It is amazing how the 7 people who actually collect 3D0 can have an impact on the market. ;-)
The 3DO is the only system I ever started collecting for that I had a true "what the hell am I doing collecting for this thing?" moment. I got rid of it the next day for a few GBA tapes.
CIB stuff for every system has always been "rising", first pattern of that was Atari 2600 games, you could tell that would be how the market would move many moons ago. Loose 2600 stuff isn't worth squat unless you have a handful of the mega rare stuff where boxes never show up anyway. CIB 2600 was the mainstay pattern as the age groups of the people interested would go up to max range and you could see peak earnings play a role in collecting.
Most of the SNES / NES guys here (and Game Boy) are now in their 30s and earnings are high, so stuff is pretty much done. People get bored, they move on to other stuff. I did that a long time ago with prototypes and switched them to a much better market, pinball and arcade machines where I knew the market was going to blow up with barcade style owners chomping at the bit, so everything rose. When all the 90s DMD pins were harder to get (I acquired them years before) I looked for earlier Bally / Stern / Williams stuff that looked nicer from the early 80s, knowing they would be rarer and better for tournaments in the future (and of course interest in those has also peaked).
Being able to analyze patterns of a market is important. Most of the stuff nowadays is easy to collect. Any disc system is easy to collect starting with PS1. CIB stuff is extremely hard to finish and I am glad I did that when stuff was much cheaper and people still thought it was expensive at the time.
I looked for earlier Bally / Stern / Williams stuff that looked nicer from the early 80s, knowing they would be rarer and better for tournaments in the future (and of course interest in those has also peaked).
Every tournament around here is like 80% modern Sterns and JJP games. A 3 strike tournament is like a 4-5 hour committment of waiting around for boring games to finish. Is there a promise land where people use tough 80s games for tournaments
Good thread. I've been tracking down 3DO games for 2-3 years now and deals have all but disappeared online. There seems to be some kind of ebay monopoly effect, where sellers just started listing games super high and they eventually sold. I mean, I saw some games sit there for months on end and they managed to find buyers at some point. Most shops don't have 3DO in stock so eBay is really where it's at.
It feels the 3DO market is artificially inflated, most games won't sell for $50 USD, even CIB, but there's a handful of hot items that just keep rising in price. One of the more recent games to have become a sought-after gem is Crash n Burn in long box. 2 sold in the past months: one for $375 and then $505 just last week. And I won one in an auction listing last summer for $62 CAD, which felt super lucky because there was another BIN listing for $150. Heh. I'm just happy and lucky I'm almost done hunting for the games I want.
3DO collecting can be pretty quirky. I remember seeing a thread somewhere (maybe Reddit) about a guy who not only had a full set of everything 3DO related (games, consoles, accessories all boxed), but he had anywhere from 2 to 15 of everything.
It is amazing how the 7 people who actually collect 3D0 can have an impact on the market. ;-)
The 3DO is the only system I ever started collecting for that I had a true "what the hell am I doing collecting for this thing?" moment. I got rid of it the next day for a few GBA tapes.
I was the same way. I wasn't collecting for it, but I brought one and some games for it home from work for a few months in like 2012. Then I realized all the games I liked on it were also on PS1. Good thing I didn't do this in 1995 or today -- would have cost a lot more!
I looked for earlier Bally / Stern / Williams stuff that looked nicer from the early 80s, knowing they would be rarer and better for tournaments in the future (and of course interest in those has also peaked).
Every tournament around here is like 80% modern Sterns and JJP games. A 3 strike tournament is like a 4-5 hour committment of waiting around for boring games to finish. Is there a promise land where people use tough 80s games for tournaments
Yes, that would be my place. We have Fathom, Dolly, Paragon, BMX, Frontier, Pharaoh, Skateball, Viking, Mata Hari, Power Play, Embryon, Medusa, Elektra, Spectrum, Hotdoggin, and all sorts of other crazy stuff to piss people off at my place. We don't do strikes, we do Group 4 player matchplay and 6-9 rounds.
I had to stop my CIB 3DO collecting last year and move to disc-only, haven't even updated what I've bought either I'm so disgusted. LOL Now even the disc-only prices are starting to get out of my comfort zone. I have other hobbies so not gonna spend the cash on this when really I only want to play about 10% of the released games anyway. I'll likely just keep what I have that I like and sell the rest like I'm going to start doing with the rest of my collection before relocating across the country.
Comments
Sigh, do ALL dinosaur amusement park simulators have to be expensive?
When man plays god, there will always be consequences! Some things were not meant to be played with...
It is amazing how the 7 people who actually collect 3D0 can have an impact on the market. ;-)
The 3DO is the only system I ever started collecting for that I had a true "what the hell am I doing collecting for this thing?" moment. I got rid of it the next day for a few GBA tapes.
Sigh, do ALL dinosaur amusement park simulators have to be expensive?
https://store.steampowered.com/app/591460/Parkasaurus/
$20 my dude!
Most of the SNES / NES guys here (and Game Boy) are now in their 30s and earnings are high, so stuff is pretty much done. People get bored, they move on to other stuff. I did that a long time ago with prototypes and switched them to a much better market, pinball and arcade machines where I knew the market was going to blow up with barcade style owners chomping at the bit, so everything rose. When all the 90s DMD pins were harder to get (I acquired them years before) I looked for earlier Bally / Stern / Williams stuff that looked nicer from the early 80s, knowing they would be rarer and better for tournaments in the future (and of course interest in those has also peaked).
Being able to analyze patterns of a market is important. Most of the stuff nowadays is easy to collect. Any disc system is easy to collect starting with PS1. CIB stuff is extremely hard to finish and I am glad I did that when stuff was much cheaper and people still thought it was expensive at the time.
I looked for earlier Bally / Stern / Williams stuff that looked nicer from the early 80s, knowing they would be rarer and better for tournaments in the future (and of course interest in those has also peaked).
Every tournament around here is like 80% modern Sterns and JJP games. A 3 strike tournament is like a 4-5 hour committment of waiting around for boring games to finish. Is there a promise land where people use tough 80s games for tournaments
It feels the 3DO market is artificially inflated, most games won't sell for $50 USD, even CIB, but there's a handful of hot items that just keep rising in price. One of the more recent games to have become a sought-after gem is Crash n Burn in long box. 2 sold in the past months: one for $375 and then $505 just last week. And I won one in an auction listing last summer for $62 CAD, which felt super lucky because there was another BIN listing for $150. Heh. I'm just happy and lucky I'm almost done hunting for the games I want.
It is amazing how the 7 people who actually collect 3D0 can have an impact on the market. ;-)
The 3DO is the only system I ever started collecting for that I had a true "what the hell am I doing collecting for this thing?" moment. I got rid of it the next day for a few GBA tapes.
I was the same way. I wasn't collecting for it, but I brought one and some games for it home from work for a few months in like 2012. Then I realized all the games I liked on it were also on PS1. Good thing I didn't do this in 1995 or today -- would have cost a lot more!
I looked for earlier Bally / Stern / Williams stuff that looked nicer from the early 80s, knowing they would be rarer and better for tournaments in the future (and of course interest in those has also peaked).
Every tournament around here is like 80% modern Sterns and JJP games. A 3 strike tournament is like a 4-5 hour committment of waiting around for boring games to finish. Is there a promise land where people use tough 80s games for tournaments
Yes, that would be my place. We have Fathom, Dolly, Paragon, BMX, Frontier, Pharaoh, Skateball, Viking, Mata Hari, Power Play, Embryon, Medusa, Elektra, Spectrum, Hotdoggin, and all sorts of other crazy stuff to piss people off at my place. We don't do strikes, we do Group 4 player matchplay and 6-9 rounds.