Do you have 25 grand burning a hole in your pocket? Do you harbor endless affection for Nintendo's second home game console? If so, a new eBay auction should prove very intriguing for any would-be collectors among you.
If you grew up in the early- to mid-nineties, odds are very good that you have fond memories of the Super Nintendo. At the time the system was utterly ubiquitous and even those who grew up as fans of Sega’s console offerings (like myself) found it difficult to completely avoid Nintendo’s games. Super Mario World alone has sold over 20 million units since its debut in November of 1990, and its easy to argue that the SNES was the last machine released while Nintendo could be described as the undisputed champion of the gaming scene.
With all of this nostalgia in play, it should come as little surprise that now, in 2012, there is a thriving market for the Super Nintendo, its games and the console’s various peripherals. Despite this, collecting a full set of SNES games is an expensive proposition, and merely collecting the system’s various rare titles would take months, if not years of scouring online auctions and retro gaming conventions. At least, it would if we hadn’t found an ongoing auction that does all that work for you.
If you visit eBay right this moment, you’ll find an auction listed there under the title, “Complete US Super Nintendo (SNES) collection with all boxes and most manuals.” As the title suggests, the lot includes all 721 games sold in North America during the console’s life span, every game box issued during this time, 605 game manuals (“comprising 84% of all [SNES] manuals”), and dozens of duplicate games and packaging materials. Unreleased games and those exclusive to other territories (most notably Japan) are not included.
As I’m writing these words, the auction has attracted 84 bidders. That said, it appears that none of these people have trumped the lot’s $24,999 “Buy It Now” price. Obviously those of you with a spare $25,000 are rushing to make this collection yours, but there is one more big caveat that bears mentioning before you get too excited. We’ll let the seller explain:
I am located in Columbus, Ohio and I am open for local pick-up. Serious buyers may stop by to inspect the collection prior to purchasing it. Payment method is up to the buyer: Paypal, payment on pickup, etc. My only condition is that payment must clear my bank prior to me releasing these games. Local pick-up is preferred, especially so the items can be inspected by the buyer. But I will ship via freight at the buyer’s expense. In all, this set comprises about four crates and 400lbs.
We can’t fault the seller for preferring local sales, but given the relatively tiny population center that is Columbus, Ohio, and the vast reach of the Internet, we must assume that most bidders won’t be located within driving distance of this collection. Thus, most people hoping to pick this thing up will be on the hook for roughly 400lbs of shipping costs. While we don’t have an exact figure for how much that kind of shipping effort will set you back, expect to spend an extra few hundred dollars merely getting these games to your home.
If you can stomach that however, this is a fantastic collection of games. Even forgetting the always-phenomenal first-party Nintendo games, the SNES was home to dozens of awesome classic games. Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VI, and Secret of Mana are just three of the awesome games you’d be able to enjoy if you won this auction. Our only request is that whoever ends up with this massive lot of games actually spends some amount of time playing them as they were originally intended. Displaying this collection for your jealous friends is a viable option, but we’d really hate to see so many gaming classics slowly turn to dust on somebody’s shelf.
Source : digitaltrends[dot]com
Post a Comment