Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (Hong Kong Variant)

I would like to sell my rare copy of Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island Hong Kong variant but unable to decide on a price as there aren't any up for sale online at the moment.

This is a very odd variant. Here are a few things I know about it:

- It is probably the only SNES game to have a Hong Kong variant. There are no other games as far as I know that are customized to that market in terms of box and serial number (SNSN-YI-HKG)
- The board is identical to the NTSC version with the Nintendo logo to confirm authenticity.
- The game and instruction manual are in English. So is the text on the back of the box
- The box has the 'Super Famicom' logo which is kind of odd for an English game
- The rear plastic shell is the same as PAL/JAP. It does not have the American NTSC notches

I have the game complete in it's box with the cartridge plastic bag, the box tray, instruction manual and insert. The box has wear and tear but the cartridge looks brand new. I think I was the first to ever play it from how good of a condition it is in.

Any idea how much something like this would be worth?

 

so its a HK version in english? ik HK has a large english speaking population but, why not just import pal copies?

 

Because most of the consoles in HK wouldn't have been able to run them. Before there was any official distribution for the SNES/SFC, people imported large numbers of Japanese Super Famicoms and most of the games in the market were Japanese NTSC ones.

This led to the a bit of a strange situation for the official HK Nintendo distributor - logically, they should have been supplying PAL consoles, since HK was a PAL territory and used 240V power (and even has a plug that's identical to the UK one). But that would have caused problems because they would be incompatible with the large number of existing Japanese consoles (since they have different CIC chips).

The problem with selling the Super Famicom in HK was that it used NTSC-M video format and although a large number of HK TVs were multi-standard not all of them were, and wouldn't be able to display the 60Hz video the SFC produced. In the end, they started selling both of them at the same time - so you could either buy Super Famicom or the Super Nintendo PAL version, both from Mani (who were the official Nintendo distributor).

On top of this, there was also lots of grey market product - modified PAL SNESs (usually with 50/60Hz switches), grey import Japanese SFCs and even grey import US SNESes.

To make things even more confusing, a lot of the unofficial importers printed their own documentation and sometimes even packaging, so sometimes it was really hard to know just exactly what you were buying.

You also had all the fake product, but this post is long enough already

 

There will probably be a market for it just because it is a complete in box SNES game, which tend to be highly valued these days. The fact that it's a from a foreign market doesn't make it less appealing categorically (consider the prices Japanese complete in box games go for), but I do think the Hong Kong market may make it somewhat less appealing. It's just that much more niche, and I think there's a general concern or stereotype that things coming out of China, especially 20+ years ago, would be a knock of/bootleg of some kind.

Nevertheless, I'm not sure how well I could speculate a good price on this. I'd expect it to be lower than the price of a Japanese complete in box copy of comparable condition, anyway.

 

hmmmmm the cart looks too "new" for its age. I would expect some yellowing.

 

Nothing wrong with that. The cart has been preserved well inside the box and plastic bag. As mentioned in my first post, it looks brand new and I think I am the first to ever play it.

Will post pics of the PCB later to prove it is original.

 

Korean variant sold for $200 on multiple occasions. And it is a lot more common than the HKG variant which I have never seen for sale.

There is a market for exotic Asian variants. It is quite niche, but I have seen some items fetch a hefty price.

I would personally price this one, in the overall condition it is in, at around $200. Just wanted to get some thoughts from the community first.

 

I've never seen one sell for that much. SMW2 was the last deadstocked game to deplete in Korea. For years they were sitting at like $20 and the sellers couldn't move them. This gave a false sense of value to new collectors who thought they could get into Korean collecting.

Did you see those sell recently? Maybe I'm just out of the loop and demand has skyrocketed this past year.

If the HKG version were mine, I wouldn't take anything less than $500 for it. I have a loose one and can confirm everything else mentioned about it above

 

Found this as well: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Super-Ma...D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

 

Wow. Would love to get $500 for it but don't see that happening with the condition mine is in. The cartridge is in mint condition but my box has heavy wear

Yes, I've seen a Korean one go for $200 a while back on eBay sold listings. I am unable to find it though. Someone must have really wanted it. There is one up at the moment from Australia but you never know if they will get their asking price this time.

Here's another one from Italy

 

Lmao that one in Australia is mine, I'm just waiting for offers. Sometimes people in Australia are willing to pay more for something just because it's already in the country and will be posted domestically, so I often list things for prices that are much higher than I'm expecting to get. I also think it's a cool thing to have in my SNES collection and am a bit reluctant to let it go.