Pokemon Colosseum Bonus Disc...what's going on??

[lendelin]

I'm selling some stuff on ebay (auctions are in the "everything ebay thread") among them a Pokemon Colosseum guide; checking out some completed auctions a couple of days ago I ran across one with a guide and the Pokemon Colosseum Bonus Disc for a lot of money.

I thought the guy was a deceptive seller and successfully tried to pass on this worthless disc as the actual game.

Tonight I discovered that this bonus disc sells for $50 to $70. I'm really amazed.

The thing was for FREE readily to be picked up at Best Buy and Circuit City three years ago. I picked one up for me back then and for the 12-year old son of a friend. Of course I immediately checked if I still have the thing in my demo section -- yep, I do, I never looked at it.

This might be old news for some of you, but for me it certainly is not.

I think this is a great tale of the surprises we experience in this sometimes very unpredictable collectors market. It is not the (un)limited edition versions, not the hyped stuff already "rare" before it gets released, not the hyped collectible thingies out there that sometimes will be high in demand or even rare; nope, it is the seemingly little, cheap, overlooked items which surprise us.

My Qs:
1. Since WHEN is this going on?
2. WHY, oh why? (is it this exclusive Jericho character which can be transfered to the two GBA games?)
3. Does someone know how many of them were printed approximately?
4. It's not even a demo, it is a PREVIEW disc! Did anyone of you anticipate that this disc will be in demand one day? (and PLEASE SHARE your long-timed honed collectors nose with us!)

Finally, I could bite myself in my behind; why oh why didn't I pick up more back then? I remember that I picked them up because of the plastic GC-cases just in case I buy a used GC game with a bad case...and WHY oh WHY did I give one to the lil' guy of my friend who certainly doesn't appreciate it?

[Richter Belmount]

[joshnickerson]

1. Since the invention of eBay.

2. Yes, the price is so high mainly because of Jirachi... it's the only way (aside from using a Gameshark) to obtain that Pokemon.

3. Since it was a pre-order bonus, I'd probably say it was in the tens of thousands, possibly more.

4. I got mine because I pre-ordered the game and I wanted to add Jirachi to my party. I also picked up an extra copy for free a few months later "just in case"...

And if you think that's bad... try searching for the US version of "Pokemon Box"...

[exit]

Next week you'll find out that the Naruto 2 Demo disc, which was given out for free via a website, is worth more than Grandma's ashes.

[calthaer]

Imagine playing a Final Fantasy game, but instead of having 6 character classes or 20 jobs or whatever, you have two or three hundred of them. Each one is unique and usually has a particular use at some point in the game, either for exploring, combat, moving around, obtaining other "jobs," etc. And it's a lot of fun to collect those "jobs," because collecting all of them is one of the primary points to the game.

Some of those "jobs" are really, really rare and require a lot of work in the game to obtain. Some of them you have to link your cartridge up to your friends' cartridge.

And some "jobs" - the best ones, some of the most unique and interesting ones, and the ones you need to fill out your roster of "jobs" - are ones that are almost always only available by taking your cartridge to a certain place on a certain day of the year.

Or, by owning one of the pre-order discs that will give you one of the "jobs."

Understand that, and you will understand why the Colosseum pre-order disc is so expensive.

Pokemon Box is expensive because a) it gives you a metric crapload of storage space, and b) there are some really unique combinations of characters you can get by dumping your guys in there. Some of them really useful, some only semi-useful, some of them just a novelty. Like a Swablu with False Swipe - a Dragon / Flying type character with OK stats and a move that will get guys down to 1 HP and then Sing to put them to sleep...this is the ULTIMATE capture Pokemon. Extremely useful; almost indispensible, I would say. Legendaries are no problem with this guy in your roster.

ANY Pokemon item that perpetually allows you to access new characters that you would otherwise not be able to get will be worth some cash later on down the line. The bonus disc is one; Pokemon Box is another. There is also the Eon Ticket, but since it doesn't really add any "new" guys to your roster, it's not worth quite as much.

Gotta catch 'em all.

[Jorpho]

I don't suppose any of those 3rd party Pokemon hacking devices are worth anything now, are they?

[Sailorneorune]

The Eon Ticket gives you a crack at Latios in Sapphire and Latias in Ruby, which is something you wouldn't normally be able to do either.

I think that Diamond and Pearl coming out next month has a lot to do with the high prices of the Pokemon extras, considering the ability to transfer Pokemon from the GBA games.

I still have my Jirachi disc, and have no intention of parting with it... but if any DPers would like the little guy without having to shell out $40+, I'll be happy to oblige.

I used to own Pokemon Box (it was a victim of my "I wish my ex would die in a..." fire sale), and while the metric shitload of Pokemon storage space available per 59 blocks of GC memory was niiiiiiiice, it's not $200 nice.

I recall a DPer's question about whether the (relatively) cheap PAL Pokemon Box worked with the US version Pokemon games... knowing Nintendo... my guess would be probably not. Here's hoping they'll have the good sense to implement at least SOME storage into Pokemon Battle Revolution.

/my two Game Corner coins

[heybtbm]

It's not even a demo, it is a PREVIEW disc! Did anyone of you anticipate that this disc will be in demand one day?

I remember thinking the same thing when I saw how much Pokemon Box was going for on ebay. The average ending price is now hovering just under $300 (if anyone's wondering). Why did I only buy one copy back in the day?

[cyberfluxor]

Dear god that demo disc is expensive! I picked one up a long time ago and my friends laughed at me for doing so, look who'll be laughing at them today.

[calthaer]

To piggyback on what Sailor said:

Diamond and Pearl have a lot to do with it, not only because you will be able to transfer guys from your GBA games, but ALSO because you will be able to battle other people over the 'net. It's smackdown vs. everyone else playing the game. Are some people looking to beef up their rosters and create the ultimate team to wipe their competitors with? Yes, yes; I believe they are. Jirachi is a fairly powerful character...he's not the greatest, I'd say, but he's nothing to sneeze at. And with the opportunity to get Deoxys / Celebi / Mew already gone, he's the only promo Pokemon that some people can get right now. And they're obviously willing to pay a pretty penny to gain that extra edge. Not that it will help them - a winning strategy is more important.

With the possibility of a leaderboard (a la Mario Kart / Metroid Prime Hunters), this feature of Diamond and Pearl is going to create some heated competition, my friends. Holding that top trainer spot would require a fair amount of work and some superior game-strategy. I don't expect to see any kids on that leaderboard, if there is one - the nuances of the paper-rock-scissors metagame are seriously complex, and some of the seemingly-worst Pokemon out there can truly create some devastating combos that will make your opponents suffer.

This is making me want to complete my ultimate team, myself...I should actually do something with those Deoxyses that Iron Draggon was kind enough to go to the Space Center and download for me...

[Simply Dave]

Holy moly, I have a bunch of those bonus disks around here. A few years ago when Circuit City had their 5 dollar sale, I picked a bunch of them up for $0.01 each. I didn't know some stores gave em' out free...CC hosed me, lol.

[lendelin]

To all of you Pokemon maniacs (in a good sense) who posted I say thanks, I really appreciate it.

Now I understand much better the demand for the disc. As you might have guessed by now, I'm not exactly familiar with the Pokemon world, but you gave me a glimpse into the Pokemon Universe. (My expreience with Pokemon can be summed up like this: Read about the first GB release in Nintendo Power back then, dismissed it as childish, read about a LOT of sequels and the IP phenomena in the following years, played 30 minutes of Pokemon Stadium and Snap for the N64, and I have guides for the non-handheld games of the series; that's it )

That was really a lack of knowledge on my part; and I didn't know about Pokemon Box either.

Two more Qs:
1. Was this disc ever sealed, meaning shrinkwrapped? Mine isn't, but I can't remember if it was. Just asking because I wouldn't normally open a disc like this until I actually view it. Just curious if some crooked sellers just shrinkwrapped it and want to sell it as 'new.'

2. So for all of you who are heavily into Pokemon the value of the disc isn't a surprise? Did you foresee the current demand and price when it was released?

[joshnickerson]

They were sealed.

And I knew it might be desireable someday, but I certainly didn't expect it to be worth quite THAT much.

Just to add to the insanity, I'll note that there are some eBay sellers out there that offer to dump all the rare Pokemon (Mew, Deoxys, Lugia, etc) into your game cart... if you mail them your cart and pay a modest fee, of course...

[Sailorneorune]

@ lendelin:

Especially nifty preorder bonuses (i.e. the Jirachi disc, the Phoenix Wright pointing stylus, the Castlevania preorder pack -- prices of the latter two seriously pissed me off when my preorders weren't honored) tend to run high because of their limited availability (whether based on region, online availability, B&M availability, hoarding, etc.)... so this didn't surprise me.

I preordered Pokemon Colosseum to get mine, and have used it to fix the clock bug and introduce Jirachi to several Ruby and Sapphire carts over the years -- those belonging to myself and my friends. My disc was sealed, until I opened it.


@ joshnickerson:

I am offering to dump Jirachi into the game carts of people on DP... if you mail me your cart and pay nothing else... Sending a bare cart is fairly cheap.

-sailorneorune

[Mayhem]

I'm just glad I got mine for $15 now...

When Pokemon Box got discontinued I knew the price would (team) rocket. Never thought I'd see the same for this though...

[Cryomancer]

The pokemon box phenomenon pisses me off to no end as I would actually LIKE to ahve that game, and TRIED many times to get it. Everytime I had the 20 bucks? Out of stock! Everytime they were in stock? didn't have the 20 bucks.

So now an item I tried for like a year to land a copy of and would actually USE is a collector grabass item with an inflated price, wonderful. Oh well, at least I can still burn the damn thing. On the upside, is the bonus disc price going up. I've got at least one of these sealed still, too bad i don't still have the 5 or so i had before...would have been great to unload these and make enough to get box.

[hex65000]

This blows my mind too. I picked up a copy at Target ages ago for like $3. At the time I was planning on checking out colosseum and then dump it for like a dollar or two. It's a Demo. Nobody wants those. <shrug> When I got around to looking at it again I realized I could put Jirachi on my Ruby / Sapphire games. It gave me an excuse to open it up and try it out.

Now that I plan on restarting my Sapphire game in the near future I'll probably hold onto it for a while. Along with my RE4 and Rouge Squadron demo discs. <shrug> Like I need more stuff.

Hex.
[ It's like Metal Gear, but in feudal Japan with really big boobs! ]

[cyberfluxor]

I don't remember if I left mine sealed or not... I really hope I did since I don't have the Pokemon games that go with it. I recall they had a stack of them at Best Buy for $0.01 each (darn taxes on free stuff!). I kinda wish I had picked up a bunch of them but I didn't, figured someone else that had the game might like it since I did notice the "free exclusive Pokemon" info. After talking to some locals they weren't suprised that such a thing has happened but were glad that I informed them.

[EndlessChris]

I remember like two or three years back, prices on this bonus disc were around like $30 or something, so when I found two sealed ones for $10 each at a K-mart I bought them both. When I checked ebay the price had gone down considerably so I returned one. I guess that was a mistake.

In other news, I had the same relationship with pokemon box (always meant to buy it, never did). But imagine my surprise when I go to my pokemon loving buddy's house and he has a copy sitting on his shelf? I had to barter long and hard to get him to part with it (he has like, every pokemon game ever, including Japanese imports), but eventually I did, for $40. I think that was quite the bargain!

[calthaer]

To answer the questions:

-The pre-order disc that came with Colosseum was sealed, I believe.
-Did I foresee the demand? Of course. Enough, at least, that I considered the $50 for the full price of the game vs. the $30 that I might pay later worth it, because I was pretty sure that bonus disc was going to be worth at least $20 later (and probably way more). So I pre-ordered.

The eBay sellers that will download Mew, Celebi, Deoxys, Jirachi onto your cartridge are probably using a cheat device. Those things are notoriously sketchy in terms of creating Pokemon that are actually transferable to other cartridges (i.e. - capable of being put into Colosseum, etc.). I wouldn't trust 'em.