Is Jungle really valued more than Smoke (N64 Funtastic series)?
To pay his half of the bills my brother has been grabbing every nice N64 he can get his hands on for me to mod with UltraHDMI then he throws them on eBay for bids. Even after the UltraHDMI preorders resumed, the price has trended up and up. Of course, alternate colors sell for more than standard Charcoal but they have been amazingly consistent too.
Because it was also available bundled with DK64 and an Expansion Pak, Jungle is easily the most common alt color. Even so, my most recent Jungle sold for almost as much as Ice ($650 & $651).
We were really excited to get a nice Smoke console in our hands and wanted to see where it went, but it performed near the bottom.
Note: Ice went to the 2nd Chance bidder for $10 less.
Many of the exact same bidders bid up my Jungle beyond Smoke's price... in less than 24 hours (not shown since it's still current). It's on track to finish higher than ever.
The main difference is that the current Jungle was set to 5 days and ends on the weekend... but it was bid over the Smoke within a day... mid-week. These consoles were all in great shape and very comparable condition.
Do people actually value Jungle over Smoke?! I personally prefer Jungle but it's relatively cheap because it's common. I expected that to translate to higher UltraHDMI sales too.
Because it was also available bundled with DK64 and an Expansion Pak, Jungle is easily the most common alt color. Even so, my most recent Jungle sold for almost as much as Ice ($650 & $651).
We were really excited to get a nice Smoke console in our hands and wanted to see where it went, but it performed near the bottom.
Note: Ice went to the 2nd Chance bidder for $10 less.
Many of the exact same bidders bid up my Jungle beyond Smoke's price... in less than 24 hours (not shown since it's still current). It's on track to finish higher than ever.
The main difference is that the current Jungle was set to 5 days and ends on the weekend... but it was bid over the Smoke within a day... mid-week. These consoles were all in great shape and very comparable condition.
Do people actually value Jungle over Smoke?! I personally prefer Jungle but it's relatively cheap because it's common. I expected that to translate to higher UltraHDMI sales too.
Comments
jk, my guess is that people who are buying this are looking to get just one n64 with the highest quality video output, so that group may prefer a colorful console as opposed to the muted clear grey smoke console. the unmodded smoke consoles are a higher price than the jungle greens.
I'd say people buying the HDMI versions are just wanting to play old games they loved as a kid and most of us had charcoal or jungle consoles. I'd say people just want the colors they grew up with because it is familiar.
Exactly this.
Smoke was more popular. Hence more common. Hence cheaper.
Jungle had been sold in a DK64 bundle for some
time before other Funtastic colors launched. Then it was also sold in the same Funtastic series. Jungle should be way more common.
That smoke console we sold is the only one I've ever seen or touched.
Also I really don't think the HDMI mod should be taken into consideration when determining value. Buyer pool is considerably smaller.
If that's all there was, I'd agree, but UltraHDMI availability is significantly more disparate versus demand than any one Funtastic color and that normally leads buyers to consider why they would spend more on one console versus another. One of those justifications I expected to be color and condition. Indeed, that's seems to be why Jungle, Clear Red, and Ice sell for so much more than Charcoal. I strongly suspect that there is something else going on here, like our international bidders just weren't able to bid or there was a huge Internet outage or something.
I think what's crazier is the prices those can fetch, that's unreal. But like others said rarity doesn't matter as much when you're buying modded and specialized products like this, I know if I was planning to bid on one of these I would just pick the color I want and go for it
Yeah, but would you spend that much extra just for the color you want? If roles were reversed I'd be struggling to justify my purchase now vs. when availability improves as well as justify spending more on a common color. Just makes it even stranger that Smoke sold for significantly less.
I would have thought smoke to be more rare since it was just the basic color of the N64 but transparent...boring honestly. If you're going for a transparent N64, wouldn't you get the brightly colored ones?
Personally? Yeah, but I wouldn't spend hundreds more for it like these guys without some way to justify it.
I'd say people buying the HDMI versions are just wanting to play old games they loved as a kid and most of us had charcoal or jungle consoles. I'd say people just want the colors they grew up with because it is familiar.
A surprising number of buyers appear to be just getting back into N64 and finding that they are disappointed with using the system on modern TVs. You're definitely onto something there. More owners for Jungle back in the day probably translates to more interest by those revisiting their childhood.
I think Jungle is the best looking one. The people buying a pre-modded HDMI console probably don't care about rarity, they just want the thing they want. Using a dremel is just too much, they'll pay a $200 premium just so they don't have to buy the color they want and swap shells!
Yeah. There are definitely a few of these people in the mix and that's probably a huge reason. International buyers in particular don't seem to be swayed by price (assuming it's otherwise unavailable in their country). I Guess they are still swayed by color.
higher value makes sense considering the condition of that jungle green... its a really nice deck.
jk, my guess is that people who are buying this are looking to get just one n64 with the highest quality video output, so that group may prefer a colorful console as opposed to the muted clear grey smoke console. the unmodded smoke consoles are a higher price than the jungle greens.
That's what my gut feeling says. We've gotten lots of inquiries asking if we had Ice, Grape, Fire, Watermelon, etc but no one has asked if we had Smoke. I guess what I'm most surprised at was that it completely bucked the price trend, like there was enough distaste for it that people bid significantly less.
I'd say people buying the HDMI versions are just wanting to play old games they loved as a kid and most of us had charcoal or jungle consoles. I'd say people just want the colors they grew up with because it is familiar.
Exactly this.
I'll third this.. I've never understood the comparison in rarity and prices of the funtastic consoles for this exact reason. Until I see documented sales/shipment proof of how many of each color were sent to X stores in Y Region I'll continue to believe the minute differences in price are based on strictly opinion and made up facts.
If I ever got one of my N64's modded for hdmi it would have to be that one, man it would be so cool!
we got fun and games
Every time these coloured N64's are brought up, nobody ever mentions the half-blue, half-white one that I got back in the day. I wondered why that was, so I looked it up, and it turns out it was only released in PAL and Japan... Guess I learned something today, I always thought THAT was the ice blue one, because of the white bottom, I thought the all blue one was called aqua or something...
If I ever got one of my N64's modded for hdmi it would have to be that one, man it would be so cool!
Yeah. Japan had a lot of those two-tones. Only one I've handled was a Japanese Clear Red (their official name) and it did pretty decent. At the time, $535 was the most any of my UltraHDMIs had sold for but that was before the prices trended over $600 even for Jungle. I'd bet it would do even better today despite Japanese consoles generally being cheaper. They are surprisingly cheap and common in Japan but the bottoms are often yellowed for those I see online. Wish I had the luggage space back in June!
welcome to the Jungle
we got fun and games
LOL! Never more true. Might have to start the next Jungle listing with that line.
I can't believe people are paying those prices for them though.
Every time these coloured N64's are brought up, nobody ever mentions the half-blue, half-white one that I got back in the day. I wondered why that was, so I looked it up, and it turns out it was only released in PAL and Japan... Guess I learned something today, I always thought THAT was the ice blue one, because of the white bottom, I thought the all blue one was called aqua or something...
If I ever got one of my N64's modded for hdmi it would have to be that one, man it would be so cool!
those are pretty cool. I believe swapping shells is easy enough if they don't make a color in your region. I was always a fan of the ice blue, but actually the smoke one is pretty cool too
I don't know that there's a price difference in stock Watermelon, Smoke, Grape, Ice, or Fire with matching controllers anymore. At least, they're available for $110 a pop if wanted. Jungle hovers round that $80 mark, give or take for the expansion pak. Gold w/ both controllers is worth more than the rest. The interesting one might be the Pokemon / Pikachu console, but I'm not remotely tech savvy enough to know if a Pokemon shell can hold an HDMI mod.
Not that it makes a difference, but I wanted a Funtastic console with 4 controllers. Jungle was easiest to acquire.
The atomic green color pops!
Smoke is definitely less common than the Jungle green, i'd have to say it sold for more just because it is a nicer looking console.
That Smoke had an odd-looking white mark on the side but it was in amazing shape otherwise.
I can't believe people are paying those prices for them though.
Me either, but I admit that it really motivates us to help fill demand. If the other installers are paying attention they'll respond and fill more demand to bring prices back under control. In the mean time, we'll do our part to get it to the people who clearly gotta have it now!
Honestly I think it is just color preference man. I would prefer the green over the smoke and if you just want the HDMI mod you may as well get a color you like.
The atomic green color pops!
Yeah. Toys R Us Extreme Green is definitely my favorite N64 controller color. We got two of them boxed back in the day (birthday gifts). IIRC, they also made TRU-exclusive Extreme Green Game Boy Pocket and Game Boy Color. Gold and Extreme Green were their thing until the GBA exclusive colors.
Smoke is the hardest to find, neck and neck with Watermelon. Anecdotally, Ice, Grape, Fire, and Jungle sell much much much faster locally and at conventions I've been to compared to Charcoal, Watermelon, and Smoke. Smoke is confused with Charcoal all the time, even by collectors. In person, it's tough to tell the Smoke controller apart from Atomic Purple. Most casual people just looking for an HDMI might not even know the difference. They probably thought it was a damaged Charcoal with Atomic Purple Controller, which was standard.
I don't know that there's a price difference in stock Watermelon, Smoke, Grape, Ice, or Fire with matching controllers anymore. At least, they're available for $110 a pop if wanted. Jungle hovers round that $80 mark, give or take for the expansion pak. Gold w/ both controllers is worth more than the rest. The interesting one might be the Pokemon / Pikachu console, but I'm not remotely tech savvy enough to know if a Pokemon shell can hold an HDMI mod.
Not that it makes a difference, but I wanted a Funtastic console with 4 controllers. Jungle was easiest to acquire.
It's probably even harder for color-blind twins. That controller we bundled with Ice keeps looking Smoke to us.
In person, it's tough to tell the Smoke controller apart from Atomic Purple.
THIS! My twin brother and I are partially colorblind. I noticed that I couldn't see a significant difference between the Smoke console and my assumed-to-be Atomic Purple controllers.
The game shop that used to be up the street seemed to get the jungle green ones in all the time. I don't know if they were just more common in the Cincinnati area or what, but I really didn't even know they were that unusual to find. I think I've only seen two of the smoke ones.
As the most common alternate color by far they definitely aren't unusual to find. That's why it's so surprising to see them consistently doing so well with UltraHDMI and even outperforming the genuinely less common colors. I guess we'll see if that was a fluke or not.
The game shop that used to be up the street seemed to get the jungle green ones in all the time. I don't know if they were just more common in the Cincinnati area or what, but I really didn't even know they were that unusual to find. I think I've only seen two of the smoke ones.
As the most common alternate color by far they definitely aren't unusual to find. That's why it's so surprising to see them consistently doing so well with UltraHDMI and even outperforming the genuinely less common colors. I guess we'll see if that was a fluke or not.
I'm not much of a N64 guy, but I just remember seeing the jungle green ones at the game shops around here a lot compared to the other colors.
The game shop that used to be up the street seemed to get the jungle green ones in all the time. I don't know if they were just more common in the Cincinnati area or what, but I really didn't even know they were that unusual to find. I think I've only seen two of the smoke ones.
As the most common alternate color by far they definitely aren't unusual to find. That's why it's so surprising to see them consistently doing so well with UltraHDMI and even outperforming the genuinely less common colors. I guess we'll see if that was a fluke or not.
This is why it's important to distinguish between a "collector" and a "gamer".
The collector focuses on the "collectible" aspects.
The gamer focuses on playing and using the product. The gamer does not take into account what's the rarest, but more so what looks and works best when he/she is gaming.
Hope this answers the OP.
Love extreme green which is probably the most over the top colors nintendo has used over the years, how cool would it have been if they made an extreme green 64? Got an extreme green controller, GB pocket (which seems to be one of the harder to find variants) and would love to someday get an extreme green GB light
Where does the purple one fall in to place in this category?
Maybe going to find out. We have a grape console listed right now.
I always liked the smoke one the best even though its not loud like the others (which I also like)
Love extreme green which is probably the most over the top colors nintendo has used over the years, how cool would it have been if they made an extreme green 64? Got an extreme green controller, GB pocket (which seems to be one of the harder to find variants) and would love to someday get an extreme green GB light
Yes. I always loved the extreme green N64 controllers.