Is it just me or have classic games prices skyrocketed?

[greedostick]

I sold a lot of my collection about 2 years ago because I needed to do some major repairs on my car. Today I looked online curious as to what prices are for some of the games I sold and wanted to get back. Games like Wild Guns, Dynastic Hero, Magical Chase, EVO Search for Eden, and the regular easy to find stuff like complete chrono trigger, secret of mana, final fantasy, dragon warrior etc.. In some instances prices have quadrupled! $1600 for complete Little Samson! Also over $1000 for complete evo! I just sold both those games on ebay for under $200 each a few years ago. I couldn't get $10.00 for a complete dragon warrior on ebay then. Now one over $40.00? A complete Final Fantasy around $250.00. Even games like Splatterhouse climbed in price. Did something happen recently? I figured with virtual console people would be dumping some of these games since you can buy most of them now. Maybe the exact opposite happened. Maybe people want to collect them now? I can justify the EVO price. Complete it is very rare, but for the most part it seems games have inflated in price dramatically. Am I alone here?

[Zing]

You are not alone, but you are very late to the party. Prices have been quickly rising since 2011. As you say, the high demand or low supply games have quadrupled, and even the most common of commons have doubled. As for what has happened? YouTube and related videos are probably the number one cause for higher demand.

I passed on Evo and Wild Guns a year ago when I felt the prices were too inflated at $100 and $70, reapectively. I'm sure this thread could be filled with people sharing similar stories.

[Informationator]

I sold a lot of my collection about 2 years ago because I needed to do some major repairs on my car. Today I looked online curious as to what prices are for some of the games I sold and wanted to get back. Games like Wild Guns, Dynastic Hero, Magical Chase, EVO Search for Eden, and the regular easy to find stuff like complete chrono trigger, secret of mana, final fantasy, dragon warrior etc.. In some instances prices have quadrupled! $1600 for complete Little Samson! Also over $1000 for complete evo! I just sold both those games on ebay for under $200 each a few years ago. I couldn't get $10.00 for a complete dragon warrior on ebay then. Now one over $40.00? A complete Final Fantasy around $250.00. Even games like Splatterhouse climbed in price. Did something happen recently? I figured with virtual console people would be dumping some of these games since you can buy most of them now. Maybe the exact opposite happened. Maybe people want to collect them now? I can justify the EVO price. Complete it is very rare, but for the most part it seems games have inflated in price dramatically. Am I alone here?
I started my SNES full set back in April of 2011 and I'm at a little over 500 uniques right now. Prices are horrendous and rares are impossible to find in good shape. I'm really glad I got all of the R8s and R7s out of the way early... R6s now cost what R7s cost last year, and what R8s cost a while before that. Like the other guy said, commons are 2-3x as expensive too. Thankfully I ended up with a crap ton of dups I've been hoarding all this time, so that should help hedge my costs (since they're just sitting there, rising in value), but it's still really rough. Even at this point in my collection with all of the rares and expensive commons out of the way I could easily spend another 2 grand on finishing my set...

It's a horrible time to start collecting NES and SNES!!!

[Nionel]

The problem I've had in my area is that it's getting hard to find anything worth while, the back half of last year one of the local stores started moving a lot of their retro stuff online due to poor in store sales and no anything they get in worthwhile goes to another store or on eBay, so they have mostly common and a handful of uncommons in the case as any given time. The only retro game I had seen worth while there recently was a copy of Mega Man 5 for the NES, but they wanted $50+ for it, which is more than I was willing to pay.

I've also noticed that my local Goodwill Electronics store seems to get hit by resellers before I can get anything there either, just about a year ago I had a ton of great finds there including boxed copies of Yoshi's Island, Actraiser, 7tn Saga, Mario 64, plus a number of decent games like Final Fantasy 7, Legend of Dragoon, Vagrant Story, Super Metroid, Shining Force II, etc. I also got a GBA SP and a blue Game Gear each for $10 there. Now when I go in all I find is sports games and the occasional deal on a console (picked up a model 1 Genesis for $4), but I haven't bought a game there in over six months. So, I've almost given up on hunting for retro games here in town, I mostly only look now if I'm in a bigger city where it feels like my odds of finding them are better.

[Immutable]

The price climb may be due to the rising demand from a new generation of retro gamers (kids of the 90's) who have entered the market and are snatching up all the retro goods. ;)

[greedostick]

This is truly sad. I collected for 15 years and the prices always stayed around the same. I had so many complete games. I had a really awesome collection and always figured when I finish nursing school I could buy the 4k in games I sold back in a few paychecks. Some of the games are x10 what they use to cost. I checked out metal warriors on SNES and wasn't surprised that it is in the $250.00 range also. Then I looked up Hagane which was always rare but always surprisingly cheap. Found just the manual sold for $200.00 and a complete copy sold for over $2000.00! At that point I just gave up looking. It's ridiculous. I feel like i'm collecting rare neo geo carts. There has to be something going on. People can't really be dumb enough to consistently pay these prices for games that are listed on ebay on a daily basis.

I don't think I can even collect anymore. I remember always thinking to myself SNES is so great and there really isn't any expensive games compared to the other consoles. A few years ago I don't think there was a single complete game that would hit over the $150.00 mark except MAYBE E.V.O or Earthbound 100% complete...

Guess those days are over...

It just seems like it's Nintendo games.... Genesis and Master System seem about the same. I wonder if it is the 90's kids who now have Wii's and want to own all the games they forgot about until virtual console came out. I really feel like i'm dreaming here. I can not believe these prices.

[ncman071]

i feel the exact same way....this time last year i sold my entire snes collection....the system lots of controllers and about 130 games....including all the major rpgs....chrono, ff3, earthbound, etc.....i had to due to a financial situation....anyway over the last 6 months i've tried to recollect what i had to sell....i've obtained about 75 snes carts.....NONE of the rpg's so far because they are incredibly expensive.....250 for a loose earthbound....60 for a loose ff3 70-90 for a loose chrono trigger.....unbelievable.

i still plan to get at least a few of these games but its gonna take me much longer than i thought....i just cant justify spending 100 for a loose megaman x2 when i got to pay the bills and take care of my family.....i still love the system....but damn

[Niku-Sama]

i dont see the drive for this sort of thing continuing, i've noticed it lopes along where i am at where prices fluctuate alot.

i can see them dropping soon once the economy levels out and people start making real money, for the time being though it seems to people hard up selling them for unherd of prices

[sloan]

It makes no sense either when you consider supply and demand comparisons on ebay auctions. I go on there and see 3 pages of auctions for a given game, all priced in the $20-$30 range. Give me a break. When there are that many of a specific title available, then the price should be below $10. I always wish those greedy BIN sellers well in getting their asking prices.

[Polygon]

No, it's not just you. I think we're seeing a spike and that things will eventually calm down. However, I don't think it will ever go back down to the level they once were. Retro games are becoming more popular and with all these YouTube channels about retro games, it's certainly giving the market a boost I think.


It makes no sense either when you consider supply and demand comparisons on ebay auctions. I go on there and see 3 pages of auctions for a given game, all priced in the $20-$30 range. Give me a break. When there are that many of a specific title available, then the price should be below $10. I always wish those greedy BIN sellers well in getting their asking prices.

My favorite part is when you see the ones with rare in the title. I mean, did they not take a look before the listed to see the pages and pages of the same game they're selling?

[Archimboldi]

1st party Gamecube games got NUTS at some point when I wasn't looking. They used to be around $10 a piece, now $40, $50, $60, etc.

and yes, everything is "OMG RARE Burstrick Wakeboarding PS1 disc only L@@K"

I'm guilty of paying dumb prices for PS1 games and keeping prices up...thankfully the worst damage i'm looking at is $100-$150 for Suikoden II and Tron Bonne. What can I do though? I can't compete with the eBayers who knock on doors of garage sale houses at 6AM and those guys pick it all clean by noon. And every single pawn shop, resale shop, goodwill, etc. on my old game hunting route is all sports and no name games, because they're ebaying too. I went for old time's sake last weekend and it was almost a total bust. On top of that, I got accused of ebaying by some mom at a garage sale (what can i say? an ebayer would also say "no, i'm just a collector" like i did) It was all extra humiliating now that I'm all grown up. 2004-2008ish were prime for me. Though even towards the end of that, I could see the tides turning.

Half Price Books often has stock, but their pricing is incredibly hit or miss. My friend who worked there said they use ebay/amazon like everyone else, but the hipsterish peeps they have working there don't know what they're doing. Sometimes this works in your favor, other times it's a $80 copy of FFVII GH or something. They might just be trying to price out ebay sellers, but that seems a bit counterproductive because that $80 copy of Tales of Symphonia is not going anywhere.

I feel really bad for nintendo collectors though, that's just madness. Word got out about Hagane being a damn awesome game, apparently. also, $100 for disc only xenoblade

On that note, I'm thinking I should get all the DS games I want now.

[wiggyx]

Just remember, where there's big boom, there's almost always big bust. More a matter of when than if...

[o.pwuaioc]

Sad thing is that even Japanese games are starting to be pricier. I balk at the huge jump in Rockman games. I should have bought them all a couple years ago when they were manageable. Never again will I say, "I'll wait until I have extra disposable income." There's barely a difference in price now between US and J for some games.

[Tron 2.0]

This is truly sad. I collected for 15 years and the prices always stayed around the same. I had so many complete games. I had a really awesome collection and always figured when I finish nursing school I could buy the 4k in games I sold back in a few paychecks. Some of the games are x10 what they use to cost. I checked out metal warriors on SNES and wasn't surprised that it is in the $250.00 range also. Then I looked up Hagane which was always rare but always surprisingly cheap. Found just the manual sold for $200.00 and a complete copy sold for over $2000.00! At that point I just gave up looking. It's ridiculous. I feel like i'm collecting rare neo geo carts. There has to be something going on. People can't really be dumb enough to consistently pay these prices for games that are listed on ebay on a daily basis.

I don't think I can even collect anymore. I remember always thinking to myself SNES is so great and there really isn't any expensive games compared to the other consoles. A few years ago I don't think there was a single complete game that would hit over the $150.00 mark except MAYBE E.V.O or Earthbound 100% complete...

Guess those days are over...

It just seems like it's Nintendo games.... Genesis and Master System seem about the same. I wonder if it is the 90's kids who now have Wii's and want to own all the games they forgot about until virtual console came out. I really feel like i'm dreaming here. I can not believe these prices.
Most of mention it's demand at any thing at all.Part of it has to do with ones that grew up on a nes or snes and 'wants it again to relive there childhood.The other being youtube and any site that is all about classic gaming,it does give that exposure again.It is the worst time if you're into (TG16 or snes) at this point prices for it have really spiked.Though i find the genesis to be reasonable still expect for the sega-cd :p You can wait it out and hope it's market crashes,or just buy a flashcart and play the games you want that way.Last year i bought a sfc and a super everdrive and i'm pretty much 'satisfy playing it that way.

[ProjectCamaro]

The price climb may be due to the rising demand from a new generation of retro gamers (kids of the 90's) who have entered the market and are snatching up all the retro goods. ;)

This is very true.

Speaking for myself the N64 was THE console that defined my childhood and I had always regretted selling it. I would periodically check eBay for N64's for sale and finally bought one two months ago. When I searched online for N64 forums I found out there was a huge retro gaming world out there. As I looked more into it the more I got into retro games and started buying all the consoles from my childhood, both the ones I or my family owned but also the ones I always wanted to get. A couple thousand dollars later I have a pretty large collection (by my standards) a couple TV's set up only for gaming and 13 consoles including some of the more rare ones.


Just remember, where there's big boom, there's almost always big bust. More a matter of when than if...

I see this happening, hopefully sooner over later.

[Urzu402]

Yeah I know what you mean, like 2 games have shot up so much in price are, Mega Turrican for Genesis and Run Saber for SNES. I remember when I got both of them they were under 10 dollars like I think 5 each. Now due to exposure on internet shows and such they've gone up a great deal on the ebay market. like now i think Run Saber goes for around 50 bucks and Mega Turrican for 30.

[recorderdude]

Ninflation has kept my SNES collection very small and mostly made of commons, but I just hit game #90 in my Genesis collection last night. Genny prices are just about right for me, so I've gotten to try out a lot of its library - I've yet to pay more than $10 for any single genny game, and I've got quite a few rares too; Ristar, Ballistic Double Dragon, Zombies Ate My Neighbors, Gaiares, Elemental Master, All the Shining games complete except II, etc etc. The only game I feel got bloated is Gunstar Heroes, which is "worth" $30 complete but, in dry times, I've seen listed and sold for $50 LOOSE, due to its reputation for being an amazing Run N Gun...though all of the other genesis TREASURE games, thankfully, are pretty affordable. Mega Turrican gets pricey too (especially complete), but at least that has the excuse of being legitimately rare. Same with MUSHA and Grind Stormer.

[Urzu402]

Two more games that went up in price are the 2 Sunset Riders games, both the Genesis version and SNES version.

[kupomogli]

I'm glad I only purchase games I like, but yeah. I've been waiting to find a good deal on certain overpriced games and the price has went up three or four times higher. So now I'm screwed out of getting it at any decent price. I should have just paid the already ridiculous price before because now I'm probably not ever going to get the games because I just don't find the games worth it.


I passed on Evo and Wild Guns a year ago when I felt the prices were too inflated at $100 and $70, reapectively. I'm sure this thread could be filled with people sharing similar stories.

A few years ago Wild Guns was around $60-70 complete. Now can't even get a loose copy for less than $100 unless you find it in the wild. I don't mind looking for loose stuff in the wild, but I never find anything complete and in good condition in the wild.

[wiggyx]

I see this happening, hopefully sooner over later.

Gosh, I hope so.

Honestly, the rate at which things are skyrocketing leads me to believe sooner than later. Bigger boom, bigger bust.

[Aussie2B]

I'm not sure where you're getting some of these prices. I have some of the games you listed, so I was curious to see the current prices myself. I see complete copies of Final Fantasy on NES for under $50 and complete copies of the first Dragon Warrior for less than $20. I don't know about complete copies of Secret of Mana, but I don't see a lot of movement in the prices in general. I bought my copy on eBay, which came with fairly beat up copies of the manual and poster (no box), for about $30-35 around 2001 after taking my time to get the best deal I possibly could, and loose carts and copies with just the manual are still roughly in that ballpark. There are always going to be suckers who pay some outlandish price for a game, but you can't take that as the current market value. It's far more useful to look at the average sale price, if not the lower end.

Although looking at the EVO prices, I'm sure glad I picked that up just a few years ago in a SNES lot. It had a bit of value even then, since it is on the uncommon side and is a good game, so the lot set me back something like $60-$70 bucks. But I can't complain at all considering I got a boxed EVO (no manual; I wonder how much it would cost to complete my copy these days) and several other good SNES games that have a moderate amount of value to them (a couple of which were dupes to me, so I sold them and reduced my investment in the lot by about half).

Anyway, if you're only looking at rare and/or highly desirable NES, SNES, and TG-16 games (complete, no less), then, yeah, no surprise that a lot of games have gone up. Those systems are really hot right now, so the collectors are fighting over the rares and the nostalgia-hungry young adults are fighting over the popular stuff. Game prices definitely aren't skyrocketing across the board, though. If you're into, say, pre-crash games, prices are overall down (not counting the rares) compared to where they were at back when nostalgia was at its strongest for those. Now those who were kids when those games were new are well into their 30s, if not older yet, and most have either already gotten their collections about where they want them or they got their fill of nostalgia and dumped the games right back on the market. In due time, this will happen to NES and SNES too. They may not bottom out to quite the same level, considering Nintendo is still a big, popular company making new systems and games, many of which are in the same series as what today's NES/SNES collectors grew up with, but I am still fully confident that we'll see some form of leveling out.

[kupomogli]

Since it only seems that a lot of the Nintendo games are getting overpriced, easy way of the prices dropping back down faster would be everyone stop collecting for Nintendo. When the resellers who sit on their BIN for months don't even get views, they'll probably reduce their prices.

Go collect for other consoles for now. The Playstation, Playstation 2, and Genesis games aren't any higher or much higher than they were. Suikoden 2 seems only slightly higher than it was a few years ago, but doesn't seem impossible to get it for less than $100 for a complete copy going by prices that aren't BIN. DS prices seem cheap also.

[skaar]

Just remember, where there's big boom, there's almost always big bust. More a matter of when than if...

http://i.imgur.com/n1Afo.gif

[Archimboldi]

Sad thing is that even Japanese games are starting to be pricier. I balk at the huge jump in Rockman games. I should have bought them all a couple years ago when they were manageable. Never again will I say, "I'll wait until I have extra disposable income." There's barely a difference in price now between US and J for some games.


Seemed like the whole Mega Man Legends 3 fiasco brought on a wave of sudden Mega Man demand in general too

[wiggyx]

I just noticed that too. I wanted to grab a set of Rockman 1-6 for the fami and I recall being able to easily find em all for 40-50 bucks in a lot, but now they're creeping well into the 100s :/

[greedostick]

So, I've almost given up on hunting for retro games here in town, I mostly only look now if I'm in a bigger city where it feels like my odds of finding them are better.

It's not any better in the bigger cities. I live in Columbus Ohio and I haven't found anything good in a very long time. The real problem is Amazon.com. I started collecting in 1997 in 10th grade. I would use my lunch money to go to the flea market and buy games. Back then I could score amazing finds. I found keio flying squadrom many times, even once sealed for under 5 bucks. I bought a Saturn and it had a copy of Shining the Holy Ark in it. And NES games were rarely over 10 dollars. By the time I moved away in 2002 the local flea market was riddled with collectors. All of the stores by that time started going by the Amazon.com prices. So it was incredibly hard to find anything not overpriced as amazon prices are ridiculous. Even now besides garage sales the only way to find good deals are when a game is so rare it's not in the Amazon Database and rarely on ebay. For example Bonks Adventure on NES I scored about 3 years ago for $3.00. You really have to know the market and know what games are actually rare. And there really isn't many actual rare games out there in the states on the common nes, and sega consoles. You REALLY have to know your stuff.


Sad thing is that even Japanese games are starting to be pricier. I balk at the huge jump in Rockman games. I should have bought them all a couple years ago when they were manageable. Never again will I say, "I'll wait until I have extra disposable income." There's barely a difference in price now between US and J for some games.

Which is depressing. The whole reason I sold my complete boxed english Turbo grafx library was to collect PC engine. Since the boxes are always in horrid shape, overpriced, and lack cartridge art. I don't really regret that but I know finding english version of the rare stuff dungeon explorer II, Magical Chase, Dynastic Hero, Beyond Shadowgate etc... probably will never happen for a reasonable price. I scored my first Magical Chase with manual on ebay for $120 and Dynastic Hero for $175.00. And now Famicom games, even famicom disk are climbing as you said.


Most of mention it's demand at any thing at all.Part of it has to do with ones that grew up on a nes or snes and 'wants it again to relive there childhood.The other being youtube and any site that is all about classic gaming,it does give that exposure again.It is the worst time if you're into (TG16 or snes) at this point prices for it have really spiked.Though i find the genesis to be reasonable still expect for the sega-cd :p You can wait it out and hope it's market crashes,or just buy a flashcart and play the games you want that way.Last year i bought a sfc and a super everdrive and i'm pretty much 'satisfy playing it that way.

I am 32 and started collecting in 1997. I must have been really early to the party. I hate flash carts but it may be the only option. I have been looking at the SNES power Pak and NES Power Pak on www.retroUSB.com. But it seems there is no good turbo grafx/pc engine one that doesn't use parallel cables. If you know PM me. Cause not playing on the actual hardware is not my thing. Neither is roms of any sort really.



Since it only seems that a lot of the Nintendo games are getting overpriced, easy way of the prices dropping back down faster would be everyone stop collecting for Nintendo. When the resellers who sit on their BIN for months don't even get views, they'll probably reduce their prices.

Go collect for other consoles for now. The Playstation, Playstation 2, and Genesis games aren't any higher or much higher than they were. Suikoden 2 seems only slightly higher than it was a few years ago, but doesn't seem impossible to get it for less than $100 for a complete copy going by prices that aren't BIN. DS prices seem cheap also.

No Doubt the PS1 will be the next system to shoot up with all the rare RPG's. Like someone mention TronBonne has almost doubled. I sold a mint one with the guide book for around $160.00 just about a year ago. No doubt the Lunars and Tactics Ogre will climb and some of the not so popular RPG's that were good, and the working designs games. I jsut may have to focus on playstation and sega for awhile.


At least collecting and having owned probably all these games I know what is a reasonable price to pay for a manual and box. For instance I know the E.V.O manual isn't actually a manual it's just a paper foldout that is basically useless so I will just get a loose copy one day. And I also know collecting the boxes is a pain because they never look perfect and you always want to get a better box so everything looks orderly. So I could go without ever wanting a box except for maybe earthbound. What it's going to come down to is getting the sega and playstation games you always want the manuals and cases for before they skyrocket also, and for the other cartridge systems going for loose carts and picking up the manuals seperate. Paying 4X for a game that is complete is just absurd! So I will just let the rich people, or the people who are young and single who bought these games to dump them off when they realize they spent way too much.

Per haps making a list of the rare games that have not shot up yet to look out for would be a good idea. For example Pieces on SNES is still super cheap and a great rare game. Also the bionic commando-ish game on Super Famicom with the little girl and the fishing rod will probably shoot up eventually.

[Aussie2B]

Some imports are going up as a result of their US equivalents going up (and others for other reasons), but by and large, imports are down. I got into importing around 2000 (Famicom, Super Famicom, N64, etc.), and trust me, prices are A LOT better now. Back then there was still somewhat of a mystique around imports since they weren't exactly easy to get a hold of in the 90s and prior (usually gamers had to turn to independent game shops and ads in magazines, which all charged absurd prices). Now getting an import doesn't seem like anything special to American gamers, so unless it's something rare or really desirable, the average price is lower than what I saw a decade ago.

[greedostick]

The problem I've had in my area is that it's getting hard to find anything worth while, the back half of last year one of the local stores started moving a lot of their retro stuff online due to poor in store sales and no anything they get in worthwhile goes to another store or on eBay, so they have mostly common and a handful of uncommons in the case as any given time. The only retro game I had seen worth while there recently was a copy of Mega Man 5 for the NES, but they wanted $50+ for it, which is more than I was willing to pay.

I've also noticed that my local Goodwill Electronics store seems to get hit by resellers before I can get anything there either, just about a year ago I had a ton of great finds there including boxed copies of Yoshi's Island, Actraiser, 7tn Saga, Mario 64, plus a number of decent games like Final Fantasy 7, Legend of Dragoon, Vagrant Story, Super Metroid, Shining Force II, etc. I also got a GBA SP and a blue Game Gear each for $10 there. Now when I go in all I find is sports games and the occasional deal on a console (picked up a model 1 Genesis for $4), but I haven't bought a game there in over six months. So, I've almost given up on hunting for retro games here in town, I mostly only look now if I'm in a bigger city where it feels like my odds of finding them are better.


Sad thing is that even Japanese games are starting to be pricier. I balk at the huge jump in Rockman games. I should have bought them all a couple years ago when they were manageable. Never again will I say, "I'll wait until I have extra disposable income." There's barely a difference in price now between US and J for some games.


Most of mention it's demand at any thing at all.Part of it has to do with ones that grew up on a nes or snes and 'wants it again to relive there childhood.The other being youtube and any site that is all about classic gaming,it does give that exposure again.It is the worst time if you're into (TG16 or snes) at this point prices for it have really spiked.Though i find the genesis to be reasonable still expect for the sega-cd :p You can wait it out and hope it's market crashes,or just buy a flashcart and play the games you want that way.Last year i bought a sfc and a super everdrive and i'm pretty much 'satisfy playing it that way.


I'm not sure where you're getting some of these prices. I have some of the games you listed, so I was curious to see the current prices myself. I see complete copies of Final Fantasy on NES for under $50 and complete copies of the first Dragon Warrior for less than $20. I don't know about complete copies of Secret of Mana, but I don't see a lot of movement in the prices in general. I bought my copy on eBay, which came with fairly beat up copies of the manual and poster (no box), for about $30-35 around 2001 after taking my time to get the best deal I possibly could, and loose carts and copies with just the manual are still roughly in that ballpark. There are always going to be suckers who pay some outlandish price for a game, but you can't take that as the current market value. It's far more useful to look at the average sale price, if not the lower end.

Although looking at the EVO prices, I'm sure glad I picked that up just a few years ago in a SNES lot. It had a bit of value even then, since it is on the uncommon side and is a good game, so the lot set me back something like $60-$70 bucks. But I can't complain at all considering I got a boxed EVO (no manual; I wonder how much it would cost to complete my copy these days) and several other good SNES games that have a moderate amount of value to them (a couple of which were dupes to me, so I sold them and reduced my investment in the lot by about half).

Anyway, if you're only looking at rare and/or highly desirable NES, SNES, and TG-16 games (complete, no less), then, yeah, no surprise that a lot of games have gone up. Those systems are really hot right now, so the collectors are fighting over the rares and the nostalgia-hungry young adults are fighting over the popular stuff. Game prices definitely aren't skyrocketing across the board, though. If you're into, say, pre-crash games, prices are overall down (not counting the rares) compared to where they were at back when nostalgia was at its strongest for those. Now those who were kids when those games were new are well into their 30s, if not older yet, and most have either already gotten their collections about where they want them or they got their fill of nostalgia and dumped the games right back on the market. In due time, this will happen to NES and SNES too. They may not bottom out to quite the same level, considering Nintendo is still a big, popular company making new systems and games, many of which are in the same series as what today's NES/SNES collectors grew up with, but I am still fully confident that we'll see some form of leveling out.


Since it only seems that a lot of the Nintendo games are getting overpriced, easy way of the prices dropping back down faster would be everyone stop collecting for Nintendo. When the resellers who sit on their BIN for months don't even get views, they'll probably reduce their prices.

Go collect for other consoles for now. The Playstation, Playstation 2, and Genesis games aren't any higher or much higher than they were. Suikoden 2 seems only slightly higher than it was a few years ago, but doesn't seem impossible to get it for less than $100 for a complete copy going by prices that aren't BIN. DS prices seem cheap also.


This is very true.

Speaking for myself the N64 was THE console that defined my childhood and I had always regretted selling it. I would periodically check eBay for N64's for sale and finally bought one two months ago. When I searched online for N64 forums I found out there was a huge retro gaming world out there. As I looked more into it the more I got into retro games and started buying all the consoles from my childhood, both the ones I or my family owned but also the ones I always wanted to get. A couple thousand dollars later I have a pretty large collection (by my standards) a couple TV's set up only for gaming and 13 consoles including some of the more rare ones.



I see this happening, hopefully sooner over later.

Well if you like the action RPG's you better get Legend of the Mystical Ninja and Goemons Great Adventure ASAP. Those are 2 games that will get crazy. Mystical Ninja has apready started climbing. It is probably one of the best games on the system if you like action RPG style Zelda games.

[greedostick]

Some imports are going up as a result of their US equivalents going up (and others for other reasons), but by and large, imports are down. I got into importing around 2000 (Famicom, Super Famicom, N64, etc.), and trust me, prices are A LOT better now. Back then there was still somewhat of a mystique around imports since they weren't exactly easy to get a hold of in the 90s and prior (usually gamers had to turn to independent game shops and ads in magazines, which all charged absurd prices). Now getting an import doesn't seem like anything special to American gamers, so unless it's something rare or really desirable, the average price is lower than what I saw a decade ago.

Curious if you know what an authentic Mario All Night Nippon would go for with at least the hard case and manual? Probably the only japanese game I have never seen on ebay that isn't a copy on a blank disk.

[Aussie2B]

No idea on that one. I've yet to get into FDS games.

On Tactics Ogre, I don't know if that one will go up again. It already went high and then lost a significant chunk of its value when the PSP version came out. Maybe it'll swing back up, but I'm more inclined to guess that it's not going to see much climbing when there's a much cheaper alternative (one that is considered a better version by many, no less). Before the English PSP release, Tactics Ogre was consistently around $90 or so, but now with a little patience, it's not hard to get a copy for $40-some. It's definitely a good time to pick up a copy for anyone who does still want the PS1 version.

As for Umihara Kawase, that game (the whole series, really) has been pretty pricey for a long time. Might just be stuck where it's at, although I hear the series is finally going to be getting one of its games released in the US, and that may bump up prices on the Japanese ones too depending on how well it's received.

[SparTonberry]

Some imports are going up as a result of their US equivalents going up (and others for other reasons), but by and large, imports are down. I got into importing around 2000 (Famicom, Super Famicom, N64, etc.), and trust me, prices are A LOT better now. Back then there was still somewhat of a mystique around imports since they weren't exactly easy to get a hold of in the 90s and prior (usually gamers had to turn to independent game shops and ads in magazines, which all charged absurd prices). Now getting an import doesn't seem like anything special to American gamers, so unless it's something rare or really desirable, the average price is lower than what I saw a decade ago.

I started buying imports around 2000.
I recall Famicom was fairly cheap, even with box/manual, if you could FIND what you wanted. Trouble is that not too many import sellers on ebay were willing to sell much beyond popular franchises like Dragon Quest, Dragon Ball or Final Fantasy.
I remember it took months of waiting to get a Super Famicom RPG Maker. Now you could easily buy that any day on ebay.
I remember after I began making a translation patch for Magna Braban, it took a couple years to get an actual copy of the game. It hear it's about medium scarcity in Japan, just that nobody wanted to list it. (thought I had one set when I found a guy selling Japanese games on his personal site and said he took requests by email, but I never heard back)

[Aussie2B]

Yeah, they're definitely more widely available now too. Although I still see some systems/games that rarely get listed even if they aren't rare. N64 importing still isn't very popular, so practically all I see listed are the same big-name games that got US releases and a small smattering of popular Japan-exclusives (Sin & Punishment and what have you). The biggest hurdle I'm facing with my N64 import collecting now is that the last 20-some games I want almost never get listed, and, for the most part, they're not particularly rare either.

[greedostick]

I started buying imports around 2000.
I recall Famicom was fairly cheap, even with box/manual, if you could FIND what you wanted. Trouble is that not too many import sellers on ebay were willing to sell much beyond popular franchises like Dragon Quest, Dragon Ball or Final Fantasy.
I remember it took months of waiting to get a Super Famicom RPG Maker. Now you could easily buy that any day on ebay.
I remember after I began making a translation patch for Magna Braban, it took a couple years to get an actual copy of the game. It hear it's about medium scarcity in Japan, just that nobody wanted to list it. (thought I had one set when I found a guy selling Japanese games on his personal site and said he took requests by email, but I never heard back)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MAGNA-BRABAN-Super-Famicom-Nintendo-Video-Game-Import-Japan-bcb-sf-/300731967489?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item460505a801

Looks cheap. Is it a good game? Never actually heard of it

[PreZZ]

Nes, and Super Nes are way too high in prices, thats why I now collect mostly Sega stuff because its a lot more affordable, and Sega being out of the hardware business makes collecting these systems a lot of fun. If I find nintendo stuff for cheap I will get it, but finding sega genesis games for 5 to 10$ is a lot more easy for my wallet! snes and nes stuff is currently overpriced, I cant believe they will stay this high for too long, and sega stuff might rise up in the future, who knows?

[Neverzinho]

There is a good flashcart for Tg16, check out krikzz Turbo Everdrive ;)

[jredmond3]

Yeah prices have definitely skyrocketed in the last few years.

I remember not too, too, long ago the complete Earthbound big box was going for like $150-200ish, now it's $500+. And for the N64, Sculptor's Cut used to go for $150-200, now I dunno where it's at, definitely $500+ tho.

I've mainly collected Genesis stuff for a long time though. Prices stayed low for a long time but even recently the Genesis has a bump in price as well with a few games, ie Crusader of Centy (used to be a $40-80ish complete game, now $150+ easily), and MUSHA (again, a $40-80ish), now $150+.

If I had to theorize, I would blame the Youtube collecting community in part. And basically just the retro trend in general. People who grew up playing the SNES/Genesis/etc are now older, have better jobs, and therefore more $. Games are limited in number too, it was only a matter of time before the well dried up.

[Tron 2.0]

I am 32 and started collecting in 1997. I must have been really early to the party. I hate flash carts but it may be the only option. I have been looking at the SNES power Pak and NES Power Pak on www.retroUSB.com. But it seems there is no good turbo grafx/pc engine one that doesn't use parallel cables. If you know PM me. Cause not playing on the actual hardware is not my thing. Neither is roms of any sort really.

All you really need for a TG16 flashcart is a turbo everdrive.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0nun1TQVLs

For the snes id say a super everdrive or the SD2SNES try here.
http://www.retrogate.com

For those flashcarts id mention you just save the game rom to a sd card.By the way the site i did link sells the turbo everdrive as well.

[Tron 2.0]

Id second what jdred said.

[SparTonberry]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MAGNA-BRABAN-Super-Famicom-Nintendo-Video-Game-Import-Japan-bcb-sf-/300731967489?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item460505a801

Looks cheap. Is it a good game? Never actually heard of it

Decent, but not great. Though the battle system is mostly autonomous (you set three attack patterns, I guess known as "Attack" "Spell" and "Defense", you choose three attacks to use with varying probabilities, and the characters auto-fight. Your involvement is to change patterns when needed, or open the menu to use a healing spell if needed.)
Story might be a bit better. It was one of the earlier games Tomato of Star Ocean/Mother fan translations did, though he's since said his localization could've been a lot better, perhaps the script was a bit on the literal side (having improved his Japanese skills since then), looking back at it. Sounds like the story should be sort of a self-aware-cliche (like how the protagonist is so concerned with beating up the bad guy so he can be a hero and gets lots of medals).

Sounds like I probably overpaid a bit to get that first one I saw on ebay. I think it ended up costing like $40 (though it was with a copy box/manual, at least).

[Tanooki]

I think the easy answer to the original question would be two words "bend over" :D

Seriously though about 2 to 2 1/2 years ago there started to hit this point where people hard up for cash saw there was money in it. A few resellers got into seeing you could get stuff for free or damn near it and they'd start piecing together or getting what they could and placing them on ebay, amazon, or local stuff and asking higher prices due to quality. It seemed to snowball because when something nice complete goes, your average fool doesn't see much difference because to them paper is disposable so it must be the game and then loose carts and the rest went up along side which sucks. ON top of that just in the last 3 years there's been an explosion of those 3G/4G networks and people having these net phones catching wise and using ebay to price, but also ignorant to what 'for sale' 'completed' and 'sold' means will usually find a high asking price and go with that too, or they'll be dangerous enough to know words like Mario, Sonic, Zelda, Mega Man and ask unfairly high prices on that, but then you can squeeze a real $100 gem out of them for like 5-10 dollars compared to 20 for a Mario.

There is no coping, all you can do is fairly limited. You take it in the ass and pay, you become the enemy to a degree and flip to buy or flip to keep/buy in part on what you find. That's really it. I refuse out of my paycheck budget pay more than the original price of the game from the era and not adjusting for inflation as that's just an excuse to pay more. Recently I got Bonk, and it cost me $300 in paypal bucks but nothing out of pocket due to flipping stuff and selling games I was done with, and just a few months earlier I got rid of 6 SMS PAL titles 1 Game and Watch and $30 and picked up Bubble Bobble 2 and Bomberman 2 again(had them before, Bonk too.) I have zero interest in getting stuff thanks to all this bullshit anymore unless I truly will play it and value it, if it ends up a wall hanger it's going into the sales pile to get something usable.

At one point 3 years+ ago I was trying to get all the NES games I could before the phone/reseller sharks hit the pond, and i could get off a $20 bill up to 9-10 NES games a weekend and had been up into the 330 range in no time. When I saw what was going down was NES only then, I ditched most of it and used it to snap up SNES games I had once or wnated and never got through Dec 2011/early 2012 and got stuff before it got ugly (my biggest SNES expense was Dec 2011 Wild Guns and EVO for $50 each with smart buying as they were $70 then.) When it got shitty I ditched SNES actively for N64 and when it got bad I went to Gamecube January of this year before it got horrible too as that just started getting foul. As it stands now I just quit being active but I will hunt and if I see one I want and it's 10-20% under ebay or better I'll snap it up as I refuse to play by the current rules. I've bought old games since 1995 and the last 3 years have made me sick. I just wish I hadn't gone broke unemployed around 2004 and paycheck living if that for 2years after as I had 1500+ games and a few dozen systems as I can't see ever buying it back again how things are and it's a shame as I wish I still had my Turbo Duo as I had crazy good stuff for it and the prices are sickening now.

[wiggyx]

Tanooki, your story sounds a lot like mine. I went back to college in '03 (thus was broke) and had to sell a lot of my collection, which was in the 2000+ game range (managed to sell very little of my SNES collection, thank GOD!). My NES collection, at today's prices, could have paid for about 1.5-2 years of that education. Back then it prolly paid for a semester :( Graduated in '07, got back into the hobby a few years ago, and now I wish that I'd coughed up $50 for EVO a few years back. Seemed insane back then, but by comparison...

[starsoldier1]

It sucks that prices are going up but I'm glad to see this is a sign that more players are getting serious about collecting real retro games as well. Screw collecting baseball cards or lame stamps!

[Immutable]

Screw collecting baseball cards...!

I think that is a part of the vendor's mentality. They see how popular Mario is and compare him to Mickey Mantle! Yet they have to take into account that Mantle's cards are rare... compared to the 2-in-1 Mario/Duck Hunt carts.

[Archimboldi]

Here's a crazy one, Final Fight Guy:
http://videogames.pricecharting.com/game/super-nintendo/final-fight-guy


just missed one on craigslist :( but I told the seller how much it was worth after some guy started a bidding war...i don't have time for that shit.

They seem to sell between $175 and $240 right now for cart only? they were $30 not too long ago.

I really hope you guys are right about inflation. I would like to collect SNES but a lot of these games are outta control.

[Tanooki]

Hardly natural inflation, it's manufactured predatory profiteering off desperate collectors and people who don't know any better fresh on the firing range.

[Archimboldi]

well yeah, that's what I meant. Inflated prices due to that, not the value of the dollar :)

[zakthedodo]

When I sold my higher end Japanese Mega drive games I just wanted to recoup what I had spent.
I purposely sold Pulseman and Battle Mania for 60 dollars.
Still steep, but I wasn't looking to gouge anyone.
Gleylancer for example is a good shooter, but not worth almost 200 dollars.

I think these games may be drying up for good.
People who grew up with these games are settled in, have a disposable income and getting nostalgic.
No different than baseball cards.

[Steven]

I feel a bit sad for all the gamers out there now getting into the NES/SNES scene. On a personal note, few things in this hobby beat the feeling of being finished and getting into something before it explodes in trend or fashion. I got back into the SNES scene January 2006 and did the bulk of my damage in that year, when games were had for $5-$10 mostly, with a few games fetching up to $40 cart only. Nowadays, it's a circus.

Glad to be done and outta the rat race. Nothing like "being there" before everyone else and their brother gets there.

[jonebone]

Are you collecting to collect or collecting to play?

If you just enjoy collecting, look at Gameboy. The rarest Gameboy CIBs make rare SNES / NES CIBs look common, and yet are a fraction of their price.

But on the console stuff, it's shot up a lot and it will never go back to where it was. I expect a cool-off as well at some point, but prices from years ago will be a distant memory.

[AB Positive]

So, finally got into a stable career, with debts finally dropping off and decided to check back into the classic gaming collecting community... to see this.

I pick some crap times to show my face, huh? So everything's skyrocketing now? Crap! :D

Tell me Genesis is still cheap. *shakes site* TELL ME THE GENNY IS STILL CHEAP

[Polygon]

Tell me Genesis is still cheap. *shakes site* TELL ME THE GENNY IS STILL CHEAP

A few select games have really jumped, but yes, the Genesis is still really cheap to collect for.

[xelement5x]

A few select games have really jumped, but yes, the Genesis is still really cheap to collect for.

Yeah, let the people who really want the NES/SNES stuff fight tooth and nail over it. I'm quite happy with my Genesis collection which probably cost a fraction of the price.

[Polygon]

Yeah, let the people who really want the NES/SNES stuff fight tooth and nail over it. I'm quite happy with my Genesis collection which probably cost a fraction of the price.

Yep, I'm almost done with my N64 collection and I've started on the task of completing my Genesis collection. I'd imagine I'll pay at least half as much, for more than twice the games.

[greedostick]

Yeah Sega is still good with exception of a few games and Sega Saturn. Right now it seems like ps1 is where its at. Just missed a intelligent qube that ended at 33 dollars. And all the squaresoft games dropped. Just tronbonne and a select few games are crazy. I will be working on Sega and ps1 for awhile. I think ps1 is the lowest it will hit ever. People get the game on PSN now on a current console. And people who own the games are at the point where they figure ps1 they will never play again... Until about 7 years when they want to re-live them. My recommendation is get ps1 now because it was huge and will go back up in time. Then ps2. It's like cars get a model about 2 years old for the best deal, bit get a classic and you're gonna pay. So with consoles get a model about 2 generations back.

[Polygon]

X-Box is also a good one to collect for right now, if you collect for it. Original X-Box games are dirt cheap.

[VG_Maniac]

I bought a copy of "Little Samson" for the NES off of Ebay in early 2009 for $70. Good luck getting that game for any less than $400 now.

[StealthLurker]

In general, I don't think import prices track along with domestic prices. The rise in import prices from what I've seen is due to the rise in number of import collectors around the world (based on the various forums, etc I lurk on). I've seen quite a few people hop onto the Super Famicom, PC-Engine, Megadrive, 8-bit famicom bandwagon in the last few years... and now the import Gameboy is slowly ramping up. Luckily I've knocked out most of my want lists ahead of the pack.

I've since moved back to import NeoGeo AES collecting, but with the release of the NeoGeo X console... it's really caused the demand to go up. Cheap carts that used to fetch 30 bucks can go for 60-90 now. Metal Slug 1 which was once 1200 can fetch up to 2.5 to 3k depending on condition (fortunately I already have it). However, the 600-700 games I've put off getting are in the 1k+ range now.

The thing that annoys me is that the number of Westerners flipping games they've acquired on Yahoo Japan to Ebay are creating an inflated "false" demand on Yahoo Japan too. A lot of these flippers charge ridiculous prices on Ebay and usually have the more desireable games sit there for a while due to price.


.

[Pennywise]

Curious if you know what an authentic Mario All Night Nippon would go for with at least the hard case and manual? Probably the only japanese game I have never seen on ebay that isn't a copy on a blank disk.
I got an authentic one complete for around $690 on Yahoo Japan. All Night Nippon Mario is really rare since only 3,000 copies were printed.
A complete All Night Nippon would go anywhere from $400 to maybe around $1,300. (The only sealed copy known was sold for $1,700, which is pretty crazy)

[bb_hood]

I bought a copy of "Little Samson" for the NES off of Ebay in early 2009 for $70. Good luck getting that game for any less than $400 now.

Yeah, all the rare NES titles shot up alot over the last few months. I dont see how people can justify spending so much on loose carts.
Samson has always been sought after. I bought my boxed copy off ebay in 2002 for 35$. At the same time Bubble bobble 2 and Flintstones 2 were also 35-45$ games.

[Tanooki]

Those games kind of plateaued over the last few months, the skyrocketing happened for the most part already. It's the SNES taking it in the ass at the moment as the predators shifted their interest that way, and N64 should come up fairly soon too.

[Gatucaman]

You are not alone, but you are very late to the party. Prices have been quickly rising since 2011. As you say, the high demand or low supply games have quadrupled, and even the most common of commons have doubled. As for what has happened? YouTube and related videos are probably the number one cause for higher demand.

I passed on Evo and Wild Guns a year ago when I felt the prices were too inflated at $100 and $70, respectively. I'm sure this thread could be filled with people sharing similar stories.

WRONG, sorry for being a bit harsher, but allow me to attack the bigger picture. what caused this stupid nightmare where the following factors

1.- The retards who keep spreading the myth of EarthBound being RARE because of Nintendo's unrealistic expectations in their sales and their rather dishonest claims of Earthbound selling poorly in the US (we know for a fact that they were games on SNES that sold over 1 million but nintendo didn't put them on the Player's Choice list since that was more of a popularity contest,) and then decided to let this have the effect on the rest of the SNES library.

2.- The Hipsters who only got into retro gaming just for being hipsters and thinking that any bullshit program who hypes vintage stuff from the cesspool known as the History channel, and have no decency and they usually paid retarded inflated prices of games that shouldn't be going for more than 10-15 USD REGARDLESS OF WHAT GAME IS (with the exception of the legitimate rarer ones).

3.- The Resellers, you know who am i talking about, the guys who grab games for dirt cheap or at least reasonable from yard sales and if they are lucky at flea markets and then mark up the price because they are only for the money, (i keep reading veridical cases of re-sellers, usually the grown adult in his 40s and 50s who didn't grow-up with video-games and has stigma against them, who actually goes himself of sends his "goons" to scalp yard sales and flea markets before they open, and they force the sellers to gave them their stock under the pretense of being collectors.)

4.- The Still continuing False Stigmatization of ROMS and emulators, and to lesser extent, the flash carts, specially around game reviewers

5.- People using every single dirty trick on Ebay to make profit out of retro games, how many times have you seen the typical VINTAGE RETRO RARE tags on an item, even the ones that are murkier brown colored, had labels torn off or worse but still sell under the VERY GOOD CONDITION?, counterfeit bootlegs of Chrono Trigger, Wild Guns, EarthBound, etc, Reselling Repros for triple of what they got them and claiming they are rare games (THIS IS FUCKING ILLEGAL, reselling repros i mean), selling carts with labels WITH NO FUCKING GAME in for over 35 USD, but still using misleading wording tags to make it seem like they have it, seriously, EBAY is now only good for buying Japanese imports if you won them at auctions for under a reasonable price or below 30 USD for a lot, no offense, but is what i been seeing, i have pictures i could share later.

6.- The People who are completely unaware and oblivious to point 5 and still base their prices on Ebay.

7.- The Re-sellers finding out about Goodwill and completely and DEVOURING EVERYTHING NOW!!!

The Video Game reviews aren't exactly that much responsible as people might be, but i will agree that these reviewers tend to be people who spend higher amounts of cash for a game, and dont seem to have consideration, and there had been some (not giving any names) who stupidly claim that games that are at best average or slightly uncommon to be rare.


You want my honest Solution to the problem, controversial as it might be?, For SNES, make your best to get on your hands the japanese versions of chip-based games that are worth a damn and arent text required while you can!.

Rockman X2
Rockman X3
Oshaberi Parodius (the 3rd one on SNES)
Hoshi no Kirby Super Deluxe (Kirby's Super Star) (I own it Thankfully now)
Hosni No Kirby 3
Yoshi's Island
Dragonball Z Hyper Dimension
Top Gear 3000

The only one that YOU NEED to own in it's US counterpart is Super Mario RPG, and for the rest, please do consider getting the Super Everdrive and be happy (SD2SNES right now only emulates DSP-1 and C4, and it seems developing for SFX has stopped for now and it's not clear whatever SA-1 will be supported, plus it's damn expensive, so you better off getting your hands on the games listed above first and then if you don't plan on getting "bent over", go broke with Super Everdrive.)

[wiggyx]

Umad?

[bigbacon]

sadly, even Sega stuff is now on the up and that is just in the last 4 months or so. Sega stuff used to be dirt cheap but I"m seeing SMS games I bought mint like 12 months ago seller for twice what I paid and that is ebay pricing. :(

still dpends on what you want to buy. Sega is still relatively cheap, hardware is cheap (depending)

sadly, even I am at the point where I will probably just get hardware and get flash carts and buy physically copies of this I just really want to have. I would like to complete my sega collections though or at least my 32x one and my SMS one.

[Tanooki]

I don't think the guy in the long ranting post is mad, but annoyed at the reality of it, and who wouldn't be other than a predator making the bucks off others backs and the hipster douche not caring about cost. The earthbound reference is bullshit though so point 1 is partly wrong, that one did have the production run outed by Nintendo so at 140K copies, it's not exactly rare by a long stretch but it's not SMW in the millions common either. It's clearly over inflated due to the reseller, hipster and fanboy who can't get over it group that it's a left for dead game who play it up. He is right though, if you can get over the stigma of an emulator (computer, ouya, retron5, etc) you're set. And if you need more reality, a good everdrive and a few chipped titles are all that stop you from playing on old hardware happily. It's falling into the collector mindset trap and the addiction of wanting more that'll break you with how shit is going now.

And as far as Sega goes, even if it is up a little, that's more than expected with inflation and people getting fucked off over the Nintendo abuse and looking elsewhere. But the fact you can buy a crazy amount of CIB Genesis games still for like $10-20 makes it a lot more fun and viable if you're not going to go dirty flipper yourself or have a good wallet of burnable cash lying around.

[goldenband]

You want my honest Solution to the problem, controversial as it might be?, For SNES, make your best to get on your hands the japanese versions of chip-based games that are worth a damn and arent text required while you can!.

Rockman X2
Rockman X3
Oshaberi Parodius (the 3rd one on SNES)
Hoshi no Kirby Super Deluxe (Kirby's Super Star) (I own it Thankfully now)
Hosni No Kirby 3
Yoshi's Island
Dragonball Z Hyper Dimension
Top Gear 3000

The only one that YOU NEED to own in it's US counterpart is Super Mario RPG, and for the rest, please do consider getting the Super Everdrive and be happy

This is extremely good advice, and basically has been my plan for completing my SNES "collection" for some time now. Fortunately I got most of it done before prices went really nutso.

I've got around 100 real cartridges, but unless I find things for cheap at yard sales, I'm not planning on getting many more since prices are so out of control. With my Super EverDrive in hand, all I really need are the enhancement chip games.

I've got 21/26 of the US enhancement chip games, one of the 2 European exclusives (missing Winter Gold), and a Starfox 2 repro. I've got four of the Japanese games too: Ace wo Nerae, Armored Trooper Votoms, Super F1 Circus Gaiden, and Super Bomberman Panic World.

Unfortunately I still need Super Mario RPG in English, as you say. Otherwise I can turn to Japanese sources for Rockman X2/X3, Kirby's Dream Land 3, and Street Fighter Alpha 2. I'd like some more Japanese exclusives like that Parodius game, Super Air Diver 2, and a few more.

There are 36 Japanese-exclusive enhancement chip games, which sounds like a lot -- but I think most of us can safely skip a lot of the library without worrying that we're missing much, given that we're talking about:

- 6 shogi games;
- 2 horse racing games;
- 6 sports games (2 golf, 1 tennis, 1 baseball, 1 soccer, 1 fishing);
- 4 mech/giant robot games;
- 8 racing games, most of which look like shovelware at best;
- 2 strategy/board games that would almost certainly require a translation and a translated manual;
- 4 RPGs that can't really be played without a translation (except maybe Marvelous, I guess), so you'd probably do better to just wait for a translation and/or buy a translated repro.

And so what's left? 1 fighting game, 1 air combat game, 1 shoot-'em-up, and 1 puzzle game. No amazing platformers, no incredible arcade-style games, no brilliant 3D action-adventures.

Oh, and BTW, if you have a Super EverDrive with a DSP-1 (I don't), you can trim this list by 9 games.

[Gatucaman]

I do apologize for actually believing in my 1st point, i always felt that was the case because of conflicting information but also because of how this become one of the key's for this current situation.

I can tell you guys that i wanted to start owning SNES games, but not because of the hipster colletor fiasco, I (and i believe the majority of you here) own to play, and the fact that i do have a good amount of NES titles, (around 93) is not in conflict to it, because there are at least 170 titles that i want to own and games that i wanna play.

However my dilemma is that for SNES i only recently started not collecting, but Buying SNES games, and right now i only have 22, mainly because of the prices, even here in mexico, they wanna charge you 20 USD for any shitty sports title that is ugly yellow, dirty and with almost no label, and for good common as hell titles, they want to overcharge, and you can tell by looking at the people who sell those titles at those prices, that they got it for dirt cheap, now you may think that 20 usd is not that much, but that's part of the problem, people willing to fall on the same old traps of "supply and Demand", "if it's good, it's worth", "if you want to just pay no more than 5-8 USD, you are a cheap bastard, shame on you", and of course, "if you use Roms, you are a pirate thief scum", yeah because the resellers that have literally made robbery out of cheap priced titles and jank'd them up are somehow not.

And also the fact that up until that point, i was actually kinda poor, no joke, i couldn't afford to pay more than 10 USD for a single title, and i been bough-ting games since late 2007, as late as December.

I grew-up with rentals, i only ever had before 3 SNES titles (1 as a gift), 8 NES games and 4 Genesis games, and if only i ever took my fathers to the flea markets back in the late 90s or pay out of my allowances, i would been happy, i played LOTS of good titles i didn't even knew they existed, specially SNES titles, being my favorite system, but i got tired of playing them on the PC, i wanted to play them on console, and now because of this epidemic, it might not happen, and i can confirm for a fact that is not just for me, or is it ok to drop 35 USD for a copy of Super Mario All-stars, when for that price i can buy a modern game NEW?

This is why i made the determination of just trying my best to get the Chip based games from Super Famicom + Mario RPG, and maybe, just maybe a few actual US carts of certain games if i can get them for cheap here in mexico, and That's IT, i will instead buy the super everdrive.

But that being said, i only will have a flash cart not because i am a pirate, or a thief, but because i don't want to serve the REAL THIEVES, if you know what i mean.

IN FACT, if the prices do ever stabilize for SNES, if a miracle happens, i will, honest to good, BOUGHT EVERY SINGLE GAME THAT I AM INTERESTED BOTH US AND JAPANESE, regardless of the flashcart, because i do support the genre, cause i am a gamer, i want to share this games to my sons if i ever have, i wanna play with my grandchildren, i hope you all understand that.

[Daria]

This is to the guy above me:
Support the genre? Its not a charity, buying used product only lines the pocket of the reseller. No one benefits from you going spend crazy amd buying up multiple copies of retro games.

And this is to no one specific:
And prices are up because gaming is a popular hobby and its no secret. Its not the eveeel hipsters, or the eveeel resellers, or any other convient scapegoat you care to direct your pointy fingers at. Its other collectors just like you, that want the same games you do.

Snes games are popular, so prices are high. But they're not unaffordable. I've said it before, but when a new game is $60 and plummets to half the value within a year, why wouldn't you pay $120 or so for Earthbound when the value is almost guarunteed to maintain?

So many people are eager to plop down $30-$40 on a new 3DS title but sneer at $20 for a popular yet common SNES game. If you actually ply with the toys you purchase the cost of admission isnt that steep. Please, I wish the worst of my financial worries was whether or not I overpaid for an SNES cartridge.

Incidently I still dont own Earthbound or Harvest Moon SNES. But Im not sweating it, either I'll eventually snag a great deal or Ill have the extra funds to treat myself to an "expensive" game. I collect for the long haul, not instant gratification.

Edit: And fuck it. If you honestly just want to play a game emulate the motherfucker. Who seriously gives a shit what anyone else thinks about it? And if for some insecure reason you do care then dont broadcast the fact you play roms.

And another thing. If you dont play roms, but you're seriously upset about the cost of popular retro RPGs then you're seriously missing out on so many amazing fan translated games. AND if you're not missing out because you buy reproduction games over emulation then you're a fucking hypocrite because a. Those games are way more expensive collectively then legit carts and b. that shit totally capitalizes on the hardwork of people that dont see a dime for their efforts.
End rant.

[PizzaKat]

This is to the guy above me:
Support the genre? Its not a charity, buying used product only lines the pocket of the reseller. No one benefits from you going spend crazy amd buying up multiple copies of retro games.

And this is to no one specific:
And prices are up because gaming is a popular hobby and its no secret. Its not the eveeel hipsters, or the eveeel resellers, or any other convient scapegoat you care to direct your pointy fingers at. Its other collectors just like you, that want the same games you do.

Snes games are popular, so prices are high. But they're not unaffordable. I've said it before, but when a new game is $60 and plummets to half the value within a year, why wouldn't you pay $120 or so for Earthbound when the value is almost guarunteed to maintain?

So many people are eager to plop down $30-$40 on a new 3DS title but sneer at $20 for a popular yet common SNES game. If you actually ply with the toys you purchase the cost of admission isnt that steep. Please, I wish the worst of my financial worries was whether or not I overpaid for an SNES cartridge.

Incidently I still dont own Earthbound or Harvest Moon SNES. But Im not sweating it, either I'll eventually snag a great deal or Ill have the extra funds to treat myself to an "expensive" game. I collect for the long haul, not instant gratification.

Edit: And fuck it. If you honestly just want to play a game emulate the motherfucker. Who seriously gives a shit what anyone else thinks about it? And if for some insecure reason you do care then dont broadcast the fact you play roms.

And another thing. If you dont play roms, but you're seriously upset about the cost of popular retro RPGs then you're seriously missing out on so many amazing fan translated games. AND if you're not missing out because you buy reproduction games over emulation then you're a fucking hypocrite because a. Those games are way more expensive collectively then legit carts and b. that shit totally capitalizes on the hardwork of people that dont see a dime for their efforts.
End rant.

Im with you on all your points. Sometimes I watch these Youtube guys and say that you shoulldn't pay a lot for retro games just that you can find them in flea markets, garage sales, goodwill etc etc. Well for starters places like those around my area are always picked clean, secondly I don't want to waste my time and gas searching for things that I'll never find. I got a full time job and there other things I'd like to do. Just not that long ago I started contemplating spending more for a game I like. I bought The Last of Us for $45 and I didn't like it. I could of bought an old game that I would enjoy although it being old.

Finally emulation. I'm still looking in whats a good place for those. If people criticize other people then they can feel free to donate the money to said person or donate the game

[Rickstilwell1]

Actually even NES games can be found at good prices if you get them at the right time/place. I went to a local game store last week as I went there to meet a friend and ended up buying a bunch of NES arcade ports and while most were worth $5 to the owner, a few sought after titles were $10 each and the really good NES sports games like Ice Hockey and NES Open Tournament Golf only cost me $3 each. The most I paid for a game was $15 and that was for Dr. Mario. That seems kind of high for Dr. Mario but I knew I saved money on shipping and every game came with a dust cover that I would normally have to buy separately.

[Raedon]

Incidently I still dont own Earthbound or Harvest Moon SNES. But Im not sweating it, either I'll eventually snag a great deal or Ill have the extra funds to treat myself to an "expensive" game. I collect for the long haul, not instant gratification.



I got Earthbound for $5 at a pawn and it has a huge Blockbuster sticker over most of the label. It's like getting a Ferrari for $20k but it's covered with bumper stickers.

[JSoup]

Edit: And fuck it. If you honestly just want to play a game emulate the motherfucker. Who seriously gives a shit what anyone else thinks about it? And if for some insecure reason you do care then dont broadcast the fact you play roms.

This is what I turned to and I find more gamers are turning to it everyday. Many people are switching their collection practices from "get it all" to "get what I want to physically own, emulate/borrow what I just want to play". It's a great way to save money and leave the collection drama to people who actually want to participate in it.

[Atarileaf]

Im with you on all your points. Sometimes I watch these Youtube guys and say that you shoulldn't pay a lot for retro games just that you can find them in flea markets, garage sales, goodwill etc etc. Well for starters places like those around my area are always picked clean, secondly I don't want to waste my time and gas searching for things that I'll never find. I got a full time job and there other things I'd like to do. Just not that long ago I started contemplating spending more for a game I like. I bought The Last of Us for $45 and I didn't like it. I could of bought an old game that I would enjoy although it being old.

Finally emulation. I'm still looking in whats a good place for those. If people criticize other people then they can feel free to donate the money to said person or donate the game

Some people are just lucky to live in areas with a higher ratio of available games to collectors/resellers. Also warmer climates where yardsales, garage sales and massive outdoor flea markets are year round helps. Some of the people on youtube I follow like craiglistfinds and videogamesellers live in arizona and florida (I believe)

[bigbacon]

Where I live, I've almost never see an old game at a yard sale or flea market. If I do, it is outrageously overpriced. Talking worse than ebay. I also live out in the country so to drive around to yard sales would take forever and I'd spend more time in the car than looking at something. I can drive 30min to and hour and be in range of a retro game stores who I am sure stalks the few local salvation armys and goodwills and gets stuff before anyone else can.

I always assume those who find the most stuff live in the city or the suburbs of a large city.

[Bazoo]

I wanted to comment on the virtual console part of this thread. At first glance, rereleases would appear to drive down prices. And actually, that *is* usually what I see right BEFORE a virtual console relase. However, I've been told this by a few store owners and heard it in at least one interview online: after the initial release, prices are actually driven UP by the virtual console and emulation. In particular, customers come in saying something like, "I tried this via emulator or virtual console. Now I want the real thing." In other words, consumers want real cartridges after trying the digital releases.

So, PSN/virtual console typically drive up demand in the long run. On that note, it might have been best to buy earthbound right before or after its release on virtual console (I honestly haven't checked prices to fully confirm that). Down the road, I agree that there will probably be a bust, but that explains some of the prices currently.

[Gatucaman]

I wanted to comment on the virtual console part of this thread. At first glance, rereleases would appear to drive down prices. And actually, that *is* usually what I see right BEFORE a virtual console relase. However, I've been told this by a few store owners and heard it in at least one interview online: after the initial release, prices are actually driven UP by the virtual console and emulation. In particular, customers come in saying something like, "I tried this via emulator or virtual console. Now I want the real thing." In other words, consumers want real cartridges after trying the digital releases.

So, PSN/virtual console typically drive up demand in the long run. On that note, it might have been best to buy earthbound right before or after its release on virtual console (I honestly haven't checked prices to fully confirm that). Down the road, I agree that there will probably be a bust, but that explains some of the prices currently.

You seriously need to read some of my points and the posts 2 pages before.