This is driving me ass crazy - collectible PC games/rarity

[portnoyd]

Ok, simple question: Are there any sites out there that deal with rare PC games, and what they're worth? The DP of PC games? I'm shit out of luck trying to find anything.

I ask because I dug up something that *should* be rare for the PC. It's a copy of Day of the Tentacle (sequel to Maniac Mansion) for the PC on 5 1/4" floppies. May not sound out of the ordinary, but I got them by sending my 3 1/2" disks to LucasArts, and they sent these back to me. 8 discs, all with official labels. Never officially sold in stores, only available by mail order, and potentially made on demand. If that doesn't scream (or talk loudly) rare, I don't know what does.

Anybody? There's got to be some forum somewhere where people talk about Alkalabeth and Ultima values.. right?

dave

[SoulBlazer]

The best forums I can suggest are those at Home of the Underdogs at www.the-underdogs.org

[Quintracker]

I'll go ahead and say the obvious, have you looked on ebay for certain titles? I've been meaning to do that for a while, I've got a bunch of old pc games I need to get rid of.

[portnoyd]

I'll go ahead and say the obvious, have you looked on ebay for certain titles? I've been meaning to do that for a while, I've got a bunch of old pc games I need to get rid of.

I have, and I can't tell if it's just stupid people, or actual value. Oh well. I'll try that forum out, thanks guys.

dave

[norkusa]

I don't know jack about the rarity of PC games, but whenever I see a complete PC strategy or rpg game in a pawn or thrift for cheap, I always pick it up. I just started doing this a month or two ago and have been making a killing on ebay with them. Paid $4 for each title and here's how I made out:

King's Quest Collection-$152
Chickamauga (civil war sim)-$40
Start Trek TNG: Birth Of The Federation-$45
People's General-$40
Stars!-$30

I think I did alright. And you can bet I'm going to keep my eyes open for this kind of stuff when I hit the thrifts now. Looking back, I can't believe how many used PC games I used to pass up because I though it was worthless.

[Lady Jaye]

When you buy old PC games on diskette or floppys (games that were opened, of course, not factory-sealed games), do you check whether the data can still be read before selling them? Or do you sell the games untested, as is?

[Scoots]

Agreed, there is not a lot of info to go on out there. We decided to add PC games at Fatman, but it's more of a llist of titles at this point. I wouldn't even want to guess at rarity/prices for most of it. Hell, just trying to maintain a list of titles is a ridiculous task.

[norkusa]

When you buy old PC games on diskette or floppys (games that were opened, of course, not factory-sealed games), do you check whether the data can still be read before selling them? Or do you sell the games untested, as is?

Actually, none of the games that I've sold were on diskette (all cd-rom's) so I never had to worry about that. If I saw a diskette version of a game at a thrift though, I'd be nervous about picking it up. Over time, those things will eventually de-magnetize and get erased, right?

[Cmosfm]

LOL LOL LOL

ass crazy! Tell a girl that your "ass crazy" and see what happens.

LOL

[Ed Oscuro]

Anybody? There's got to be some forum somewhere where people talk about Alkalabeth and Ultima values.. right?

Yeah, it's called A thread you didn't check ;) (http://www.digitpress.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=26402) Akalabeth is probably very much in demand as well.

That Lucasarts "Day of the Tentacles" on five'n a quarters sounds pretty nice, for sure. Are the labels the same as on the 3.5 inch, or are they full size?

As for rare PC games...I'm very much surprised Norkusa made that much money off those games. I see unopened stuff on eBay all the time, and while most of it's very common, some really ain't -- I've seen some rare Infocom titles go for not much over $10.

[Ed Oscuro]

For those wondering how much Akalabeth would go for, Richard Garriot seems to have tried it out around 1999: Link (http://www.cdmag.com/articles/023/007/ultimah_feature.html)

[Jorpho]

Instead of eBay, you can always try searching on GameTZ for games with high wanted:available ratios.

As I've mentioned before, there are some very rare adventure games that are worth a lot of money to the right people. Alice: An Interactive Museum, Discworld, The Neverhood, and Cassandra Galleries come to mind.

[portnoyd]

Anybody? There's got to be some forum somewhere where people talk about Alkalabeth and Ultima values.. right?

Yeah, it's called A thread you didn't check ;) (http://www.digitpress.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=26402) Akalabeth is probably very much in demand as well.

That Lucasarts "Day of the Tentacles" on five'n a quarters sounds pretty nice, for sure. Are the labels the same as on the 3.5 inch, or are they full size?

As for rare PC games...I'm very much surprised Norkusa made that much money off those games. I see unopened stuff on eBay all the time, and while most of it's very common, some really ain't -- I've seen some rare Infocom titles go for not much over $10.

I saw that thread, hence why I asked for outside discussion. :) It got me wondering... is there any group that said "Shit that's rare, gimme" or is it just independent collecting colliding towards high prices?

The DotT discs are full size (for the 5 1/4" label area), and look professionally printed. I'm not so much after making money off them, as answering my curiousity.

And nork's post just makes me want to find this magic group/forum where rare PC games are discussed and decided. If it exists.

dave

[maxlords]

Well, I know there's not a TON of info out there, but I know of a few really rare titles:

Wing Commander: The Kilrathi Saga (WC 1-3 in a boxed set) goes for $150-200

Space Quest: The Collection goes for around $60 a copy

The Space Quest games, all complete and boxed, you're looking at around $100 for the lot

I've seen a few others, but I can't remember what they all are :D It's REALLY hit and miss for em!

[Ed Oscuro]

I saw that thread, hence why I asked for outside discussion. :) It got me wondering... is there any group that said "Shit that's rare, gimme" or is it just independent collecting colliding towards high prices?

I see. I bet the Ultima 1 pricing is due to independent collectors...the Ultima community possibly has an interest, but it's hard to say where your average UO gamer's loyalties lie...

I haven't seen any PC game discussion forums quite like we have here, but that doesn't mean they exist. I haven't seen anything to suggest there's any organized movement to set prices, certainly nothing like we have here. Pretty much everything in the PC market is low value. That may change, but at the moment...nothing on the radar, nothing at all. There's the Computers discussion forum on Classicgaming's Forumplanet forum, but even that's pretty dead. The lack of competition for a certain eBay seller's auctions also makes me wonder if there's any serious collecting going on for PC games...I wonder if people just think there's too much to collect for.

[calthaer]

I wouldn't say that it's "hit-or-miss," as most of those titles were popular brands back in the golden age of PC games - due in no small part to having many quality titles come out for each brand. If you've been a console-gamer your whole life and never kept up with which games were great PC games, then of course it's going to seem like a crap-shoot. It really isn't, though. Wing Commander was a hit, the Ultima games were always fairly successful, Sierra adventures always used to be successful, Lucasarts, Infocom, some old ECA (now EA) titles, Looking Glass Studios stuff usually goes for a decent price (System Shock 2 is currently their "big item" you could say - I consistently see it go for $30 or more whereas a few years back it was $10 new)...and some of it just depends who's looking on eBay and when.

[Jorpho]

Why don't you try Four Fat Chicks (http://www.fourfatchicks.com)? It's an adventure gaming site, but there are some collectors there. I visit on occasion.

[brykasch]

Well if this gives you any examples-

I sold the following-

FFVII-35
Day of the Tentacle-20
Sam and Max:Hit The Road-20
Wing Commander III-25

And mind you those were just for the games themselves. Do a search on ebay. Some games you cna get decent scratch for. Mind you the point and clicks came from a lucasarts archive set. I wish they still had em for sale. I have 1-3 games only as they came in the worst cases. Well no cases actually , but if you bought em you knwo what I mean:)

[hu6800]

I have some, the older police quest, space hulk, doom , alone in the dark
and this one here...
http://f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/hu6800/detail?.dir=/CAR&.dnm=WillyBeammish.jpg

didnt know they were worth anything but i love to play them

[chaoticjelly]

I have been concentrating on selling PC games recently..
I too noticed lots of them about, and must of passed up many many of them..

But yes, some are worth a lot, and no, there aren't any lists out there that I know of.. I keep my own list in my head now.. generally, I buy all the PC games I can get my hands on, and list them on ebay, sure, some sell for what I paid for them i.e. generally £1 each or less.. but quite a few are worth a lot..

For example.. here is some of the games I have sold

Gary Grigsby's Pacific War (3.5" diskette) : £26
Day of the Tentacle (3.5" diskette) : £8
Daggerfall (Elder Scrolls 2) (CD ROM) : £25
Star Trek Birth of the Federation (CD ROM) : £26 (this was obtained at a high street shop, similar to the Gamestops in America, for £0.50p !!!)
Silent Service 2 (3.5" diskette) : £48.99 (!!!!!)
Monkey Island 1 & 2 (CD ROM) : £32 (disc in case only)
Monkey Island 1 (CD ROM) : £28 (disc in wallet only)
Gabriel Knight 1 : Sins of the Fathers : £39
Gabriel Knight 2 : The Beast Within : £20
Planescape Torment : £26

Basically, it's anything Sierra, anthing classicy/well remembered, good RPG's and adventure..

Hope this helps..

For CD ROMs I try the game, make sure it's not too scratched, for Disks, I check for dampness before buying (damp can erase the disks yes..) (if you flip back the metal protective cover, and look at the disk surface, small blotches mean damp, so you should be wary the disk may not work), I try and read the data where applicable.

[maxlords]

Well, I've been a PC gamer since the 286 days, and I still think it's hit or miss. Otherwise, Wing Commander Kilrathi Saga would be cheaper or the individual games would be more, and I've seen the EXACT same games sell for $5 and $30 in different auctions before. Very odd. I think there are only a handful of PC collectors out there, and they just randomly buy stuff.

I could see System Shock 1 and 2 going up though....surprised it didn't happen sooner. I can't wait till the graphics mod is finished for SS2 :D

[portnoyd]

I could see System Shock 1 and 2 going up though....surprised it didn't happen sooner. I can't wait till the graphics mod is finished for SS2 :D

Graphics mod? :eek 2: That is too sexy, oh noooo, is too sexy! *slobber*

dave

[Bratwurst]

Yup, it's a work in progress of model upgrades.

Rebirth (http://perso.wanadoo.fr/etienne.aubert/sshock/sshock_rebirth.htm)

[Jorpho]

Well if this gives you any examples-

I sold the following-

FFVII-35
Day of the Tentacle-20
Sam and Max:Hit The Road-20
Wing Commander III-25

FFVII sells for that much? FFVIII I can understand, but FFVII was rereleased once.

[SoulBlazer]

Yeah, I sold FF7 for the PC for $40 last yer, and FF8 for the PC for $60 last year.

All of the valuable games that have been mentioned so far are good ones, but I'll add Axis and Allies: Iron Blitz. I sold mine for $75. And the PC version of PTO 2 goes for that price.

[calthaer]

Very odd. I think there are only a handful of PC collectors out there, and they just randomly buy stuff.
I could see System Shock 1 and 2 going up though....surprised it didn't happen sooner. I can't wait till the graphics mod is finished for SS2 :D

It could very well be true that PC collectors come and go in fits, and that sometimes when you happen to have a few people together at once they go into a feeding frenzy and drive up the price. I still don't think it's random, though. If it were you'd see games like "Wacky Wheels" or "FX Fighter" or or other obscure titles going for a lot. People aren't just collecting; they're collecting *good* games. I don't think those games are ever going to worth anything, no matter how rare they are or aren't. The reason people are paying good money for collections of the Quest for Glory or X-Com or Ultima or Origin games is because those were quality titles (some of them I'd even say were groundbreaking and revolutionary, esp. X-Com UFO Defense and Ultima IV). It's just that once in a while you see one of these items slip onto eBay or somewhere and nobody really knows what it's worth and maybe the people who do aren't checking...and it goes for less. I see them go for more money more often than I don't (if that sentence makes ANY sense).

And as for System Shock - the original has actually gone DOWN in price over the past few years. In early 2001 I found a copy of the CD version (manual and all, but no box) used at EB for $12, but at the time it was routinely going for $70 on eBay. The floppy version doesn't go for a lot, of course, but the CD one has at times.

SS2 is probably going up because people who had it on their lists are suddenly realizing that they can't go out and pick it up for $10 any more.

I really can't figure out why the publishers aren't coming out with a "Looking Glass Collection" and selling it for $50. I'm sure it would sell well. Most of those games were published by EA (once ECA in the time when they actually made quality games). They could put the Ultima Underworld games on it, System Shock 1 & 2, and the two Thief games. Any company that has such an active fan site (www.ttlg.com) years AFTER it's been completely disbanded deserves at least some reprints of their stuff. Same with Origin, Sierra, Microprose - any of those classic companies.

[ARCZero]

I've had some good experience eBaying older PC games too. I think it's hot right now in Germany to collect them, as whenever I hold international auctions I get a lot of e-mail from there.

Here are my highlights:
1. I picked up sealed copies of Day of the Tenticle and Zak McKracken. These were Lucas Arts value re-releases, and not the original packages. I paid $2 and sold them to a German for $200!

2. Picked up Ultima I (the re-made version) boxed complete for $5. Sold it for $150.

And then there are the times when I pick up classic C64 boxed / complete RPGs, which are virtually worthless. I just picked up Ultima IV for the Atari 800 series, but I'm not sure how much it's worth.

Also, whenever I sell diskette games I sell them as-is.

- ARCZero