The rising cost of collecting PlayChoice...

NERDtendo

Well-known member

Donor 2011
Joined
May 14, 2010
Messages
4,672
Reaction score
357
Location
Republic, Washington
Holy crap! The prices of PlayChoice 10 games is getting up there. I have been updating my price guide today and some of these games that used to sell for $30 are now going for $80. Maybe I sold my collection to soon LOL. I'm not upset though. I plan to collect them again in the future. My fun is in the hunt.

Anyways, back on my original subject. Do you think the rise is due to an increased interest in the arcade system or collector's paying a lot to get the few games that have eluded them in the past???

Also of topic, my data collection for TOPPER prices is going pretty solid!!!
 
It seems to be going both ways. I had sold some games for what I felt were unbelievable amounts.

Some that I priced high expecting offers on multiple games sold really FAST! SJM for example.

Then I had other gmaes that I damn near gave away. Where not only was there little to no interest they went far cheaper then they had.

Seems to be a big split, between the common, to the semi-rare/rare.
 
@Magog I noticed that sometimes it is easier to get a good price on the common games if you bundle a few of them together. I always tried to sell of the commons quickly for a little less than the going rate and get the real money from the rare titles. Props to you for the Solar Jetman sale. That's impressive.

@Deadpool66 There's a few of the CPS2 games I always wanted but I wanted to make sure I was well versed on the whole suicide battery / pheonix edition / rom hacked conversions. I still don't quite have the info straight.


After all this PlayChoice stuff and the popularity of the price guide, I wish I had kept track of all the VS stuff I used to sell. I was getting big money on a lot of my VS stuff. I used to have like 18 different games and like half were full kits. That was when I was first getting switched over from console games to arcades.
 
Same with CPS2 games

CPS2 games started taking a shit a few years ago - which was great for me. I bought a few bulk lots of CPS2 stuff for nothing. Marvel Vs Capcon for $60 shippped with kick harness - that was my first CPS2 buy - and the only one I've really kept. Have prices been going up for this stuff?

This shit is cyclical - like the terminator lol -
I think a lot of people are gouging on the Playchoice shit, I'm sure it will subside. Personally, I think you have to be fucking batshit-bonkers to want to populate a PC10 game-by-game with common games that people want $40 or more for. Like SMB PC-10.

It almost always seems to make more sense just to buy a fully populated PC10 cabinets. Even if you don't need the cab, you can always pick the games you want and sell it. I think I paid $250 for my Vs. Unisystem >PC10 conversion, fully loaded. That thing would have cost me over $500 dollars to put together piece-by-piece and game-by-game.
 
How do you collect information for something like this? I always wondered how price lists are made, what exactly goes into one?
 
How do you collect information for something like this? I always wondered how price lists are made, what exactly goes into one?

finger_with_wind.jpg
 
How do you collect information for something like this? I always wondered how price lists are made, what exactly goes into one?

I keep track of live auctions only (eBay). This is to show that the price is the actual price paid for by a real person. Some were listings I made, but most of mine have been passed up time and time again. I have a document that contains the sale date, listing number, sale price, and shipping price for each title. I also track the price of some commonly purchased repair parts and I am half way done with the TOPPER price list. For the games, I only track loose, used, working, original carts...nothing that comes with the box and topper, non-working, or NOS.
 
I am definitely noticing it on Pinball Machines. It seems like everything is going for more than the guide value, and sometimes a lot more.
 
I am definitely noticing it on Pinball Machines. It seems like everything is going for more than the guide value, and sometimes a lot more.

I totally agree that pinball prices have gone up. Some of the more desirable games like MM, Monster Bash, and Attack From Mars are all going for $7500 to $11,000 now.
 
I totally agree that pinball prices have gone up. Some of the more desirable games like MM, Monster Bash, and Attack From Mars are all going for $7500 to $11,000 now.

*crazy talk time*
I can tell you exactly why and it's something that's been going on with pinballs for years. People buy a game. Notice it getting a little popular (or start multiple threads talking about the same game). Then start talking on RGP about how game X seems like it should be worth more. Really bad examples are people creating posts speculating that a game will be worth 1-2K more NEXT YEAR. Then other owners of game X, of course, agree. Yeah! Game X should be worth a thousand more. Yeah! Game X is definitely a collector's game.

There are people who see these things as investments, as retarded as that comes off to the average person. So they inflate via word of mouth. MM is such an obvious example of everyone getting sucked into the frenzy. AFM is not a 7k game. 3K is more like it. 5K is really pushing it. But the word spreads that this is a 7K game. People talk about having a difficult time finding the thing. The demand grows where there was none. Then, well, I guess it becomes the real value.

I'm not stupid or nutty enough to believe that's the singular driving force for prices rising, but sometimes it is really, really obvious when people and prices get swept up by word of mouth. MM by far is the most ridiculous example of this phenomenon imo.
*end crazy talk time*

As for PC-10, I love it...I understand the quality of it (RGB on a nice arcade monitor)...but I am surprised at the fact that you can get the same exact game for 5 bucks on the NES...and how that fact hasn't effected the price of PC-10 games at all. It's not even a port. It's the same exact damn game.
 
Well in the case of AFM they grossly under-produced that game. It's run was cut short to make room on the line for some crappy Pat Lawlor game that was over-produced and subsequently discounted to purge remaining inventory. It's a shame because AFM earned very well and sold well too, and they easily could have sold more of them (and this same scenario was repeated on MM but not nearly as bad, they made like twice as many MM's as they did AFMs). I think it is crazy if AFM is selling for 7k but they are actually fairly uncommon compared to other WPC era games in terms of machines produced.

MM had great demand right after it was released. It earned amazing, the ops loved the game as it had very long legs compared to nearly every other pin released in the second half of that decade. Collectors and players wanted them early on but the ops wouldn't sell them. Ops actually wanted additional machines but the company moved on to the next game and never looked back. They could have run a couple thousand more of them back then and moved them all. It is one of my favorite games of all time and I'm happy to have it, but there's no way I'd pay the going rate for one.

I had no idea playchoice games were increasing in value or were even at all desirable. You can get the exact same game on the NES. That machine was really like a big pay-to-play advertisement for the NES back when it was around. I would imagine some of the increase is just based on the nostalgia factor of that generation being adults now with some money and want to collect something they remember playing from the past. I've been collecting punk rock records since the early 1980s and it's crazy how much a lot of the records I bought back in high school sell for on eBay now. It is bound to happen with anything remotely collectible as the years pass.
 
I've noticed the go up and down.
One month I could get $75 for a WILD GUNMEN a month later I can't get $45.

The PC10 games are weird like that.
 
I've noticed the go up and down.
One month I could get $75 for a WILD GUNMEN a month later I can't get $45.

The PC10 games are weird like that.

Yeah - It all just depends who's looking for it an how bad they want it at the time. Same with all this shit, you can search for parts and find a dirt-merchant who will sell you a $75 control panel, then find the whole game in someone's basement next week for $150.

It's all about what people are looking for at the time. In the case of the PC10 games it only takes 2 people who want 1 game to make it appear like the actual market value has risen. People catch wind of that then base their price on that - hoping of course, for more. Then you stack on people who put ridiculous BIN's on shit, hoping to catch a sucker. The people will see that an average a perceived value for an item. I'm sure NERDtendo bases his prices off of actual ending prices on auctions - But this is how pricing usually goes down - "WELL I SAW IT GOING ON EBAY $150", meaning some asshole did a search and saw it SITTING on ebay not selling for $150.

I shouldn't complain, if people are stupid enough to buy common NES in a cab games for an exorbitant amount of money, more power to them. Someday I'll want to sell my PC10.
 
Back
Top Bottom