What is the dream of every single game collector? Finding one of those massively popular titles, which always go for obscene $$$, for a bargain -- say, 1/10 of the going rate. But Mr. Krug, I've looked for this and that game for so many years, and I've never seen them go below $$$! Finding a bargain is just not possible!  Well why don't you have a seat little Timmy, and let me tell you how a professional does it.

Probably the easiest way to get a great price is to find one of those coveted treasures in a lot, preferably with several other games you were planning on buying as singles. For several reasons I might lay out in a dedicated article, lots practically always go way below the combined value, even when taking into account possible missing disks and manuals not seen in the pics, and things of that sort. So let's say you pay 30k for a lot with a 20k gem, and a bunch of other games you were going to buy at 5k a pop -- the math starts to look pretty juicy. Now what if I showed you a lot like that, which I got for 9k? BUT MR. KRUG...  Now now, little Timmy. A little patience will go a long way in helping you figure this stuff out. The lot in question had a title almost designed to drive away casual buyers -- the keywords being Boxes Only. It should be noted, boxes can in themselves be well worth grabbing; but looking closer at this listing, Old Krug sensed something really fishy was going on: While the picture gallery only showed the boxes, scrolling down to the description, there were inline images of the insides, clearly showing the manuals, and at least some of the disks. Even more weirdly, the two CD games clearly had the jewel cases there. So what on earth is going on here? Are these latter pics older ones, taken before the seller somehow lost all the contents shown in them? That's certainly a possibility -- one that needs to be put in our EV (expected value) calculation.

Further down in the description, things got even more confusing. There was a list of the items, where the seller had divided the games into two categories: "Game soft", and "Empty box". Well, given the dichotomy, this clearly suggests Daikoukai Jidai and Rema the Truth are full games (or at the very least, more than just the box). But that isn't really clearing up anything.🤣 Based on the inline pics, those two CD games look to be CIB, but so do all the floppy games, if some of the disks are stacked behind the ones showing, as is typically the case. Surely it can't be that the seller lost all the contents for the floppy games, but not for the CD ones. I mean, it's technically possible, so I can't discount it completely... but idk man, there has to be something more to this.

I racked my brain trying to figure it out, and came to the following conclusion: The only way all of this makes sense is -- and I know this sounds absolutely nuts, as it did to me too -- if the seller thinks all PC games are supposed to come with Discs (with a c), i.e. optical media. I kept coming back to a curious quirk in the Japanese language, which is that the same word (ディスク) is used for both Disk and Disc, potentially leading to all kinds of confusion, without further context. Whether or not this factoid played any role here, it looks like there's a reasonable chance the games without a jewel case got considered incomplete, by a (re)seller who isn't much of a vintage gamer.

Lacking a more convincing theory, I considered the lot worth betting 15k on, given how expensive the games are when bought separately. Even in the worst case scenario, I can later find whatever is missing from EVO, and enjoy a complete copy for less than what it would normally go for -- and have a bunch of other cool boxes as bonus. Oh the opponent dropped out already? Well that's even better lol. Now to wait and see what eventually comes in the mail... Christ almighty, these things REEK 🤢 As someone whose MO is to buy games knowingly with moldy disks, I don't have many that actually smell. And this listing said nothing about mold (with the boxes looking fine too). Damn you techbros... for not inventing Smell-O-Vision! (Surely it should've been tried somewhere between the countless crypto scams, and fascism.) So, let's tally up the score and see how badly I did here. First, I got lucky in that all disks and manuals were actually there. That alone honestly makes this one into a winner. I think I got extremely unlucky with the games being smelly, as I don't recall another time when this happened. In conclusion, I think my reasoning and detective work were solid, and paid off handsomely. It's just that an unforeseen issue came in to ruin the ultimate victory. It's bound to happen to the best of us... (Namely, me.)

Oh right, I almost forgot, we have some moldy disks to dump. Yeeeesh, that is one nasty mother effer. Honestly, the pics gave no sign of this madness under the hood (i.e. sleeve). Did ZenMarket store these in a sewer? Anyway, the mold is "easy" white type, there's just a ton of it.

Cutting to the chase, the mold cleaned off fine. There was just one last bummer in store for me: EVO had two disks with pre-existing scratches -- thick white ones too, which typically signify death. And that was also the case here. Furthermore, I might've killed one of the DK2 disks. (Oopsies, but luckily those are cheap to replace.) So in total, I got the two CD dumps, plus Frontier Universe, La Valeur, and scans of everything. (Zavas II was a duplicate, in case someone wants it despite the smell.)

Now I just need two replacement disks for that "free" EVO, heheh. Not really the brag post I wanted this to be -- but oh well, can't win em all. Old Krug will be back, stronger from this ordeal.

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