Video games and condition guides

[n8mac]

(I didn't know where to put this topic so I put it in a popular forum.)

 

Dear Atari Age,

I would like to see a conditions guide made for us video game collectors. I used to collect comic books and am used to this when evaluating collectables. Apparently video games are too new to have an official price guide but a conditions guide could help not only in buying and selling more accurately, but to bring a price guide sooner. A conditions guide could also include manuals and boxes.

 

If I were to make a conditions guide I would make a mint loose cart the default value, say #1. I would then deduct all imperfections in three categories: Working, cart condition, and label condition.

 

Example: A cart with no deductions is worth 1 or 100% the default. If it doesn't work and the cart has writing, then I would deduct a set amount of numbers, say 5 for not working and 2 for writing. So the carts value is -7. Having a manual would add 2 to the value, and a box another 2 for a total value of -3. Each number would represent incriments of 10% from mint value so the game is worth 70% the mint value we give it.

 

Most of my games are near mint and working, but a few have torn labels and I don't know what to think of them. If I could put a number to it...

 

thanks for reading,

n8mac

[atari_wizard]

that would be pretty kool.

[Saikyo]

I agree that would be really cool! not to mention helpful

 

I say go for it AA

[Atari Rescue Group]

It's a good idea but getting into subjectivity of what looks nice and what doesn't look nice is really tough to get everyone to grade the same way.

 

Everyone who collects has their own standards for acceptability. Some people collect sealed boxed stuff, boxed stuff, or loose stuff. For items not up to their regular standards they look to improve them.

 

There are lots of things that can be different on a particular cart, manual or box. Even shrinkwrap can damage boxes (and would you grade shrinkwrap too? Sometimes it is torn or has marker writing on it.) Probably a dozen different label issues, chips in the casing, marker writing on the casing, rattle, etc. can affect grading. How can a grading scale seriously cover all of the different combinations of issues like these? Not easily.

 

I doubt there are many collectors who think that if they have a box and cart rated at 8, and a manual rated a 6, that they would really want to improve the manual. That's too much to worry about, and it doesn't affect value much if at all.

[highinfidelity]

Well, an easy way would be to use the same evaluation system used in photographic equipment:

 

A - Brand new, mint in box, as new, never used

B - worn as after a normal avarage use

C - working, but with bad signs of use

 

Must be said, though, that a full PAL rarity list SHALL come before this...

[Whisper]

Must be said, though, that a full PAL rarity list SHALL come before this...  

 

I second that! But on the other hand, it would take away all the fun of thinking you have discovered something new. Ok, if you post it in a forum it will turn out half of the EU people know about it, but still you had that brief moment of priceless joy

 

I think there should also be some sort of document in which is described how to know the difference between the different TV standards on different brands of carts.

[Mindfield]

How specific would you have to get, though? There are carts out there, for example, that are known to experience specific problems. Activision (and some other brand) carts are legendary for Actiplaque (glue spotting as the glue loses its emulsification over the years and the oils in the glue stain through the label). I've also noticed a few Data Age carts now where the label varnish has dried out and begun to create "tunnels" that make it appear as if miniscule bugs crawled through it. (Ironically the first cart I discovered this phenomina on was Bugs)

 

Then there are carts that lose their end label, carts that don't often come with an end label (Milton Bradley carts, whose end label was to be found on the sticker sheet that was to be applied to the controllers they came with), and so on.

 

It's a nice idea, of course, but you'd have to lend more weight to, say, plaque-free Activision carts than you would to others because it's more uncommon to find Activision carts with no plaque than it is to find minty Atari carts, for example.

[Xot]

Let me be the first to stand up and say HELL NO. While it's a nice idea in theory, let me point out that (a) there is already a price guide for video games and (b) I really wish there weren't.

 

The rarity guide is a necessary evil since there's no way anyone can know all the games that are out there and how many are available first hand - it simply can't be done. But a price guide CAN be discerned almost entirely first hand, especially with the prolification of evilBay.

 

An "official" price/condition guide will serve only to further mainstream the hobby, increasing prices and reducing supply for everyone across the board. If someone with a box of games in their attic punches "Atari Price Guide" into Google, which would you rather have them find: a bunch of vaguely on topic links, most of which don't even have price guide in the listing, or a definitive, Beckett-like listing telling them exactly what these games are allegedly worth?

 

Suddenly you'd have people refusing to let go of a Frogger cart 'cause "The guide says it's worth $10." While this is already happening (how many of us have had someone at a flea market or thirft say "I can get $100 for this on eBay," when all they have is a bare system and six Combats?), imagine it 50 times worse. These people will whip out the guide, point to a listing and say "It says so." This means prices go up, availability goes down, and ultimately, fewer games get to the hands of gamers. I don't think this hobby needs it.

 

NO (more) PRICE GUIDES. Please.

[CincYnoTi]

sounds like we need a "buyer's price guide" which has prices that are about 10% of what the average collector would pay. then we freely distribute this to every flea market and video game store and suggest that is how they should price these items in their store..."hey, it is printed in this book so it must be accurate". then for those stores you walk into where something is overpriced, you pull out your official price guide and show them what the suggested selling price should be.

[n8mac]

mindfield

How specific would you have to get, though? There are carts out there, for example, that are known to experience specific problems.

 

I wasn't implying that be 100% accurate off the bat. If one was started it would no doubt be refined over time by serious collectors. A condition guide would be more vague covering major tears and writings. I would consider more than half the games taken care of out there mint, not something to be looked at under a microscope.

 

For example: One of the conditions to judge a comic book is by page yellowing. Older books before mylars were allowed more yellowing because of what time did to them unsealed.

 

xot

An "official" price/condition guide will serve only to further mainstream the hobby, increasing prices and reducing supply for everyone across the board.

 

Compared to comic books video games are young and so I wouldn't want a price guide yet. It's true, the best time to grab up a collection is before price guides come in. Since video games keep coming out like comic books and coins, it is inevitable that a price guide will eventually appear.

 

I would be happy if they just came up with a simple category in which to place a cart, similar to the photography example.

1. Sealed

2. With box and or manual

3. Loose mint

4. Minor damage (Tear or writing)

5. Major damage (No label or does not work)

 

Nothing official - yet...

[Christophero Sly]

Let me be the first to stand up and say HELL NO.

Let me be the second. Why, exactly, would we need an esoteric formula to evaluate the condition of a cart? One needs only to look at a cart, box, manual, etc. to reach one's own conclusions regarding condition and value. This method for evaluating a game cartridge has worked just fine for more than a decade... it ain't broke, so don't fix it.

 

it is inevitable that a price guide will eventually appear.

As Xot pointed out, there are already price guides for video games, both in print and online. Encountering sellers whose asking prices are based on these sources is frustrating, to say the least.

[highinfidelity]

How specific would you have to get, though?  There are carts out there, for example, that are known to experience specific problems.  Activision (and some other brand) carts are legendary for Actiplaque (glue spotting as the glue loses its emulsification over the years and the oils in the glue stain through the label).

B

I've also noticed a few Data Age carts now where the label varnish has dried out and begun to create "tunnels" that make it appear as if miniscule bugs crawled through it.

B

Then there are carts that lose their end label, carts that don't often come with an end label

C

 

Plus, I don't understand all this noise about pricing guides. If on one hand there's stupid people starting an auction with the guide's price, on the other hand there's a lot of people who - thanks to the guides - understands that not everything bearing the "atari" logo is worth the big buck$. It's a balance, as usual. Plus, it's written nowhere that you SHALL buy from people referring to a guide, you can just let their stuff go, as I do every day. And it doesn't sound exactly ethical the plan to keep people ignorant so that one can grab better their valuable goods. IMHO, of course.

 

Plus, the market makes the price. Personally speaking, every auction I make (and I ever made) ALWAYS starts at 1E and then just grows by bids; and I never happened to sold anything below what I was expecting to get. And in the case that I eventually did, well, then it means that there was no demand, it means that my good was not even worth a coin, whatever a guide says.

[Whisper]

Price guides would take away all the fun in collecting. Let's face it, as with every collection, the chase is usually better than the catch. Getting that "great deal" or spotting that rarity among a bunch of commons is priceless! The higher the rarity, the crappier the game usually is anyway

[Spirantho]

Yes, price guides could take away the fun.... especially for us PAL people where hardly anyone knows what's rare.

 

At the moment we can get nice bargains because the sellers have no clue what they are selling - give them a price guide and all of a sudden the rare stuff shoots up in price, and we can stop getting rare PAL carts for a few Euros like we can at the moment.

 

NTSC is pretty well defined - not many bargains there - but there's enough people out there think that the PAL version of, say, Pharaoh's Curse is common that we can pick it up quite cheaply.

 

Of course once I've completed my PAL collection (in about 2056 probably) it'll be a different matter.