Honestly, I figured it out toot sweet
This story has popped up on one of my mailing lists lately. As per normal, a lot of people see the price and miss the point (of course, point missing seems to be a particular strength of a few guys on this list, and I'm looking at you, guy who thinks Dr. Who is really gonna be flying around in a TARDIS that looks like a toilet).
I'm not a big collector. I will, on occasion, admire something someone else has, but I'm not likely to lay out fat loot because I want something oh so bad. I don't buy collectibles that are $300 reproductions of tv props (not that there's anything wrong with buying lots of those!); mine are more pack a week type habits where I'll get some randomized toys. And it's highly unlikely I'll buy a very expensive one of those. I want a Kingdom Come Superman and Superman Prime Heroclix (he's one of the Guardians of Fear, you know), but they're just a bit out of my range of what I'll pay for things that are nice to have but that I'll never use.
Obviously, JJ Hendricks feels differently. I can't get to his post where he describes his purchase. But the concept of the collector's feelings are not that hard to understand. Sure, I don't know how much of a chunk of his worth/income 17 grand is. I hope, especially since I read about how he accepted the delivery with his six month old daughter in his arms, that it's his funny money.
But what a lot of people seem to be missing is the significance of this. I'm pretty sure supply and demand gets magnified significantly when you're talking about things where the suppy is this rare. I shudder to imagine how many collectors there must be of vintage '80s Nintendo paraphenelia. The parallel I tried to draw was that fewer copies of this video game exist than there are copies of Action Comics #1.
That was the first appearance of Superman. Even if you aren't a comics fan, that's got to grab your attention. An offer was made offering a million dollars for a mint copy of that book.
This game is rarer. I figure even the well worn hyperbolic "holy grail" phrase should be some sort of indication of the fact this is not your normal nintendo cartridge.
Admittedly, if there are ten copies of something in the world, and two people want them, they each get five and probably don't need to pay a whole heck of a lot (unless they are psychotically competitive, in which case someone needs to write a short story about them). But I'm willing to be the number of guys who are hardcore nintendo game collectors in the world significantly exceeds 26.
I'm gonna have to admit that this isn't an endorsement of this particular action. I personally can't see wanting something this much, and the collector's value just escapes me, but I can see how an item of this rarity and significance to a hobby would be valuable to someone. But the sheer amount of dumbpinion that got unleashed made me wonder how people who claim to be of the geek culture can be ignorant of how possesiveness works, or even fairly simple economics.
I'm not a big collector. I will, on occasion, admire something someone else has, but I'm not likely to lay out fat loot because I want something oh so bad. I don't buy collectibles that are $300 reproductions of tv props (not that there's anything wrong with buying lots of those!); mine are more pack a week type habits where I'll get some randomized toys. And it's highly unlikely I'll buy a very expensive one of those. I want a Kingdom Come Superman and Superman Prime Heroclix (he's one of the Guardians of Fear, you know), but they're just a bit out of my range of what I'll pay for things that are nice to have but that I'll never use.
Obviously, JJ Hendricks feels differently. I can't get to his post where he describes his purchase. But the concept of the collector's feelings are not that hard to understand. Sure, I don't know how much of a chunk of his worth/income 17 grand is. I hope, especially since I read about how he accepted the delivery with his six month old daughter in his arms, that it's his funny money.
But what a lot of people seem to be missing is the significance of this. I'm pretty sure supply and demand gets magnified significantly when you're talking about things where the suppy is this rare. I shudder to imagine how many collectors there must be of vintage '80s Nintendo paraphenelia. The parallel I tried to draw was that fewer copies of this video game exist than there are copies of Action Comics #1.
That was the first appearance of Superman. Even if you aren't a comics fan, that's got to grab your attention. An offer was made offering a million dollars for a mint copy of that book.
This game is rarer. I figure even the well worn hyperbolic "holy grail" phrase should be some sort of indication of the fact this is not your normal nintendo cartridge.
Admittedly, if there are ten copies of something in the world, and two people want them, they each get five and probably don't need to pay a whole heck of a lot (unless they are psychotically competitive, in which case someone needs to write a short story about them). But I'm willing to be the number of guys who are hardcore nintendo game collectors in the world significantly exceeds 26.
I'm gonna have to admit that this isn't an endorsement of this particular action. I personally can't see wanting something this much, and the collector's value just escapes me, but I can see how an item of this rarity and significance to a hobby would be valuable to someone. But the sheer amount of dumbpinion that got unleashed made me wonder how people who claim to be of the geek culture can be ignorant of how possesiveness works, or even fairly simple economics.