An Accidental Collector

Several weeks ago, a friend told me that a copy of Earthbound for the SNES with box and book is selling to upwards of $600.  Of course, it's not that easy.  The North American copy of Earthbound also came with it's own full sized strategy guide and I'm fairly certain it won't be worth that much unless everything - including the guide - is accounted for.  That was back then.  Today, games being bundled with guides or statues or any number of knick nacks are considered 'collector's editions'.  Back in the SNES day, there were no such thing.  A game which came with it's own strategy guide was simply a game that came with it's own strategy guild.  Nobody thought to collect the darn things.

And ironically, that's why it's worth so much.

After a bit of thought, it came to me that most of these so called 'rare' games which are worth a bucket load of cash on Ebay are collected accidentally.  That is, someone buys the game, plays it, puts it away for 20 years and then finds out it's worth hundreds of dollars.  This person, I'm betting, never thought to put the copy away so it could be worth something one day.  In the same way, I too am an accidental collector.  A few (very few!) of my games are worth 'something' (something small) but that's because I buy an abnormal amount of games so one or two of those purchases are bound to pay off.

One such game (and the crowning jewel in my collection) is Panzer Dragoon Saga for the Sega Saturn.  Not many copies were printed of the North American release of the game (this is the only version worth something) and that's no surprise considering it's release at the very end of the Saturn's life cycle.  It's also the very first game I have ever pre ordered off EB!  (My second is Magic Knight Rey Earth…. I wonder if that's worth anything…)  And now it's worth a couple hundred bucks and is also considered one of the rarer games.  Still I never meant to collect it.  It was bought, played, and just sat there for 20 years.

Even today, this still appears to be the case.  My friend also told me about Xenoblade Chronicles, which apparently is worth more than it's sticker price, because of limited quantities.  Again, this is in reference to the North American version, which was only availiable either through Gamestop or pre ordered from Nintendo.  It's no surprise that quantities are limited.  Not THAT limited, however, because I hear there are around 300k copies of these floating around but unlike Panzer Dragoon Saga, it's still fresh in peoples minds and, being a newer game, people might actually want to play it.  So I'm quite happy I own a copy, but again, it wasn't because I planned on a rising resale value.  It just happened that way.

This is why I'm very skeptical of all these 'special editions' floating around out there for just about every game.  Yeah, you get statues, soundtracks, art books and the like but it's highly unlikely it'll be worth anything.  Or maybe it will and I'll eat my tongue but I do have a bit of an example for what I'm talking about.  So I mentioned Xenoblade, right?  It's not crazy rare or super expensive but it's deifnitely more than you would have paid if you pre ordered.  Following the release of Xenoblade is another JRPG:  The Last Story.  My friend says that's beginning to crawl it's way up the value ladder and I'm sure plenty of people missed the first collector's run (with the artbook and box).  People who have been burned by one or both titles aren't making any more mistakes, so when another JRPG comes out, a game by the name of Pandora's Tower, people started to snap them up…  in doubles.  Which is kinda ridiculous because now you've got two copies out there for every one person who wants to play it, and honestly, that isn't going to make the game any more rare.  When people start buying games just to collect, ironically, is also when the value of these games take a nose dive.

A perfect example of this is the comic industry in the 90's.  As everyone knows now, old comics in good condition are worth something.  You know it now, but back 30 years ago noone does.  So when these comics printed in the 60's and prior start to be worth something in the late 80's, people took notice.  In the 90's, comic book companies are churning out new '#1' issues by the dozen, just to attract speculator dollars.  Comic collectors would buy 20 copies of these issues hoping to make a quick buck down the line and the book publishers made a lot of money.  So many of these 'collector's issues' were printed that, unsurprisingly, the supply became over saturated and the issues ended up having no worth.  The folks who bought 20 copies of Supreme #1 lost out and these same people stopped buying.  Demand suddenly tanked and the great comic crash was the result.

Now I'm not saying the gaming industry will crash in the same way.  But what I am saying is this:  if you buy something hoping it'll go up in value, you better make sure noone else is doing the same.  And in today's 'collectable edition' mentality, that is much harder said than done.  I am still convinced that whatever is worth something now only got that way accedentally a very long time ago.