That's what I'm trying to outline.

The old rules don't apply anymore. Though I still feel we're in a feeding frenzy and some stuff is selling well past the realm of outlandish.

Then again, if the goal is to only collect key titles then I can totally understand four and five figure prices for AAA 30-Year old games either in nice CIB condition, or early print run.

but I can't ever be reasoned into believing a sudden influx of new collectors can make things like Jack Nicklaus Golf, Goal!, NES Play Action Football, and Top Gun become $500 CIBs. at least not unless it's a gradual and traceable growth.

Well there's a couple of different issues being discussed.    

1) Sealed v CIB - The data in the CLINK and HA sales outlines pretty darn clearly the link between sealed and CIB pricing.    Why guess at things when there's real data.    There's even a sealed 7 Mario Arcade ($5100) to compare to a CIB 6.5 (7 box) Mario Arcade ($720) for example.    And others such examples where we have a sealed copy and a cib copy with the same or similar number grade to compare.

2) New trends going forward - for sure, new rules will be made.    New buyers crossing over from comics will probably bring their comic centric biases because that's what they understand.

 

I was watching that Mario Arcade like a hawk, and I didn't realize there's other Mario arcade's to compare it too. I'm gonna gather sales data so far and see what I can piece together. Are there any other new marketplaces besides Heritage and C-Link?

I feel like it's 2012 again and I'm learning things all over again. It's actually fun really even if I'm just sitting on the sidelines watching the show.

One MA was on clink the other on HA. A couple new MA cibs on HA now too

Outside of a very select few first print matte/gloss seals, sealed games will always hold a premium over 98% of games available. The 2% perfect mint CIB I can see getting close to Sealed sales, but they (CIB) are way more common in "almost" every circumstance.

Has everyone received their games or got them shipped? I see people post their winnings and have yet to get confirmation that my order is shipped and no answer from customer support.

I'm in canada so maybe it explains a bit but still its taking a bit.

Terms say up to 20biz day to ship so ill be patient still...

Mine showed a week or so ago.

I'm in the same situation

 

Got my tracking friday, should arrive by tuesday... hopefully you get yours soon as well!  They got overwhelmed with about 7000 lots to ship which explains the delay.

Thank you. Had my code on Friday too. I suppose it's hard to manage all of these shippings!
 

New one has just begun! The highest WATA graded feature is pretty cool. Good to get this info, even if it's far from complete.

https://certifiedlink.com/Auction...

Yeah, and I wouldn't trust it at all.  Already noticed a lie.

"HIGHEST GRADED" Batman Return of the Joker at 9.8 / A.  Oh wait, there's a Carolina Collection 9.8 / A++ coming up on HA next month.  It's marketing hype and nothing more.  That's literally the difference between a VGA 85+ and a VGA 90+ most likely. 

Not the only thing stated that I wouldn’t trust. 

“Stadium Events has long been considered the rarest game for the NES that had a retail release. It's been estimated by experts in the hobby that only 2000 copies of the game were manufactured and out of those, only 200 actually made their way to stores” 


 

What are the stats you have on Stadium Events?

I'm not really in the market for this stuff anyway, so it doesn't really affect me much - but one thing I've noticed is there seems to be a lot of inconsistencies with some of this stuff. For example, Final Fantasy VIII and Final Fantasy IX both have the 'Squaresoft' logo on the front - yet one of the cases says 'Square' and the other says 'Squaresoft' [maybe there's something I don't know about there].

And then I see stuff like this and I wonder - how in the heck is this an "A+" seal?
https://certifiedlink.com/img/com...

Oh well - this whole phenomenon / direction is interesting.

Also who says someone doesn't have a nicer copy that hasn't been subbed yet. I went thru and just checked them all out but I'd be very worried if I was buying 
 

The page literally looks like an angelfire site from 1999. I was half expecting to see the hamster dance after clicking on an auction.

Woof.

Then it hasn’t been graded, which is the claim. That’s not really an issue.
 

Yes, tbh, Heritage has everyone blown away in terms of modernization. Metropolis (another major comic player) has a similar format to ComicLink.

All three still put up good results financially, though.
 

Hey guys - we got the box grade info from WATA on the titles that were highest graded (tied with others) and single highest graded.  For now, the main numerical grade is the only info we have.  The intention for these auction descriptions is to properly market these games while being accurate.  So if anyone sees anything that is not accurate please let me know. 

Adam - as far as the Stadium Events description - let me know what the issue and I'll remove it/revise it.  

 

Where did the 200 surviving initial recall number come from?

Given that many of the games that survived initial recall in the 80s would have faced further destruction from 10 or more years of housecleaning it seems too low of a number. However, I don’t have a hard number to give you.

I’d be curious to hear what others here think about this number. 

We sold a different copy in the same grade in June 2019 and I did the research then for that description so I honestly don't remember where that estimate originated from.    If I google "Stadium Events" now, I see a couple of online articles that reference that 200 number the earliest one being in 2017. I checked Heritage and they are also using that number in their Stadium Events descriptions.  One in February 2019 and also the 6.0 copy they have coming up in the next auction.  So it's a number that's been used to estimate the supply for at least a couple of years. 

Edit: Actually I see an earlier article from January 2015 estimating 200 when the $99,850 copy sold on ebay.  

Erroneously used.

I don't think Adam is disputing that it's been reported in the past as 200 copies, I think he is questioning the source and validity of that claim.

An auction house has more responsibility to accurately report claims IMO as money is on the line. I also don't care much about comic book folk overpaying for NES stuff, so it's not a battle I'd personally fight.

If there were only 200 in 1987 I just feel that there would be less copies around today than there are.
I have nothing to back that up with.

You have stated that it is an estimate and others have used the same estimate so I see no real harm in leaving it.
I just don't believe it.