How rare is that CAVE PCB?

[EOJ]

There are two ways to answer this question. First, one may be interested in how many PCBs were produced for each game. I have covered that here in regard to CV1000 PCBs (i.e. everything made from 2004-2012, except Deathsmiles II). Games in that thread are ranked Super Rare > Very Rare > Rare > Somewhat Rare > Somewhat Common > Common > Very Common. For the games released prior to 2004 at least 1000 PCBs were produced for each (Very Common), except DOJ BL (only 100 were made for that one, so it classifies as Rare in our scale) and DDP Campaign (only 1 was made, so that classifies as Super Rare). I do not know the production number for Deathsmiles II, but I do not expect it to be very high (and certainly less than 500; probably even 300 is overly optimistic).

The second way to answer this question is rarity in the second-hand market. In other words, how often a game comes up for sale. We have that covered in our CAVE Arcade Sales Tracker Spreadsheet.

[EOJ]

For some games, I am starting to think the initial production vs extant PCBs can differ to a remarkable degree. For example, serial number data indicates 300 Akai Katana PCBs were made, but it is easily the rarest SH3 PCB in terms of how often it comes up for sale (outside of Mushi Matsuri 1.5 and AK LE) and how hard it is to find in a Japanese arcade. I would not expect that if 300 were really out there today. You see all the BLs up for sale far more often (and installed in more arcades) and the most they made of any of those was 200.

Here is a scenario I am considering: in the example of AK, 300 were made, but far less were actually sold. Those that were unsold were converted into AK LE or SDOJ (I have seen many SDOJ that are clearly AK conversions). So how many AK PCBs are really out there? Take a guess, but based upon its rarity mine is approximately 100.

This clearly also applies to Mushihime-tama and Pink Sweets, both of which sold poorly and thus hundreds were converted into other games.

In the case of Deathsmiles II, it is interesting because very few seem to still work these days. Thus we have to contend with the question of initial production vs extant working examples.