historical used game prices

[gbpxl]

I recently bought Earthworm Jim SNES 100% complete in great condition for $75. It seemed reasonably priced in my opinion. To compare, I went back to some advertisements from BRE Software in a copy of EGM from late 1994. The game was selling used, complete for about $39 if I remember correctly. adjusted for inflation, this is about the same as what youre paying in 2018 for the same item.

I tracked the price all the way through early 1997. It got lower and lower of course and then once N64 was competing full swing with the Saturn and PS1, prices for 16 bit titles disappeared. so theres a span of about 20 years where the price of Earthworm Jim is hard to track but we know what it was during its initial run and then more recently with the advent of pricecharting.com

how do we go about filling in this gap?

[Niku-Sama]

we don't.

the collector market didn't take off until about the same time where price charting is able to go back to. Before then its assumed as not in demand, because it wasn't, and didn't command a high price comparatively speaking.
basicly before the generation that had those games when new, got money, that's when the prices jumped and that kind follows along the histories on price charting and other such places

[jb143]

Would any of the DP Collector Guides of the time offer any clues?

[gbpxl]

I wonder too if we can look at eBay auction final values from 96 to 2012

[jb143]

I wonder too if we can look at eBay auction final values from 96 to 2012

Nah, eBay probably has that data somewhere, but in general their history only goes back 90 days or so, or some other ridiculously not useful amount of time. You might be able to find somethign on the Internet Archive if you put enough effort into it and knew where to even begin looking.

[WelcomeToTheNextLevel]

Would any of the DP Collector Guides of the time offer any clues?

Yes. I have one from 2002, it has prices at the time for games on systems that came before the Sega Genesis.

[Aussie2B]

There are the price guides that were in Video Game Collector magazine as well.

At least with my own experience, I think I have a pretty good memory of where and when I bought my games and for how much. Of course, I was always aiming for good deals, so what I paid wasn't necessarily the typical going rate.