WC3 - How much is it worth ?

W

WCnutter

Spaceman
Hi

This is my first post here, so I'd like to say hello to everybody. I hope I will not brake any rules by writing the following, but if yes, I appologise sincerely and the mods can feel free to delete this post :)

I have in my posession the Wing Commander III PC edition, which is the original english edition, complete with all manuals, discs, and the big WC III poster. All booklets and the poster are in near mint condition. The box is also in a good condition but has a roughly 5" tear at the top. As for the discs, I have them in their original case which features screenshots from the game and a Dralthi IV on the back. The discs themselves have become unreadable due to some kind of "frost-like" scratches that apeared on them over the years, however I have bought another set on ebay and the new discs are fine and work perfectly (so in total the buyer will get 8 discs - 4 oryginal and 4 new, substitute ones).

I would like to know (as some of you have probably guessed by now) is how much would this set be worth on the collector's market ? I am asking as I also have this game on PSX, so I won't be needing the PC version, specialy since running it has become such a daunting task with these new computers. Therefore, I will look for a new home for it soon, but don't wan't to get "cheated of my victory" by letting it go for pennies ;)

Oh, and BTW, below are the pics of the whole set I took this morning. I will be gratefull for your help, guy and gals :)

Cheers, K.

DSC00937.jpg

Notice the tear on the top of the box. That is how I got it a few years back.

DSC00938.jpg


DSC00940.jpg


DSC00941.jpg


DSC00942.jpg


DSC00943.jpg


DSC00944.jpg


The picture above shows an egsample of what happened to the discs over the years.
 
Here's a few links for some current auctions of the PC version of WC3. Out of 4, 3 of the auctions are set at 10 dollars and one at 5. Of course this could go up as the auctions near the end time but that seems about average. There is some crazy person that has the kilrathi saga listed at 600 dollars which is stupid considering it's often easier to get the dos version working than it can be with the Kilrathi saga version.

Auction 1

Auction 2

Auction 3

Auction 4

So with that in mind and seeing that your copy has virtually the same stuff as those ones, I have one other question: Are all your disks in this condition or do you have duplicate disks of the damaged ones? Because if all the disks are like that there's no way you can expect people to pay the full potential value of a copy with good CDs.
 
Hello AD

Thanks for your quick reply and the links. As for your question, only the original discs that came with the game are in this condition. As I wrote above, I have bought another set of the original discs from ebay and put them in the box, so whoever buys the game, would get the scratched discs and brand new ones that have no scratches.

K.
 
Hm. Question to anyone who knows; was that paperboard fold-out CD case used in the first run of the game? Because the version I got after release came with a set of standard Jewel cases, not a fold-out container.
 
MannPower said:
Hm. Question to anyone who knows; was that paperboard fold-out CD case used in the first run of the game? Because the version I got after release came with a set of standard Jewel cases, not a fold-out container.
Click to expand...

No, what you're looking at here is the British release of the game.

Note also the different artwork on the CDs, the slight changes in the box (ie, the red '15' rating) and the different advertisement in the package.

In all honesty, the original poster might get more money *just* selling the poster, which is a cool oddity. Game collectors generally want absolutely perfect (often sealed) copies of games... and the ones they pay top dollar for are the ones that don't exist in large numbers. Wing Commander III was (at the time) the best selling PC game ever -- there's *lots* of copies out there. It's the games that were so terrible or obscure that nobody ever bought them in the first place that command top dollar...
 
Not to mention that 1) it's NOT hard to run WC3 on a modern PC (thanks to DOSBox) and 2) The PC version is better, AFAIK (it has the planetary missions intact).

Selling his copy would be a mistake.
 
Hey WCnutter, when are you going to be putting it on ebay? I've been looking a poster lately, as well as the PC versions of some of the games, so I'm considering buying yours.
 
Didn't pick up on it being an overseas release. The only thing that jumped out at me was the CD case, so I kind of looked only at those images with any interest.

My work monitor is at 1600x1200 (graphic designer), so the CD's themselves were too small for me to see in any detail.

But like what's already been mentioned, you probably want to hold on to your copy of WC3. If there's ever going to be a time to sell it, it'll be well into the future. I'm holding on to a lot of my old stuff for this purpose (IE, Ultima cloth maps, trinkets, etc.) Heck, my 'feelies' from Crusader are all still in mint condition.
 
Three years ago I bought the same version on Ebay for £29.99 (about $60?), in brand new condition. Within a week someone accidentally broke the CD, so I looked online and bought it from Ebay again - this time for £2.99.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top