Jade Rambles: Most Expensive Retro Games

[JadePharaoh]

With the advent of Let's Plays and online retro game shows like the Angry Video Game Nerd, a booming second-hand market has emerged for older video games. What might have sold for just a few bucks in a pawn shop is now a highly-sought-after collector's item worth many times what it was when it was brand new! There are a multitude of reasons for this. 1) The game is legit rare and was only produced in very limited quantities (many NES games near the end of the console's lifespan were like this, since focus had now shifted to the SNES). 2) The game flew under the gaming public's radar on its release, only for demand to surge after the game was out of print once people realized how great it was (Megaman 1, Little Samson, EarthBound). 3) The game is still extremely highly regarded to this day and demand for it never really slowed down (Final Fantasy 6, Final Fantasy 7, just about any Pokemon game). Or, 4) Any combination of the above. Needless to say, this has made it difficult for any Johnny-come-latelys to the retro scene to fill out a good collections. Granted, many modern consoles have made it easier by offering digital downloads of much of their back catalogue for a more reasonable price, but there's something to be said about having a physical cartridge. The market for reproduction carts has expanded as well, which can make things a bit more complicated. It's alright when they do repros of games that never got an official international release (I have several of those myself), but less scrupulous ones will do convincing repros of rare, preexisting games and try selling them off as the genuine article. That is no doubt frustrating if you're a serious collector of old games.


Anyways, I thought I'd compile a list of several of the most expensive retro games I could find. The list you see here will start with the NES, but I'll add games for other consoles later. First, a few ground rules how I want to do these lists:
- I will only list the prices of North American carts; I won't include Japanese or European imports as that can muddle things up a bit (although as I've pointed out in the past, I've found a lot of games cheaper to import than to track down the NA cart)
- I will only list official releases, licensed by Nintendo. So I won't be listing games like the infamous Action 52, the numerous Wisdom Tree/Color Dreams games, the black Tengen carts, or Nintendo World Championships 1990 (as that was a prize and not a commercially-released game).
- I am using Amazon to base my list off of, and I'm looking at the "used and new" price. The first price they sometimes list is for a new, sealed copy, which will obviously be worth a helluva lot more. The prices I'm looking at are the ones that are still worth ridiculous sums of money second-hand.
- I'm going from the most expensive game I see to the usual $60 mark that a new game is typically sold for today.



Stadium Events ($5,600)



Panic Restaurant ($598)



Bonk's Adventure ($540)



Little Samson (I didn't even see a copy listed, but when it is, it's usually $500+)



The Flintstones: Surprise at Dinosaur Peak ($500)



Bubble Bobble 2 ($350)



Dragon Fighter ($300)



Cowboy Kid ($275)



Chip & Dale Rescue Rangers 2 ($250)



Mighty Final Fight ($200)



Fire n' Ice ($200)



DuckTales 2 ($186)



The Jetsons: Cogswell's Caper ($178)



TMNT: Tournament Fighters ($163)



Godzilla 2: War of the Monsters ($150)



Wayne's World  ($145)



Stack-Up ($130)



[b]Bucky O'Hare ($120)
[/b]


Die Hard ($120)



Gargoyle's Quest 2 ($120)



Contra Force ($119)



Metal Storm ($115)



Nobunaga's Ambition 2 ($108)



Megaman 5 ($105)



Bomberman 2 ($102)



North & South ($100)



Swamp Thing ($100)



Romance of the Three Kingdoms 2 ($96)



Gemfire ($94)



Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Hillsfar ($90)



Casino Kid 2 ($90)



Felix the Cat ($90)



Alfred Chicken ($85)



L'Empereur ($84)



KickMaster ($80)



Uncharted Waters ($80)



Dragon Warrior 3 ($80)



Dragon Warrior 4 ($79)



Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom ($79)



Battletoads & Double Dragon ($75)



Color a Dinosaur ($75)



Rockin' Kats ($70)



Zen: Intergalactic Ninja ($70)



The Addams Family: Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt ($65)



Faria ($65)



Ninja Gaiden 3: The Ancient Ship of Doom ($60)



Mario's Time Machine ($60)


Let me know if anyone else has something they want to add.