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What value do we place on the games we own?
By Mike | October 4, 2007
About 3 years back I mentioned to a friend that I owned SPI’s Art of Siege Quad and he was somewhat taken aback that I had this game. He asked whether I had seen a recent auction on E-Bay where a mint copy of AoS was sold for over £400.00. I was amazed however I told him I would be lucky to get 400 beans for my copy as it was well played and a bit worse for wear.
A while later I got to thinking about this situation where someone buys a game such as Art of Siege and does not even open the box then puts it away for 20 years or so then sells it for a fair profit. I mean what is the true value here? I bought my copy in the early eighties and played constantly with it over a period of 10 years where it eventually got consigned to the attic in favour of newer games that never really appealed as much to be frank. I reckon that over those 10 years or so playing AoS I derived so much pleasure and enjoyment that, to me, seems more valuable than the £400.00 the guy received on EBay.
We have a programme in the UK that has run the past thirty years called “Antiques Roadshow”, I believe there is as similar version in the US, this has a panel of “experts” who give values of various objects brought in by the general public who hope that the hideous vase left to them by their great aunt Edith will fetch a small fortune. On one show a guy who was in his late 50’s brought in a cardboard box containing numerous pieces of model railway rolling stock from engines to pullman coaches, passenger coaches and freight cars. Each was in mint condition and in the original box and had been in a cupboard unused for over 50 years. The “expert” was amazed and after examining the stuff told the guy that a collector at auction would probably pay £5K for what was on the table. The guy was dumbstruck and after his initial shock told the “expert” that he had about three times more of this back home so in effect this was probably worth about £20K.
Again like my experience with my Art of Siege game we have another situation where this guy was given a Heaven sent present all those years ago that would have given him so much pleasure and introduced him to another world where he could have created a miniature world and possibly a hobby for life but he decided to use it to boost his pension 50 years later. People have different values I suppose. It would be good to get your view on this blog by adding any comments.
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