Mint copy of Super Mario Bros. sells for $100,150

[Jon]

I wish you guys could have gone to Too Many Games this year. Both Heratige Auctions AND VGA were there. I have never seen so much overpriced shit in my life: $100k sealed copy of Sculptor's Cut (X2), $35k copy of NWC grey, at least two sealed copies of Stadium Events (US).

The best part was their wine and cheese party they had on Friday and Saturday.

Actually, the best part for me was trying to explain all of this to Vanillathunder while I walked around for 45 minutes with him. Basically, he said that they were a bunch of rich guys with absolutely zero expertise trying to evaluate something they know nothing about.

I agree. While they may "look" at a lot of sealed games, does that make them experts in sealed games? What are their qualifications?

Jon

 

[Lastblade]

I was at TMG, I saw that glass case with ridiculous prices. I just walked on by.

 

[herb]

TMG in general was laughable this year

 

[Leback]

Hopefully those comic book collectors move on to some other collectibles soon... Barbie dolls?
Anyway interesting article by Chris Kohler

 

[DevilRedeemed]

I wonder if indies will catch on and release games for older consoles for exorbitant prices as if they where art prints. If you have a gamemaker-self proclaimed artist at helm willing to sell the wares as pieces of conemporary art, it could happen. Conceptual, pop or other.

If Miyamoto programmed a single level of some made up platform game for Famicom and put out 5 units for auction I bet he'd be making a nice amount of money. It won't happen but a scenario such as this could create an interesting situation

 

[LoneSage]

I wish you guys could have gone to Too Many Games this year. Both Heratige Auctions AND VGA were there. I have never seen so much overpriced shit in my life: $100k sealed copy of Sculptor's Cut (X2), $35k copy of NWC grey, at least two sealed copies of Stadium Events (US).

The best part was their wine and cheese party they had on Friday and Saturday.

Actually, the best part for me was trying to explain all of this to Vanillathunder while I walked around for 45 minutes with him. Basically, he said that they were a bunch of rich guys with absolutely zero expertise trying to evaluate something they know nothing about.

I agree. While they may "look" at a lot of sealed games, does that make them experts in sealed games? What are their qualifications?

Jon

Crazy. A sealed copy of a game made exclusively for a rental store? Wonder what the story is there but I'd have red flags going off.

I think the angle with these six-digit prices is for people to haggle them down to a still stupid price of around $10k.

 

[oliverclaude]

I wonder if indies will catch on and release games for older consoles for exorbitant prices as if they where art prints. If you have a gamemaker-self proclaimed artist at helm willing to sell the wares as pieces of conemporary art, it could happen. Conceptual, pop or other.

If Miyamoto programmed a single level of some made up platform game for Famicom and put out 5 units for auction I bet he'd be making a nice amount of money. It won't happen but a scenario such as this could create an interesting situation

This is a very cool idea, though I wonder if indies could pull that off with a serious commercial success. They keep trying, flirting with different concepts, like the Playdate from the jointventure of Panic & Teenage Engineering. A gluten-free hipster handheld in Pikachu-yellow with a fancy Ayurveda crank.

Miyamoto and Kojima could pull that off, though. They could also easily breach into the originals market. I bet a painting of Mario by Miyamoto, not even game related, could land in the higher five digits regions, too. Or a Snake by Kojima. He can't draw? Well, strictly speaking, a modern artist can't either.

Still, single stages as art prints? The demo of such stage running in an executive toilet at one of Google's CEO offices, framed digital paper hanging there on the wall over an appropriated art urinal by Sherrie Levine? You're one brilliant Devil, my friend .

 

[DevilRedeemed]

This is a very cool idea, though I wonder if indies could pull that off with a serious commercial success. They keep trying, flirting with different concepts, like the Playdate from the jointventure of Panic & Teenage Engineering. A gluten-free hipster handheld in Pikachu-yellow with a fancy Ayurveda crank.

Miyamoto and Kojima could pull that off, though. They could also easily breach into the originals market. I bet a painting of Mario by Miyamoto, not even game related, could land in the higher five digits regions, too. Or a Snake by Kojima. He can't draw? Well, strictly speaking, a modern artist can't either.

Still, single stages as art prints? The demo of such stage running in an executive toilet at one of Google's CEO offices, framed digital paper hanging there on the wall over an appropriated art urinal by Sherrie Levine? You're one brilliant Devil, my friend .

Haha.

Sidenote, it has been mentioned a thousand times over but is ever relevant, the actual game as content will eventually die leaving a carcass. Is this "thing" then valuable as a renmant of what once was or does it become meaningless (meaning as a form of value)? Knowing the game/spirit has left the plastic/body, what will this imply?

Maybe this will acompany the dissolution of the current meaning we have of money too, as the digital takes over and eventually resignifies currency.
And then maybe we will eventually be able to download ourselves and be cast into our favourite plastic casing, our physical body then buried with this cart to enjoy it in the aferlife. I have no doubt that future cyber nerds will have their ashes mixed with those of their games collections and strewn over Akihabara from great height.

 

[oliverclaude]

Sidenote, it has been mentioned a thousand times over but is ever relevant, the actual game as content will eventually die leaving a carcass. Is this "thing" then valuable as a renmant of what once was or does it become meaningless (meaning as a form of value)? Knowing the game/spirit has left the plastic/body, what will this imply?

Yeah, exactly. Just what is stored in that acrylic coffin, right? These are comic book collectors, I'd assume, what attracts them in a video game is mint paper in a plastic foil and its graphic content. This "thing" can't be digital data, cause it's disembodied, like music, but the medium isn't. The wrapping isn't, too.

People collect vinyl, spending most of their time listening to digital streams, like collecting carts, but playing from an Everdrive. There you have it again: disembodied content for everyone, its medium & wrapping for the chosen few.

Finally, this leads us to art, let's say paintings, which are the same "thing": a disembodied something we love about it and simply gain by watching, not touching, which can be gained from a digital reproduction, too. The rest being canvas (medium) & whatever is on it (wrapping).

So yeah, that's the thing, that's what is collected: not the voodoo, just the decapitated rooster.

 

[DevilRedeemed]

Damn. Hah. It comes down to man living in a world of symbols and abstract ideas.
Cool shit OC

 

[oliverclaude]

Damn. Hah. It comes down to man living in a world of symbols and abstract ideas.
Cool shit OC

I was thinking the same thing, since you put in one sentence, what I needed whole paragraphs for: cool shit to you, too. But to avoid ending it on a sour note, in my opinion, to live in a world of symbols and abstract ideas is how man would describe living in paradise. We catch a fleeting glimpse of it, keeping us away from the madhouse.

 

[godzilla43]

This is bat shit crazy. Everything in that Kotaku article is gibberish to me.