I've been interested in korean versions of the Saturn and Mega Drive for some time now, but the only resource I have for looking for them is eBay, and they always go for extreme amounts of money. Two Samsung Saturns är now offered for more than 3.000 dollars. Now, are they extremely limited and sought after, or are ebayers ignorant of better means to acquire them or are these sellers just hoping to profit from other peoples' ignorance?
It's just either NTSC-J or NTSC-U black Saturn with the mod chip from Samsung Whether that's worth $3000 only you can decide... (hint: personally that's about twenty times inflated)
Yeah, the hardware is nothing special, however I have a thing for Korean and Brazilian Sega hardware. Not $3000 interested though.
Having never been to South Korea, I do not know how things work there. I have heard some people say that Korean people do not care for their old things, which is why it is hard to find Korean items. I would not want to jump to that type of conclusion because I do not know. It could also be a similar case of what I hear from people in Brazil, that Brazil versions of things aren't super rare or extra valuable, but the issue for the rest of the world is the high price of doing business with Brazil. One example I know is that many sellers on Mercadolivre will not sell or ship to people outside of Brazil. So I am not certain on the actual rarity of items like this. It may just be that these items have a higher market price due to limited availability.
I think they're super ultra common in Korea and "rare" outside of it. You'd get them for scraps on a Korean site.
eBayers are not stupid - check the "sold" listings on those. Just because someone in Canada saw some French guy think $3k was a logical asking price and thought to list his/hers at the same price doesn't mean *anyone* is paying that price. Check the sold items history and you'll see one with a noticeable scuff on the front that sold for about $349 plus shipping. Even that took more than a week to sell. No, far from it. They are extremely scarce and buying them up as rarities is quite competitive. I'm one of the few foreigners who knows how and I very often get beat to the punch. Comparing Korea to Brazil is probably a good way to understand it - there was far, far less of this stuff made and it cost far, far more than most people could afford to pay. It's not as simple as "Koreans treat their stuff badly", it's just that few paid retail for domestically licensed stuff that cost way more and the ones who did would trade it in and it would go through a few cycles of used ownership, degrading the condition each time. In Japan much of what comes up for sale is from original owners who paid a lot for it (because that's what Japanese people do) and it was never resold. It is true that they take better care of their stuff than most people but I wouldn't say Koreans are *known* for treating their stuff badly. Further exacerbating the perception of quality between the two countries is that Japan has nationalism and pride for Japanese-made products, a much higher population, and finally a 10 year head start in rebuilding the economy while Korea had to then deal with its own devastating civil war. When all of this is taken into account you begin to understand why Korean official stuff was never made in huge numbers, was always expensive, and now very rare even in Korea. In the early 90s many serious collectors considered the official Japanese stuff to be the "real deal" and actively looked down upon the Korean stuff. They had no idea how vastly different the available quantities would be 20 years later when the retro bug hit everyone.
Thank you for your rare insight into the Korean market Comboy! So, out of curiosity, how much would a native pick up a Saturn or Mega Drive for? I assume you can't expect to make the same deal as the natives do.
Thanks. I was trying to go back and add the quote but it didn't seem an option in the edit feature. Either way you did it for me so thank you. As for the cost here, if you can find a Samsung Saturn, they might start around $200 loose. I bought a non working unit a while back for about 70 but I consider that really lucky and of course I have to figure out how to fix it. A native who is practiced and knowledgeable would pay about the same. As it's competitive, their main edge over me is being able to cold call and socialize in a way I probably never can.
