A Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller Arcade Unit Just Hit EBay to Tide You Over Until World Tour

Crazy Taxi is one of those games I never thought would ever be revived, especially with GTA 5 putting it firmly in the shade, but Sega’s renewed focus on its classic titles has seen a brand-new entry into the series with Crazy Taxi: World Tour (slated for 2027). Inevitably, there is fresh interest in the older titles, and it’s fair to suspect that the Dreamcast, PS2, and GameCube ports of the original, along with other editions, might start to fly off the shelves at GameSpot.

If you don’t already own a reissued Crazy Taxi, then classic editions might seem like attractive options. You might find yourself paying a bit more than 12 months ago, however, mostly thanks to Crazy Taxi: World Tour.

But what about the arcade machines?

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Is It really worth $2,500.00?

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Currently listed on eBay is a Crazy Taxi: High Roller sit-down arcade unit from 2002, priced at $2,500 at the time of writing this. The interesting thing is that it looks… well, a bit tatty. So, how is this price justified?

Sometimes a collectible remains desirable despite its physical condition. Value is usually derived from the state an item is in, but rarity can lead a buyer to overlook exterior scratches and wear. With arcade units, there is typically more value in the interior hardware, which is difficult to repair, compared with the exterior. Cabinets, lenticular art, bezels, marquees, and coin-operated machines are usually easier to restore.

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The accompanying photos of the Crazy Taxi: High Roller unit illustrate an arcade system that has clearly been relatively well looked after. It also looks to have been in pretty regular use and has experienced some exterior repair (the gear shift panel looks to have been lifted from a different machine, as it should read “Forward” and Reverse rather than “Low” and “High”).

But the important thing here is that although no video accompanies the listing, we can see that the machine (set up for free play) is working. “The electronics were just gone over by the Sega service department,” states the listing, along with highlighting the quality of the monitor.

It’s a Fixer-Upper

Inside the Crazy Taxi: High Roller unit is a Sega Chihiro board, which was based on the Xbox architecture. The same board technology was also used for some of the best arcade games of the 2000s, including House of the Dead III, OutRun 2, and several others. Interestingly, the home console version of the game (called Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller) was released on the original Xbox ahead of the arcade machine. (By this point, Sega had abandoned its own hardware and ditched the Dreamcast, which gives this lot an additional relevance from an historical vantage.)

The Sega Chihiro represents most of the value of this unit, and I suspect a mint condition or restored cabinet would sell at a far higher price. As it is, this Crazy Taxi: High Roller machine – which requires collection to be arranged by the winning bidder – is going to need a bit of work to bring it back to tip-top condition.

Is this a restoration project you would consider? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!