Famicom - Complete Game Set Collecting.

[fredJ]

Yes I read your baseball blog post and really enjoyed it. As a European we don't have that culture at all. Stamp collecting and coin collecting is that closest I can think of.

I think something can only get valuable if people throw out all their old stuff. And there's still so many famicom games that I don't think prices will skyrocket actually. Even games like rockman. I've personally seen prices decline recently, I think because of the new generation consoles coming out and people want money and space. Or maybe because everyone wants to sell their "rarities" drives prices down. So keep on telling people their crap is worth $$$ please. 

But some boxed games and rarities have increased in value, I think.
Some famicom games are really hard to find, especially boxed.
I recently sold my most expensive famicom game: a bubble bobble part 2 for 100$ (loose cart) and soon hope to sell Captain Saver for a nice sum... I have a customer who buys my rarities, luckily for me... 

Now with Game driving up prices I think we could expect a little bubble that will burst eventually. I don't mind, I'll keep on doing my stuff regardless.

[lobdale]

One of the most concrete examples I have of the rise in prices of the Japanese retro-gaming market, even though it's still anecdotal, and deals specifically with Yahoo auctions in Japan, is my own copy of Gimmick, which I didn't get any sort of deal on or find in a lot or at a little store, but just on the open market on Yahoo.

Two weeks after my birthday in November of 2011, I put in a bid on one (of three) available Gimmick carts, which was cart only, and had an opening bid of 4999 yen (at the time, due to the strong yen, $64.92 if you were to convert it to dollars).  Not entirely expecting to win it, I took it for that bid, the only bid, unopposed.   A couple of weeks before I had passed on a complete one, with manual and box and card and all that, because I don't collect boxed non-Nintendo published, for 9000 yen ($112).

By April of 2012, when I had some time off for spring break at my job and spent a little time diggin' through stuff for my collection, on the only occasions I could even find one for sale, it was routinely selling, cart-only, for nearly $200.

There is right now a complete one on Yahoo auctions, buy it now, for 28000 yen, roughly $300.  The last cart-only copy on eBay sold for $335, the last complete one for $637.

Copies of games that I took for under 1000 yen each back in 2011 (Crisis Force, Akumajou Densetsu, Contra/Contra Force, Rockman) on Yahoo now command 2.5x/3x those prices.  People are finally starting to catch on to the collector's market in the States.

[fredJ]

Okay, but Gimmick is Gimmick, the most sought after game possibly.
Like I suggested, the rare ones go up in price. Also Crisis Force etc.
On eBay I see several BIN of Rockman 4 & Rockman 5 for around 15$.... Even Rockman 2 for 15$... And one auction of Rockman 1 that ended yesterday at 22$ (+7$ shipping) and Rockman 6 ending at 10$. Games like wai wai world ending at 6$... These games are not rare, but there used to be some price to them anyways. I think there are more and more ebay items from Japan, but not higher demand

I've found some great deals in the last days from Japan too.  Maybe I'm one of the "international buyers" that picks up all the good stuff. But actually I think prices are the same or lower as they were a year ago -- even in yen. For the stuff I am buying.
But I have to say that prices seem to go up and down... I think that sometimes Japanese people decide for a "closet cleaning" and then after a while it dies down and prices rise again. It is frustrating for a reseller like me, because you worry that the market is collapsing and stop buying, then prices go up up and you can't afford to buy, LOL.

[senseiman]

I agree about the more common games not going up in value much (or at all).  It is true that there are still a ton of Famicom games out there since people didn`t throw them out, though it seems once a collector`s market gets established in any hobby those people figure out what there is a lot of and what is rare and assign value accordingly.  CIB stuff in nice condition for example isactually is pretty hard to come by even if the game by itself isn`t since most people threw the boxes out back in the day. 

It is interesting to hear about Ebay since I don`t follow the prices there much.  I`m mainly talking about things in Japan, which is all I know.

I`ve noticed the same thing as Lobdale with respect to Gimmick here.  I picked up a loose copy of that at Mandarake 2 years ago for 4,000 yen (abotu $50 at the time).  3 weeks ago I was in the same store and they had one for 16,800 yen, four times more.

It isn`t just rare stuff, I bid on games in lots of 50 or 100 when they come up on Yahoo and whereas I used to win them all the time nowadays they easily go for 50% more than my highest bid even though I am bidding higher than I used to.

ANother thing that is almost impossible to find cheap now is consoles.  A couple of years ago I could sell working Famicoms (console only) on here for $15 each because I could get them easily either at my local store or through Yahoo Auctions for less than that.  Now it is absolutely impossible to find Famicoms for that cheap. When they come up on Yahoo Auction in lots the price to me to buy them (with shipping and the risk that some won`t work) usually works out to closer to $20 each now. 

[nerdynebraskan]

Yeah, there's always going to be a lot of common, low-demand games for any popular system that will be cheap forever. But on a library as big as the Famicom's, they're still going to add up a bit. It's the rares and the cult favorites that will cost a ton for any in-demand system.