For Collectors & Players Alike: Ultr@ R@re Games

Mega Drive collectors are lucky. Among the classic systems, it remains as one of the most collector-friendly. Atari 2600 collectors are throwing their retirement savings on many triple digit rarities that are crap and they know it, Neo Geo players get two games for a nice used car and SNES owners are frustrated by trying to find gems with cardboard boxes in good condition. When hunting down the most precious, sought after releases of the Mega Drive, the prices pass the $200 mark on very few of them, and many can be obtained for as low as a new game of the current generation. Plus, except for some unlicensed ones, they all come in that plastic clamshell case that is the true home for a cartridge, unlike that barren hut of a cardboard box everyone despises.

This list is a guide telling what games are rare, if they among the most expensive, and whether or not they are worth buying. Prices are not included simply because they go up and down all the time and can be extremely varied depending on where the games are bought. I have done a lot of research to make it as trustworthy as possible, but there is a lot of personal input as well, for example the opinions of whether a game should be bought or not. The part following below only tells about games that are rare wherever they are from. Then we have a list of games that are rare in a specific region, followed by games that are just on high demand and are easy to get, although at a high price. I have finished the article with some tips for rare games buying.

 

Alien Soldier

Released in Japan, Europe and Australia in 1995 by Treasure. Alien Soldier is a run-‘n-gun which is famous for pushing the hardware to its limits. It is also among the few rare titles that is worth its price. Thanks to the PS2 and Virtual Console, it might be even more worth it now. The gameplay consists of twenty-five small levels with even more gigantic bosses. The main idea is to use the clever controls and your arsenal to defeat them in an astounding space-age environment. Very jaw-dropping and addictive is how I find it. The game isn’t super rare, but it always goes for high prices due to its originality and technical excellency. The Japanese version is most expensive. The only difference between the PAL versions, which are optimized for 50 Hz, is some funny Engrish and a famous quote on the title screen. If the price is too much for you, any of the two ports should do, but don’t be so sure that they’re true to the original.

Battle Mania Vintage

While the original was released in the USA as Trouble Shooter, with some localization done, the sequel stayed in Japan. It has become one of the rarest games for some reason. I personally don’t find it THAT special. You are two flying girls who shoot forward or, by switching, backwards. You have some power ups here and there and at the beginning of each stage you choose a special bomb weapon that is charged for some time until it is usable. The view and theme is quite original, but the gameplay certainly is not. There isn’t much to complain about with this game, though. A great way to determine if it should be purchased or not is to buy the American version of the prequel, which is far cheaper than the JP version (that might be because of the box art). If anyone likes the prequel, I’m pretty sure he would like this game as well, as they are very similar.

DarXide

DarXide was developed by the legendary Frontier Developments and released only on the European 32X, as the last game ever for the add-on. The gameplay is vastly similar to Star Wars Arcade and Stellar Assault – two other 32X titles. It is a shooter in space where you fly around with the aim to destroy asteroids and alien ships. The genre was quite popular at the time with, for example, Descent for computers, which actually was a much more decent and varied game than these three 32X titles mentioned. It is easy to get tired of DarXide, but at least the graphics look splendid compared to even some Saturn games. DarXide is together with Sangukoshi IV the crown jewel of a 32X collector’s (yes, all two of you!) collection. It is very hard to find, and when it is found, it goes for several hundred dollars. The game is, as you may understand, not really worth that much unless you are a hardcore collector. Any of the other titles mentioned above work very well as a substitute.

Daze Before Christmas

This game happens to be the only one on the console to be exclusively released in Australia. The publisher was Sunsoft, a company that had low runs on most of their releases on the console. They also released a SNES port in 1995. Daze Before Christmas is just like any platformer, except that it has a Christmas theme, of course. It is perhaps the only game to have that on the console, together with James Pond II. As Santa Claus, you must save Christmas from Louse the Mouse, who has scared away all elves and stolen the presents the children are supposed to have. In twenty-four levels you jump and run from the start to the exit, pick up presents, free elves and butt-bounce on enemies or throw magic on them. The graphics are pretty poor for a 1994 game, but the music gives an excellent feel of Christmas when playing. It just fits perfectly to play during that special time of the year, but as a pick-up-and-play game it is mediocre. A player better spend his Christmas game money on the second James Pond installment and his rare game money on something else.

Divine Sealing

Divine Sealing is an unlicensed shoot-’em-up with hentai cut scenes. The story is deeply told, with girls explaining how they are undressed with force by some demon. The gameplay is like a scrolling Galaxian, with many weak enemies coming in lines. After killing enough of them, your weapon upgrades to shoot backwards, as there are no power ups to help you. The graphics look like something from the Entertainment System, except the sprites are bigger here. Simply put, Divine Sealing is utter tosh not worth your time unless you are really an hardcore collector or perhaps a hentai fan. Somehow, I just know there is better hentai available out there, so if I buy this crap someday I will do it ONLY because I am a hardcore collector and nothing else!

Duke Nukem 3D

A forum favourite. In some fishy way, Tec Toy (Sega’s distributor in Brazil) got a license from GT Interactive Software to publish this game in 1998. GT were the current owners of the Duke, but apparently 3D Realms didn’t approve the Mega Drive version. I tried to ask about it at their forum, but the thread was deleted quickly, twice, so I guess they aren’t overly positive about this legendary Mega Drive rarity. The game itself is considered a technical achievement for a console that can’t handle polygons, but that doesn’t in any way save the execution from being horrible. The brutal difficulty doesn’t make it better, even if you can save anytime. When much of it comes from the graphics and gameplay, this game fits better with the title Duke Pukem. If you want to play FPS on your Mega Drive, try Zero Tolerance. If you want to play Duke Nukem 3D in its true form, get the PC version. And if you want to waste your money, send them to me, that will make my purchase worthwhile.

Eliminate Down

Some people love this game, but I have a hard time seeing its excellence. It is a traditional side-scrolling shmup in the same vein as Thunder Force III and IV. You have three weapons you can change between anytime, and they have three levels which are upgraded via taking five power ups. It is therefore not special at all, and the audio/visual presentation is generally average. One positive aspect about Eliminate Down is, if you see it that way, its frustrating difficulty which is on the same level as UndeadLine. Other than that, I see no reason to pick this one up before Thunder Force IV, which is far superior in all other aspects and many times more worth its very low price. Eliminate Down, however, went for around $300 on eBay once. That is an insane sum, and my price was far below it. Make sure yours is too, if you just must have all rare Japanese only shmups for the Mega Drive.

Gleylancer

A very special shoot-’em-up, released by Masaya in 1992, only in Japan and Korea. Bits and pieces of the game has led it to have a maybe not fully deserved cult status. The manga cut scenes are cinematic, the music makes your head bang, and the weapon system has some nice customization and variety, yes. That is really enough for me to love the game. But it doesn’t take away the very bland graphics of the levels (except for the parallax scrolling of the first two) and the lame bosses. So Gleylancer is really a mixed bag. If you are out for some blazing firing of this genre, there are cheaper and easier to find alternatives. Go for Gleylancer when you have some money in your wallet, and your shmup library is thirsting for something special, but be ready to search well for it.

Magic Girl

Like Divine Sealing, another unlicensed shoot-’em-up. This one is of the cutesy style like Keio Flying Squadron and Panorama Cotton, and does not contain hentai. The gameplay is pretty simple and feels 8-bit, with the same swarming enemies and bullet hell over and over again. You have your bombs and your shields, but that won’t stop you from closing down your emulator. Emulator? Yes, because the game is very tough to find. And if you find it, you will probably pay several hundreds of dorrals for it, as people know this is a rarity. I would skip this and get Panorama Cotton and Keio Flying Squadron instead.

Mega Man: The Wily Wars

Finally a game where it feels like Capcom cared for the Sega players. Mega Man: The Wily Wars is a remake of the three first Entertainment System classics and also including an all new and exclusive mini-game called Wily’s Tower. Wily’s Tower consists of three levels with three quite ordinary (for Mega Man) bosses and a final level where you confront Wily a last time. In it, you can combine some of all the weapons and items you had in the three previous games. I enjoy the brief updates of the graphics and the sound, others don’t. Instead of passwords, there are three game save files instead. The game was released only in Europe and Japan. It isn’t optimized for 50 Hz, so music and gameplay takes a hit, but with a 60 Hz switch the problem is gone. For Euros, this is (together with Alien Soldier) perhaps the rarest and most expensive game you cannot find cheap in another region. It is without doubt worth its money.

Monster World IV

Monster World IV is the last game in the franchise, which has starred Wonder Boy until this game where the green-haired girl Arsha took over. It was only released in Japan during the same time the Saturn saw the light of day. Maybe that caused it to have low sales or a low run. It is at least quite expensive for being a Japanese Mega Drive RPG. But there is not much RPG left with this final installment. It is more like five platform levels with puzzles and a town where you talk and buy equipment. It is very short for the genre and size, but the graphics are just wonderful with its bright mix of colours and cute design. It is also very fun to play as long as it lasts. The game is in Japanese of course, but you can play through most of it without knowing the language. Otherwise, you can get the translation patch, which was the first for the console. Get this one if you like the other games in the franchise, or Falcom’s Ys III and Popful Mail. Forum member Bratwurst also offers the patched English version in cartridge form, complete with box and manual.

M.U.S.H.A

Redubbed into M.U.S.H.A. – Metallic Uniframe Super Hybrid Armor in the USA, and not released in PAL regions, this shmup is quite legendary to Mega Drive fans. Released in 1990 with only FOUR MEGA POWER, its numerous use of parallax scrolling and headbanging metal soundtrack keeps impressing players to this day. Competing with vertical shooters on the system, not many have a chance against MU.S.H.A./Aleste. On the negative side, many complain that it is far too easy, but at least it is fun nontheless. The price is high, but not superhigh, for both versions. What should decide your purchase is simply the boxart and the manual. As one of the cheaper, but still best rare shmups on the system, M.U.S.H.A./Aleste should definitely be one of the first you try to track down.

Nightmare Circus

Nightmare Circus is a Brazilian only release. It was developed by Funcom, which was also responsible for Daze Before Christmas. According to Wikipedia, it was said to be made as a Donkey Kong Country-killer. To avoid the biggest miscalculated estimation in the history of video games, one very smart lad decided to cancel the U.S. release and leave it to the Brazilians, where Sega already had 75% of the market share. That was a wise move, for this mediocre mix of fighting, brawling and action is anything but a competitor to the computer generated divinity of Donkey Kong. (By the way, shouldn’t Monkey Kong fit better, as he is a monkey and not a donkey?) Anyway, Nightmare Circus is fairly original and might be worth trying just for that, but get ready to search well for a complete copy on the Brazilian shopping sites. Perhaps having a friend from that country buying it for you will make it easier. It doesn’t go for too much, but then again, the game isn’t impressive at all.

Outback Joey

This is what you dream about finding on a local yard sale for peanuts. It is pretty unknown, but few rich collectors know of it and will pay to hundreds of dollars to get this game so they can exercise, because that was what it was made for. Released only in the U.S. with probably less than a thousand copies made, Outback Joey came with a custom Genesis (which is actually nothing more than a model 1 with a new shell), a sensor that read your heartbeat and another one that was plugged unto your exercise machine to compare it to your heartbeat. The game itself can only be played with the entire kit, where the character Joey moves according to how you do with your exercise machine. If you see the game loose for a few bucks, get it. While you cannot use it fully, it is probably far more worth its cost, so you can resell it. Getting the complete box is a collector dream that will cost several hundred dollars, if it ever comes true. Unless your local yard sale has it for peanuts, that is.

Panorama Cotton

This is it. Perhaps the most exclusive, original, Blast Processing and worth its money of the rare Mega Drive games. Released only in Japan, at the end of the life span, Panorama Cotton saw only around five thousand copies. The special tea cup that buyers of the game could get via sending in a coupon, saw only three hundred copies. Getting Panorama Cotton has become cheaper over the years, but that dang mug will still double the price of the game. The game itself stars a little manga witch in a Space Harrier-esque shooter. The world is very colourful and fantasy-themed, run by very smooth fake-scaling that makes you forget about that Mode 7 crap some other 16-bitter had.

Pepen Ga Pengo

This was released for the old Atari consoles in the early ’80s. In 1995, a remake was made for the Mega Drive. It was only released in Japan. The gameplay reminds me of Bomberman. You are a penguin in a room seen from a (flying) bird perspective. There are many ice blocks inside the room, and some enemies such as snowmen or walruses. By pushing C, you kick the blocks, hopefully towards an enemy so he gets smashed on the wall and dies. You can make your own blocks with B and pick up power ups/downs hidden inside the destroyed blocks. When all enemies are dead, you win. There are a few modes available, including one for up to four players via a multitap. I think the gameplay is a little monotonic and too primitive for a purchase if the budget is limited. Mega Bomberman is probably a much better option, as it is both cheaper and has more substance.

Pulseman

Released in Japan only in 1994 and developed by Game Freak of Pokémon fame, it is common to say that Pulseman’s gameplay is a mix of those from Mega Man and Sonic. It is true, but Pulseman is a game good enough on its own. There is something special about it. Many jaw-dropping graphical effects that go hand in hand with the atmospheric music. My favourite level has some parallax scrolling spruces that hovers up and down in the background, together with some soothing music that puts me in awe. Pulseman also has around seventy voice samples, of which most are clear and quite a few of them are longer than what George W. Bush would be able to say without reading off an autocue. Pulseman isn’t that rare or expensive, so it should definitely be one of the first rare games to pick up, especially if you are a platform fan.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms

As the fourth installment of the series known as Romance of the Three Kingdoms elsewhere in the world, this is the only 32X game to be exclusive for Japan. Since the 32X was even less popular than the Xbox 360 is there now, all of its games had low runs, including this strategy game by Koei. The whole series has been released on countless platforms, where the two previous installments had American releases on the Genesis. This game had American releases on for example the Sega Saturn and the Virtual Console. If you like the series, perhaps those versions should be preferred over this one, as the game is impossible to complete without understanding its language. The game itself is based on a novel written in the fourteenth century by a Chinese author, who himself based his book on events of Chinese history. The goal of the game is to unite China once again. The gameplay involves housing your land with good statistics for your food and natural resources, while preparing for war with other countries, which may be your allies also. So there is a little Sim City and some Red Alert in a Chinese setting.

Slap Fight MD

Tengen is quite known for not liking licenses, and where the famous Tetris example with Nintendo being one of them, Slap Fight MD and Snow Bros. are two with Sega. Slap Fight was originally released in the arcades in 1986. It is a typical vertical shooter. By shooting down enemies, you get stars as power ups. By collecting stars, you get more advanced weapons and your spaceship grows in size. It reminds me a lot of the Super Battleship Formation. This version of Slap Fight has the original arcade mode and an unique MD version – with music by Yuzo Koshiro!!! Actually, this soundtrack doesn’t quite reach the level of his more famous works – it sounds a little 8-bit – but it makes the game better anyway. For the game itself, it looks very dated, but plays pretty decent after getting the first few power ups. It goes for quite a lot of money and was only released in Japan. Aleste remains the better vertical shooter, Slap Fight MD is second.

Snatcher

A game by Hideo Kojima that has an exclusive English release on the Mega CD. That, together with a low run and zero marketing, makes it rare. One reason is that everybody loves Hideo Kojima, simply because all his games are good (presumably, I’ve only played this one actually). And Snatcher is awesome, probably the best game ever released on the CD add-on. Okay, the gameplay is an ordinary graphics adventure with some shooting scenes. And the plot is stolen from Blade Runner, not to mention references from Terminator and Dune are just rip-offs. But the execution is so splendid. The voice acting makes it so cinematic, the music adds extra thrill to the creepy atmosphere and I just CAN’T resist the option of harassing all female characters in the game (hey, at least I don’t do it in real life!). I demand that you buy this game now. It may cost more than the CD unit itself, but it will be worth it. Heck, buy the game and play it on an emulator if it’s the only way. After you’ve finished this game, you are always going to remember it as that Cyber-Punk Adventure that held a majestic grasp of you for fifteen hours of your life.

Snow Bros.

Originally an arcade game released in 1990 by Toaplan, Snow Bros. was ported to the Entertainment System and the Mega Drive. An Amiga version was supposedly freely distributed last year. According to Digit Press, only around two thousand copies made it to public before the game got pulled back for licensing issues. There are two versions, a Japanese and a South Korean. I have only seen the first mentioned.

The game is vastly similar to the classic Bubble Bobble. As a snow brother you must rescue your girlfriend from a black metal-dude/clown crossover by defeating all enemies on fifty-one screen levels. By repeatedly throwing snow on your enemies, they become balls you must push away to their destruction. If the balls hit other enemies, you obtain sushi and power ups. There isn’t any variety and the audio/visuals feel 8-bit. A password system, difficulty setting and co-op gameplay saves the game from being totally mediocre, but fact remains that this is for collectors only. A player does better spending his $200 on many other far superior games. Bubble Bobble and the Amiga download are good and cheap options to this game.

Spider-Man: Web of Fire

When this game was released, the 32X had already had its death certificate signed. Spider-Man: Web of Fire became its last game in the U.S., released less than two years after launch. Since it had a low run (fifteen hundred copies, unconfirmed) and was only released in the U.S., it has become a rarity, even though the game isn’t very memorable at all. The price isn’t that high, but that must be because 1) 32X collectors are fewer than female throne heirs in the Middle East, and 2) The game sucks. It is actually like an early Mega Drive game, with perhaps some more colours here and there. The gameplay is your typical brawler, with nothing you haven’t seen before. Spidey has some better entries on both the Mega Drive and the Mega CD, get those instead of this one if you are interested in him.

Tetris

The absolutely rarest of the rare. Different sources give different numbers, but any person should be able to count the number of existing copies of this game on his both hands. But chances you will see one is very, very low. Expect to fetch out several thousands of dorrals to get this one, if you ever even hear of a seller of it. A Spanish collector recently paid €11,000 to get a complete copy. Also noteworthy is the fact that bootlegs of the game are also quite pricey. If you really must get it, get one with a name called “7-in-1” or something, as they are cheaper. The reason behind the low number of copies are a license dispute, which forced Sega to pull in all copies (that they could, that is). What did Sega do about it? It got Columns.

Twinkle Tale

Another game where you shoot your enemies to a painful death – but this time you actually run around in a fantasy landscape. If Rambo III is a dead mammoth, then Twinkle Tale is definitely a circus elephant. When the pretty graphics have been seen, there is not much left to be amazed about. OK, the music is quite hummy as well. Twinkle Tale is just another JP exclusive, great shmup like so many other games on this list. It is semi-expensive. I suggest you put it on your list only if you are shmupoholic or need something different than spaceships destroying battleships when it comes to the genre.

UndeadLine

UndeadLine is an early JP only shmup, which is a remake from an MSX2 game. Palsoft published it and T&E Soft of Super Hydlide fame developed it. The odd gameplay and brutal difficulty may make people look away when they see it, but I would at least give it a chance. Due to its low demand, it is one of the cheaper rarities, but not very easy to find. Hardcore shoot-’em-up fans should definitely pick it up to test their skills. For regular nerds – well, you can do it as also, just prepare to whine a lot because it is too hard for you. And yeah, I have 1CCd it on normal (evil grin).

Yu Yu Hakusho Makyo Toitsusen

Yu Yu Hakusho Makyo Toitsusen is a fighter developed by Treasure, famous for such classics as Light Crusader and McDonald’s Treasure Land Adventure. It is based on an anime and was released in Japan and Brazil only. What makes it special is the fact that you can play four people simultaneously. That makes it an unique game for the era, as far as I know. Anything else? Well, the graphics are quite good, with some cool effects in the backgrounds and fluid animation. The music is quite atmospheric and the samples pretty clear, but that is where it stops. The numerous gameplay modes do not make up the far too unbalanced character gallery. All special powers are output pretty much the same, but the difference is that some damage as much as fly spits and others like atomic bombs. With one character, I can never beat the first guy with even five tries, with another, I walk through the game without dying once. If you are interested in some four-player fighting on your Mega Drive, prepare to shell out some bucks and a multitap, but don’t expect to have much fun with it alone.

Chinese/Taiwanese Unlicensed Games

Since most software companies of China and/or Taiwan (Can’t they ever make up their mind about who owns it? Finland got Åland in 1921) didn’t want a/weren’t allowed to get a license from Sega, they made unlicensed games. And since they can’t spell to kåppirajt in that country, they gladly borrowed graphics for famous franchises such as Street Fighter, Final Fantasy and Golden Axe. But that doesn’t mean their games are bad. Instead of taking all that painful time to get something pretty looking/sounding of the hardware, the borrowed content helped the quality a lot. Just take a look at Shui Feng Yun Zhuan, a popular Golden Axe clone. It has far better graphics than Sega’s hack-‘n-slash game. There are quite a few RPGs available, many of them medieval/Chinese-themed. All these games are very hard to get, especially complete. We can only hope the glorious Super Fighter Team localize them for the western players.

Other Unlicensed Games

While the Chinese unlicensed games were good and Divine Sealing bad, most of the other unlicensed games are closer to the latter. They generally come in paper boxes and usually cost less than the average rarity on the console, but are also most often far less in gameplay quality as well. If you find something fishy looking, try to look it up and see what it’s really worth before you purchase it.

We have a whole article dedicated to Action 52, a NES port of fifty-two very small games of varying quality, where many are poorly programmed. Don’t expect much of it and don’t pay too much for it either, if you are interested. Wisdom Tree released four Christian-themed games of 8-bit quality. In one of them, you are supposed to hunt for “male cows,” among other animals. If you are out for some quality gaming, you hit the wrong spot, but a Christian diehard collector might find plenty of fun with the references to his own favourite book. There are also some Japanese Mahjong games. They are hardly worth your trouble if you don’t like Mahjong, which you can download easily on the internet anyway, if you haven’t tried it.

Rare in the Region

The following games are rare in a specific region, but common elsewhere.

 

Australia/Europe

• Ecco Jr.
• Death and Return of Superman
• Fatal Fury 2
• Venom & Spider-Man: Separation Anxiety
• World Championship Soccer 2
• Adventures of Batman and Robin (Mega CD)
• Fatal Fury Special (Mega CD)
• Fahrenheit (Mega CD)
• Marko’s Magic Football (Mega CD)
• Samurai Shodown (Mega CD)
• Primal Rage (32X)

Japan

• Any (late) Acclaim game
• Akumajou Dracula Vampire Killer
• Battle Mania
• Comix Zone
• Contra: Hard Corps
• El Viento
• Ristar
• The Ooze
• Most 32X games

The US of A

• Aerobiz: Supersonic
• Aero the Acro-Bat 2
• Zero: The Kamikazee Squirrel

 

Asia/Brazil/South Korea

Who knows? There are probably countless rare releases in these regions, but nobody cares about them as they are so cheap to get whenever they are found anyway and are also crappy games by the way. The exclusive ones are at least not as good as the mighty Outback Joey or Tetris, otherwise they would have been known. That is as true as science is. Ultr@ r@re games that are good = super high prices and a collector’s dream everybody talks about at forums. Dr. Zebbe von Quack knows it all.

High Demand

The following games* are not rare. They are just on high demand, which (might) make them expensive. This generally goes for U.S. and EU releases.

• Keio Flying Squadron (Mega CD)
• Phantasy Star IV
• Shining Force II
• Shining Force CD
• Streets of Rage 3
• Warsong (Langrisser)
• Working Designs’ four Sega CD games
• Any non-German RPG with pretty graphics and bishounen characters. People love those!

Non-Rare games

• Beggar Prince (the first run might become rare in the future)
• Frog Feast
• Most Good Deal Games releases
• NHL ’94

* the Miracle Keyboard, Mega Anser and Nagoya Home Banking aren’t included because they aren’t games.

Tips on How to Get Ultr@ R@re Games for Good Prices

• Test the game. When you are about to spend a lot of your potentially hard-earned cash, it would be an ideal idea to try out the game first to see if you like it, so you don’t buy the pig in the sack. How do you try it? Emulator is probably the nearest option. I wouldn’t have a bad conscience for that. The games aren’t sold anymore and you do it to be a potential buyer of them soon, don’t you?
• Do your research. Rarity prices go up and down. They might be very high at eBay, slightly cheaper in shops and even cheaper by forum sellers. Very often, people with marvelous collections put them up on a forum with fantastic prices under the topic “Need school books” or “Move sale.” They want their money fast and don’t care if they lose some for not waiting for rich potential buyers.
• Know your seller. Does he have 100% (or close to) positive feedback? Is he well known as a reliable seller on your forum? Can he provide pics? Look this up BEFORE you make that PayPal transaction.
• Make sure you get what you want. Is the game complete? Is it mint? Is the registration or spine card included? Any dogears in the manual or sunfade on the insert? Avoid regrets by looking this up carefully before bidding.
• Have some bidding tactics. Are you a sniper who bids during the last seconds, or do you put a bid hundreds of dorrals over the current a week before the auction ends? I have tried both and succeeded. Sniping has made me a sure winner many times, but also lost just as many. Bidding well before the auction’s end has made the price go up a bit, but also scared off many potential bidders to not start a bid war. An example of this is my mint/complete Eliminate Down which landed at only $180, while it reached $300 just a few weeks earlier.
• Do not join a bidding war. You might see the game for the first time in six months, but that is no reason to compete with a guy who might be Donald Trump or Ingvar Kamprad. Decide for a max amount well before you bid, and then bid only once. If you lose – fine, try again some other time. You may very well get it cheaper than the guy you lost to.

 

Well, there you go. Remember this list is based on both my personal observation and source material. Anything can be disagreed with, and that is why we have the forums to discuss it. With the help of the Sega-16 community, I might be able to revise this list to one that is more precise. If you have some constructive criticism, please share it.

 

Links

• Digitpress’ rarity guide
• Some guy’s Genesis page

 

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