So what's up with the Castlevania game for the C64?

[quarkx]

I have been watching a few auctions on games and an in the box Castlevania game went for $305 Can. over the weekend. What's up with that? is it a rare game or just nutty people as usual on Ebay again?[ebay]120505514524[/ebay]

[commodorejohn]

I don't know whether it's rare or not, but...I'm not really sure why you'd want it in the first place. Okay, it's not the worst port of the game (the Amiga version has the absolute worst controls of any game I've played on the system,) but still, the NES version is easy to come by and better than any of the ports.

[carlsson]

I think it is spelled C-O-L-L-E-C-T-I-N-G, as opposed to C-A-S-U-A-L-G-A-M-I-N-G. But yes, Castlevania and some more Konami titles apparently are quite rare on the C64 and thus generate high bidding. That is why some collectors lurk around on forums and from now and then ask for those games, in hope somebody would sit there not knowing what kind of gold nuggets they have. While it is a free market, I'm having mixed feelings about when someone is trying to fool something rare and otherwise expensive from a unsuspecting seller.

[RobertB]

I think it is spelled C-O-L-L-E-C-T-I-N-G...

I would call it H-O-A-R-D-I-N-G. 

While it is a free market, I'm having mixed feelings about when someone is trying to fool something rare and otherwise expensive from a unsuspecting seller.

That is not nice.

Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug
The Other Group of Amigoids
http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/
Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network
http://www.sccaners.org

[carlsson]

Hoarding would be if you pick up something rare because it is rare, not because you have a particular interest in the item. I agree sometimes it may be hard to distinguish between collecting and hoarding. In this case bidders from many different angles may enter: C64 collectors, Castlevania collectors, general Konami collectors as well as those who find it entirely an investment opportunity.

See also the rather rare VIC-20 game "Ultima: Escape from Mt Drash" which attracts both liberal Ultima collectors and VIC-20 collectors. Liberal because it isn't really part of the true Ultima series. I'm not sure how much a complete copy would sell for today, but surely $1500-2000 compared to the all-time high of $3600 a few years ago.