Drash copies: IIRC Tom owns both a complete copy and some spare parts, but this may no longer be the case. Plus Keith Zabalaoui owns a complete one!
It's obviously futile to debate the value of this game. I'd call it a safe bet though it would fetch a princely sum on eBay. Personally I wouldn't hesitate to put down serious money myself, I'm actually keeping some substantial funds aside for the day a Drash should come along. As for the Computerland Aks, I'm not so sure anymore if there really are more around than Drashs. Only if you count those Akalabeths assembled recently from parts, and their number will increase further as Richard is handing them out in exchange for small favors ;) In any case, Drash must be worth less than one of the Twelve Akalabeths, with just a few copies of both titles around it's the significance that counts, not their exact number. I'd say Akalabeth had a _slightly_ greater impact on the history of computer games. /Alexander -----Original Message----- From: Edward Franks [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Sunday, October 06, 2002 2:20 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [SWCollect] Greetings On Saturday, October 5, 2002, at 03:12 PM, CcomputerGameCollector wrote: [Snip] > With CGC, I don't plan on representing an "exact" value, which is why > I use > the range approach. (I.E. $20 - $40) And given human nature people will focus on the high end of your range. :-D After all, that means their game is worth more money. [Snip] > Wether there is a price guide price or not, people have an idea about > what a > game is worth. For many games, yes. For some, no. For example, what is the worth of one of Richard Garriott's twelve Computerland Akalabeths? The sample size is just too small to determine a fair market value for one of them. It is too easy for someone to fall in love with the idea of owning one and paying 'whatever it takes' for someone to assign a reasonable value/worth to one. It gets even worse if a game hasn't been seen yet. Mr. Falk once stated in an article that Mt. Drash might be worth over $2,000 if one was found. He was only off by nearly an order of magnitude from what my only known complete copy was purchased for. ;-) I mean, just what *is* Mt. Drash worth? There is only one complete one and one partial one known (to me) to exist. There are more RG Computerland Akalabeths around than known Mt Drashs. Does this make Mt. Drash worth more than Akalabeth? And how would one determine the worth of my complete copy of an Apple II Personal Software Zork still in 95% shrinkwrap (only the top of the shrinkwrap/box is open)? Zork 1 is certainly a much more important and seminal game than Akalabeth! (I say that as a big time Ultima fan, by the way.) On the other hand, take a grey box Zork 1 with everything in good shape. There are enough of these around that one can look at the overall sales/auction prices and figure what, on average, it is worth. This is not to say a price guide is worthless. I think one would be doable for many games. My mine problem with them is educating potential buyers and sellers to all the caveats and assumptions behind the numbers. Too many people take any number they see written down as gospel. :sigh: In the comics world many people will check several different price guides and take the highest one they find. And this is after 20+ years of trying to educate the market. -- Edward Franks <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
