SydLexia.com - The Forums :: View topic

Joined: May 13 2009 Location: lowell, ma Posts: 289

I was just browsing around ebay and this was the 1st thing under a search for "nes".

http://cgi.ebay.com/RARE-FINAL-FANTASY-ORB-ONLY-50-MADE-/170569251318?pt=Video_Games_Games&hash=item27b6b839f6

My question.
Is this guy out of his fucking mind??? I know it's rare or w/e but 250k.

Posted: Nov 29 2010 06:11 pm

Final Fantasy is worldwide phenomenon with tens of millions of fans. Someone will buy this. Probably either a game designer or someone else mildly famous.

Joined: May 13 2009 Location: lowell, ma Posts: 289

Like you maybe?

But seriously, I understand how famous FF is. I just don't get where he gets his number from. Is there like a price guide of FF orbs out there that say the least it can be sold for is a quarter of a million dollars?
I guess I'm just crazy for being shocked at the starting bid.

UsaSatsui's Youtube Channel · Posted: Nov 29 2010 06:28 pm

I can see this getting 5 figures, but I think they're asking too much.

I remember this contest. The winner supposedly won a "chance at a real fantasy adventure". I wonder what that was and who won.

Posted: Nov 29 2010 06:29 pm

blkplaguelmc wrote:

Like you maybe?

But seriously, I understand how famous FF is. I just don't get where he gets his number from. Is there like a price guide of FF orbs out there that say the least it can be sold for is a quarter of a million dollars?
I guess I'm just crazy for being shocked at the starting bid.

Ha! I wish.

My new ultimate goal in life is to obtain 4 of these orbs and store them in a custom-built mansion, which will be designed to look a ruined airship, and will be guarded by WarMechs.

Joined: May 13 2009 Location: lowell, ma Posts: 289

Syd Lexia wrote:

blkplaguelmc wrote:

Like you maybe?

But seriously, I understand how famous FF is. I just don't get where he gets his number from. Is there like a price guide of FF orbs out there that say the least it can be sold for is a quarter of a million dollars?
I guess I'm just crazy for being shocked at the starting bid.

Ha! I wish.

My new ultimate goal in life is to obtain 4 of these orbs and store them in a custom-built mansion, which will be designed to look a ruined airship, and will be guarded by WarMechs.

LMAO, that was the funniest thing I've heard all day.

2 on each side of a Golden World Championship Nes Cart.

Posted: Nov 29 2010 06:45 pm

250k is just insanity. If I had the money, I could possibly see putting down 4 figures on it, but no more than that. No matter how rare it is, a hunk of glass is not worth 10k+. I mean shit, I could have a glass orb laser-etched with that logo at the mall for like $30, and it would probably look better than that.

Posted: Nov 29 2010 06:58 pm

SoldierHawk wrote:

250k is just insanity. If I had the money, I could possibly see putting down 4 figures on it, but no more than that. No matter how rare it is, a hunk of glass is not worth 10k+. I mean shit, I could have a glass orb laser-etched with that logo at the mall for like $30, and it would probably look better than that.

Action Comics #1 has sold as high as $1.5 million, and that's just some really cheap, really old paper and ink. Also, Superman sucks.

Posted: Nov 29 2010 07:23 pm

This is why I'm holding on to my bajillion DVDs, I'm gonna transfer them all to a giant hard drive and 30 years down the road I'm gonna sell em on ebay.

Posted: Nov 29 2010 07:34 pm

Syd Lexia wrote:

SoldierHawk wrote:

250k is just insanity. If I had the money, I could possibly see putting down 4 figures on it, but no more than that. No matter how rare it is, a hunk of glass is not worth 10k+. I mean shit, I could have a glass orb laser-etched with that logo at the mall for like $30, and it would probably look better than that.

Action Comics #1 has sold as high as $1.5 million, and that's just some really cheap, really old paper and ink. Also, Superman sucks.

Point taken, but I think that's a little different--comic prices are insanely inflated anyway when it comes to collectors, and Action #1 is a piece of important pop culture history that anyone, even someone who doesn't follow comics at all, can understand. Not so much with a glass orb with sword and axe logo.

Posted: Nov 29 2010 07:53 pm

Unfortunately, pop culture importance isn't a key factor in prices. There are two factors, supply (or lack thereof) and demand (which is impacted by secondary factors such as pop culture importance).

Is this item rare? Yes, only 50 were made.
Is there a demand for it? Yes, not a single person who has seen this thread doesn't want it.
Is it important to pop culture? Yes. Final Fantasy is one of the most prolific and successful video game franchises in the world, and this is a relic from its infancy. Maybe it's not the most dazzling relic ever, but it's pretty cool.

And this guy is the only person selling one. He can name whatever price he wants. If he refuses to sell below that price, then it'll stay there until someone who can afford it buys it or he stops relisting it.

UsaSatsui's Youtube Channel · Posted: Nov 29 2010 09:51 pm

I dunno, Syd, he's been trying to sell it since at least May, and still hasn't come down on the price. You would think most people would come down on the price a little since then (it looks like all he's done is remove the extras).

Supply and demand also don't matter much. I mean, a baseball that marks a historic home run, there's only one of those and every single baseball fan wants it. But none has sold for three figures I know about, despite there being only one. You also have demand a bit off. Yes, everyone here wants it. But nobody on the -planet- needs it. That hurts it's value. It has little to no intrinsic value, that hurts it as well. It's a pretty young collectible, only 20 years old, which also doesn't help.

Finally, in the end, something is only worth as much as someone is willing to pay for it.

Unfortunately, there's no real comparison for rare NES collectibles like this, so who knows this thing's true value? But it's clearly not $250,000.

Joined: May 13 2009 Location: lowell, ma Posts: 289

LOL, I love the headline to that last link. "Man Goes overboard with Final Fantasy Collectible" I'm thinking the guy who owns it must have won that contest or something and this "orb" must hold lots of sentimental value. Keyword, mental, because I don't think anyone in their right mind is going to buy this thing. Even the "holy grail" of video games, the gold nes championship cart goes for what, like 15-25,000. I'm thinking thats what this guy should've used to base his value on this thing.

And holy fuck, that article usasatsui posted said the "buy now" price is 1,000,000. This guy is nuts.

2010 SLF Tag Champ Joined: Jun 07 2006 Posts: 12294

UsaSatsui wrote:

I can see this getting 5 figures, but I think they're asking too much.

I remember this contest. The winner supposedly won a "chance at a real fantasy adventure". I wonder what that was and who won.

It was a rape party.

Posted: Nov 29 2010 11:22 pm

Quote:

This might seem like a lot, but it's really worth it. The orb is made of solid lead crystal, and it enables you to cast Ice3. You'll want to be careful though, because four elemental fiends are currently after the orb and will tear your heart out of your face to get it...

That paragraph alone was by far one of the greatest paragraphs I have read mocking out people who purchase things like this and take it far to close to the heart. I wonder if the seller held a D&D game or LARP'ed with his friends and had the orb as the objective, only to kill them all off when they reached the final boss because of a random WarMech attack...

UsaSatsui's Youtube Channel · Posted: Nov 29 2010 11:23 pm

FNJ wrote:

UsaSatsui wrote:

I can see this getting 5 figures, but I think they're asking too much.

I remember this contest. The winner supposedly won a "chance at a real fantasy adventure". I wonder what that was and who won.

It was a rape party.

Dude, if you're just chiming in to make a funny and irrelevant comment, at least be funny.

Joined: Apr 09 2008 Location: Pennsylvania Posts: 3112

The difference between Action #1 and the orb are so:
1)Superman is known damned near everywhere. People haven't read the comics, seen the movies/TV shows, etc. know who he is and at least some of his powers. Final Fantasy 1 was a wildly popular game in Japan/semi-popular in America (at its time) with no recurring characters in sequels over the years.
2)Action #1 is a pretty well-known valuable item. Many people have heard of it. If it was sitting on your shelf, people would be very impressed. The FF orb looks nice, but most people will have never heard of it, and few would be highly curious or enthusiastic about it.
3)The orb is pretty unimpressive in and of itself. It's a glass orb. You can't really do much but look at it. This is why sports cards crashed, because once you had them, what the hell do you do with them? I guess it would be worth it to piss off a bunch of nerds by adding it to your bocce ball set.

This kind of reminds me of that couple a few years back who tried to sell their Transformers collection. Apparently, some little kid bid a million dollars for it. When that fell through, the couple kept putting it up on eBay, with a million dollar reserve.

Posted: Nov 29 2010 11:53 pm

The holy grail of gaming is NOT the NES World Championship cartridge. It's the Swordquest prizes. And those are each worth 5 figures BEFORE you consider any historical context

Also, FNJ's comment made me laugh.

Posted: Nov 29 2010 11:58 pm

the sword quest items are probably worth a couple of million dollars because their original worth was 100.000 dollars each.
its a shame that the contest never was finished.
it was probably the most spectacular gaming event ever.

I also think that FNJ's comment is funny.

Posted: Nov 30 2010 12:02 am

I believe they were originally valued at 25,000 for the first four items and 50,000 for the fifth. But still, pretty impressive.

Posted: Nov 30 2010 12:04 am

Man I remember those Swordquest prizes...AVGN did an episode dealing with Swordquest and its prizes too I think; I wish I could remember what he said about them getting claimed. Have to go seek out the episode again sometime.

Also, rape is never funny, and you can all go to hell.

Posted: Nov 30 2010 12:13 am

I believe only 2 were given out. A cash prize was given out instead of the third prize, and the fourth game was never finished, so that prize was never given out. Since the last game was never finished, they never got to bring four champions together to compete for the fifth and final prize.

Posted: Nov 30 2010 12:13 am

Syd Lexia wrote:

I believe they were originally valued at 25,000 for the first four items and 50,000 for the fifth. But still, pretty impressive.

you are right, i checked it. (sorry for going offtopic twice)

Posted: Nov 30 2010 12:18 am

Rumor has it that the dude that bought Atari when the game market tanked has the sword hanging on his wall.

Wizard Joined: Jun 12 2009 Posts: 4209

SoldierHawk wrote:

Also, rape is never funny, and you can all go to hell.

It's subjective. And I was going to hell anyway, laughing at one more inappropriate thing isn't going to hurt me too much.