• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

Heritage's Next Event Auction has started posting books !
31 31

Started by Gotham Kid,

7,854 posts in this topic

Bronty

Bronty

Posted
Posted (edited)
4 hours ago, tth2 said:

I agree with you, it's one thing to buy a double of a 10 cent or 12 cent book, even back in those days, and put it away without being read, and another thing completely to pay $50 in 1987 (which was a lot of money) for a game that would never be played.

So are these unopened games really games purchased by retail buyers who were wealthy and farsighted enough to buy them purely for collecting purposes?  Or are these the equivalent of file copies that were never sold but are coming out of unsold inventory, which is why they were never opened?   

And how do we know that they're not counterfeit, if they're not opened and played to check for authenticity?

There was for all intents and purposes literally zero kept sealed with forethought.    What happened is that from time to time a store would close down.   Whatever unsold inventory there was is all there is for sealed stock today.    As a result, titles from specific periods sealed (such as that 100k Mario) are impossible because when that game came out, it was the hottest toy around and that version only existed that way for a few months.    We can date the time of release surprisingly accurately for the changes in identifying marks on the box over time.    Asking for the ones from the very beginning of the sale period sealed is a monumental ask because there was no unsold inventory in that period, and as I’ve just described only unsold stock remains.

So... more like file copies, but not really because that’s unsold stock at the publisher level.   This is unsold stock at the retail level. 

As for counterfeiting, like everything, there are all kinds of tells.  I can explain more by pm if it interests you. 

Edited by Bronty
Link to comment
Share on other sites
GreatCaesarsGhost

GreatCaesarsGhost

Posted
Posted (edited)

Changing the subject a bit, did anyone watch the Heritage weekly auction? 
 

an Archie 1, blue label 3.0, went for only $20k, including buyer premium. Doesn’t that seem low? 
 

I think it’s low. With the other big auctions it must have just flown under the radar. 
 

or do you think it’s the dried glue?

 

https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/humor/archie-comics-1-archie-1942-cgc-gd-vg-30-off-white-to-white-pages/a/122007-15078.s

 

0871AC19-1050-47DC-AD83-BAA1FD8C646C.jpeg

Edited by GreatCaesarsGhost
Link to comment
Share on other sites
batman_fan

batman_fan

Posted
Posted
46 minutes ago, GreatCaesarsGhost said:

Changing the subject a bit, did anyone watch the Heritage weekly auction? 
 

an Archie 1, blue label 3.0, went for only $20k, including buyer premium. Doesn’t that seem low? 
 

I think it’s low. With the other big auctions it must have just flown under the radar. 
 

or do you think it’s the dried glue?

 

https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/humor/archie-comics-1-archie-1942-cgc-gd-vg-30-off-white-to-white-pages/a/122007-15078.s

 

0871AC19-1050-47DC-AD83-BAA1FD8C646C.jpeg

I will probably get slammed but from my observation Archies have slowed a bit.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
lou_fine

lou_fine

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, Gotham Kid said:
6 hours ago, batman_fan said:

I will probably get slammed but from my observation Archie #1 has slowed a bit.

Yes. Considerably.

I woud tend to agree with this sentiment as the Archie cycle is long in the tooth and on the down side of the curve after an rather extended period of very agressive upward price movements.  hm  (thumbsu

But probably not to the point of considerably.  (shrug)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
tth2

tth2

Posted
Posted (edited)
12 hours ago, Bronty said:

There was for all intents and purposes literally zero kept sealed with forethought.    What happened is that from time to time a store would close down.   Whatever unsold inventory there was is all there is for sealed stock today.    As a result, titles from specific periods sealed (such as that 100k Mario) are impossible because when that game came out, it was the hottest toy around and that version only existed that way for a few months.    We can date the time of release surprisingly accurately for the changes in identifying marks on the box over time.    Asking for the ones from the very beginning of the sale period sealed is a monumental ask because there was no unsold inventory in that period, and as I’ve just described only unsold stock remains.

So... more like file copies, but not really because that’s unsold stock at the publisher level.   This is unsold stock at the retail level. 

This would make it a lot less interesting to me as a collector, then.  This is not at all like comics purchased and stored unread by individuals such as Edgar Church who actually bought the comic and then miraculously survived the ravages of time.

This is more like Edgar's Electronics went out of business and a bunch of unliquidated inventory sat in a back room for years.  There's nothing miraculous, and there's no emotional element, about these games surviving in pristine sealed condition for all of these years (and it's really not that many years).  

Which is why in comic collecting, file copies aren't held in as high esteem as copies from a pedigree (all things being equal).   

 

Edited by tth2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
tth2

tth2

Posted
Posted
11 hours ago, Bronty said:

As for counterfeiting, like everything, there are all kinds of tells.  I can explain more by pm if it interests you

Nah, I have no interest in collecting these games.  I was just curious.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Bronty

Bronty

Posted
Posted (edited)
27 minutes ago, tth2 said:

Nah, I have no interest in collecting these games.  I was just curious.

And that’s why I didn’t want to get into it ;)   I didn’t want to type four pages about something I doubted you cared about in the first place.   A thoughtful answer to your question would have taken a lot of time.

Edited by Bronty
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Bronty

Bronty

Posted
Posted (edited)
34 minutes ago, tth2 said:

This would make it a lot less interesting to me as a collector, then.  This is not at all like comics purchased and stored unread by individuals such as Edgar Church who actually bought the comic and then miraculously survived the ravages of time.

This is more like Edgar's Electronics went out of business and a bunch of unliquidated inventory sat in a back room for years.  There's nothing miraculous, and there's no emotional element, about these games surviving in pristine sealed condition for all of these years (and it's really not that many years).  

Which is why in comic collecting, file copies aren't held in as high esteem as copies from a pedigree (all things being equal).   

 

That’s exactly what it’s like, but who gives a shyt?   You are deeming it less interesting because you aren’t interested in the first place.   To someone who wants a pristine copy, your logic doesn’t hold up or matter but that’s fine, it’s not for everybody.

As for miraculous or not, that depends on the time frame .   With some of them it really is miraculous (like the example  I outlined above where some games sold out immediately and were immediately changed yet somehow a couple early versions survived.    To your point that 100k Mario came from one of the only collections that came from someone who was already an adult collector then.   That shouldn’t have happened - in 20 years I’ve only heard of three collections like that; exceedingly scarce - but it did). 
 

The ones that needed divine intervention as far as NES titles  were the early and late releases.   The stuff in the middle, there were enough “Edgars Electronics” That they are uncommon but more available.   There were almost 800 titles over a ten year span.    Each one has a different rarity dynamic, but the basic swaths are early, middle, late.   Complicating that is that some (and only some) of the early titles remained in print for a long time, but the specific version in hand can be dated based on changes to the box over time.   So the rarity profile of a sealed “middle” era version of an early release is similar to other “middle” titles whereas the “early” version of the Early title is much, much more scarce . 
 

 

Edited by Bronty
Link to comment
Share on other sites
dem1138

dem1138

Posted
Posted

Given that this is the Heritage thread, I think this is the wrong place for this debate.  Could we move it somewhere else?  I have dabbled in graded games as well but have similar reservations as everyone else.  I think my overarching main concern is that it appears that the dealers are driving this market far more than the actual collectors.  Many major dealers seem to be getting involved/invested and are selling games but I hear little to no interest from actual collectors other than the cacophony of the same 5+ people on the Facebook Private Groups.  Comic books and other hobbies developed from enormous fandom that generated the market for dealers; here it appears that the dealers are generating the market for collectors who grew up (and still are) playing the games, but as a whole, don't care about the graded games at all.  I think a lot of people are sitting on the sidelines and think its a house of cards and given that most of the people promoting the market are the same people selling or have sold the games, reinforces these conclusions.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
lou_fine

lou_fine

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, tth2 said:
16 hours ago, Bronty said:

This is unsold stock at the retail level. 

This would make it a lot less interesting to me as a collector, then.  This is not at all like comics purchased and stored unread by individuals such as Edgar Church who actually bought the comic and then miraculously survived the ravages of time.

This is more like Edgar's Electronics went out of business and a bunch of unliquidated inventory sat in a back room for years.  There's nothing miraculous, and there's no emotional element, about these games surviving in pristine sealed condition for all of these years (and it's really not that many years).  

I would tend to agree with Tim's sentiment here after giving it some thought from a logical collector's point of view.  (thumbsu

To extend this same line of thinking a bit further, I would also see this Nintendo Play Station Super NES to be akin to the equivalent of an ashcan comic in our hobby place, since it is clearly nothing more than a prototype (mentioned several times in the auction description itself) and never meant for public sale.  hm

Link to comment
Share on other sites
lou_fine

lou_fine

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, dem1138 said:

Given that this is the Heritage thread, I think this is the wrong place for this debate.  Could we move it somewhere else?  I have dabbled in graded games as well but have similar reservations as everyone else.  I think my overarching main concern is that it appears that the dealers are driving this market far more than the actual collectors.  Many major dealers seem to be getting involved/invested and are selling games but I hear little to no interest from actual collectors other than the cacophony of the same 5+ people on the Facebook Private Groups. 

Not sure if this is the wrong place since it is a Heritage thread and Heritage are auctioning off these games in this current auction here.  (shrug)

Maybe these dealers are just ahead of the curve relative to the collectors in terms of the gaming market here.  Reminds me a bit about the first time I went down to a SD Con at the turn of the 90's and saw all of the old long term comic collectors like Geppi, Hamilton, and the likes all sitting around flipping OA pages to each other when they were going for relative peanuts.  Clearly a time when collectors were still not really into them, but just take a look at the OA market nowadays.  hm

Link to comment
Share on other sites
dem1138

dem1138

Posted
Posted
38 minutes ago, lou_fine said:

Not sure if this is the wrong place since it is a Heritage thread and Heritage are auctioning off these games in this current auction here.  (shrug)

Maybe these dealers are just ahead of the curve relative to the collectors in terms of the gaming market here.  Reminds me a bit about the first time I went down to a SD Con at the turn of the 90's and saw all of the old long term comic collectors like Geppi, Hamilton, and the likes all sitting around flipping OA pages to each other when they were going for relative peanuts.  Clearly a time when collectors were still not really into them, but just take a look at the OA market nowadays.  hm

As someone who has been ingrained in the OA hobby (and its history) for the last 15 years, I would say that the video game market does not resemble the origins of the OA hobby/market at all.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Bronty

Bronty

Posted
Posted (edited)
3 hours ago, dem1138 said:

Given that this is the Heritage thread, I think this is the wrong place for this debate.  Could we move it somewhere else?  I have dabbled in graded games as well but have similar reservations as everyone else.  I think my overarching main concern is that it appears that the dealers are driving this market far more than the actual collectors.  Many major dealers seem to be getting involved/invested and are selling games but I hear little to no interest from actual collectors other than the cacophony of the same 5+ people on the Facebook Private Groups.  Comic books and other hobbies developed from enormous fandom that generated the market for dealers; here it appears that the dealers are generating the market for collectors who grew up (and still are) playing the games, but as a whole, don't care about the graded games at all.  I think a lot of people are sitting on the sidelines and think its a house of cards and given that most of the people promoting the market are the same people selling or have sold the games, reinforces these conclusions.

Hey guys can we talk about something else ?    Followed by ‘let me tell you all about my opinion on it’ LOL :baiting:  

Edited by Bronty
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
31 31
Go to topic listing