Depending on when you grew up, you might have heard various people state how you need to protect certain items in case they become valuable later. Baseball cards, comic books, certain novels, records, and so on are examples of these special markets. Video games might not strike people as particularly valuable at the moment of their release, but looks can be deceiving. After all, video games are a billion-dollar industry, and with video games themselves being over 40 years old now, there is nostalgia to bank on here. This is proven even further via a recent sale of a boxed cartridge of Pokemon FireRed.
Pokemon FireRed was a very important addition to the Pokemon franchise. It was the first remake in the series, taking the original Pokemon Red title, giving it updated graphics, new places to go, wireless trading, and more. The game and its partner in Pokemon LeafGreen came out on the Game Boy Advance in 2004. But earlier in September, a graded cartridge was sold at an auction for over $3100.
The reason for the value was the grading by the company Wata. They labeled it a 9.6, one of the highest qualities you can get by grading standards. So when people heard about this sale, they were shocked.
Now, before you try to sell your classic games for a profit, remember that this was a graded copy. That means the game was examined to see what the condition of the box appeared to be, if it was opened/used, and so on. This kind of price isn’t what you should expect for an older game.
The sale itself has reopened some old wounds, if you will. Companies like Wata have been accused of inflating prices to make copies of older games like this much more than they reasonably are. After all, if it’s sold for a higher price, Wata gets a more significant cut. The graded market is a highly-controversial one as a result.
Getting to the more positive side of things, Pokemon as a whole has a lot to be excited about. The anime is still going strong, the Pokemon World Championships were held in London not too long ago, and the upcoming Gen 9 has many fans excited. Not the least of which is because the game will be fully open-world for the first time, with a branching story to go along with that newfound freedom.
Of course, there are also the new Pokemon to catch, the updated Switch graphics fans think will shine, new battle modes for online play, and so on.
Pokemon continues to grow in meaningful ways, and for that, fans should be grateful and enjoy the ride.
Source: Twitter
