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None foundNovember 8th, 2010 | Merchandise

For a long time now I’ve been working on something on the side – building a site called Game Swag. I didn’t mean for it originally, but I wound up putting as much time and work into it as I did with the Mother 3 translation, if not more. It was crazy.
Anyway, it’s hard to explain Game Swag well – it’s part news blog (focusing only on game merchandise, of course), part game merchandise database, part Wiki-style collaborative site, and part social media. It sounds weird, but it all comes together in an interesting way. Here’s a quick look at the news and item database side:


News is updated many times throughout the day with all kinds of game merchandise news, often with lots of details and stories that other sites miss.
The game merchandise database is a lot like a Wiki-style site, where users can add pages, add info, submit images, submit videos, rate and review stuff, and lots more. I added lots of neat features that make item pages even more helpful and interesting. For some more details, check out the site tour.


It goes without saying that you can comment on news posts, but you can also comment on individual item pages. You can also add any item in the merchandise database to one of your personal lists, so you can keep track of your collection or items you want, for example. You can even see the total approximate value of your entire collection! Of course, if you want to keep your lists private, you can do that too.
There’s a lot more to the Game Swag site, but you should check it out for yourself sometime. We opened the site only a few days ago, so there’s still going to be some growing pains. So if you come across any bugs or think of any features that could make the site better, let me know.





This is EarthBound Central – what does any of this Game Swag stuff have to do with EarthBound, you might ask. Well, already there’s a big list of EarthBound / Mother merchandise on the site that people can check out. I was hoping fellow EB Central members could add even more EarthBound/Mother merch to the database, since there’s definitely a lot that’s still missing and I don’t have the time to add it myself. So if you have an EarthBound collection of your own – even if it’s small – you should add your stuff to the site!
I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of hard work down the road, but with any luck, fans will find Game Swag really useful and maybe even entertaining 😀
Other Related Posts:
36 Comments to Introducing Game Swag
Wow! Very helpful site indeed. Thank you much for putting in all this effort for fans. I already checked it out and bookmarked immediately. ^^ In the meantime…can I have your autograph?
This is so useful! I’m on the hunt for a Player’s Guide to get for my birthday/Christmas and this a great site rather then browse Ebay endlessly. Thanks alot Tomato!
The approximate collection value gives the price for (Pre-CD) games without the box and manual right? It would be great to have the option to mention that the game is loose/complete/missing manual/hairy/etc.
Great site. I hope a lot of users will come around 😀
![]() | Halloween said on Nov. 9, 2010 |
How are you so awesome?!
Now I have to catch up though, this site looks chock full of things relevant to my interests…
![]() | Halloween said on Nov. 9, 2010 |
Oh and a feature that would make it better? RSS FEED for the news items!
![]() | Mato said on Nov. 9, 2010 |
Saturnome: Right now it does the overall average – it wouldn’t really be possible to get specific average prices based on condition until I can get a full data license, which is really expensive 🙁
Halloween: There is a news RSS feed – http://gameswag.com/feed You can also subscribe to comment feeds for any page.
![]() | Vetauciont said on Nov. 9, 2010 |
This is very neat. I’m checking it out right now.
I’m pretty sure this’ll become yet another one of those sites I visit daily.
For some reason I can’t write a review or submit it on game swag, does anyone know why?
![]() | Mato said on Nov. 9, 2010 |
Did you sign up an account first?
I’m so glad you made this site. Definitely signed up and made an account. You’re a genius, Mato.
Great concept for a site. The pricing is still sketchy on a lot of things, but I suspect that will work itself out eventually. Good articles on there as well; reminded me to keep tabs on Ni no Kuni and its awesome included book.
Question: What kind of swag are we allowed to submit data for? Because I’ve got a ton of stuff I’d be willing to photograph and enter, mostly small things. (Coffee mugs, notepads, shirts, posters, misc. stuff) Is that the kind of thing you want to have accounted for on Game Swag?
![]() | Mato said on Nov. 9, 2010 |
Yeah, until I can get a full data license pricing’s going to be a little generic – basically we ran the auto-pricer on most of the stuff at least once but can’t keep ALL the items updated regularly. Still, if you find some items you think are absolutely priced wrong, let me know so I can look into it.
As for what kind of stuff you’re allowed to add – pretty much anything. Big stuff, small stuff, boring stuff, awesome stuff, it’s all good. Just as long as it follows the basic guidelines on the site, of course. Coffee mugs, notepads, shirts, etc. are all perfect for the site I’d say. There are a lot of games on the site right now, which is cool and all, but the more non-game stuff, the better 😀
Cool. I had a feeling that you were looking for little things like that. I’ll take some pics later, and add a few items (under the name Bacon Tree, of course). Should be fun to try and catalog my assorted stuff.
![]() | neonix said on Nov. 9, 2010 |
Glad to see it’s finally rolling out. It’s beautiful work Mato!
You made metafilter! Awesome! Congrats Mato!
But…I can’t help but feel lazy about not contributing. Sorry about that bro 😀
Heh, it’s odd – I’m almost certain I chanced upon the site a few days before you posted this, and I had no idea… 😛 Certainly an impressive endeavour, no doubt.
Whoa, you’re certainly pro when it comes to web design… Not that I’d doubt the list ends at translation, sweet work there!
![]() | chaobreeder20 said on Nov. 10, 2010 |
Mato,would this by any chance conatain….Klonoa merch?The series is kind of unknown so I doubt you know,but if iyou do,it can give the series more recognition.
![]() | Mato said on Nov. 10, 2010 |
chaosbreeder: The merchandise database is created by the community, so if you want Klonoa stuff to be on the site, it’s pretty simple to add some on your own. Just follow the help & tutorial stuff on the site and it should be a cinch!
![]() | LucasTizma said on Nov. 11, 2010 |
I love you. This site is so awesome! 😀 Yeah, @TGP, for a translator/hacker dude, Mato has some impressive site design skills. 🙂
![]() | chaobreeder20 said on Nov. 11, 2010 |
Not a bad idea Mato,i’ll add to it later in the day,time to make Klonoa mainstream!:D
Now all you need are scrolling Stock increases/decreases on the bottom of the screen.
EB (+0.02), CT (-0.4), M3 (+0.3)…
I tried registering on the site, but I keep getting login failure messages whenever I go to submit my info. Any idea what’s going on?
![]() | Mato said on Nov. 13, 2010 |
It does various checks to make sure you’re not a bot, it’s possible you’re accidentally tripping one of those checks. The biggest things are to make sure you enter the code right and make sure you have Javascript on.
Just tried again, and it decided to work this time for no apparent reason. 😐
![]() | LucasTizma said on Nov. 14, 2010 |
So Mato, how’s your life now that this site is finally launched? Enjoying some free time I hope! 😀
Where did the $72 price for the EB standee come from? Did I miss any auction?
This is really an incredible site! What’s more, it could easily be expanded to all sorts of non-game-related collectibles, though I can understand wanting to limit the scope of the enterprise, at least for now. But this is a fascinating model.
I don’t know that I’ll have much time to help with it, but if I can, I will. Good luck!
![]() | Mato said on Nov. 16, 2010 |
LucasTizma: Still same level as busy as usual, mostly just lots of real-life translation work bogging me down.
Hmmm: I can’t remember off the top of my head since we made that page so long ago, but I’m pretty sure it’s based on old auctions from some years ago. I seem to recall scouring the really old Starmen.Net forums for it.
Zinco: Thanks, if it actually does well enough (not sure it will, since it’s pretty slow-going) I might branch out into other genres I’m interested in too. Big “if” though 😛
You’ll regret naming it game SWAG. Ever hear of swagfags? They’re bad. They rape pets. Just look it up.
Awesome!