POP Culture - Video Games report on Meeting Art auction performance - Session 1

The profile of the successful bidders (total auction participants) shows that 85% are auction dealers, modern art collectors and art galleries a professional and loyal audience, with established expertise in the art market and regular participation in national and international auction circuits, while the remaining 15% are made up of investors and collectors who view art and collectibles as an alternative asset class.

The high participation reflects a trend already established in more mature markets, such as the U.S., where video games are now recognized as high-end collectible assets.

The first session closed with €35,200 in net hammer prices (excluding auction fees equal to +25% of the hammer price, therefore a gross total of €44,000) across 25 lots, all sold. It is a clear signal: the market absorbed the entire catalog, from the €150 pieces to the €8,900 one. For a first European institutional auction in the video game segment, it is a result that demonstrates the existence of broad-based demand.

The awards are not distributed evenly.

The 2 most expensive lots:

- Monkey Island 2 (8.900 €)
- Indiana Jones Fate of Atlantis (5.900 €)

both LucasArts for FM Towns in the Japanese edition represent just 8% of the catalog but account for 42% of the total auctions (14,800 € out of 35,200 €).

Allargando ai top 5 lotti la concentrazione sale al 56%: one-fifth of the lots are worth more than half of the entire result. At the opposite end, 13 lots out of 25 (52%) are below €800 and account for 17% of the awards.

They are lots that liven up the catalog, attract bidders, and create auction dynamics, but they do not move the numbers.

The lesson is clear: in a collectibles auction, the result is made with trophy pieces. The ability to attract and select high-end pieces is the most important strategic asset.

The auction in the first session involved 18 active bidders, with a clear predominance of online participation (15 participants, 83.3%) over in-room participation (3, 16.7%).

The level of competition was high: 120 total bids across 25 lots, equal to an average of 4.8 bids per lot and 6.7 bids per participant.

The demographic profile is homogeneous: almost exclusively men over 40, with only one female presence.

The data is consistent with the generational target of video game collecting: those who today have the purchasing power to compete in auctions grew up with these titles in the 1980s and 1990s. The low female presence represents a potential segment that is still untapped.

The perhaps most significant figure for the domestic market: 9 lots out of 25 were Italian editions and totaled €10,150 in hammer prices, 29% of the total.

The average per Italian lot (€1,128) is solid and higher than that of American lots (€617).

- Golden Sun Lost Age closed at €2,200
- Golden Sun at €1,700
- Zelda Collector’s Edition at €1,200
- Metal Gear and Goonies II NES Mattel at €950 each
- pair Bungie signed Halo at €950 and €900

Sono aggiudicazioni che disprove a deep-rooted belief in collecting: that Italian editions were second-rate compared to American and Japanese ones. The numbers say otherwise.

Segmenting by release decade, the 1990s pieces record the highest average: €2,775 per lot.

The data is driven by the two FM Towns, but the PlayStation (2,000 €) and Sonic R (450 €) also confirm the trend. The 1980s, while representing the largest group (15 lots), stop at an average of 1,073 €.

The 2000s titles (Golden Sun, Zelda, Halo, Castlevania) average €1,475, a still-young segment for the collecting market, but one that is already showing significant value.

The message: the ’90s decade is the current sweet spot of video game collecting. Those who grew up with those titles are now 35-45 years old and have the purchasing power to buy them. It’s the classic cycle of nostalgia turned into demand.

Alcuni lots deserve a reading that goes beyond the hammer price.

The Sony PlayStation SCPH 9002-C, the first European bundle with the Dual Shock logo, NIB (new in box) and graded 9.2, was sold for €2,000. In 1998 it cost about 300,000 lire (€155). In 28 years, its value has multiplied by 13.

Jordan vs Bird: One On One for IBM (1988) at €800 is not the most expensive lot, but it is perhaps the most iconic: it is the very first official video game featuring Michael Jordan on the cover, released a year before the famous NES version. Whoever bought it bought a piece of sports history.

Donkey Kong for Intellivision (UK, 1983) at €1,400 and Buck Rogers for Colecovision (USA, 1983) at €750 are both POP 1: a single certified copy in the world. They are museum pieces, and the market priced them as such.

Ikari Warriors for Atari 2600 was the surprise of the session: sold for €400, nearly triple expectations, after a fierce contest among multiple bidders. It shows that when the right piece meets the right collector, the price breaks away from any estimate.

The auction results tell two distinct dynamics that complement each other. The retro and iconic pieces Monkey Island 2 (€8,900), Indiana Jones Fate of Atlantis (€5,900), Jordan vs Bird (€800), Donkey Kong Intellivision (€1,400) closed in line with international market values.

They are titles already recognized by collectors all over the world, with an established position.

The awards confirm that the European market is aligned with the foreign one: those who buy these pieces know exactly what they are buying and how much it is worth.

On the secondary market for ungraded copies, a sealed copy of these titles can be found for a fraction of these amounts. Yet at auction they have recorded hammer prices significantly higher than their uncertified market value.

The professional certification of the state of preservation, the numerical grade, the tamper-proof case, and traceability transform a commercially available game into a collectible item with documented identity and value.

It is the most concrete demonstration of what grading does to the market: it does not merely photograph the existing value of pieces that are already rare; it creates new value on items that, without certification, would remain in the middle range of collecting.

The rears confirm the market.
The dealers demonstrate that grading expands it.

On the first 25 lots, 21 were certified TGM (The Games Market’s proprietary grading), 3 WATA, and 1 VGA, the two main American graders that have dominated the market since 2018.

The 5 most expensive lots in the entire auction are all certified TGM, including the top lot at €8,900. This is a figure that should be read carefully: TGM is a European grader, new, making its first appearance in an institutional auction context against established American brands.

The market did not penalize it. In fact, the numbers say it rewarded it.

The average per lot is €1,408, the median is €750.

The difference, almost double, confirms that a few high-value pieces pull the average upward. To read the market correctly, the median is the most realistic reference: it tells the price at which the majority of lots move.

The average tells the weight of the exceptional pieces.

The first session tells of a market that exists: demand, solid sales across a catalog ranging from 1981 to 2009.

The iconic pieces confirm the international positioning, while graded commercial titles show that certification expands the market into new value segments. European video game collecting is no longer a promise.