2008

Monday, December 29, 2008

Average or Median: Which To Choose

A good number of readers and users of VGPC asked to see the average price for all games for each console and a chart to show the pricing history like we do for individual games. During some of the preliminary research into adding the feature I ran into an interesting dilemma. Do we show an average price or a median price? Which one we choose makes a big difference in the price we would show. Let me use the NES as an example. The average NES price is $17.55 while the median is $3.09. Why is there such a big difference?

We have prices for about 750 NES games and the vast majority of them sell for less than $10. From the chart below you can see how the game prices are distributed. The red bars show the number of games in a price range and the blue line is the cumulative percentage of games that sell below that price.

From the chart you can see that 60% of NES games sell below $4 and 80% sell below $10. There are about 60 games that sell for $20 or more, or about 7.8% of the total. These 60 games are the ones that skew the average so much higher than the median. Many of these games sell for well over $500. Nintendo World Championship alone adds $5.68 to the average price.

If we were to show the average price NWC and other expensive games would dominate the prices. For example, if NWC were to sell tomorrow for $6,000 the average NES price would jump from $17.55 to $19.87. But the median price would still be $3.09. Below is an example using the real average NES prices during the last 30 days. Between Dec. 4th and Dec. 5th the price jumped more than $2 because of a high priced game.

This same problem happens with other systems too. Newer systems like Xbox 360, Wii, and PS3 would see price spikes every Tuesday when new releases come out and older systems like SNES, N64, and Dreamcast would have big swings when rare games increase or decrease in price.

Because of this we are leaning towards using a median price instead of an average price when we start showing price charts for every console. What do you think?

The Median price for those who don't know is the cutoff where half the prices are above and half the prices are below that price.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Friday, December 19, 2008

Prediction Wrong: Wii Reselling for $250

Back in January 2008 I wrote an article predicting the Wii would sell for $400 during Christmas 2008. I got the overall prediction wrong because Wii prices are only about $250 this holiday season. As you can see in the chart below the prices on the Wii are much lower than they were in 2007.

In December 2007 the average Wii was selling for $469. December 2008 the average Wii price is $250.

Although I got the main prediction wrong I did get all the smaller predictions correct, except for one big one. Nintendo supplied a lot more Wii's than expected. WiiFit did turn help make the Wii the must have gift 3 years in a row as I predicted, but I had no idea Nintendo was able to sell 2 million Wii's in November, which is the most consoles ever sold in November (PS2 sold 1.3 million in 2002).

Historically December sales are twice November's, which would put the Wii at 4 million consoles sold. Normally resale prices are below the retail price though, so the Wii is still a bit supply constrained and probably won't be able to double November sales. Because of this I think December's NPD sales data will show the Wii at about 3.3-3.5 million units.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Give the Gift of Games: Child's Play

For many gamers this is the time of year for getting tons of games as presents. If your like me there are too many games released during November and December to buy yourself so you ask parents, friends, and family to help out and buy you stuff. This year we at VGPC decided to change things. We are giving the gift of games to those less fortunate instead of buying gifts for each other. We are donating to Child's Play, a non-profit charity that gives toys and games to children at over 40 hospitals around the world.

It really is a great organization. They work with hospitals to get lists of games kids undergoing treatment want this year and then people can buy specific gifts for kids using Amazon's Wishlist or by giving a cash donation. And almost all of their money, 97%, goes to the actual cause instead of administrative costs.

Check out their map of hospitals to buy some games for sick kids in your area (I gave to Denver Children's Hospital, my local hospital) or read more about them yourself.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Club Nintendo Means More Collectibles

Nintendo launched their Club Nintendo service in North America yesterday. It is basically a frequent shopper program for Nintendo products. You buy Wii systems or DS games or anything from Nintendo and you can get coins. You can also fill out surveys and get coins too. Accumulate enough coins and you get rewards. Some of the rewards are pictured below.

Most of these rewards are not sold in stores and will only be available to Club Nintendo users so they will probably be fairly rare. Pokemon Box was only sold at the Nintendo World store and now its one of the more rare and expensive Gamecube games. The Game and Watch Collection for Nintendo DS (600 coins) will probably become a collectors item too (and it could actually be fun while Pokemon Box is not).

Right now the site is pretty buggy. I tried to change my old My Nintendo account into a Club Nintendo account and the website ran very slow. When it finally went through it I would get kicked out of the site and have to log in again whenever I clicked a link. Hopefully Nintendo works out these bugs soon and we can all get some more Nintendo games and collectors items.

Friday, December 12, 2008

New Releases: Persona 4

The release list is definitely drying up now, but there is one big release for Playstation 2: Persona 4!!! This is on my Christmas list and Birthday list (which happens to be today in case any readers want to send me a present). Hopefully I will be playing this soon.

Nintendo DS New Releases

Build-A-Lot | Prices on Ebay & Amazon

Cate West The Vanishing Files | Prices on Ebay & Amazon

Drivers Ed Portable | Prices on Ebay & Amazon

Left Brain Right Brain 2 | Prices on Ebay & Amazon

Playstation 2 New Releases

Persona 4 | Prices on Ebay & Amazon

PSP New Releases

Dungeon Maker II The Hidden War | Prices on Ebay & Amazon

Wii New Releases

Neopets Puzzle Adventure | Prices on Ebay & Amazon

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Why No Batman Dark Knight Game?

I bought my copy of Dark Knight today and it reminded me that there is no Dark Knight video game. What a missed opportunity. The WSJ says the Dark Knight DVD and Blu-Ray is expected to bring in $282 million during the first three months. I don't think the game would have done that much, but even half that would be a huge blockbuster game.

I'm not usually a huge fan of movies turned into video games (Goldeneye 64 excepted) but publishers and movie studios passing up a chance to make millions of dollars always baffles me. If every system can get a The Tale of Despereaux, you would think people could buy a video game for the biggest movie of the 2008. Lego Batman is fun but its not quite the same.

I looked around to find the reason the game was never made, but can't find anything solid. Does anyone know why a Dark Knight game was never developed?

Persona 2 Reprint Cuts New Prices In Half

Almost a month ago we told you about Atlus reprinting Persona 2 and selling them on Amazon. We wanted to check back and see how a reprinting like this changes the new and used resale prices for gamers.

Below is the chart showing the Persona 2 price since December 2006 and before the reprinting. As you can see the average price has been increasing for Persona 2 for the last year and were selling for $64 used and $169 sealed.

The chart below shows the same price history with December prices added. As you can see the used price didn't change at all after the reprinting. BUT the new price dropped more than 56% from $169 to $75.
Persona 2 Price After Reprint

Atlus added a lot more sealed copies of Persona 2 to the market so the prices came way down. The game sold out very quickly though and the new resale price is still $35 above the $39.99 reprint price so Atlus still didn't print enough. Maybe they will have another reprinting in the future.

Do you think any other publishers will do reprints of rare Playstation 1 games? I'm hoping for reprints for Suikoden II and X-COM UFO Defense. The publishers can make some more money on these great games and I can save some money when I finally purchase them.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

New Releases: Prince of Persia

The big release this week is Prince of Persia for Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. There is a collector's edition version for each system too for any really big Prince of Persia fans out there.

I haven't played a SingStar game yet, but I love ABBA (please don't judge me). The ABBA SingStar probably won't get me to buy it, but singing "Dancing Queen" with Swedish rock videos in the background could be fun.

Nintendo DS New Releases

Playstation 2 New Releases

Kingdom Hearts RE Chain of Memories | Prices on Ebay & Amazon

SingStar ABBA | Prices on Ebay & Amazon

The Tale of Despereaux | Prices on Ebay & Amazon

Xbox 360 New Releases

Destroy All Humans! Path of the Furon | Prices on Ebay & Amazon

Prince of Persia | Prices on Ebay & Amazon

Prince of Persia Limited Edition | Prices on Ebay & Amazon

The Tale of Despereaux | Prices on Ebay & Amazon

Wii New Releases

Playstation 3 New Releases

Destroy All Humans! Path of the Furon | Prices on Ebay & Amazon

Prince of Persia | Prices on Ebay & Amazon

Prince of Persia Limited Edition | Prices on Ebay & Amazon

SingStar ABBA | Prices on Ebay & Amazon

8 Bit Games Recreated Using Boom Blox

This is a bit different than my usual posts about video game prices and collecting, but somewhat related and I think gamers and collectors will appreciate it as much as I did. Travis Hendricks, one of the loyal readers of this blog, has recreated some classic video games using the level editor in Boom Blox. Enjoy the video below.

How To Recreate Galaga Level Using Boom Blox

The levels might appear to be really straight forward but each one took quite a bit of behind the scenes action to make them actually work. Here's Travis's video tutorial and write up showing how he created the Galaga level in Boom Blox.

This was actually my very first stage in this series of Classics Recreated and let me tell you, it was not an easy first mission trying to figure out how to get everything to move correctly. So here's how I made it all work.

The ship itself, and the "extra life" ships, are nothing more than a few white and red Blox in the shape of a Galaga ship. The main ship has a dog character on it, the one who throws balls at everyone, so it gives the impression that the ship is firing.

The alien ships are set in a phalanx of little Deaths, little Skeletons, big Deaths, and big Skeletons to make them all appear a little different, much like the alien ships in Galaga. The "swooping" ships that come down the left side of the Galaga ship are the little Racoon characters that run after Gem Blox and bring them back to their fiery pit.

So to get all the characters (Dog, Deaths, Skeletons, Racoons) to move in the manner that I wanted I simply placed the things they desire slightly off screen and in an immovable Blox box. So for the Racoon guys I placed some Gem Blox behind, and slightly to the side of, the Galaga ship so they would move down the screen. For the Death and Skeleton characters I placed a few Kittens behind the Galaga ship. And for the Dog character, well, he just throws balls at any thing that moves.

From there, everything else just sort of takes care of itself.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Sealed Auctions: ROB the Robot

There are quite a few really good sealed games available right now. A sealed ROB the Robot for NES, Chrono Trigger, and Stack Up. All of these are pretty rare on their own so in sealed condition they are really good finds. Maybe you know some game collectors in your life who would love a ROB this Christmas. I keep telling my wife I want a sealed Chrono Trigger this Christmas, but its probably a bit out of our $50 gift limit this year. Maybe next year.

All the auctions listed in this article series are brand new and sealed. They are relatively hard to find or sought after by collectors.

ROB the Robot - Nintendo NES

Auction Link

Ends: Dec-23-08 15:26:27

Contra - Nintendo NES

Auction Link
Ends: Dec-04-08 22:38:00
The game sells for $15 used
See Historic Contra Prices

Metroid - NES

Auction Link
Ends: Dec-05-08 17:25:31
The game sells for $5 used
See Historic Metroid Prices

Stack Up - Nintendo NES

Auction Link
Ends: Dec-16-08 16:35:15

Chrono Trigger - Super Nintendo

Auction Link
Ends: Dec-25-08 11:02:11
The game sells for $40 used
See Historic Chrono Trigger Prices

Ultima False Prophet - Super Nintendo

Auction Link
Ends: Dec-28-08 22:34:38
The game sells for $6 used
See Historic Ultima False Prophet Prices

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Nintendo World Championship & 2 Stadium Events

See the Most Expensive Nintendo NES Games

A Nintendo World Championship cartridge for NES is available on ebay. The cartridge looks very nice and the seller has great feedback, 100% positive. If that isn't enough there are two Stadium Event cartridges available too. I guess all the rare NES games are coming out for the holiday season.

Nintendo World Championship for NES

Auction Link

Ends: Dec-04-08 19:49:51

Stadium Events for NES

Auction Link
Ends: Dec-04-08 19:26:48
The game sells for $1,000 used
See Historic Stadium Events Prices

Stadium Events for NES with Repo Cartridge Too

Auction Link
Ends: Nov-30-08 17:59:00
The game sells for $300 used
See Historic Stadium Events Prices

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Vote on Amazon Video Game Deals

Last year Amazon started their Customer's Vote promotion where Amazon customers choose what they want to be on sale. I think it is a pretty cool promotion so I voted last year. To my surprise I got an email telling me the laptop I voted for was the winning promotion and I was one of the lucky 500 who could buy it for $699 when the regular list price was about $1,300. Needless to say I voted again this year.

The items you can vote for aren't quite as exciting this year, a laptop, some cellphones, night-vision goggles, and the Soprano's collection. The interesting round for gamers though is Round 1: Playstation 3. You can vote on 3 different PS3 bundles with games and Blu-Ray movies starting at $199.

You have to vote to be eligible to buy the winning items so vote now. Be sure to come back and let me know if you win. I don't think lightning will strike me twice.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

New Releases: Chrono Trigger DS

What a difference a week makes. Last week had the most releases of the year and this week only 14 titles come out. One of them is a real gem though. Chrono Trigger DS comes out this week!!! I am almost ashamed to admit it but I've never played all the way through Chrono Trigger. I plan to fix that this year though. Chrono Trigger will probably sell really well so I don't think it will be a collectible, but it is supposed to be one of the best RPG's of all time.

Another game coming out that will definitely not be collectible but I am really looking forward to it is Personal Cooking Trainer on the Nintendo DS. I enjoy cooking and already have tons of cook books, but an interactive cookbook will be a great addition. I plan on cooking on of the family meals this Thanksgiving using the DS exclusively.

Nintendo DS New Releases

Friday, November 21, 2008

Adult Preorder Bonus For House of Dead Wii [SFW]

Sega of Europe announced today that they are releasing an adults only pre-order bonus for House of the Dead Project Overkill for Wii. The pre-order gets you: the game, a special bundle cover, and the uncensored graphic novel "Prelude to An Overkill".

This is a great collector's item for any of our European readers.

Unfortunately the special bonus has not been announced in the US. You can always import, but Wii's are region locked so you couldn't play the game. But maybe the graphic novel is worth it to you. And you can always buy the US version when it comes out too. I'm crossing my fingers that Sega America announces a similar preorder plan in the United States.

Thanks to our friends over at Sega Nerds for this information.

Monday, November 17, 2008

New Releases: Luminus Arc 2 Edition

We are going to start a new weekly feature on the blog with a list of the new releases for the week and which ones might be good to look at as game collectors.

Luminous Arc 2 releases this week and is an RPG for the Nintendo DS from Atlus so has some collector potential right there. If you pre-ordered the game you will receive some really cool pre-order swag. There were two collector's edition games released this week, Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe Kollector's Edition for 360 and PS3.

Nintendo DS New Releases

Playstation 2 New Releases

PSP New Releases

Need for Speed Undercover | Prices on Ebay & Amazon

Shaun White Snowboarding | Prices on Ebay & Amazon

Xbox 360 New Releases

Wii New Releases

Playstation 3 New Releases

Bolt | Prices on Ebay & Amazon

Karaoke Revolution American Idol Encore 2 | Prices on Ebay & Amazon

Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe | Prices on Ebay & Amazon

Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe Kollector's Edition | Prices on Ebay & Amazon

Need for Speed Undercover | Prices on Ebay & Amazon

NPPL Championship Paintball 2009 | Prices on Ebay & Amazon

Shaun White Snowboarding | Prices on Ebay & Amazon

Sonic Unleashed | Prices on Ebay & Amazon

Tomb Raider Underworld | Prices on Ebay & Amazon

15 Rare Gamecube Games | The Most Expensive Gamecube Games

The Gamecube had it's share of rare and collectible games during it's six year life span. Below is a list of rarest and most expensive Gamecube games.

Click to see Prices For All Gamecube Games

NCAA College Basketball 2K3

New Price: $400 Used Price: $37
The rarest game for the Gamecube. NCAA Basketball 2K3 is a college basketball game on the Gamecube so it wasn't destined to sell very well. Sega helped seal the deal when they cancelled all 2K series games on the Gamecube and stopped this game in the middle of production. This is one of the few sports games to become rare and valuable on any system.
See Current NCAA College Basketball 2K3 Prices

Phantasy Star Online Episodes I & II Plus

Phantasy Star Online Plus Gamecube Prices

New Price: $200 Used Price: $58
Phantasy Star Online Plus is a rerelease of the Phantasy Star Online game for Gamecube (also on this list). The Plus version fixed a few bugs in the intial release and added a few extra areas. The game sold poorly because it was an online game released after everyone realized the Gamecube's online was dead on arrival.
See Current Phantasy Star Online Plus Prices

Digimon Rumble Arena 2

New Price: $200 Used Price: $30
Digimon Rumble Arena 2 is similar to Super Smash Bros in gameplay but uses the Digimon characters. Its a sequel to the original Digimon Rumble Arena but did not sell as well as the original. The game received a lukewarm reception from critics but is still valued by collectors.
See Current Digimon Rumble Arena 2 Prices

Beyond Good and Evil

New Price: $198 Used Price: $22
Beyond Good and Evil was released by Ubisoft in 2003 on every console. It was reviewed well but sold poorly on all systems. In May 2008, Ubisoft leaked a teaser trailer for Beyond Good and Evil 2 which sparked more interest in the original and increased prices.
See Current Beyond Good and Evil Prices

Dance Dance Revolution Mario Mix Bundle

Dance Dance Revolution Mario Mix w/ Pad Gamecube Prices

New Price: $160 Used Price: $44
DDR Mario Mix is a regular DDR game with Mario characters, music, and art. It is the only US released DDR game on the Gamecube. Nintendo released the game in limited quantities for the 2005 Christmas season and it quickly sold out. In early 2006 Nintendo restocked shelves but quietly discontinued the game soon after.
See Current DDR Mario Mix w/ Pad Prices

Phantasy Star Online Episode 1 & 2

New Price: $150 Used Price: $42
A role playing game with a focus on online co-op play. Sega released this game as the marquee title for the Gamecube's online service. The service never caught on and Phantasy Star Online sales suffered. Sega shut down their servers in 2007 but you can still play the game solo or with 4 player split screen.
See Current Phantasy Star Online Prices

Resident Evil Code Veronica X

New Price: $150 Used Price: $31
This was one of the four Resident Evil games Capcom re-released on Gamecube. Code Veronica and Resident Evil 2 received limited production runs after the Gamecube's poor sales. After Resident Evil 4 released on the Gamecube prices spiked for all four RE games but only Code Veronica's prices remained high enough to make this list.
See Current Resident Evil Code Veronica X Prices

Metal Gear Solid Twin Snakes

New Price: $140 Used Price: $40
Twin Snakes is a remake of the original Metal Gear Solid for PS1 and was co-developed by Silicon Knights and Konami. Development was overseen by Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima and Shigeru Miyamoto. Critics loved the game and gave it an 85 average on Metacritic but the remake didn't sell as well as the original.
See Current Metal Gear Solid Twin Snakes Prices

Ikaruga

New Price: $140 Used Price: $34
Ikaruga is a shooter originally released for Arcade and Dreamcast. In general, the shooter genre doesn't sell very well and Ikaruga was no exception. The game is ranked as the 2nd best 2D shooter by ScrewAttack and the 3rd greatest shooter by IGN.
See Current Ikaruga Prices

Pokemon Box

New Price: $110 Used Price: $45
Pokemon Box isn't a game but allows players to store and sort Pokemon from the Gameboy Advance Pokemon games. In the US the game was only sold at the Nintendo World store and online, which limited the sales. The European version was never sold in stores but available through the Nintendo of Europe loyalty program.
See Current Pokemon Box Prices

Cubivore

New Price: $100 Used Price: $30
Cubivore is a action/adventure game with some RPG elements. You raise your creature through different mutations and offspring until you can defeat the Killer Cubivore. The game was called "Animal Leader" in Japan and was brought to the US by Atlus. Like most of their games, Cubivore received a very limited production.
See Current Cubivore Prices

Star Wars Jedi Outcast

New Price: $100 Used Price: $25
Jedi Outcast is an Action game original released on the PC and later ported to the Gamecube and Xbox in 2002. The game has you playing as a former Jedi Knight and lets you use lightsabers, blasters, and turrets. Jedi Outcast did not sell as well as other Star Wars games published by on the Gamecube and is more rare than the other titles.
See Current Star Wars Jedi Outcast Prices

Other Expensive Gamecube Games

Fire Emblem Path of Radiance - Used Price: $41
Pikmin 2 - Used Price: $38
Zelda 4 Game Collection - Used Price: $31
Zelda Ocarina of Time Master Quest - Used Price: $26
Skies of Arcadia - Used Price: $23
Tom and Jerry War of Whiskers - Used Price: $23
Monster 4x4 Masters of Metal - Used Price: $25
Zelda Twilight Princess - Used Price: $29
Top Angler Real Bass Fishing - Used Price: $29
Disney Sports Basketball - Used Price: $25

Great Values: Low Priced Rare Gamecube Games

Bust-A-Move 3000 - Used Price: $20
Goblin Commander - Used Price: $20
Gotcha Force - Used Price: $18
Rave Master - Used Price: $7
Killer 7 - Used Price: $10
Baten Kaitos Origins - Used Price: $15
Chaos Field - Used Price: $7
Spirits & Spells - Used Price: $10

See What Your Games Are Worth

Click to see Prices For All Gamecube Games
See even more rare video games on all systems

The list is ranked by highest sales price over the last three months. All the games are not rare (hard to find with small quantities available), but relative to demand all of these are in short supply.

Used prices are the average price between August 4th, 2008 and November 14th, 2008. New prices are the highest price a sealed version of the game sold for during this same time period.

Buy and sell games in our Free Game Marketplace

Subscribe to: Posts ( Atom )

Monday, December 29, 2008

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Top 10 Articles on VGPC For 2008

Friday, December 19, 2008

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Friday, December 12, 2008

Nintendo DS New Releases

Playstation 2 New Releases

PSP New Releases

Wii New Releases

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Nintendo DS New Releases

Playstation 2 New Releases

Xbox 360 New Releases

Wii New Releases

Playstation 3 New Releases

How To Recreate Galaga Level Using Boom Blox

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

ROB the Robot - Nintendo NES

Contra - Nintendo NES

Metroid - NES

Stack Up - Nintendo NES

Chrono Trigger - Super Nintendo

Ultima False Prophet - Super Nintendo

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Nintendo World Championship for NES

Stadium Events for NES

Stadium Events for NES with Repo Cartridge Too

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Nintendo DS New Releases

Playstation 2 New Releases

PSP New Releases

Xbox 360 New Releases

Wii New Releases

Friday, November 21, 2008

Monday, November 17, 2008

Nintendo DS New Releases

Playstation 2 New Releases

PSP New Releases

Xbox 360 New Releases

Wii New Releases

Playstation 3 New Releases

Other Expensive Gamecube Games

Great Values: Low Priced Rare Gamecube Games

ShareThis

Popular Articles

Rare Game Articles

Game Collecting 101

Blog Archive

Game Selling Sites