Hi all,

Been scanning ebay for months looking for a sealed Chrono Trigger in great shape (hopefully WATA 9.0). Are these out there?

looking to pay $5500 for the right copy.

Yes, but it takes two things. Patience. Patiences and money.

Any tips on finding one besides waiting for Ebay ?

It's one of the best selling SNES games, there are likely lots of them available. Collectors don't always advertise games they're willing to let go of, post what you're willing to pay and people may be convinced.

You might have to offer more for one to be sold 

It's not the rarest, but it is definitely not one of the best selling titles.  The SNES was on the way out and many consumers were saving their dollars for the N64, which was just around the corner.  Yes, Squaresoft had a lot of steam in their locomotion from FF IIIs success, but this game was also released $10 more than the traditional, full price SNES title at $70!  I recall only seeing one N64 title at $70 that first year it was out, and that was Shadows of the Empire and that was also because the first place I found it was at JC Penny, of all places.

ChronoTrigger was kind of Squaresofts swan song to the SNES/2D era for the states.  The faithfuls bought it, but a lot of kids were waiting for something new and, at that time, everyone was really wanting to naively move on to 3D.  That's why this game is expensive.  It's a less common titles, and it's also one of the best made by the company. Ever.
 

I could honestly see a high-quality copy that's sealed go for $4,500-5,000.

No.	Title	Developer(s)[a]	Publisher(s)[a]	Release date	Sales	Ref.
1	Super Mario World	Nintendo EAD	Nintendo	November 21, 1990	20,610,000	[1]
2	Super Mario All-Stars	Nintendo EAD	Nintendo	July 14, 1993	10,550,000	[1]
3	Donkey Kong Country	Rare	Nintendo	November 21, 1994	9,300,000	[2]
4	Super Mario Kart	Nintendo EAD	Nintendo	August 27, 1992	8,760,000	[1]
5	Street Fighter II: The World Warrior	Capcom	Capcom	June 10, 1992	6,300,000	[3]
6	Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest	Rare	Nintendo	November 20, 1995	5,150,000	[2]
7	The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past	Nintendo EAD	Nintendo	November 21, 1991	4,610,000	[4]
8	Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island	Nintendo EAD	Nintendo	August 5, 1995	4,120,000	[5]
9	Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting	Capcom	Capcom	July 11, 1993	4,100,000	[3]
10	Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!	Rare	Nintendo	November 22, 1996	3,510,000	[2]
11	Final Fantasy VI	Square	Square	April 2, 1994	3,420,000	[6]
12	Killer Instinct	Rare	Nintendo	August 30, 1995	3,200,000	[7]
13	Dragon Quest VI	Heartbeat	Enix	December 9, 1995	3,200,000	[8]
14	Star Fox	Nintendo EAD[b]	Nintendo	February 21, 1993	2,990,000	[2]
15	F-Zero	Nintendo EAD	Nintendo	November 21, 1990	2,850,000	[2]
16	Dragon Quest V	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chu..." style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;" title="Chunsoft">Chunsoft	Enix	September 27, 1992	2,800,000	[8]
17	Final Fantasy V	Square	Square	December 6, 1992	2,450,000	[9]
18	Mario Paint	Nintendo R&D1	Nintendo	July 14, 1992	2,310,000	[2]
19	Super Mario RPG	Square	Nintendo	March 9, 1996	2,140,000	[2]
20	Chrono Trigger	Square	Square	March 11, 1995	2,030,000	[9]

Interesting chart, but when I click on the source, a quick search of the page brought up nothing about Chrono Trigger.  Also, I must qualify, I'm talking about sales in the US, not just world-wide.

It's been somewhat traditional that systems in Japan can continue to sell and do well long past the time they are considered dead, or dying, in the US.  I see they moved +2m units but if this is world-wide distribution, it also means that these number includes Japanese sales, which I imagine as a percent are far greater than US sales considering when this game was released.

If you look at Final Fantasy III (marked as VI) on that chart, it sold 3.5m copies.  Chrono sold almost half as many, FF III was Square's best performing RPG in the States and, I'd assume, the percentage of US sale vs. Japanese sales is probably even lower for Chrono Trigger.

Considering the timing of it's release, paired with the fact that popularity/appreciation of this game has only increased since 1995, it makes sense that it's valuable and that supply is "limited".

It's an "important" game and people are willing to pay for quality copies.  Comparing the price of Chrono to FF III ought to show that these valuations are justified.  FF III is well loved, but not as much as Chrono and it's more common.  These facts can increase the value on a mint conditioned, sealed Chrono by a factor or two, easily.

Small update to my above post. On the same source from the Wikipedia article, I found this link for US sales:

http://www.the-magicbox.com/Chart...

I have no clue where they got these numbers, but if we scroll to the Square section, you'll see that no game reached "Platinum" status on this list. In fact, no SNES title is even on there, which probably means that not a single, Squaresoft title for the SNES broke one million units in the US. A million units is a lot but that goes to show that regardless of how popular these titles were, they weren't as popular as any of the more traditional Square-Enix titles of today, which can sell millions-upon-millions of copies and new collectors looking to collect from the past will gobble up what inventory they can find for "classic" titles.

There are lots of SNES titles on there:

• Mortal Kombat 2
• Mortal Kombat 3
• NBA Jam
• Donkey Kong Country
• Donkey Kong Country 2
• Donkey Kong Country 3
• Killer Instinct
• The Lion King

I also don't trust a list of US releases that has many, many PSX games on the list.....a system that wasn't even released outside of Japan.

Yeah, and to be sure, I wasn't looking to prove you wrong. This was just the first time I was aware anyone had any published sales numbers from Nintendo. I didn't think they even published those details and it makes me wonder where that site got those numbers. I'm skeptical about those details but, I don't know, maybe they made a friend of a database admin and got them to export a report.

I think it's pretty obvious that they are simply misusing "PSX" in lieu of PS or PS1. However, I'd still call that a folly worth judging them for. Common mistake but a pet peeve of mine.
 

The PSX and the PlayStation are two completely separate consoles. It would be ridiculous for anyone to use the name of another Sony console to refer to a totally different Sony console with a different name.

We all know it, but there are legions of rubes out there that think PS1 = PSX.

 

You're right, and it happens. Ok?

Got any cartz for $ale?
 

The North American variant of Chrono Trigger is rare. The Japanese variant is not.

I hope you can all deduce why.

PSX is the codename for the PS1. It is frequently used to refer to games that run on the PS1. 
 

there's a collection out there with MULTIPLE sealed copies of Chrono Trigger....

I hope they see this and message me  

Back before PS2 came out there was no reason to distinguish the first console with a 1. I seem to recall everyone referring to the original PlayStation as PSX when it first came out. It wasn’t until the PS2 came out that people started saying PS1. Then the mini version 2 of the original PlayStation came out and I believe that one was “officially” called PS1.

Nobody around here (USA) knew about the PSX system that came out in Japan but they sure did add to the confusion by naming that PSX
 

honestly i think your offer price is 5x whats a sealed copy is worth. I know a few local guys that own sealed copies. I can ask them if you like they all got them for $500 or lower. but that was years ago. In canada btw

Please see what you can do. Thanks!
 

I second this. If you wait long enough, a sealed copy should pop up on eBay and I'm guessing it will go for $1500-2500.

I don't see a 9.0 / A conditioned Chrono Trigger sealed going anywhere below $2500. My guess would be $4k+ as a better bounty. $3k isn't bad, shows that you do at least have some significant interest, but I wouldn't expect it to shake out any sellers.

Even a mangled sealed Chrono Trigger would clear $1500 IMO.