How people who started collecting home carts 20 years ago look at everyone else on this forum.

[DevilRedeemed]

The anti rom league was ridiculous and pathetic. You can't block out the sun with your thumb.

 

[FAT$TACKS]

How can anyone be anti rom?

I love me some rom.

 

[FredyFired]

How can anyone be anti rom?

I love me some rom.

View attachment 56274

Glad to see you enjoy one of our treats.

 

[FAT$TACKS]

 

[FredyFired]

Great commercial and publicity stunt, also some of the comments are absolute gold on this video if you speak Romanian.

 

[Niko]

Normally I wouldnt side with this thread, i'd just say you're a bunch of neck beards who regret selling your home carts for pennies back in the day.

But I've recently found myself disgusted with the scene. Have you seen the cost of Gameboy Advance games? People bootlegging SNES carts? WTF is even happening!?

At this point, like it or not. The hobby is an investment. Being an "OG Big tymer" doesnt mean shit when you sold your MS1 for $250 in 2001.

 

[DevilRedeemed]

Complete agreement. That's about when I stepped off. There was something reasonable about how things where set up before. Now it's bonkers, quite sad

 

[FAT$TACKS]

But I've recently found myself disgusted with the scene. Have you seen the cost of Gameboy Advance games? People bootlegging SNES carts? WTF is even happening!?

Right there. I've seen lots of bootlegs for sale in local shops around the area. Anything you can just go online and buy from China seems to turn up in some game shop somewhere. I'm pretty sure some of these place are just importing the stuff and slapping big prices on it, passing it off as real.


Then the shit with sealed games. In the past I've picked up sealed games that looked like legit shrink.. I opened it to play and shit was missing from the box. Bad me, opening a sealed game.

I don't care if someone wants a fake cart, but passing it off as real is a shit move. It's like that with just about everything collectable anymore. Even toys, there are guys that make reproduction boxes for vintage toys.

The older I get, the better I like the roms. The emulation just keeps getting better and all that fpga stuff is really changing the game.

 

[rarehero]

Having the carts in great shape, getting new carts, or even getting nos has always been pretty cool. But even back then, you knew it was a niche market and were better off with mvs to play the games. Besides, who doesn't love move stickers.

 

[madmanjock]

I play romz but with authentic stickz with cracked ballz

 

[Late]

The anti-rom thing was just funstering, I don't think anybody took it actually seriously (and played NeorageX on the down low) Also, I never understood the anti-home cart blowhards with the constant "MVS real arcade experience ooga booga" sentiments.

 

[doaal]

I grew up playing Neo but dismissed collecting for years as I'd always heard how expensive it was. By the time I actually got in I learned MVS stuff was quite affordable. It had just never occurred to me. Now of course I also collect home carts like an idiot, although it only serves to supplement my MVS collection. Just going for a few of my favourite titles I can actually afford.

And yet in the early 2010s when I wasn't collecting Neo (and probably should have), I was able to get most of what I wanted for Saturn, Dreamcast, PS1 and PS2 games. I balk at the prices now, and have even been able to make good money clearing out what I didn't want to keep. Lots of titles I simply couldn't justify buying if I was getting in today. So it sort of balances out. Today is the best day to buy the things you want, and tomorrow is the second best day.

 

[Niko]

... By the time I actually got in I learned MVS stuff was quite affordable. It had just never occurred to me. Now of course I also collect home carts like an idiot, although it only serves to supplement my MVS collection. Just going for a few of my favourite titles I can actually afford.

I think this is the natural progression of a Neo enthusiast. While you explore the library of games, the MVS format conditions you for the "higher than normal" cost per game. Once you know your favorites spending just a bit more for the presentation of homecarts isnt so bad.

Today is the best day to buy the things you want, and tomorrow is the second best day.

I really like this statement. I definitely wouldn't want to start down the Neo rabbit hole in 2022, but I'd much rather spend ~$250 on a JPN homecart version of RBFFS than spend the same on a mother fucking Chrono Trigger loose cart....

 

[doaal]

There's also the perceived value that comes with supply/demand. It feels okay to spend lots of money on an AES game, that was always sold as a premium and in lower quantities. There are far more copies of Chrono Trigger out there and that's why I've never done much collecting of Nintendo stuff.

 

[Gremlin]

Question to the big tymers - would you be upset if the bubble burst and this stuff was, say, 10% what its worth now?

Also all the collectors besides you toss themselves in the volcano in a mass virgin suicide event, so the "rarity" factor doesn't increase the value as much and prices are more level across carts (e.g. Metal Slug AES only costs like 20% more than, I dunno, Baseball Stars 2 or whatever)

Your plastic is worth less and shrivels up more pussies than it used to, but it's easier to buy/trade for things you don't have yet

 

[yagamikun]

Question to the big tymers - would you be upset if the bubble burst and this stuff was, say, 10% what its worth now?

Also all the collectors besides you toss themselves in the volcano in a mass virgin suicide event, so the "rarity" factor doesn't increase the value as much and prices are more level across carts (e.g. Metal Slug AES only costs like 20% more than, I dunno, Baseball Stars 2 or whatever)

Your plastic is worth less and shrivels up more pussies than it used to, but it's easier to buy/trade for things you don't have yet

Everything is worthless. Individuals place value on objects.

Dunno if I'm a "big tymer," but let the market burst completely for all I care. Hell, I welcome it. Investment potential is not why I personally buy games (of any type) and never has been.

 

[Atro]

Question to the big tymers - would you be upset if the bubble burst and this stuff was, say, 10% what its worth now?

Also all the collectors besides you toss themselves in the volcano in a mass virgin suicide event, so the "rarity" factor doesn't increase the value as much and prices are more level across carts (e.g. Metal Slug AES only costs like 20% more than, I dunno, Baseball Stars 2 or whatever)

Your plastic is worth less and shrivels up more pussies than it used to, but it's easier to buy/trade for things you don't have yet

It won't happen. At least soon.

It would be cool for those who wanna purchase more stuff tho. I have what I have because I like it, not because of whatever the interwebs says.

If you could get a Slug 1 for say (...) a grand, would you let it go?

 

[Gremlin]

It won't ever happen while clout culture/social media exists but I sure wish it burst.
When I first got into Neo-Geo I knew immediately I'd never own an AES, couldn't bring myself to play the song and dance around it. Picked up the MVS games I wanted and could afford.

If I read "in today's market" one more time I'll scream.
Collector loser who bought everything 15 years ago, commenting on a FS ad for a game he owns already that's overpriced by 300%:
"Good deal! I wouldn't let mine go for a cent less! GLWTS!!!".

Buys said game he already owns when it comes up for sale for $5 less than "market" value, immediately puts it on ebay at double the price.

Meanwhile, across the globe, some melvin turns on his Mini Cute running insert Cave shmup, takes a picture of the attract screen, posts it on twitter and turns the Mini Cute off. Wants to buy a replacement cardboard box for said Cave shmup but just can't swing the one month's McDonalds salary it'd cost to buy it, so he posts some PCBs for sale on a forum that he bought broken for $20, paid a hobbyist $80 for 6 hours of work to fix and sells it for $500 + shipping Paypal F&F
Shit sucks, man

I'm still big mad at missing the $150 batriders
Born too late to thrive, too autistic to move on with my life

 

[RAZO]

For all you guys that still own your home carts and other videogame stuff, keep them if you don't care about what they're worth and don't need the money.

I don't regret selling my stuff but dealt with so many scumbags during the process. I'm glad I don't have to deal with that shit again and most of it is gone.

 

[terry.330]

I think a lot anger also comes from the fact that the market always seems to be worse than anyone ever imagined and yet somehow it always manages to get even worse. Like peoples intelligence magically seems to lower in this hobby the more money is involved.

Retro games are now as bad as NFTs. It's all a slimy hustle being controller by a handful of greedy assholes. Speculative investments for people who think they're too smart for the stock market.

Talk to any of the losers into graded games, it's the same kind of hyped up investment speak as the NFT bros just nerded up a little.

 

[Trevor spencer]

I used to have a load of great AES games around 2003 - 2004 all gone now mind. I do miss them but I could only see me owing them again if I won the lottery.

 

[Wasabikakipi]

For myself I play my games HARD, even expensive ones. I didnt get them to just sit on a shelf and watch the market all day. But I enjoy having a shelf with all these classics.
I hard cap my single AES spending to around 1000. For the expensive AES ones, the worst the game looks THE BETTER. Anything over 1000 I go AVS.
And lastly since I play all my games, I only get the GOOD ones. Tons of bad titles not worth to get, even in kof, metalslug, samurai spirits series.

 

[Claudia Schiffer]

For myself I play my games HARD, even expensive ones.

ooooOOoo yeah, baby. tell me more.

 

[HornheaDD]

I remember buying the AES version of Magician Lord for like $50 or something. Sold it with the AES I had when I moved to MVS. I had Magician Lord for that pretty cheap as well, but sold it because I never played it. Then I thought "Know what? I wanna play ML - lemme check ebay for that $25 + free shippin for Magicia-WHATTHEFUCK?

MVS version selling for like $150? For Magician Lord? Honestly the only reason I wanted to play it was to relive memories of the arcade when I was a kid. I was like nah, lemme boot up MAME. Now I couldn't care less.

I just bought a 2 Slot because of the memory cart slot (and for PickNMix) so I can get a memory card down the line from TurfMasta or JGO, and because my 4 slot is a little finicky. Not sure I'm going to sell the 4 slot (but will be 100% transparent about it if/when I do). I bought a 1 slot to try and fix, but haven't made much headway there because of time constraints. But now I have a MiSTer and MiSTercade, so I can play the MVS/AES version of ML anytime and it's perfect.

Only have 3 MVS carts now, Sam Sho 2, Fatal Fury Special and that spare banana cart. I thought about a NeoSD but again, with the MiSTer... what for?

I dont have the room, or the wherewithal to buy up MVS carts again. Even if I do want the "feeling" of changing carts and whatnot.

 

[sirlynxalot]

I bought the dreamcast version of Mark of the Wolves new from a gamestore in 2001. At the time I knew I'd be interested in playing it, but I also had the idea that it's a late period release for a console that bombed so its not getting a huge distribution. Looknig at the cover, at the time, I just had an inkling that it would probably become more of a collectors item than some of my other games.

I played the hell out of it back in the day and periodically check the value on ebay to see if the collector value has risen much yet. All in all, the ebay value has risen to be about double what I paid for it... but it has not yet become the multi-hundred dollar collector item I thought it could.