Why is the US AES KOF 95 so expensive now?

ssjlance

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I'm a relative newcomer to actually owning an AES, but I spent a lot of time a decade or so back lusting over eBay auctions, telling myself, "One day... one day."

And yeah, prices have gone insane, especially for American games. I always remembered Magician Lord as being the defacto cheap game, maybe like, $30 CIB, iirc. Good luck getting a boxed copy for under $100 now, though. Hell, even cart only copies have asking prices over $100 when they pop up on eBay

Interestingly, though, the Japanese cart seems to be more expensive in this instance; looks like most Japanese carts I see listed are $300+.

Not to derail the thread, but anybody have any theories/ideas as to why the Jap cart is more expensive for this one game? I'm guessing the obvious answer is "because they made less," but, you know, why did they do that? Assuming that it is even any less common.

I do know that a lot of the U.S. carts are Japanese carts with an English label pasted on top; maybe it just wasn't doing very well, so they took a lot of the extra stock and made it into the early U.S. carts before producing more for the American market, making it less common in Japan in the process.

That's a theory I pulled out of my ass with no real proof though, so I'd love to know what somebody who knows what the hell they're talking about would have to say on the matter.
 

Heinz

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so I'd love to know what somebody who knows what the hell they're talking about would have to say on the matter.

Because the japanese version has japanese on it and there are people out there who just get so damn hard about it they just gotta have it. Simple really.
 

ssjlance

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Because the japanese version has japanese on it and there are people out there who just get so damn hard about it they just gotta have it. Simple really.

Certainly possible. Part of me really wants to believe it, because I've known fellers like that; Japanese automatically equals cool.

Or kawaii, as they'd probably insist on putting it.

Anyway. The only thing that makes me doubt it is that most Japanese games are significantly cheaper, like the example of KOF95 that started the thread.

Seriously, the main reason I got Samurai Spirits II when I first got my AES is that it seemed to be the only genuinely amazing Neo Geo title that was readily available for under $100 CIB. There are other good games for under $100, sure, but none that beat SSII, as far as I'm aware.

And a U.S. copy... well, it wouldn't have been under $100.
 

neofreak696

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I bet I know why and sadly back when I had my first Neo-Geo AES, I was guilty of having this done once. Don't know if its still a thing or not, but KOF 95 was a very common cart and people would use it as a sacrifice cart to convert MVS games to AES. I had this done for Pulstar with a KOF 95 cart. So im guessing they have become more rare because of this and obviously no longer common..
 
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Kpj

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I bet I know why and sadly back when I had my first Neo-Geo AES, I was guilty of having this done once. Don't know if its still a thing or not, but KOF 95 was a very common cart and people would use it as a sacrifice cart to convert MVS games to AES. I had this done for Pulstar with a KOF 95 cart. So im guessing they have become more rare because of this and obviously no longer common..

That's probably the scenario with a JPN AES copy, but no one in their right mind would sac the English version. It's not economical.
 

neofreak696

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That's probably the scenario with a JPN AES copy, but no one in their right mind would sac the English version. It's not economical.

Ah good point, think it was a Jap cart I used back in the day now that I think about it...
 

enix2093

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Probably just a stupid phase. I remember that 6 month period when everyone got stupid over Suikoden 3 and it jumped to like $200-$300 and a little later it was like $10 again.
 

vincewy

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This is not unique to KOF95 (US or JP likewise), even more common games, you usually see ones in fair to poor conditions. Try to get some of the common games in pristine condition(s), it's as difficult as finding rare games.

I just pulled the trigger on this

https://www.ebay.com/itm/123012254946

Been looking for one like this for quite some time, usually the edges of top inserts are chewed up so badly because they case doesn't cover the whole inserts on top.
 
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