Stephen Emond stated: > >Rarity, value and desirability are all difficult things to measure with >any accuracy - especially when relying on eBay for information.
I'd consider desirability to be a very subjective thing. Most of you would love to have a MS Mt. Drash, but it wouldn't really do anything for me. (Please don't burn the heretic.) Theoretically, value should be equivalent to some equation combining rarity and demand. The problem, as you pointed out below, is demand/desirability fluctuates as people come and go, lack or have extra funds, etc. >For rarity knowing production numbers WOULD be great, but finding the >original numbers would not be easy. It also wouldn't take into account >how many copies exist today. Agreed. >Value is something that could be more accurately measured but it would >take a LOT of research. Values also have a way of hitting extreme highs >and lows based on how the auctions are advertised, who sees them, who >has the money at the time, etc, etc, etc. >With VGs (for the most >part) you only need to worry about the overall condition a minimal >amount of contents: Cart/CD, Manual, and Box. True, but let me give you a bit of background. I believe the first video game rarity list was created by Craig "VGR" Pell for Atari 2600 games. IIRC, the early drafts only had four or five ratings: C = common U = uncommon R = rare ER = extremely rare NR = never released ER is the one I forget if it was there at first. Later, he added: UR = unbelievably rare which I believe he used primarily for games that only existed as prototypes. (It was between ER and NR.) Obviously, there's a few problems with this; mainly too many Us and Rs. Other people started their own rarity lists for other systems with slightly different variations (for example, futher breaking things down to C- (really common), C, and C+ (common, but not as common as just C), etc.), but most did something along these lines. I don't have the earliest Digital Press Guides, but as some point they decided to implement a numeric system from 1 (common as dirt*) to 10 (mind-bogglingly rare*). Atari Age (www.atariage.com) followed suit, although they and Digital Press often disagree about precisely what numbers best describe some games. Then DP realized that just because a game is rare doesn't mean it's value is necessarily high, so they added prices to their guide. However, if a game is so rare that an actual dollar figure is impossible to suggest, they simply use "$$$." * That's not what they actually call them, but that's the intent. >All these factors can make creating such a rarity / price guide >difficult - but not impossible. I'd say the best way to create such a >guide is to start with a database. Since everyone here has their own >particular interests (Ultima, Sierra, Infocom, etc.) we could all >contribute based on those interests. Useful fields could include: > >- Game Title >- Platform / Format (5.25" / 3.5" / CD / etc) >- Version / Printing >- Completeness This could be hard to arbitrarily and succinctly note. >- Overall Condition (to be useful this shouldn't be too obsessive - I > suggest a simplistic "Good / Fair / Poor" system with perhaps a > separate option for shrinkwrap) I suggest using the abbreviated MobyScale form (e.g. Good/Fine). >- Auction # (reference only - to avoid information duplication) >- Auction Date (to see how many copies turn up monthly / yearly) >- Final Bid (obviously for determining value) >- # of *Unique* Bidders (not counting multiple bids by same bidder - to > help measure desirability) This is a good idea. For a time, I created my own spreadsheets of prices for Pac-Man Fever items and Rom action figures. You can find the summary of my findings at http://home.hiwaay.net/~lkseitz/cvg/PacmanFever/ and http://home.hiwaay.net/~lkseitz/comics/Rom/actionfig/where.shtml, respectively. The most difficult thing to determine from an eBay auction is condition, particularly if there's no photo. And given that not all sellers are collectors, determining version, completeness, or sometimes even platform might be difficult, especially if they don't answer e-mail. Keeping these lists up took a fair chunk of time, though, which is why I eventually gave it up. >If there are any suggestions please add them. If there are volunteers to >actually manage such a database, good luck :) I'd actually consider >starting a project like this but I'm already in the middle of two >massive collector's guides. A third would likely kill me. Mind if I ask what kind of guides? -- Lee K. Seitz [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/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
