Our Most Popular Articles of 2012

In case you missed them below is a summary of the most popular articles on the blog in 2012 determined based upon the most pageviews. Many of the articles were written in previous years but were updated in 2012 or continue to be popular.

How I Got Nintendo PowerFest 94

The story of how I bought Nintendo PowerFest 94. The tale involves 74 emails, 27 months, 6 phone calls, 5 failed meeting attempts, 1 sack of cash, but a successful transaction in the end.

The Most Expensive Nintendo NES Games

A list of the most rare and most expensive games for Nintendo NES. The article was originally written in 2009 and updated in 2011. It continues to be a popular one.

$13,000 NES on Storage Wars

A guy on Storage Wars TV show thinks he struck Gold with a 'NES-001' worth $13,000. Unfortunately, his assessment is inflated about 1000x real value.

The Most Expensive SNES Games

The 15 most expensive Super Nintendo games and what makes them so valuable. Includes games like PowerFest 94, Donkey Kong Country Competition, and Earthbound.

Where's The Best Place to Sell Games

Statistical analysis showing the best places to sell your video games to get the most money. Includes eBay, Amazon, GameStop, Best Buy, and more.

The Most Expensive Gamecube Games

A list of the rarest Gamecube games and why people will pay top dollar for NCAA Basketball 2K3, Pokemon Box, and Phantasy Star.

Most Expensive PS1 Games

A guide to the most expensive PS1 games. The rarest game was given away during E3 in 1998.

Skylander Figure List & Collecting Guide

The collecting market for Skylander figures boomed in 2012. Our guide to collecting them became very popular with the release of Skylander Giants.

The Most Expensive Nintendo 64 Games

Our guide for collecting Nintendo 64 games and what the difference is between Yoshi's Story and Yoshi's Story International - besides $200.

The Most Expensive Atari 2600 Games

2012 saw record prices for a number of rare Atari 2600 games. The press coverage for the rare games increased readership for our newly updated article.

Super Nintendo Collection For Sale - Every Game with Box

A well known Nintendo collector is selling his entire licensed Super Nintendo collection AND every single game includes the box and 85% of those also include the instructions. The list price is $20,000.

The sale is happening over at the game collecting subreddit (as a side note, you should join the /r/gamecollecting community if you haven't already. It is a great community of very knowledgeable collectors).

You don't have to worry about the reputation of the seller one bit. He is a long time member of NintendoAge. He created the bsnes emulator and bought all of these games so he could scan the boxes and make sure the ROMs are accurate for every game. Every penny of the sales price will go towards doing the same thing with PAL and Japanese SNES games.

Checkout some more pictures below or see the full album:

Atari 400 Games & Prices Added

In 1978 Atari announced the Atari 400 and Atari 800 computer/video game system. The "computer" only had one built in program - Notepad - and all other software needed cartridges to run. Many of these software titles were video games.

For all the Atari collectors out there, we now have nearly 200 games in our newly created Atari 400/800 price list.

As always, if you see a game missing from the list please let us know so we can add it and start tracking the prices.

Wii U Consoles Resell For A Higher Price But Not A Much As Wii Did

See daily Wii U Console prices with our Wii U Price Tracker >

The Wii U launches November 18th and both the Wii U Deluxe and Wii U Basic models are selling with big markups on secondary markets like ebay and Amazon.

Wii U Deluxe appears to be the more popular of the two options with an average resale price of $501, which is 43% more than the MSRP of $349.99. Wii U Basic sells for a 32% premium on the resale market for an average of $395.

These big premiums are still a far cry from the original Wii resale prices when it launched in 2006. Within a week of launching the Wii Console was selling for $570 on average and the retail price was $249.99. That's a huge 129% increase in price!

We will track the daily resale prices for both Wii U Consoles in our Wii U Price Tracker. If the console sells out everywhere prices could spike during Black Friday as parent's try find the toy for their kids. Or prices might plunge if the console turns out to be easy to find. Check back to see where Wii U prices go.

Wii U Console Resale Price Tracker

The average Wii U Deluxe and Wii U Basic resale prices on ebay and Amazon from three days before launch, November 15th, until December 31st, 2012. The average resale price is calculated by averaging all successfully completed sales on eBay and Amazon list prices over a course of the day.

Wii U Deluxe:

Retail Price: $349.99
Release Date: November 18th, 2012
Includes: Black Console, 32GB storage, Black Wii U GamePad, Nintendo Land
See more historic Wii U Prices

Wii U Basic:

Retail Price: $299.99
Release Date: November 18th, 2012
Includes: White Console, 8GB storage, White Wii U GamePad
See more historic Wii U Prices

SNES Campus Challenge 92 For Sale

GameGavel has been on a roll lately with auctions for rare games like Red Sea Crossing and Air Raid CIB in the last month. Now the Super Nintendo Campus Challenge we wrote about several months ago is for sale on the site as well.

Bidding is up to $5,200.

The seller explained how this game was only found recently:

"In the early -90's a Swedish company approached both Nintendo and Sega about creating a game system for TV broadcasting. The TV viewers would call in and then play games on live TV broadcast shows using their telephone dial key (DTMF) tones. The company where I worked was in turn approached by this company and we were asked to build this interface system from scratch.

We designed a system that interfaced two phone lines and two consoles. Two consoles for each system, either for two callers and two consoles simultaneously seen in the TV broadcast in a split screen fashion. Or just having the second console for "lining up" and pausing the next game in the place you wanted the next player to start inside a game. In addition to making the dial tones "press" keys in the game we had to make up separate "key maps" where one single phone key could translate to different console key presses depending on what was best in each game. For some games one single phone key would translate to jump+forward and in another game it could be something else.

The project rolled on nicely, they had game shows running regularly on both small and larger TV satellite channels in Sweden and also on Swedish national TV for a while on some big Saturday night show. We also went to Philly in the US where I helped set up a system for what I think was some morning show. We built a handful of these systems but after a while we were not in the loop anymore on what countries they were used in. I remember talks about Italy and... hmmm.. memory eludes me. Some other countries anyway. After a while I totally lost contact with the company who had the initial idea and who managed the project

During the development we had a large number of games to test different phone-to-console key maps. We also had a bunch of consoles both for testing, development and delivery to TV stations. When work on the project trickled down we were left with some games and some consoles to be able to service any system we had built. The few items that were left in the end were eventually packed up and stored in my attic for twenty years."

That's two really rare games found in attics during the last month. I need to stop writing this article and go check my attic......

Air Raid Sells for Record Breaking $33,433.30

The first ever complete in box Air Raid for Atari 2600 we wrote about previously closed at a record breaking $33,433.30!

This makes it the most expensive Atari 2600 sale of all time.

Updated Rare Atari 2600 Game Article

We've updated our article about the 30 rarest Atari 2600 games and the reasons they are so expensive.

Before jumping to the article, can you guess:

What is the most expensive 2600 game?
What is the single biggest determinant for a game becoming rare?
What rare game shares the name with a very common and popular game series?

Now, check out the article and test your Atari 2600 knowledge.

Rare Atari 2600 Games

First Complete CIB Air Raid Found and Up For Sale

Back in 2010, an Air Raid for Atari 2600 sold for $31,600. It was so expensive because it was the only known copy to include the box. Until that auction, nobody was quite sure the box even existed.

Now a copy has surfaced that is Complete in Box WITH THE MANUAL and it is up for sale on GameGavel. Bidding is already up to $11,600 as of this article.

There is a good chance this will sell for more than the boxed version. It is not guaranteed because bidding on these rare games is quite volatile and prices can swing dramatically based upon who is bidding. If it does sell for more than the boxed version there is a chance it will be the most expensive video game of all time.

Backstory for CIB Air Raid

The story behind how this Complete Air Raid was found is pretty interesting. You can read the whole account on the auction, but the owner was a manager at a a drug store in the 80's.

A game rep for Men-A-Vision came in and asked if the store would carry a game called Air Raid. The manager asked if he could take it home and try it first, common practice with these sales reps according to the owner.

The sales rep gave the owner his last copy to try out. The owner said it wasn't anything they would want to carry and told the rep he could pick it back up. The rep said the manager could keep it.

The manager bought the game from the drug store and kept it in his closet. A week ago he saw an article about Atari history and the article mentioned Air Raid and how it sold for $31K. I remembered he owned the game and found it again after some searching.

While he was preparing some high resolution photos to send to AtariAge, his daughter found the instructions behind the plastic display case.

More Air Raid Complete CIB Photos

Busy Improving our Servers

We recently passed 100 million price points in our database.  That's not much data compared to AT&T's call logs or Google's web indexes, but it's far more data than our systems were designed to handle.  We've spent the last couple months migrating to bigger servers and adjusting our systems to handle ever larger data volumes.  Here are some aspects you might care about as a user:

• Improved filters for detecting and excluding bad auctions.  This means you'll see fewer mistakes in our sales records and more accurate prices when linking to eBay.
• More scalable architecture.  This makes it easier for us to grow in the future in case we ever decide to track prices for other product categories
• Restored Amazon links in Current Listings feature.  These had been disabled for a while due to some problems on our back-end.
• Reduced database admin time.  This should give us more time to add new features to the site.

These server changes are also our first step towards tracking items in complete condition, an often requested feature on our current roadmap.  Once these server changes are done, we can get back to improving more visible parts of the site.

A 2nd Campus Challenge 92 Cartridge Is Found In Attic

Yesterday afternoon a second copy of Nintendo Campus Challenge 1992 was found and verified to exist. Up until now there was only one known copy, which was found at a now legendary garage sale in New York.

This second copy is owned by someone who is not a collector but was given the cartridge by Nintendo back in 1992 and forgot all about it until now. Here is how the owner describes it:

I was involved in a project where we received a range of games, a few consoles and this one [Campus Challenge 92]. We actually ran the project both in the US and in Europe. It was not the campus challenge itself. We built gear around it and was offered to keep a few consoles, games and the Campus Challenge which at the time was seen as more or less worthless.

I just found it in the attic when looking for other stuff and thought I'd google it to find info about it and... well it was a nice surprise :-)

Even though he felt Campus Challenge was "more or less worthless", I'm sure he's glad he kept it around. The only known sale for this game was back in 2006 for $4,000. Game prices have increased substantially since then (just look at our Vintage Game Index for evidence of this). I am sure the game is worth upwards of $10,000 today.

UPDATE: An owner of another Campus Challenge 92 cartridge contacted me and posted in the comments below stating that this game is more rare and less rare than previously thought. How is that possible? There are four copies of this game in existence now so it is less rare than my initial research led me to believe. But one of those copies is a Super Famicom version and the other two are NTSC versions. This new one is a PAL version for Europe.

So it is one of a kind, but also one of four. Thank you snesmaster for your update.
Below are some more videos of the owner starting up his Campus Challenge 92 cartridge and playing it for a while:

Used Game Market Increases New Game Sales

A professor at the Stern Business School at NYU has been conducting research in Japan on the effect of the secondary market in video games on new game sales. According to preliminary results from the study, the used game market actually increases sales in the new game market.

In Japan, the predominant location of the secondary market is retail stores (e.g. GameStop-like stores). Online auctions (e.g. eBay) and local swapping (e.g. craigslist) are not popular.

The study finds that new game sales drop rapidly after the initial product launch (Figure 1 Below). The rate of decrease ranges from 5% to 47% per week. For most games the sales of new games has virtually disappeared 6-8 weeks after launch.

In contrast, the used game sales takes off 2-3 weeks after the initial product launch (See Figure 2 below). In the situation the study describes, where the trading is mediated by for-profit retailers (e.g. GameStop), the quantity supply (trade-ins) is constantly greater than the quantity demand (sell-out) for the used games. As a result, the inventory level for the retailer increases monotonically over time.

Based on this statistical analysis, the study then simulates the situation if the secondary market was completely eliminated (Figure 3 below). Because gamers who buy new games no longer have the insurance to sell the game if they decide they don’t like it, they are less willing to take the risk of buying the game new. As a result, the elimination of a secondary market dampens new game sales.

(Note that although the sales increases become positive after week 20, the absolute volume is so small that it doesn’t change overall game sales in any meaningful way. Refer back to Figure 1)

The study was done using weekly sales data released by Famitsu magazine. The dataset covers 4 years but less than 40 titles of games. The low number of titles is due to the magazine only reporting the top 50 games. Once a game dropped out of the top 50 the entire series of data for that game had to be discarded. The 40 games are across multiple platforms including PS2, XBOX and N64. This is a bit of a problem with the study because unit sales are highly dependent on the number of consoles sold.

Even with this smaller sample size and flaws in the study, this study adds some more data to the debate about used games helping or hurting the new game market.

I know of one study being conducted on US data and analyzing all games for a particular console. Hopefully this larger study will be released within the next year so we will have more hard data on the subject.

In the mean time, what do you think? Does the used game market hurt or help the new game market?

15 Rare Xbox 360 Games | The Most Expensive 360 Games

Since the Xbox 360's release in 2005 thousands of games have been released. Most 360 games are easy to find and abundantly produced, but a few titles are rare and in some cases quite valuable. Below is a list of the rarest and most expensive Xbox 360 games.

Click to see Prices For All Xbox 360 Games

Most Valuable Xbox 360 Games

Dead Space Ultra Limited Edition

New Price: $750 | Used Price: $480 | See Current Prices

When the original Dead Space launched is 2008, EA made 1,000 Ultra Limited Edition copies they sold for $149 each. This special edition includes the game itself, special packaging, "Downfall" animated DVD, lithograph, artbook, graphic novel, and Ishimura patch.

The price is much higher than other limited editions because EA made such a small quantity and has never re-printed them. At the current new price of $750, the game has increased in value 400% since it came out 4 years ago.

Fallout 3 Survival Edition

New Price: $500 | Used Price: $370 | See Current Prices

Fallout 3's received two special editions, the Collector's Edition (see below) and the Survival Edition. The Survial Edition includes everything in the Collector's Edition in addition to a full sized Pip-boy 3000 replica, which is basically a really cool looking digital clock.

The Survival Edition was sold exclusively at Amazon for a retail price of $129.99. Even in used condition this special edition sells for more than double the MSRP.

Mass Effect Collector's Edition

New Price: $500 | Used Price: $110 | See Current Prices

The original Mass Effect's collector's edition includes the game, tin box, tin box slip cover, an art book, and fiction book.

This Collector's Edition was not an exclusive or produced in extremely limited quantities, but it still sells for much more than the original retail price if it is still sealed.

Assassin's Creed II The Master Assassin's Edition

New Price: $200 | Used Price: $81 | See Current Prices

Assassin's Creed II The Master Assassin's Edition includes the game, limited edition box, Ezio figurine, an artbook, and DVD with music and behind the scenes videos, and two bonus areas in the game.

The two bonus areas were later made available via Xbox Live and Game of the Year Editions.

Tales of Vesperia Special Edition

New Price: $178 | Used Price: $86 | See Current Prices

Tales of Vesperia Special Edition includes the game in a steelBook case and a 10th anniversary soundtrack CD. The soundtrack includes tracks from many of the Tales games released in the past decade.

This special edition has much less included than other limited editions on this list, but still fetches a big premium to the original MSRP. The game originally sold for $69.99 and even in used condition it sells for more than that now.

Halo 3 Legendary Edition

New Price: $126 | Used Price: $57 | See Current Prices

The Halo 3 Legandary Edition includes a special edition outer box and inner box, three disc set with the game, Collector's Edition disc, and cutscene disc. The limited edition also includes a scaled-down model of the Mark VI helmet.

This is the first game on the list that has actually decreased in price slightly from its initial retail price of $129.99. It is also the one that sold the most units, which explains why prices are not as high. If the helmet had been life sized this would be the ultimate Halloween costume item.

Batman: Arkham Asylum Collector's Edition

New Price: $122 | Used Price: $48 | See Current Prices

Batman: Arkham Asylum Collector's Edition includes the Batman game, 48 page journal, behind the scenes DVD, exclusive DLC code, and a replica Batarang measuring 14" across.

The Collector's Edition retailed for $99.99 originally and is slightly more expensive than this if still sealed in the original packaging.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Prestige Edition

New Price: $120 | Used Price: $76 | See Current Prices

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 Prestige Edition has perhaps the coolest special edition pack-in ever - fully functioning night vision goggles. Along with the googles and the game itself, the special edition includes an artbook and special game tin.

The game originally sold for $149.99, which makes it the most expensive game on this list in terms of MSRP. The game sells for about $30 less than its original price so it has decreased in value over time.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance Gold

New Price: $118 | Used Price: $56 | See Current Prices

Marvel Ultimate Alliance in late 2006 and by mid 2007 several different downloadable packs were available with different characters and achievments. In May 2007 the Gold version was released with all the downloadable content already included.

A Platinum Hits version was released four months later and the Gold version was discontinued. Because the Gold Edition was available for such a short period of time it is available in much smaller quantities than the other two versions.

Record of Agarest War Limited Edition

New Price: $110 | Used Price: $60 | See Current Prices

Aksys's "Really Naughty Limited Edition" for Record of Agarest War is not your usual limited edition. It comes with the usual soundtrack, and special box to go along with the game but it also includes Vira-Lor breast shaped mouse pad and Yearning Ellis pillowcase. All the artwork included in the limited edition is much more provacative than the standard cover art.

The limited edition sold for the same price as the regular edition but was available via preorder only. Based upon recent prices the naughty edition has nearly doubled in price.

Halo: Reach Legendary Edition

New Price: $84 | Used Price: $66 | See Current Prices

After the success of the Halo 3 Legendary Edition, Microsoft decided to do a Legendary Edition for Halo: Reach as well. This version includes an armored container, the game, in-game exclusive content, journal, security badge, embroidered patch, and Noble team statue.

Microsoft overproduced this version though if prices are any indication. The game originally sold for $149.99 but now only sells for a little more than $80 when brand new. That price is still enough to qualify for this list, but it is the largest price decrease from MSRP with an almost 50% drop.

Aliens vs. Predator Hunter Edition

New Price: $79 | Used Price: $42 | See Current Prices

Aliens vs Predator Hunter Edition includes the game, special box, artbook, Weyland-Yutani badge, postcard, and best of all a Facehugger alien replica.

The game quickly sold out a GameStop at the $99.99 price, but has still decreased in price a bit inspite of the initial sales success.

Final Fantasy XI: Ultimate Collection

New Price: $71 | Used Price: $48 | See Current Prices

The Final Fantasy XI Ultimate Collection includes the original FF11 game plus all expansions and three add-on scenarios.

The PC version is available as a download on Square Enix's store for $20, which helps hold the price down on the PC version ($5). The Xbox 360 does not have a full download version and now sells for a premium price.

Assassin's Creed Limited Edition

New Price: $71 | Used Price: $44 | See Current Prices

The original Assassin's Creed Limited Edition contains the game, a bonus disc, a collectible 3 inch Altair figurine, a comic, and a mini-strategy guide.

This limited edition sells for almost the exact same price as it did originally at retail stores.

Fallout 3 Collector's Edition

New Price: $60 | Used Price: $50 | See Current Prices

Fallout 3 Collector's Edition includes the game, art and commentary book, behind the scenes DVD, Vault-Tec lunch box, and a Vault Boy Bobblehead.

This version was sold at all major retailers and is much more common than the Survival Edition near the top of this list. The only difference between the two is the color of the outer box and the inclusion of Pip-boy 3000 replica in the Survival Edition.

Rare But Inexpensive Xbox 360 Games

• Earth Defense Force 2017 - Used Price: $13
• Naruto Broken Bond - Used Price: $14
• Armored core - Used Price: $16
• Culdcept - Used Price: $22
• Destroy All Humans! Path of the Furon - Used Price: $23

Expensive Xbox 360 Game/Controller Bundles

• Rock Band 2 Bundle - Used Price: $110
• Ace Combat 6 Flightstick Bundle - Used Price: $85
• Rock Band Special Edition - Used Price: $70
• Band Hero Superbundle - Used Price: $65
• Tekken 6 Limited Edition Fight Stick Bundle - Used Price: $50
• Guitar Hero 5 with Guitar - Used Price: $35
• Karaoke Revolution American Idol Encore Bundle - Used Price: $28

See What Your Games Are Worth

Click to see Complete Xbox 360 Price List Games
See a list of the 12 most expensive video games on all systems

The list is ranked by the highest average new price and then highest average used price in the event of a tie.

Buy and sell games in our Free Game Marketplace

Guide to Super Nintendo Blockbuster Exclusives

Blockbuster exclusive games are an interesting concept and these limited releases are now sought-after gems in the game collecting community. This article will be taking a closer look at all those hard-to-find Blockbuster exclusive titles for the SNES.
It is nearly impossible to get solid proof that a title was an exclusive. Some of these titles may have been an exclusive for only a short while, then put out for sale at other retailers. This list is the titles are the gaming community generally agrees were Blockbuster exclusive at one point in time.

ClayFighter: Tournament Edition
This SNES only game served largely as a fix to the original ClayFighter. It included all the same characters and fixed a lot of the glitches present in the original. They also changed a lot of the level backgrounds and added more versus modes. Despite how limited this release is, it is incredibly easy to find and cheap as well. A fun game, worth collecting, but usually overlooked.
Average Price: $8.25

Eek! The Cat
Developed by Ocean as a rental only game based off of the TV show by the same name, this awful game is a good example of your average licensed game. Sealed copies surface time to time and are worth a fair amount of money. Unsealed copies are often covered in Blockbuster stickers and always sell for cheap.
Average Price: $6.99

Mr. Nutz
Another Ocean developed rental only title. This game sported great graphics and good control. It was also really strange. It was outshined by other bigger and better mascot platformer games of the era. It was also only 6 levels long and has been ported to several other consoles. Still, the SNES version still fetches a reasonably high price for such an old game.
Average Price: $23.77

The Adventures of Kid Kleets
This title falls under the strange grouping of rare but worthless. Many websites rank this title, known as Soccer Kid in other regions, as at least an 8/10 on their rarity scale but it is still undervalued, underappreciated, and collectible.
Average Price: $9.99

The Ren & Stimpy Show Fire Dogs
Rental exclusive only, man! That’s what the box art says at least. This game is plagued with awful gameplay, shoddy controls, and overall poor quality. It only one of the several Ren & Stimpy titles for the SNES and it isn’t even the most valuable one, despite it being a rental exclusive.
Average Price: $10.00

Final Fight Guy
This game plays identical to Final Fight on the SNES, except that you can no longer play as Cody, only Guy and Haggar. This was a poor attempt to pacify fans of the arcade version, which was horribly butchered in order to fit on the limited space of the SNES cart. The SNES port cut out whole levels and the games third character, Guy the ninja. Another interesting tidbit about this game is that there are confirmed to be two different box arts. There is the “orange” version, pictured above, and a “black” version. It is unconfirmed where the “black” version of the box art came from and it is worth more than the “orange” version.
Average Price: $74.99

Hagane: The Final Conflict
This game has seen a recent rise in price unlike anything else I’ve ever seen. Two years ago, you could find a copy of this game for around $50 dollars, now that price has quintupled. A good, fun, and interesting game, there is a reason why it is sought out. Recently, evidence has started to mount undermining the “myth” that it really was a Blockbuster exclusive title. Some store managers have come forward saying that they sold it new in Electronic Boutiques stores. I don’t think we’ll ever conclusively know the truth about this game but for now, we can only sit back and watch the price skyrocket.
Average Price: $263.00

Starfox Super Weekend
Starfox is a Blockbuster exclusive but was never rented, it was available as part of a competition. An ingame timer stopped the game at a certain point. You would then take a picture of your score and submit it on a card that came with the game. High scores earned you jackets, pins, and other prizes. This interesting little piece of history has recently been enjoying a spike in prices as of late as SNES collecting is on the rise. It also interesting to note that there is a PAL region version of this game under the title Starwing Competition. It is worth less than the NTSC version but is most likely more rare than it.
Average Price: $500.00

Donkey Kong Country Competition Cartridge
Another competition cartridge worth a lot of money. After the competition was over, the Blockbuster stores had to ship them back to Nintendo. Not all stores did. The ones that did get shipped back were then sold through mail order through Nintendo Power magazine. This is one of, if not the, most expensive games for the SNES console. Finding it with the green case and insert intact increases the value but buyer beware, reproductions are becoming more and more common.
Average Price $1,000

There you have it, a huge list of rare and semi-rare games to go out and collect. Good luck finding the boxes and manuals. Most stores threw them away or they were so beat up from kids picking them up, opening them, and throwing around that they are tattered to pieces. The real challenge in collecting these titles is to find complete copies. Good luck hunting.