The Twenty Thousand Dollar Videogame

Badie05 · The Twenty Thousand Dollar Videogame

You see it all the time in eBay game listings. "RARE!!!" Of course, this being the internet, it's usually part of the full listing "GEARS OF WAR FOR XBOX 360 – RARE!!!" but occasionally, it's justified. Here we take a look at the different types of retro games and some of the crazy prices they're going for.

The popular desirables
These are the games that sold by the shedload in their day, so hardly count as 'rare' yet still seem to fetch a high price on eBay. Such as…

Final Fantasy VII - PC
Sure, everybody has got a copy of Final Fantasy VII for PSone or at least played it back in the day. While that version is still highly sought after (most likely by those who were too young to enjoy it at the time) with boxed copies going for £15-20 (about $35) on eBay, it's the PC version that's getting the biggest prices, as it's rarer. If you see it at a boot sale for a quid, pick it up for a possible 5600% profit.
Average eBay price: £57 ($114)

Secret of Mana – SNES
This seems to be a mainstay of second-hand game store cabinets at the moment. Always labelled at £59.99 (about $120), it sits there, just a bit too expensive to snatch up, goading us with its rarity. If you can find a version with the map still inside, you should be able to get that price on eBay without too much trouble. Is it any good though? Well, it's by Squaresoft – what do you think?
Average eBay price: £50 (about $100)

Super Mario 64
Everyone's got a copy of Mario 64 – usually a tatty cartridge with no box. You know, the one that was left in the console when you bought it second hand that looks like it's been used as a teething aid. But what about boxed copies? They're rarer, but there are still plenty around too. But unopened boxed copies? One just went on eBay for £166. That's over $300. Our advice? If you ever find one unopened, DON'T OPEN IT! You'll knock over £100 from its value in one fell swoop.
Average eBay price: Boxed, used: £15 ($30)

Above: Still sealed? Miyamoto would probably cry if he saw it, but a collector will be over the moon

The low-production run classics

Radiant Silvergun – Saturn
We already dedicated a whole feature to Radiant Silvergun's awesomeness, so we won't dwell on it here. It only came out in Japan, so it's hard to find in the UK or US. Expect to pay £100 for a copy in good condition – one recently went on eBay for around £60 recently despite suffering water damage. Come on, if you're going to buy one, at least get one in good nick.
Average eBay price: £80 ($160)

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess – Gamecube version
Such a new game, already rare? Yep – Nintendo kept their promise by releasing the Gamecube version alongside the Wii one, but in nowhere near as many numbers. A sealed copy sold for £70 recently, and we can only see that figure rising in the future. Annoyingly, we bought one at launch to keep as an investment, only for a desperate friend to ask if he could buy it from us to give as a Christmas present. To be played! Oh, the horror…
Average eBay price: Unopened: £65-70 (about $140), boxed, opened: £40 (about $80)

Dragon Force: Sega Saturn
When a great game is released for a dying console, it's always a shame. This strategy game features hundreds of animated soldiers on-screen at once, which was impressive for the time. It's not amazingly fun to play (we've tried it), but still essential for any Saturn collector.
Average eBay price: £40 (about $80)

Panzer Dragoon Saga – Sega Saturn
Perhaps the Saturn's most cherished game, it's certainly one of the most consistently high-priced eBay purchases around. Anything under £80 is a good deal, but expect to pay £120 for a complete copy in good nick. We once mentioned its value to a mate who then said "You shouldn't have told me that – I've got a copy at home and would've sold it to you for a fiver". D'oh!
Average eBay price: £100 (about $200)

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night – PSone
Its availability on Xbox Live Arcade hasn't affected its rarity value on PSone. Finding a complete, boxed copy is no easy task, even on eBay.

One copy went recently for £43, even without an instruction booklet. A complete one was recently sold for £102… just goes to show that digital downloads just can't compare to actually holding a physical embodiment of something beautiful.
Average eBay price: £40, though it varies greatly

Good games or bad, it doesn't always matter
A game doesn't have to be good to be of value to a collector. Remember, people don't buy crap games... or at least obscure crap games. So anything released in limited quantities on dying consoles is going to be worth something. For instance, the Adventures of Batman & Robin on Mega CD just sold for £210. Crazy. But, before youget your hopes up, it should be noted that your N-Gage collection probably isn't worth much. Sorry.

The 'limited edition'

Ico – PS2
When Shadow of the Colossus came out, it's predecessor was given a re-release, as its sales were initially poor (much like Okami, really).

Of course, it's an incredible game, as anyone who has played it will attest. But the re-release was issued in a standard DVD case, whereas that initial production run saw cardboard cases with limited edition art cards. Limited edition art cards!

The re-release has knocked a tenner off the average eBay price, as they were going for £40 a time. You can now get hold of the UK version for £30 pretty easily. Ironic, however, to note that it's one of the few examples of games that are genuinely worth their original RRP. Crazy, huh?
Average eBay price: £30 (about $60)

Valkyrie Profile – PSone
This limited edition NTSC PSone game fetched £114.95 on eBay. It took a second listing for it to sell at that rather ambitious Buy it Now price, but we're impressed the seller stuck to their guns. It does look gorgeous.
eBay price: £115 (about $230)

Sonic Adventure 2 – Dreamcast
This limited edition pack was only available at retail for two days in Japan, released to coincide with the tenth anniversary of the release of Sonic 1. Even though it's getting on for another seven years past the release of Sonic Adventure 2, prices are still modest for the limited edition pack, likely due to the fact it's quite common to find it when you look.
Average eBay price: £15 (about $30)

World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Collector's Edition – PC
For all the millions of WoW players out there, the number of unopened, special edition boxed copies of the game are pretty few. And why shouldn't they be valuable? WoW is a phenomenon - just imagine 50 years down the line, when we're all linked directly into the internet and scoff at when games used to come on physical media. An unopened special edition copy of one of the games that triggered a collective shift towards online play (or mass divorce) is going to be worth thousands. Now? £70 ($140).
Average eBay price: £70 (about $140)

The HUGE finds
If you ever see any of these games at a boot sale or second hand store, don't let them see your excitement. Tell them the sweat trickling down your cheek is a medical condition and those palpitations shaking your body are hereditary.

Air Raid – Atari 2600
It's tacky to look at, isn't it? No title on the game cartridge, a weird handle to yank it from the system and a sky blue plastic finish. Not to mention poor artwork. But don't let its appearance put you off – this is an incredibly rare game. There are FIVE known copies in existence and none of them have a box or instructions with them. So if you find number six… well, expect it to sell for at least £1,500 ($3,000). A boxed copy? Who knows. You could name your price.

Stadium Events – NES
This was an official third-party title for NES in the US, using an early precursor to the Wii Fitness board – the 'Family Fun Fitness Pad'. Nintendo liked it so much, they asked for all of the NES versions to be recalled, made it wireless and rebranded it as Wii Fit.

Nah, just kidding (sorry if we had you going). No, seriously, the 2,000 copies produced were recalled, leaving a couple of hundred games in the hands of customers. The game was rebranded as World Class Track Meet and distributed as a first-party game, with Nintendo's own 'Power Pad' controller. But those scant few copies of the original still in existence now fetch over $1,000 (£500) when they appear – and complete versions are rumoured to be worth around $5,000 (£2,500).

Ultima: Escape from Mount Drash – Commodore Vic-20
A Commodore Vic-20 was this writer's introduction to the gaming world. Ah, happy memories of Frogger, Blitz and Initial Race. And taking it literally when it said 'HIT SPACE BAR TO CONTINUE'. Thwack! But anyway, this Ultima game is hardly anything to do with the main Ultima series and Richard Garriot (Lord British) didn't even know it was being produced with the name until it was out in the shops. It sold badly even before it was discontinued, making the remaining few copies that did make it to consumers' hands worth something in the region of $3,500 (£1,750).

Kizuna Encounter – Neo Geo (PAL)
This is quite unbelievable. Apparently, there were 12 (yes, twelve) copies of this SNK fighting game produced for the PAL territories. It is said that eight of those were shipped back to Japan and relabelled for sale there. So that makes… four copies. They're doing the rounds in Europe and the US, selling for about $12,000 each time. Yes, that's about £6,000.

The holy grail
Here it is - the most desirable collectable videogame in the world. Yes, even more than a copy of GoldenEye for Xbox 360.

Nintendo World Championship 1990 - NES
In the early 1990s, there were several gaming championships which used multi-game cartridges. The idea was that gamers would play three games for a limited amount of time, then the best overall score would win.

This grey NES cartridge was given out as prizes to 90 runners-up and so is extremely collectable for Nintendo enthusiasts.

Currently there's a limited edition reproduction of the cartridge going on eBay – we're not sure how valuable a reproduction cart is going to be, but there were apparently only 22 made in its initial production run, so we'll see. At the time of writing it's up to $51, but it could well go much higher. But if you see anything with Nintendo World Championship 1990 written on it at a boot sale, it's probably worth the risk of buying it, just in case.

But the story doesn't end there for the Nintendo World Championships cart. While there were 90 grey cartridges, there were a further 22 gold versions, which were given out to winners of a Nintendo Power competition. These are the holy grail - especially as some remain 'unfound'. They could be in your loft.

One MyEbid auction for a job lot of 24 NES carts containing the game ended at $21,400. Apparently the listing owner's son had died in Iraq, so he was selling off some of his things - and didn't know what he had. This surely puts the value of the cart at around $20,000 (£10,000), as there was nothing else of note in the titles for sale.

One definite, confirmed price came up recently when a collector named James Baker paid $15,000 for one of the gold cartridges. You've got to be pretty dedicated to spend $15,000 on a game. When UK games mag Edge asked him what his friends thought of his purchase, he told them: "The ones that aren’t into games, well, either I don’t tell them or when I tell them they think I’m nuts. But I don’t blame them."

Want to see what all teh fuss is about? Check out this footage of the game in action:
http://www.gametrailers.com/playe...ies/214571.html?playlist=featured

Phatkav

Can't you like just download all these games for free?

Badie05

Did you even read this

Phatkav

I read it, but I'm just saying what's the point of buying it on eBay where you can get the games for free.

Badie05

You feel good with the physical product in your hands and can show your kids what crappy games we used to play when they have Full Physical 3D Games

Swift

these are all PAL anyways, getting them in canada is completely pointless unless you feel like getting either a hacked console that can convert it's compatability (i remember a Ps1 that lets you choose to use either NTSC or PAL) or find some other way

Badie05

There are some NTSC versions there.

Mikebroekhof

OMGGGGG
Wish I didn't unseal my Super Mario 64...
Still love that game though, thanks a good time reading this, love these kind off articles

bashmo

yeah, the point is that the unopened box copy of a game feels awesome in your hands XD

Zaraki Kenpachi

Badie05

I agree with that assumption as well but not ALL collectors are rich.

HungryHungryHippo

I think my friend has the PC version of FF7...I'm not sure if its bootlegged or its the real one though >_<

Does Mario64 in an opened box sell for lots of monies?