Dreamcast- prototype for modern rarity?

[ianoid]

I recently completed my Dreamcast collection, minus magazine discs and a few cases.

I found that there were some titles that I just couldn't find in the wild. Now I don't make constant rounds to video game stores, but the dreamcast rares I simply had to go to eBay (where most were readily available at any time) to get some of them.

Can we apply the idea of new system rarity to ongoing releases? I suspect that there won't be releases (aside form super limited items) that won't be available at, near or below their release price on eBay for at least 7 years after release.

Sure, stuff sold in quantities under 10,000 may always be harder to get.

Confounding all issues of rarity are all of these systems that are back compatible like PS1/PS2 and Gameboy everything.

Nothing ends a systems lifespan and releases like lack of back compatibility.

ian

[Buyatari]

Ian

I read this post a couple times.

Is this a point you are making or are you asking a question?

If a question, what is the question? If its a point what was the point? Like a man setup on a blind date and finding two women I want to participate I just don't know where this is going.

Are you saying the days of rarity 6 and up games on modern systems are a thing of the past? If so I would tend to agree. The ability of collectors to (more easily) complete their collections will lead to increased competetion on the few things that are rare and produce an artifical rarity amoung them.

For example I truly believe that were the Panesian carts released on the Atari and not the NES they wouldn't nearly be as expensive. Not because Atari games are less desirable but because its easier to complete a NES collection and there are very few hard to find titles when compared with the 2600. A 9 or 10 on the NES scale might only be an 8 on the Atari 2600 scale.

I also think that modern games durable cases combined with the common knowledge that you can trade in your old games almost anywhere will also keep modern games "in the game" much longer. When I first started collecting I used to find Ataris being thrown out with the trash every week. I think those days are long gone. Don't expect to see any Air Raids or Malagais on the Xbox kiddies.

Adam

[hydr0x]

Ian

I read this post a couple times.

Is this a point you are making or are you asking a question?

If a question, what is the question? If its a point what was the point? Like a man setup on a blind date and finding two women I want to participate I just don't know where this is going.

i had the same problem

[quote]
Are you saying the days of rarity 6 and up games on modern systems are a thing of the past? If so I would tend to agree. The ability of collectors to (more easily) complete their collections will lead to increased competetion on the few things that are rare and produce an artifical rarity amoung them.
[quote]

i tend to disagree here, you know i've been doing the PAL Dreamcast list here and i'm mainly using Ebay for defining rarity as dc games are very hard to find outside of the internet. But even with ebay i'm still having some R6.R7 and even R8 on the list, i'm not sure yet if those are their final ratings for now, but i'm considering 1-2 R8's. Maybe interpretations of the Ratings vary for every reader/collector.

here's the defintion of the higher ratings:
-5: If you see a five or greater, at least one of us has had a problem finding the title. You can call this UNCOMMON, if you so desire.
-6: We categorized these as ?items we?ve eventually found but had to give up something really good in a trade or paid good $$$ for it?.
-7: RARE. A true collectible! Sevens and up represent the ?hardest? 25% of the games listed in this Guide.
-8: We consider these the items you?ll never find by chance (except in those legendary lucky finds!). There are a few eights in this Guide that we haven?t gotten our grubby little hands on... yet.
-9: The centerpiece of a collection make up the nines. If you ever hope to BUY one of these, prepare to write out a big check.

no dc game should be a 9, of course a complete Samba de Amigo will cost you 250 Euro or more on the internet and you'll NEVER find it in the wild, but it is readily available on the internet. And that's the problem, the rating definitions are made for the wild, but about 60 dc games are more than very hard to find in the wild. So what to do with those? those 60 would all have to be R6+ by definition. You can't do that, so you have to take the internet rarity, but with internet rarity there are only about 5-10 games left that are not readily available (with this i mean searching under 4 weeks), but a lot of the available ones are quite expensive and not available in huge masses, so in fact these are still rare and only available "all" the time because of the HUGE dc-userbase (especially here in germany)

you see, it's very very hard to define the rarity, you can't just say, hey i'd never find this in the wild it's an R6+ but you also can't say "this title is on ebay regularly, it's an R4-". Both ways are wrong but finding a good between is hard work and will always leave you with some ratings that will cause some collectors to protest

For example I truly believe that were the Panesian carts released on the Atari and not the NES they wouldn't nearly be as expensive. Not because Atari games are less desirable but because its easier to complete a NES collection and there are very few hard to find titles when compared with the 2600. A 9 or 10 on the NES scale might only be an 8 on the Atari 2600 scale.

correct, but there's no real solution for this problem, the ratings have to be the same for every console, the bigger problem is the internet rarity compared to the actual rarity, even games produced under 2000 pieces are available without problems on ebay or in online-stores, but they are still very rare

another problem are the extreme raritys of the 8-bit time, something like Quadrun isn't possible anymore, so perhaps any game produced under 200 items should become an R10

I also think that modern games durable cases combined with the common knowledge that you can trade in your old games almost anywhere will also keep modern games "in the game" much longer. When I first started collecting I used to find Ataris being thrown out with the trash every week. I think those days are long gone. Don't expect to see any Air Raids or Malagais on the Xbox kiddies.

Adam

mh a bit yes, a bit no. A lot more people know now that they can at least sell the old stuff on ebay, that's right. BUT throwing away things is still happening A LOT, it will be less and less until everyone uses ebay! but until then it'll still happen and i also know a lot of people who use ebay to buy but say it's too much work for them to sell everything there just to make 15 bucks out of it

[hydr0x]

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