Spine Cards Questions

[VR46]

Not buying a Saturn/Dreamcast when they came out, I seemed to missed out on them and just have a couple of questions;

1. What was the point of them ?
2. Did they come with just JPN releases and were they included in every Saturn/Dreamcast game ?

If they are that important to serious collectors, surely someone would have set up a website buying and selling them ? looked and nothing. Some people must sell them on their own surely.

[jimtendo]

1. Information & sales blurb
2. Only JPN games. Yes, more or less every JPN SS/ DC had them.
Apart from an odd few, such as Cosmic Smash. Also i'm not sure whether the big box Metal Slug had it as well.

[VR46]

Ta, so what would something like a mint Radiant Silvergun one be worth on it's own on a good day ?

[jimtendo]

No idea.

Going by the randomness of ebay prices, i'd say ?40 - ?60

[Treble]

The big box/RAM-included MSlug has a spine card, yes. A mint Radiant Silvergun w/spine and reg. cards would probably vary in price, but even in Aki it'd probably be >?100. Spine cards are essential to the collector (as are registration cards) as this makes the item complete. "Mint and complete" should mean everything inside the cellophane wrapper is still there.

[Darwock]

Spine cards are just the wrap around bit that you also get on Japanese music CDs, yeah? I wouldn't say they are worth a bean by themselves, as all they do is add completeness to a package. It's a bit like keeping the stickers that say 'contains the hits x & y!' stuck to the front of cd albums. i.e. daft!

[Treble]

Some places do sell them on their own (VGI and eBay specifically). Most only go for about a fiver, but some rare ones can fetch higher prices.

Darwock: there's a market for everything, dude

[VR46]

I wouldn't say they are worth a bean by themselves, as all they do is add completeness to a package.

But say a RS without one was worth ?60 but with it was worth ?100, someone would be willing to pay ?30 for the card on it's own, wether it be to keep or sell on as "mint and complete"

Thanks for info guys.

[VR46]

[QUOTE=Treble]Some places do sell them on their own (VGI and eBay specifically).QUOTE]

got a link for VGI ? vgi.com is a "whats on tv" website

[Treble]

http://www.videogameimports.com/mdise_index.htm

That's the merchandise section. Click on the <category> drop-down and choose 'Spine Cards'.

[Treble]

But say a RS without one was worth ?60 but with it was worth ?100, someone would be willing to pay ?30 for the card on it's own, wether it be to keep or sell on as "mint and complete"

Sadly, doesn't quite work that way. It's like all collectable stuff: you'll get more for the part than if it was part of the package as a whole, but not a massive amount. I reckon you could get ?15-?20 (if you're lucky) for an RS spine plus reg. cards, which is a pretty good return. However, collecting rare spine cards alone for resale would be extremely hard. People either understand their value and don't sell them, or don't appreciate them and therefore bin them.

[VR46]

see what you mean, not that I was thinking of starting a business or anything, just curious.

[Geezer]

I sold a RSG spine card for a ?20 buy it now a few months ago, maybe I could've got more, I dunno, I was happy with it

Treble-are you sure the Ram box version of Metal Slug Includes one? I was pretty sure that all the ram box games on the saturn didnt include a spine card or the back insert for the CD case??

I was anal about spines until recently, but now I just cba, after all you don't play the spine card! I'll continue only buying games with spines to complete my Saturn and DC collections as I don't have that many games left to get, but for PSOne and PC Engine CDs I cannot be arsed, too much effort. I once saw Harmful Park go for $51, mint, no spine, I'm tired of passing up bargains because of a lack of a spine card