Auction houses, price platforms, the record sales, the sealed-market cycle, and the tools that read it. How the vintage game market actually prices.
Who sells the high end, how their fees work, and how to read a results archive.
How the hobby's price index is built, what it's good for, and where it misleads.
The sealed-game records, the WATA grades behind them, and what they signalled.
The 2020–21 run-up, the correction, and how first-print scarcity held.
Nostalgia demographics, supply shocks, grading capacity, and macro liquidity.
Building a watchlist, setting alerts, and turning noisy comps into a real number.
A worked example: the shops, markets, and routes for sourcing in one city.
Where regional price gaps are real, where they're a tax, and the import mechanics.
Customs, VAT, insured shipping, and the true landed cost of a grail.