Original Prices

drjones

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Apologies if this has already been covered elsewhere; I looked around and couldn't find anything about this. I was thinking about how collectors seem to have a pretty well defined idea of what various games are worth today. Throw a name out and most people will be in agreement about a price range based on condition (at least it seems that way). I was wondering what the typical game cost, say, circa 1981? What did someone pay to stick a Donkey Kong in their arcade in 1981? I'm going to guess more than people will pay today since the game was a money maker, but I was just curious. If someone snags a DK in nice condition today for $300-400 how does that compare to what someone paid in 1981? Responses don't have to be specific to DK, could be any game.
 
Some of those production numbers sound really low. I thought there were 500 Peter Pack Rats made. That only shows 160?
 
Looks like a Star Wars Cockpit hasnt lost much value since 1983...

Star Wars SD $3095

Star Wars cockpit - 25" amplifone only $2000-$2500. Collector price/ebay price.

Some of those production numbers sound really low. I thought there were 500 Peter Pack Rats made. That only shows 160?

160 in System 1 cabs, 538 kits. Wasnt PPR one of the first (if not the first) System 1 games though?
 
Rad. I posted a thread looking for production numbers the other day. Does any one have numbers for other companies as well? THanks for sharing this.
 
Thank for posting a link to this info! It is incredible to see those prices. Who would have thought that Xybots cost $200 more than an I, Robot? Amazing...
 
Looks like a Star Wars Cockpit hasnt lost much value since 1983...

Star Wars SD $3095

Star Wars cockpit - 25" amplifone only $2000-$2500. Collector price/ebay price.

Yeah but $3095 could put a lot more food on the table and a lot more gas in the tank in '83 than it can now.
 
I guess you could ask scott, but I am pretty sure he got the numbers from atari internal docs. so they should be accurate.

If you read the list correctly, you will see 160 packrat dedicated + 500 kits. so 660 total.

What is not accounted for there are protos.

Had not looked at thaty list in a long time.. what caught my eye is shuuz.. 40 dedicated + 60 + 23 kits...
 
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Here's a list of original Atari production numbers and costs, courtesy of Scott Evans at www.atarigames.com -

http://www.720zone.com/Atari_Prod_Numb.jpg

FYI. Scott's list looks to be Manufacture to Distributor cost. You can tack on an extra 15-50% to the price based on the level of customer you were back then. IE Chuck-E-Cheese would end getting the 15% bump while joe blow one time buying operator would pay closer to the 50% level.
 
Yeah but $3095 could put a lot more food on the table and a lot more gas in the tank in '83 than it can now.

So true. Amazing how damn near 30 years later you find some games for less than the cost of your grocery or fuel bill. Hell in same cases youll spend more in energy buying and picking up a game than the price of the game itself.

Inflation is bullshit and a big reason why our economy's in the crapper.
 
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