I've always wanted one of the original wooden Ouija boards. There was an antique store near my old partment that had one in their front window, but I could never afford it at the time.

Sensei Terry Silver wrote:


This gives me an idea for a thread...

Sensei Terry Silver wrote:

I paid about $20 for mine at GameStop.

Hornet65 wrote:


Beyond Good & Evil: GameCube or PS2 version? GCN version is rather hard to find, and expensive. The PS2 version isn't as hard to find. The cheapest used GCN is $16. New starts at well over $60. The PS2 version is a LOT cheaper. Used at about $3, new starts about $21. The X-Box version is somewhere in between.

MegaMan X for the GCN is also very hard to find and expensive. Used on amazon will start at $38 and new starts at $104. Not rare?

As for Twilight Princess, used starts at $30 and new starts at about $65. The Wii version can be had for $15 new.

MGS is not available from GameStop online. Has not been for some time. At Amazon, the cheapest used copy is $30. "Collectible" starts at $44.50 and new starts at $100.

Path of Radiance starts at about $38 used. New is at least $95.

As for RE2 and RE3 for GCN, I got both from amazon.com for about $20@ about two years ago. You can still get RE3 for about $33 new.

I got questions!

Is the game rare because it's going for so much?

Is the game going for so much because it's rare or that it's just old and harder to find because it's old?
(I have a few PS1 and PS2 games that fall in the harder to find because it's old category)

Is the game going for so much because no one wants to part with their copy making it seem more rare then it really is?

Did the game just get a low initial print run and not sell well at first leaving company that put it out thinking it was not worth making anymore runs. Then some guy found out about it and it got a cult following and then others found out and wanted it?
(There have been a few cases this has gotten the manufacturer to do "limited" later runs.)

Did the game just not sell well leaving a ton on shelves until it was sold way cheap to people that did not know what they have eventually getting rid of it or leaving it to rot in a box someplace, to a wholesaler who forgot all about them to years later or simply trashed and written off? (You would be surprised how much stuff gets sent to the dump and then years later is considered the greatest thing since sliced bread.)

i used to have a copy of tengens tetris of nes, but i had to sell it.

psychopuppet wrote:


Rarity depends upon several factors. Most important is the number of produced copies. No virtual game can ever be rare, because copies be made at anytime. A port to a newer system is techinically a new game, since they usually make some changes to the game, such as better graphics and sound. I wouldn't consider Phantasy Star (SMS) and the Phantasy Star found on the Phantasy Star Collection (GBA) as being exactly the same game. The GBA is more powerful than the SNES and the SMS was about equal to the NES.
Availability is another factor. If most of the know copies are in private hands, they may simply not be available for latecomers to purchase. Ikaruga for the GCN is a prime example.
Durability of the medium is another factor.

NathimusPrime wrote:

That is a rare game. Less than 100,000 copies were ever made. It was one of the very few Tengen games that had the light gray NES-standard cartridge case (Gauntlet being another one), instead of the later black one they came up with for later games, like Vindicators.

To put that into perspective, the Nintendo Tetris release saw over 3 MILLION copies made. This does NOT count the GB and SNES versions. The GB version had over 6 MILLION copies, just counting the ones packaged with the GB (JP, US and EU), until the console-only 1993 packaging.

Ironically, E.T. for the Atari 2600 and 5200 are very rare. Over a million were made, but most were later destroyed and that left less than 50,000 in private hands. It ranks as one of the hardest-to-find Atari-made titles for either system.

Capt_Hitsugaiya wrote:

Why are you looking for "rare" games on Amazon? eBay is where you're going to find that kind of stuff. It's also where you're going to find real prices for these games.

I don't consider games that sell for $40 used to be rare. Also, any game that's old and still sealed (Brand New) is going to be a lot of money, because any game that's no longer sold in retail as "new" and is still sealed is going to be "rare".

There's a difference between rare, and popular. Just because a six year old game still goes for $30 used, doesn't make it rare, it just means it's a popular game, and people who know they have a popular game, are going to sell it for more than other games.

And just because it's a rare game doesn't mean it's worth a lot of money.

For example... E.T. for the Atari 2600 was a miserable failure. Any unsold copies of the game were allegedly crushed and buried. That seems like a rare game to me. However, I can go on eBay and buy a copy of it for $3. Some of them go all the way up to a whopping $25 if I want the box and instructions too.

You are not likely to find brand new copies of games at ebay, except under unusual circumstances.