In Australia when did the second hand SNES and N64 market skyrocket

[Jehuty]

I haven't been seriously looking for games for a while but I went to the local sunday market today, a few other markets the weeks prior and for some reason almost every person had loose snes carts at $20 and up, N64 around $25 and systems from $60. Everything else seems to be at a sane level as before Megadrive, ps1 etc while the last gen game prices seemed to have dropped to $10 and under.

[shanec86]

Hey jehuty, i too had gone for a wonder to some markets and found loose Nes around $10+ and Snes at $20+ just like you mentioned. I did recently pay $100 for a Snes & NES and some games. which was suprising , i recall only a few years ago that these systems were just about worthless. But now i too have found the prices to be going up quite a bit, if we are talking markets/cash converters etc. I have found some games in op-shops quite cheap though.

[Emuaust]

Its been this way for awhile and has steadily climbed over the past 24 months, the best value stuff seems to be sega consoles/games and funnily enough some of the deals Ive won off of ebay for megadrive games have been insanely cheap yet I wont touch pal snes or nes on aussie ebay as it much cheaper to buy from the uk and pay shipping on most occasions

[MattK]

It's pretty irritating, isn't it? When I hit the pawn shops yesterday, one of them had all PS2 games for $10, yet had cart only N64 and GBC for $30+. A friend of mine reckons Virtual Console is partly to blame - some N64 ports are crap, while a lot of people's favourite games are missing. The latter isn't just restricted to Australia - in the US, Earthbound seems to be shooting beyond $150 and as high as $300. There's also the fact that about half the population is running around with a fresh $900 in their pocket from the Government too.

As Emuaust said, the UK is a good option, though personally I won't touch their first party N64 stuff - they have those awful black border boxes. You still get the odd good deal - I scored a boxed SNES and a copy of Illusion of Time (no manual and shabby box, though :/) at the local Tender Centre for $25.

[Draven]

It's like that in the States, too. Same trend where I'm from, anyway. Anything Nintendo is through the roof all of a sudden (even Gamecubes that you can get for $30 at Gamestop are at the market for $65!).

[thom_m]

Those are the prices for NES-SNES-Mega Drive stuff here in Brazil too (in Reais, not in dollars). Carts go for R$15-30, systems for around R$100. And there's no such thing as Gamestops 'round here; all we have are auction sites and the rare ocasional find on an used goods store.

[Phyeir]

I'm pretty much waiting it out right now on SNES games, due to all of this market gouging going on right now. Earthbound is the best example of how rediculous SNES game prices are. There are plenty of copies in the wild and yet, you need to drop AT LEAST $100 to get a cart only copy. WTF?!?

[ConsoleFreek]

I blame Game Traders, people go into GT and see the high prices on their retro stock and think that it's the norm.
That and stupid people, I still find heaps of cheap stuff at the markets.
Just last week I bought 2 N64's 3 controllers and 5 games for $10, Bargin.
Just walk past the tools who think they are going to make a fortune selling their copy of Duck Hunt.