Myriad 6 in 1 in comparison to NWC: Rarity and Value.

[blissfulnoise]

Just like everyone else LOL

Seriously though, be prepared to trade dearly for those titles if someone will even sell/trade to you. Cheetaman II and the Caltron 6 in 1 can command between $200 - $400 depending on condition. I had a guy offer my $900 for my Myriad and I passed it up.

Good luck hunting.

[imanerd0011]

Are you kidding me ??? $900 is an absolute fortune for any NES game. I lost an auction for Caltron 6 in 1 around a month ago for $130. So I'll pay aroun $150 for a loose copy of it, and around $100 for a loose copy of Cheetahmen 2. I don't want complete or sealed copies (even though I realized that most Cheetahmen 2's are sealed).

[blissfulnoise]

The last Caltron auction on ebay that came up went for $350 (approx) I believe, but that was a pretty much mint copy. Thus my speculated (albeit educated)$200 - $400 range. I'm not sure about the one you lost though. The last Cheetamen II I saw also went for $220. I can't get on ebay at the moment to double verify.

As for the Myriad, it hasn't been on ebay for quite a long time, there is a small discussion about the price for it, specifically my copy and the $900 offer, here.

http://www.digitpress.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=40271&highlight=myriad

The guy offering me $900 was 100% serious. And given the possibility that the Myriad cart is as scarce as the NWC Grey cart, $900 isn't very unreasonable IMO.

[Bronty-2]

you can't just go buy that caltron auction though. a sealed one only went for about $220 a little before that. the thing one has to keep in mind is that the better the condition the more volatile the sales; ie the larger the potential spread in price on identical items for no apparent reason.

[Necrosaro420]

Just like everyone else LOL

Seriously though, be prepared to trade dearly for those titles if someone will even sell/trade to you. Cheetaman II and the Caltron 6 in 1 can command between $200 - $400 depending on condition. I had a guy offer my $900 for my Myriad and I passed it up.

Good luck hunting.




Calton mint condition ended on ebay this week, I lost bid by 1$...It went for 54$

[Darth Vader]

And given the possibility that the Myriad cart is as scarce as the NWC Grey cart, $900 isn't very unreasonable IMO.

As scarce as the NWC grey?? Umm, I don't think so. It may be the last game I need, but it's not worth $900 (at least to me it's not). Comparing any game to the NWC for the NES isn't really a fair comparison. Your talking about a commercially released cart, which the NWC is not. Is the myriad 6 in 1 rare and pretty tough to find? Absolutely, but it's not in the same class as the NWC.

I wish you luck, imanerd0011, in finding those three games. Hopefully you can get find them!

Danny

[blissfulnoise]

As scarce as the NWC grey?? Umm, I don't think so.

If you have any evidence to support to contrary, I'd love to see it. I'm not saying you're correct or incorrect, what I am saying is that I know of very few people who have copies. Do you have any details on the highest # cart recorded? Or the lowest one in collectors hands?

Sadly, there's not a lot of data on this cart and it sure seems that there are fewer than 100 out there (though I've seen as high as #000801).

As for the Caltron prices, I apologize, the auction I was referring to doesn't seem to be searchable any more.

This one, for 51 dollars:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=62053&item=8125829427&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

Is a Brazilian version I believe. Thus, that may explain the price, but in any case:


Cheetaman II and the Caltron 6 in 1 CAN command between $200 - $400 depending on condition.

That statement isn't false by any means.

[wberdan]

how much does a sealed cheetahmen 2 go for these days? i picked mine up for 50$ two years ago.

not trying to derail thread- just curious


willie

[Necrosaro420]

Was the caltorn and myraid acutally sold in USA Retail stores, like a walmart, toys r us, ect ect or was it a promotional type thing from only a certain store or what?

[Bronty-2]

how much does a sealed cheetahmen 2 go for these days? i picked mine up for 50$ two years ago.

not trying to derail thread- just curious


willie

the ones I've seen were between $100-$150.

[Qixmaster]

Was the caltorn and myraid acutally sold in USA Retail stores, like a walmart, toys r us, ect ect or was it a promotional type thing from only a certain store or what?

i have no idea...

however i do know that myriad is nowhere near as hard to find as an NWC. The number count on the myriad cart alone means they are most likely out there... unless you they destroyed them all

900 bucks and you didn't take it @_@.

Now that... that is rare.

Caltron seems to pop up on ebay quite often as i have it as one of my saved searches. myriad on the other hand... haven't seen one of them in over a year on that dreadful auction site.

cheetahmen II? I can tell you it is probably one of the hardest NES games to find since it was never really released.

-Josh

[captain nintendo]

how much does a sealed cheetahmen 2 go for these days? i picked mine up for 50$ two years ago.

not trying to derail thread- just curious


willie

the ones I've seen were between $100-$150.

The last several on ebay all had BIN prices around 200 dollars.
Nothing under 200........ And they were sealed ;)

[Darth Vader]

As scarce as the NWC grey?? Umm, I don't think so.

If you have any evidence to support to contrary, I'd love to see it. I'm not saying you're correct or incorrect, what I am saying is that I know of very few people who have copies. Do you have any details on the highest # cart recorded? Or the lowest one in collectors hands?

Sadly, there's not a lot of data on this cart and it sure seems that there are fewer than 100 out there (though I've seen as high as #000801).


Cheetaman II and the Caltron 6 in 1 CAN command between $200 - $400 depending on condition.

That statement isn't false by any means.

First off, if someone offered you $900 for myriad, you'd be crazy not to take it. (that's my opinion) That's more than DOUBLE of any myriad I've seen on ebay. Comparing myriad to NWC is like comparing apples to oranges, it just doesn't work. But for comparison's sake the NWC is known to have a total of approx 90 to 400 in existance (I'm guessing it's somewhere around 200). The myriad cart was THOUGHT to have a print run of 1000 (I don't know this for a fact, but for some reason that number sticks in my head). Lately the myriad prices HAVE been higher on ebay and there really hasn't been alot of them around and there have been a fair amount of NWC's that have shown up on ebay. If you wanna compare myriad to some of the other system's rarites, you'd have a very good debate (like stadium events). But the NWC is really in a class by itself on this system.

On the note of Cheetahmen and Caltron, (I'm assuming you mean a complete copy of both these games), $200 is on the higher side of either of those games. I've seen Cheetahmen go from $100 to $150 normally and Caltron COULD hit $200 complete. I just think $400 for either of these games is a little steep.

I'm thinking we may want to continue this topic in another thread. I going to split this topic so we can discuss this further and then give imanerd0011, who started this as a wanted thread. We're all kinda getting off topic (including me) and I don't want to take away from this as it is supposed to be a wanted to buy thread.

[Bronty-2]

The last several on ebay all had BIN prices around 200 dollars.
Nothing under 200........ And they were sealed ;)

Yeah, but did they sell? BIN prices mean nothing if there's no sale. I really don't care much for unlicensed so it's possible I may have missed some of these if they were sold on BINs..

As for sealed.... ehhh. To be honest it seems like this game comes up sealed all the time. I almost think there are more sealed copies than opened x_x

[blissfulnoise]

From ATARIHQ (http://www.atarihq.com/tsr/odd/scans/myriad.html)

----

Around 1992, Caltron released a six-in-one multicart in the US. The true origin of these games is a bit unclear; some of the games, such as Bookyman, have turned up on pirate multicarts and other pieces of Taiwan hardware, indicating a Chinese origin. In any case, soon after Caltron stopped producing their version of the 6-in-1 a company in Texas called Myriad Games, Inc. bought the rights to the carts. According to Myriad's press release, they were going to release the 6-in-1 to video stores only; the retail price was $75.

The cart pictured above is the Myriad version, which seems to be a little easier to find than the Caltron version. Myriad apparantly bought all of Caltron's remaining 6in1 stock; if you peel their label away you'll have, more or less, a Caltron 6in1 since Myriad simply slapped their label on top of Caltron's... a bit of a shame since Myriad's label and box are all simple text, while Caltron used an art style that can be described as "pirate-cart-like" for their version.

----

Regarding the Myriad's numbers, again, I would really like a project to crop up on who all has copies and what numbers they have. Again, the highest # I’ve seen is #000801. It seems that several folks from here have serials of #0005XX. Mine is #000190. I would again propose that there are a lot fewer than 800 out there or you'd have seen one on eBay fairly recently.

It certainly looks like there are less than 1000 made, and given the bizarre nature of acquiring them, (like the Panesians) the odds that many went unsold / destroyed are quite high.

Maybe / maybe not less than a hundred, but certainly extremely scarce and only really comparable to the NWC carts.

[Ed Oscuro]

The last several on ebay all had BIN prices around 200 dollars.
Nothing under 200........ And they were sealed ;)

Yeah, but did they sell? BIN prices mean nothing if there's no sale.
It seems to me that's what he was getting at, with the "..they were sealed ;)" comment (well, that and the fact Cheetamen II is awful, explains why they're still sealed!).

[blissfulnoise]

Oh, and on the Caltron. This was the auction I was referring towards to justify the $400 price tag.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=8124325247&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT

Went for $320 (I thought I remembered it being $350 but eh). I'd very strongly imagine that it could command $400 sealed.

[Ed Oscuro]

Perhaps the market, for whatever reason, has hit one of "those times." Sort of like what was going on with sealed copies of Dracula X: Chi no Rondo back in 2002. Will this last? Doubtful; sooner or later folks give up their dreams long enough for prices to fall back down to "normal."

[Bronty-2]

Oh, and on the Caltron. This was the auction I was referring towards to justify the $400 price tag.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=8124325247&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT

Went for $320 (I thought I remembered it being $350 but eh). I'd very strongly imagine that it could command $400 sealed.

Could be, but one sale doesn't make a market, you know? tough to say. certainly possible, anyway.

As for the # of myriad carts, seems to me there should be at least 800 from what you've said about the serial #s? I just can't see that many of them being destroyed, although it's certainly open to debate. any other reasons as to why you think there might be less than the 800?

[Bronty-2]

blissful,

good topic, btw. Not enough actual research-like topics such as this!

[Player-2]

I believe the value (and, hence price) of the NWC cart is considerably higher than the myriad. I own a few of each. I offered once to sell a myriad to a DP member for $400 and was turned down (cart only). Though the value of that item has increased a bit, it still does not reach the value of the NWC. I have a standard "buy price" for grey NWC at $1000. I would find it hard to sell a myriad for that (even my complete one).

And that doesn't even take into account the collectibility and nostalgic value of the NWC. Many gamers remember the contests associated with a championship cart. You will find no such "heartbeat" for the myriad. I would instantly trade a myriad for a NWC anytime.

I have no idea how many myriads were released, but even if it were fewer than NWC's (and I don't think that is the case) it would still not command the price, value, and respect that a NWC cart holds.

If I'm wrong, I sure have a lot of money invested in the wrong spot!! LOL LOL

[blissfulnoise]

Any other reasons as to why you think there might be less than the 800?

Well, here's what I can say:

The game simply hasn't been on ebay for more than a year. During this same time I can think of 5 different Stadium Events, 2 NWC Gold Carts, 2 NWC Grey Carts, countless Caltrons, and a dozen Panesian titles that have come up in the same time frame. Maybe no one's selling? Maybe no one knows what the cart is (I sure didn't 7 months ago)? In any case, you'd think that if it had a larger production run (comparable to Stadium Events or even Cheetamen II) it would have surfaced by now.

Seeing as 801 is the highest number cart I've seen, (not to say that's the be all and end all of the story); we can safely speculate that there were some 1000 copies printed by Myriad Inc. A $75 price tag on an NES game (especially in 1992) is EXTREMELY high, thus there were probably very few takers. The price tag was probably also set to force the general public out, and let game rental places in. Could this have been to create relationships for future games? Who knows.

Regardless, the high price tag and limited outlets for getting the said game probably meant that much like other scarcities (Chase the Chuckwagon, Panesian games, Texas Chainsaw Massacre / Halloween, Custer’s Revenge) not every copy got distributed due to poor demand. This might mean that there is a warehouse sitting out there with a pallet full of these games. Maybe, like lots of other businesses that deal in physical goods, that supply far exceeded demand, and the merchandise was simply destroyed for tax reasons (heck, maybe even rent).

The REAL question is how many Caltron cartridges did Myriad buy? And why were they sitting around at Caltron's manufacturing place labeled and ready to go only to be sold off? Sounds like there were no buyers, and I doubt Myraid did much better trying to sell them.

Another question is if Myraid relabel all of them? At least one source I have read in the past mentioned that not all Myriad's had the Caltron label underneath. I've seen no physical evidence to prove this, but it doesn't seem impossible if Myriad had Caltron carts that hadn't had the labels applied.

In any case, what this subject lacks is real empirical data. We don't have any recent cases of a Myraid being sold, so we cannot accurately speculate on it's value. In the case of the Caltron sold on ebay above, the buyer had some serious negative feedback. So we can't rule out that $320 wasn't just a bidding war gone sour or some other goofy set of circumstances. We also don't have a complete, or even semi-complete, catalog of serials and who has them.

[Qixmaster]

i also heard that there were myriads without a caltron label underneath. that'd be one hell of an expensive variation.

-Josh

[Ed Oscuro]

Good post, though I'd say that the high visibility and obvious value of the NWC carts (it says Nintendo World Championships right on it!) is going to give owners cause to think twice about throwing them away and thinking about selling them on eBay; Caltrons, as you said, are likely moldering in various places, and that might include shoeboxes.

[blissfulnoise]

I have no idea how many myriads were released, but even if it were fewer than NWC's (and I don't think that is the case) it would still not command the price, value, and respect that a NWC cart holds.

I agree 100% on that fact, a lot of former kids who now have real jobs with real paychecks went to the NWCs in 1990 (myself included). Not to mention that the games themselves are fun to boot, especially in the timed competition form!

But what you WILL find is that nostalgia is never a passing fad. Neither is compulsive behavior in your average collector. Video games are now seen as a legitimate collectors market. Witness the special and limited editions of games now, and the increase in value of 80% of all 'retro' titles through eBay and your average flea market (some games, like poor Double Dribble will always command a buck). Combined with a love of video games from growing up on them, this means endless worth possibilities.

As a result, NES collections won't be complete without a NWC, Myriad, Caltron, <insert R8/R9/R10 game here>. As more people collect, more people will want said hard to find titles, thus value goes up.

I've had lengthy discussions with a family member who collects records. It blew my mind how much some items in his collection can go for. We're talking about thousands, and in one case, $13,000+. Why? Because it's a very established market. LOTS of people collect records. Why? Nostalgia and compulsive behavior (and a strong love of music). These records share the same limited print run of said NES carts, just more people want to buy them.

While the NWC Cart, grey, gold, or otherwise (off grey?? ;) ), will ALWAYS command the NES top dollar, the Myriad is worth a lot more than $400, (more than $900 at least IMO). Maybe someone will sell one soon on ebay to prove me wrong.

[Qixmaster]

btw, that scan on the site there... that is the exact cart i am looking for! i have the box and instructions for it (# and all)! who has it? com'n, i need it.

-josh

[blissfulnoise]

i also heard that there were myriads without a caltron label underneath. that'd be one hell of an expensive variation.

-Josh

Good to know I'm not completely crazy LOL

My cart sure looks like it has a Caltron label underneith, and the way the Myriad label is sized, you could clearly see if there is a label there or not. Anyone have a variation without the Caltron label underneith?

[Ed Oscuro]

btw, that scan on the site there... that is the exact cart i am looking for! i have the box and instructions for it (# and all)! who has it? com'n, i need it.

-josh
Actually, I think you've got somebody else's box and manual (all things considered, cart's the best part!)

Better post that in the Orphans thread...just kidding, that'd be humiliating! LOL

[Qixmaster]

i actually bought the box and manual from |tsr, who had sold the cart to someone else a long time ago. I asked if he knew who had it and i haven't yet gotten a reply.

[sniperCCJVQ]

how much does a sealed cheetahmen 2 go for these days? i picked mine up for 50$ two years ago.

not trying to derail thread- just curious


willie

I payed the same price.

[Dr. Morbis]

While the NWC Cart, grey, gold, or otherwise (off grey?? ), will ALWAYS command the NES top dollar, the Myriad is worth a lot more than $400, (more than $900 at least IMO).
I agree, and this thread is very reminiscint of Stadium Events' rise to infamy a few years ago.

I only collect complete games, so that's all I monitor on eBay. And I've seen exactly 3 complete Myriad's in the last three years (1 per year): Early 2002-$255, May 2003-$265, and June 2003-$308. I haven't seen a complete Myriad since June of last year - almost a year and a half. I have seen all of the other rares (except SE) more frequently than that.

You can take that info for what it's worth.

[rbudrick]

http://planetnintendo.com/thewarpzone/nwc/32.jpg

Highest NWC # I've seen is 280. See pic. Thanks, TRM!

See this link for more pics:

http://planetnintendo.com/thewarpzone/champ.html

-Rob

[rbudrick]

By the way, does anyone have a listing of all the tour dates for the NWC? It may explain why the number of carts was so high if two dates overlapped. They probabaly wanted a few extras in case a cart died too.

-Rob

[Qixmaster]

All this talk about NWC has sparked my interest so...

I scanned a ton of NWC images from my nintendo powers. Here are the links. I would post them but i don't think 56k'ers would be too happy (me included)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v113/qixmaster/NWCNPNov-Dec1989pg89art.jpg
(the oldest article that i could find that mention NWC)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v113/qixmaster/NWCNPJan-Feb1990pg90info.jpg
(the main article the first told dates/citys)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v113/qixmaster/NWCNPMarch-Aprpg87art.jpg
(the second article that told dates/citys)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v113/qixmaster/NWCNPMay-June1990Backcover.jpg
(back cover of May/june issue of nintendo power)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v113/qixmaster/NWCNPJuly-Aug1990PlayersPollcontestpg1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v113/qixmaster/NWCNPJuly-Aug1990PlayersPollcontestpg2.jpg
(players poll contest from july/aug 1990 NP... btw who the heck won this!)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v113/qixmaster/NWCNPJuly-Aug1990pg90.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v113/qixmaster/NWCNPJuly-Aug1990pg91.jpg
(two page article from july/aug 1990 NP)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v113/qixmaster/NWCNPJuly-Aug1990Backcover.jpg
(back cover of July-Aug NP with NWC info)

anyways... those were all i could find. If i missed any (which i am sure i did, since i am missing the next couple months of nintendo powers) please make some scans. I say lets get as much info on this as we can... as well as caltron and myriad.

The article about Active Interprise on TRM's site is great! I think there should be research projects like that for each odd nintendo item. anybody with me? even if some have been attempted and done before, lets find out more.

-Josh

[aaron7]

Got my Caltron at a flea market for $5! The rest of the guys games (all EXTREMELY common) were all $6+... he made this one cheaper because it wasn't 'official' LOL :D

[vintagegamecrazy]

I bought my Caltron loose for $15 about 2 years ago (lucky me) and I haven't seen one under $200 lately, the one that went for $252 on Ebay was sold by Sean Kelly at Video Games Etc. I have a friend that worked at the Music Recyclery by me and someone traded one there, and they went straight to the bay with it. That's the only two I have ever heard of near me in the wild in 5 years of collecting (in the Chicagoland area). I have never seen a Myriad around at all, and whoever thinks Myriad is the more common of the two is wrong. If anyone needs any info an Caltron let me know because I have one.

[rbudrick]

I remeber my local video store had a Caltron 6 in 1 when I was a teen. When they went out of business, they were selling all their games. My sister worked there so I heard about it the same day. When I rushed down there Caltron 6 in 1 was gone. ARGH! I coulda had it for $5-10 boxed with instructions...


-Rob

[Qixmaster]

I bought my Caltron loose for $15 about 2 years ago (lucky me) and I haven't seen one under $200 lately, the one that went for $252 on Ebay was sold by Sean Kelly at Video Games Etc. I have a friend that worked at the Music Recyclery by me and someone traded one there, and they went straight to the bay with it. That's the only two I have ever heard of near me in the wild in 5 years of collecting (in the Chicagoland area). I have never seen a Myriad around at all, and whoever thinks Myriad is the more common of the two is wrong. If anyone needs any info an Caltron let me know because I have one.

yeah... i bought that caltron. I overpaid a bit, but hey, something is only worth what someone pays for it right? Plus i had the box for the game.

I don't feel like i got took. I mean i may find one in the wild for cheaper and i am sure they will sell for cheaper on ebay in the future (mebbe), but i'm not ashamed to pay the price for a game i need, especailly since i am getting pretty close to a complete collection.

Now, back to our myriad conversation? I've looked into it a little bit and looked up where Myriad Games Inc was located in Texas. Well... the city doesn't really exist any more as it has become somewhat part of Houston (or so i think). I checked the internet, called places and no one knew what the hell i was talking about.

If someone in the houston area feels adventurous, please go and search out this mysterious place where Myriad games inc was located (i have the address, just PM me if you want to help out).

WE as a community HAVE to know more about this company and what they were about... and what the hell happened to all of there games.

Any followers? Let us unite!

-Josh

[Qixmaster]

btw, i had no idea i bought a game from sean kelly :) he's a nice guy, i talked to him briefly at CGE two years ago.

If someone feels the need to part with their caltron instructions and sleeve (or have dups of these) please let me know. I will pay good cash for them.

-Josh