Has vintage game collecting reached a peak?

[UnpluggedClone]

Google 4 Gaga

[Steven]

1. Youtube. People like AVGN and Irate Game popularizing vintage games and youtube in general where you have a medium to show of your game collection a lot easier then before. All that has driven vintage game sells up people see it more people want it more.

2. Age. All the kids that grew up with the NES are now in there late 20's to early 30's. They have kids and money and want to relive there nostalgic past.

Has vintage games reached a peak? Will it continue to go up? Will it Go Down?
Curious on what people think about the retro revolution.

I agree with the first two in particular. A lot of us were born in that 1978-1985 range... and now we're getting to be 25-33 years old... have the disposable income to "reclaim our childhood" that we simply couldn't 15, 20 years ago. There is a certain appeal about having the ability to own games you could not back in the day.

Youtube definitely exploded in 2006 and through to today. It seems everyone is a vlogging (or whatever it is called) reviewer on youtube. This of course increases exposure to our hobby.

I think it will remain the same as it is now, maybe pick up some, maybe drop some, but probably will be like this for another 2-3 years. After that, it's anyone's guess. What happens in 2015 when all the late '70s early '80s people bought all they want of 8 and 16 bit games? Will demand still be high and supply high, or low? Who knows. I won't rack my brains trying to figure out the landscape. I just know I'm glad to be out of the rat race!

[Rogue]

I really don't see PS2 kids buying Mega Drive games...
I mean, when they're 25-30 as stated.

[Steven]

I really don't see PS2 kids buying Mega Drive games...
I mean, when they're 25-30 as stated.

I concur. It'll be interesting to see how 8 and 16 bit games are priced in 2015, 2020...

I think a lot of it has to do with nostalgia. Buying what you were familiar with during your childhood. Of course there will always be people buying old games and systems that came out BEFORE they were born, but the majority IMHO are those looking to reclaim their childhood. It's hard for me to see kids born in say, 1997, collecting NES games in the year 2020 when they're 23.

[Arkhan]

alot of it also has to do with the "retro boom"

all the NES mario shirts/bracelets and crap for sale at the mall.

n00blit kids going OMG RETRO MARIO!112233, and suddenly getting into NES and crap and going apeshit, and buying up all the stuff they can

[Smashed Brother]

I've noticed this 'explosion' in everything retro and I've occasionally touched on it in some of my other posts. But, I don't think that it's just 8 and 16-bit stuff that people are salivating over, but also 32-bit stuff. Like the OP said, barely 5-6 years ago, I was able to walk into a used gaming store (even Gamestop) and have my pick of pretty much whatever I wanted and get it for dirt cheap. I once saw Bubble Bobble 2 (NES) for only $15, for crying out loud! I've snatched up plenty of CIB 8, 16 and 32-bit games for very little in the past; not because I had planned on ever selling them, but because I actually wanted to play them (imagine that!). I had missed out on a lot of these games in my youth simply because I couldn't afford them and now that I could, I wanted to see what I was missing.

But nowadays, forget about walking in and finding anything good in any of those stores, and if you do, expect to pay big-time. Everyone thinks that they have 'teh rarez' when it comes these old games and anything that is even remotely hard-to-find is always behind the glass case with a ridiculous price-tag attached to it. Why is it like this? Nostalgia + ebay (and other online auction/sale sites) and a certain lack of knowledge for some people have ruined it for the rest of us who actually pursue a certain title for the sake of playing it.

[Orion Pimpdaddy]

Values for anything do not go up forever. Just look at the American housing market that crashed. Eventually, retro gaming will hit its peak, then probably cave a bit.

On another note, the kids being born today will live in an all digital world, and will probably not want to surround themselves with large bulky physical games sytems and cartridges. They are going to be more inclined to download those kinds of games in much the same way they be downloading their homework onto electronic tablets. The NES and SNES will seem so primitive; they might as well be carved out of rock.