The collection world is a fascinating one, and one which seemingly has a ridiculous amount of money, where things no longer become “the thing” and more becomes an “investment opportunity”.
The latest crazy statistic?
IGN reported a sealed boxed copy of Super Mario Bros. reaching $3 million at auction recently, however the Internet believes this is… and forgive the pun… a hard sell.
Ironically, a YouTuber investigated this sort of thing back in August 2021, and you’ll never guess which game the video starts with. Although you can basically tell from the thumbnail:
This particular incident aside, it opens an interesting question:
Is a sealed game genuinely worth millions, or does it become that way because graders, auction houses, investors and hype machines agree that it is?
We already know of the collectible panic loop where something becomes difficult to get and the scarcity becomes self-fulfilling. This involves things at a much higher level, though, and everyone seems to benefit:
- The Owner gets a more valuable collection
- The Auction House gets more fees from the sale
- The Grading Company gets the prestige, advertising and becomes the “go to” for rare sales
- Websites and blogs like this get to talk about it
- The average person starts trying to find anything of value, and joins in the madness
Recently I’ve been adding to my own collection of Pokemon cards, with cheap singles and cheap packs for fun (which i posted about here), but when looking up all the different sets that were able to collect, I came across Alpha Investments, who seems to be cross cardboard hoarder, cross distributer, cross normal guy and cross… well… infinite money printer, keeping what appears to be warehouses of sealed product.
My gosh, if there was any proof that the best time to buy was years ago.
Just to circle the whole thing right round, he also owns a controlling stake in a grading company.
But this isn’t about Rudy. Although he may be contributing to the scarcity of products for everyone else, he isn’t single-handedly making these figures up.
That is where sealed products go wild, because the item may contain a game that’s meant to be played, traded or collected, but opening it destroys much of it’s supposed value.
At that point, it’s about the box, not what’s in it.
But is it infinite?
Buy it -> keep it sealed -> wait -> see the prices -> sell it to someone who believes it’s worth an excessive asking price.
I guess the music stops when the buyers stop, then someone will be holding the sealed untouched bag.
What do you think?