Label-less games. What's your take on them?

[Mark1983]

Do you guys like picking up the good ol "mystery" carts when you find them, for the suspense of "I wonder what this could be?!". I certainly do, since this past Friday, one "mystery" cart ended up being a copy of Gunstar Heroes. Pretty stoked for that. What's your take on those mysterious label-free carts?

[ProjectCamaro]

With my personality I have to say I don't like mystery carts. I'm sure the vast majority of them are games like Shaq-Fu. I don't buy games simply to collect as I play my entire collection so I don't want games I won't enjoy or games that will end up being doubles of what I already own.

[bb_hood]

I only find label-less carts when I buy atari collections. Never found anything rare though

[Mark1983]

Gunstar Heroes is the best one I've found, so far. I've found a copy of Mario World, also..but I've found my fair share of crap too...(Shrek Super Slam, Herbie, etc..)

[Immutable]

I once scored a NES-Joint-01 converter by picking up a mystery NES cart. From what I recall, I had to barter for it, but the missing label worked in my favor. :)

[Tanooki]

I avoid them. I made one exception as it was a $10 price tag for Gun-Nac around the time it started to top the $80+ mark last year. It drove me nuts though, so eventually I made this ghetto self inked label I taped on at anothers urging who wanted it due to the poor shape and I got his copy which has some label issues but it's still totally there so I went from nude to a case of the moderate uglies.

[Rickstilwell1]

I used to always get free mystery carts when I went into Game Crazy since I shopped there a lot when they were in business. One of them ended up being Power Rangers Dino Thunder for Game Boy Advance. A game I probably would have never chosen to buy. Usually once identified, I'd write the title with a sharpie where the label would have been. If the label gets replaced it will cover up the ink anyway.

[The Adventurer]

On one of my flea market trips I came home with this haul...

http://img203.imageshack.us/img203/1736/mansfielddrivein5.jpg

That SNES game with the mangled label? Turtles in Time for $3


Though, I'll be honest. I was actually pretty sure it was Turtles in Time when I picked it up. That small scrap of label in the middle of the cart had a little tiny image of the Statue of Liberty, and my gut said it was from the Turtles in Time label. But it was still a bit of a crap shoot. But for $3 I probably would have picked it up regardless.

[Archimboldi]

in a yardsale, bring em on!

in an online purchase where they know what the game is but don't have the label, nah.



I used to always get free mystery carts when I went into Game Crazy since I shopped there a lot when they were in business. One of them ended up being Power Rangers Dino Thunder for Game Boy Advance. A game I probably would have never chosen to buy. Usually once identified, I'd write the title with a sharpie where the label would have been. If the label gets replaced it will cover up the ink anyway.


ah, game crazy. What was that insane retro sale they had? Any 3 for $5 each or something. I should've had the foresight to just buy everything.

[GamerTheGreek]

Depends on the seller and where I'm getting games from. If they have a good track record of better titles I might bite at a discounted rate due to no or mangled label.

Flea markets I believe they know more than what they are letting on. So is SOME garage sales.

Labelless damaged label games are still like a hand in poker. How lucky do you feel. Read the seller and choose wisely.

[Mark1983]

I tend to do mine just at flea markets and such, with some of the older folks who are letting things go for cheap anyways. Although...Gunstar Heroes find was at my groups meetup this weekend with a guy who collects...which was weird, because I figured he'd at least play it. Oh well, his loss.

[Rickstilwell1]

in a yardsale, bring em on!

in an online purchase where they know what the game is but don't have the label, nah.





ah, game crazy. What was that insane retro sale they had? Any 3 for $5 each or something. I should've had the foresight to just buy everything.

At the end, it was every game $1 a piece except for the ones that already cost less than $1.

I bought 1 of every game I could find and it wasn't worth it. A lot of those Playstation disc onlies were worth about 25 cents to the independent game store nearby.

[Mark1983]

I really wish I'd have been in collecting then, when Game Crazy was still in business. That sale sounds like it was pretty "crazy" though...pardon the pun.

[Archimboldi]

At the end, it was every game $1 a piece except for the ones that already cost less than $1.

I bought 1 of every game I could find and it wasn't worth it. A lot of those Playstation disc onlies were worth about 25 cents to the independent game store nearby.


iirc, NES, SNES, and N64 stuff was all part of it too. I got there right away so there was all this 1st party stuff left that I passed on because I wasn't into it at the time :roll:

I was looking more at the PS1 stuff, which was picked over faster.



I really wish I'd have been in collecting then, when Game Crazy was still in business. That sale sounds like it was pretty "crazy" though...pardon the pun.


yeah, the pre-everybody-knows-about-ebay days were pretty fun.

[Mark1983]

It's sad, because these days, the only sale I get are Vintage Stock buy 2 get one free sales a few times a year. Not that it's a bad thing, I just wish I had a bit more option as far as retro game shops where I live. There's a bunch of Vintage Stocks and a single Game Xchange around...but the Game Xchange is outrageous on their prices (for instance, no matter what, all PS1 RPG's get a $34.95 price tag, simply because it's just that...a PS1 RPG. It's probably on other systems too, but I really didn't pay too much attention). There are no mom and pop shops at all, unless you get lucky at a pawn shop (either pretty rare, or I'm just late all the time, haha).

[Gameguy]

I'm glad this thread is different than what I expected with that other recent label thread out there. Usually I don't buy games without labels, not unless I can still make out the game from whatever shred is left of the old label or if they're included with a large bundle. They're usually not worth it, I certainly haven't found any prototypes this way.

I did once get a copy of Top Gear 3000 in a bundle of games, only Super Metroid booted up when I played it. Even games with full labels can be a surprise.

[Polygon]

To put it simply, no. I have no interest in buy games without a label. Not only could it be a crap game, but I have no way of recreating the label. I could get a crap label printer and make a piss poor quality, in my opinion, label but I wouldn't be satisfied with that.

[Atarileaf]

I'll pick them if they're cheap. For example at Value Village a couple years back, they had a baggie for $2.99 with 3 SNES games with no labels at all - front or back. Turned out to be Xardion, Diddy Kong's Quest, and Super Mario World, not bad.

Also bought a label-less Tandy Coco cart that the store owner wrote "Mistery" Game on the label, and yes, they misspelled mystery. Turned out to be Megabug which I already had but its actually fun to get games with no labels and discover what they are.

[sloan]

If they are cheap and titles I need, yes, I pick them up. Then I print out a hi-res scan on the inkjet, glue it neatly in place, and looks good as new.

[skaar]

Cheddar is tasty.

[Mark1983]

If they are cheap and titles I need, yes, I pick them up. Then I print out a hi-res scan on the inkjet, glue it neatly in place, and looks good as new.

I wish I could make some labels. Especially for Gunstar. I have no intentions of selling it or anything...to me, the game just feels naked without it. I still pick them up though, for the off chance it's something uncommon/pricy as that.

[JSoup]

Cheddar is tasty.

More of a provolone man myself, but a stout Irish cheddar is nice every now and again.

[Tanooki]

Mmmm I think I may get some spreadable cheddar and crackers, good call! :)

[dbm11085]

It frustrates me when I find games with beat up or missing labels, and I would not buy one. I have to wonder sometimes what exactly happened to some of these games that they end up like that. It seems to happen a lot with the more expensive/hard-to-find games on ebay, from experience. I can understand if the box/case or manual is crappy, but the cart?

[wiggyx]

If it's cheap and I know what I'm getting (and it's something I want), yup, I'll buy it. I'll just make a label, toss it in a UGC, put it on the shelf :)

I wouldn't bother for stuff that's normally $5 or so, then no. Not worth the effort IMO unless it's something that would cost me a few more bucks than that if it were in tip-top shape.

[Mark1983]

If it's cheap and I know what I'm getting (and it's something I want), yup, I'll buy it. I'll just make a label, toss it in a UGC, put it on the shelf :)

I wouldn't bother for stuff that's normally $5 or so, then no. Not worth the effort IMO unless it's something that would cost me a few more bucks than that if it were in tip-top shape.

So, if you ran into one at a flea market for say...$2-$3 bucks, would you test fate and hope you got something decent?

[wiggyx]

So, if you ran into one at a flea market for say...$2-$3 bucks, would you test fate and hope you got something decent?

No, probably not.

I mean, it would sort of depend on how the rest of that shopping experience went. If that's all I ran into that day, then I might. If I had a decent haul otherwise, then heck no.

[Mark1983]

Fari enough. I probably would, regardless. I guess I just like the whole mystery behind it. I'd especially do it if it meant my flea marketing day was going to be a total bust. i'd at least want to come back with something.