Video Game Collecting

There are two general categories of people who purchase video games:The Casual GamerThe first category is the gamer who purchases a game, plays it until he or she is finished then sells it off to get money to buy something else.The Passionate Gamer/CollectorThe second category is the gamer who carefully chooses the title he/she wants, possibly even sorting through copies of the same game at the store to get the one without a dented box, purchases the game, takes it home and either plays it or leaves it sealed then places it carefully in a storage or display case to be kept without the slightest thought of ever selling it.If the first category describes you, then you have no need of a buying guide - anything you insert into a game system that plays should be good enough for you, and there is very little risk of getting a non-working game if you follow the general cautionary rules true of all okay transactions - i.e. look at feedback and the amount of time the seller has been on okay before even considering buying from him/her.If the second category describes you then read on.Please note: This guide is intended primarily for collectors, but it is my hope that sellers may also learn some do's and don't from it. This guide covers the games themselves, not systems.General Rules For Game CollectorsIf you're shopping for games on okay, chances are you're doing so because the game you want is no longer available at retail, and the older it is, the less chance you're going to find it in good condition. These rules should apply regardless of what platform you are purchasing games for.Know what you're looking for. If you are looking for collector grade items in the best condition possible, then it is important to know exactly what they should look like, so do some research. Look it up on Google, find photos of it on the Internet or in store catalogs. Find out what the original packaging looks like. Find out if there are multiple versions ("Greatest Hits","Platinum Hits","Player's Choice" for example) and decide which version you want or are willing to accept. It's okay to be picky - much better to do that then to get something you aren't really happy with.Is a used one good enough? Most collectors are looking for brand new sealed items, or as close to that as they can get. If they have to buy an item used, they usually want to be sure that it is geplete (or CIB) - meaning that it gees with everything that was in the package when it was new, including things like cases, instructions, the box, warranty cards etc... It is important to know the various ways in which a used game can be damaged or made otherwise undesirable. Games that gee on magnetic disk (Famige Disk, MSX etc...) can be extremely fragile, games that gee on optical disk (DVD/CD etc...) are susceptible to scratches and can be damaged beyond repair by scratches on the label side. Cartridge games are generally more durable, but the labels can be damaged ruining their appearance. Cartridge games that have tamper stickers applied are generally rental games and there is no knowing what kind of abuse they have suffered. It is not ungemon for someone to purchase a game, label it with a name or initials using a permanent marker thereby ruining the appearance of the game, and then try to sell it. This practice ruins the collector value of a game and would be tantamount to writing your name on a super-rare baseball card. At any rate it is important to decide what condition you are willing to accept a game in before you go to purchase one for a collection.Know the right price. This is true of all okay transactions, but especially true when dealing with sellers that are targeting collectors. These sellers will often charge obscene prices for rare items counting on a collector's desperation or ignorance to get way more for an item than it is worth. Look at gepleted listings for the same item and gepare prices. Buy-it-now listings in excess of retail price plus (US)$10 for a single game are generally ripoffs for anything other than a handful of extremely rare titles. Pay attention to what other okayers are doing. If an item seems to have a high price but also has a large number of bids on it, chances are it is a very rare title and worth the price. Also, remember, a game does not necessarily need to be very expensive just because it is rare. Expense is a function of supply and demand, not one of rarity. Although these two things are usually closely linked, they do not always go together- if not many people want the game, its value is low regardless of its rarity. If you are unsure if a game is rare, a few quick Internet searches on Google, or even possibly Wikipedia will probably help you find out.Shipping and "Handling": okay sets shipping and handling limits on certain items. Vintage Games, for example carry a maximum of $6 for shipping. The only way a seller is allowed to charge more for shipping on an item with a fixed maximum shipping is if they use a shipping calculator with the weight and dimensions of the item. Any seller who attempts to charge a different amount for shipping in the description is probably in violation of okay's "Excessive Shipping Fees" policy.Look carefully at the picture. If it says "Stock Photo", the listing may as well not have a picture at all because what you see is most definitely not what you are going to get. Treat auctions with stock photos like you would an auction without a photo - go by the typed description. Sometimes sellers will use canned descriptions - you can spot these because they're usually credited to some other website, or they exactly match the text of other auctions for the same item. In either case you need to contact the seller and ask about what you want to know because the information provided is probably unreliable. Don't be afraid to be specific. Assume nothing about the seller's knowledge of his or her product. There are quite a few people selling games on okay who have absolutely no clue about what they are selling, so in order to get correct information, you are going to have to be very clear about what it is that you want to know, and you may need to walk the seller through the process of finding the answer. Any seller not willing to cooperate with you on this level should be avoided in my opinion.Making the grade? Many sellers will attempt to grade items in an attempt to quickly relay their condition. For example, you may see a listing that says "This game is in A condition", or "This game is in 9.5 condition". These grades are only helpful if the seller also provides the grading scale explaining exactly what his or her grade means. Otherwise the grade is gepletely arbitrary and might as well not be be included at all. Sellers, if you really want us to understand the condition of the item, get a decent digital camera with a macro function and take some good hi-res photos. If you don't want to pay the fee for extra photos, then at least have some on hand to email buyers who inquire.Video Game Authority (VGA) grading. Recently the self-proclaimed Video Game Authority organization has begun offering a service where games are sealed in acrylic and given a numeric grade. On the positive side the games are rated using consistent criteria and are not likely to get damaged in shipping. I still prefer to avoid them because, having games sealed in an acrylic case is a bridge too far for me - it turns game collecting into more of a profession than a hobby, and it just functions as an excuse to charge very high prices for games. I don't mind paying a lot for a rare game, but I still enjoy hunting for bargains and I you can forget about getting a bargain with a VGA rated item. The grading process (including shipping to VGA) can add $35 to more than $300 to the cost. If you are fine with paying a premium for an item you can never touch (at least without the careful use of a hack saw) then by all means buy these.Learn to spot deceptive phrases in the title or description. Most sellers will not gee right out and lie about an item as it violates okay policy and will most likely get their accounts suspended. Instead, sellers will label a game with subjective phrases like "RARE!","as New","like New". Firstly, you should know whether or not a game is rare before you go looking for it - you don't need a seller to tell you this because all he or she is concerned with is selling the item for the highest price possible, not the integrity of your collection. Where this description is not exactly deceptive, it is pointless for the collector and only actually true a very small percentage of the time. Using "like", or "as" to slip used items into a search result that was intended for brand new items can be a deceptive tactic. Beware anyone who says things like "only taken out once to test". If the item is truly new, there is no reason why it should need to be tested - ever. This statement cannot be proven or dis-proven, however I highly doubt if it is ever true. Although they may be in very nearly new condition, these items should always be considered used.Be patient! Don't settle for something less than what you want because you don't see one as good as you want on okay right now. Use the "saved searches" feature to get email notices when new items are listed. If you watch and wait, the item you want will almost always turn up. If a seller is trying to gouge buyers for a rare item, wait them out. They have to pay a fee every time they list an obscenely overpriced item and if no one buys it they will eventually have no choice but to lower the price or start losing money. There is also a good chance that someone else will list an identical item at a reasonable price. In any case, it is better to buy the one you want the first time than to settle for something and regret your decision later when you have to re-buy the game or pass on the one that you really wanted.Ask about packing method. If you are buying games that came in cardboard boxes, it is especially important to make sure that the seller packs the item well. So many times I have purchased games that were in pristine condition only to have the seller cheap-out and send them in envelopes and flimsy packing boxes so they arrived dented or squashed. The seller may not want to change his or her normal method if shipping, but be insistent that he or she either pack the items securely or accept responsibility if they arrive damaged. It is not unreasonable to offer the seller a couple of dollars more as this may increase his or her expected shipping costs.Advice About Specific Games by Platform:This is intended as a high-level overview of the most gemonly collected games, it should not be treated as an exhaustive guide. If you want to know more about a particular platform that I have mentioned, or more about a platform that I have not a Google search will probably yield all of the results you need.United States: Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), Gameboy (Orignal/Color/Advance), Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), Virtual Boy and Nintendo 64(N64) Guidelines:Factory Seal: The factory seals applied to these games are easily identifiable by a seam down the center on the back. This is sometimes referred to as an "H-seam". For the NES, Virtual Boy and all Gameboy variations the seam was horizontal (with the exception of a couple of GBC games like Link's Awakening DX, Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons where the seam was vertical - thanks to californiafrontier for bringing this to my attention), for the SNES and N64 the seam was vertical. Any box without this seam in the center on the back is not factory sealed. The only exceptions to this were the unlicensed games, such as the ones from Color Dreams, Wisdom Tree, and Tengen. Any listing that claims a game is factory sealed but "cart only" or "cartridge only" is a listing for a used game that was "refurbished" by a third party to be sold at retail in game shops like Game Crazy, EB, or Gamestop - most definitely not a new game.Inside the package: With the exception of the NES, game cartridges for these systems were all placed in plastic baggies and mounted inside a cardboard structure designed to keep the cartridges from sliding around loose inside the box. Instructions, Nintendo Power subscription offers and precaution booklets were usually also in a plastic baggie. NES games came in black sleeves and had a Styrofoam piece at the bottom of the box to prevent the cartridge from sliding around. Gameboy games released before about 2000 also featured a transparent "clamshell" case. Nintendo stopped including the cases to cut costs after that. Similarly, SNES games initially came with a translucent plastic cap that covered the open end of the cartridge up until about 1995 when it too was omitted to lower production costs. Virtual Boy Games had a black plastic cap to cover the pinhole side of the cartridge.Labels: The labels for these games were high-gloss stickers which are extremely susceptible to scratches and indentations - the condition of the label is a good indication of the kind of use or abuse that a game has had before geing into your possession. The labels and boxes were also vulnerable to UV fading - when they are left in direct sunlight, the colors fade.Bootlegs: Fortunately there are not a lot of English language bootlegs circulating for these systems. Most of the counterfeit games you will find on okay will be for the Gameboy or Gameboy Color and most of them are Pokemon games. Spotting counterfeit games may be difficult. I tend to think most collectors would prefer to avoid counterfeit games, but I realize that some gepletists actually seek them out. English Language counterfeits are generally based on the European release of a game as those releases usually contain content and/or instructions in several languages and maximize the counterfeiters' market potential. Most of them are sold from Hong Kong, mainland China or some other non-Japanese asian country. The listings and game labels themselves will generally include spelling or grammatical errors that stand out. Counterfeit games violate okay's policies on copyrighted material and should be reported.Japan: Famige Disk System (FDS)Factory Seal: FDS games had a round foil tamper sticker featuring the FDS mascot's image. Unfortunately these stickers had a tendency to gee loose over time, so a game is not necessarily "used" simply because the seal is no longer stuck.Inside the package: Inside the flexible plastic box is a hard clear plastic case for the disk itself. The game usually includes an instruction manual, a sleeve inside the hard plastic case with the game's cover a warranty card and extra labels for the disk.Bootlegs: The relatively inexpensive nature of this format gave way to nearly unprecedented bootlegging of FDS games. Most official FDS games were the same canary-yellow color and had the word "NINTENDO" pressed in large deep letters into the plastic above the label. Bootlegs were usually different colors and had something else written where "NINTENDO" should be. The bootlegs also had cheaply made labels, often missing the game's title or logo.United States/Japan: Turbografx-16(TG-16)/PC-Engine(PCE)Factory Seal: TG-16 games, including CD-ROM titles all came in very flimsy cardboard boxes and were shrinkwrapped. PC-Engine games came in CD-ROM-type jewel cases and sealed inside cellophane (not shrinkwrap). Each PC-Engine game also came with a spine-card or "OBI" that showed the game's title and format. A factory seal is evident by the presence of the spine card at the left edge and the folds at the top and bottom where the cellophane was folded and heat-pressed closed (similar to the way you would fold giftwrap at the ends of a Christmas present).Inside the package: TG-16 games came with a CD-ROM-like case for HuCard titles and CD-ROM cases for the CD-ROM titles. The bottom of the box was padded with a Styrofoam insert to keep the game from sliding around. With both TG-16 and PCE titles, the instructions are inserted inside the slot on the cover of the case, just like the inserts that gee with Music CDs. Often when looking at pictures of the open case you will see that the seller has placed the spine card in the same slot as the instructions.Scratches: Be sure to determine whether the disk is scratched before purchasing. Ideally you want a disk without any visible scratches whatsoever, and sellers will generally include information about the scratched or non-scratched condition in the item description, but don't forget to ask about it if they don't. A few minor scratches generally don't hurt and are somewhat expected for used games, but excessive scratching can make games unplayable. As long as the scratches don't stop the game from being playable, the amount of scratching you will accept is up to personal preference.Bootlegs: Although counterfeits and CD-R's are considerably less geman than they once were, legitimate sellers will normally make a point of saying that they are not selling a bootleg. There are some counterfeits that are actually still very valuable - for example Ginga Fukei Densetsu Sapphire.United States: Sega CD, Sega Saturn, Sony PlaystationFactory Seal and Package: these games were shrink-wrapped in very tall and thick variations of a standard CD-ROM jewel case. Multi-disc games were acgeodated by placing the game into a paper sleeve cut with slots for mounting inside the case. There were exceptions to this, however. Several games were released on a promotional basis. A handful of games were released in cardboard packages containing smaller jewel-sized and cardboard backed cases. A handful of Saturn games were also released in cheaper packaging that was never sealed (*Christmas Nights, Virtua Cop, Virtua Fighter 2, Sega Rally Online Edition, etc...). Early Playstation games in the U.S. came shrink-wrapped in either the same large jewel cases used by Sega CD and Saturn games, or an opaque plastic/cardboard hybrid usually referred to as a "Long Box". *Not all copies of Christmas Nights were sealed when distributed.United States/Japan:Mega CD, Sega Saturn (Jp), Sega Dreamcast, Sony PlaystationFactory Seal and Package: Each of these systems shipped the majority of their titles in cellophane (not shrinkwrap) sealed audio CD-sized jewel cases. The Japanese versions of them came with a spine card or "OBI" along the left edge. Playstation games contained a Sony branded "peel strip" along the bottom for easy opening. The original factory seal was evident by the folds along the top and bottom edges of the case, sometimes called a V-seam or V-fold. In the U.S. when Sony switched from the large cases to the standard jewel case, they also began to apply so called "security" stickers to the top edge of the jewel case to prevent opening without removal.