Is Castlevania Symphony of the Night - PS1, rare??

[Chewylegs]

Hi guys.

 

I've recently been going through my old games and found a few interesting ones like Vib-Ribbon, Ray Tracers, Bishi Bashi Special and Castlevania Symphony of the Night.

Am I right in thinking Castlevania is rare and worth a fair bit?  It's the Limited edition PAL version, with the CD soundtrack but without the art book (I don't remember ever having it).

 

I've got a fair few other games (PS1,PS2,SNES) too, is it worth trying to sell on rllmuk or am I better just getting them on Facebook?

[Yasawas]

It's internet R@RE! rather than actually legitimately scarce but it's worth a chunk, aye. Maybe take it to CEX for £200-300 I'm not saying they're amazing but I've often found them less hassle than personal e-sales. Especially in bulk.

[phillv85]

Yeah it's not particularly rare, but it's definitely super sought after and worth a good chunk of money.

[Kevvy Metal]

1 hour ago, Chewylegs said:

Hi guys.

 

I've recently been going through my old games and found a few interesting ones like Vib-Ribbon, Ray Tracers, Bishi Bashi Special and Castlevania Symphony of the Night.

Am I right in thinking Castlevania is rare and worth a fair bit?  It's the Limited edition PAL version, with the CD soundtrack but without the art book (I don't remember ever having it).

 

I've got a fair few other games (PS1,PS2,SNES) too, is it worth trying to sell on rllmuk or am I better just getting them on Facebook?

 

It's my understanding that THAT version you have is the rare and sought after one. 
I don't know what the market is now, but it was never a rare game when it came to the ntsc-u or ntsc-j version, but the PAL one with the extras is the famously rare one. If you get the right buyer it might be worth a pretty penny. 

[Down by Law]

Ironically the one without the extras in the typical PS1 style box is a lot harder to find but not worth as much !

[Chewylegs]

Thanks all.  Do you think it's worth keeping hold of or just cashing in while the price is pretty high?  As much as I loved the game I'm never going to go buy myself an old TV and play it again, so it'll likely just go back in a box for another 10 years.

[Kevvy Metal]

4 minutes ago, Chewylegs said:

Thanks all.  Do you think it's worth keeping hold of or just cashing in while the price is pretty high?  As much as I loved the game I'm never going to go buy myself an old TV and play it again, so it'll likely just go back in a box for another 10 years.

 

It obviously up to you, but from what you mentioned I'd sell it! 

You could put it up on Ebay at the going rate, it might not sell straight away but if you keep it listed, you might catch the right buyer eventually. 

[Down by Law]

The right answer always seems to be "it's fetching silly money now" but from my experience everything just seems to go up and up. Eventually it'll hit a point where prices drop as potential buyers age out of being interested but we've been saying this for over 10 years.

 

For example I sold my Mega Drive collection off back in 2012 , well over 150 complete in box titles for around £2000. I got like £50 each for games like the Punisher and Seperation Anxiety, and now those 2 games are worth over £1000 on their own. Never would have thought they could ever climb that high with emulation at the time being easily available. Even back then you could buy SoTN on XBLA for about 3 quid but look how much this has shot up.

 

There is also external factors like disc rot to consider although i've not come across it. Don't put it up the loft or in the garage though where it will be exposed to high and low temperatures.

 

My train of thought now is if you need the money or are planning to buy something luxury with it then get rid. If I still had those Mega Drive games I would sell the Punisher for £500 and buy a Mister set up with the money for example.

 

If it's just selling it for selling it's sake and you dont need the money then sit on it until you do  

 

 

[dumpster]

I believe the Japanese release is nowhere near as rare but comes with the same art book.  If you can find one, pop it in your box and the value goes up.

 

Someone told me the whole CEX system is based on sellability of stock.  So for example, they get Castlevania traded in and they sell it for £50.  Every copy that gets traded in sells really quickly and the system notices and puts the price up. This keeps going until the sales slow down but don't stop. Likewise if the stock sticks to the shelves the price comes down until it shifts.  I think it means that Castlevania in CEX is £500 because it actually does sell in CEX stores for that.

 

 

[Fletch]

On 03/11/2022 at 10:53, Chewylegs said:

Thanks all.  Do you think it's worth keeping hold of or just cashing in while the price is pretty high?  As much as I loved the game I'm never going to go buy myself an old TV and play it again, so it'll likely just go back in a box for another 10 years.

Get it sold and buy me a beer, you can get it digitally on the PlayStation 

 

https://store.playstation.com/en-gb/product/EP0101-CUSA13590_00-CASTLEVANIA00001

[Chewylegs]

Oooh that's tempting...

.not the buying you a beer part!

[Chewylegs]

11 hours ago, dumpster said:

I believe the Japanese release is nowhere near as rare but comes with the same art book.  If you can find one, pop it in your box and the value goes up.

 

Someone told me the whole CEX system is based on sellability of stock.  So for example, they get Castlevania traded in and they sell it for £50.  Every copy that gets traded in sells really quickly and the system notices and puts the price up. This keeps going until the sales slow down but don't stop. Likewise if the stock sticks to the shelves the price comes down until it shifts.  I think it means that Castlevania in CEX is £500 because it actually does sell in CEX stores for that.

 

 

That's interesting, thanks for this.  Might be worth selling now then while the price is high.

[Anne Summers]

14 hours ago, dumpster said:

I believe the Japanese release is nowhere near as rare but comes with the same art book.  If you can find one, pop it in your box and the value goes up.

 

Someone told me the whole CEX system is based on sellability of stock.  So for example, they get Castlevania traded in and they sell it for £50.  Every copy that gets traded in sells really quickly and the system notices and puts the price up. This keeps going until the sales slow down but don't stop. Likewise if the stock sticks to the shelves the price comes down until it shifts.  I think it means that Castlevania in CEX is £500 because it actually does sell in CEX stores for that.

 

 

That makes sense - it's definitely automated. 

 

My CEX often has Mega Drive stuff and if I ask the price of something they always have to scan and double check it, it's usually gone up from what is displayed on the labels. For example there was a pile of 10 or so MD games there a couple of weeks ago , behind glass so I couldn't see the labels. When she took them out and scanned them I could see they were all labelled as £14 each, but they came up as £18. Pretty sure no one is sitting in CEX HQ manually updating the price of every single MD game. 

 

 

[dumpster]

Ridge Racer 6 for Xbox jumped up at CEX, exactly the moment it went BC. 

[Chewylegs]

Outrun 2006 Coast 2 Coast is a weird one.  Worth about £2 on PS2, more like £60 on Xbox.

[dumpster]

For those who don't know already, you can select a format on the CEX app and search, then list from High to Low, it's quite revealing. You'd think some of what the app tells you would be company sensitive information but it's all there.

[Chewylegs]

The priciest PS1 game is a banger! 🤣

[megamixer]

7 hours ago, Chewylegs said:

Outrun 2006 Coast 2 Coast is a weird one.  Worth about £2 on PS2, more like £60 on Xbox.

I think it's a little rarer but - more importantly - it supports a LAN network setup for events, and you need a copy for every Xbox console connected to the network.

[Lyrical Donut]

On 08/11/2022 at 12:35, Chewylegs said:

Outrun 2006 Coast 2 Coast is a weird one.  Worth about £2 on PS2, more like £60 on Xbox.

 

It had a lower print run on Xbox compared to the PS2 version.

 

Meanwhile - back on topic:

 

https://www.timeextension.com/news/2022/11/castlevania-symphony-of-the-night-tiger-game-com-prototype-appears-on-ebay

[Chewylegs]

Took some games to CEX, asked about the price they'd give me for Castlevania Symphony of the night and she said because it has a few scratches on the disc (nothing major in my eyes) they'd not offer anything for it.

I found that quite bemusing but fuck em, I've seen them sell on eBay for about the same as there minimum with more scratches!

 

Odd as well, they gave me full 'mint' price for one of my games which was no where near mint. 

[megamixer]

23 hours ago, Chewylegs said:

Took some games to CEX, asked about the price they'd give me for Castlevania Symphony of the night and she said because it has a few scratches on the disc (nothing major in my eyes) they'd not offer anything for it.

I found that quite bemusing but fuck em, I've seen them sell on eBay for about the same as there minimum with more scratches!

 

Odd as well, they gave me full 'mint' price for one of my games which was no where near mint. 

CEX is a joke. They reject games for such small reasons yet happily put others on their shelves that look as if they've been given to a dog to chew on, thrown into a swamp for a few years, dredged up, shat on, and, finally, hit with a baseball bat for good measure.

[erhgiez]

1 hour ago, megamixer said:

CEX is a joke. They reject games for such small reasons yet happily put others on their shelves that look as if they've been given to a dog to chew on, thrown into a swamp for a few years, dredged up, shat on, and, finally, hit with a baseball bat for good measure.

Don’t forget covered in jam. It’s happened too many times for it not to become a thing for me. Discs covered in jam.

[Chewylegs]

Exactly!

They expected 25 year old game to be scratchless!

[megamixer]

To be fair, I HAVE sold PS1 games with spotless, factory-fresh discs but only because I owned them from new and babied them - the Spyro trilogy and the first Silent Hill (all black label day-one purchases) to name a couple. But I would never let CEX get their hypocritical hands on those. I maximised my money on ebay. My only regret was not selling the Spyros before Reignited came out as they would have been worth 2-3x more, especially in the mint condition that they were.

 

But yeah, them expecting no scratches they have disgusting stock on the shelves themselves is a mega pot-kettle-black moment.

[megamixer]

On 18/11/2022 at 16:59, erhgiez said:

Don’t forget covered in jam. It’s happened too many times for it not to become a thing for me. Discs covered in jam.

I've had milkshake-stained cases (at least I HOPE that's what it was...) and suspicious white powder (I'm sure it was just overspill from a box of Daz...positive).

 

The other feature that any CEX shopper can easily check off from their spotters guidebook is a selection of Wii games with spines the colour of piss and once-white cases that look like they've been dragged through mud.

[phillv85]

They had a black label copy of SoTN in my local CEX today at £400. I didn’t look close but could see the cover was bent and the manual in poor condition from behind the glass.

[Chewylegs]

Just before Christmas I decided to cash in on it and sold it on eBay for £285.  It then got stuck in the post due to the strikes for 5 days and I spent the time worried it wasn't going to work by the time it got to Derby!

 

Ebay finally handed my money over on Christmas day, which was a nice present!