Jone has stated that he believes that this combo disc is the rarest of all the gamecube titles. Up until now most have felt that Pokemon box was the rarest and for sure has been the most expensive. Some don't consider Pokemon box a game but then the Metroid/Zelda combo is just a repackaged game of two existing discs. I have yet to see one up close but only the outter slip should be different from the retail copies.

I can add these facts to the discussion. Back when the Nintendo Gamecube was being sold I tried to track down all the different combos. The combo disc was only sold in this particular combo and I was only able to find it at Best Buy. However, I can not confirm it wasn't ever sold anywhere else. The Best Buy stores that I visited had 3-5 systems on the shelf vs the stacks and stacks of the other $99.99 bundles they would get.  It was priced at $129.99 which I felt was high at the time as the other Nintendo bundle systems were priced at $99.99. This particular unit was purchased on 08/30/05.

Interesting. Some guy has a sealed copy and keeps listing it on ebay for $2500 OBO. lol

I thought the Wind Waker/ Master Quest was pretty rare, but I'm seeing a lot more lately. I hope the same happens with this game. I don't want to pay some crazy amount for one. I'm working on a Zelda collection.

I believe more copies will come out. I've seen a hand full pop up in the last couple of months in poorly listed and misspelled auctions.

To its credit, I didn't even know this game existed until I saw the listing.

This game is only one generation old. Even if it is the rarest retail game that really isn't saying all that much.

I'm beginning to lean towards this being more of a variant than anything. But then again, that would make SMB/DH a variant as well. So I kind of have mixed feelings on it right now. Pokemon Box was another variant I'm kind of on edge about as well. The Pokemon Box is actually listed in the NA database for the GCN Collections, while the M/Z combo is not (neither is the Wind Waker/Ocarina of Time combo). Yet, the Zelda Collector's Edition is listed there and it, too, was a console pack-in. At first I thought maybe pack-ins didn't count, but then I saw the Zelda CE so now I'm unsure (again, SMB/DH is a pack-in and as far as I know, it counts). I'd love to see what people have to say about this one.

Also, as for price? I have no idea. I paid $70 for my copy of the game just today and I feel that's an alright deal right now. We'll see in the future if more of these start popping up. But as of right now if it's ruled a part of an NTSC GCN set, at least I got mine out of the way

I've seen a handful of them but they all seem to come without the system. Your picture is actually the first look I've had at the actual boxed console.

Just like Outback Joey for the Genesis you need the system and the box for it to be complete as that is the only way it was sold.

all aboard the hype train

Yeah, I intend to collect the different systems, and this is one I'm not looking forward to finding. lol If anything, maybe I'll find the system someday WITHOUT the game and it will go super cheap

 Is there a list of all the different bundles somewhere?

Even with a complete list that sounds like torture to me. I was buying them back in the day and got sick of it. I can't imagine trying to track them down now.

There are just so many and the differences between them sometimes are so meaningless.

Here is the Mario Kart bundle which may be one of the easier ones to find.

But then Best buy had one with a coupon book inside. Do you need them both?

Some had no extra game like this Kmart Nintendo Power bundle

and there were a ton of different Zelda bundles

This 4 game Zelda was everywhere for a long time.

But these two Zelda bundles were not as common.  

 

God damn Adam you went all out with the different GC variants. Very awesome dude.

Man there were a ton of them but most were $100 each so they were cheap.

The few they had before the drop to $100 will be harder to find. I think Mario Sunshine was the first one with a game offered. I picked up a few unfolded system boxes from someone in the industry.

Here are some other ones.

I have a list of most of the ones you have, but not all of them. That last pic confirms the Pokemon Colosseum bundle for me though, so thanks The KMart exclusive bundle I hadn't seen either. As well as the Best Buy Mario 7 bundle This list is growing. I knew about the Zeldas though. One you don't have pictured is the Wind Waker/Ocarina of Time bundle which is probably right under the Zelda/Metroid bundle in rarity perhaps. Well, I have a few more to add it looks like. At least GCN systems are dirt cheap even complete (picked up my Pokemon XD bundle for $15).

I know PAL bundles varied quite a bit too. Good thing I don't collect PAL though; would be way too expensive for my taste.

EDIT: Answered my own question:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Zelda-Wind-Waker-Metroid-Prime-NEW-SEALE...

For reference:

On the Zelda/Metroid bundle, the way I read it you are saying both games are on a single disc. Is this the case? That would be pretty interesting.

i like the metroid one looks cool

No, the games are on two separate discs.

This is the rarest GC game though (IMO).

I just checked out that ebay auction. Wow, thats pretty amazing. I've never seen this variant before. Learn something new everyday. I wonder how many of these bundles were sold? Anyone else have this disc or have seen it in the wild?

Jones has one according to his post in another thread. I bought one today. And obviously, buyatari has one. I don't live close to a Best Buy, so I never saw this bundle for sale. I saw most of the other ones though at some point and time. The only "rare" title I've seen in the wild is the Zelda's Collector's Edition at the local Gamestop. Not really rare, just expensive.

I have more than this but tried to only save the factory sealed ones. No way do I have them all. To make it worse to really have them all for most bundles you would have to multiply it by THREE. One for the Blue,Black and Silver system. 

Uggg no thanks. 

Well if you set out now at least prices couldn't be much lower. Even new most of these systems are worth less today than what I paid at retail.  

I've had a few used ones before and never really thought much about it until now.

NCAA 2K3 basketball is another Gamecube rarity. Don't believe there are to many of that floating around.

Well let me be the first to say that I'm definitely far from the most qualified person to speak on Gamecube rarity. I would defer that to people who have actually completed the set or are damn close to it. There's tons of great reads on DP about Gamecube rarities if someone would like to poke around.

But yes, IMO, Zelda / Metroid is the rarest game that I've seen at least. While it's the rarest GCN game, it is still less rare than SE or MB/SR or Sculptor's Cut even. So remember it is rare relative to the platform, but not impossible to find either.

I've seen 3 in the past 4 or 5 months roughly:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI....=

http://item.ebay.com/170643882551...

http://item.ebay.com/280675307465...

So even if it's the rarest on the platform, there are certainly still copies out there. Just to caveat everything. But then again, I've seen droughts where I don't see any copies on eBay for a couple of months.

I believe DreamTR said he had a complete set. And I don't know of anyone else who possibly could.

Meh, there's a lot of other collectors not on NA. This guy has a full set with all sorts of random variants and says there's 555 unique US releases. With most games pretty cheap and a library "smallish" compared to NES / SNES, I'm sure a dedicated person could knock the set out pretty quickly.

http://www.mayhem64.co.uk/misc/ga...

Ya, it's really not that hard. I have 415 or so collecting gamecube for maybe 2 years and this is all local or NA member sales to me. Not 1 game has come from Ebay.

Just as with the N64 the rarest games will turn out to be some NFR and test discs. I have some test pressings that were numbered and limited to 25 or so pieces. Then you have a few in store variations of retail games. There was a Star Wars variation with an extra disc everyone was looking for back in the day I would guess it will be harder to find today.

It is more a matter of what rare disc people will count or care about than which game or disc or variation is actually the rarest.