Rover, I've got to disagree with you on this one. I can't speak for other console scenes and I don't know what the hell Pier Solar is, but the total extent of homebrew gouging on the TurboGrafx can be summer up with two words: Roy Vegas.
That's it. It was an isolated incident of douchebaggery no one has rivaled before or since. Furthermore, it was a special signed or limited copy, IIRC, not standard issue like Mysterious Song. A couple copies of Meteor Blaster have sold for $270 and $50 over the course of ten years on ebay, but those were honest auctions for the Signature Edition, again not standard issue and not BIN gouging.
As for your efforts to discourage gougers, nothing could be further from the truth. Prices for Aetherbyte, Mindrec, and Revival titles have all remained stable as the companies continue to stock copes and sell them directly. You on the other hand, chose to blowout your remaining stock of a
one-year-old game at rock-bottom prices. And this isn't a typical Atari clone like other homebrew titles, it's a full-fledged RPG on a console English gamers are starving for.
You've heavily advertised MSR's rarity and a virtual countdown of your stock every step of the way. The front page of Frozen Utopia hypes the "limited stock." Your store has boldly advertised that "there won't be a second pressing" since the game was released. You even used your dwindling stock as a selling point to the sharks
on ebay, "there will never again be another sale like this since these are all the copies like this that we have... this is your only chance to get this game for as cheap as you will ever see it being sold for." You couldn't have set a better stage for gougers.
You've recently discussed the possibility of a reprint on these forums, but refuse to make it identical, while freely admitting that "a second pressing would actually drive the cost of the first pressing up higher."
Searching for Insanity, Pyramid Plunder, Meteor Blaster, Implode, and Revival Chase on ebay yields zero results and zero gouging. Meanwhile, less than two months after your blow-it-out-the-ass sale, two different sellers have Mysterious Song for $70 & $100. In fact, one copy already sold for $109 on January 27th.
I understand if you needed some fast cash back in January or whatever, but don't claim you've been trying to discourage gougers. I suspect you like being the creator of an expensive, sought-after game, else you'd issue an identical reprint or not hype your "last copies!" so much.
EDIT: sorry, some of that was harsh. You're a great guy and I don't mean to me a dick, but you've done several things that have set MSR up for serious gouging in the future.
