My $.02 on the retro game pricing insanity

[Flam]

In a nutshell, the prices on retro games have hit their peak and will in fact decline over the next ten years.

After my search for Battletoads and Double Dragon and my resent viewings of prices for Little Samson, I’ve come to the conclusion that these games are ridiculously inflated and will start to come down, not soon, but eventually. If you think about it, this is why prices are on the rise; you have a bunch of people in their mid 30’s to mid 40’s (like me, I was born in’78) whose prime of their childhood was spend during the golden age of gaming. These people (now middle age) are starting to go through somewhat of a midlife crisis and what to reclaim a part of their youth. This is what is pushing the recent influx of buyers in the market. I bet in the next ten years, once these newer collectors tire of the hobby and leave the market, prices will drop. Basically this is a fad right now. Good look trying to sell that Battletoads and Double Dragon for $45 ten years from now (I also this includes everything from loose carts to CIB’s). Again, I’m not saying this will be a bubble burst, but we will see prices hit a peak, level out, then decline.

Collecting retro games is not like comics, baseball cards, etc. Those hobbies cut across generations. Retro games, I feel, really only hold value to those who grew up in that particular time period. I doubt that there are many in their 20’s who are serious retro collectors and would want to shell out big cash for the rarer games. I just don’t see a youth driven market for retro games.

I know this is a regurgitated topic, but I was just thinking about this the other day. Oh, and as far as this VGA stuff; that is definitely laughable. Those guys are a bunch of hucksters.

[bb_hood]

I’ve come to the conclusion that these games are ridiculously inflated and will start to come down, not soon, but eventually.

I agree with most of what you say, I think prices are very inflated on many older games. I do think VG collecting HAS become a sort of fad the way some people go after video games, and Im mainly reffering to resellers who check CL every 5 seconds. Everything has become 'rare' when in fact very few games are actual rarities based on production.

I think the main cause of price increases over the last 3-5 years is due to noob collectors starting out who are not afraid to drop 30$ on Mario Kart, 50$ on Turtles in Time, 70$ on Super Metroid, and 300$ on earthbound because they THINK that these are rare. There is alot of hype and when people see others foolishly dropping wads of cash on games that are essentially common games like mario kart and zeldas, other buyers just assume this is the going rate. More and more people have become retro collectors over the last few years, and the demand for older nes/snes/n64 games has increased alot. As far as prices dropping, well we will just have to wait and see. I think boxed/complete games will always be sought after by collectors so I dont think they will really go down and I will guess they will NEVER be worthless. Loose carts on the other hand are soo common for Nes/snes/ and especially N64. I think when more and more people start to use flash carts to play games many people with collections of loose games wont think twice about selling their carts.

[vrikkgwj]

I guess I'm glad I sold my spare copy of Earthbound last week then, eh? :)

[Final Boss]

I hope for two things: that you're right about the fad slowing down eventually and when it happens, individuals don't get piggy with how many copies they own of rarities.

I mean..why do we do this, anyway? Those who do it with profits in mind: you have chosen a fairly narrow customer base. Even hardcore collectors have their ultimate pain point of what they will pay. To collectors, these hunks of plastic are treasures. But at its core, it's about the sentimental value and - for me at least - also about preserving pieces of history. Games are pretty much worthless as trading goods in the "actual" market. All I can for as advice is: don't pay too much, no matter how rare it is. If you do, you feed this cycle.

On another note, a savvy profit-driven collector would already set his sights on the future and start buying stuff that will be the next equal of retro games. Hoard games and you might end up with less profit and more space taken by something you don't actually care about.

[Xander]

There is alot of hype and when people see others foolishly dropping wads of cash on games that are essentially common games like mario kart and zeldas, other buyers just assume this is the going rate.

This is an interesting take on the topic hood. But here is another perspective on it.

I've been serious about collecting retro games for about 10 years now. I'm not rich by any stretch of the imagination but I value my time immensely. What it means is that I prefer to pay the going ebay BIN price for most of the games I buy, simply because I don't want to spend the time to try to hunt it in the wild.

I've been a member on DP for a little over 6 years now, and I'm part of other similar communities of game collector. A lot of what I hear is about the great finds and the deal hunting and how every games sold on ebay has inflated prices. I've tried that. I made a map of all possible place I might find used video games at non-ebay (or worse) pricing in my city. I've tried them all, I've tried going garage sales hunting. I also tried craigslist, kijiji and the local ads. Sure I've made a few not-so-bad deals but in the end my conclusion is that it was not worth it. The deals are very rare and the amount of time I spend hunting for them means I have less time to play my games, spend time with the GF, working or learning new things.

I am probably contributing to what you guys consider inflated prices. But what are my alternatives? A good example is I bought a loose copy of Chrono Trigger for 80$ last month. This is a game I've purposely held off purchasing for a few years simply because I was trying to find it for cheaper in the wild. It never happened. And during this time I was "suffering" because I wanted to play it, but I couldn't. If 80$ is what it takes and there is no alternative, yeah I'll shell the cash and contribute to the inflation. Same deal with Suikoden II, I want it, I can't find it. I'll probably pay the 165$ required soon.

[spman]

The problem is that it's a limited market with a high amount of scarcity dominated by sellers who behave irrationally. The reason the prices are so high isn't becuase its what people want to pay, it's because it's what people want to sell them for. The guy selling his games at inflated BIN prices on eBay has very little incentive to lower his prices, even if he doesn't sell as many games, when he does find a rube who doesn't know better and pays him what he wants, the profit is high enough tbat it doesn't matter that he doesn't sell very many.

[bb_hood]

The problem is that it's a limited market with a high amount of scarcity dominated by sellers who behave irrationally. The reason the prices are so high isn't becuase its what people want to pay, it's because it's what people want to sell them for. The guy selling his games at inflated BIN prices on eBay has very little incentive to lower his prices, even if he doesn't sell as many games, when he does find a rube who doesn't know better and pays him what he wants, the profit is high enough tbat it doesn't matter that he doesn't sell very many.

People can post whatever BIN prices they want, they dont prove anything nor is anyone forced to buy games at these prices. I could put a copy of mario/duck hunt up on ebay with a BIN of 100$ and I would get nothing but laughed at. If someone wants to pay a little more for something thats their choice. If you look many expensive games on ebay will start at 0.01 and be bid up to expensive amounts, which suggests that alot of people are just willing to pay.

[Flam]

I saw BIN prices for Battletoads & Double Dragon for like $75, I got mine BIN for $29.99 (which was just posted and I snatched up quickly, granted the condition might be a little worse than the others, but I really don't care as I just want to play the game). But the bids are topping off at around $44. I just don't see why people believe someone is going to pay $75 when they can just as easily bid and get one for around $45

[bb_hood]

I am probably contributing to what you guys consider inflated prices. But what are my alternatives? A good example is I bought a loose copy of Chrono Trigger for 80$ last month. This is a game I've purposely held off purchasing for a few years simply because I was trying to find it for cheaper in the wild. It never happened. And during this time I was "suffering" because I wanted to play it, but I couldn't. If 80$ is what it takes and there is no alternative, yeah I'll shell the cash and contribute to the inflation. Same deal with Suikoden II, I want it, I can't find it. I'll probably pay the 165$ required soon.

This isnt exactly what Im getting at. First of all, Chrono has always been sought after and is fairly hard to find because of that. Its not the rarest game but alot of people want it and its pretty much always been around the 40-60$ mark, so paying a little more for a copy to play is reasonable. It is the type of game where you could look for years and never find it at the flea market or thrift shop.

What I think is happening is when people start collecting they have no clue when it comes to the actual rarities, and they see what they sell for online and just accept it. Some games like Contra, Zelda, Mario Kart, Mario 3, Donkey Kong Country will consistantly sell for 20-50 online when in fact these are all really common titles that should be priced 5-15$ each. These games, although popular, are actually really easy to find (especially in lots).

So its kinda like I could justify paying 80$ for chrono, but paying 30$ for Contra would be a foolish move.


Basically I think that except for a very small number of titles there is way more than enough copies of games to go around (for players). With a little patience you can find games like Contra, Zelda, and Mario for little to nothing.
I also think that generally speaking finding a bunch of old video games is no hard task. Ive bought hunderds of lots locally and online in the past XX years. But, finding any one specific title CAN be a huge pain in the ass, and shopping online is often the only alternative when completing collectiong or collecting imports.

[needler420]

A lot of hardcore collectors look at their collections with a monetary value. Just like the 90's with comic books the ones that get too far ahead of themselves will wake up to a market crash one day.


Just like with comic books you have speculators with video games. Expect now some of those speculators are some 13 year old kids using their parents ebay account and inflating prices.



It's funny on the last episode of workaholics the guys are waiting for a new game to come out and going to the midnight release of it. In the office Blake cracks a joke and says that selling games on ebay can be very profitable and canmake them like 10,000 dollars.

[Flam]

Just like with comic books you have speculators with video games. Expect now some of those speculators are some 13 year old kids using their parents ebay account and inflating prices.

Is this really part of the problem?

[Atarileaf]

I've tried going garage sales hunting. I also tried craigslist, kijiji and the local ads. Sure I've made a few not-so-bad deals but in the end my conclusion is that it was not worth it. The deals are very rare and the amount of time I spend hunting for them means I have less time to play my games, spend time with the GF, working or learning new things.



I've mentioned this before and I wonder how many people take things like gas and wear and tear on their vehicle into consideration when they hunt. If you find a $20 game for $1 but you spent the whole day hunting and half a tank of gas, are you really ahead? Of course not.

There are those though who are so obsessed with the hunt itself that it becomes the end game, not the means to the end. However like many collectors, local finds are becoming few and far between making online shopping the easier, and yes, sometimes cheaper way to go.

[spman]

I've mentioned this before and I wonder how many people take things like gas and wear and tear on their vehicle into consideration when they hunt. If you find a $20 game for $1 but you spent the whole day hunting and half a tank of gas, are you really ahead? Of course not.

There are those though who are so obsessed with the hunt itself that it becomes the end game, not the means to the end. However like many collectors, local finds are becoming few and far between making online shopping the easier, and yes, sometimes cheaper way to go.

This is the truth, whenever you see people report their scores at Thrift Stores / Tag sales / Flea markets, all that ever gets reported is what was found, never the fact that they had to wake up a the crack of dawn on a saturday, spend $30 in gas, put 40 miles on their car, and spend 6 hours finding nothing until you find the one place where you bought a couple of commons for a buck a piece. The amount of time and effort it takes to find anything worth buying at tag sales absolutely negates whatever you might have found 99% of the time.

I HATE going to tag sales, every time you run into people parking their car in the middle of the road blocking the lane, people walking out into traffic, people pulling out without looking and comin close to causing car accidents, all for what? If I hit 10 tag sales in a day, I can guarantee you 9 out of 10 will be nothing but antiques or baby products, with the occaisional selection of junk books / CDs / VHS tapes. The 10th sale will be someone who thinks their junk PS2 or Gamecube games have still retained 90% of their original value.

[Cornelius]

I HATE going to tag sales, every time you run into people parking their car in the middle of the road blocking the lane, people walking out into traffic, people pulling out without looking and comin close to causing car accidents, all for what? If I hit 10 tag sales in a day, I can guarantee you 9 out of 10 will be nothing but antiques or baby products, with the occaisional selection of junk books / CDs / VHS tapes. The 10th sale will be someone who thinks their junk PS2 or Gamecube games have still retained 90% of their original value.

Well, see, this is your problem. I genuinely Like going to sales. And 9 times out of 10 I don't find video game stuff, but baby products are great for me (or were until recently). Kid stuff, now. And maybe one of those antiques will be a Featherlight machine my MiL wants, or the golf club my dad wants, or a garden tool I can use, or printer ink, or a Sony Sports walkman/CD player/headset, a Radiohead CD I don't have, the list is endless. I go to sales looking for video games, but I don't limit myself. Plus it is something fun to do with a pre-school kid on a nice day, plus despite generally being an introvert, I enjoy chatting with people I come across. If you go thrifting or garage sale-ing only looking for games, it will be very frustrating. And all that said, more and more people are looking up more and more of their sale items on ebay :(

As for the OP, I can definitely see prices dropping off for a lot of games, just as we saw with the VCS. But with that same example we've seen the truly rare games keep going up. And with something as iconic as the NES I think it will extend down a little ways to things like Bubble Bobble 2, Bonks, etc. I don't think those will ever go down. So so so wish I'd plunked down eBay prices on those 4 or 5 years ago.

And there seems to be a lot of debate over the Theories of Supply and Demand. ;) I mean, they must be theories if we are debating them, right?

[Orion Pimpdaddy]

The rise in retro game prices is mostly a Nintendo phenomenon, hence the term "Ninflation." Sega games are rising too, but only gradually. If you dig through Video Game Price Charts there are many categories of retro games falling in price, such as PS1, PS2, and PS3. (Of course, it's understandable that PS3 is going down since they start at $60 and fall to $40 very quickly). This kind've proves Flam's point though, that games hit a peak, then decline.

But the trends for Nintendo and Sega may continue to climb for some time because 1) People are becoming more knowledgeable about the existence of older video games (even those in their 20's) and 2) Hunting for games is starting to become a "sport." Youtube videos are now springing up that show people shopping the retro stores; usually it's Nintendo games they hunt. It's kind've a Storage Wars type thing.

As I suggested in another thread, if you hate the current prices, try switching to another system to collect for. I'm currently collecting original X-box games and I'm able to find most of them for around $2 a piece. Yeah, they aren't quite retro, but man I'm sure getting a lot of entertainment value for $2.

[gameofyou]

It must be only certain systems, because I have bought a bunch of PC-Engine games over the last couple years, and they were dirt cheap.

[snes_collector]

I don't think this is gonna happen. If anything, stuff is only going to get harder to find due to all of these new collectors getting deeper into their collections. Games are getting harder to find in the wild, and when stuff is found, its the same games people already have. I think if you are waiting for prices to go down, you'll be waiting quite a long time.

[A.C. Sativa]

It must be only certain systems, because I have bought a bunch of PC-Engine games over the last couple years, and they were dirt cheap.

It's mainly an NES thing, at least in the U.S.

[Bojay1997]

I don't think this is gonna happen. If anything, stuff is only going to get harder to find due to all of these new collectors getting deeper into their collections. Games are getting harder to find in the wild, and when stuff is found, its the same games people already have. I think if you are waiting for prices to go down, you'll be waiting quite a long time.

Well, those of us who have been around long enough to remember the first round of price inflation on the Atari 2600 in the 90s and early 2000s would beg to differ. Collecting is always pretty cyclical, especially on what are essentially mass produced pop culture collectibles. Prices on many Atari and other classic games have fallen over the past few years as long-time collectors have downsized or new sources such as Venezuela and elsewhere have popped up. At the same time NES and SNES games have massively increased in price. At some point, you'll have a bubble burst on the NES and SNES stuff as collectors move on to other things as they age. Will NES and SNES games drop to pennies on the dollar? Probably not, but it's silly to think that with some games going for thousands in mint sealed condition now that those prices will continue to rise forever.

[needler420]

I don't think this is gonna happen. If anything, stuff is only going to get harder to find due to all of these new collectors getting deeper into their collections. Games are getting harder to find in the wild, and when stuff is found, its the same games people already have. I think if you are waiting for prices to go down, you'll be waiting quite a long time.

Video games aren't a commodity. It's way more volatile compared to markets based on fiat currency.

You have way too much $$$ in you're head when it comes to video games.

[Dashopepper]

It seems that a lot of posters overly blame collectors and bargain hunters for driving up the cost of video games. But most of it is people like my friend. He is 30. He used to play Zelda lttp as a kid. He went on eBay, found the lowest price and did buy it now.

My 2 cents. (This is where I predict stuff)

1. NES prices will probably start to drop sometime in the next 5-10 years. SNES will drop sometime after.

2. Well known franchises and popular games will continue to hold their value longer and better then others.

3. After the initial price fall from not as many buyers in the market, the price will gradually rise and fall do to fads/pop culture references.

4. 8bit and 16bit will fare a little better then the Atari2600/PSOne-N64 crowd due to better "playability"(sharp sprites, modern controls, simple but engaging), could just be my bias though. I see sharper declines for other generations.

5. Earthbound drops to $80 six months after it hits the u.s. virtual console. Probably next year.

But beyond general economics, who knows?

[PreZZ]

Earthbound is definitely not worth the 800$ for CIB. Virtual console release will drop the value. I remember paying 165$ for a brand new sealed Castlevania SOTN black label on psone in 2001. You can get a mint copy for 35-40$ for the same black label today and the game is widely available on psn\xboxlive etc.

[Flam]

I just want to play Little Samson on my NES and not pay an arm and a leg.

Why is it frowned upon in the gaming community to make reproductions of games like this? I mean lable it reproduction all you want, I don't care; I just don't want to play it on my PC.

[recorderdude]

It's not frowned on at all, especially when sites like retrousb use completely new materials for them. We just don't consider it legitimately owning the real thing.


I just want to play Little Samson on my NES and not pay an arm and a leg.

Why is it frowned upon in the gaming community to make reproductions of games like this? I mean lable it reproduction all you want, I don't care; I just don't want to play it on my PC.

[Flam]

I thought it was frowned upon to make reproductions of certain games, I read some debate on this topic in Nintendo Age.

[Flam]

http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=5&threadid=28026

[scaleworm]

Buy for one reason: YOU.

Buy for profit?
Ha!
I buy for me because that is my vice. Music, comics, games, the stuff of me. I could piss it all away on a car, but for what I pay for what I get, I ain't losing much to anything.
life is short: have a vice that hurts no one, that you enjoy, and that you can afford. We all end up as the dirt we came from in the end; rich or poor, gamer or not.

Buy because YOU want to, not for some far off investment concept.

[spman]

I'll admit, I'm as guilty as any of scouring thrift stores, and such for underpriced games, and reselling them for a profit, but I've said it before and I will stick to it, I would gladly trade away any profits I make from selling games if in return I could have a steadier supply of classics available on the second market. There's a reason why the majority of games you see at the Goodwill are sports games and shovelware titles, those are the only ones that wouldn't sell at any price. If prices dropped drastically, I definitely think we'd see a greater supply of them available on the second hand market.

[Gameguy]

This is the truth, whenever you see people report their scores at Thrift Stores / Tag sales / Flea markets, all that ever gets reported is what was found, never the fact that they had to wake up a the crack of dawn on a saturday, spend $30 in gas, put 40 miles on their car, and spend 6 hours finding nothing until you find the one place where you bought a couple of commons for a buck a piece. The amount of time and effort it takes to find anything worth buying at tag sales absolutely negates whatever you might have found 99% of the time.
It's the same reason people still buy lottery tickets. You hope to find something so rare or valuable you'll have a hard time just finding it for sale anywhere else, even if it's unlikely to ever happen to you. Someone found plenty of rare NES carts at a garage sale, I think it included the Nintendo Campus Challenge cart and other rarities. You have to like going to these sales, just as Cornelius said.

You may be hoping to find very specific items, but since you're already going to these places you might as well get anything worth the asking price. Otherwise it's like you're just completely wasting your time. You see a $40 game for $5 but you don't buy it because you already have it? If you've already spent time and effort to traveling to these places you'll get anything that's a good deal. Don't even stick to just video games, there might be a ton of other stuff worth buying if only you knew something about it. It's the same with thrift stores, I hardly find any games worth buying anymore but I keep going anyway in case something great shows up.


I just want to play Little Samson on my NES and not pay an arm and a leg.

Why is it frowned upon in the gaming community to make reproductions of games like this? I mean lable it reproduction all you want, I don't care; I just don't want to play it on my PC.
Why not just buy a flash cart to play it on the NES? You can literally use it to play every game that exists on the system, and plenty of fan translations too for titles that never came to North America. To me it's better than paying someone to make a bootleg of a single game that actually already exists on a cartridge.

[Gunstar Hero]

I doubt that there are many in their 20’s who are serious retro collectors and would want to shell out big cash for the rarer games. I just don’t see a youth driven market for retro games.

As a 15 year old, I know that there are some younger collectors emerging and I can tell you a few reasons why:

1. People who had retro systems as young children (this would apply to people in their 20's now) want to play their games again or people who inherited older systems from their siblings want to explore more retro games.

2. They have parents who are reliving their past and as a part they live it too by playing the games as well and get into the retro scene.

3. They read about old ganes on the internet and become interested.

4. (This one is me) They realize the games of today are more about flashy graphics than about good mindless old school video game fun. :) They found out about a system from a sibling or neighbor and go on the internet to do more research and find out how cool retro games are. Then nearly 3 years later they're posting about how their generation still gets into these awesome games :)

[recorderdude]

There's also the ever-present age group that got retro systems because they were much cheaper than modern ones. I would've been an N64 kid when the GC was new (mostly for pokemon stadium because I had the pokerus like every other late 90s/early 00s kid) but I ended up getting a SNES instead since it was older and the games cost less. I got a GC a few years later but most of my library was Platformer compilations (Sonic Collections, Megaman Collections, etc) since I'd grown to love 2D platformers on my SNES.

Nowadays it's no longer just nostalgia for the lost anymore but also appreciation of the newfound old; I'm more of a #3/4 than anything.

[bb_hood]

Why not just buy a flash cart to play it on the NES? You can literally use it to play every game that exists on the system, and plenty of fan translations too for titles that never came to North America. To me it's better than paying someone to make a bootleg of a single game that actually already exists on a cartridge.

Exactly correct. Flash carts are awesome, I cant praise the powerpak enough. It plays everything except for about 9 games, and those are not hard to find games. Basically Kirby and Startropics. Besides that they play all the rare games (mr gimmick will play but without sound).
Why pay someone to flash a copy of a rom on a cart for 50-60$ when you can just drop 150$ and play anything. Might sound like alot but its really worth it.

[Solo_Skywalker]

This is an interesting take on the topic hood. But here is another perspective on it.

I've been serious about collecting retro games for about 10 years now. I'm not rich by any stretch of the imagination but I value my time immensely. What it means is that I prefer to pay the going ebay BIN price for most of the games I buy, simply because I don't want to spend the time to try to hunt it in the wild.

I've been a member on DP for a little over 6 years now, and I'm part of other similar communities of game collector. A lot of what I hear is about the great finds and the deal hunting and how every games sold on ebay has inflated prices. I've tried that. I made a map of all possible place I might find used video games at non-ebay (or worse) pricing in my city. I've tried them all, I've tried going garage sales hunting. I also tried craigslist, kijiji and the local ads. Sure I've made a few not-so-bad deals but in the end my conclusion is that it was not worth it. The deals are very rare and the amount of time I spend hunting for them means I have less time to play my games, spend time with the GF, working or learning new things.

I am probably contributing to what you guys consider inflated prices. But what are my alternatives? A good example is I bought a loose copy of Chrono Trigger for 80$ last month. This is a game I've purposely held off purchasing for a few years simply because I was trying to find it for cheaper in the wild. It never happened. And during this time I was "suffering" because I wanted to play it, but I couldn't. If 80$ is what it takes and there is no alternative, yeah I'll shell the cash and contribute to the inflation. Same deal with Suikoden II, I want it, I can't find it. I'll probably pay the 165$ required soon.

I completely agree with everything you said, although I really do enjoy going to thrift shops, flea markets, pawn shops etc. Even though I really enjoy the "hunt" and the rare time you do find something special, in the long run after spending gas money, time and energy I could have easily just bought it on ebay. The only thing I don't like about buying on ebay is that fact that you never get surprised with finding something unexpected like you do when you come across a hidden gem at the bottom of a box in a thrift shop.

To respond to the initial poster, I don't really think that paying $30 for mario kart or zelda or whatever is too far off base, considering that it costs me $67 for a new game of which I usually purchase at least one AAA title a week......especially this month. Man March is like the new Oct/Nov. But I really hope your right and that prices of retro stuff dips in the coming years.

[Ed Oscuro]

This is silly. It's almost entirely supply and demand.

Of course sometimes the components of supply and demand don't combine in the way you'd expect - take a game which used to be highly obscure, like Cyvern: The Dragon Weapons for arcade. Then MAME came around, and everybody wanted one (except me, I got Sengeki Striker instead). Then some guy started "repro"ing the hell out of them and now many people are confused about which games are legit and which are conversions from other games. Yet because of the high interest in the game to begin with, the conversions tend to target people who already are willing to pay out the nose for the game, rather than depressing sales (at least by some appreciable amount) by flooding the market (of course bootleggers aren't going out of their way to make games they don't profit from).

With regard to the big name franchises - especially most things Nintendo - I don't see any reason to suspect that demand (based on popularity) is going to decrease so that people stop buying Mario games or whatever just because they have some attachment to the brand. And of course from this group comes that very select and very Special group who buy anything and everything just because it is for a certain console or some other nonsensical criteria like that. I don't consider myself much better; I've bought many games just on somebody else's say-so and not gotten around to seriously playing many of them. But with the way I've tried to buy, if the time comes to sell I shouldn't be too badly off for many games. Well, aside from many of those Goodwill "finds" which were just my form of public charity. LOL

[recorderdude]

you never get surprised with finding something unexpected like you do when you come across a hidden gem at the bottom of a box in a thrift shop.

I strongly disagree with this. If you know how to hunt either by newly listed buy it nows or soon-ending lots/games you can find some pretty unexpected shit there. I found a working SEGA CD model 2 for $22 and a CiB SEGA NOMAD for $20 plus shipping ...both of which someone else bought because the guy who I share an ebay account with was in the hole from his own comic collecting hobby and couldn't spend any more. I'm still a few months off from being able to have my own ebay, and since dad thinks every cartridge game is going to simultaneously stop working in a year because some guy at his job told him so, I can't buy ANYTHING there until then. I did manage to get a copy of Phantasy Star II for $1.25 there with a few other games I wanted for my collection a few months back, though. That was pretty sweet.

Personal bullshit nonwithstanding, you can find some INSANE deals on ebay if you really try.

[Ed Oscuro]

Tell your dad the Extraordinary Guy On The Internet, Ed Oscuro, informs him that cartridge games are more durable than most forms of media. Many of them use mask ROM for the data, which is about as close to permanent as you can get in digital technology. The only things to watch out for are keeping cartridge contacts clean (cotton swab + 99% isopropyl), watching out for leaky batteries in the few games that have them (I don't know if it's really common for game cart batteries to leak though), and making sure things don't get rusty (bagged and boxed is good) or fried by static (in some rare cases you have to watch out for this; plastic game cartridges are pretty safe most of the time though).

Maybe there are better things to invest in, but games do seem to be enduring. One trick of the trade, if there is one, is knowing that if you're looking to invest, you'll turn down many "good deals" because they're just what everybody else would pay. You have to buy substantially below the "common" price to get ahead of the crowd.

But the more important trick of the trade is arranging all your finances so that you can actually afford to keep what you've bought longer than other people. Over the years, too many people bought tons of "awesome" games and carefully put together complete collections of (mostly shit) and it backfired spectacularly because nobody was remotely interested in buying the full deal. If you're genuinely interested in buying a game, because you like it, that's fine but it's not a financial incentive. If you're just buying something because it's "likely to make tons of money" you should have some kind of idea where you would stand if you had to sell it off, and you would also keep in mind if what you've already got has tied up enough of your money that you might end up needing to sell.

About the Sega CD and Nomad for $20, I question whether those really are things people would need to pay money for...if you put those on the shelves of your local store most people would pass them up because they don't have a use. I just like the Nomad because it's convenient, and sure, a nice complete one would be worth more than $20 to me. The Sega CD? Not so much.

[recorderdude]

I personally know that I can't make my collection purely for business/reselling and do personally enjoy some of the titles, so I've set ground rules to keep my fundage from dwindling, and a trick as well:

1. I rarely pay more than $10 for a single game I want (unless it's a special case where I KNOW it's a worthwhile investment that I can immediately flip) and never specifically seek out common/unwanted titles IRL. An example of such is Socket for the genesis, which is pretty damn hard to come by IRL, but, unlike me, most people don't want to collect sonic clones without some sort of following or significance (sparkster/RKA would be such an exception) so I just bought a copy online for $4 instead of wasting my time looking for a game I knew I'd enjoy enough.

2. If I DO pay more for a game, I make sure to review it to get my money back and then some. I work for a local newspaper and my editor is completely fine with me writing retro game reviews for the teenager section. We get refunded the price of any game we buy plus $15, so it's a great chance to build a collection while keeping my wallet steady by doing the same thing I do online anyway; giving my opinion on retro games.

3. I make sure anything that I resell is something I definitely don't want/enjoy and won't regret, or a double. I know that if I sell something that's got value that I REALLY loved and replay a lot, I'll end up rebuying it eventually, probably for more than I spent initially. Due to that, my CiB treasureland adventure, CiB Rolling Thunders 2 and 3 and cart of ristar aren't going anywhere anytime soon.

4. (most important) I NEVER spend more than a total of $50 on video games each month. I figure it's the average price of one new game, so it's something I can afford. I also never drive out to thrift shops/fleas just to go to them; only when I'm going somewhere more important and a thrift/flea is near. It happens more often than you'd think, and keeps me from wasting gas.

As for the SCD and nomad, they've definitely got enough demand to go for more than they did. The CiB nomad was an absolute steal and the working model 2 SEGA CD, while really only a modest deal, would have worked out really well for me specifically because I could have sold my malfunctioning Model 1 for about the same amount and broke even with a working system and a whole new library to explore. I'm stuck with what I've got, though, so I guess I'll keep trying to fix it :P

[bb_hood]

the working model 2 SEGA CD, while really only a modest deal,

If it was 20$ shipped id say thats a pretty good deal, shipping would have cost like 10-15 alone for the seller.

I would have bought that, but passed on the nomad. Just because I dont like nomads but thats a good deal also..

[recorderdude]

If it was 20$ shipped id say thats a pretty good deal, shipping would have cost like 10-15 alone for the seller.

I would have bought that, but passed on the nomad. Just because I dont like nomads but thats a good deal also..

SCD was actually $12 with $10 shipping, but $22 overall yeah.

[Loganm187]

One thing I am surprised that NO ONE mentioned on this thread yet that really bothered me... BATTLETOADS and DOUBLE DRAGON are not worth that and why would you buy them at those prices? Double dragon is all over amazon and ebay for 10 bucks or less and Battletoads sells for around $18-$20... Where and why are paying such prices for games? I was about to run to my local game shop and buy every copy of 7.99 and 16.99 double Dragon and Battletoad they had until I actually checked prices.

[bb_hood]

One thing I am surprised that NO ONE mentioned on this thread yet that really bothered me... BATTLETOADS and DOUBLE DRAGON are not worth that and why would you buy them at those prices? Double dragon is all over amazon and ebay for 10 bucks or less and Battletoads sells for around $18-$20... Where and why are paying such prices for games? I was about to run to my local game shop and buy every copy of 7.99 and 16.99 double Dragon and Battletoad they had until I actually checked prices.

I think he means the nes game with battletoads and Double dragon in it, not the 2 seperate games. The one he is talking about generally is a 40$ game

[needler420]

Tell your dad the Extraordinary Guy On The Internet, Ed Oscuro, informs him that cartridge games are more durable than most forms of media. Many of them use mask ROM for the data, which is about as close to permanent as you can get in digital technology. The only things to watch out for are keeping cartridge contacts clean (cotton swab + 99% isopropyl), watching out for leaky batteries in the few games that have them (I don't know if it's really common for game cart batteries to leak though), and making sure things don't get rusty (bagged and boxed is good) or fried by static (in some rare cases you have to watch out for this; plastic game cartridges are pretty safe most of the time though).

Maybe there are better things to invest in, but games do seem to be enduring. One trick of the trade, if there is one, is knowing that if you're looking to invest, you'll turn down many "good deals" because they're just what everybody else would pay. You have to buy substantially below the "common" price to get ahead of the crowd.

But the more important trick of the trade is arranging all your finances so that you can actually afford to keep what you've bought longer than other people. Over the years, too many people bought tons of "awesome" games and carefully put together complete collections of (mostly shit) and it backfired spectacularly because nobody was remotely interested in buying the full deal. If you're genuinely interested in buying a game, because you like it, that's fine but it's not a financial incentive. If you're just buying something because it's "likely to make tons of money" you should have some kind of idea where you would stand if you had to sell it off, and you would also keep in mind if what you've already got has tied up enough of your money that you might end up needing to sell.

About the Sega CD and Nomad for $20, I question whether those really are things people would need to pay money for...if you put those on the shelves of your local store most people would pass them up because they don't have a use. I just like the Nomad because it's convenient, and sure, a nice complete one would be worth more than $20 to me. The Sega CD? Not so much.

This post says it well. I recommend to just collect at a pace.. If you're thinking of waiting till retirement to play your games or pass them down to kids who other wise might not even share your same interests then you probably got too far ahead of yourself.

[Rickstilwell1]

This is the funniest ebay auction I think I have seen in the overpriced games category:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SEGA-GENESIS-16-BIT-VIDEO-GAME-CARTRIDGE-SONIC-THE-HEDGEHOG-NOT-FOR-RESALE-1991-/221175358965?pt=Video_Games_Games&hash=item337f1425f5

lmao, they have a Sonic 2 cartridge bundled with a Not for resale Sonic 1 box & manual for the silly inflated price of $30+ shipping and they don't even have the correct match for it to be complete in box. On top of that, complete in box copies of Sonic 1 or Sonic 2 are both usually $10 and below in value unless you're buying an import in which case you have to pay for international shipping.

What has this hobby come to? This is clearly someone who doesn't know enough about video games to know the difference between Sonic 1 & 2.

[bb_hood]

This is the funniest ebay auction I think I have seen in the overpriced games category:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SEGA-GENESIS-16-BIT-VIDEO-GAME-CARTRIDGE-SONIC-THE-HEDGEHOG-NOT-FOR-RESALE-1991-/221175358965?pt=Video_Games_Games&hash=item337f1425f5

lmao, they have a Sonic 2 cartridge bundled with a Not for resale Sonic 1 box & manual for the silly inflated price of $30+ shipping and they don't even have the correct match for it to be complete in box. On top of that, complete in box copies of Sonic 1 or Sonic 2 are both usually $10 and below in value unless you're buying an import in which case you have to pay for international shipping.

What has this hobby come to? This is clearly someone who doesn't know enough about video games to know the difference between Sonic 1 & 2.

Yeah this is pretty good. But really, how often do you find one in NICE CLEAN CONDITION.

Best part:

yes that's right what you are reading is true ......

if you have any questions please contact me with eBay and ill give you my phone # so we can talk

-Gonna give her a call about that genesis cart...

[needler420]

Yeah this is pretty good. But really, how often do you find one in NICE CLEAN CONDITION.

Best part:

yes that's right what you are reading is true ......

if you have any questions please contact me with eBay and ill give you my phone # so we can talk

-Gonna give her a call about that genesis cart...

I think sonic 2 not for resale is the most mass produced sega genesis game there is. Not sure what Sonic 1 not for resale is from though.

[Ed Oscuro]

4. (most important) I NEVER spend more than a total of $50 on video games each month. I figure it's the average price of one new game, so it's something I can afford. I also never drive out to thrift shops/fleas just to go to them; only when I'm going somewhere more important and a thrift/flea is near. It happens more often than you'd think, and keeps me from wasting gas.

As for the SCD and nomad, they've definitely got enough demand to go for more than they did. The CiB nomad was an absolute steal and the working model 2 SEGA CD, while really only a modest deal, would have worked out really well for me specifically because I could have sold my malfunctioning Model 1 for about the same amount and broke even with a working system and a whole new library to explore. I'm stuck with what I've got, though, so I guess I'll keep trying to fix it :P
Haha, I definitely shouldn't be preaching at you. In fact, I've got two Nomads, and I'm looking at paying more than $50 just on system repairs, so...

[Gameguy]

This is the funniest ebay auction I think I have seen in the overpriced games category:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SEGA-GENESIS-16-BIT-VIDEO-GAME-CARTRIDGE-SONIC-THE-HEDGEHOG-NOT-FOR-RESALE-1991-/221175358965?pt=Video_Games_Games&hash=item337f1425f5
Here's a typical type of ad that gets posted on my local classifieds site. This is the type of pricing I have to deal with.

http://toronto.kijiji.ca/c-buy-and-sell-video-games-consoles-other-GENESIS-SEGA-TOTAL-OF-10-W0QQAdIdZ437323961

I used to find stuff priced well years ago, nevermind the great super cheap bundles but even bundles with games priced $5 each with a system included was pretty fair. That fair pricing rarely comes up anymore.

[Rickstilwell1]

I think sonic 2 not for resale is the most mass produced sega genesis game there is. Not sure what Sonic 1 not for resale is from though.

Sonic 2 not for resale is from the Sonic 2/Genesis 2 bundle sold starting at the very end of 1993. Sonic 1 not for resale is from the Sonic 1/Genesis 1 bundle sold from 1992-1993 which replaced the older Altered Beast/Genesis 1 bundle.

[wiggyx]

Is this really part of the problem?

No. Not at all.



The rise in retro game prices is mostly a Nintendo phenomenon, hence the term "Ninflation." Sega games are rising too, but only gradually. If you dig through Video Game Price Charts there are many categories of retro games falling in price, such as PS1, PS2, and PS3. (Of course, it's understandable that PS3 is going down since they start at $60 and fall to $40 very quickly). This kind've proves Flam's point though, that games hit a peak, then decline.


Check out US TG-16 and Saturn stuff. Prices have gone WAAAAAAY up. It's not just NES and SNES anymore.



It must be only certain systems, because I have bought a bunch of PC-Engine games over the last couple years, and they were dirt cheap.

Being that the great majority of US consumers can't rad Japanese, the market for JP games here in the US isn't nearly as substantial (and we're quite clearly in a huge retro boom right now). Typically the only JP games that carry hefty price tags are those that are A) noteworthy and B) weren't available here.




I just want to play Little Samson on my NES and not pay an arm and a leg.

Why is it frowned upon in the gaming community to make reproductions of games like this? I mean lable it reproduction all you want, I don't care; I just don't want to play it on my PC.


It's not frowned on at all, especially when sites like retrousb use completely new materials for them. We just don't consider it legitimately owning the real thing.

It's a total mixed bag. Some people think they're all that is evil in the gaming world, and some folks eat em up.

I don't like the idea of retail repros personally, but love them for stuff that wasn't ever available in whatever format the repro is representing (ROM hacks, translations, etc).


It's the same reason people still buy lottery tickets. You hope to find something so rare or valuable you'll have a hard time just finding it for sale anywhere else, even if it's unlikely to ever happen to you. Someone found plenty of rare NES carts at a garage sale, I think it included the Nintendo Campus Challenge cart and other rarities. You have to like going to these sales, just as Cornelius said.

You may be hoping to find very specific items, but since you're already going to these places you might as well get anything worth the asking price. Otherwise it's like you're just completely wasting your time. You see a $40 game for $5 but you don't buy it because you already have it? If you've already spent time and effort to traveling to these places you'll get anything that's a good deal. Don't even stick to just video games, there might be a ton of other stuff worth buying if only you knew something about it. It's the same with thrift stores, I hardly find any games worth buying anymore but I keep going anyway in case something great shows up.


Why not just buy a flash cart to play it on the NES? You can literally use it to play every game that exists on the system, and plenty of fan translations too for titles that never came to North America. To me it's better than paying someone to make a bootleg of a single game that actually already exists on a cartridge.

The hunt is 95% of the fun for me! I enjoy hunting even if it doesn't prove fruitful. That sort of thing has definitely become a bog part of what I enjoy about the hobby.



I think he means the nes game with battletoads and Double dragon in it, not the 2 seperate games. The one he is talking about generally is a 40$ game

SNES technically ;)

[Flam]

From what I can tell most collectors frown upon reproducing games that were released in North America, due to the fact that they feel it will devalue the original copies (lame excuse I feel) and also it might lend it's self to a rash of fake copies on the market (which I feel is somewhat legit, but couldn't you crack open the game and easily tell if it was an original or reproduction? I'm not sure).

Seems to me that there is a level of elitism with the fact that if they feel that a game is too readily available that it might drive the prices down on the originals.

[bb_hood]

Check out US TG-16 and Saturn stuff. Prices have gone WAAAAAAY up. It's not just NES and SNES anymore.




Being that the great majority of US consumers can't rad Japanese, the market for JP games here in the US isn't nearly as substantial (and we're quite clearly in a huge retro boom right now). Typically the only JP games that carry hefty price tags are those that are A) noteworthy and B) weren't available here.



Yeah, TG-16 and Saturn stuff has gone up alot. I agree with what you say about the Japanese games, years ago they were way cheaper than they are now. Many more people are buying super famicom carts especially Ive noticed.

[wiggyx]

From what I can tell most collectors frown upon reproducing games that were released in North America, due to the fact that they feel it will devalue the original copies (lame excuse I feel) and also it might lend it's self to a rash of fake copies on the market (which I feel is somewhat legit, but couldn't you crack open the game and easily tell if it was an original or reproduction? I'm not sure).

Seems to me that there is a level of elitism with the fact that if they feel that a game is too readily available that it might drive the prices down on the originals.

I know that I wouldn't produce a repro of a US retail game. It just doesn't seem right. I tend towards repros strictly for stuff that wasn't/isn't available here or on cart format at all (ROM hacks). Anything else just feels like cheating. If I really wanna play a US release game that I don't own want to pay $$$$$$$ for, then I'll just go with a flash cart.



Yeah, TG-16 and Saturn stuff has gone up alot. I agree with what you say about the Japanese games, years ago they were way cheaper than they are now. Many more people are buying super famicom carts especially Ive noticed.

I've definitely started buying SFC versions of games when the language barrier is moot (SHMUPS, beat em ups, etc). It's just not worth it for me to own US versions of a lot of the games that I really still want for my SNES collection :(

[Gentlegamer]

As a 15 year old, I know that there are some younger collectors emerging and I can tell you a few reasons why:

1. People who had retro systems as young children (this would apply to people in their 20's now) want to play their games again or people who inherited older systems from their siblings want to explore more retro games.

2. They have parents who are reliving their past and as a part they live it too by playing the games as well and get into the retro scene.

3. They read about old ganes on the internet and become interested.

4. (This one is me) They realize the games of today are more about flashy graphics than about good mindless old school video game fun. :) They found out about a system from a sibling or neighbor and go on the internet to do more research and find out how cool retro games are. Then nearly 3 years later they're posting about how their generation still gets into these awesome games :)
Hey young fellas, did you know there's this nifty thing called emulation? You can play all your early childhood memories right on your PC!

(I try to spread the gospel of emulation to get as many as possible satisfied without driving up the prices for the real things. :D)

[Gameguy]

and also it might lend it's self to a rash of fake copies on the market (which I feel is somewhat legit, but couldn't you crack open the game and easily tell if it was an original or reproduction? I'm not sure).
Sure you could open it up if you were buying it in person, and had the right security bits with you. It's kind of hard to do that when you're buying something online from an internet forum or auction site. Just make a reproduction of a game, make some reproduction label that looks like the real label, take a pic with a cell phone, and you're good to go. If you said you needed the money for a new digital camera as your old one died few people would question the poor quality photos.

I'm sure not everyone selling one would even know that their copy would be fake. Some guy could buy one off craigslist from a scammer and think it's legit, and later try to sell it online as a legit one. Plenty of people can't tell if a Pokemon GBA game is bootleg when the label looks wrong and the cart shell is the wrong colour, having a bootleg NES game in a correct shell with a near perfect label is going to be harder to spot.

I've seen someone selling a bootleg Stadium Events cart along with their NES collection, there was no mention to the titles. It was just "I'm selling my NES collection, look at the pictures to see what's included." The label on Stadium Events looked really bad so I knew it was a fake, it looked nothing like the good quality repro labels from the various repro threads here. You know someone would just think it's real and make a higher offer on that stuff, thinking it was just some guy's old NES collection they dug out of their basement.

As for the people saying they'll never sell their games anyway so it's fine to replace the labels, that only works until they need money quickly. How many people have listed their collections for sale when they needed a new car or had to pay for sudden home repairs or medical costs? This stuff happens all the time. At least with rare book collectors when using a replacement jacket they indicate it's a reproduction on the inside of it, there's no indication like this with replacement game labels. You have to closely examine everything now like verifying designer handbags from counterfits. I'm against reproduction anything with video games, unless it's something that never came out at all.

[pseudonym]

I think it's a bubble that going to burst at some point, I mean, who would have thought that NES games that no ones cared about a few years ago like SCAT and Dragon Fighter would be selling for $150+ today. Lots of examples like that now.

[Atarileaf]

The hunt is 95% of the fun for me! I enjoy hunting even if it doesn't prove fruitful. That sort of thing has definitely become a bog part of what I enjoy about the hobby.


It'll get old soon enough, trust me.

[Ed Oscuro]

Or too expensive...

[The 1 2 P]

I've mentioned this before and I wonder how many people take things like gas and wear and tear on their vehicle into consideration when they hunt. If you find a $20 game for $1 but you spent the whole day hunting and half a tank of gas, are you really ahead? Of course not.


This is the truth, whenever you see people report their scores at Thrift Stores / Tag sales / Flea markets, all that ever gets reported is what was found, never the fact that they had to wake up a the crack of dawn on a saturday, spend $30 in gas, put 40 miles on their car, and spend 6 hours finding nothing until you find the one place where you bought a couple of commons for a buck a piece. The amount of time and effort it takes to find anything worth buying at tag sales absolutely negates whatever you might have found 99% of the time.

I guess it's different for everyone but for me I pass three Goodwill's and a no-name thrift store on my Monday commute to work. And if I have to go back later that week to the furthest store I will pass all four again. The majority of Goodwills and thrift stores are all on my way to or from work since I have to travel for my job. The things that I usually have to put effort into is yard sales and flea markets on the weekends where I have to get up early(on my day off) and travel a bit out of the way sometimes. But I don't travel as far as what I did back in 2011 where I was literally hunting in three different states. But that still worked out pretty well because I found all three of my PS3's in two different states and they were very cheap.



I HATE going to tag sales, every time you run into people parking their car in the middle of the road blocking the lane, people walking out into traffic, people pulling out without looking and comin close to causing car accidents, all for what? If I hit 10 tag sales in a day, I can guarantee you 9 out of 10 will be nothing but antiques or baby products, with the occaisional selection of junk books / CDs / VHS tapes. The 10th sale will be someone who thinks their junk PS2 or Gamecube games have still retained 90% of their original value.

Theres always the gamble of finding nothing, especially if you are only searching for one particular thing. While I mostly look for games, I also hunt for toys, PC software, wrestling belts, comic collectibles, dvds, cds and lately ink. Theres still times I don't find nothing but you need to expand your horizons in order to not come home completely empty handed everytime. Lately I've been hitting this flea market in the city every week instead of the normal once every two months I use to. In six weeks I've only come home empty handed once and one week I found a like new condition 3DS for $45 with games. Persistence pays off sometimes.

To comment on the OP, the video game market's prices will fluctuate like any other market. Thats the whole reason we hunt for deals. Now is actually a good time to unload factory sealed Nes and Snes games because the market continues to eat them up. But theres no telling how much longer that will last. I'm still waiting for the right time to sell my factory sealed N64 games. But as far as what I actually want to play, some of it is priced pretty high, especially 3DO import stuff I need to complete my collection. But I will just keep shopping around in hopes of getting the best deals.

[wiggyx]

It'll get old soon enough, trust me.

I'm 35. I think I'm old enough to know for myself, thanks.

[drtomoe123]

I guess it's different for everyone but for me I pass three Goodwill's and a no-name thrift store on my Monday commute to work. And if I have to go back later that week to the furthest store I will pass all four again. The majority of Goodwills and thrift stores are all on my way to or from work since I have to travel for my job. The things that I usually have to put effort into is yard sales and flea markets on the weekends where I have to get up early(on my day off) and travel a bit out of the way sometimes. But I don't travel as far as what I did back in 2011 where I was literally hunting in three different states. But that still worked out pretty well because I found all three of my PS3's in two different states and they were very cheap.

I totally agree. There's a Half-Price Books and a local chain used game store on my way home from work so I usually try to stop in three or four times a week and I've still found a ton of stuff without wasting a lot of gas, time, or money. I don't try to go too far out of my way to look for stuff unless I know for a fact that a certain store has a copy of something that I want, but I still take some day trips to go look around a nearby city.

[ApolloBoy]

Hey young fellas, did you know there's this nifty thing called emulation? You can play all your early childhood memories right on your PC!

(I try to spread the gospel of emulation to get as many as possible satisfied without driving up the prices for the real things. :D)
You know there's these nifty things called flash carts?

[needler420]

You know there's these nifty things called flash carts?

This isn't international waters off the coast of Somalia where you can steal everyone's cargo. Oh wait it is. You guys are a bunch of Somalia pirates.

[Shicky256]

I think the whole reproduction thing people were talking about earlier is right. I mean, look at this. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Earthbound-Zero-Mother-1-CIB-for-the-NES-English-NTSC-/121085340271?pt=Video_Games_Games&hash=item1c313faa6f Someone took that Earthbound Zero rom made a decade ago, put it on a cart (Probably Mario/Duck Hunt) and printed out a box and manual. And charged $115 for it. And the box is covered in fan art. This is just sad.

[recorderdude]

You guys are a bunch of Somalia pirates.

Good to know people who download video games illegally and run them on flashcarts are, in your mind, equivalent to savages who steal boatloads of valuable physical materials, hold entire ships for ransom and murder those working on them.

[ApolloBoy]

This isn't international waters off the coast of Somalia where you can steal everyone's cargo. Oh wait it is. You guys are a bunch of Somalia pirates.
Looks like we got some hyperbole up in this house

[camarotuner]

Everything runs in cycles, nothing stays "up" forever, especially collectibles. Sportscards ran hot for years, then it went to comics, beanie babies, yadda yadda yadda. The price balloons up, crashes horribly, then ultimately settles in a nice range where it's higher than it was before the rise but way lower than it was at peak. Then every so often it'll cycle back around and pick up steam again. It's a hobby. Enjoy it for a hobby. If you want to make a living off it you have to pay VERY close attention to trends or you will take a bath in inventory you can't move. Finally if you want an investment I would highly suggest gold, silver, and hell even copper is turning into a decent investment. Go look at the prices of those 3 things in the last 50 years. Notice they have a nice continual upswing and are usable in any country in the world as currency? Yeah they're the ultimate safe investment, or at least as close as it gets. Otherwise we're buying videogames. They're really not THAT important we just love them.

[needler420]

Everything runs in cycles, nothing stays "up" forever, especially collectibles. Sportscards ran hot for years, then it went to comics, beanie babies, yadda yadda yadda. The price balloons up, crashes horribly, then ultimately settles in a nice range where it's higher than it was before the rise but way lower than it was at peak. Then every so often it'll cycle back around and pick up steam again. It's a hobby. Enjoy it for a hobby. If you want to make a living off it you have to pay VERY close attention to trends or you will take a bath in inventory you can't move. Finally if you want an investment I would highly suggest gold, silver, and hell even copper is turning into a decent investment. Go look at the prices of those 3 things in the last 50 years. Notice they have a nice continual upswing and are usable in any country in the world as currency? Yeah they're the ultimate safe investment, or at least as close as it gets. Otherwise we're buying videogames. They're really not THAT important we just love them.

Precious metals is just as volatile of a market if not more. Also copper is like $3 dollars a pound. You'd need a warehouse to store thousands of pounds of copper before you can call it an investment. I find it funny when so many people want to recommend precious metals or penny stocks. Too many people want to nickel and dime on investing rather then work for money.

I have lost money with precious metals before. It's not something I recommend anyone get into. You better have some serious cash to be able to risk. If you're some peon retail employee you're going to get your pockets shook like you are getting your lunch money robbed in grade school.

[Shicky256]

By the way, another way overpriced item:
http://baltimore.craigslist.org/vgm/3646095919.html
I mean, $1200 for a new SMB? You can get cheaper than that on ebay!

[GREEN00]

My 2 cents,

I feel the current price jump may be taking place in part because of,

1.Fatigue with the current console market. Sequels in excess, poor genre variety, sleazy new business practices, many beloved/established devs deteriorating/moving to mobile/going bankrupt, etc. People that didn't start with this generation can notice a marked change and their desire for the previous norms have lead them to become disillusioned with current releases and turn to PS2 & older. (This describes me. A few years ago, I exclusively bought games from within the past decade, seeing little appeal in older games. I am now largely apathetic towards current games and am buying fewer and fewer of them and more and more PS2 & older games)

2.Digital. I am suspicious of the future of any digitally purchased game, and I don't seem to be alone. And Virtual Console/PS1 classics are introducing a new wave of people to retro games, people might be introduced to a given game/series in digital form and then be inspired to buy a physical copy, to both ensure they have a copy for the future and for the sake of wanting to own a beloved game. (Again, this describes me. Virtual Console/PS1 classics have served as a great introduction to past games & consoles I missed, and now I want physical copies. Buy Vagrant Story off PSN for $6, then buy an immaculate black label physical copy for $35)

3.Rising markets lead to new people trying to cash in/get in on the trend. This will escalate and escalate like an expanding bubble, and eventually it will burst and the market will bottom out. Look at the dutch tulip craze for an example,

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania

US SNES game prices are probably super inflated and will crash in due time.

[genesisguy]

I hope things come down a bit sooner than later. I'm 31 now and finding less and less time to play games.

2 years ago I saw Ducktales 2 for 70 bucks at the Midwest Gaming Classic, last year it was 80. This year it was 100. I kep thinking I shoulda bought it for 70. I see many speculating that the bubble will burst, but sometimes I think we haven't even hit the ceiling yet.

Sunser Riders on the SNES is going for 50 some dollars. I remember seeing that going for 25ish a few years ago. I shoulda never sold my copy.

I guess my concern is should I buy them now? I can afford 50 bucks for Sunset Riders. 100 no. So if things go up any higher I may have to back off. That said, if everything gets cheap say next year I will have spent a lot. See where I
'm coming from?

Maybe I should just stick to my namesake and collect Genesis games.

[recorderdude]

Maybe I should just stick to my namesake and collect Genesis games.

Ninflation tends not to apply to SEGA games that much, so I've been maining Genesis and Game Gear. There's a few exceptions like Gunstar Heroes and Streets of Rage 2, but even then it's not AS outrageous as Ninflation and the games that cost a lot (MUSHA, Crusader of Centy, etc) are legitimately rare enough to warrant it. Hell, even some of the rarer carts are pretty cheap (Ballistic Double Dragon and Tails Adventure certainly come to mind there)

[genesisguy]

Ninflation tends not to apply to SEGA games that much, so I've been maining Genesis and Game Gear. There's a few exceptions like Gunstar Heroes and Streets of Rage 2, but even then it's not AS outrageous as Ninflation and the games that cost a lot (MUSHA, Crusader of Centy, etc) are legitimately rare enough to warrant it. Hell, even some of the rarer carts are pretty cheap (Ballistic Double Dragon and Tails Adventure certainly come to mind there)

Good points. I've been eyeing Castlevania Bloodlines for around 50ish dollars and it seems high for a Genesis game. Yet when I compare it to Dracula X on ebay for 90-120ish it doesn't seem so bad.

[Darkwing]

Wow, $50 for Bloodlines? I picked it up not even two years ago for $15 when it was going between $15-22ish.

[Tron 2.0]

Wow, $50 for Bloodlines? I picked it up not even two years ago for $15 when it was going between $15-22ish.
It's mostly for a copy that has a clam shell that's been going up in price for bloodlines.As for why i don't know,unless it's just demand or some thing else.While a copy of bloodlines that just comes in a cardboard box just go's for less most often.

[genesisguy]

It's mostly for a copy that has a clam shell that's been going up in price for bloodlines.As for why i don't know,unless it's just demand or some thing else.While a copy of bloodlines that just comes in a cardboard box just go's for less most often.

You're right I was speaking of a version with a clam shell, instructions, and in overally REALLY good shape.