I've been wondering lately how sellers determine prices when there are none to compare (that I know of). Look at this.

I have not seen one listing of Cyber Core on YJA in the past few years, so I don't know what it's worth. For the past year, there were no marketplace listings on AMZ JP of that album. But one was listed within the past few days at the ultra-high price of 120,000 yen. One possibility is that the seller saw one in a used CD store at a similar price. It's also possible the seller is insane and is looking for someone similarly minded. Whatever is going on, I'm curious how these prices originate.

As another example, here is Alien Soldier. I've been watching this album for the past 6 months and it stayed at around 17,000 yen, but suddenly jumped past 50,000 yen and then one was listed at 10,000 yen. One recently sold on YJA for around 10,000 yen as well. How can a CD simultaneously be 10,000 yen and 50,000 yen? One would expect such a price difference between USA and Japan marketplaces, but the disparity is totally in Japan.

If you have any similar observations, I'd like to read them.

Another possibility is that, because it hasn't been put up for sale in years, the seller is trying to capitalize on its perceived scarcity.

Sometimes you have sellers who don't know the value of what they have (price too low), sometimes they overestimate the worth/demand of what they have (price too high), and sometimes you have people who fall somewhere in the middle. It's a second-hand market; disparity should practically be expected.

For some odd reason, I was led to looking for that same Cyber Core CD a few months ago. Not sure if I was looking at the artists or if it was something from a gameplay video or if I was searching for TKCA catalogue numbers on VGMdb. I have to believe it's the scarcity factor. For that particular CD, it's certainly not because of demand. I similarly balked at the price when I saw what the asking price was.

As for the 10000 yen and 50000 yen differences, I have encountered that on the American Amazon marketplaces, particularly for rare releases (vinyl, low print-run CD's). I think it has to do with condition and general seller mark-ups. Some sellers probably don't mind keeping inventory for 3-5 years, others probably turn their inventories over on a monthly basis. One time someone asked for $200+ for one of the Namco Museums, because it was sealed...I got it for $8 in decent condition.

One of the reasons people rip on champ_des_pins so much is because the CD's he sells aren't super rare, but his markups are extreme on them.

Unless you dealing with another collector (most of them) your pretty much going to pay a fortune for anything anymore it seems.

The price tag on the standalone BOFIII soundtrack is proof of that.

I think in your example of Alien Soldier, both ridiculously high ones were listed as english speaking, so perhaps they hope to cash in on western ignorance I guess?

The curious thing I've been noticing is how some nintendo albums seem to be conflating with their rarer japanese releases, particularly DKC2.  I'm not sure just how rare the american release was, but I don't seem to remember it commanding high prices not that long ago and yet the last 3 ebay auctions have ended at $260, $447, and 300 something.

As was said there is always nonsense like this http://www.amazon.com/Tekken-Game-Sound … 00IW3SA68/

Some of those Nintendo albums have long been super expensive even in their American iterations.  I searched for EITHER version of the DKC2 soundtrack for about 10 years before I found one  that I could afford.  At $50-ish I thought it was a total steal a couple years back.

Speaking of Nintendo, I REALLY wish them and Square would agree on how to reissue Super Mario RPG OSV. In 2008, I sold it for $100 because I didn't think anyone would be *ahem* stupid enough to buy it at that price. No way I'll ever get it back for even double that price now.

And anyone remember Dracula New Classic going for $1500 many years ago? To me, that story is more noteworthy than the actual music...

The VGM market can be a goofy, goofy place.

This. It's amazing how people have something that's rare or OOP and they jack the prices way up to try to capitalize on their sale. I've noticed that Mark Snow soundtracks like Millenium and The X-Files Vol.1 fall under that same umbrella. Some dude was randomly selling Millennium OST for $30, so I picked it up, and since then I haven't seen it listed for less than $200. So, I think while we notice these things with soundtracks as being in the market and the VGM scene for however long it has been*, to me it's more of an issue of greed across retail markets than something specific to just VGM. I found the same thing a couple of years back when I was looking for old NES carts - some of the markup on those things in physical stores were ridiculous! Supply and demand, plus people being greedy.

Not that this is related, and not that I'm calling BS on this, but the guy that runs the independent store I live a few miles is usually pretty fair with prices on older stuff. Of course, he's told me he knows he needs to price things so they'll actually sell in the local market and not just sit there. Still I've gotten some uber deals since they opened in 08'. Seriously, without that place I wouldn't have Mega Man X3 (SNES), Mega Man 7 and Mega Man 8  (SAT) and would have paid an arm and a leg for them elsewhere.

Bur seriously, that place saved my interest in gaming... also so nice to see things in person before you buy them in regards to condition. I know one store doesn't make up for all the others but I love the X-Change.

However, when it comes to inflated prices I think sellers on Amazon should be noted here. There are some things - even used things - on there that are just out of control.

It sounds like you have a gem, there! Probably one of the few (or maybe that's just my views based on the numerous bad experiences I had).

If something is rare, and hard to find, is someone being greedy for selling it at a large profit? Take a look at this NES Duck Tales which the seller has listed for $12,000

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Duck-Tales-Rema … 1276237871

only 150 copies were made. Apparently these were given as promotional items, so the seller paid $0 for it! Should the seller then sell it for say $100 when he or she might be able to sell it for $5000? Is he or she being greedy, or if someone is willing to pay that price does that not make the price "fair"? To me, "greed" sounds like what PlayCanada did when they purchased hundreds (nearly all) of copies of Ni No Kuni and then resold them for triple (or more) the price!

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/20 … on-fiasco/

TOTALLY off topic, but every single time I'm reminded that these exist it reignites my fury that Capcom was able to do THAT but not do a limited run of physical carts for Ace Attorney 5 for collectors.  You know, that they'd actually get money for.  *seethes*

Another possibility for markedly different prices relates to condition.  Some people want everything that was included with the CD, and for the entire package to be in mint condition, and if a seller has that available, it's usually at a premium price.  One example: I remember seeing an auction on YJA a year or two ago which had ten very old albums (including Tecmo Game Music and Hal Game Music), all of which were sealed.  I thought it might go for $1000, but it ended up going for over $2500.

Related to this topic, I waited for years to try and get the Super Mario RPG OSV soundtrack.  And the price kept going up.  I remember it going for 20,000 yen or less a few years ago; now it almost never gets that low.  I finally bit the bullet last month.

As for Cyber Core, I have a physical copy of this CD (though without the liner notes).  I got it in a massive CD lot (100+ CDs) a few years ago on YJA.  I think I paid around 66,000 yen for the lot.  It was a very odd lot; it had 15-year-old rare CDs that were sealed and common CDs that looked like they had been run over by a truck.

No, not necessarily... but I think it's kind of dumb having an asking price that's so out of whack only the most desperate and deep pocketed are going to bite.

Also, I kind of wish Amazon didn't list the new prices ahead of the used prices when it comes to older games. There is no way I'm going to pay for a new copy when it's like $300.00 and used is like $10.

Hey, so long as they bite, I don't think the seller would quibble over their mental state. And if they don't bite, they just continually lower it until someone does.

Which brings up the possibility of the seller high-balling; perhaps they anticipate that after sitting on the market at $12,000 for a while, a sudden drop to $9,000 may be perceived as a bargain, whereas it might not have been if it was listed at $9,000 all along.

The one thing missing from amazon and ebay (for the most part, since most BIN listers don't use it) is the ability to haggle over the price.  Any in-person used market is bound to have room to work with the price, and while it doesn't solve the issue at hand, if they see offers they get prices might get reevaluated.

But then there's the flipside...VGMdb's marketplace where almost EVERYTHING is literally "negotiable". For people that want to haggle, I guess it might not be the biggest roadblock, but I just want to see item -> buy item -> have a nice day, without worrying if I lowballed an offer to someone, since my aim as a buyer is to buy low.

But that would be a nice feature for Amazon to add. Might be a problem with some of those stores selling thousands of items though.

Well vgmdb is another case... since you have to go back in and add prices after adding the album, most people don't do it.  They probably should change that for starters. Secondly, the biggest mess on there is from otaku.com, whom I thought had only negotiable for everything until I saw they put a price on the rockcan (however, the price on vgmdb is far lower, and since they only sell from their site the vgmdb price is probably no longer valid); admins really should remove all their listings because they have no intention on making a sale directly through the forum.

Though we all get frustrated with what we perceive as "greedy" sellers, something I've vented about in the past regarding so much treasured VGM nowadays, consumers and collectors always have the option not to buy. The moment a collector decides the marked-up rate is market, he or she will eventually perpetuate that by "biting the bullet" and buying at a high price thus the continuum of those sellers to piss us all off with lousy markups. There's a reason Champs continues to sell everything at 50-90%+ higher than what should be valued at. Because of this, I will never again waste my time looking through the 20+ pages of overpriced goods. Hell, even the VGMdb Marketplace is practically useless -- it seems worldwide nobody wants to sell at a bargain since they're not making this stuff anymore.

Still, there's always a gem within all the crap -- a few years back I held out on buying a mint and complete copy of Soul Blazer on SNES. At the verge of willing to pay $100, I saw one pop up on Amazon Markuplace one morning for $60. They still go around $100 on Greedbay. Lucky day I suppose.

I was actually really surprised by this:

http://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/offer-listin … ition=used

Around $100 for Lufia 1 and 2 is an excellent price, based on this one's history. It's been known to go much higher in the past. Kind of ironic for this thread how there is actually one seller in English and his price is way higher than the others.

It would seem it hasn't really, but wondering why didn't http://vgmdb.net/album/3061 kill the value on the original release?

Lufia II tracks don't loop, Lufia I tracks STILL don't loop, arrangements are awful, bad use of disc space (Disc 3 doesn't even crack 40 minutes) and the recording volume is too low. Nice idea, poor execution. I do think it may have deflated the $400-$500 prices it was regularly going for though.

Heh, making me want to swap out, though I would have to see a real good deal to bother to upgrade when there are bigger things on my wish list.

i find i do most of my VGM listening while working, from full albums posted on youtube. then i can just jump from one recommendation to the next, and eventually i'm watching a reporter get attacked by a turkey and thinking wtf

I recently won a YJ auction listing of Alien Soldier. There was also a listing of Contra III, but I lost that one. It had to be one or the other and I decided Alien Soldier is harder to obtain, so I placed a bid of 12,500 yen (ended at 10,550 yen) and that ended my nearly half-decade quest to find it. I do have a CD-R, but I never previously owned the pressed disc of Alien Soldier, so this is not part of my rebuild. My main draw to Alien Soldier is Nazo² Suzuki's involvement.

I placed a bid of 8,000 yen on Contra III. I understand now that the only realistic way to obtain that CD is to throw down 15,000 yen, go to sleep, and then enjoy.

You're in my head... I had gotten Alien Soldier a few days before your original post, and not long before that I had gotten Contra III.  I had them on my wishlist for a while and finally pulled the trigger.  I got Contra III (didn't include obi) for 8280 so it might not be that much more than you bid.

I didn't know about Alien Soldier until years after I started collecting and I never saw a Contra III on ebay in the far past or recently. I didn't look for Contra III on YJ for a long time because I had a CD-R. It is stubbornly elusive, more so than other Konami albums, but at least it doesn't go into the 20,000 yen territory like so many of its era. I think for every listing of Contra III, there are probably 10-15 listings of each Perfect Selection album. And Axelay (another I want) is listed at least 5 times as much as Contra III, based on my dead reckoning.

I was fortunate to find Alien Soldier listed since I wasn't seeking it out at the time; someone had listed a bunch of Treasure albums and I put my biggest push towards that, though I was really hoping to win Yuke Yuke Trouble Makers as well (outbid while at work).

You will see Axelay more often than Contra III, but it seemed like a lot of times it was simply being relisted since they were starting at over 10k yen.
As far as classic Konami goes there are some albums I would grab if I saw at a good price, but I'm mostly looking for Konami Game Music Collection Vol.5 (which I missed a chance to get a good price and now I'm regretting it) and The Legend of the Mystical Ninja (which I'm not sure I've seen listed under $200). Neither are particularly common to appear either...