NWC Gold on Goldin Auctions

[ThePhleo | 2,256]

8 hours ago, Sumez said:

Anyone who paid more than $10,000 for a video game they are never going to play should feel unending amounts of shame

 

[final fight cd | 227]

8 hours ago, Sumez said:

Anyone who paid more than $10,000 for a video game they are never going to play should feel unending amounts of shame

Sounds like a r/gamecollecting post. 

So you’re saying spending $10k on a game to play is justified?

[Khromak | 835]

All collecting is wasteful if we're being honest with ourselves. Collecting this stuff is just to have it/look at it. With flash carts, ODEs, emulators, repros, etc. there's basically no difference in the actual play experience between paying $400,000 for this cart, buying a repro, or playing a rom. Same thing with Little Samson, Magical Chase, Hagane, or anything else.

We buy these things to collect them, display them, and talk about them, not to play them. We may also play them, but that's not the primary benefit. I think very few people are paying $25,000 because they really want to play Stadium Events on original hardware. I do my best to play all my games, but I didn't buy them because it was the only way I could experience these games...

That said, I don't think there's any shame in collecting stuff; it's a hobby just like any other. People have free time and extra money, they want to do something with it and follow their passions to make those decisions. There's no more shame in paying $10,000 for a video game than there is in paying $10,000 for a watch, a purse, a camera, or whatever else people spend on their hobbies.

Maybe people don't have $10,000 to spend on their hobbies, that's fine too. Maybe they spend $100 or $10. People spend to their means (or should) and having more money than someone else is also nothing to be ashamed of.

[3rdStrongestMole | 439]

On 7/23/2024 at 11:32 AM, Khromak said:

All collecting is wasteful if we're being honest with ourselves. Collecting this stuff is just to have it/look at it. With flash carts, ODEs, emulators, repros, etc. there's basically no difference in the actual play experience between paying $400,000 for this cart, buying a repro, or playing a rom. Same thing with Little Samson, Magical Chase, Hagane, or anything else.

We buy these things to collect them, display them, and talk about them, not to play them. We may also play them, but that's not the primary benefit. I think very few people are paying $25,000 because they really want to play Stadium Events on original hardware. I do my best to play all my games, but I didn't buy them because it was the only way I could experience these games...

That said, I don't think there's any shame in collecting stuff; it's a hobby just like any other. People have free time and extra money, they want to do something with it and follow their passions to make those decisions. There's no more shame in paying $10,000 for a video game than there is in paying $10,000 for a watch, a purse, a camera, or whatever else people spend on their hobbies.

Maybe people don't have $10,000 to spend on their hobbies, that's fine too. Maybe they spend $100 or $10. People spend to their means (or should) and having more money than someone else is also nothing to be ashamed of.

People spend a lot more on sports cards, and you don't even have an option to play those. Or, really, do anything with them at all except display and show off.

I think this is totally an aspect of video game collecting and has been for a while now.

 

Edited July 27 by 3rdStrongestMole

[AirVillain | 532]

This will be on their next Netflix season...

[RH | 5,194]

On 7/20/2024 at 10:34 AM, ThePhleo said:

Make your account now and make sure you up your spending limit.

Default spending limit is $10,000 for new accounts. I'll be bidding too, but I'll only be bidding my entire NWC Grey budget.

 

 

Also, I can confirm the cart as legitimate. Here's an old photo of the cartridge in my archive that shows the damage better.

NOTE: This is not the other NWC gold that was owned by NintendoAge use "lagenfeld". His cartridge was met with a lot of controversy that made him sell off his entire collection and leave the community entirely. (Sad day)

I know you've been tracking this stuff for a while.  I also think I recall haring a long time ago that the triangle sticker was just an ink-jet printed cut-out and it was tapped with simple double sided tape.  Is that correct?  Also, are there any known copies with the triangle print-out intact, or at least with the cartridge?

[RH | 5,194]

On 7/19/2024 at 8:51 PM, DefaultGen said:

https://goldin.co/item/1990-nes-nintendo-gold-world-championships-missing-cartridge-usa-cartrwlodh

I didn't see this posted anywhere, so sorry if it already was. The last one just sold for $350,000. In my personal worldview, this should sell for much less missing the entire label, but I'm sure everyone who owns one will be riding the "It's an honor and privilege just to own one at all" train for the next few weeks. Also how on Earth do you get a 4.0 grade missing the entire label??

Anyway, neat.

Jeez, it's now up to $160k.  I mean, I guess I'm not surprised but also, I kind of am.

[a3quit4s | 4,313]

13 minutes ago, RH said:

Jeez, it's now up to $160k.  I mean, I guess I'm not surprised but also, I kind of am.

Like $195k with the buyers premium! It’s not even about having the money to do that, it’s just bad logic. Like maybe if the buyers premium was 5% or something more palatable, but paying 22% over what something is really worth is just bad business.

[RH | 5,194]

15 minutes ago, a3quit4s said:

Like $195k with the buyers premium! It’s not even about having the money to do that, it’s just bad logic. Like maybe if the buyers premium was 5% or something more palatable, but paying 22% over what something is really worth is just bad business.

To me, it seems there should be a cap for these things (like $10k max) but Goldin/Heritage are all peddling to a higher "class" of buyer, so I guess if you have $160k to drop on a chopped-up Zelda cart, you have an additional $35k to basically say "money is no object to me."

[a3quit4s | 4,313]

24 minutes ago, RH said:

To me, it seems there should be a cap for these things (like $10k max) but Goldin/Heritage are all peddling to a higher "class" of buyer, so I guess if you have $160k to drop on a chopped-up Zelda cart, you have an additional $35k to basically say "money is no object to me."

I guess but like who is flexing by buying a NES cartridge no matter what it is, that kind of fuck you money is better spent on like art or stupid high end cars or watches or something else that people actually recognize 

[ThePhleo | 2,256]

1 hour ago, RH said:

I know you've been tracking this stuff for a while.  I also think I recall haring a long time ago that the triangle sticker was just an ink-jet printed cut-out and it was tapped with simple double sided tape.  Is that correct?  Also, are there any known copies with the triangle print-out intact, or at least with the cartridge?

13 known copies to exist.

I personally have photos of 9 of them...possibly a tenth copy but it's too blurry to tell based on damage markings

2 of the 9 in my archive have no labels, 7 (or 8?) of the 9 in my archive have labels.

...I've never held one that wasn't graded, but I have held I think 5 of them? The labels seem flush, meaning no tape as far as I'm aware, but don't quote me on that since I can't confirm without a doubt. Also, yeah they were printed on very low quality early 1990's inkjet office printers and cut by hand, so each label is *ahem* "unique"

[RH | 5,194]

2 minutes ago, ThePhleo said:

13 known copies to exist.

I personally have photos of 9 of them...possibly a tenth copy but it's too blurry to tell based on damage markings

2 of the 9 in my archive have no labels, 7 (or 8?) of the 9 in my archive have labels.

...I've never held one that wasn't graded, but I have held I think 5 of them? The labels seem flush, meaning no tape as far as I'm aware, but don't quote me on that since I can't confirm without a doubt. Also, yeah they were printed on very low quality early 1990's inkjet office printers and cut by hand, so each label is *ahem* "unique"

I'd consider you the expert on these things.  I've never even seen a good set of photos of these.  I only though I heard that they were taped on.  So, what do you think these were?  Were the printed on sticker paper, or you think maybe they just used a glue stick?  I can't imagine these coming off so easily if they were sticker paper.

[ThePhleo | 2,256]

2 minutes ago, RH said:

I'd consider you the expert on these things.  I've never even seen a good set of photos of these.  I only though I heard that they were taped on.  So, what do you think these were?  Were the printed on sticker paper, or you think maybe they just used a glue stick?  I can't imagine these coming off so easily if they were sticker paper.

It seems like glue smudges on this copy that used to be owned by JJ Hendricks (JJGames).... NO I DON'T TRACK OWNERS, I JUST MEMORIZED WHERE SOME PREVIOUSLY ARE.

Edit: Also, I consider the guy who most recently graded almost ALL of these in recent history to be the actual expert on NWC grey/gold. Kenneth Thrower.

 

Edited July 29 by ThePhleo

[MiamiSlice | 3,135]

Sorry to re-litigate what Sumez said but why would anyone pay over $10k for a videogame to play it? I can play tons and tons of great games for free. Whether it's stuff that is literally given away on Epic Games Store, Amazon Games, etc., games that are free to play like Fortnite and Rocket League and so on, or stuff I can get by sailing the high seas. Paying over $10k for a game with the intention of playing it is just a bad use of my money. I could buy at least 50 games at $50 a pop with $10k, that's going to give me infinitely more bang for my buck, purely on an entertainment value perspective, than buying one game for $10k. 50 games would be enough to have a Switch library that will keep me entertained for years. I've been playing Tears of the Kingdom for months, I can't imagine paying much more than that and getting a marginal benefit on entertainment value, much less paying $9940 over what I paid for Tears of the Kingdom at retail and getting a significantly better experience. I mean can anyone who paid $500 just to play Starkeeper for NES really say that it floated their boat that much? And if the going price for a copy was $5000 I just wouldn't do it. 

The only reasons I could justify paying $10k+ for a game would be: 
- I expect the value over time to increase significantly more than what I could get by having my money sit in cash, even in an investment account that pays let's say 4% APR at current rates for holding cash. 
- I run a business where there is some ROI on possessing that game (displaying it in my game store draws customers through the door, displaying it in my museum helps sell tickets, showing it off on my YouTube channel draws viewers). 
- I'm a sicko who is so obsessed with the idea of owning some physical item and having it in my possession that it outweighs the dollar value it would cost me to obtain it. 

[Code Monkey | 2,122]

The labels were cut out by hand with a pair of scissors and applied with Elmer's glue.

[Khromak | 835]

Well @MiamiSlice you are raising essentially the same points in the thread titled something like "what's your dollar/hour cap for a video game?" where it was being discussed what everyone thought the minimum number of hours of enjoyment they needed to get to "justify" the price of a game was.

I made my opinion clear on this topic earlier when Sumez brought it up but I do not believe literally anyone is purchasing a NWC because they really want to play NWC and see purchasing the cartridge as the best way to do so. You can download the ROM for free from 10 different websites or buy a repro from a dozen different sites. There's absolutely no reason you would ever need to pay this amount of money for the chance to experience the game.

This is purely a collectible, just like a Rolex, a fancy purse, a sports card, or a rare coin. People are collecting this because they think it's a neat piece of history and they want to look at it, show it to their friends, or (as you suggested) show it off in YouTube videos/at their store/on their Ebay account (or maybe as an "investment" hoping it will go up).

These are all perfectly valid reasons to want to spend money on a thing. If you have hundreds of thousands of dollars and all of your other needs are met (cars, home, etc.) then what's the harm in spending your obscene wealth on something you are passionate about? We all do it to some degree. I don't think there are a lot of people with an active account on this forum who don't own a single video game they've never played. All those dollars, wasted! Anyone with a sealed game, wasted money. Anyone with multiple copies of a game, wasted money. Variants? Wasted money.

It's just collecting. We all do it. Shouldn't be that hard to understand. Nobody is buying NWC Gold for 400,000 thinking it's going to give them the same enjoyment as 6700 Switch games. I'm surprised anyone on a video game collecting forum would be confused by someone buying a collectible video game for a purpose other than to play the software. Does the math just get confusing for you past a certain multiplier?

Edited July 31 by Khromak

[AirVillain | 532]

If I was so wealthy that 200k did not impact my finances at all, you're damn sure I'd be buying this game.

Ideally one I wouldn't have to crack open, so I could actually play it..... but fuck yeah I'd buy one if I had the money.

It's no surprise other people are doing the same.

Weird that people are like "It's weird to spend more than 10k on a game".... WTF does that even mean?

Weird to who? You. Okay, fine... who cares what you think? Not the person spending 200k on that game, haha.

It's weird to be spending ANY money on ANY of these games. Don't you get that? It's ALL absurd.... spending money, even though it's out of others' reach, is not really weird.

[AirVillain | 532]

I'd like to amend my comment to make it clear....

If I was wealthy enough to purchase this, it would have meant I purchased many MANY other things first and distributed my wealth in many ways.

BUT.... if.... IF after that I had 200k, then yes... I'd buy this . Actually, that's a lie. If I had that type of cash, I'd pay way more for one with a label.

Given how high quality and amazing the labels were.

(Auction is at 207k with 10H to go.... wonder if it will jump?)

Edited August 17 by AirVillain

[DefaultGen | 5,714]

On 7/20/2024 at 1:02 AM, DefaultGen said:

I'm gonna say $211,000.

If anyone would like to use my high end video game price prediction consulting services, my PMs are open.

[docile tapeworm | 4,256]

200k no label…..now put one up with a label on it and you get 400k…..that’s expensive glue and paper.

loose carts what a blessing.

[RH | 5,194]

On 8/18/2024 at 3:50 AM, docile tapeworm said:

200k no label…..now put one up with a label on it and you get 400k…..that’s expensive glue and paper.

loose carts what a blessing.

I completely admit that's a lot of money and way more than I'd spend on a gaming item but I am a bit surprised this ended so low. I was thinking in the $300-400k range (before buyer premium). When is the last time one of these has come up for sale and been verified legit?

Yeah, it's missing that cheapo, bubble jet printing but still, this is up there with probably the Top 5 most collectible, hyper-rare gaming items.  Someone with stupid-deep pockets isn't likely to get the chance to own one of these for another 5-10 years.

[a3quit4s | 4,313]

15 minutes ago, RH said:

I completely admit that's a lot of money and way more than I'd spend on a gaming item but I am a bit surprised this ended so low. I was thinking in the $300-400k range (before buyer premium). When is the last time one of these has come up for sale and been verified legit?

Yeah, it's missing that cheapo, bubble jet printing but still, this is up there with probably the Top 5 most collectible, hyper-rare gaming items.  Someone with stupid-deep pockets isn't likely to get the chance to own one of these for another 5-10 years.

It probably would have sold for that in 2022/2023 - hype train has left the station for sure