Rare Nintendo 1978 Cocktail Othello Arcade Game

I'd say it's overpriced. Consider:

1) The overall market
2) The niche market
3) The game itself

1) the overall arcade market is way, way down right now. That's going to hurt the resale price of pretty much every coin op out there today. There are a few exceptions (many in your post about the most expensive games) but overall even those are selling for less than they might have 3-5 years ago.

2) Someone who's a die-hard Nintendo collector, die-hard obscure coin op collector, or some mixture of both will help keep the price from going too far down moreso than the other two categories. However, the game isn't widely known, which will shrink the niche market down some more and possibly also shrink the price down with it. Tough to say, it only takes two really interested parties to drive the price way up.

3) Computer Othello is, for lack of a better term, a dud. Nobody will buy the game to actually play it. It's a conversation peice, a museum piece. It's a piece that holds bragging rights and not much more.

It would be surprising to see it sell for more than $800 at the very most.

I think that it goes without saying, any smart collector knows rare does not equal valuable, isn't really of note.

I certainly agree with your point that this Othello has a niche demand inside of a niche hobby, and it has less of an interest because the game is not at all interesting. It certainly is a museum piece.

But I do think that the profile of Nintendo is high, especially now, and the claim to fame of being the 'first Nintendo arcade game', plus the collecting recognition in Nintendo games from King of Kong I still think that this price isn't too far off base.

To me, the price should be lower since it doesn't work. I think it should be down to at least $1000 because it is non working, maybe as low as your $800, but possibly not. I certainly don't think the style of the cabinet really has much to do with it. But they would probably garner more value if they took the time to market this item in multiple places, place high in Google for those searches and potentially advertise / list the game on other cross over collector sites and hobbyist periodicals. The eBay crowd has seen it now at $1200, and they didn't bite. To max that value, more effort would be necessary.

I don't care how rare it is… That thing sure is very "U-G-L-Y"… Would be very interested in checking it out though. What I'm finding out is 'Rare" doesn't mean "valuable". Maybe donate it to FunSpot and write off the $1200+ on their taxes.

It's the same generic table (with a different base) that Nintendo used in a number of their games, including Donkey Kong. Nothing wrong with it, you rarely see a really impressive looking cocktail table. 🙂

But I would agree that rare doesn't = valuable. It's simply supply vs demand. If there are only 12 Computer Othello tables out there and 2 interested buyers, wellsir, you've got yourself a rare, inexpensive game.

that is awesome man ive never even seen that around here and i see it here on this blog i would of said it was not overpriced but considering that it doesnt work like someone said maybe it is. maybe the person should restore it or something and then sell if he does restore it he might have to sell it at a lower price considering it had to be restored but i would say a great price would be 600

$1,200 for ANY non-working game is ridiculous! Not for EDOT, not for Computer Space, or anything. I don’t care WHAT it is!
Hell, I own a game nobody knows about called Star Invaders that works. Maybe I can get $2,000 for it??

Gimme a break, people!

@Dan Tofalo: But $800 for a non working Computer Space wouldn’t be out of the question. That has a lot more demand, but I don’t think you can say its worth something like $300-$400 non working. It is still a really unique piece.