Ridiculous prices for Retro Games on auction sites – Case 1
Thu, Jun 18, 2009
I was just surfing through a popular auction site’s Vintage & Retro Gaming listings as I do and came across a Cascade Cassette 50 for the Sinclair ZX81. Not a really rare piece of software by any stretch of the imagination but as with all ZX81 software these days, getting rarer and therefore expectedly more expensive year on year. Be prepared to normally pay anything between £5 to £10 depending on condition and the number of bidders.
But this Cassette 50 is different. “How so?” I hear you ask. Is it a pre-release copy? No. Has it got an unusual inlay with a typo? Erm, no… In fact this piece of software has only one thing that makes it so special. It’s price.
A Buy It Now for £50.00? I would normally laugh at the price and move on but this seller is either taking the p*ss or has no idea of the value of this item. They either want to convince an unsuspecting newbie collector into thinking it is super-rare when it isn’t or they need to learn its true market value before listing it.
From the listing:
“This is Very common for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, but Extremely rare for the ZX81.”
No it’s bloody not.
A seller has every right to sell an item for what they want and I acknowledge that. But con-artists deserve to be treated with contempt, whether they are selling you a second-hand car or selling you Cascade’s finest on an internet auction site. I have the nasty feeling that they know full well how much it is really worth…
Somebody make them an offer for £5…
UPDATE: Surprise, surprise, the auction ended without a buyer. Shocking that. Anyway at the time of writing they have relisted the item for £40. Still £35 too expensive I’m afraid…
Tags: auctions, cascade, cassette 50, overpriced games
Hehe, yes Cassette 50 is possibly a title I would maximum pay £1 for if it was the C64 version. There are some sellers that have no idea what its worth often listing things that you can buy for a few quid from other sellers listing in the same category.
The fact is that many games were manufactured in hundreds of thousands copies and I dont think we are at the point where we have an equal amount of collectors… fortunately.