I’d love to have all those big box adventure games, but on eBay they’re like at least $100 on average each if they are in a more or less decent and complete state.
Since I only have Zak, CMI , GF and EMI for the moment, collecting the rest of the boxes will cost me quickly a thousand bucks, which is way more than I’d like to spend on that.
Perhaps it is best to wait another 30 years until the original nostalgic gamers start dying and nobody cares about these old game boxes anylonger?
That’s why I’m still on a limb to open my shrink wrapped box of TWP. Although I am never going to sell it.
If only Fangamer made some facsimile reissues of the classics…the disks can be empty for all I care, I have all the games themselves on CD or GOG/Steam.
Although at the time, I was delighted to get the Lucasarts archives, so I could finally play these <5y old games, now 25 years later I still feel this lacking of not having the individual boxes for MI, MM and Indy.
And of course, I’m looking for the marbled C64 version for MM.
Same as @besmaller said. Setup a search to get notifications about new items and be patient. Very patient.
I did buy some old games on eBay, and that’s exactly what I did. Be sure to include worldwide items, not just from your own country, as that will somewhat increase your chances. Set yourself a limit and stick to that, especially during auctions. After a while you’ll get an idea for how much stuff will usually go. Then you’ll be able to spot the bargains (i.e. some unsuspecting mom clearing out the attic) and might get lucky. Perhaps you might also be able to pick up two cheap but incomplete offers to combine them into one whole.
For your reference, I bought
Indy4 (German, PC 3,5" w/ manual, poster, flyer) for €40
Monkey Island 1 (German, Amiga) for €27,50
Ultima VII (English w/ cloth map, Fellowship medallion, manual) for €50
Ultima VII part two (English, paper map, manual) for €55
Ultima cloth map bundle (U6, U7 part 2, U8 and U9) for €47
All of the games with boxes and content in excellent condition. While biding my time (18 months to acquire all of those), I’ve seen quite a few offers go for > €100.
yeah, the amount of Lucasarts games up for sale in Belgium is exactly 0 over the last couple of years - at least when I checked. There’s a lot being traded in Germany, but they’re usually the German boxes and I want the English boxes.
Thanks for the tip to get a notification, I didn’t know you could do those.
There’s currently a MI2 (with hintbook) going for €53, but since it’s shipping from the US I’ll need to add €20 plus import duties. So around €90 in total… On the other hand, that hintbook alone is sold for €30 upwards.
There is also a MI1 (with Adventurer) for around €75 + €40 shipping/taxes
The issue is that the shipping and taxes are already almost as expensive as my budget for the item itself (around €40-€50 depending on the game)
yeah, usually the other collectors start bidding way too high way too soon.
Perhaps one fine day, they all have their collections completed
Yeah, this grail diary is a real steal if your Indy3 is incomplete. But shipping is in the US only
After quite a few lost auctions, including some at 2AM -3AM (mint MM and Loom from the US), I just bought this MI2 (in pretty decent condition and complete) through “buy now”.
Not a real steal, but at least within my budget I set for the MI games.
I guess the scenario where you are lucky enough to be the only one to bid on a mint condition being sold unaware in an attic cleanup is less likely than MI3a ever seeing the light of day.
Plus this one being sold in the EU, I save on shipping and import taxes, but it’s the English version nonetheless (even without the ugly US Gold logo on the front!).
Plus it’s one of the top-3 game boxes I wanted to have, so yay!
*takes Delorean to get one day early at your yard sale and offers you $6 a piece*
Of course 1998 was a year when the financial means of the main fan base was still pretty limited. And when people wanted to buy new games rather than collecting then 10-year old games for obsolete systems.
For those interested in any LA boxed game, this seller currently also has 3 X-wing/Tie-fighter boxes for €49 (German only) hereand 4 SW games (also German) for €39 Here
So… there’s this guy in Bayern, Germany selling his complete video game collection, including some (disk/manual only) LFL/LA games. So naturally I check out other objects by the same seller… only to discover he’s also selling off his Playboy and Penthouse collections.
“Die Hefte haben altersbedingte Gebrauchsspuren”
Of course! Years and years of detailed linguistic studies on those. That’s why the pages got so thin too. Like old parchment, they’re better handled with gloves and tweezers. Indiana Jones-style!
True story I once ordered a CD from an amazon market place seller only to have someone ring on my door the next day handing it to me saying he noticed he could save himself mailing it because he was living “practically next door”. Doesn´t happen everyday something like that…
