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I thought comic book collecting was cutthroat and competitive...

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Game value now, but it takes some knowledge to interpret it if you have anything other than just loose cartridges (is boxes/manuals). Feel free to pm me.

 

Here's a sample link with the four price/ condition categories it tracks

 

http://gamevaluenow.com/nintendo-nes/game/panic-restaurant?gameid=473

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Atari is where it's at...I really should set this up and play again

 

 

Alright, someone has to say it; NERRRRRRRD :grin:

 

?

 

Found them in a box of my old stuff and amazed how nice I'd kept them

 

Comic nerd ^2

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I think the market is just getting started for this branch of collecting. Comics nearly missed out on a generation with the boom and bust of the 90's. There are millions of kids who grew up with video games as their primary hobby, and those are the characters and "stories" that they're interested in. Nostalgia kicks in, and suddenly paying big $$$ for a sealed copy of something that you sank so much of your time into as a kid seems appealing.

 

I don't collect games myself, but I cohost a vintage gaming show and one of my best friends is a collector, so I've been to shows and stuff. We've already seen huge leaps in values, I think it's just the beginning.

 

If you are looking to make big coin in this market, you're too late getting in. Bronty starting 15 years ago was way ahead of the curve, but probably about right.

 

If you want to start gambling on collectibles at this point you should be buying late 90s Marvels, although even on those you are probably too late.

 

Oh, I don't have a dog in that race, I just think it's fun to watch from the sidelines.

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Variant is a common misconception. It's the original issue as you probably know. If anything is the variant it's the redated rebranded version. It's the 'first print' if you want to call it that and the later printings are cheap yes but so what that's like anything

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Well Magic the Gathering can be quite a dodgy market, with fluctuations as a constant in the second hand market, investors galore. and the occasional shark trying to trade away scraps for gold with newer players. And not to forget the increasingly hard to differentiate forgings going on. :/

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Another competitive hobby is collecting new hot wheels,specifically treasure hunts and super treasure hunts.the stories ive heard of the depths people go to to obtain them.from pallet raiding,to paying off stockers.even dressing up like an employee,or not and going in the stockroom to try and find them.guys are door warming stores every day.the return isn't bad either $1 to flip for a possible $25-$50.this last year the classic 66 batmobile was a super treasure hunt and the first few weeks were hitting 100-150.

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Another competitive hobby is collecting new hot wheels,specifically treasure hunts and super treasure hunts.the stories ive heard of the depths people go to to obtain them.from pallet raiding,to paying off stockers.even dressing up like an employee,or not and going in the stockroom to try and find them.guys are door warming stores every day.the return isn't bad either $1 to flip for a possible $25-$50.this last year the classic 66 batmobile was a super treasure hunt and the first few weeks were hitting 100-150.

 

Can't those collectors just order cases to guarantee the treasure hunt? I know toward the end, when I was still collecting Star Wars toys, I would just order cases and save myself time from having to go from store to store to store. Buy the case, pick out what you want, and sell off the rest. Saves time and gas which ultimately meant money.

 

Or maybe I was doing it wrong...

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There's no guarantee in a case will have a super.the ratio can be 1 in 10 cases sometimes or you could get lucky and pull one from every other case.the problem here though isn't about people going wild for their own collection or so it would seem,its the flippers or scalpers as their called in hot wheels world doing it solely for the money. Taking every flavor of the week or month hot car and hoarding them for resale.

Mattel does offer every regular car or treasure hunt in a set at the end of the year for quite a sum over retail.the example here is the 16 car super treasure hunt set for usually $300.quite a markup if you were just to find them all in the store for $16.this eliminates the resale as the value to buy secondary market is pretty similar.

These guys selling are usually getting multiples of each to sell.theres also the hoard factor.pretty much if you arent the first guy there to new stock.your not getting....

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Money and the opportunity to make a quick buck by taking advantage of someone/being ruthless brings out some pretty horrible qualities in many people. My experience is there are many decent folks around, but lots of insufficiently_thoughtful_persons too, especially if a market is very fluid or has a lot of movement in it like video game systems and cartridges.

 

About four years back I purchased a grouping of comics from a gentleman who was selling off his fathers estate as he dealt in many things and ran a comic/gaming store for a while. I picked up some ok books and some sports cards for a few hundred bucks from him. Not an amazing deal for me, but a decent buy. He also had about 10 packing boxes full of vintage Magic the Gathering cards. He wanted to get rid of them and I told him they were not really my thing. At that time I did not know they could also be very valuable potentially. he said " I will sell you all of them for $20, just help me clear up my basement." I turned him down. I still wonder to this day what I left at that basement :)

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