Original mvs cart prices

Having developed an interest in neogeo significantly later than many members here the original mvs market is a bit of a mystery to me.

Could the more senior members shine some light on the following topics

• price ranges for mvs carts (what arcade operators paid)
• method of distribution of mvs carts (ordered, erc)

smccd said:

Having developed an interest in neogeo significantly later than many members here the original mvs market is a bit of a mystery to me.

Could the more senior members shine some light on the following topics

• price ranges for mvs carts (what arcade operators paid)
• method of distribution of mvs carts (ordered, erc)

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From what I understand the average price of a new kit for an arcade operator back in the day was around 700 bucks, alot cheaper than buying a new arcade PCB.

When I started in on this "hobby," we (the NG community) saw first hand prices arcade ops were asked to pay for new games because we were interested in the new games. And Shawn sold them to us.

If I recall correctly, KoF 2001 originally sold for $2000 MVS in full kit format. After a month, it was down to probably $1000, and when the home cart release came, the MVS kit price was down to $700. Two years later, full kit MVS price was around $200. That's when I bought mine. KoF 2002 was the same sort of formula. As was Matrimelee and Rage of the Dragons. Not sure about KoF 2003 or Sam Sho 5 as I wasn't really interested in them at the time.

The neo store had ROTD kits for 35 bucks for a while. The greatest product Shawn ever had in stock was Super Dodgeball Kits. At the time it was a relatively hard cart to find loose and fairly pricey. And then a stockpile of NOS kits was found in an ops warehouse. They were sold for around what a loose cart was going for previously.

I had a price list of the carts sold in portugal through some sort of SNK distributor, prices went from 200€ to 400€ (this in 98) being puzzle bobble and neo bomberman the most expensive carts from that list.

Ha. It´s a good time to collect mvs carts now with pocket money compared to those prices

SamuraiShodownSensei said:

The neo store had ROTD kits for 35 bucks for a while. The greatest product Shawn ever had in stock was Super Dodgeball Kits. At the time it was a relatively hard cart to find loose and fairly pricey. And then a stockpile of NOS kits was found in an ops warehouse. They were sold for around what a loose cart was going for previously.

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Yeah, unfortunately that $35 price wasn't the introduction price. I definitely wasted $200 on that pile of shit from the Neo Store. And it definitely started at the $2000ish price point as I watched it for months before buying. What can I say, I'm an idiot.

The reason for the physical differences between AES and MVS was to force arcade ops to pay the premium for the games. It was similar to video rental stores being charge more per copy of movies. At the time AES carts were cheap in comparison; SNK had to make sure arcade ops could not get away with buying the cheaper AES version.

Most all MVS games ranged from approximately 1000 to 2000ish dollars per kit.

Does anyone have a price list???

Ok...here we go. You will have to convert from Yen to CAD

http://castleofcollectibles.com/dungeon/dungeon.html#mvs

It looks like most of the "good games" were near/at/well over the $1000 mark. KOF 01 was $2,400

slerch666 said:

Yeah, unfortunately that $35 price wasn't the introduction price. I definitely wasted $200 on that pile of shit from the Neo Store. And it definitely started at the $2000ish price point as I watched it for months before buying. What can I say, I'm an idiot.

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200 bucks isn't bad for the time. I like the game, fun little non technical fighter. It's not supposed to be a KOF, not sure why a lot of people rag on it

SamuraiShodownSensei said:

The neo store had ROTD kits for 35 bucks for a while. The greatest product Shawn ever had in stock was Super Dodgeball Kits. At the time it was a relatively hard cart to find loose and fairly pricey. And then a stockpile of NOS kits was found in an ops warehouse. They were sold for around what a loose cart was going for previously.

Click to expand...

Super Dodge Ball loose carts sold for over $100 and were pretty rare before Shawn found those kits. I know, because not two months after I bought my loose cart, those kits were found.

I've talked about this before, but I think a lot of the members summed this up pretty well. Most games were introduced at or above $1,000 when new. Metal Slug 3 was around $1,500 new, as were the KOFs and Garou. Moving toward end of life, though, Zupapa, Sengoku 3, Nightmare in the Dark, Strikers and Prehistoric Isle 2 all debuted around $500 or so. By that time there just weren't as many ops buying.

Prices dropped quick. I bought MS3 about 6 months after release for $300. At that time it was the most expensive Neo Geo game I ever bought (it's still up there). Waiting even longer could yield you better prices, of course, but for some of the later games there was a sweet spot right around $60-100. I picked up all of the later generation games at those prices, but if you missed that window they started to climb back up as collectors bought them and stock sort of dwindled. Most parked at around $150-200 after that. All and all, the later games weren't priced as high, nor did they lose as much value as some of the older Neo games.

Even with all of this, ebay was flooded, as were the arcades and operators. You could buy just about anything at sub $50 after a operator was done with it. The reseller shops like Cosmic Company in Hong Kong, would slash prices based on stock. It was not uncommon to see a one to two year old game listed for $20 because there was just so many of them and so little demand. 10 years ago pretty much anything could be had for dirt cheap if you knew where to look. That might be getting a little off topic, though

SamuraiShodownSensei said:

200 bucks isn't bad for the time. I like the game, fun little non technical fighter. It's not supposed to be a KOF, not sure why a lot of people rag on it

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It's no World Heroes, but then, what is?

I paid $200 for it. I actually created a Shock Box insert for it. It just wasn't as good as I wanted.

Hell, I even own the OST, legitimate release.

RabbitTroop said:

Super Dodge Ball loose carts sold for over $100 and were pretty rare before Shawn found those kits. I know, because not two months after I bought my loose cart, those kits were found.

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Did you end up buying a kit anyway? Haven't sold mine

SamuraiShodownSensei said:

Did you end up buying a kit anyway? Haven't sold mine

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I didn't. Was tempted, but after sinking $100 into a bare cart I just figured that was my luck and let them pass. I am not really a collector anyway, so the kit would be wasted on me. My cart is in pretty nice shape and at the time I bought it the price was pretty good

This,

RabbitTroop said:

I've talked about this before, but I think a lot of the members summed this up pretty well. Most games were introduced at or above $1,000 when new. ... By that time there just weren't as many ops buying.

Prices dropped quick. .... All and all, the later games weren't priced as high, nor did they lose as much value as some of the older Neo games.

Even with all of this, ebay was flooded, as were the arcades and operators. You could buy just about anything at sub $50 after a operator was done with it. The reseller shops like Cosmic Company in Hong Kong, would slash prices based on stock. It was not uncommon to see a one to two year old game listed for $20 because there was just so many of them and so little demand. 10 years ago pretty much anything could be had for dirt cheap if you knew where to look. That might be getting a little off topic, though

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And RT is right about another thing: The MVS cart prices do start to climb back up as AES crowd starts to buy MVS carts up for play on the AES--that and completing thier "MVS Shockbox Set" for the AES. /

Neo Ash said:

Ok...here we go. You will have to convert from Yen to CAD

http://castleofcollectibles.com/dungeon/dungeon.html#mvs

It looks like most of the "good games" were near/at/well over the $1000 mark. KOF 01 was $2,400

Click to expand...

Back then the US dollar was stronger, from 2001 to 2003 $1 usd exchanged for around 120 yen instead of 80 yen today.

Thanks for the awesome answers, everyone!

Since at some point MVS carts were more expensive than AES carts, was a AES->MVS converter ever created?
About when did MVS piracy appear?

smccd said:

... Since at some point MVS carts were more expensive than AES carts, was a AES->MVS converter ever created?

About when did MVS piracy appear?

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Look up Chrisr & Dion and DavidG.