Image: Ebay
This is a copy of Turok: Rage Wars on N64. A quick search on Price Charting and you can see it’s worth less than ten bucks. And yet, if it was priced at $20, it would be a great deal. What’s going on?
Although the average N64 cartridge was gray, Turok was originally released in black. The original version of the game had a bug in the co-op mode, and if a player called in and complained, Acclaim would mail them a copy with the bug fixed, which came in gray. The gray version is remarkably more rare, often selling around the $150 range. The collector with book knowledge just got a steal.
In the collecting world, knowledge is everything. In this blog series, I have been comparing game collecting and coin collecting, because a lot of the principles in that older hobby can apply to games. By far, the most common piece of advice to new collectors is: “Buy the book before the coin.” Join a coin forum and you’ll see it in every thread. It’s just that common. So what does it mean?
This coin-related book was written in 1720. Image: numislit
Since coin collecting is so old and so popular, many books have been written about it. The website numislit.com currently has several books for sale from the 1700s, and hundreds more from more recent history. If you’re interested in any particular coin, there will no doubt be a reference guide, explaining every tiny detail you might need to know about a given date or mint location. Before going on a spending spree, it’s very important to know how to properly evaluate each coin that you see.
In the game collecting world, there aren’t a lot of reference books yet. Pat the NES Punk’s book, “Ultimate Nintendo: Guide to the NES Library” might be a good start, but it hasn’t been released yet. It reviews all of the games for the NES, including promo carts, unreleased games, and cart variants. This sort of information can be invaluable for the new collector in formulating their collecting strategy.
A similar book series for Game Boy is also being released, known as Game Boy World. The first book covers all the games released in 1989 and the second book covers 1990. The series will progress through the Game Boy’s life span until it’s complete.
A quick search on Amazon reveals a book about classic Sega Arcade games, and another book about the Sega Master System. I’m sure there are more. But the term “book” in this case doesn’t need to mean dead tree slices. It just applies to having knowledge. And there are a lot of things you need to know before you make a big purchase.
The “Book” on Earthbound
There are good places to gain knowledge about specific games and consoles, usually forums, fan sites, blogs or subreddits. But one great example is the website BuyEarthbound.com, written by Clyde Manelin, professional translator and huge Earthbound fan. The site has a curated price guide, tips for buying, and facts about the game’s release. For example, did you know Earthbound prices can vary depending on the wording of the listing title? If the Ebay title has “rare” or “mint” in it, it will sell for more than average. If it has a stock Ebay title, a stock image, or the word “used”, it will sell for less. It’s a useful read for anybody looking to buy or sell rare games, not just Earthbound.
Learn Everything
Expansion Pak or Jumper Pak? Do you need both? Image: Wikipedia
General knowledge of your favorite console is imperative. Make sure you know the difference in price between the regular release and the Greatest Hits version of the games. What system variations are there? Can some play import games? What kind of expansion cartridges are there? Do I need both the 1MB and the 4MB? What third-party peripheral brands are reliable?
After learning these general things, the next step should be getting in-depth information about the games you’re interested in. Take StarTropics for example. You see it ‘complete’ at a store or game convention. Everything looks good… The box is there, the manual is there. The price is good. So you buy it. Later you find out that there’s a letter in the box that you have to soak in water to reveal a hidden message. You search your copy, and it’s not there. Now you either need to upgrade your copy, find a loose letter (unlikely), or just ignore it and let the deep regret consume you from the inside out.
No Book? No Problem
The game collecting world right now is basically the wild west. There’s little standardization (with grading, for example), there are no widely-recognized price guides, no professional organizations, and there are very few authoritative reference works. That creates a lot of opportunity for a collector willing to do some research.
A similar period in U.S. coin collecting was in the 40s. At the time, anyone with the foresight to buy high-grade, rare, key date coins made a fortune. Those who got caught up in fads and bought junk likely lost a lot of money. We need to take advantage of this opportunity while we still can. Learn from coin collecting now, and you won’t regret it in the future.