#735 - CAPCOM!

Game #735
Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers 2
NintendoAge.com
2/18/12

Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers 2 has been a tough cart to get my grubby hands on. About a year and a half ago the cart was dangling around $45 - which at the time I felt was way out of whack and besides, I still had a few hundred other games to find. Fast forward to 2012 - or as I like to call it: "The Year Nintendo Game Prices Went Insane." Perform an eBay search now and you'll be lucky to see the game for less than $80 - yessir, Nintendo collecting has become quite an expensive hobby all of a sudden. But as a good friend once said, it's nowhere near as pricey as collecting cars or precious metals.

Luckily, a fellow NA member had a couple of extras (wow!) up for sale and I managed to send a manageable amount of cash and a few instruction manuals in trade. I have several manuals stored away, which to me are just like boxes. Cool to have, but not really necessary and ultimately take up too much space.

The Chip 'n Dale game is a platformer like the first RR game that (everyone sing along...) was released too late in the NES shelf life to get a wide distribution. This was the last game I needed for the collection published by CAPCOM, which in my opinion is the best 3rd party publisher of NES games. Mega Man, Bionic Commando, Ghosts 'n Goblins, Duck Tales...the list of really great games goes on and on. In fact - here's what every CAPCOM published NES game looks like all together:

You'll notice the boxed copy of Duck Tales 2 - another NES title that will set collectors back a few bones. I saw this one at a flea market reseller booth where the guy was asking $130. I passed and a couple of months later went back and noticed it was still in the glass case. The reseller didn't remember me (why would he?) and proceeded to tell me how hard to find it was, etc. and so I asked again what he was looking to get for it. To my shock he said he'd let it go for $35. Wow! OK, so I took out my wallet and I only had $30 left on me. He accepted the last of my cash and told me it was because I looked like I'd give it a good home. Indeed.

#734 - Fire 'n Ice

Game #734
Fire 'n Ice
NintendoAge.com
2/1/12

When it rains, it pours. Then it freezes and turns to ice. Then you get fire to melt it. Or somesuch thing...what I'm trying to say is I bought Fire 'n Ice.

Fire 'n Ice sits on that fringe between 'uncommon' and 'rare.' I don't believe the game sold that well upon its release, so it is hard to come across today. I can't say I've ever seen a copy out 'in the wild' - but luckily a good fellow over at NA was selling his and gave me a solid deal. Thanks, Xavier!

What we have here is actually a puzzle game sequel to Solomon's Key, which was released a full 6 years earlier. That's quite a while to wait for a sequel to a puzzle game, much less one for the original NES. I haven't played the game yet, but I'm looking forward to giving it a turn as I hear it is quite fun.

I was able to pick this up after receiving a fairly good smattering of cash via some eBay sales (all auctions that started at .99) and selling a couple of carts on NA. I know of a lot of collectors who fund their collections mainly through reselling. The only problem you run into is that unless you can find some big ticket items, then you're making only a couple bucks here and there and once you factor in the hassle of posting your wares to a website and shipping them out....well let's just say if I wanted a second job I'd already have one. That being said, I had a few things I didn't want anymore and on top of that was able to flip some flea market scores and here we are.

I've decided it's no use for me to say I'm going to use my next post to talk about this or that...I never end up doing what I say I'm going to do. So the next post will be a total surprise to both you and me. I may start blogging about my favorite Muppets*.


*Gonzo.