Any plans to update the Collector's Guide?

[tarheelsnipe]

Are there any plans to release an updated Collector's Guide in the the near future? I'm a new collector. Therefore, I have absolutely NO idea about the value of the items I want. I've been pleased thus far about what I consider 'reasonable' prices in the community compared to my older hobby (16 yrs.) of sports memorabilia.

How stable is the vintage games market? I'm wary of ordering a 3 year old collector's guide. Please forgive my ignorance, but have the average prices fluctuated over the past 3 years?

edit: I just found out about the Video Game Collector magazine. I ordered a 1 year subscription to hopefully give me a ballpark figure while I'm working on my NES collection.

[yok-dfa]

How stable is the vintage games market?

Unstable. Even a 1 month old guide would not be more accurate than the 3 year old book. The price people are willing to pay for an item depends on many things. Obvious factors are: completeness, state the items are in, rarity, but also non-obvous factors as: time of the year, how many of the same item has been sold lately, hype, rumours & media, how well the economy is doing, etc. etc..

When selling, just put in on eBay with a $1 starting bid. The market will decide a fair price for it.

When buying: just check completed auctions to see what it usually goes for. If you can't find a complete auction it's probably something rare so be prepared to spend your entire live-savings on it

Just buy the guide. It's an interesting read regardless with lots of info about the games and systems...

[hydr0x]

If you can't find a complete auction it's probably something rare so be prepared to spend your entire live-savings on it

well, this is not true, A LOT of rare stuff goes for next to nothing still

i just wanted to add that as you are collecting for the NES the prices don't fluctuate too much, well, they do, but a Stadium Events will never fall into the <20 bucks category and so on. So, if you want to know whats rare (the rarities don't fluctuate) and what's likely expensive, the guide is a very good option, even if it's old. This is even more true for the Classic Guide as those prices don't change as much as the ones of newer systems. If you're not sure about anything that's printed in the Book you can always check the online guide if it's still up2date

[tarheelsnipe]

my VGC issue #4 came today. It has the format i was looking for. i've been a sports card collector for years, and for the most part it's down to an exact science. But for the game collecting hobby, i get the feeling that it's still in the infancy. I mean, all of the games are listed with prices, but my problem is actually finding a CIB game in a near mint to mint box. Most of the online places (webshops, ebay, etc.) list them as Mint or Near Mint, but that is clearly not the case. Lowering my standards is out of the question. I believe that the price guide should clearly state the condition of the games and boxes from Poor through Gem Mint. This has probably been said many times, in many posts. I'm just another new collector typing out my frustrations of the hobby :/ All in all, it's a great (and very affordable) hobby.

like many picky collectors, I want to help the progress of the hobby. if there is anything i can personally do to make the pricing and condition grading of games and systems more precise, someone let me know.