Edit to clarify : I don't doubt this specific robbing story, and I'm sad for the owner. It's the narrative about million dollars game cartridge, which can be read "a lot" in press and appear in the middle of the article which intrigue/bother me.<p>I'm geniously wondering (but not too hard I admit) what part about theses stories of 'million dollar videogame cardridges' are trues and wich are urban legend.<p>There were multiple alleged scam story about this 'milieu' and stories about crazy prices were indeed fake (or more exactly PR for derivated product like 'expertise' and 'unusual placement and money laundering friendly').<p>But I wonder if there is really a market of people exchanging game copy for really high amount with 5 or more digits. (no doubt for dedicated fans, I know a few, but event if they pay hight sum we are still in the 3-4 digits sums and often a lot of time, it stays a hobby).<p>People passionated about a specic game, willing to pay hundreds of dollar for a legit cartridge and nostalgia kick not doubt.<p>People willing to spend thousands of dollar on an occasional project of making a restoration of an old arcade cabinet, not doubt (it's a nice tinkering hobby, but the hobby part is probably the most important, not the result).<p>But "numerous insanely rich and anonymous peoples willing to spend millions on black market with shady people to buy stolen video game cartridge" I doubt ^^
This is as good a time as any to remind people that the prices for vintage video games are artificially inflated and largely the result of wash trading via auction houses and grading services, which locked out the preexisting retro gaming communities and turned a beloved hobby into an instrument for dubious financial speculation (and arguably set the precedent for NFT crypto trading, which has even fewer regulations and even less transparency that could prevent these wash trades): <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvLFEh7V18A" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvLFEh7V18A</a><p>The story says the collector described his collection as an "archive". This flies in the face of actual archival efforts like The Internet Archive, which persist digital copies of old games and make them available to the public when possible. Having a large collection of rare games in pristine condition in locked cases in your vault is not archival, it's hoarding at worst and financial speculation at best.
I don't understand the cognitive dissonance seemingly on display by the game collector throughout the article:<p>> He’d had a kind of philanthropic hubris as an owner and collector, someone who never gave a second thought to keeping his legendary game collection a secret. He’d gladly let YouTubers film in the back; he would even open the safe back there and show them, item by item, his Louvre. Other collectors had rare games, sure, but in the back room of his store, and especially in the safe, he was proud to own 10,000 of what he described as “cherry” copies—his preferred term for virgin condition.<p>and again...<p>> And though the value of retro games had exploded in the past few years, he’d never been concerned about the safety of the thousands of games from his legendary collection—some of the most valuable video games on earth.<p>and yet again...<p>> Though the vault door didn’t work then and was mainly for show, that anything behind it could be, would be, stolen seemed unimaginable.<p>It is repeated time and time again that these items are valuable, that the collector was keenly aware that they are extremely valuable, and yet he also repeatedly seemed to refuse to acknowledge that you need to take steps to protect valuables, and the more valuable something is the more steps you need to take to protect it.<p>I don't want to 'victim blame', suffering a burglary is a horrible experience, but it is one compounded by foolhardiness.
My heart is aching for the owner. At the same time I feel a sense of relief because I am moving between countries. A lot of what I am doing these days is giving away my "stuff" and shedding attachments to "things". I do understand him thou. My 8 cases of Magic cards will be sorely missed, but I am happy to know that the Magic cards don't own me.
1) Always bolt down your safe.<p>2) Most “safes” are not actual safes but “residential security containers.” A real safe will be UL rated and one this size (guessing it was large, didn’t see any pictures) weigh in the thousands of pounds.
I felt crushed for the owner, reading this. What sounds like a lifetime of work collecting these rare, perfect condition games, just to have it destroyed in service of making the games harder to track when being pawned for short money.<p>Personally I don’t think I’d collect and not play these games, I like using my things for what they are for and I think the regular use enhances the value, but still I empathize with the store owner.
During peak bubble, heists are common, I wonder if there is a deflationary event coming to collectibles in general. They've ballooned astronomically in the past few years and I wonder if its sustainable seeing that in auctions the buy or sell it to each other in order to increase the valuation in hopes that some billionaire will come and buy their rare super mario bros cartridge.<p>I don't know if you had the money and can't think of what to buy next, you end up collecting these insanely expensive nintendo cartridges that you don't even know will work.<p>The FPGA and CD emulator hardware that lets you run games off SD card seems to have put some liquidity suppression. However, there is a novelty to owning the complete game box, complete with mint condition manuals and covers, so there will always be demand for that.<p>Not a good spot for the owner to be in.
That was an enjoyable, nostalgia filled, and depressing read. It's obvious he didn't have the right security in place, but it seems he also didn't insure his collectibles appropriately. It's hard not to feel sorry for someone who collected as a labor of love, moreso since he seemed generous in opening his collection up to the greater community.