"Blue Balls" experiences in game collecting...

[Wavelflack]

We all know that high bragging rights are accorded to those who unwittingly purchase or acquire rare games. The older collectors, by virtue of the era into which they were born, typically have a great number of these experiences. Why? Well, it's likely that most of us started collecting simply because we knew people who were getting rid of shoeboxes full of games at $1 apiece or less. At such prices, how could a videogamer resist?
( My personal start to collecting was a friend (indeed!!) who was willing to sell me his entire box (nearly 50) of Atari 2600 carts...for $10. I actually had the gall to ask "are you sure there aren't any you missed?", and he and I fished through his closet to locate any stragglers. We found some, too! And he forked them over! No extra charge! Exclamation point!)
Anyway, most of us grabbed those cheap games any way we could, and only years later found out that we had acquired rare property in the bargain. Fantastic anecdotes, here we come!

The filp side of the coin? Collector's blue balls. This is what happens when you (the current day, rarity-informed collector) spot a game you just KNOW is rare. It's GOTTA be rare! "I think I saw this as an '8' in the book! It's only $.49! *giggle* I hope the clerk doesn't notice this growing stain on my jeans. Or, if they do notice, I hope it's after I've already been rung up." (etc.)

You buy your game, you race your happy ass home. You're all smiles and drips, and the first thing you do upon entering your home is tear into the DP guide. You just can't WAIT to confirm what a immense rarity you've acquired--and for such a pitiful price! In the wild! Forty nine cents! Is there a more satisfying way to come across a rare game? Fuck no!

You finally get to the right system...then the right letter...you're on the page now..your finger traces down to the title, and across to the right. "$3 (R2)"

That's collector's blue balls, folks. You're all primed for a GREAT experience, only to have the DP guide pull away and say, "I think we're going WAY to fast here. Let's be friends?" A "2", for pete's sake! It's not even worth the motherless plastic it's cased in! O'Shea's sells games more rare than that!

In any case, my latest bout of "blue balls" was Atari 400/800 Miner 2049'r. It was only $.49, and it was in the wild (Goodwill), and I did think it was a 7 or 8. I guess I was thinking of Bounty Bob.


What are your more memorable "blue balls" collecting experiences?

(PS: Ladies are certainly welcome to participate. I'm not sure what the correct analogue to "blue balls" would be ("chafed, swollen nipples", perhaps? --but you're invited to join the sadness

[buttasuperb]

Well there wasn't any times where I bought something I thought was rare, and it wasn't, but one time I went up to this local game shop and started looking though what I thought was the psx section. I start finding all these nice games, Super Puzzle Fighter, Tactics Ogre, Klonoa, Final Fantasy Tactics, and a few others. There were no prices, but I figured I'd get them for at least a decent price. After I get about 5 games I wanted in my hands, I look up, and what does the sign say?

Rental Section. >

[Kid Fenris]

I once stopped by a video rental store's "Going Out of Business" sale and found the case for the PSX version of Ogre Battle sitting on the shelf. I took it up to the counter and asked if I could see the disc. Scratched to hell. How much? Twenty-five bucks.

At least they had The Plague Dogs on VHS for six dollars, so I didn't go home empty-handed.

To be honest, I've never snagged something just because I thought it was rare. I'm pretty picky about the games I want, and I know what they're worth. If I saw Stadium Events or Quadrun in the wild, I'd probably grab it, but I've yet to find myself in that situation.

[Chunky]

I have not done this to a point. names of games i can remember that are rare i would pick up if the price seems decent. mostly as trade bait....of that i don't have much. I do still need a world of games, i really don't search over each game to see if it's worth it.

i do carry a pocketpc with my want lists/w prices. i pull it out mostly cuz i have bought games that i already have.

[Wavelflack]

Hmm. Well, in all honesty, I would have bought the game even if I didn't think it was rare. A cart game (particularly old ones) you don't have, for fifty cents, is a hard thing to pass up. Unless it's a sports game, of course. The problem is that I got all juiced up thinking it was rare (I have no personal frame of reference on Atari 8 bit carts--they're ALL rare around here), only to find later that it was not.

Incidentally, two of my 400/800 carts that were picked up YEARS ago (at the same Goodwill, coincidentally) were none other than Baseball and Captain Beeble.

[IGotTheDot]

There is a game store near me that has a mint Colecovision in the box. It is beautifull, but the lady won't sell it to me because she does not know how much it is worth. I am going to have to go in there and throw some money on the counter and be aggressive I guess. I have asked like 3 times and given her my phone number.

[Keir]

HA Ha! Great story. That happens to me a lot. Mostly with NES carts. I wish I could think of an example right now... oh well.

EDIT: I 'm referring to Wavelflack's first post.

[Sega Hitman]

In around 1998 or so, I found Swordquest Earthworld and Fireworld at a Flea Market. I had never really paid much attention to 2600 rarity since at that time i was only into neo-classic stuff. I had an idea of what games were rare though, and Swordquest __________ was rare. I practically crapped when I saw them, and paid $3 a piece. That hurt....

-Hitman-

[Nelson]

* Points at Wavelflack and Sega Hitman *

HA-HA!

[Wavelflack]

You guys may or may not remember this, but about a year ago, I flipped out, took a day off work (which meant CLOSING the car lot I ran--in other words, a big deal), hauled ass to Wichita (big city about an hour away from here), and raced into a pawn shop where I had seen Stadium Events.

Or so I thought. You see, I had been over there the weekend before (I think this was on a Thursday), picking over all of the pawn shops for bargains and rares. I got a nice pile of stuff, and promptly bragged about it here. A few days later, someone posted a NES rarity thread--you know the one.. ("What's the rarest NES games?"). Well, in the course of the thread, someone said "Stadium Events". I asked if that was true, was Stadium Events really one of the rarest NES carts in existence? "Yes" was the answer. Are you sure? "YES!!" Well, I saw a copy of Stadium Events just this last weekend, in an enormous "junkpile-style" pawn shop. The DP guide only shows it as a "4". (Enter Joe-)"Yeah, we underrated that one. It's very rare, and worth quite a bit."

Well, that did it. I SAW the game, and it stood out because the end label used an unfamiliar font (easy way to spot games you need out of piles and stacks-). It was a power pad game, etc, etc. So, I did the obvious thing: called the boss, told him my predicament (the honest and true version--yes, he was a VERY understanding boss!), and made plans to grab the game the next day. The boss came in and ran the lot off and on throughout the day, and I went to Wichita. Problem?
No Stadium Events to be found. I couldn't find it anywhere, so I used my "font scanning" method to locate the unusual or not previously seen carts. What did I find? World Class Track Meet.

On my drive home, I figured out what had happened. I had read the NES pages enough that my brain had transposed "Stadium Events" with "World Class Track Meet". Why? Because the DP description notes that they are one and the same, from a gameplay standpoint. Since I was only browsing, I didn't really take note of what the "unusual font" title was. I just sort of peripherally noticed it. With these two things in place, once someone said "I've never seen Stadium Events", my brain locked everything together, only incorrectly. "I saw it!!! I saw it!!" I bragged.

What a complete failure that whole episode was. Damn the DP guide and it's subliminal subterfuge!

[Magus]

Popeye for the atari, cost me a buck, got home, posted a mesage asking if it was rare, turns out hell no it aint rare...this was like a week ago...

[GENESISNES]

I got the first Bandai Family Fun and Fitness (Athletic World) and bought it for like 2.99. I thought holy shit. this is the RARE GAME I READ IN COLLECTORS CLOSET!!! I stared at it the whole ride home, only to relize that Stadium events was the rare game. I was pretty dissapointed. That was like 1½ years ago...

[Atari7800]

a while back i was reading a post about alien soldier for the megadrive and some perosn insisted it had been released for the genesis in the states. of course it was not but the idea was in my mind when i saw a complete alien soldier at a game store for $6. i about crapped my pants thinking that i had found the elusive game or maybe an unreleased prototype or some pre production copy. i bought it and get it home only to realize i had bought ALIEN STORM not ALIEN SOLDIER. alien storm is about as rare as a starbucks in seattle.
i also bought a bee 52 for the nintendo thinking it must be the action 52 game. no it was bee 52 which is totally different. why did the developer pull THAT shit?

[congobongo]

Right after I got a Saturn and started looking into games for it, I found a copy of Panzer Dragoon something or other (Zwei) at goodwill. I was really excited because I knew there was a Panzer Dragoon game that was worth a lot and here it was for $5 CAN complete. well when I got home I hit ebay, noticed it wasn't quite as rare as I thought. The upside? They also had Guardian Heroes there for $5 CAN complete. My blue balls then turned a nice rosie color.

[Achika]

Ok, I just figured one out today:


It's not so much a question of I thought it was so rare, as it was looking for a game I played as a child. When I was little I would go to my neighbors house before school. With her son, I would take turns playing Mickey's Caslte of Illusion on "some system". I didn't know what it was because I was brought up on NES stuff back then. So, in the past three years, I have pursued that game for one in a resonable price range. I didn't care if it was boxed, complete, etc. I just want that game!

So I finally found it this summer. I was so excited, jumping about the store where I bought it. I couldn't wait to get home and play and relive one of my top 10's.

Get it home, pop it in....I don't remember any of it being like this.... So I do a bit of 'net research. It's the SMS version....great...now I have to start my search all over again.

Those were my chaffed nipples.

[rbudrick]

I once sold two electric guitars for two NES games....one was a 52 in 1 pirate famicom cart with a US adapter, and the other game was a Japanese pirate of (I later found out) Ge GE GE no Kitarou. The game was labelled as "Satan Den." As far as I know, it is rarer than hell, cuz I've only spoke to one other person who owns one (we also both know of one other guy who may have one, but his email addy is no longer valid). The pawn store I traded it to was owned by a real couple of jerks, and they thought they got a steal...one guitar was pure shit...I barely got the strings on it to make it look legit...one turn of a tuning peg and one would see how crappy the guitar was....the other was an OK guitar, but needed new pickups and wiring...not worth it. Anyway, like I was saying, these guys were real total ripoff jerks, so when they were charging $110 or so for these two games (EACH!), I didn't feel at all bad about it. His eyes lit up like he was ripping ME off...he didn't even test the guitars, he was so psyched....dumbass. I later found out that these guys got strung up for being caught with over 100K worth of stolen goods. I kinda miss one of those guitars, but the other was really just firewood. Anyway...blueballs..I had no idea at the time the 52-in-1 was so common, but I am happy about the Satan Den cart...anyone else ever seen this cart?

--Rob

[ClubNinja]

*Waves his Satan Den cart around* That's one of the few oddball NES titles I haven't traded away in my great NES scale-down.

In a related blue-balls moment, I remember picking up the Flintstones NES game early in my collecting days because I swore it was rare as heck. I check it out when I get home, and it turns out there's another Flintstones NES game, and that's the rarity. Stupid thing.

[rbudrick]

Hey Club Ninja,

I think you may be the one I spoke to that owns one... it was someone from the NE Classic gamers convention...

-Rob

[gamergary]

Paying $15 for River City Ransom even though I knew it was worth less than that.

[Flack]

This is basically how I felt when I got home after finding my rare 76000-in-1 machine at the mall. Only $30? Jesus, I'll bet I could double that on eBay RIGHT NOW! I SHOULD BUY THEM ALL! (Thank goodness I didn't.)

The other day while out shopping I found a "Speedway II" Atari 2600 in the wild. I picked it up, came home and ... put it right next to the other Speedway II cart I had bought. I guess I forgot I already bought it.