For those who collect Final Fantasy soundtracks, GameMusic.com has a few bargains in their clearance section:

• Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII Limited Edition soundtrack, $9.99
• “Melodies of Life” single (Theme from Final Fantasy IX), $2.99
  and for the Halo fans,
• Halo 2 Original Soundtrack Volume 1, $4.99

These are legit Japanese printings, Nippon Crown and King Records labels on the FF CDs, respectively. If you’re new to soundtrack collecting, here’s a nice FAQ for avoiding bootleg CDs.

Good deals, especially since I paid 1000 yen for the Melodies of Life single from Yahoo Japan just a few months ago… d’oh!

Update: Speaking of Dirge of Cerberus, Square just (unexpectedly) announced that they are releasing a new version in Japan, Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII International. Pretty ballsy for such a poorly-received title. [via AdventChildren.net]

I’ve made it a point not to advertise my own auctions here on GameHoarders (as that’s not really my purpose for the blog), but I’ve just put up something special that I think will interest Final Fantasy fans, even if they’re only window shopping.

I purchased this Final Fantasy VIII “Eyes on Me” jukebox on a Japanese site about a year ago. I had never seen one before, and being a pretty avid Final Fantasy hoarder, that says a lot. It was love at first sight, and a few thousand yen later, it was mine.

Square Enix released an official Final Fantasy VII “Aerith’s Theme” music box in 2005, which was limited to one hundered copies and cost around 40,000 yen (~$400 US) . According to the folks over at the Final Fantasy Collectibles Forum, the music box, in the rare occasion that it goes on sale, now fetches over $2000 US.

I know surprisingly little about the one I own, except that is patented and manufactured by “Artec.” It looks to be part of a series called “Music and Harmony.” It may very well be unofficial, but that doesn’t make me like it any less, as this is as cool as unofficial items get, in my humble opinion. I have another photo and more specific details on my eBay listing.

My asking price is ridiculously high, I know, but my main purpose in listing it is a) to find out if anyone knows more about it, and b) to gauge any interest there might be among collectors.

If anyone reading here can give some insight on this item, submit some comments!

This past weekend was perfect for yard saling here in Maryland. There were tons of sales (partially because of rain the previous Saturday) and I saw next to no other shoppers. It was hot and I think the heat kept people inside. Tomorrow is the annual city festival here and historically the apex of the ’saling season. Good luck to all if you’re headed out bright and early tomorrow.

5.31.08:

The weekend before last was nearly a total washout. I hit just a couple of sales by 8:30, when it started to pour rain. It didn’t stop, and everyone pretty much pulled in the sales for the day and that was that. So the above is only from about the first 30 minutes.

• NES system, complete with Zapper, 5 games, arcade stick, VERY clean — $10
• Road Rash (original) PS1, disc only — $1
• Wooden CD/DVD rack — $3

6.7.08:

As I wrote above, it was definitely a buyers’ market this past Saturday, with tons of sales around town and practically no shoppers out for some strange reason.

• GBA Instruction manualsfor Zelda, Fire Emblem, Castlevania, and Street Fighter Alpha 3 — $0.25 ea
• Final Fantasy X guide — $1
• Plush N64 Mario and Toad — $1 ea
• The Royal Tenenbaums Criterion DVD — $1
• 3 Final Fantasy/RPG issues of Nintendo Power — $0.25 for all
• God of War PS2 — $2
• Batman NES — $0.10
• Steven Spielberg’s “Taken” miniseries screener VHS — $0.25
• Not pictured: junky Movado knock off watch — $1 (threw it away because I couldn’t get the battery cover off); HP ink cartridge NIB — $0.25

Here’s a couple of recently ended eBay auctions that just about made my jaw drop.

The first, a complete set of Karaoke Revolution games for the PS2. Yes, I know they’re very much sought after, but the price? $800, sold to one “lvlovernpink.” Meanwhile, other complete sets sit unpurchased at $229. No one ever said eBay bidders were rational. (thanks to monkeydeew for the tip)

Karaoke Revolution 1 2 3 Party Country American Idol — ended price: $800

Silly me. I put in a bid of 3 GBP (about $6) on this next item, thinking that I actually had a chance of winning. I love Final Fantasy, but as I told my friend on this one, at $132, I don’t think the winner of this item can really be called a “winner.”

McDonald’s Final Fantasy Chocobo Dungeon Promo Moogle — ended price: 68 GBP, about $132 US

A book/video store about an hour from home is set to go out of business soon. It’s a chain of stores across the state, and they rotate merchandise from time to time. I hadn’t been to this store since January, but when I went this weekend, they had a goldmine of stuff that was definitely not there before, and all priced to sell.

The first thing I found when I walked in was a rack filled to overflowing with mostly junk Genesis and SNES sports titles. Funnily enough, they also had a ton of new-in-box PS1 “game enhancers” — ie, import enablers that plugged into the PS1’s parallel port (marked at $0.95 ea). Too bad they’ve sort of outlived their usefulness, ‘cos they were a fascinating device back in the day. (I even wrote a couple of FAQs about them for GameFAQs nearly a decade ago!)

On the back of the rack, I found an unexpected gem: Metal Gear Solid for PS1. It was the start of good things.

Next, walking down a main aisle, I spotted a box I’m well familiar with — DDR Mario Mix! No game, unfortunately, but $5 for the pad is still a good find. I’m betting someone traded in the game into Gamestop and they refused the pad “for sanitary reasons.” Apparently in Gamestop-speak, “sanitary reasons” translated to “We’d rather force people to buy our own branded pad and make profit from the ludicrous markup.” I digress.

Next, at the end of the computer and gaming aisle, there were 2 boxes full of lovely vintage 90s gaming magazines. I would have loved to have taken the 2 big boxes that they had home, but I know full well that I have no room for them, so I cherry picked the Final Fantasy covers.

And lastly, I discovered the crown jewel… on the bottom shelf of the computer aisle, stuck in sideways, I spied a red border that I have drooled over on eBay many times. Could it be? Yes! The Final Fantasy (1) Nintendo Power Strategy Guide, in excellent shape. I felt my heart flutter a bit. It’s not a particularly valuable item, but I have indeed coveted it for awhile, and this is the first one I’ve seen in person. Oh, the price? 50 cents.

• Dance Dance Revolution Mario Mix (pad only) — $5.00
• Metal Gear Solid (PS1 Greatest Hits) — $5.90 — this was mixed in with a bunch of crap sports Genny and SNES games, all priced $5.90. Have no idea where this gem came from!
• Tons of mid-90s gaming magazines — $0.50 ea

  And the crown jewel…

• Final Fantasy 1 Nintendo Power strategy guide — $0.50