Originally posted by: tbone3969
  I don't know what VGC is but it sounds cool.  Can I join?

 

Originally posted by: Woobie

I always kind of find these things amusing....Its kind of like "I paid this much so therefor its worth this much". But is it? Something is only worth as much as the market as a whole decides it is. Time will tell if these "investments" pay off or not. Personally I couldn't care one way or the other. I just don't get why suddenly people are thinking its going to go up / stay up, its 110% speculation.

Every time something pops up its like "only one of 5 known" or some crap, but where are they drawing those numbers from. The hobby (especially in this sense) is still young. While they are careful to use wording that is technically true (known copies, etc) it holds 0 weight, especially this early in the game. Every person making these big buys wants it known, they want to inflate the market up and cash out.

If they didn't care about them a year ago why are they suddenly going to care 10-15 years from now?

And I still stick with my opinion that the 100K purchase of mario bros previously was purely to "boost the market", WATA and HA are both making a killing right now im sure, and part of that is probably due to all the hype train on sealed games. Does anyone honestly believe that WATA / HA would be doing as well as they are right now if they never made that purchase / hyped it up ?

Originally posted by: tbone3969
  I don't know what VGC is but it sounds cool.  Can I join?

 

Originally posted by: MinusWorlds
  No you’re correct in that point. The Mario purchase. 

As as far as known copies etc. People are so scared of what’s out there unknown, hidden away. The truth of the matter is the known copies is, IMO, pretty accurate. Relatively speaking of course. Warehouse finds are so unlikely at this point. The process 30 years ago is the same as today. Items are liquidated. They don’t sit around until Indiana Jones comes looking for them. 

The Atwood find really speaks to this point. He was hired in the late 90’s to clear out an old JC Penny’s. If he hadn’t decided to keep those 1800 or whatever sealed games, they would have went the way of the dodo bird. I really don’t think we’re going to see any significant finds. I hope I’m wrong but I don’t think so. The series of events that would have had to have happened for these games to remain hidden is crazy. The bounty that people have had on games should have brought more out, and at times it did, but it was onesy, twosy situations. People have been offering 5 figures for games for years and very few have been found. 

 

Originally posted by: Woobie
 
Ya I dont necessarily mean a giant warehouse of stuff, but lets say for example "1 of only 5 known copies", so another turns up, now its 1 of 6, another copy, 1 of 7, etc. At what point does the value diminish. Even now we still hear about new stuff popping up, some of that is just because of how much they are pushing out the values (which is a bit ironic, push hard about "how much you paid" more people look and hey suddenly a new one pops up...), example being that kid icarus that showed up.

The higher the value / more aware the public is about stuff the more thats going to pop up.

Obviously this is not to say that any more WILL pop up, but sealed being "mainstream" has been...what, a year? If that? Hobby is still young, starting to believe "no more of these will turn up" seems like a logical fallacy

I guess I take it as "1 out of only X known copies!" holds little weight and is coming across more as a belief that the statement will hold true (and no more will show up)
 

Originally posted by: tbone3969

Atwood alone could blow up a "1 out of 5" games exist situation. He could have a case or multiple cases just stashed away.

Originally posted by: captmorgandrinker

I guess I'd rather wealthy dentists have this for a hobby rather than shooting preserve lions with an underpowered weapon.

Originally posted by: Scrobins09

It's just a matter of time before someone pulls a Bill Murray; someone will buy a rare, great condition, graded, sealed, CIB, only to open it up in front of the buyer and eat the box.

Originally posted by: PowerPlayers

I'm getting a whiff of envy in the thread. Weren't prices insane when guys like me came in and "took over" early this decade?

Y'all did the hard work setting up "the list" discovering all of those major variants, five screws, hangtabs, and oddball Unlicensed stuff...then we came in and just want "the rares" and boosted things like Stadium Events from bottom-four figures to ~$12,000 at old-peak price. When I first joined Dino Peak was #2 in price and Samson wasn't even top 4 I think....also the prices on those went up tenfold.

Now this new wave comes in and says they like stickers, Sonic, Halo, and Turtles and we're all supposed to be surprised that their money is changing the hobby.

Not gonna lie, it's sucks that I missed out on stuff, sold some stuff for not even 1% of its value today (Like one of the worlds most pristine sealed FFF-Athletic Worlds) but that's the hobby we're in.

The only difference between the new guys and the previous wave of collectors is there's a double the speculation and half the nostalgia involved*

*actual figures may vary.

Originally posted by: MinusWorlds
 
For the new collectors it’s all about population. They can’t believe some of these games only have a handful of sealed copies. But it’s reality. It’s all relative tho. They’re banking on new collectors coming in and demand increasing. To use Action Comics 1 as a reference I thinks there’s like 65 in CGC’s pop report. Something like that, and it’s a $1M book. That 65 number is incredibly rare in their world.  

So, when they see and hear of games with under 10 known populations they can’t fathom it. They see massive opportunity. And they’re right. But, it will take many more collectitors with deep pockets to approach comic prices. That’s what they are banking on and they very well might be right. Which is precisely why you’re seeing these hype articles. Every one draws in a few new collectors. 

This is precisely why I keep saying the delta between sealed and CIB needs to close. There are not enough sealed games to go around. There just isn’t. 
 

...the Video Game Club obtained sticker-sealed, black-box copies of Nintendo Entertainment System games “Mario Bros.” arcade edition (1986), the two known copies of “Golf” (1985), the only known copy of “Balloon Fight” (1986) and the only known copy of “Gumshoe” (1986)

Originally posted by: PowerPlayers

I'm getting a whiff of envy in the thread. Weren't prices insane when guys like me came in and "took over" early this decade?

Y'all did the hard work setting up "the list" discovering all of those major variants, five screws, hangtabs, and oddball Unlicensed stuff...

Originally posted by: PowerPlayers

To literally single out anyone is kind of hard. It's more of just a general feeling that Im picking up that the community as a whole looks at the new wave of collectors as a negative thing, and there's a bit of resentment or remorse for missing out.

Maybe I'm reading into it wrong, but I can't help but feel that there's some kind of funk in the air, though it could just be under my shoe if there really is no resentment here.

Originally posted by: gunpei

When the article says: that is really poorly worded. Makes it sound like there is only one known copy each of Balloon Fight and Gumshoe (and only two of Golf, lol I'll sell mine for "half price") in the whole world.
 

Originally posted by: DoctorEncore
 

You're not imagining anything, even if it's tough for people to admit. It's impossible not to feel some envy when someone (or a small group of people) can drop a million bucks on something so many of us would cherish. And it's hard not to be at least a little resentful when speculators start stepping on your toes. These are normal reactions to this kind of stuff. That being said, I definitely DON'T want a bunch of sealed games in bigass cases clogging up my collecting area. I would, however, take the cold hard cash. 😁

Originally posted by: DoctorEncore
 

You're not imagining anything, even if it's tough for people to admit. It's impossible not to feel some envy when someone (or a small group of people) can drop a million bucks on something so many of us would cherish. And it's hard not to be at least a little resentful when speculators start stepping on your toes. These are normal reactions to this kind of stuff. That being said, I definitely DON'T want a bunch of sealed games in bigass cases clogging up my collecting area. I would, however, take the cold hard cash. 😁

Originally posted by: jonebone

Eh you should reach an age when you realize money is not your limiting resource on this Earth, its time. These are all just games and dollars, you can always get more. Were all stuck with a finite amount of time though and you can't get that back.

What bothers me is the hype and exploitation angle. If you have a nice game you dont need to hype anything, people will find you. It's just so artificial at this point and you can read the ulterior motives. Buy, pump, hype, recruit. Repeat. The growth is so forced, if people had their way they would buy today, sell tomorrow and expect to do that over and over with profits. Its not about the games at all, it's about using them as a means to and end to profit. And personally I find that a bit sad.

Originally posted by: DoctorEncore
 

You're not imagining anything, even if it's tough for people to admit. It's impossible not to feel some envy when someone (or a small group of people) can drop a million bucks on something so many of us would cherish. And it's hard not to be at least a little resentful when speculators start stepping on your toes. These are normal reactions to this kind of stuff. 

Originally posted by: jonebone

Eh you should reach an age when you realize money is not your limiting resource on this Earth, its time. These are all just games and dollars, you can always get more. Were all stuck with a finite amount of time though and you can't get that back.

What bothers me is the hype and exploitation angle. If you have a nice game you dont need to hype anything, people will find you. It's just so artificial at this point and you can read the ulterior motives. Buy, pump, hype, recruit. Repeat. The growth is so forced, if people had their way they would buy today, sell tomorrow and expect to do that over and over with profits. Its not about the games at all, it's about using them as a means to and end to profit. And personally I find that a bit sad.

Originally posted by: jonebone

Eh you should reach an age when you realize money is not your limiting resource on this Earth, its time. These are all just games and dollars, you can always get more. Were all stuck with a finite amount of time though and you can't get that back.

What bothers me is the hype and exploitation angle. If you have a nice game you dont need to hype anything, people will find you. It's just so artificial at this point and you can read the ulterior motives. Buy, pump, hype, recruit. Repeat. The growth is so forced, if people had their way they would buy today, sell tomorrow and expect to do that over and over with profits. Its not about the games at all, it's about using them as a means to and end to profit. And personally I find that a bit sad.