morality and capitalism are disparate.
Me too. I don't care about trade value or condition. Treasure.
eBay prices, how much is too much?
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morality and capitalism are disparate.
Me too. I don't care about trade value or condition. Treasure.
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I see many things from my ill-spent youth that I would probably buy now, purely for nostalgia's sake, but the prices are enough to make even an activist investor blush.
For example, I loved the video game "Beyond Castle Wolfenstein" and I used to have my own floppy-disk boxed copy in mint condition. The game involves sneaking into Hitler's bunker, placing a bomb in his cabinet room, and escaping undetected. You get bonus points if the bomb goes off and you don't make it out alive. I played it over and over and over again. The game even spoke in German, which was astounding for its time.
Looking on Ebay, I see beat up copies like the one below selling for $475. Yowch! Nostalgia isn't that great. Another nicer copy, much closer to the one I had, has a $550 price tag. If I get really desperate, I saw another beat-up copy selling for $120. I have yet to become that desperate.
I also loved the Ultima games. I bought a copy of the Ultima II game below off a store shelf back who knows when. I played it for hours, finished the game, and moved on to Ultima III. Again, I kept mine in perfect shape for years. It vanished somewhere. How much would this piece of mangled nostalgia cost me now? $300! Another copy of the same game, but in a "big box," is available for a mere $999.99. Once again, nostalgia is nice, but not anywhere worth these prices.
Thankfully, I still have my original Atari 2600 "Adventure" game, still in the box that I bought it in who knows when. Copies of this game on Ebay appear to sell for anywhere from $70,000 (unopened, graded, and certified) down to about $100.00 for a decent copy.
Way back when, I never thought of keeping old game boxes or obsolete floppy disks, etc. The point was to play the game, not to collect boxes full of obsolete technology. Still, it never occurred to me that I may want them again someday, years and years later, on a not yet feasible or then even conceivable, online auction site. Apparently, everyone else did the same thing, so someone must have enough nostalgia to pay prices for those remaining few, and even horribly abused, copies left out there.
I wonder if so much nostalgia would exist without Ebay? It probably wouldn't be so expensive.
For example, I loved the video game "Beyond Castle Wolfenstein" and I used to have my own floppy-disk boxed copy in mint condition. The game involves sneaking into Hitler's bunker, placing a bomb in his cabinet room, and escaping undetected. You get bonus points if the bomb goes off and you don't make it out alive. I played it over and over and over again. The game even spoke in German, which was astounding for its time.
Looking on Ebay, I see beat up copies like the one below selling for $475. Yowch! Nostalgia isn't that great. Another nicer copy, much closer to the one I had, has a $550 price tag. If I get really desperate, I saw another beat-up copy selling for $120. I have yet to become that desperate.
I also loved the Ultima games. I bought a copy of the Ultima II game below off a store shelf back who knows when. I played it for hours, finished the game, and moved on to Ultima III. Again, I kept mine in perfect shape for years. It vanished somewhere. How much would this piece of mangled nostalgia cost me now? $300! Another copy of the same game, but in a "big box," is available for a mere $999.99. Once again, nostalgia is nice, but not anywhere worth these prices.
Thankfully, I still have my original Atari 2600 "Adventure" game, still in the box that I bought it in who knows when. Copies of this game on Ebay appear to sell for anywhere from $70,000 (unopened, graded, and certified) down to about $100.00 for a decent copy.
Way back when, I never thought of keeping old game boxes or obsolete floppy disks, etc. The point was to play the game, not to collect boxes full of obsolete technology. Still, it never occurred to me that I may want them again someday, years and years later, on a not yet feasible or then even conceivable, online auction site. Apparently, everyone else did the same thing, so someone must have enough nostalgia to pay prices for those remaining few, and even horribly abused, copies left out there.
I wonder if so much nostalgia would exist without Ebay? It probably wouldn't be so expensive.
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You've touched upon the collector's conundrum and nostalgia regret (my own terms). Why are those prices so high? Well, they were great games and many played with it. (I've played the Castle Wolfenstein back when it was shareware.)
If everybody just kept it in boxes, it wouldn't be worth nearly as much. Refer back to "Citizen Kane".
So you, yourself did the same thing others did that causes the prices to go up... looking for something that brought you great enjoyment years back.
As many if us get older, we realize that sometimes bringing back a piece that reminds us of that happy earlier memory is (almost) priceless. It's just that many people have bigger wallets than most of us.
Funkworks
Low Earth Orbit, obstructing Earth's view of Venus
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As for video games, I have found playthroughs for just about every game I've ever looked for:
With a little more work, we can find emulators and play any old game on a present computer. Not quite the same as with original hardware, but less expensive.
With a little more work, we can find emulators and play any old game on a present computer. Not quite the same as with original hardware, but less expensive.
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In addition to.
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Yes, the biggest paradox is that nearly every game ever created in the past 40 years is now readily available on the internet. I've played both of the games I posted above, as well as many, many others, online.
Strangely, the rarity then becomes having the original box that you had years ago. The game itself isn't rare, only the box and its contents are. Why would I need to have the box when I can play the game? Again, stupid nostalgia. Back when I played the game, I had the box. I picked the box off a shelf and loaded a disk into a now obsolete computer. Just playing the game online doesn't bring back the entire effect. It's irrational.
Honestly, even if I had a bigger wallet, I wouldn't pay those prices merely for possessing the boxes again. To me, that's a terrible use of money. I'll just play the games, even though the online experience doesn't really give me the full experience of playing those games in their original context.
Strangely, the rarity then becomes having the original box that you had years ago. The game itself isn't rare, only the box and its contents are. Why would I need to have the box when I can play the game? Again, stupid nostalgia. Back when I played the game, I had the box. I picked the box off a shelf and loaded a disk into a now obsolete computer. Just playing the game online doesn't bring back the entire effect. It's irrational.
Honestly, even if I had a bigger wallet, I wouldn't pay those prices merely for possessing the boxes again. To me, that's a terrible use of money. I'll just play the games, even though the online experience doesn't really give me the full experience of playing those games in their original context.
You seem conflicted.
But yeah, a copy is similar, but not the same. Take arcade games like Pac-Man, etc. There are plenty of cheap or free copies you can play, but it's really not the same as having a real original.
Same as a knock-off Rolex Shelby Cobra kit car, etc. Imho.
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Heh - not really conflicted. I get it overall, I just wouldn't spend the money. I would pay at most $50 for a nice "Castle Wolfenstein" original box and disk, but nothing more. I know I will not find one for that amount, so it doesn't really bother me. It's always important to know one's price and to stand by it, otherwise you can waste a lot of money. Plus, if I think about it for more than 20 seconds, what would I do with the old box? It would sit on my shelf. I may look at it once in a while and feel a temporary feeling of nostalgia. It will fade over time. Then one day I'll wonder why I have a completely useless old box on my shelf that I'm too afraid to touch because it's old and fragile. It doesn't make a lot of sense. And it's definitely not worth $500.You seem conflicted.
There are very few low power rockets out there that have more than $20-$30 worth of components in them. Unless there is something crazy special that you can’t find or 3D print, I just don’t see the point in spending more.
I laugh every time I see some list a Phoenix or V2 for a couple hundred dollars. It’s $20 bucks in parts. If you look around you get broken V2’s for almost nothing and rebuild it for $20.
Many years ago I got into hobby grade RC cars and let myself get pulled into the hype of owning the classics, New in box. Never again
I laugh every time I see some list a Phoenix or V2 for a couple hundred dollars. It’s $20 bucks in parts. If you look around you get broken V2’s for almost nothing and rebuild it for $20.
Many years ago I got into hobby grade RC cars and let myself get pulled into the hype of owning the classics, New in box. Never again
Yup, something for everyone in most hobbies. However, the big majority of us praise and drool over stuff like Steve Eeves' Saturn V rocket or an Aerotech O motor (~$3,000?), etc.
I enjoy cheap and scratch builds as well as stuff to drool over. That's what I love about this hobby.
Some here have easily spent $1K in motors alone during Black Friday sales or at a single launch. I won't judge that and I may be guilty of it as well.
Is a Buggati Chiron for everyone? Nope, but I'd sure love one and I know there will always be many things I want that I can't afford.
Rocketry is a great hobby which is fun, entertaining, educational, great stress reliever, allows us to be social with like-minded people (mostly
), family oriented, list goes on...But let's all face it that rocketry isn't a necessity.
If you still have that RC collection, have you checked prices recently?
Coincidentally I started with collecting RC kits after seeing some go for insane amounts of money in the late 90s. Some empty boxes alone were going for hundreds.
Let me direct you to this site: gog.com They have old games that are tweaked to run on modern machines, and generally pretty cheap. They are legit.
Beyond Castle Wolfenstein is a mere $4.99. Ultima I, II, and III are a package deal for a whopping $5.99.
Enjoy.https://www.gog.com/en
bibbster
Well-Known Member
This reminded me of a recent ebay experience. There is an O gauge railroad coal filled gondola that I would like to have. I watched ebay for several months and they were selling for about $25-35. I decided to go ahead and attempt to win one. Missed a couple at $40. Next one comes up and sells for $135. Now everyone listing them thinks they are worth $100+. People selling seem to forget two things; to look at historical sales and that there aren't usually more than two goofballs out there willing to overpay for something. Of course I do suspect shill bidding. I've watched several end with no bids. I've decided I don't want it as much as I thought I did. Lol
Any time the price is twice what it should be.
Ebay used to crack down on shill bidding (bidding up your auction using another account) and it used to be easy to see when they displayed the bidding history, but for some reason they stopped doing that.
Ebay prices can vary just like stocks. Sometimes something starts up a frenzy of interest (ex. An article about collectible trains with examples) and suddenly prices go up.
impulse control is a very important kung fu when ebayin'. when i start drooling over some new listing i conjure an image of my brother in law counseling my nephew, "patience, young jedi..." good advice.
When that used to happen at auctions, we said they quit bidding and went to bragging.
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I do research on the item of interest as far as trending prices for what it ACTUALLY sold for. On Ebay, you can do this as well as doing a Google search.
You know... I've probably done that thousands of times, but didn't do it for the OP item lol
Is this the same?
H_Rocket
Death by Powerpoint
How much is too much?
$0.01 more than I’m willing to pay.
$0.01 more than I’m willing to pay.
