Collecting Kartia

Six editions, two genuine variants, and one rental-only cover most collectors have never seen.

Kartia is a friendly game to collect: one platform, one disc, and a short, closed list of editions. Japan has the 1998 Rebus original and its 1999 Best reissue. America has the foil-lettered retail pressing and, ten days older and much scarcer, the Blockbuster rental variant with its flat blue title and its own disc number. Europe has the Konami-published Legend of Kartia. Nothing else exists: no budget line in the West, no modern port, no remake to dilute the shelf.

Prices below are a dated snapshot from PriceCharting, checked in November 2026, given as history rather than as a quote. They describe a stable cult market: Kartia complete in box trades around a hundred dollars in America, and sealed copies around three hundred, a quarter century after a launch most strategy fans rented.

THE EDITIONS

What to hunt

Rebus · Japan, 1998 · SLPS 01343

The original, with Amano's card-collage cover. The most beautiful object in the set, and usually not the most expensive.

Rebus Best edition · Japan, 1999

The budget reissue of 4 February 1999. The value route into the Japanese game.

Kartia retail · North America, 1998 · SLUS-00631

The standard American pressing: the KARTIA title in foil on the cover. Check the foil when buying; it is the retail tell.

Kartia Blockbuster rental · North America, 1998 · disc PSRM-010600

The rental exclusive of 7 August 1998. Same art, no foil: the title sits in flat blue that nearly blends into the background, and the disc carries a rental-specific number. The variant of the set.

Legend of Kartia · Europe, 1999

The PAL release from Konami, June 1999. Complete copies trade below the American pressing.

Game Archives · Japan, 2011

Digital only, on the Japanese PlayStation Network from 12 October 2011. Nothing to shelve, but the only official way the game was ever sold after 1999.

THE PRICES

PriceCharting, checked November 2026

North America

Loose disc about $35. Complete in box about $98. Sealed about $310. Graded copies record about $557. The bare case alone trades near $39 and the manual alone near $28, so completeness is where the money sits.

Europe

Legend of Kartia complete in box records about $82, with sealed copies near $156: the same game for less, under its third name.

The Prima guide

Loose copies of Prima's 1998 guide record about $26, with a thin but steady market of about six sales a year.

The Strategy Guides The Two Covers

Collecting Kartia

THE EDITIONS

THE PRICES

THE FIRST WORD