes, DC and SS.

[s.m.f]

No one?

Would also appreciate guidelines regarding the value on these as well:
Eliminate down
Vampire killer

[Ed Oscuro]

CIB, good to mint condition price estimates in US dollars: I sold Battle Mania a couple years ago for $70 and still have a copy. The sequel is more cash (in every way). Contra cost me $150 but that was a long time ago...and I possibly overpaid slightly. Vampire Killer is also a rare, at over $200, possibly substantially. Rainbow Cotton is not cheap either, I think. Eliminate Down is considerably more expensive...please don't buy a copy if you aren't going to play it, it's a gem! But it's well over $300, possibly over $550.

Is there something special about the Maximum Carnage or RvT releases? Those are pretty standard US / European releases. Some games that are absurdly common over here are quite rare over there - Comix Zone being one of these, I recall. Just be aware of that if you're looking for imports. I do not know / remember all the differences between the various releases of Castlevania Bloodlines / The New Generation / Vampire Killer, but each one is slightly unique, with The New Generation being most censored. The Japanese release possibly adds a final boss yet its difficulty is less overall (I forget if this was stated for Hard or Normal difficulty).

Good luck! These are all at least nice games to pick up.

[theclaw]

Nope. Maximum Carnage is a region free world rom, just had an exceptionally unusual looking small print run in Japan.

[Gameguy]

Is there something special about the Maximum Carnage or RvT releases?
Yes, Acclaim games are pretty rare in Japan. They're American games that never became popular in that region. If I'm remembering correctly the Japanese release of Maximum Carnage consisted of a Japanese cartridge, a US manual, and European box art. It's one of the most valuable Japanese Mega Drive games around, possibly the most valuable of all the games listed in this thread. I think it's considered to be the rarest Mega Drive game that was commercially available at retail stores(Tetris wasn't released at retail).

I'm not too up to date on pricing though which is why I haven't posted in this thread earlier, most of these games rarely come up for sale so I can't be accurate with current pricing. With Maximum Carnage I could only find some forum thread where a person mentioned buying a copy, the post was a few years old. I can't even remember if the exact price paid was mentioned, it might have been four figures but I'm really not sure right now. I looked it up a few days ago but as it was several years old I didn't bother paying too close attention. I'll try to find that post again.

[SparTonberry]

It probably didn't help that they were late releases and the Mega Drive wasn't very popular in Japan.
But I've heard Acclaim Japan games in general are very rare. But don't bother with them unless you absolutely must have them for collection purposes. For playing, much better to get the cheap western versions.

I've personally heard Batman Forever being the rarest of the JP MD Acclaim games.

[Gameguy]

I found the thread, and it did sell for over four figures in US currency.

http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?37483-MD-MAXIMUM-CARNAGE%26%2365288%3BJP%26%2365289%3B

[s.m.f]

Thanks for the replys. These are not games I am looking to buy, but games I already own. Most bought several years ago and from what I remember, pretty expe sive back then, some bought receantly.

So I am having some trouble establishing a trustworthy price as I am not that familiar with japanese megadrive market since it has never been my main collection (shmups).
Carnage seems to be impossible to find info about(unless you are satisfied with four figure numbers from 2005-2007). Maybe the price is still in that range, but I don't know. Demand is also a factor.

Edit:
Gameguy - thanks for the link. Since he refers to price in yen, it makes me think he got it in japan. A streetprice in japan that high is an indication on extreme ebay pricing. Most games I bought during 2004-2008 had two or three times(sometimes more...) the price on ebay, when compared to streetprice in japan.
But if there is no demand price might not multiply that much.

[Ed Oscuro]

Yes, Acclaim games are pretty rare in Japan.
Besides that, I mean.

I wouldn't mind having the Japanese release of Comix Zone on account of the neat box art, but at that kind of price, ehh, there's other fish to fry.

My pricing information is mostly even farther out of date, but I think that if you're going to buy, having the old prices (probably lower than current, if they've moved) gives you an incentive to keep looking for a deal. With eBay, the stock of any one game is never so high that you can cherry pick too much - unless you do the smart thing and keep waiting for a good copy to show up. Some games surprise me. Chelnov (aka Atomic Runner, excellent game although with very simplistic packaging in Japan) started out being very rare to even absent for a while, but then a bunch showed up at the same time. Not sure where availability on that one stands now but it's been back and forth.

[snes_collector]

I haven't saw Maximum Carnage for sale in awhile either, but its definitely over a grand $1000. Eliminate Down is about $450-550 and Vampire Killer is $250+ . It's hard to believe some of these prices are what they are considering the genesis isn't nearly as collected for.

[s.m.f]

I haven't saw Maximum Carnage for sale in awhile either, but its definitely over a grand $1000. Eliminate Down is about $450-550 and Vampire Killer is $250+ . It's hard to believe some of these prices are what they are considering the genesis isn't nearly as collected for.

Thanks for the reply, ok if it´s that high for sure, then I don´t think there is much hesitation if I should sell it or not. Though I think I need to gain more ebay feedback as a seller before giving it a go.

regarding megadrive prices, I agree, they are really crazy, especially compared to sfc counterparts.

[theclaw]

If you need to play Maximum Carnage again, look toward the US. It can be found here under $20 shipped with box and manual.

[jredmond3]

As long as you get them from the source, not that outrageous (altho prices have spiked even in Japan).

For an example, not really game related but just to show how ridiculous it can be, I bought an item from YAJ for roughly $60. The only two other items on ebay were at $600 OBO, and $2000.

But yeah, the Japanese sellers on ebay tend to jack the prices on sought after games up to 2,3 4, X what they likely paid for it. The common games aren't as bad though, just the rare stuff.