<BRAIN DUMP>Aye karumba. Looks like that Vic auction lasted just 3 hours too! I fail to understand how people find these things so fast. Personally I can't afford to search eBay more than once a week.. Personally I don't believe in the collectibility of disks/tapes, I go for the manuals/boxes mostly - after all these are the true 'pieces of art', a disk is a disk is a disk. Heck, anyone can make a disk from a disk image of an old game, so big whoop right?
The value is an interesting issue though, which I have pondered endlessly recently. When it boils down to it, a rare game is worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it, its that simple. I have seen incredibly rare games (Scott Adams Gold Colelctor edition comes to mind, 1000 total made I think) sell for much less than they should. And I've seen rare, but not impossible to find, games gor for absurd amounts (some of you folk here were the buyers in fact!). I sill can't believe the original Starcross and Suspended regualarly go for $300 and up for example, they're just not that rare. I've seen dozens on eBay over the last couple years. And come on, almost $200 for Origin's re-release of Ultima I?? I'm almost ashamed to see people pay that much for it (though that won't stop me from selling the extra one I have soon :) ). On the other hand, there are some games I have been searching for for years and have not seen EVER on eBay (or anywhere else), even once, thus making them even more rare than Akalabeth or Mt. Drash technically. And when I come across one like this by some rare fluke, I may get it for as low as $10 (maybe no one else wants it, who knows). I have sold things and received far less than a guy did the week before. Is it because I'm in Canada? Who knows. I've also found the level of detail in the description of the item and its condition can have a big impact on the final price of a rare item, through experimentation. I believe that most collectors have somewhat limited cash flow, and so I have never seen any single game sell for over $1000 that I can recall, and I don't know if it ever would. I used to limit myself to $5-10 per game, and now that I've filled the 'low-hanging fruit' so to speak, and cleaned out all the local stores, I have raised my spending on rarer items, and maybe some of you have done the same. There is the issue of 'what if I never see this again' of course, and so its sometimes wiser to pay a little more up front - if you find it again for cheaper you can always sell it and cut your losses. Personally, I would probably be willing to pay around $500 for a complete Drash game, but I'm sure there's many who'd pay even more. I'd have to say about the same for a PDP Zork. I just can't justify spending more than that on a 'hobby'. Interestingly, I have found trading used DVDs and Books much more predictable - most go for roughly the same price in a reliable way, there is not nearly as much uncertainty as in the game area. </BRAIN DUMP> Stephen Emond wrote: > > Yup, $765 is kinda pricey. Anyone have $100 and a time machine? > > http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3064724973&category=3544 > > I'll let you all have a moment of silence to kick yourselves... > > Steve > > PS - As for the NEW owner of the Drash I do believe I saw him around here > somewhere... -- ---------------------------------------------- Howard Feldman, Author of The Search for Freedom A Computer Fantasy Role-Playing Game Visit its Homepage at http://bioinfo.mshri.on.ca/people/feldman/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
