Truthfully the Nintendo NES market is so hyper inflated right now it makes sense to sell it. In a decade or two from now NES will be worth a fraction of what it currently is. Don't trust me? Look at Atari 2600 collecting.

Strongly agree with this.  As someone who has been collecting mint and sealed games since the late 80s, I have never seen a market so out of whack with actual supply and demand versus pricing.  There is no way anyone will ever convince me that a single Nintendo game is worth 4-5 figures.  At some point, the market will wake up and realize the foolishness of the hyper price inflation and collapse down to more reasonable levels.  Until then, anyone who gets lucky enough to find something like this should enjoy the massive profits to be had as a result of a handful of people with just a little too much disposable income and too little common sense. 

If I can add my two bits as someone formerly in the market.   I think if the BIN were 15k you'd have more serious interest.   my perhaps biased opinion is that its worth say10k and that a 50k BIN will just drive people away as it gives the impression your hopes for it are not realistic.

Now maybe none of that matters (!) because I think you said you were going to do a straight auction afterwards?  

 

Totally understandable, and believe me when I say I really appreciate the advice.

The previous seller contacted Matt a few times back and forth after he sold us the games and mentioned that he had 2 offers of $12k and one for $15k after he had shipped the lot to us. With that in mind, I'd certainly like to have an idea of what people will offer for a graded copy and without stock photos.

We'll let it ride as is for the time being. As time goes by, Matt and I are thinking more and more about keeping it if we don't get some serious interest from serious buyers. Don't get me wrong, for the right price someone will certainly walk away with this, but we're not in any hurry to let it go for a song.

We had no idea how sexy VGA games look in person, and this sure as shit looks beautiful on the shelf

Edit:  Advice not advise

Because Atari really enjoyed the same success as Nintendo, right?  Compare Atari to Sega Genesis, but comparing it to Nintendo is silly.  One has twenty five year old franchises that still sell a million copies when the umpteenth sequel comes out, and you can barely even give away Atari cartridges.

 Atari was more popular than Nintendo at its high in the US. Atari did come first and then Nintendo gobbled up the market. There was a time that Atari games weren't as worthless as they are today. Right now a great deal of people who played the Nintendo NES as kids are growing up and they have disposable income and lots of it. This will pass as next generation consoles become collectable. />

 

Edit: Otherwise if I was wrong there wouldn't have been a time where popular sealed games were selling for peanuts as Bronty and others commonly mention. />

 

I know 20 year olds who actively collect Star Wars toys from 1977-1985. They didn't grow up with these toys OR movies and yet they collect them. My ten year old never grew up with the NES, but he sure as shit grew up with Mario & Zelda. While we may see a decline in the number of people chasing complete collections of NES carts, the popularity of the franchises that started there will live on for a looooong time. I mean, can you name a single game series that started on the 2600 that still going strong today?

hmm interesting, and thanks for taking my comments in the manner intended.    The three offers to the sellers are certianly reason for pause.   I can think of a few possibilities I guess. 

a) I am an old fuddy duddy with my old timey thoughts on pricing and its worth more than I think.  

b) given how very publicly it played out, those offers were done with the knowledge the game had shipped (either a) to spite the seller b) to try and screw you guys over )

c) some buyers may no longer be interested as the grade is not what they were hoping

d) offers just haven't materialized yet and they will result in you walking to the bank with buckets of cash.

hmm.

Yeah, there just seems to be a million unknowns. B and D crossed my mind several times, and until some offers materialize while this is in our possession, this could be worth a lot more or a lot less than any of us think.

Never really thought about the grade, but it could certainly have an effect. I was very happy with it, but then again, I'm not really the poster child for sealed collecting so maybe I'm just happy to know it's legit and won't be damaged any further.

All good points, and definitely food for thought. It should be interesting to see where this goes.

Can I get a link to the thread that this previously played out in?

http://www.nintendoage.com/forum/...

Sega Master System and Genesis are from the same time frame as NES and are both VERY Hard to sell right now. Even if you list Sega stuff on ebay with fair prices it is hard to sell. People are always going to look back at franchises and other stuff. Jone's comparison is correct

Don't get me wrong I would love to see stuff for peanuts again, but it isn't going to happen!

But the most valuable Nintendo games right now are not even the Nintendo first party well known franchises.  They are things that are numerically rarer and often characters that saw one or maybe two games total and then disappeared.  Was anyone a huge Little Samson fan back in the day?  Are the people offering $10K or more on this particular game really into the Flintstones or are they just trying to have bragging rights on a rare sealed NES game?  Nostalgia is a huge part of why people collect long term and having been involved in Atari collecting early on, I watched people spend ridiculous amounts of money on crappy games with zero nostalgia value and years later when they tried to sell, people just didn't care enough to pay what the games were going for a few years before.  It will happen with NES as well.     

Darth Vader and Boba fett aren't the most valuable Star Wars action figures either. They are figures that are numerically rarer and often characters that saw one or maybe two releases total and then disappeared. Was anyone a huge vinyl-caped jawa fan back in the day?

A young adult collecting comic books with disposable income doesn't tend to go after the books he grew up with. As far as longevity is concerned, there are emphatically more collectors of tin & cast-iron toys from the 1800s-1940s NOW than ever before and every single one of them I have met, was my age not to mention the prices have climbed steadily for 30+ years. What does nostalgia have to do with stamps or coins?

The fact is, collectors will collect. A company like Nintendo has proven staying power while Atari is practiced at failure. There shouldn't even be a comparison drawn between the two.

That's exactly my point.  People generally aren't paying thousands of dollars for first party Nintendo stuff with very limited exceptions (a few Black Box titles in super high grade perhaps).  I strongly disagree that people decide later in life to collect stuff they had zero connection to.  Most collectors try to get what they had as a child first and build from there.  I don't know anyone who sets out to collect stuff they have no connection to.

Yeah, I don't see why a rare (rarest?) sealed game for the most collected system would ever appreciate in value.

And what's the deal with people who collect classic works of art? I mean, clearly the current group grew up with Monets and Rembrandts hanging in their bedrooms, but once the nostalgic come and go, I see those prices plummeting too.

OK, forget I said Mario & Zelda. Replace those names with Mega Man and Castlevania. I never said anything about "first party", I'm referring to franchises that date back to the NES that are still prevelant today.

Kizuna Encounter and Ultimate 11 for the Neo-Geo. In 2008, the pair sold for $30k. A different pair sold for $55k in 2010. The next is expected at 60k+. The games suck and are so obscure that it's very likely nostalgia has nothing to do with the increased value. Are you happier with that comparison?

They are the grails of the system. Grails continue to climb. Just like Air Raid on the 2600. Just like Action Comics #1. Flintstones is a grail. Until several dozen turn up in collectors hands, 10k is peanuts as far as traditional collection "grails" are concerned.

You are comparing mass produced consumer products to completely unique items where only one original exists in the entire world.  Nobody is claiming your game isn't worth a lot of money right now or that you shouldn't try to get whatever you can for it.  Having said that, like all modern collectibles, there's no guarantee that it will be worth more five years from now or even five weeks from now.  Warehouses can be discovered, like the recent Venezuela warehouse find that knocked down the value of a number of later release Atari 2600 games to about 10% of what they were going for a year or two ago.  Similarly, people's tastes change.  I remember when independent comics and recent release comics were going for multiples of cover price weeks after release.  I remember when modern baseball cards were skyrocketing in value.  Most of that value is gone now and many 1980s and 90s comics and baseball cards are worth virtually nothing.  Bubbles happen in all markets and it's what happens when people get caught up in hype and the desire to compete with other collectors rather than taking a step back and thinking about whether any single modern mass produced collectible is really worth thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars.       

Wiz's mom is still worth a lot.

I grew up with SNES so I can give two shits for anything Atari related. And with that said, that is my point.

Value is what somebody is willing to pay. Kids (ages 10-13) growing up with PS3 or 360 realistically will not shell out big bucks for Nintendo NES stuff or Super Nintendo stuff.

Theres a cycle and we are at its peak.

No love yet from gamesniped, really hoped it would make it over there.

Limbo, could you help a brother out?

I disagree about the NES stuff dropping.

The reason why the Atari stuff "dropped" is because Atari is not viable in the industry anymore. Atari "boxed" games as a whole are still fetching a chunk of change, so I would not even say they have dropped completely, if anything the market matured towards complete in box games as opposed to loose carts.

With the NES, Nintendo is heavily promoted and new generations are being introduced to the NES all the time. With that you have parents into the NES introducing little ones to it, and this isn't even including the Wii Shop Channel. I mean, as long as Nintendo is viable, these games will be viable.

People can say things will "drop" but the NES market is far from it, especially with sealed games being such a premium now. I'm not sure 80 as a rating will hold true, but 85-90 ratings will.

Heck, I sold complete in box near mint black box NES games for a TON of money just in the past 12 months...there's more collectors for the NES now than ever...

oooh this is a surprise. dude with no awesome sealed games says dumb. dudes with awesome sealed games say smart...

me = couple awesome games = medium

btw I think my movie is great!

This was exactly my first thought when I looked at the auction. If you guys are thinking of keeping it though, I guess it really doesn't matter.

I hear you, but you have to keep in mind that there are what, a half dozen more known sealed Stadium Events than there are F2's? I'd be crazy to not test the waters deeper than $15k, especially since there is the best offer option.

As for keeping it, that's assuming we don't get a reasonable offer. We're certainly looking to sell if we can find a serious buyer.