Is Raystorm really that rare?

[empovyle]

So I was browsing rare PS1 games that I could add to my collection then I saw a site listing Raystorm as an expensive/rare game... what? I bought this game for six dollars or so 5 years ago and I had no idea it was worth anything. Heck, the only eBay offer for it right now on that page has it listed for almost 200 dollars. There's a few different disc versions too. Apparently the whole "Ray-" series is rare after looking it up a bit, but I can't really find any more information besides that. Does anyone know more about this? Why did the price spike so hard?

[rayne315]

well a quick ebay search tells me that people buy it loose for between $25-30 and CIB between $50 for auctions and 75 for BIN's. of course that's not an indication of rarity. I CAN say that there are currently 10-15 active NTSC raystorms up on ebay right now.

that listing of $200 is also referring to a sealed game. its not uncommon for any game from 15+ years ago to be priced at $200 sealed

[Nickkchilla]

Don't think it's rare, but any game sealed from forever ago is bound to have some worth. And if it's the only copy up with no competition, you can expect someone to hike up the cost.

[bikingjahuty]

Uncommon, sure. But I definitely would not call it rare. If you want rare PS1 games, Fox Hunt, Silent Bomber, City of Lost Children, and Batman Forever are rare games.

[burningdoom]

Just get the Taito Legends 2 collection. That game, along with many other VERY good shoot-em up are on it. One of the best collections out there!

[badATchaos]

Rarity doesn't equate to value.

[empovyle]

I actually did not look at the listing long enough to realize it was sealed, but that definitely makes more sense. Even then the discs by themselves on Amazon are being asked for over 20 dollars, 30 dollars sometimes, which is... interesting. I think what happened here was that the listings have just slowly started to increase in value over time because others think that this is how much its really worth, because I honestly have never even heard of this game being considered "rare" before today. Rarity is the only excuse I could think of for this game having such a high price even for just disc only but that doesn't seem to be the case here. I'm just not sure how the different variants of the discs matter towards its uncommon-ness or if it even matters at all. The fact that the game advertises a competition is also something, some games in the past that have been involved in competition (NWC, maybe SwordQuest) have gotten attention like this, but for those games it's a completely different story. Though, I don't have much experience with "rare" games, the rarest I have probably just being PaRappa PS1. Thanks guys.

[sworddude]

Don't think it's rare, but any game sealed from forever ago is bound to have some worth. And if it's the only copy up with no competition, you can expect someone to hike up the cost.

To be fair in allot of cases sealed games wich are old do not have nice value.

Allot of ps1 games wich are sealed are worth nothing at all since they are hard to sell and worth less than 10 $. Tons available for a low price wich pretty much none buy,

Once a trash game always a trash game, If a game is is good, interesting or rare only than will sealed games have some value

Even some sealed nes games are worth trash because they are super common sealed there are a few titles in that category

Raystorm is an excellent game moreover a shoot em up, tons of collectors who only focus on this genre. Shoot em ups in general are pretty pricy more than rpg's overall in my opinion, and to be fair in allot of cases in less quantity available than rpg's. You cannot really compare one game as raystorm to the many common games in the ps1 library wich have no value at all and are bad filler games.

In my opinion I would estimate that at the very least 70% if not more of the ps1 library will have trash value even when sealed at least under 10 box not worth it by any means and definitely not easy to sell.

[SilverBow]

RayStorm sold about 35-45,000 copies in NA and 25-35,000 in Europe. Normally, those numbers would make a game valuable if the gameplay was fun and had great replay value, or was of a popular/unusual genre. RayStorm was good but in the overcrowded Shoot-'Em-Up category and hard to beat.

[burningdoom]

^ That's incorrect. RayStorm was not good. It was EXCELLENT!

[maximo310]

Knowing Working Designs games, collectors heavily go after the stuff in their library, so it's only natural that theres a decent demand for it ( including Raycrisis which is even pricer).

 When it comes to gameplay, I think Raystorm is good, but personally i'd put Raycrisis and Rayforce on top, especially on the latter which is not only a good challenge for a 1cc,  but has lots of great score potential, and is more balanced in game design compared to Raystorm.

[Nickkchilla]

Don't think it's rare, but any game sealed from forever ago is bound to have some worth. And if it's the only copy up with no competition, you can expect someone to hike up the cost.

To be fair in allot of cases sealed games wich are old do not have nice value.

Allot of ps1 games wich are sealed are worth nothing at all since they are hard to sell and worth less than 10 $. Tons available for a low price wich pretty much none buy,

Once a trash game always a trash game, If a game is is good, interesting or rare only than will sealed games have some value

Even some sealed nes games are worth trash because they are super common sealed there are a few titles in that category

Raystorm is an excellent game moreover a shoot em up, tons of collectors who only focus on this genre. Shoot em ups in general are pretty pricy more than rpg's overall in my opinion, and to be fair in allot of cases in less quantity available than rpg's. You cannot really compare one game as raystorm to the many common games in the ps1 library wich have no value at all and are bad filler games.

In my opinion I would estimate that at the very least 70% if not more of the ps1 library will have trash value even when sealed at least under 10 box not worth it by any means and definitely not easy to sell.

"Some worth."

Doesn't necessarily mean a gold mine.

I'm also explicitly referring to eBay here. I've seen some pretty mediocre games being hiked up in price regardless of legitimate worth. It's a hard sell, but some are silly enough to go through with a purchase.

[betelgeuse]

Raystorm was one of the Working Designs $10,000 contest games in NA as well. I tried my luck, but only ended up with a mousepad back in the day.

[pzeke]

Just get the Taito Legends 2 collection.

'Nuff said.