Official Price Guide to Classic Video Games by David Ellis

[phitter]

I recently purchased a copy of the The Official Price Guide to Classic Video Games by David Ellis because it purported to contain a price guide for handheld games and because I also collect Atari 2600 and Colecovision carts.

Overall, I think that the author did a nice job covering handheld/tabletop games distributed by the major manufacturers such as: Mattel, Coleco, Entex and Bandai; however, it seemed that the section was somewhat of an afterthought. Especially telling was the author?s comment that handheld/tabletop games could easily fill an entire book.

While the battle will rage on regarding whether anyone active this forum wants a comprehensive price guide for these games, it did not seem like the prices listed in this guide for handhelds were terribly accurate or useful. Further, the list of games was far from comprehensive and was limited to only North American releases.

Unless the author?s intent was to keep prices artificially low to help us out, I am not sure that many sophisticated collectors will find the handheld price guide section very useful. Don?t get me wrong though, I liked the background info and the rest of the book is very well done, thoroughly researched and informative. (And for any other cart collectors, you will welcome the professional editing that is sorely lacking in the comprehensive Digital Press guide.)

Has anyone else bought this book? Just curious what you think.

P.S. to Rik - the handheld section is donned with numerous game photos credited to you and your well done, comprehensive and indispensable Handheld Museum website so I am curious whether you were involved with David Ellis in the creation of the section. Do you know if he is planning an updated version?

-phitter

[Rik]

I think his original intention was to include the well-known games (ones people would actually recognize or actually be able to find for sale somewhere). He said he was just going to hit on the highlights from a few major manufacturers, so it's probably kind of limited in it's scope for a handheld-only collector. (Kind of like that 20th Century Roadshow antiques book, 2 or 3 pages of handhelds isn't really going to cover anyone's large collection...).

I haven't heard from him since the book was published, so I don't know if he's planning an update or not (or if it even sold well...).

[Petrolpol]

Just found on amazon this book :

http://www.amazon.com/gp/produ.....oding=UTF8

Anyone bought this book ?

[JoePal]

i saw that book in the bookstore - it was horrible, the images inside looks poorly scanned.. not recommended.. i believe they snatched the photos from the KLOV site..

[Petrolpol]

thanks for the info Joepal,