The next thing I
want to get my hands on is rarity lists for the major Japanese systems.
There has been alot of talk on eBay and the news groups lately about certain
games being "Rare" or "Extremely Rare", etc. Those of you who have
been collecting for awhile recognize this as hype. I use the word
"rare" on my lists to mean "hard to find". We are talking about mass
produced consumer goods, not hand made crafts pieces from the 17th century.
None of this stuff is "rare". It is true that a complete in box TV
Game 6 by Nintendo is quite a find, but it is not rare in the same way
a faberge egg is. There has been some rumors that there were only
1000 copies of the Mega Drive version of Phantasy Star 1 manufactured.
I have some calls in to my contacts at Sega Enterprises to get the real
number. They will not tell me how many were made but they can release
total sales figures for a particular title. As soon as I have the
real sales number, I will publish it here.
The collecting scene here has become much more popular over the last 6 months. The easiest way gauge the popularity of any system or game is to watch the prices in the shops in Akihabara. Zet & Sofmap 13 are the two best places to find older systems and games but don't think that everything will be cheap. In the last 6 months I have seen the prices of Famicom consoles more than double. Last October a Famicom w/o the box or books went for about $35, lately they have been going for around $88 or more. More obscure items like the PC Engine LT have sold for $1000! You might think that no one on earth would pay $1000 for a video game console but that LT was only on the shop floor for about a week. Some titles like Metal Gear (Famicom/NES by Konami) which go for about $5 complete in the US are more like $30 for the bare cartridge here, IF you can find it. Lots of people have written to me asking for Neo Geo hardware and software. You would figure that this rather ancient system would be easily available right? Wrong. I have only seen two Neo Geo ROM systems for sale since I got here. Even the old single speed Neo CD units regularly sell for $120 or more. CDZs? Forget about it. If you can even find a new one it will cost you $300. The ROMs & CDs can be easily found, but only the more common titles like Samurai Spirits and King of Fighters. I'm still wondering where those copies of Pulstar on eBay came from...
Generally the quality of used items here is much higher than in the states. So far every piece of hardware I have bought here has been in good working order and is often in the original box with the books and even the inner plastic bags still intact. The only exception to this is Famicom Disk Systems. I have two of these and neither one works correctly. It seems that the drive belt gets old and stops working over time. Fortunately Nintendo still sells parts for these systems.
Anyway, thanks for reading along and stay tuned to this page in the near future for sale lists and articles about the collecting scene in Tokyo.