Factory sealed Earthbound goes for $1000+ on eBay

By Rhody Tobin by May 5th, '09 at 9:47pm CST

big-bertha-2

It’s pretty well known among gamers that Earthbound is a collector’s item. The fact that the SNES version is the only legitimate way to play Earthbound in North America keeps prices high. If the copy in question happens to be factory sealed, look out. One lucky bidder managed to get his or her hands on such a copy for $1,025.01. Do you think the bidder in question will feel any buyer’s remorse if Nintendo ever makes Earthbound available on the Virtual Console for eight dollars?

eBay
via GoNintendo

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About the Author: Rhody Tobin

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  • guppy06

    “Buyer’s remorse?” Last week, I probably would have said yes, “Just be patient, it’ll be available soon!”

    Today, not so much.

    http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=310138916542

    I had some things I figured would bring in a bit of money, but Metroid? It’s unlockable in Metroid Prime, it’s unlockable in Metroid Zero Mission, it was a stand-alone cart for the GBA, and of course it’s on the Virtual Console for a whopping $5. I figured having the box and such would push it up to maybe $20 or so, but $70? If it was the original gray package it probably would have been double that. The winner also got Mega Man 6 in the same condition (still not on the VC), but even that didn’t get as high a price.

    (In contrast, Zoda’s Revenge in its box barely got its one bid at $1.00)

    And here’s another one ending Thursday, Rondo of Blood:

    http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=310139350273

    Compare to the going price of the PSP version (which includes the original game, in English for the first time, including even the little “You need new hardware to play this game!” mini-game):

    http://www.gamestop.com/Catalog/ProductDetails.aspx?product_id=64727

    I guess you should never underestimate the lengths collectors are willing to go to hold tangible items in their sweaty hands, briefly, before putting them on a shelf or in a glass case for the rest of their lives. If anything, a VC release of EarthBound may actually drive the value up, as then you could avoid the wear and tear of putting the cartridge into the SNES (might get dirt on the contacts).

    Square-Enix is committed to bringing at least three Final Fantasy games to the VC, right? Maybe I should jump the gun and put up my boxed FFIII…

  • http://creditfeed.blogspot.com/ Rhody

    I think you should just give your boxed FFIII to me, since it’s my favourite game ever and I don’t even own a copy of the original SNES version.

    I see one priced at $250 on eBay. Ouch.

  • guppy06

    Mine’s got the freakin’ Relm sketch bug, I don’t know if that’d make the price go up or down, though.