Have you guys seen this? Price Charting

[FiftyQuid]

I stumbled upon this today.  It looks like they take data from eBay, Amazon, and Half.com (eBay affiliate) and then chart the pricing of video games over the period of 4 years.  I'm not sure how they calculate the "used" and "new" condition prices.

It's interesting to see what Zonk sold for the past 4 years, but this kind of thing misrepresents the actual 'fair' cost of games.

http://videogames.pricecharting.com/console/turbografx-16?sort-by=name

[Necromancer]

That's been linked here before, and it looks like it's still a trainwreck.  There's not nearly enough data collected for it to be useful (many 'rare' games have only the most recent eBay sale shown) and it doesn't appropriately separate PCE and TG-16 titles.

[kiketonto]

I had seen lists like this before and I have always found ridiculous and useless.
On market price of current games, as you want.
Second hand? prices are so different that is impossible to determinate, and selling on auction sites, are NEVER the way to go.

[Lilgrafx]

Yeah for Turbo grafx VGPC is pretty messed up, they sometime mix the PC Engine versions of game with the US and there is numerous PCE games listed that never came out here. I know a store near me that prices everything through that site so I can get a lot of good deals through them.

[FiftyQuid]

That's been linked here before, and it looks like it's still a trainwreck.  There's not nearly enough data collected for it to be useful (many 'rare' games have only the most recent eBay sale shown) and it doesn't appropriately separate PCE and TG-16 titles.

Yeah, the pricing is all over the place.  You have highs of $150 with lows of $30.  The only thing I've found it useful for is seeing what games are circulating the most.  High rotation will have many more bullet points on the charts.  Check out Legend of Hero Tonma.  It trades at a cool $40 and then hits $305 without explanation.  Shit like this worries me.

[roflmao]

I must have missed the earlier post(s) here about this site.  While it's not something I'd use to base value of a game on, it's pretty neat nevertheless.

[storino03]

RacketBoy's articles on rare TG/PCE games are interesting to read.

[csgx1]

That site is helpful for looking up older completed eBay auctions that don't show up in the completed search. 

[vestcoat]

RacketBoy's articles on rare TG/PCE games are interesting to read.

Rackeyboy is interesting the same way it's interesting to watch Fox News for half an hour every year: "Dear God, people believe this?!?"

Their SMS articles are particularly bad. Whoever wrote SMS valuable guide isn't even aware of holy grails like Smurfs 2 and Mickey's Ultimate Challenge. Likewise, the PC Engine valuable guide doesn't make a lick of sense.

[storino03]

what would you change on it? Is it because of the date that they were published or is it just not accurate as is?

[DragonmasterDan]

what would you change on it? Is it because of the date that they were published or is it just not accurate as is?

It mixes up foreign releases, bundles and other things in with individual game sales. This is a problem not just for TurboGrafx but all platforms. It might price a game based on how much a lot with other games and hardware went for because it's title is in the ebay auction listing title for example. For say NES games, it might count in reproductions or foreign releases with US releases.

[FiftyQuid]

what would you change on it? Is it because of the date that they were published or is it just not accurate as is?

It mixes up foreign releases, bundles and other things in with individual game sales. This is a problem not just for TurboGrafx but all platforms. It might price a game based on how much a lot with other games and hardware went for because it's title is in the ebay auction listing title for example. For say NES games, it might count in reproductions or foreign releases with US releases.

Yeah I noticed this on a few of the bullet points.  I'm not sure how it scraps/pulls data, but it seems to just use the title.  So if someone is selling Keith Courage w/ TurboGrafx console and it sells for $100 then the chart data is skewed and it looks like Keith Courage sold for $100.

[DragonmasterDan]

what would you change on it? Is it because of the date that they were published or is it just not accurate as is?

It mixes up foreign releases, bundles and other things in with individual game sales. This is a problem not just for TurboGrafx but all platforms. It might price a game based on how much a lot with other games and hardware went for because it's title is in the ebay auction listing title for example. For say NES games, it might count in reproductions or foreign releases with US releases.

Yeah I noticed this on a few of the bullet points.  I'm not sure how it scraps/pulls data, but it seems to just use the title.  So if someone is selling Keith Courage w/ TurboGrafx console and it sells for $100 then the chart data is skewed and it looks like Keith Courage sold for $100.

Yep. And it goes both ways, it can inflate the price listed and de-flate it.

For NES games for example it throws off pricing. the US version of Stadium Events for example is extremely rare 99%  of auctions are for European copies (or reproductions). European copies generally sell for a lot less, however because PriceCharting doesn't seperate territories, all games labeled as Stadium Events NES get mixed into it's pricing.

[xelement5x]

Yeah, VGPC is all over the place for some stuff.  It's especially hard to price loose vs. complete for things, and I've seen plenty of auctions where they never even show up in the listing. 

I used to use it a bit when I was out and about looking in thifts, but for some reason the mobile version of the site doesn't work on my Blackberry anymore.  I think they're pretty close to tiering the data for free and paid and making their own mobile app, which is kind of lame IMHO.

[guyjin]

As others have said, this is less than completely accurate - the figures on Dynastic Hero were particularly strange - but this could be cool with some more work