Launching Prices for Garbage Pail Kids Cards

The original Nintendo NES launched in 1985. That same year, Garbage Pail Kids launched too.

I was allowed to buy an NES, but Garbage Pail Cards were not allowed. I only got to see them at my friends' houses. Now that I'm an adult I can buy as many GPK cards as I want (and I can have Oreo's for breakfast).

PriceCharting has launched a price guide for GPK cards so I know how much to pay for my forbidden childhood memories. If you have cards in the original 1985 series you might have some valuable cards.

Who else wasn't allowed to buy GPK cards as a kid? And who still has their childhood collection? Let me know in the comments below.

Update To How New Prices Are Calculated for Some Video Games

We've improved our pricing for retro video games in new/sealed condition.

We've been tracking video game prices since 2006 so we have a lot of data. For some retro games the most recent new sale might be 4-5 years old because they are rare. During this time game prices have increased a lot. If we base our values on sales from 4+ years ago, then our values will be inaccurate.

Starting last week, if the sealed condition sale is more than one year old we will look to see if the CIB price for that same game has changed and adjust our estimate of the sealed price to take that into account. CIB condition is much more common with video games so there is much more sales activity to use for our estimate AND the relationship between CIB and New prices is very stable for games on a specific console.

Any valuation for a brand new retro game is an estimate though because the exact condition for each item greatly impacts the value. For example, a water damaged sealed game is worth much less than a crisp, perfect seal. And there are many levels of variation in between. Our new value estimates are not based on actual brand new sales, but they are much more accurate than our old sealed prices and give collector's a much more accurate view of what their games are worth.

This change impacts about 20% of NES, SNES, and N64 games.

Let me know if you have any questions about this change.