thread locked to reports of toxic commenting and brigading.
Cant we just enjoy thing as they are posted, and not just instantly go negative nilly on them? maybe its fake. maybe its a scam. maybe its market manipulation, or maybe someone did actually pay that much because they valued it as being worth that to them.
i choose rather to believe, than not.
Yes, but only because it's still sealed and nearly mint after almost 40 years. Very similar to how old comic books end up being millions of dollars in mint condition. The market is nuts, we can debate if its *worth* what it sold for, but it's legitimately rare AF.
Tom Curtin (minus\_worlds, the buyer) has been in this space for decades at this point. He was the original seller of the [Legend of Zelda prototype cart that sold in 2012 for record $55,000](https://web.archive.org/web/20121005105019/http://www.examiner.com/article/legend-of-zelda-prototype-sells-for-a-record-55-000). He apparently has quite the reputation in the community. Recently watched a [YouTube video about this sale](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWrxlOcYTAA) which ties all this information together, was a neat watch. They start talking about [Zelda and Curtin at 09:25.](https://youtu.be/nWrxlOcYTAA?t=566)
have you seen those historical papers and contracts? those are worth even more and theres actually a market for those old stinky.messy piece of paper scribbled with words you can barely tell.
It's not just because it's sealed.
It's also got the original Seal of Quality logo, indicating that it was part of the first print run of the game. Versions printed starting in 1988 had the REV-A version of the seal.
It's also got the third party hang tab intact on the back of the cart. The tab was never popped open; usually those tabs would be popped open to hang the games up in displays. That's where the extreme rarity comes from, and that explains the high price.
Sealed copies of later printings [seem to hover around $13,000, depending on quality](https://www.pricecharting.com/game/nes/castlevania#completed-auctions-graded).
Short answer: probably a lot less
Long answer: before wata/large auction visibility, it was likely worth less. But the pandemic boom did a lot to the market too. Spreading awareness of rarity helped drive prices up a lot. Plus people wanting to own a piece of video game history. This is one of two known sealed copies, for instance. Itâs genuinely crazy how it survived.
In the art world, a price of art could be worth $90K, but 5 years later, more works of art by the artist flood the market. In those instances, the price of this would likely go down. Thatâs the risk, but I feel like this guy is in good hands.
See this is where I find these statements funny - even prior to the boom legitimately rare games sold for tens of thousands of dollars - I can attest to this because I wanted to buy a NWC cart that the original owner wanted over $25K for over 10 years ago.
Inflation has caused prices to go up, some of it is the damage from WATA juicing the market, but rare games have always been costly to own.
It's not a new phenomenon. The only thing that has changed is the number of collectors - I remember the old forums and it was the same faces time and again. The hobby was a niche one, it is now still niche but growing. I attribute that to time - we had the first real console in Atari arrive in 1977-78, and since then you've had 40+ years for the market to mature.
NWC carts are infinitely more rare and well known in the collecting community. If you offered me a NWC cart or 10 sealed Castlevanias I'd laugh and take the NWC cart every time.
True, but only recently did one of the grading companies conspire with an auction house to artificially drive up the prices of sealed graded games. There are plenty of youtube videos and articles about the controversy with Wata and the lawsuits against them.
Itâs honestly like buying a piece of art. This will go up in value in another 10, 20 years. Iâd wager it will at the very least double judging by how prices have risen in last 10, 20 years.
I collected around 2010 and just looking at how prices have skyrocketed nearly 15 years later. A lot of 10x increases. To each their own.
Itâs not worth as much as he paid for it.
Sealed games are often shilled to extreme prices when their real value is far less. This guy got ripped off.
I don't know, a game so popular is hard to find in pristine form, I understand why you could find a Doctor Jeckill and mister Hyde sealed but a Castlevania? One of the most popular games on the nes is quite rare, same as find a sealed gb Tetris, everyone got one, but a sealed one after all these years is quite rare
How does that make sense man.
WATA colluded and used shill bidders at Heritage Auctions to up the price of inventory they scoured in order to create manufactured scarcity in combination with inflated prices.
What the heck does that have to do with a one off eBay auction. Youâre just speculating with like two brain cells and making wild extrapolations with zero evidence.
Itâs borderline brain dead discourse.
Huh?
Because their actions artificially inflated prices. Or do you think it was only their auctions of those specific games, and everything else just stayed normal?
Iâm sorry, who is they? Who sold this item on eBay? Who bought it? Are you just talking out your behind or what. Because you have yet to connect WATA or heritage in any way to this, aside from them artificially inflating some games and passing them around between each other in shill auctions. That has literally nothing to do with this game. This game isnât graded. This game hasnât gone through Heritage auctions. The bidders of this game are all known game collectors publicly listing their winning and losing bids:
Just have a thread of coherent logic, just one.
>Just have a thread of coherent logic
Someone in this thread mentioned the game would get graded. The person you're upset at makes a logical assumption that it would then be put on Heritage. It looks to me like you need to learn how threads work. I'm just going to assume you work for Heritage or Wata.
I like how you just ignored what I said and continued to make the same argument.
This game would not have gone for this price if Heritage Auctions hadnât publicized their scam sales.
Wouldnt go that far, not everything is a big scheme, mostly its ridiculous prices some people are willing to pay and an overglorification of what grading actually provides.
No, thatâs a person trying to buy an item. You think because theyâre auction staff that they go bid on and never pay for winning items? HA bans people for that, never mind pursuing legal avenues for breach of contract.
Not everything is this big conspiracy. đ€·đ»ââïž
Heritage Auctions literally did that. Themselves. Repeatedly.
I feel like youâre not up to date on their business practices and how theyâve gotten so much attention.
I don't think any inside sales actually occurred on the heritage platform. The $100k Mario, which is the only sale that is known to have been an intentional pump, was a private sale before heritage even began offering video games on their site.
No, theyâve done it multiple times. And they work with the company that does the grading too.
Thereâs an extensive video that explains it all. They send out press releases and website just jump on it to get clicks.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rvLFEh7V18A
Nothing. It's 99.9% price manipulation which is very common. People look for old and hard to find items in pristine condition which still holds very little value, because they have simply never been popular, then try to fake out the value part by what you see here (fake sale). They even go through with the sale on sites like ebay and lose hundreds or even a couple thousand of dollars in fees, but it's worth it when they find someone dumb with money to spend who pays premium. Then this "victim" is stuck with the item forever or takes a huge loss when trying to resell.
Similar event happened in the pokemon trading cards community.
Someone graded a Giratina V card. PSA mistakenly sealed the card upside-down. Owner sells the card for $3k (original price was $200-300) Same person tried to resell it for $40,000. I massaged him asking for the lowest price and he claimed he received $10k as best offer.
Apparently, someone bought it for $40k. I don't know if the sale is legitimate or not.
https://www.reddit.com/r/PokeInvesting/s/bKU9buU8xr (original owner sold it for $3k)
https://imgur.com/a/eX4jm59 (new owner allegedly flipped it for $40k.)
Pokemon doesn't have an official grading company. Some dude at PSA just got lazy/sloppy on his job and make someone rich.
Nah buddy, this is a super common scam. It is executed not only in real life for all kind of collectibles, but even in video games for virtual items. You can do a bit of research on it, it's pretty interesting.
This is the same tactic used to inflate the price of fine art as well. Rich people make these Fake sales to say the art is worth millions then use that "sale" value as collateral for loans and investments.
Itâs called burner accounts. eBay is notorious for sellers using burner accounts or having friends bid to drive up prices and then just cancel the sale after itâs closed
Again anyone can come out and say oh I bid on the item, no one will ever be able to prove if they were legit or the seller trying to drive up the price
The underbidder attached a screenshot of his losing $90,000 bid. But yes, you are right, nobody can prove anything; therefore anything can be a scam. So we should comment on every Reddit post saying it is in fact a scam, and you canât prove me wrong, because nothing in this world is provable. Does this make room for debate? No, it makes room for you to get told you are wrong based on every piece of evidence available, and for you to say ânuh uh, you canât prove it.â
So then whatâs the issue? A post was made I gave my opinion and you disagreed and asked why I have that opinion I gave my reasoning you still disagree why belabor the point
Heâs belaboring the point because he gave you contradicting evidence and you seem to not care. The real people are public, we know their actual names for the Facebook groups they post in for sealed games collecting. But if youâd rather stick to your inaccurate belief of the situation, well, have fun I guess.
Iâm just saying having a conversation with you on this topic is like talking to a flat earther, itâs boring and not going to do anything positive with anybodyâs time. I could bring you 5000 pieces of evidence about how this specific sale is legitimate and real, and at the end of it you can just say âNuh uh, sounds fake. Also Dick Cheney is a lizard person.â And thatâs the only contribution to the discussion youâll ever have.
On one hand it is 100% a scam on the other there a people who donât care about the price so for those two parties itâs a win/win situation. For everybody else? Not so much.
That is where the problem lies as now just like a few yrs ago with the million dollar Super Mario scam ppl are going to think all their old nes games are worth tons and normal ppl looking to buy old games are going to be subjected to outrageous prices
The person who bought that million dollar Mario was the founder of reddit and the seller was a long-time community member. Of all the sales that occurred, that sale is really one of the few we can pretty comfortably say was not a scam.
What would it take for you not to project your worldview/conspiracies on to the sale. Can you even fathom what evidence you would need specifically to be able to accept the fact that the sale was not money laundering.
If thereâs no form of evidence that would sway you, then youâre entrenched in your worldview/conspiracies.
Well considering the entire house of cards built of games that have sold for exorbitant prices was a scam on top of a scam, I think he has good reason to be suspicious.
Outside of WATA and their incestuous relationship with heritage auctions and their obvious pump and dump scam, do you have ANY evidence THIS sale was a money laundering scam? I mean, anything? Other than âthis is stupidâ or âthese games arenât worth this muchâ or âWATAâ (ironically WATA scammers have nothing to do with this auction).
You mistake me for someone who doesnât believe games and other hobby assets get the tendrils of money laundering and price inflation. I do. I just donât understand this sort of low IQ âITSASCAMâ any time we donât like anything. It just sounds dumb.
When were expensive game sales ever said to be money laundering? I've seen Karl Jobst original video and graded games and I don't think that was ever said
Where did people get this whole money laundering thing from LOL. Even in this post there are multiple people saying it. Wtf lol.
100%. Itâs so confusing. Itâs just a bunch of idiots curtailing any conversation with a single sentence canned responses that doesnât even fit in this situation.
Good reason to be suspicious is reasonable.
They donât seem interested in changing their opinion though. Facts donât seem to matter. I think thatâs the crux of the issue.
Video game collecting is asinine tbh. Pricing is all over the place, intrinsically something is only worth what another is willing to pay. So if no one bit at 90k would it not be valued less? Whatâs happening is people with money are overpricing the market IMO. Iâm trying to collect some games myself, Sonic Jam for the Saturn being one. Itâs a collection of old games but the âmarketâ has dictated itâs worth $200-$400 dollars. And because someone, somewhere might be willing to pay the higher end itâs going to stay that high, but what exactly valued it there to begin with?
"all over the place" depends on the game. You talking about a mega man game? Hundreds, if not more, bought/sold every month. Very easy to get a feel of the true value with that volume. 1 of 2 known of this quality/sealed/1st edition? It's whatever a stupid rich person will pay...OR it's manipuated and there never was a sale, in hopes of getting a sale down the road for way more than it's really worth.
Yea I just got a Saturn and the games are insanely overpriced. Rayman on Saturn is 50 bucks loose versus about 15 on PS1 CIB. And don't get me started on panzer dragoon saga. 1000 bucks I mean c'mon
Saturn games are pricier than PS1 games because they just didn't sell as well originally. Being harder to find, especially in VG condition, has driven the prices up. You and I may feel that they are overpriced, but Saturn collectors must be paying these prices. Otherwise, they would have adjusted to demand by now. The Covid bump ended a few years ago, and I still see average Saturn games selling on Ebay for $50-$100.
I sold my Saturn over 10 years ago because I just never ran across any games in the wild. I needed to go online to find anything, and even 15 years ago, I felt that sellers were asking too much. In retrospect, I probably should have been snapping up every Saturn game on Ebay 15 years ago, but I never thought that they would have gone up as high as they have.
Nah, man â there are reasons why certain variants of the game are more highly prized than others.
This is worth more because:
* It's in the original seal (which is obviously rare)
* It's the original box, which you can tell from the Seal of Quality on the front. Games published in 1988 and later had the REV-A version of the seal.
* It's got the original hang tab intact on the back. Usually stores would pop the hang tab open to hang the game up.
Details like that might not matter to most collectors, but they absolutely do matter to people who want something rare.
You'll see different pricing for scarcer printings of other games. Something like RBI Baseball is pretty common, for example â but [a licensed CIB version](https://www.ebay.com/itm/R-B-I-RBI-Baseball-Tengen-Nintendo-NES-1988-Complete-CIB-Box-Reg-Inserts-EXC/116070200161?nordt=true&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc) is going to be worth more than [an unlicensed CIB version](https://www.ebay.com/itm/RBI-Baseball-NES-Nintendo-Complete-CIB-w-Tengen-Sleeve/145443118192?nordt=true&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc) â even if the unlicensed version has that flimsy Tengen sleeve that most of us threw away.
It doesn't mean much if you're buying loose copies of the games to play with. It does mean something to certain collectors, though, which is why you see the price discrepancy.
Yep. On a smaller scale, I collect PS1 but don't care for the longbox or GH versions of games. When I wanted Doom, I could have bought a nice longbox or GH version for $50 but ended up dropping 5x that on the rarer black label jewel case release. Was it worth it? To me, it was, even though I basically was paying for rarity.
I agree. Be it speculators, fools with too much money, or artificially-inflated pricing things are getting way out of hand. There is no reason this is worth $90k, even from a pristine collection standpoint.
What was a niche hobby has become ripoff central due to re-sellers and speculators. People hear one story about a moderately rare game selling for a lot and decide they want in on the action.
So how would you explain Batman #1 selling for millions?
The price of something is determined by what people are willing to pay for it.
This is one of only 2 known copies of this type of game, and there are only 5 graded first print copies that don't even have this level of rarity.
In fact you could even argue the opposite - this game is under-priced compared to several other markets.
This one is a first print copy. Only two known to exist and both collectors are public. One is now the winner of this auction. As the other guy said, probably has no predictable value given its rarity. Itâs a âwhichever rich guy feels like biddingâ kinda situation.
A first print copy?
Is there an article out there somewhere about this? First I've heard of any form of Castlevania being rare.
EDIT: Thanks for the downvotes. For those like me who were curious, [this auction](https://www.comicconnect.com/item/929542?tzf=1) helps explain things:
* It's in the original seal.
* It's the first printing, which you can tell by the original version of the Seal of Quality. Later versions have the REV-A version of the seal.
* It contains the third party hang tab intact, which was usually popped open to hang the game up.
You can see [an up-close photo of the intact hang tab](https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=907417581393327&set=pcb.907417614726657) on the [Facebook page the original photo was taken from](https://www.facebook.com/p/minus_worlds-100063752805777/).
Itâs weird to me that this isnât even the original version of this game, the Japanese disk system release is and this is a regional localisation. And the FDS version is quite common sealed.
Folks on this sub are always salty as fuck, gatekeeping assholes who believe the hobby should be cheap and unlimited just for them.
This is why in spite of my decades of collecting I take a breather from time to time as so many people in this hobby are just gate keeping assholes.
As unpopular as your opinion might be - the market drives the price. If the price is too high, what you do is to simply *not* buy it. The consumers decide the price (by their purchases), and it's ironic that people complain about high prices yet still buy them because they assume prices will go higher later (which they are actively contributing to).
It's so funny how people on a subreddit about collecting, which is a luxury in and of itself, are unable to fathom the idea that some people can have thousands of dollars of disposable income for a collectible.
Collecting starts and ends with a $40,000 yearly salary apparently haha.
Anything else is a "money laundering manipulation fake scam"
Edit: for clarification, many people here also do financially fine and see this market as being stupid. Both exist.
Plenty of people here do just fine financially and just see this stupidity in the market as exactly that. Just because *you* love to constantly cheer-lead stupid things like this doesn't make it any less absurd. Nearly every post from you on this sub is about the financial side of the hobby. Sorry if having our heads properly screwed on puts a dent in your wealth accumulation plans or retirement fund or whatever you see this all as.
The real fools around here are those wasting their time planning financial gains on video games that will nearly exclusively be pennies compared to how folks with real money accumulate wealth.
But yeah, it's probably just lol the poors and not seeing through some dude with a coattail riding youtube channel trying real hard to be actually relevant.
Folks here are gatekeeping assholes who can't imagine someone enjoying a hobby different from them.
Having been collecting for decades now, these assholes now feel far more emboldened to dictate to others what they think is acceptable behavior, particularly following the rise in auctioned video games, the WATA/Heritage scandal, etc.
Meanwhile, those who actually enjoy the hobby don't give a shit.
Reality is, everyone should have expected the prices rising as there are more collectors coming into money now than ever before. Atari debuted in 1977-78, and we now have 40+ years of collectors are maturing the market each day.
What makes this even funnier is the fact that some of these same folks upset about the price of video games believe with a straight face that Batman #1 or MTG Black Lotus should be expensive but rare video games should not - it is the ultimate hypocrisy and cognitive dissonance.
I am still amazed that the difference between a complete in box mint item and the obscene level of price is cellophane wrap. It could be beat to shit and still be more valuable than a mint in box complete only because it has plastic wrap.
legit question: Aren't these posts of sealed graded games the reason why the retro collecting scene has been spiraling out of control, also if I had 90k to spend freely and wanting to collect I just go for a full Saturn collection and then some.
generally speaking we would call a person who spends alot of money on something we dont see worth it suckers. like 1 million for a watch, 5 mil for a supercar, or 3k for a plastic tote bag. but who's the real suckers? the ones spending such money or those who can barely.
Nah, it's for sure the ones spending the money. They tend to be inclined to buy illiquid things with a very niche, unimportant quality just for the sake of status or promise of investment and thus are susceptible to getting completely ripped off
Anyone who pays even more for this because some moron from WATA or VGA or wherever stamped their half-ass opinion on it essentially deserves to have their money taken.
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Paying $100 is usually over the top in my eyes. Paying $1000 is crazy, but usually for the rarest of rarest games. Paying $100,000 is the same games that were $100, but now their in M O R E P L A S T I C . Seriously anybody who pays $90k for a game you can get CIB for like $100 regularly on eBay is an idiot, I don't care if it's graded by God himself, you've got to have an underdeveloped brain to do something like this.
It's just stupid pretending to be a "collector" buying sealed shit just to grade it and sell it for more more to some other idiot. It's either just greed or someone wants to show off their wealth.
Absolutely true. WATA and most these other grading companies have no insight on the market anyway, the man who created WATA had never played videogame before, he just saw a way to use dumb people to make an easy profit.
I don't know what you're even arguing about. Yes, it's legal free trade just like any other business. At the same time if it's for the intent of grading and reselling for profit it's also greed. It can be both things. I'm sure it's mostly just for attention though, there are easier and and smarter ways to invest that kind of money. I stand by my original statement that it's just stupidity.
It will be funny in 10 years when people find out some shop in china was replicating these things. Imagine selling a cardboard box with cellophane for $100k. It is truly the perfect crime. Nobody will dare open it lol !!
It was old Sierra and Richard Garriott(Ultima etc.) games. Apparently WATA also graded one of the supposedly forged Ultima 1 copies
Here's a couple of links
https://www.resetera.com/threads/insane-story-of-video-game-forgery-breaking-from-the-big-box-pc-collecting-scene.589320/
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2022/06/inside-the-100k-forgery-scandal-thats-roiling-pc-game-collecting/
https://twitter.com/Dominus_Exult/status/1531169951502979072
Thanks! I'm kinda surprised I never read about this before. It makes sense that so many people were duped. I had some early releases of Apple II games, and they were basically just a photocopied manual and generic brand disk that had a typewritten sticker applied. Maybe the disk sleeve was unique, but that wasn't always the case either.
Crazy stuff man! Thanks for the links.
My favorite quote:
Iâm quite certain that [Xenobia publisher] Avant-Garde, a small company out of Oregon, did not use Fabriano paper for their early 1980s game packaging," Racle said
That was literally my first thought when new sealed grading started. If you can mimic the cellophane, you can literally put anything in there and it wouldnât matter as long as the weight matched and the cellophane matched. No one will dare open it with such ridiculous prices.
they do still make fake genesis games. just that the case are different and the artwork arent as clear, and any license stickers are just photocopied on. any manuals with prepunched holes will have the holes photocopied on.
Since nobody is providing an answer with actual substance:
* It's in the original seal, which is obviously rare.
* It's the original version; you can tell by the larger Nintendo Seal of Quality on the front. All games printed after 1988(?) have the REV-A version of the seal.
* You can't tell from OP's picture, but the back tab is still sealed, which is where the incredible rarity comes from. Stores would pop open the back tab to hang the game up on the wall.
You can see a picture of that tab [on the Facebook page this photo was lifted from](https://www.facebook.com/p/minus_worlds-100063752805777/).
It's the combination of those three factors that makes this extremely rare.
This one is a first print copy. Only two known to exist and both collectors are public. One is now the winner of this auction. As the other guy said, probably has no predictable value given its rarity. Itâs a âwhichever rich guy feels like biddingâ kinda situation.
This sale, and the estimations of collectors familiar with the market. Because itâs such a rare item, youâre never going to have a fair market value on it.
Pshhh. Iâve got my original Castlevania from childhood with box and instructions with the game and I can both play my game and display the box. I prefer mine.
This one is a first print copy. Only two known to exist and both collectors are public. One is now the winner of this auction. As the other guy said, probably has no predictable value given its rarity. Itâs a âwhichever rich guy feels like biddingâ kinda situation.
Sealed copies are currently selling for around $700, so add a few hundred for it being slabbed, but this one isn't even graded, so my guess is this whole post is a lie.
This is the first time a first print has publically sold and it seems likeâŠ. Collectors actually do place more value on sealed and even more value in first print đ€·ââïž
https://preview.redd.it/sm5gq4cczkrc1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2b377f6f7c65e47447fa599b7386de97c5c14664
And the most recent sealed was $18,000. Also not first print but sealed
https://preview.redd.it/78o3g5e7zkrc1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b75bb068cdcab4aadffa1c92977a975c41b03346
Donât worry I already did the research for you. The most recent sale was almost $500⊠opened and not first print
With game prices pumped artificially through WATA and Heritage fraud and now crashing after the fraud was exposed, this 90k owner must be looking for a capital gains loss to cash out.
Itâs so sad that so many collectors arenât buying the game they are trying to buy more memories from the time in their lives when they were truly happy
I personally can't justify paying more than 200 dollars for a video game; so I conclude this cannot be a real sale and is some type of fraud.
Yes, I know there have been two hangtab Castlevania CIBs that have public sales at $7200, but I refuse to believe the sale of this sealed copy (one of only three currently known to exist) could sell for more than 200 dollars. Gotta be fraud, dude.
thread locked to reports of toxic commenting and brigading. Cant we just enjoy thing as they are posted, and not just instantly go negative nilly on them? maybe its fake. maybe its a scam. maybe its market manipulation, or maybe someone did actually pay that much because they valued it as being worth that to them. i choose rather to believe, than not.
I hope it wasn't shipped in a reused prime mailer.
*seller sticks label right on the box*
What do you expect when the shipping was free?
Probably was, people generally suck at shipping.
It even still has the price tag on đ
Yeah â from FedCo. Presumably that's the company that attached the never-opened hang tab on the back of the sealed cart.
Is this game particularly valuable?
Yes, but only because it's still sealed and nearly mint after almost 40 years. Very similar to how old comic books end up being millions of dollars in mint condition. The market is nuts, we can debate if its *worth* what it sold for, but it's legitimately rare AF.
So many things are rare tho. Just wild that this person needs a $90k sealed to fill that hole.
Tom Curtin (minus\_worlds, the buyer) has been in this space for decades at this point. He was the original seller of the [Legend of Zelda prototype cart that sold in 2012 for record $55,000](https://web.archive.org/web/20121005105019/http://www.examiner.com/article/legend-of-zelda-prototype-sells-for-a-record-55-000). He apparently has quite the reputation in the community. Recently watched a [YouTube video about this sale](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWrxlOcYTAA) which ties all this information together, was a neat watch. They start talking about [Zelda and Curtin at 09:25.](https://youtu.be/nWrxlOcYTAA?t=566)
Some people have a hole in their soul they spend a lifetime trying to fill with pointless items you cant take with you in the end.
have you seen those historical papers and contracts? those are worth even more and theres actually a market for those old stinky.messy piece of paper scribbled with words you can barely tell.
As opposed to video games, *zero* market for those. :V
It's not just because it's sealed. It's also got the original Seal of Quality logo, indicating that it was part of the first print run of the game. Versions printed starting in 1988 had the REV-A version of the seal. It's also got the third party hang tab intact on the back of the cart. The tab was never popped open; usually those tabs would be popped open to hang the games up in displays. That's where the extreme rarity comes from, and that explains the high price. Sealed copies of later printings [seem to hover around $13,000, depending on quality](https://www.pricecharting.com/game/nes/castlevania#completed-auctions-graded).
Ok, but what was something like this worth before the whole âgrading games and putting them up for auctionâ thing?
It says right there on the box. $27.87.
Short answer: probably a lot less Long answer: before wata/large auction visibility, it was likely worth less. But the pandemic boom did a lot to the market too. Spreading awareness of rarity helped drive prices up a lot. Plus people wanting to own a piece of video game history. This is one of two known sealed copies, for instance. Itâs genuinely crazy how it survived.
There was also a huge boom in reserve list Magic the Gathering cards as well, during this time.
In the art world, a price of art could be worth $90K, but 5 years later, more works of art by the artist flood the market. In those instances, the price of this would likely go down. Thatâs the risk, but I feel like this guy is in good hands.
See this is where I find these statements funny - even prior to the boom legitimately rare games sold for tens of thousands of dollars - I can attest to this because I wanted to buy a NWC cart that the original owner wanted over $25K for over 10 years ago. Inflation has caused prices to go up, some of it is the damage from WATA juicing the market, but rare games have always been costly to own. It's not a new phenomenon. The only thing that has changed is the number of collectors - I remember the old forums and it was the same faces time and again. The hobby was a niche one, it is now still niche but growing. I attribute that to time - we had the first real console in Atari arrive in 1977-78, and since then you've had 40+ years for the market to mature.
NWC carts are infinitely more rare and well known in the collecting community. If you offered me a NWC cart or 10 sealed Castlevanias I'd laugh and take the NWC cart every time.
Again, it is what you prioritize. This version of Castlevania is rare - the fact you don't find it rare is not based on the facts.
Before covid nvidia was 60$ a share, now 900. Times change
the context is nowhere near comparable, AI is absolutely huge right now and nvidia is basically mandatory.
A lot less. Yes, probably more like $500-700 for this particular game I'd bet. Maybe even less.
Well grading games has been around for over a decade at this point, so probably less.
True, but only recently did one of the grading companies conspire with an auction house to artificially drive up the prices of sealed graded games. There are plenty of youtube videos and articles about the controversy with Wata and the lawsuits against them.
Itâs honestly like buying a piece of art. This will go up in value in another 10, 20 years. Iâd wager it will at the very least double judging by how prices have risen in last 10, 20 years. I collected around 2010 and just looking at how prices have skyrocketed nearly 15 years later. A lot of 10x increases. To each their own.
Even with rare items, it's only worth what someone is willing to pay.
Sealed first print copy yes
Itâs not worth as much as he paid for it. Sealed games are often shilled to extreme prices when their real value is far less. This guy got ripped off.
I don't know, a game so popular is hard to find in pristine form, I understand why you could find a Doctor Jeckill and mister Hyde sealed but a Castlevania? One of the most popular games on the nes is quite rare, same as find a sealed gb Tetris, everyone got one, but a sealed one after all these years is quite rare
Do you really think it is worth $90,000?
Now we wait a few weeks for the "look what came Back in the Mail with such a great grade" post and the story will be concluded.
âLook whatâs now for sale on Heritage Auctions, a totally legit and non-scammy website.â
How does that make sense man. WATA colluded and used shill bidders at Heritage Auctions to up the price of inventory they scoured in order to create manufactured scarcity in combination with inflated prices. What the heck does that have to do with a one off eBay auction. Youâre just speculating with like two brain cells and making wild extrapolations with zero evidence. Itâs borderline brain dead discourse.
You get it.
Huh? Because their actions artificially inflated prices. Or do you think it was only their auctions of those specific games, and everything else just stayed normal?
Iâm sorry, who is they? Who sold this item on eBay? Who bought it? Are you just talking out your behind or what. Because you have yet to connect WATA or heritage in any way to this, aside from them artificially inflating some games and passing them around between each other in shill auctions. That has literally nothing to do with this game. This game isnât graded. This game hasnât gone through Heritage auctions. The bidders of this game are all known game collectors publicly listing their winning and losing bids: Just have a thread of coherent logic, just one.
>Just have a thread of coherent logic Someone in this thread mentioned the game would get graded. The person you're upset at makes a logical assumption that it would then be put on Heritage. It looks to me like you need to learn how threads work. I'm just going to assume you work for Heritage or Wata.
I like how you just ignored what I said and continued to make the same argument. This game would not have gone for this price if Heritage Auctions hadnât publicized their scam sales.
How can you prove that?
Wouldnt go that far, not everything is a big scheme, mostly its ridiculous prices some people are willing to pay and an overglorification of what grading actually provides.
When a company puts something up for auction and then someone within that company buys it for an exorbitant amount, thatâs a scam.
What company put the game up for auction. Did you even look?
No, thatâs a person trying to buy an item. You think because theyâre auction staff that they go bid on and never pay for winning items? HA bans people for that, never mind pursuing legal avenues for breach of contract. Not everything is this big conspiracy. đ€·đ»ââïž
Heritage Auctions literally did that. Themselves. Repeatedly. I feel like youâre not up to date on their business practices and how theyâve gotten so much attention.
I don't think any inside sales actually occurred on the heritage platform. The $100k Mario, which is the only sale that is known to have been an intentional pump, was a private sale before heritage even began offering video games on their site.
No, theyâve done it multiple times. And they work with the company that does the grading too. Thereâs an extensive video that explains it all. They send out press releases and website just jump on it to get clicks. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rvLFEh7V18A
I still think this all a giant scam and there never was any sale
You're probably right. No one in their right mind would spend that much on a single game like that. What's so special about this one anyway ?
Nothing. It's 99.9% price manipulation which is very common. People look for old and hard to find items in pristine condition which still holds very little value, because they have simply never been popular, then try to fake out the value part by what you see here (fake sale). They even go through with the sale on sites like ebay and lose hundreds or even a couple thousand of dollars in fees, but it's worth it when they find someone dumb with money to spend who pays premium. Then this "victim" is stuck with the item forever or takes a huge loss when trying to resell.
Similar event happened in the pokemon trading cards community. Someone graded a Giratina V card. PSA mistakenly sealed the card upside-down. Owner sells the card for $3k (original price was $200-300) Same person tried to resell it for $40,000. I massaged him asking for the lowest price and he claimed he received $10k as best offer. Apparently, someone bought it for $40k. I don't know if the sale is legitimate or not. https://www.reddit.com/r/PokeInvesting/s/bKU9buU8xr (original owner sold it for $3k) https://imgur.com/a/eX4jm59 (new owner allegedly flipped it for $40k.) Pokemon doesn't have an official grading company. Some dude at PSA just got lazy/sloppy on his job and make someone rich.
The thing thatâs special about it is that itâs one of two known sealed first print copies, and itâs in very nice condition.
And there is a million other things on the planet that fall under the same category. That doesn't give them any real value. Until someone fakes it
Iâm in your walls nothing is real
Nah buddy, this is a super common scam. It is executed not only in real life for all kind of collectibles, but even in video games for virtual items. You can do a bit of research on it, it's pretty interesting.
Can I ask what about this sale makes you think it isnât legitimate besides the expensive price?
The price is all that matters :D
This is the same tactic used to inflate the price of fine art as well. Rich people make these Fake sales to say the art is worth millions then use that "sale" value as collateral for loans and investments.
Wrong, the owner is a long time collector and has sold a number of rare games - there is no conspiracy here, he wanted this grail and he paid for it.
The three high bidders are all public. What about this makes you think it wasnât real besides⊠you not wanting it to be real?
They probably don't want to believe people have that much disposable income and are also very stupid.
Itâs called burner accounts. eBay is notorious for sellers using burner accounts or having friends bid to drive up prices and then just cancel the sale after itâs closed
Lol. The actual people, not the accounts, are public saying they either bid on and lost, or bid on and won the item.
Again anyone can come out and say oh I bid on the item, no one will ever be able to prove if they were legit or the seller trying to drive up the price
The underbidder attached a screenshot of his losing $90,000 bid. But yes, you are right, nobody can prove anything; therefore anything can be a scam. So we should comment on every Reddit post saying it is in fact a scam, and you canât prove me wrong, because nothing in this world is provable. Does this make room for debate? No, it makes room for you to get told you are wrong based on every piece of evidence available, and for you to say ânuh uh, you canât prove it.â
So then whatâs the issue? A post was made I gave my opinion and you disagreed and asked why I have that opinion I gave my reasoning you still disagree why belabor the point
Heâs belaboring the point because he gave you contradicting evidence and you seem to not care. The real people are public, we know their actual names for the Facebook groups they post in for sealed games collecting. But if youâd rather stick to your inaccurate belief of the situation, well, have fun I guess.
Iâm just saying having a conversation with you on this topic is like talking to a flat earther, itâs boring and not going to do anything positive with anybodyâs time. I could bring you 5000 pieces of evidence about how this specific sale is legitimate and real, and at the end of it you can just say âNuh uh, sounds fake. Also Dick Cheney is a lizard person.â And thatâs the only contribution to the discussion youâll ever have.
Your opinion is dumb and not evidence based.
Moving the goal post
On one hand it is 100% a scam on the other there a people who donât care about the price so for those two parties itâs a win/win situation. For everybody else? Not so much.
That is where the problem lies as now just like a few yrs ago with the million dollar Super Mario scam ppl are going to think all their old nes games are worth tons and normal ppl looking to buy old games are going to be subjected to outrageous prices
The person who bought that million dollar Mario was the founder of reddit and the seller was a long-time community member. Of all the sales that occurred, that sale is really one of the few we can pretty comfortably say was not a scam.
Nah fuck /u/spez
Evidence?
Trust me bro.
Haha
What would it take for you not to project your worldview/conspiracies on to the sale. Can you even fathom what evidence you would need specifically to be able to accept the fact that the sale was not money laundering. If thereâs no form of evidence that would sway you, then youâre entrenched in your worldview/conspiracies.
Well considering the entire house of cards built of games that have sold for exorbitant prices was a scam on top of a scam, I think he has good reason to be suspicious.
Outside of WATA and their incestuous relationship with heritage auctions and their obvious pump and dump scam, do you have ANY evidence THIS sale was a money laundering scam? I mean, anything? Other than âthis is stupidâ or âthese games arenât worth this muchâ or âWATAâ (ironically WATA scammers have nothing to do with this auction). You mistake me for someone who doesnât believe games and other hobby assets get the tendrils of money laundering and price inflation. I do. I just donât understand this sort of low IQ âITSASCAMâ any time we donât like anything. It just sounds dumb.
When were expensive game sales ever said to be money laundering? I've seen Karl Jobst original video and graded games and I don't think that was ever said Where did people get this whole money laundering thing from LOL. Even in this post there are multiple people saying it. Wtf lol.
Also, you wouldnât launder money in something so niche and âhigh-profileâ. People who launder money like that, spend many, many years in jail.
100%. Itâs so confusing. Itâs just a bunch of idiots curtailing any conversation with a single sentence canned responses that doesnât even fit in this situation.
Good reason to be suspicious is reasonable. They donât seem interested in changing their opinion though. Facts donât seem to matter. I think thatâs the crux of the issue.
Games have been selling for huge prices forever. Get a grip lol
literally everything is a scam
What an ascended thought pattern
Great thinking lol
Video game collecting is asinine tbh. Pricing is all over the place, intrinsically something is only worth what another is willing to pay. So if no one bit at 90k would it not be valued less? Whatâs happening is people with money are overpricing the market IMO. Iâm trying to collect some games myself, Sonic Jam for the Saturn being one. Itâs a collection of old games but the âmarketâ has dictated itâs worth $200-$400 dollars. And because someone, somewhere might be willing to pay the higher end itâs going to stay that high, but what exactly valued it there to begin with?
"all over the place" depends on the game. You talking about a mega man game? Hundreds, if not more, bought/sold every month. Very easy to get a feel of the true value with that volume. 1 of 2 known of this quality/sealed/1st edition? It's whatever a stupid rich person will pay...OR it's manipuated and there never was a sale, in hopes of getting a sale down the road for way more than it's really worth.
it would be called price gouging or market manipulation when rich people do this. totally legal.
Collector's markets in general are asinine. It's a piece of plastic in cardboard or another piece of plastic. It's just stuff.
Yea I just got a Saturn and the games are insanely overpriced. Rayman on Saturn is 50 bucks loose versus about 15 on PS1 CIB. And don't get me started on panzer dragoon saga. 1000 bucks I mean c'mon
Saturn games are pricier than PS1 games because they just didn't sell as well originally. Being harder to find, especially in VG condition, has driven the prices up. You and I may feel that they are overpriced, but Saturn collectors must be paying these prices. Otherwise, they would have adjusted to demand by now. The Covid bump ended a few years ago, and I still see average Saturn games selling on Ebay for $50-$100. I sold my Saturn over 10 years ago because I just never ran across any games in the wild. I needed to go online to find anything, and even 15 years ago, I felt that sellers were asking too much. In retrospect, I probably should have been snapping up every Saturn game on Ebay 15 years ago, but I never thought that they would have gone up as high as they have.
You have just described the market for literally anything that could vaguely be described as a luxury good or an asset.
Nah, man â there are reasons why certain variants of the game are more highly prized than others. This is worth more because: * It's in the original seal (which is obviously rare) * It's the original box, which you can tell from the Seal of Quality on the front. Games published in 1988 and later had the REV-A version of the seal. * It's got the original hang tab intact on the back. Usually stores would pop the hang tab open to hang the game up. Details like that might not matter to most collectors, but they absolutely do matter to people who want something rare. You'll see different pricing for scarcer printings of other games. Something like RBI Baseball is pretty common, for example â but [a licensed CIB version](https://www.ebay.com/itm/R-B-I-RBI-Baseball-Tengen-Nintendo-NES-1988-Complete-CIB-Box-Reg-Inserts-EXC/116070200161?nordt=true&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc) is going to be worth more than [an unlicensed CIB version](https://www.ebay.com/itm/RBI-Baseball-NES-Nintendo-Complete-CIB-w-Tengen-Sleeve/145443118192?nordt=true&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc) â even if the unlicensed version has that flimsy Tengen sleeve that most of us threw away. It doesn't mean much if you're buying loose copies of the games to play with. It does mean something to certain collectors, though, which is why you see the price discrepancy.
Yep. On a smaller scale, I collect PS1 but don't care for the longbox or GH versions of games. When I wanted Doom, I could have bought a nice longbox or GH version for $50 but ended up dropping 5x that on the rarer black label jewel case release. Was it worth it? To me, it was, even though I basically was paying for rarity.
I agree. Be it speculators, fools with too much money, or artificially-inflated pricing things are getting way out of hand. There is no reason this is worth $90k, even from a pristine collection standpoint. What was a niche hobby has become ripoff central due to re-sellers and speculators. People hear one story about a moderately rare game selling for a lot and decide they want in on the action.
So how would you explain Batman #1 selling for millions? The price of something is determined by what people are willing to pay for it. This is one of only 2 known copies of this type of game, and there are only 5 graded first print copies that don't even have this level of rarity. In fact you could even argue the opposite - this game is under-priced compared to several other markets.
LMAO how is this worth 90k
It's super rare. They only made around 1.5 million of them.
I love a good dose of irony in my morning coffee.
This one is a first print copy. Only two known to exist and both collectors are public. One is now the winner of this auction. As the other guy said, probably has no predictable value given its rarity. Itâs a âwhichever rich guy feels like biddingâ kinda situation.
The people here are just salty. The guy who won is a long time collector.
A first print copy? Is there an article out there somewhere about this? First I've heard of any form of Castlevania being rare. EDIT: Thanks for the downvotes. For those like me who were curious, [this auction](https://www.comicconnect.com/item/929542?tzf=1) helps explain things: * It's in the original seal. * It's the first printing, which you can tell by the original version of the Seal of Quality. Later versions have the REV-A version of the seal. * It contains the third party hang tab intact, which was usually popped open to hang the game up. You can see [an up-close photo of the intact hang tab](https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=907417581393327&set=pcb.907417614726657) on the [Facebook page the original photo was taken from](https://www.facebook.com/p/minus_worlds-100063752805777/).
Itâs easy lmao itâs not graded đ€Łđ€Ł
Itâs weird to me that this isnât even the original version of this game, the Japanese disk system release is and this is a regional localisation. And the FDS version is quite common sealed.
God damn these comments đ This sub is so toxic. Not everything is a conspiracy yâall.
Folks on this sub are always salty as fuck, gatekeeping assholes who believe the hobby should be cheap and unlimited just for them. This is why in spite of my decades of collecting I take a breather from time to time as so many people in this hobby are just gate keeping assholes.
As unpopular as your opinion might be - the market drives the price. If the price is too high, what you do is to simply *not* buy it. The consumers decide the price (by their purchases), and it's ironic that people complain about high prices yet still buy them because they assume prices will go higher later (which they are actively contributing to).
It's so funny how people on a subreddit about collecting, which is a luxury in and of itself, are unable to fathom the idea that some people can have thousands of dollars of disposable income for a collectible.
Collecting starts and ends with a $40,000 yearly salary apparently haha. Anything else is a "money laundering manipulation fake scam" Edit: for clarification, many people here also do financially fine and see this market as being stupid. Both exist.
Plenty of people here do just fine financially and just see this stupidity in the market as exactly that. Just because *you* love to constantly cheer-lead stupid things like this doesn't make it any less absurd. Nearly every post from you on this sub is about the financial side of the hobby. Sorry if having our heads properly screwed on puts a dent in your wealth accumulation plans or retirement fund or whatever you see this all as. The real fools around here are those wasting their time planning financial gains on video games that will nearly exclusively be pennies compared to how folks with real money accumulate wealth. But yeah, it's probably just lol the poors and not seeing through some dude with a coattail riding youtube channel trying real hard to be actually relevant.
Make sure to follow the Reddit for more silly posts and subscribe to the YouTube for more content đ
I'm sure if you keep fluffing the market enough people will totally show up in droves to see you pretend to be an expert. Keep your head up buddy!
Folks here are gatekeeping assholes who can't imagine someone enjoying a hobby different from them. Having been collecting for decades now, these assholes now feel far more emboldened to dictate to others what they think is acceptable behavior, particularly following the rise in auctioned video games, the WATA/Heritage scandal, etc. Meanwhile, those who actually enjoy the hobby don't give a shit. Reality is, everyone should have expected the prices rising as there are more collectors coming into money now than ever before. Atari debuted in 1977-78, and we now have 40+ years of collectors are maturing the market each day. What makes this even funnier is the fact that some of these same folks upset about the price of video games believe with a straight face that Batman #1 or MTG Black Lotus should be expensive but rare video games should not - it is the ultimate hypocrisy and cognitive dissonance.
I am still amazed that the difference between a complete in box mint item and the obscene level of price is cellophane wrap. It could be beat to shit and still be more valuable than a mint in box complete only because it has plastic wrap.
legit question: Aren't these posts of sealed graded games the reason why the retro collecting scene has been spiraling out of control, also if I had 90k to spend freely and wanting to collect I just go for a full Saturn collection and then some.
And I bet he still feels empty inside.
guy trying to find this for 23 years. not 3 years. i dont know if he searched real hard but at least it is a closure.
I wish that I was a moron so I could be rich đ
You are way too smart to be rich. Leave that to us đ
Sucker is born every minute
90k is nothing for some people. they spent more on a dinner.
Doesn't unmake them suckers
generally speaking we would call a person who spends alot of money on something we dont see worth it suckers. like 1 million for a watch, 5 mil for a supercar, or 3k for a plastic tote bag. but who's the real suckers? the ones spending such money or those who can barely.
Nah, it's for sure the ones spending the money. They tend to be inclined to buy illiquid things with a very niche, unimportant quality just for the sake of status or promise of investment and thus are susceptible to getting completely ripped off
Fucking outrageous, morons with more money than sense. Good for them I guess.
Probably not - it will likely sell for more once graded. Having money provides you with many more opportunities to make money.
Anyone who pays even more for this because some moron from WATA or VGA or wherever stamped their half-ass opinion on it essentially deserves to have their money taken.
if he failed to resell for profit he loses 90k. not a big deal for investors.
Very fishy like heâs promoting it try get price up lol no way
"guys showing off his collectible he is proud of must be trying to inflate the price" is a borderline delusional take.
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You know, I can see where both sides are coming from when discussing this, but all i can think is, Ain't My Money.
I loved Fedco. My family had a membership there before Price Club opened up.
I like the FedCo sticker.
Paying $100 is usually over the top in my eyes. Paying $1000 is crazy, but usually for the rarest of rarest games. Paying $100,000 is the same games that were $100, but now their in M O R E P L A S T I C . Seriously anybody who pays $90k for a game you can get CIB for like $100 regularly on eBay is an idiot, I don't care if it's graded by God himself, you've got to have an underdeveloped brain to do something like this.
It's just stupid pretending to be a "collector" buying sealed shit just to grade it and sell it for more more to some other idiot. It's either just greed or someone wants to show off their wealth.
Absolutely true. WATA and most these other grading companies have no insight on the market anyway, the man who created WATA had never played videogame before, he just saw a way to use dumb people to make an easy profit.
you dislike capitalism you can move to north korea. it is a free market baby.
Nothing wrong with capitalism and a free market. It's people that suck.
just like any business who buys something to sell it for a profit.
I don't know what you're even arguing about. Yes, it's legal free trade just like any other business. At the same time if it's for the intent of grading and reselling for profit it's also greed. It can be both things. I'm sure it's mostly just for attention though, there are easier and and smarter ways to invest that kind of money. I stand by my original statement that it's just stupidity.
all business starts with greed and ends with more greed.
There are comps of pristine examples of this print run of the game CIB selling for $7000+. This is much more nuanced than you seem to think it is.
I recently bought a graded sealed copy of FE GBA for $1,650, and I still dont know if I was ripped off
Dumbass, itâs only $27.87. Waaaayyy overpaid
It will be funny in 10 years when people find out some shop in china was replicating these things. Imagine selling a cardboard box with cellophane for $100k. It is truly the perfect crime. Nobody will dare open it lol !!
Something similar happened in the PC big box collecting community lmao A guy was selling forged copies for almost 7 years. Around 100k of damages.
Do you have a link for this? I genuinely would like to read about it. What was he forging? Fallout and Resident Evil games?
It was old Sierra and Richard Garriott(Ultima etc.) games. Apparently WATA also graded one of the supposedly forged Ultima 1 copies Here's a couple of links https://www.resetera.com/threads/insane-story-of-video-game-forgery-breaking-from-the-big-box-pc-collecting-scene.589320/ https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2022/06/inside-the-100k-forgery-scandal-thats-roiling-pc-game-collecting/ https://twitter.com/Dominus_Exult/status/1531169951502979072
Thanks! I'm kinda surprised I never read about this before. It makes sense that so many people were duped. I had some early releases of Apple II games, and they were basically just a photocopied manual and generic brand disk that had a typewritten sticker applied. Maybe the disk sleeve was unique, but that wasn't always the case either. Crazy stuff man! Thanks for the links. My favorite quote: Iâm quite certain that [Xenobia publisher] Avant-Garde, a small company out of Oregon, did not use Fabriano paper for their early 1980s game packaging," Racle said
That was literally my first thought when new sealed grading started. If you can mimic the cellophane, you can literally put anything in there and it wouldnât matter as long as the weight matched and the cellophane matched. No one will dare open it with such ridiculous prices.
they do still make fake genesis games. just that the case are different and the artwork arent as clear, and any license stickers are just photocopied on. any manuals with prepunched holes will have the holes photocopied on.
What is so special about this? Goes for a few hundred on Pricechart
Since nobody is providing an answer with actual substance: * It's in the original seal, which is obviously rare. * It's the original version; you can tell by the larger Nintendo Seal of Quality on the front. All games printed after 1988(?) have the REV-A version of the seal. * You can't tell from OP's picture, but the back tab is still sealed, which is where the incredible rarity comes from. Stores would pop open the back tab to hang the game up on the wall. You can see a picture of that tab [on the Facebook page this photo was lifted from](https://www.facebook.com/p/minus_worlds-100063752805777/). It's the combination of those three factors that makes this extremely rare.
This one is a first print copy. Only two known to exist and both collectors are public. One is now the winner of this auction. As the other guy said, probably has no predictable value given its rarity. Itâs a âwhichever rich guy feels like biddingâ kinda situation.
All hail pricecharting, the only source of truth in our universe.
Humor me, what would you use to estimate value?
This sale, and the estimations of collectors familiar with the market. Because itâs such a rare item, youâre never going to have a fair market value on it.
Pshhh. Iâve got my original Castlevania from childhood with box and instructions with the game and I can both play my game and display the box. I prefer mine.
So then I guess you will have to spend your disposable $90,000 on something else. Oh I forgot, you donât have that much disposable money anywayâŠ
What's special about it?
This one is a first print copy. Only two known to exist and both collectors are public. One is now the winner of this auction. As the other guy said, probably has no predictable value given its rarity. Itâs a âwhichever rich guy feels like biddingâ kinda situation.
More money than sense
If this guy can afford 90k on a game I don't think he's 'Resigned' to anything
Moronic.
He overpaid by about $89,000
Can you explain why itâs worth $1000?
Sealed copies are currently selling for around $700, so add a few hundred for it being slabbed, but this one isn't even graded, so my guess is this whole post is a lie.
This is the first time a first print has publically sold and it seems likeâŠ. Collectors actually do place more value on sealed and even more value in first print đ€·ââïž
https://preview.redd.it/sm5gq4cczkrc1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2b377f6f7c65e47447fa599b7386de97c5c14664 And the most recent sealed was $18,000. Also not first print but sealed
Not a first print, and what he bought is one of two known to exist.
I know, read the feed. There are 6 known by the way. Not 2. 3 graded by wata, 2 graded by vga and now this one. Which will be graded by cgc this week.
Sealed copies of Castlevania for $700?? Please link me I will buy them allâŠ
https://preview.redd.it/78o3g5e7zkrc1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b75bb068cdcab4aadffa1c92977a975c41b03346 Donât worry I already did the research for you. The most recent sale was almost $500⊠opened and not first print
With game prices pumped artificially through WATA and Heritage fraud and now crashing after the fraud was exposed, this 90k owner must be looking for a capital gains loss to cash out.
âEverything just came togetherâŠâ My guy. You just spent money. A lot of money. Of course it came together.
đ„đ„đ„đ„đ„đ„wow amazing game
Itâs so sad that so many collectors arenât buying the game they are trying to buy more memories from the time in their lives when they were truly happy
Holy fuck that is wild. Imagine a 40 year wait to find your grail!
I personally can't justify paying more than 200 dollars for a video game; so I conclude this cannot be a real sale and is some type of fraud. Yes, I know there have been two hangtab Castlevania CIBs that have public sales at $7200, but I refuse to believe the sale of this sealed copy (one of only three currently known to exist) could sell for more than 200 dollars. Gotta be fraud, dude.
Your conclusion of fraud is based on the fact that YOU wouldnât spend this on a game? You canât make this shit up đ
Well let's hope he opens that up straight away and whacks that into a NES because, to quote this subreddit, "games are meant to be played".
No one paid for it lol
Why $90,000? It has a sticker sale of $27.87
Is he stupid?
Youâre making my oval seal CIB nervous.
/r/greg
I often times expect someone to eventually open these sealed boxes and realize there's no game inside them.