6 replies to this topic

[maxwellsmartagent99]

Hi guys, I have one of the shorter Chess carts found in the Taiwan 1 category on the rarity guide. I see it has a ? for rarity. My question is: does that mean its easy to find or hard to find? I assume there were lots of rip-off games available so it'd be easy to get but I don't hear them talked about often...maybe for good reason Anyone with info on this subject?

[Marco(2)]

I consider all Taiwan pirates fairly easy to find. I'm not sure what that means on the Atari Age scale. Perhaps a 3 or 4?

Judging rarity is just so tricky. It all depends on where you are located in the world. With the rise of the internet, however, I consider the world to be one big thriftstore.

This has led me to start using only two categories: findable and almost-non-findable. But I don't think I have many people supporting my model

Cheers,

Marco

[maxwellsmartagent99]

Thanks for the response, Marco. I figured that's what it would be ranked as. Like you said, its all where you're from and the liklihood of a cart turning up there.

[Albert]

Hi Maxwell Smart,

When we started putting foreign titles into our database a few months ago, we decided that for now we would simply list these titles with a "?", meaning we don't yet know how to accurately classify them. If you click on any of the rarity value graphics, you'll be taken to a page that describes what the values mean, including the question mark.

The problem is that we live in the US and it's difficult to obtain most of the titles that were released outside of the US. Some of them are more common though, like the Taiwan pirate carts. So we definitely would need to rely on input from foreign collectors to assign values to these titles. However, a broader problem then becomes, "Okay, so this game might be a 4 in Germany, but what about over in the US?" Without some type of region-based rarity system, things start to get muddy. That "4" title in Germany might be "9" here in the US, since very few of those titles might have made it over here (and those that did are probably already in the hands of collectors who imported them!)

..Al

[Marco(2)]

quote:

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Originally posted by Albert:
The problem is that we live in the US and it's difficult to obtain most of the titles that were released outside of the US. Some of them are more common though, like the Taiwan pirate carts. So we definitely would need to rely on input from foreign collectors to assign values to these titles. However, a broader problem then becomes, "Okay, so this game might be a 4 in Germany, but what about over in the US?" Without some type of region-based rarity system, things start to get muddy. That "4" title in Germany might be "9" here in the US, since very few of those titles might have made it over here (and those that did are probably already in the hands of collectors who imported them!)

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A regional system will never work, IMO. It's almost impossible to make it reliable. I'd go for two lists maximum, PAL and NTSC. If you consider this to be a global hobby because of the internet, then it makes little difference if you can find a game in your local thrifstore or in a trade offer on AtariAge

Cheers,

Marco

[Albert]

quote:

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Originally posted by Marco:
A regional system will never work, IMO. It's almost impossible to make it reliable. I'd go for two lists maximum, PAL and NTSC. If you consider this to be a global hobby because of the internet, then it makes little difference if you can find a game in your local thrifstore or in a trade offer on AtariAge

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I agree, and I don't think we'd ever try to implement a regional system. Sure, when the Internet enters into the picture, that definitely makes it a global hobby. But if rarity also includes the likelihood of you running into a game at your local flea market, thrift or garage sale, then the one value for foreign titles doesn't work as well. Of course, this can also be said for all the US titles that are plentiful here but not overseas. We'll tackle the foreign rarities at some point, but it will definitely require a lot of input from foreign collectors such as yourself.

..Al

[Marco(2)]

I'll be more than happy to help out. I'm also working on the Atari 2600 PAL section for the new DPG at the moment.

I think "the global market" solution is the way to go. The alternative is just not gonna work well. It would lead you to make make seperate lists or values for each country or even (US) states. An impossible venture, if you ask me...

Cheers,

Marco