Nintendo 1990 World Championship Cart For $0.50

I think NWC Gold carts are WAY less rarer than Kizuna Encounter or Ultimate 11. which explains the price difference.
I don't think there is more than 10 copies of each,even if that fact cannot be verified.
However, only TWO copies were sold within the last 5 years.
During those 5 years,i saw a MINIMUM of 6-8 sales of NWC Gold Carts..and i'm guessing a few of those sales are about the very same carts, just passing from one hand to another. The 2 sales of KE were about 2 different cartridges.

There isn't a year i didn't see a NWC GC for sale, sometimes maybe 2 or 3. I haven't seen 1 KE for sale between 2003 and 2007.

So,even if the number of carts produced for those 2 NG babies cannot be confirmed, it's pretty accurate to say they're less sold/available than NWC GC, whatever the amount of money you could propose.

But, of course, NWC GC is more historical for US gamers.. even if european or japanese gamers didn't have a clue about it, so didn't show any interest in it for more than a decade...it's an US thing..just like Caravan Hucards were for japanese gamers,etc..

 

Double post for you

Such theory could be true for ANY thing commercially released.
Well, that's possible, but after 13 years, it is unlikely to happen.
Meaning it'd have appeared for a long time now,knowing money ppl offers (14000$) for 7 years now (in 2002). Already back then,people wer ready to pay 14000$/10000€ for it. Owners had 7 years to "hear" what their game is worth, and making money on it. It is a VERY LONG time to get out of the bushes. And money is quite high for it too, such money was plainly sufficient for owners/warehouse stockers to let them go
So i guess IF that was to happen,it should have happened already.
But anything is possible.

The most plausible (correct word in your language?) track for this story is what many think: SNK called those 2 games stocks back,changed instructions,stickers (sometimes they just stick a new sticker OVER the old one, ihave japanese NG games, like Joy Joy Kid getting a Puzzled Sticker under it!) and covers, since the cart insides(logic boards or program) are exactly the same, and sent them back to be sold in Japan where they could be sold faster (in Europe,back in 1996,everybody only cared about 3d stuff, PS1 and Saturn was getting bigger and bigger, nobody gave a shit about old Neo Geo stuff).

Nobody confirmed it though, but that seems the most logical reason since, i agree with you on that point, they couldn't have produced that few. Sending them back seems to be it, especially when we know they did it many times in the past.

 

Does anyone have a photo of this Kizuna Encounter cart/box? (I mean the $55,000 one...)

 

Here are scans i made near 10 years ago of the cover:

 

Isn't that exactly what happened to the fine art industry? Ever year or two you hear about the new record-breaking prices set at auction for big-name artistes. Give it another 100 years and the only place you'll find a gold NWC 1990 is in the display cases at a few major corporate headquarters, next to the authentic Picassos and Monets.

 

Yes,and that can be for a LOT of things, in a lot of domains.
The thing is: will it be popular?
I can show you a near 100Y old family picture of mine, nobody would care about it, even in 200 years ;-)

Today,many rich people still care about fine art paintings...will rich people will care in 2110 about NES rare games (i'm talking about the object, because let's face it, while you can still look at La Joconde in Louvres museum in Paris even if it was painted centuries ago, i'm not sure you'd be able to PLAY NWC GC on a regular NES in 2110) ?

 

There will be a single computer with infinite processing power allowing for precise emulation of all and any hardware for all the people around the world at the same time. This is common knowledge.

 

Still, you wouldn't be able to play THE thing you own, right?

 

<shrugs> Personally, I'd rather keep my money for more tangible things, like food, shelter, etc... Rather than worry about playing a game on real hardware or an emulator. But that's just me.

 

"A fool and his money are soon parted"

As Adol and plenty of others have stated. There will always be someone out there willing to pay to much money for something that they desire.

 

just watch the recent deveopement of the US version for TG-16s Magical Chase on ebay. once sold for somthing slighlty above US$100 (1~2 years ago), suddenly raised in price sheer exponential. and so it came, that only after few month of price (and hype) pushing, the game was sold on the very same internet platform (ebay) for approx. 20 times of its original collector price only about a half year back.

 

Seems you have no problem to break legal issues then ;-) . Playing it on real hardware or emulator won't change much your budget,since you have to own the original game, so you'll pay for it.

Yes,but the $2000ish Magical Chase is indeed BRAND NEW Factory sealed, that makes a difference though with the $100 used copy you mentionned...even if that's a huge difference,it explains such price, even partially.

Same thing happens in Japan...you can buy some factory sealed games for 30000Y you can find for 500y used..

 

Next to Picassos and Monets? Highly doubtful. In a specialist museum perhaps, but you won't see that kind of thing in a museum displaying highly prized pieces of art. Rare only equals value to collectors. NWC1990 is pretty crap as games go.

 

it was the very same copy selling several times within one year. started with an already glorious winning bid of $450 or so in the first auction and after few resell auctions, it ended up at $2500+ (it was even higher iirc).

 

Video games are a relatively recent phenomenon - I can see the price of these games going up over the coming years (centuries, even).

There are 7" vinyl singles that have sold for more than Kizuna Encounter... There are film posters that have sold for 10x more than Kizuna Encounter...

Of course, like modern art - it will be the very (very) wealthy who will buy/trade in this field. They will, in time, 'fix' prices and generally turn shit into gold - but that IS what will happen... I have no reason to suspect all these rare carts will suddenly be worth peanuts and time has shown that no matter how small an increase, prices for these things are only going up...and up... and up.

"A fool and his money are easily parted..." Again, just look at the art world - fools reguarly pay millions for canvases painted in just one colour.

"But these paintings have a provenance, they have their place in history!"

Not quite, as mentioned earlier, auction houses and collectors regulary fix prices to bump up their works. It is widely documented that Andy Warhol (as an obvious example) would hire a team of artists to copy his style, he would then meet up with them when he had some free time and sign the paintings with his trademark signature. These paintings are considered 'Warhol's' yet he never even painted them...

Question everything.

 

Didn't the comic collecting scene go through a phase of values spiralling upwards followed by a crash?

 

I think a lot of that was due to gimmicks, pseudo-limited editions, and hype of things that weren't actually rare or good. At the time I guess people thought that the hologram-gold-foil "collectors edition" comics would be a smart buy, even though everyone in the world could just go pick a copy up at the comic shop :lol:
The genuinely rare stuff from Ye Olden Times, from actual popular franchises, still sells for high prices, I think.

 

Yeah, the problem lied in the fact that a lot of non-comic-collector investors came in after an article was published (I think in the Wallstreet Journal, but I can't say for certain) that comics were safer and more profitable than the stock market. These outside investors didn't realize that the books that were selling for giant sums of money were almost solely the books that were published during the 30's and 40's, when paper rationing and recycling destroyed most of the comics that were published. The few that survive sell for a lot due to a combination of content (first appearances and what not) and their scarcity. Anyway, after this article and others like it, a lot of people started "investing" in comics by buying up popular titles, so publishers either not realizing at the time what was really happening or not caring, started to print all those alternate foil hologram covers and what not. They also increased production runs to meet demand. Before the investing bubble started building, the most popular comics were seeing print runs at around 90,000-100,000 copies, during the bubble, production numbers skyrocketed to the point that 1.2 million copies of Spawn #1 were printed and sold. It was just a matter of time until people figured out that they were not going to be able to sell these books for the $100,000 that a few of the golden age books sell for, and the bubble finally burst.

 

I would say it also has a lot to do with a new wave of adult comics appearing around this time of the so called 'bubble' (late 80's > early 90's)

Alan Moore, Frank Miller, Bill Sienkewicz (did I spell that right?!), believe it or not even Eastman and Laird (TMNT) and a whole host of other people changed the face of comics during this period with pioneering work aimed (mostly) towards adults for the first time.

Alan Moore paved the way slightly earlier with his seminal take on 'Swamp Thing' for DC - At the time of its peak circulation it was the biggest selling comic book around and, for the first time, adults were buying it en-masse - Just pick up some of the later Alan Moore issues of Swamp Thing and tell me if a kid could even understand what on earth is going on in there!?

The term 'graphic novel' also really came into its own around this time > the comic book coming off of the news stands and into specialist comic stores and (more importantly) book stores.

It was an exciting time - the ripples of which are still felt today with Nolan's darker take on Batman being a good recent example... This wouldn't have happened if people like Frank Miller hadn't been around back then.



Then the well ran dry and got saturated by the majors (notably Hollywood and the money men moving in, and the concept of 'merchandising' going through the roof.)

I'm not sure it was about investors on Wall St - a creative cycle simply ran its course and got eaten up by large amounts of cash.

They were good times though!