It depends on your personal satisfication. I'm sure you have some unliscenced games that you count in your collection. I myself would count that as part of the collection because my goal is to own all the NTSC NES games and that would count as one. But I'm sure you want one as well but aren't willing the pay the price tag....don't feel bad neither do I. I'm just hoping I am lucky enough to find one in the wild but in the end I might be forced to buy one, but I don't wanna think about that yet.

Well my goal is ntsc licensed games....which i know SE is ...but it was recalled so im not sure if i consider it a licensed release or not.*shrug* yeah if i found one in the wild i would definitly keep it and consider it a part of the licensed collection...so i guess its the price that scares me away lol.I do have unlicensed games but they arent what im after...

Yep its all about what you want to collect..Ive never seen one post on any gaming site where a person has posted i just completed my nes collection that there wasnt a few that have to question their collection.. do you have this do you have that...when you have all the games you want to collect your collection is complete.

Psytronic wrote on 11. Feb 2007 at 08:55:

Metroid was re-released with completely different box art, label design, and instructions manual.  It's still the same game inside the cartridge, but the packaging is completely different.  Do a search for Metroid NES and you'll see two different style cartridges.

It's easy to get scared off by some prices if you're a young person, not used to investments or without a good amount money in the bank. But these aren't expensive to collect comparatively. An entire set you can buy for the price of a single classic car, a single Harley, a single piece of original art by even a mediocre artist.

Moreover, picking up the big ones is an investment...if were going to keep $1,000 in a bank and not touch it as a fall-back, and let it gain the tiny bit of interest, why not just go but an SE, since it not only is much scarcer than finding a bank that will take your money, but also is appreciating much more quickly. It's certainly liquid within 30 days too...if you ever come across a problem, ebay that night and when your legs are back under you, buy it again. It's rare but not unique.

Most of the time an investment implies a release of the investment at some indeterminate point in the future, otherwise you never "realize" it. But the fact that you could, the option to do so, is valuable unto itself, and the value of the asset of a cart that appreciates at 10% annually rather than a 2.9% interest savings account can't be denied.

Keep in mind I can't apply this analogy to most NES carts. Undenyably some are just worth too much. And there's more of an element of risk (Aladdin games, abundant now) but that risk is offset by time (Cheetahmen II, relatively worthless when uncovered). That limits your options when "troves" are unleashed but what goes around comes around.

Also keep in mind artificial demand. This makes a balloon that can pop. Panesians fall into this category. Their price is artificially high and will dip. Some carts also are starting to rot out and fail...and as uneducated collectors react to this it will change the market quite a bit.

I love reading his long thoughts like that.  He has a weblog over at nesforums he posts in randomly about stuff, always a good read.