Krazy Prices on "Kid Klown in Night Mayor World" (NES)

[Nz17]

Really, online buyers? Do you really think Kid Klown in Night Mayor World is worth $100 - $150 loose, $300 - $350 complete? I mean, from the online videos I've seen, Kid Klown looks like a good game, a nice game, but not a game worth that much cash! Why so much? Its rarity is a 5 out of 10, so it's not common, but is it really worth the high price? Why buyers drive up these prices is beyond me.

Oh, for the days when you could just routinely pick up NES and Atari games at yard sales for $1 each! What I'd give to have the $5 prices again, even!

It's been quite some time since I've regularly bought NES games online; it's been about 1 1/2 years since I bought any NES games offline. Is this sort of pricing normal anymore?

[SparTonberry]

NES and SNES prices have been insane in general the past few years, with Genesis creeping up as well.

Probably around the time EarthBound started selling for $200. That game is uncommon at best (had been about a $30 game for like a decade prior), but scalpers have been pushing prices on anything even slightly rare.

[calgon]

I don't see it ever reversing.

[bb_hood]

Its because of the rarity, its been considered rare for quite some time now. Its rarer than a 5 out of 10.

[Aussie2B]

Yeah, I think that 5/10 may be underestimating the rarity too. It was a very late release, so I'm not surprised to hear that it's pulling in some cash like so many other NES games released around its time. There's basically no way that it would've had a large print run or sell lots back then.

[Edmond Dantes]

Is the title a typo, or is the endboss of the game literally called the Night Mayor?

[Tanooki]

Really, online buyers? Do you really think Kid Klown in Night Mayor World is worth $100 - $150 loose, $300 - $350 complete? I mean, from the online videos I've seen, Kid Klown looks like a good game, a nice game, but not a game worth that much cash! Why so much? Its rarity is a 5 out of 10, so it's not common, but is it really worth the high price? Why buyers drive up these prices is beyond me.

Oh, for the days when you could just routinely pick up NES and Atari games at yard sales for $1 each! What I'd give to have the $5 prices again, even!

It's been quite some time since I've regularly bought NES games online; it's been about 1 1/2 years since I bought any NES games offline. Is this sort of pricing normal anymore?

Is it good? It's average, not great.
Is it worth $100 loose and $300 complete? Not even close, it's fairly common and I've had it a few times without trying.
Why so much? Because people get scared thanks to so many games being falsely jammed up in price so they buy now to avoid it ugly months later.
Are $5 nes games normal? Barely. They have to be fairly undesirable and common too to still get there, even trolls will try and sell the formerly 50 cent value SMB+DH (or SMB+DH+WCTM) carts for $10-15 now just because fools pay for it.


What I'd give for $5 prices again? Anything, that's why I bailed and stopped getting mad about it. You can get a lot of Gameboy (including color and advance) along with Genesis games for $5-10 as cart alone, and an ok selection of stuff for even $5 shipped(ie: $1-3 games+shipping) today which is why I switched. Fresh experience, and my wallet doesn't feel like it got roofied by Cosby. You can peg most (cart only, nice shape/label) for $3-30 for those things which makes me feel much better as I can try out and experiment with things like I used to do with NES/SNES.

[jonebone]

I only collect CIB so I can't comment regarding actual cart rarity, but I'd consider the CIB about an 8/10. It's one of those hard to find games with bad gameplay but sought after for collector value... something like Color a Dinosaur. Also has a poster that is even tougher for those who care about being 100% complete.

$300 for a CIB isn't that bad considering what some of the rares go for these days. I'd be more offended with Die Hard commanding close to $200 as a CIB.

[celerystalker]

It's one of the licensed games I've seen the least. I've only seen two, and I bought mine at $3.99 a long time ago. I do think it's actually pretty good, and have played through it. It's pretty easy, but you get a hard mode after beating it the regular way. Plus, it is the beginning of a series Kemco supported for years, with the Kid Klown's Crazy Chase games and The Bombing Islands as well... kind of their sideways mascot. If you were to stumble onto it at a more reasonable price, it's not a bad game at all. Not $100 good, but fun all the same.

[SparTonberry]

I got the Famicom Mickey Mouse version for like $30 loose a few years ago. Not sure how reasonable that price was.

[calgon]

More people are into retro gaming now which I think is great, especially kids that weren't even born during the heyday of this stuff.

I'll echo others in that I do miss the lower prices even if there's not much left I want. Japanese mega drive games are really the last on my list and those have been among the steepest inclines

[Spartacus]

I got the Famicom Mickey Mouse version for like $30 loose a few years ago. Not sure how reasonable that price was.

I bought Mickey Mouse III: Yume Fuusen for the famicom last year after I was discouraged by the prices I would see for Kid Klown in Night Mayor World. I paid $70 shipped for a complete copy with the registration card. I was collecting balloon games for shits and giggles and wasn't looking to spend much for an admittedly kinda dumb game collection.
The famicom name translates into Mickey Mouse III: Dream Balloon. I think Capcom owned the licensing rights to Disney games at the time, so Kemco turned it into a Crazy Chase titled game. And that explains why it's not similar to any of the other Crazy Chase games.
While I do feel chagrined anytime I'm resigned to buying a famicom version of a game because of expense, in this instance it wasn't so bad because I had previously been collecting the Japanese Mickey Mouse series of games for the Gameboy. So it kinda just added to my Mickey Mouse collection as well as my balloon collection.
Sheesh, I collect some pretty stupid shit! LOL

[Gameguy]

I keep getting this confused with Kid Kool, that's the label artwork I keep looking for even though Kid Klown looks completely different. I still do not own Kid Klown, I never found a copy locally.

[Gatucaman]

I bought Mickey Mouse III: Yume Fuusen for the famicom last year after I was discouraged by the prices I would see for Kid Klown in Night Mayor World. I paid $70 shipped for a complete copy with the registration card. I was collecting balloon games for shits and giggles and wasn't looking to spend much for an admittedly kinda dumb game collection.
The famicom name translates into Mickey Mouse III: Dream Balloon. I think Capcom owned the licensing rights to Disney games at the time, so Kemco turned it into a Crazy Chase titled game. And that explains why it's not similar to any of the other Crazy Chase games.
While I do feel chagrined anytime I'm resigned to buying a famicom version of a game because of expense, in this instance it wasn't so bad because I had previously been collecting the Japanese Mickey Mouse series of games for the Gameboy. So it kinda just added to my Mickey Mouse collection as well as my balloon collection.
Sheesh, I collect some pretty stupid shit! LOL

CRAZY CASTLE, geez X_x

But yeah, be prepared for the $25 flat price curse for common as fuck titles that are popular brand name franchises like megaman 2 & 3 or any Mario game.

[celerystalker]

CRAZY CASTLE, geez X_x

But yeah, be prepared for the $25 flat price curse for common as fuck titles that are popular brand name franchises like megaman 2 & 3 or any Mario game.

Crazy Chase. Kid Klown in Crazy Chase for SNES. There's also Crazy Chase 2 and Bombing Islands on PS1, a GBA remake of Crazy Chase, and Go! Go! Kid for GBC, which oddly enough was rebranded as Bugs Bunny's Crazy Castle III later...

[Spartacus]

Crazy Chase. Kid Klown in Crazy Chase for SNES. There's also Crazy Chase 2 and Bombing Islands on PS1, a GBA remake of Crazy Chase, and Go! Go! Kid for GBC, which oddly enough was rebranded as Bugs Bunny's Crazy Castle III later...

Ahhh, Go! Go! Kid! aka Bugs Bunny: Crazy Castle 3! I was trying to remember why in the the heck I was collecting Japanese Mickey Mouse gameboy games in the first place when I saw I was missing number 3 in the series. It's because even in Japan, Mickey Mouse III was released as Bugs Bunny: Crazy Castle 3. Video game licensing can really mess with a collection. LOL

I know I'm not overly fond of Disney, so why was I collecting Japanese Mickey Mouse gameboy games? I had to dig through several collections before I realized it was the bombs. I was collecting all the games I could find that used bombs as a significant gameplay aspect, you know, like Bomberman series or Kemco's Bombing Islands - which was later reconfigured into Charlie Blast Territory for the N64. That's why I had them!

Bombs, man that turned into quite a collection! And because my research keep turning up games that you defuse bombs instead of planting them, I made a collection for that too. It's smaller, but more than you might think and rather interesting too, I thought.

I bet all that bomb googling got me on somebodies watch list. LOL

Yeah, some people collect developers, some collect systems and I do that too. But what makes collecting really fun for me is googling the shit out of some gameplay mechanic I found interesting or amusing and scoring all the games across all systems that have it. Being a guy, it's usually shit like games with zombies, jetpacks, miniguns or games that let you beat up hookers. LOL

Seriously though, it's oddball genre collecting that keeps the hobby of acquiring video games fresh and fun.

Sorry to sidetrack your Krazy Prices on "Kid Klown in Night Mayor World" (NES) thread Nz17. I hope you find one in your price range. If you are collecting balloon games like I did, prices might not be your toughest hurdle. Balloon Fight GB for the Gameboy Color was transfered onto a Nintendo Power flash RAM cartridge. So you have to dig up a RAM cartridge in Japan with the game transfered on it. Heck, if collecting was easy, everybody would be doing it. LOL

[The 1 2 P]

It's amazing how many of these rare expensive games are titles I never even heard of before.

[bb_hood]

It's amazing how many of these rare expensive games are titles I never even heard of before.

NES has, or had alot of sleeper rare titles. If you look at the NES library, there are many games that are hard to come by. What shocks me the most is when people pay alot for some of the more common games like Tyson and Contra.

[Tanooki]

So true it's why I said if/when it implodes the true rates and faux expensive none rares will tank and adjust. Stuff like Mario contra and turtle stuff shouldn't be so much. I'm glad I stepped off it but feel bad for those in the grinder now.

[spman]

Kid Klown is a pretty good game. It's a late release, and it's one of those rare NES titles that was under the radar for a while and undervalued relative to its scarcity (at least when compared to other equally rare games). Wacky Races was another one, and that one is getting expensive too. It won't be long until all of the 1992-1994 era NES titles are going to be $50 and up.

You want an investment that will probably pay off, buy a few copies of Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt for NES, it's probably about on par with Kid Klown rarity wise, but it's only a $40 game right now. It'll be $100+ soon enough just watch.

[SparTonberry]

Pugsley, surely an investment than a game. :P
A crappy (even considering NES limitations) port of the first SNES Addams Family.
And yet the NES version was ported, with even more stuff chopped out, to the Game Boy. Yet I had that one as a kid, so I'm for the nostalgia it's probably a good thing I rebought the game CI already. I hear that game is one of the rarer GB (NintendoAge 6/10) games as well, which means only time before scalpers get to it. I picked up the rare games I wanted from that list already, save for the already gouged Spud's Adventure, which I bought in Japanese for cheap.
As much as I'd love to see ZAS on a real original Game Boy, that's well into flashcart territory these days, as well as a couple other Japanese obscurities.

All the 1992-1994 games? Even the first-party games, which all seem fairly common and very cheap these days? (not sure if it's even still possible to buy Kirby's Adventure sealed for original price these days... as long as you don't mind if it's the Quebec version?)

[The 1 2 P]

NES has, or had alot of sleeper rare titles. If you look at the NES library, there are many games that are hard to come by. What shocks me the most is when people pay alot for some of the more common games like Tyson and Contra.

Well I have learned about many of those sleeper hits right here on DP. Someone mentioned North And South for the Nes a few years back and I grabbed it at a flea market when I saw it. I was surprised that at the time it was going for around $40. And you are right about the common games commanding more money than they should but that is something that occurs for nearly all of Nintendo's systems. I mean, how many copies has each Pokemon game sold on handheld? Millions each and yet you can sell most used copies for more than what those games sold for brand new.

[Tanooki]

North & South is a fantastic game. I owned it for years, but I gave it up last year since I happened to own a modernized (coat of paint, plays same) version of it on my tablet. It's unique and fun since it's not some rigidly annoying usual KOEI type mess all done with math and luck. You navigate the map, then the battles are live between moving field units as groups (cavalry, soldiers, cannon) to waste the other side on various maps, or you have a train you take over, or you have to raid and conquer an enemy fort. Holding the rails are key in those states because trains that can go from A to B will carry cash for you to buy more units (or the enemy to do so.) Lots of ways to configure it too which is cool because you can play any of the 4 years of the war and for either side making or remaking history. It's a one of a kind release on NES and beyond.

[Gatucaman]

NES has, or had alot of sleeper rare titles.

No offense, but you kinda sound like a speculator there, by sleeper rare titles you meant games that are actually just slightly less common than your Megamans and common titles, specially the games post 1990, i mean geez, look at the prices of common as fuck games having the $25-30 flat price curse now, and every other game that is slightly less common despite them NOT BEING PANIC RESTAURANT OR LITTLE SAMSOM, doesn't matter, prices wank off every month up until they are from $60 to well over a $100!

Cant believe i am going to say this, but i am start to now understand why people get weary over E-celebs, just like when Cygnus mentioned that power blade was $20 shipped, and the the prices masturbated at $60

I personally still don't believe that i found Kickmaster at $4 at a flea market years ago, when the epidemic was started to show its force.

[bb_hood]

No offense, but you kinda sound like a speculator there, by sleeper rare titles you meant games that are actually just slightly less common than your Megamans and common titles, specially the games post 1990, i mean geez, look at the prices of common as fuck games having the $25-30 flat price curse now, and every other game that is slightly less common despite them NOT BEING PANIC RESTAURANT OR LITTLE SAMSOM, doesn't matter, prices wank off every month up until they are from $60 to well over a $100!

Cant believe i am going to say this, but i am start to now understand why people get weary over E-celebs, just like when Cygnus mentioned that power blade was $20 shipped, and the the prices masturbated at $60

I personally still don't believe that i found Kickmaster at $4 at a flea market years ago, when the epidemic was started to show its force.

People sometimes forget that the NES is 30 years old and the uncommon games will only become rarer. Game like Powerblade and Kickmaster used to be uncommons, but now they are much more sought after.

One sleeper game that I think will go up in value is Super Spy Hunter. Its not an easy game to find, and its really really good. Ive been playing it alot lately. Get it now while its ~30$.

[Aussie2B]

What? Kick Master is worth something now? I swear, I feel like every day I'm finding out that a game in my collection is valuable when I was assuming it was only worth a couple bucks like it was when I bought it.

[SparTonberry]

Would a "sleeper" be a game that was good but most people didn't notice it when it was new (so it probably wouldn't be that common since it wouldn't have sold as well because people didn't know about it)?

I know the Japanese version of Super Spy Hunter (Battle Formula) has been insane prices for years now.
Supposedly it shot up when one Japanese collector who had finished getting a complete Famicom set was interviewed. There appeared to have been some confusion as to whether Battle Formula was the game he had the hardest time getting, or if it was just his favorite game.

[Gatucaman]

What? Kick Master is worth something now? I swear, I feel like every day I'm finding out that a game in my collection is valuable when I was assuming it was only worth a couple bucks like it was when I bought it.

Yeah dude, Kickmaster is now between $75 - $95 Loose !!, plus is really NOT RARE AT ALL, heck i don't even think was that uncommon as some people hype it, i think it was more of "game that sorta when forgotten or didnt got much hype, kinda like Startropics, a AAA Nintendo game that despite selling well, it didn't became a supreme hit", then again Startropics is still, and surprisingly, pretty cheap on Ebay, heck even Startropics II who was the second to last official NES game in the US, is not really expensive at all.

It used to be $35 on Ebay when i bought it, and i bought it on a flea market for $4!, i was thinking on bidding on one to try to get it for $22 at least, but that is basically out of question nowadays, since most assholes when they bid games like this one, they start the bid within a week of time limit with a starting price of $35 - $50, and chances are, one of these 2 scenarios.

1.- The ending price is only a few dollars of difference of the cheapest BIN with shipping included, defeating the purpose of even trying to bid on the auction.

2.- Its gonna end even expensive that the BIN, no joke.

shillbiders and auction snippers are the problem.

the 2 games that i bought on Ebay only because i knew i couldn't get them at a "decent" price anymore due to them, are L0L0 3 and VICE, and yes, i own Adventures of l0l0 3 now. and yeeeeeah, i paid 40 for that one, and only saved........$15-20 considering that it went up again, i dont recommend doing this, and only at the last resort, since my NES library is near completion anyways.

[Aussie2B]

I had no idea that Vice was worth a bit these days either. Figured that was like a $3 cart too. My brain is still stuck in like 2005 prices. I'm glad I loaded up on NES games back then. I don't have remotely close to a complete set, or even everything that I would want, but I do have a pretty decent collection of 100-some NES games.

I feel like eBay sucks for just about all US game shopping these days, whether retro or modern. It's so hard to find traditional bidding auctions (with low opening bids). Everything is an overpriced BIN, and since it's hard to find anything else, they eventually set the market value. Seems like only the Japanese import sellers I follow still do things the old-fashioned way, and though sometimes the bidding goes high, I can still manage to get good deals here and there.

[bb_hood]

Would a "sleeper" be a game that was good but most people didn't notice it when it was new (so it probably wouldn't be that common since it wouldn't have sold as well because people didn't know about it)?

I know the Japanese version of Super Spy Hunter (Battle Formula) has been insane prices for years now.
Supposedly it shot up when one Japanese collector who had finished getting a complete Famicom set was interviewed. There appeared to have been some confusion as to whether Battle Formula was the game he had the hardest time getting, or if it was just his favorite game.

I think a game is a 'sleeper' when it takes a longer time for people to recognize it or for its price to go up online.

Yeah, it was on GameCenter CX. I think that guy said he really liked battle formula but I think its also a rare one.
GameCenter CX went on to play Battleformula/Super Spy Hunter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTzoc67mbKY.

[Gameguy]

People sometimes forget that the NES is 30 years old and the uncommon games will only become rarer. Game like Powerblade and Kickmaster used to be uncommons, but now they are much more sought after.
There's plenty of stuff even older than 30 years that's still worthless, even though it was rarer to begin with. Just look at old 70's/80's comics or baseball cards, most are pretty much worthless. With NES stuff you can pretty much find any game listed online at any time, if it's available for sale at any time it's really not that rare.

It's really just current high demand that's driving pricing higher.

[FieryReign]

Just big dreaming by big dreamers, don't believe that nonsense. History Channel makes everybody think their semi-old shit is worth something and their "big ticket" to riches. Get the fuck outta here with that.

Then you have wannabe youtube celebs driving prices up with "obscure rare nes gems" and garbage like that. A twat makes a video about a game and you feel the need to spend crazy amounts of money on it? What is the demographic? Teens who find dick and poop jokes hilarious?

VGA grading or whatever is to blame as well, whatever basement or garage they're working out of. Who the fuck made these clowns the "officials" on valuing games? Nintendo? Sega? Themselves? Sure. Let's encase games and value the fucking cardboard and shrinkwrap. Retarded. Put em up on ebay for $99,000, just to show it off and make your e-peen hard. Get real people. Play the fucking games and stop wanking to your wannabe fantasies of being famous for owning a game.

No envy, real talk.

[Tanooki]

I had no idea that Vice was worth a bit these days either. Figured that was like a $3 cart too. My brain is still stuck in like 2005 prices. I'm glad I loaded up on NES games back then. I don't have remotely close to a complete set, or even everything that I would want, but I do have a pretty decent collection of 100-some NES games.

I feel like eBay sucks for just about all US game shopping these days, whether retro or modern. It's so hard to find traditional bidding auctions (with low opening bids). Everything is an overpriced BIN, and since it's hard to find anything else, they eventually set the market value. Seems like only the Japanese import sellers I follow still do things the old-fashioned way, and though sometimes the bidding goes high, I can still manage to get good deals here and there.

Yup same here. Ebay you got pegged, it's really kind of like amazon now if you think about it. Last time I checked the NES era (3 years back) for averages I saw that 85% of the NES games up (individual, not systems or bundles) were BIN auctions, either straight bin, offer bin, or bin on top of a starting price. It's like amazon's new/used area where you just kind of pick the price you are willing to pay, view the image(amazon almost always lacks) and just buy it. Running an actual auction anymore is just stupid because you don't get as much unless it's a true honest rare, then you get a good bid war usually going with fighters trying to get a deal one upping each other, then when it hits the usual BIN value then it's a matter of pride to someone who has to win and they'll pay up at the level or a bit more just to be the winner (or loser paying more however you want to look at it.) I stopped doing total open auctions, did them for years, and it just went bad with the herd mentality of it all so I just do a fair start price with a 30% over bin and in many cases that works well.

I had for a time hundreds of games, then went a bit too far down to around 45-50, and then upped it around 70-80 and finally when I quit buying them and got even turned off by it (I won't even buy something now that's just a few bucks that looks maybe good) I've got right around 60 and almost all were OG buys of the 80s-1991 up to the SNES release. I'd rather keep the fun ones I had for decades or the few I found I liked that much too than have some dust collectors.

Let the crazies fight over it, better things to do. If they want to dream big, let them, if their wallet is that big too. I'm done playing in that pond more or less and don't care to get pissed about it either as fools will do as they will despite the blow back on themselves and others.

[SparTonberry]

VGA grading or whatever is to blame as well, whatever basement or garage they're working out of. Who the fuck made these clowns the "officials" on valuing games? Nintendo? Sega? Themselves? Sure. Let's encase games and value the fucking cardboard and shrinkwrap. Retarded. Put em up on ebay for $99,000, just to show it off and make your e-peen hard. Get real people. Play the fucking games and stop wanking to your wannabe fantasies of being famous for owning a game.

Buying new (released) games, slabbing them and hoping some idiot will pay 4x the price over just going to a store.

[Tanooki]

That never made sense to me when I saw that. People who would actually go to the store and watch the games get pulled out of their packing box to find the most nice one possible to then send it off for a grade, to then turn around and pop it on ebay for a big up sell. I found it completely disgusting doing that, but I also found those willing to just pay that and not do the box squat and gamble equally as crazy paying that. It's like they don't understand that games are so mass produced now compared to the few million seller titles of the 80s and 90s they're not going to be worth much of crap unless they're well known minimal releases like that 2K run of Retro City Rampage DX for PS4 that fangamer.com did. I never was a fan of it, but at least I get it with something that's from the 20th century of gaming, there's age and a generally smaller pool of games to start of in print let alone survivors, but 21st century games seems f'ing retarded.

[Nesmaster]

I don't think I've seen Kid Klown locally for 10-12 years. Never had it as part of my original (pre-2007 selloff) collection. It was among the list of last titles (that I was going for) for me to pick up with collection #2, which I did at the end of 2014.

Pretty uncommon, not surprised given recent trends, though that last CIB missing poster breaking $400 is pretty surprising.

[Nz17]

So the kraziness kontinues! These days a game-only copy of Kid Klown for NES sells for about $300, and a shrink-wrapped copy sold during March 1, 2020 for $4,951 with $20 for shipping and handling. I'm thinking that, as much as I like this game from what I've seen online, I'm going to have to accept that I'm not going to own an official copy as a part of my collection - that's too rich for my blood!

[gbpxl]

kollectors with more money than they know what to do with. Im not gonna say I wouldnt drop 5k on this game if I were making 7 figures though.

[Aussie2B]

A rare game like this is bound to only go up and up. Even if the NES market in general dropped, like it did with pre-crash games, I wouldn't expect it to have much effect on the genuine rarities like this one. I imagine more and more copies are ending up in the hands of full set collectors, and to be an NES full set collector these days, you almost have to be rich, which means you're also unlikely to ever be in a position where you're hard up for cash and liquidate your full set. So many copies are probably going to just sit and rot as a shelf trophy for years and years, resulting in fewer and fewer copies available to buy, in turn resulting in a value that keeps increasing.

[megasdkirby]

Kid Klown is HOW much?!

Awesome we have a CIB copy. It's a rental, but still happy to have it. It's pretty decent too.