[LonestarGoner]

Madigan....I think I love you a little bit for posting that picture. History Channel, you used to be so awesome, and now you have, um....that guy.

Lizard Slayer, the "hate" comes from the VGA misrepresenting themselves. They are not appraisers. Real appraisal in the antique collectible market is EXACTLY like appraisal in the real estate market. It comes with a legal obligation. If an antique appraiser, for example, over-assesses an item, the insurance on said item skyrockets. If that item were to be damaged and they insurance company investigates before pay-out and the item is found to be over-assessed, the appraiser may be found to have committed fraud and can possibly be sued.

Disk games may be cheaper to manufacture than cartridges, but with the variety of extras and bonuses, collecting will be big business, ESPECIALLY when games go all digital, which is very likely. Kiss collector's editions goodbye. EA, Squenix, Activision aren't going to send you fancy trinkets along with a download code. It will all be data, nothing you can touch. Building a dedicated appraisal house will be necessary not only to make sure charlatans like VGA don't continue to bilk unsuspecting collectors, but also to keep the joy of physical collections and collecting alive when games become nothing more than a phantom transaction over a net connection.

I'm not much of a blogger, but I think putting information out there might help build a forum and consensus. As one person mentioned, we have a worldwide community here, but doing it all over pictures is not reasonable. If anyone is interested, I'll post a line either here or in a new thread with a link once I get a blog up and running.