“it’s hard to justify any real value for a US copy of Super Mario Bros, no matter how old or sealed it is, as it’s just a newer copy of the same game.”<p>This point is lingered on for a while and I don’t get it. Nothing about pricing collectibles is a rational assessment of utility: value is essentially a function of rarity, desirability, and condition. Obviously, in this case, the US versions score higher on “desirability” for US collectors, because the whole point of buying the things is for the sentiment. You can, after all, emulate the games in a million different ways.<p>I collect civil war stuff, and we have a similar ‘paradox’. Confederate relics score low on “condition”, because the confederacy had worse iron. Yet, confederate relics fetch very high prices. Why? Because they score high on “desirability”: many of the few people who are VERY interested in the civil war are (unfortunately) very sympathetic to Confederates.
I got bitten by a fake SNES Classic off of ebay a few years back. I was super excited to play Super Mario RPG on the real thing, only to find out that it was running with all sorts of glitches due to how the clone device had been designed, to the point where it was unusable. I suppose it's a pretty good scam since the thing goes for $200+ these days and I'm guessing it's some kind of a low powered android device on the inside.<p>Haven't quite figured out how to play those old classics again.