Topic: Why is Paper Mario on 64 so rare?

Have been wanting to pick this game up lately as I never owned it back in the day, but it's extremely expensive.

I'm talking close to 400 bucks - and that's just for the cartridge by itself. It all got me thinking, why is this game so rare?

I get it was released very late in Nintendo 64's run, but did people just not buy it at the time, which is driving up its value now?

What makes it that much harder to get? Were there less copies produced? Or is it that great a game that people just don't part with it all these years later?

Thoughts?

At that price, you might as well just buy a wiiu and download the game there

At that price I might as well sell mine. I have it right downstairs.

I know of some interested in buying it.

I don't think it sold poorly or anything, but at the time was kind of an odd experiment late in the console's life. Since then, the Paper Mario name has gotten way more popular, but none of the newer games have been as good as this and Thousand Year Door. So there is no real modern equivalent, more interest in it now than at launch, at a time when retro prices in general are just going nuts.

I would say just wait for N64 games to come to Nintendo Online. It may take a few years, but will happen eventually.

My theory is that it's popular, original carts are only getting harder to find, and it plays best on original hardware. I never liked the c-buttons being transposed to the right thumbstick (on the virtual console, for instance). You can change the inputs on the wii u, but i could never find anything that felt 100% comfortable.

I'd love to play original carts myself, but when they're priced outrageously such as that, I'll grab it digitally when I can.

Games (some) as they get older the prices go up with time. Switch games will one day be expensive too.

"The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Complete in Box, unlicked) - $500"

So is this just somewhere outside the US? Because I just checked Amazon and you can buy it for less than $35. A little disappointed that I'm not going to rake in the money.

I was looking at buying this about 6 months ago. Prices then for a good CiB were around the £150 mark on eBay. At first I felt that was too much, but I mulled it over for a couple of weeks and then decided to bite the bullet as it was the last N64 game I planned on getting. So I went back to eBay, only to find prices had jumped to around £250. There's no F in way.

When prices inflate like that, that quickly, it feels crazy to get caught up in it. Maybe they'll never come down and just keep climbing and buying at 250 would look like a good investment, but I'm prepared to take that chance. So PM64 is not a game I ever expect to own now.

I am in the same position with StarCraft 64. The PAL(australian) version is so rare and expensive that I am looking for US N64 Console + US StarCraft 64.

It will be cheaper that way

@Tendo64 but I found on eBay that the game is around 100$. The boxed copies go at the 900$ mark I mean if you spend a 120-150$ you could get it

like someone mentioned above, it came out way too late in the N64's life and along with TTYD its the only other turn based JRPG in the series which gives it extra value for people who prefer that style.

Its also really the only noteworthy RPG on the N64 after most developers were on Playstation at the time. If you really want to play it, just buy one of those N64 USB controllers and set it up on an emulator. Theres also a really cool fan remake going on where people are remaking it with Color Splashes graphics.

@Xyphon22 OP didn't specify their region, but to my understanding, like Mario Party 3, the PAL version is significantly rarer than the US version.
I hear both games' PAL releases came around/after the GameCube was released in Japan and North America. That late in its lifespan.

If you want it as a collector then, yeah, you should get used to the absurdity of the collector's market. If you want play it... you know, you can just do that for free.

I’m wondering the same except for Mega Man 5 on NES. Just the cartridge itself is almost $300. Why is it much more expensive than Mega Man 1-4 and 6?

@Don I remember MM5 was the only game I had to buy online back in the days I was collecting.
MM5 was the last MM game Capcom published in NA, so it was probably the lowest print run.

MM6 was published by Nintendo, so it probably had a higher print run. Also, it and StarTropics II were published as the "launch games" for the top-loader NES in North America.

Yeah, Capcom had just about given up on the North American NES market at that time, so I'm sure Mega Man 5's print run was very small.