Impossible to find a deal anymore.

[Loganm187]

I have been collecting for a decade now and this past year it seems like every other person is some re-seller looking for games to flip and the days of finding people with boxes full of games at thrift stores and garage sells are just over. I managed a game crazy for 5 years until they closed up and I would score a box of snes and psone games for like 10 bucks that someone would bring in trying to get rid of. Now everyone is trying to get 20 bucks for freaking mario world.

And of course prices for old games have sky rocketed in the past year or so. Earthbound cart for 300? That game sold for like 70-90 bucks for like 10 years. My entire collection has been found in the wild and as many of you know that's over half the fun. Finding that super rare game for dirt cheap feels like finding treasure. I feel very lucky to have been a collector in a time where you could find so much super cheap in the wild and if you needed some cash you could sell it or duplicates online for a good profit, but I grew my collection never purchasing online and now I am watching ebay auctions to pick up the last 10 or so games I need to "complete" my collection." It's depressing now that many of the games I never found in the wild I could have picked up on ebay for 20-50 bucks and now are selling in the hundreds everyday. I'm torn and just need to rant.

Retro game collecting is bigger than ever and now it's just not even fun as I'm competing with people who only know the price of the game and have no such interest in the games themselves.

[sloan]

Hit Goodwill, Salvation Army, garage sales, flea markets, and Craigslist early and often. There are still many good deals to be had 'in the wild'.

[Loganm187]

Goodwill is the only place I ever find anything and that's VERY rare. All the pawn shops, thriftstores and yard sales here are full of nothing now that everyone knows prices. Years ago it was a different story. Found an old man at the thrift store with turtles n time for snes yesterday and he wanted 36 bucks for it...

[MachineGex]

Yeah, while it is more difficult, I do still find deals all the time. I just picked up a bunch of boxed SNES games. I also picked up a bunch of other cool stuff like a neat 8-track boombox, some 50s and 60's boxed board games, etc. from the flea market. It is always hit and miss, but I know if I keep looking, I always find treasures.

[Loganm187]

I feel like such a loser looking to buy demon's crest online to purchase... I have wanted that game for years and never found it in the wild. I did find a bust a groove complete and Power Blade 2 a lil' while ago at goodwill, but it's been dry since. Lots of wasted gas. Anyone have a good deal on a Demon's Crest?

[Rickstilwell1]

It is true though that if too many people in a small community are in the know, that area will dry up. You gotta hit up the big cities to find the most variety and largest quantities of things.

[Loganm187]

Yea i'm in a pretty small college town, but always found awesome deals all over. I am on either side of two large cities though. My area is dry as a bone and having 2 retro game shops doesn't help. I am a big part as to why it's so dry, but damn it's empty now lol

[The Adventurer]

Over the last 3 months I have spent about $200 for about $900s worth of games and consoles. There are still deals to be found out there.

[Gameguy]

It's more difficult now but some stuff turns up every now and then at thrift stores. It's best to own a game store, people bring games to sell there all the time. I just visited one near my home and saw a small pile of SNES games that were just brought in, I was told they paid $20 for the lot of them. There were maybe 6 games there but the titles I remember are Super Adventure Island II, Tecmo Secret of the Stars, and Secret of Mana. It's been ages since I've found any old games that good in a thrift store or craigslist but apparently people are still willing to sell them for cheap.

[The Adventurer]

You also need to acknowlege tha time continues to march ever onward. The PS1 era is nearly 20 years old now and everything prior to that is even older. Classic gaming artifacts are getting scarcer every day. And retro gaming is ever popular. Supply meet demand. It's just the way it's going to be going forward. You can't fight it. You can just be vigilant and patient.

[Sosage]

You also need to acknowlege tha time continues to march ever onward. The PS1 era is nearly 20 years old now and everything prior to that is even older. Classic gaming artifacts are getting scarcer every day. And retro gaming is ever popular. Supply meet demand. It's just the way it's going to be going forward. You can't fight it. You can just be vigilant and patient.

Every platform hits a stage where it exists in this weird "too old to be desirable, but not old enough for it to be nostalgic" limbo. One thing the OP might be experiencing is something you sort of skate towards: the stuff he/she is collecting isn't in that stage anymore where Joe Blow doesn't give a shit and just gives up a box of games for practically nothing.

What is in that stage right now? PS2/X-Box/Gamecube/GBA. If you loved the original X-Box, holy crap, you can get most of that library for a song. People are giving games away, but they come in green jewel cases.

PS-1/Saturn/N64 era stuff is due for hitting the nostalgia bubble (if it hasn't already) as kids who grew up with these platforms as their first console are going to start graduating/hitting their 20's. Just like where the 16-bit has been for the last couple of years...and where 8-bit was when this hobby really gained traction online.

There's possibly another issue, which I ran into recently when I decided to hit my local flea market (was on hiatus from going for 2 years!) -- I have almost every game that was there...that was ever there...that will likely ever be there. There were deals to be had and piles of games here and there...but I had all of it. There was nothing new. Nothing to get excited over. This hobby and the flea market specifically were fun when I had this tiny collection and I was digging for NES/Genesis/SNES carts for games. Some I remembered playing, some I had never heard of, which was even more exciting because it meant playing something new! Every weekend meant a new big ass heavy bag of cheap games to dig through.

The thrill is gone. I found maybe one NES cart I *might* not have, out of at least a total of 100 I saw there. I can easily say it feels like there is a lack of "good deals" like BITD, but a big part of that is because...hell...what's left to get a deal on in my picking grounds? Perhaps you've milked what unique opportunities there were for your local area?

[Casati]

The video game console prices at the local Goodwill as of late have become jacked up beyond what you'd pay for them on Ebay. At another thrift store, they tried to sell me a NES system jack, standard NES joystick plus Othello and a power supply for over $20. At another thrift store, I heard the owner talk about saving some items for sale on Ebay after researching the Ebay prices. On the other hand, I bought a loose NES Dragon Warrior IV for $25 at a retro video game store. I haven't found any video games for sale at garage sales, but I haven't spent a lot of time going to them.

[The Adventurer]

What is in that stage right now? PS2/X-Box/Gamecube/GBA.

Oh my god GBA games are so cheap right now.

PS-1/Saturn/N64 era stuff is due for hitting the nostalgia bubble (if it hasn't already) as kids who grew up with these platforms as their first console are going to start graduating/hitting their 20's. Just like where the 16-bit has been for the last couple of years...and where 8-bit was when this hobby really gained traction online.

That's pretty much where I am right now. N64 was a huge part of late teens, but I ignored pretty much all of the PS1 and Saturn libraries. So I'm eager to collect for all three systems right now.

There's possibly another issue, which I ran into recently when I decided to hit my local flea market (was on hiatus from going for 2 years!) -- I have almost every game that was there...that was ever there...that will likely ever be there. There were deals to be had and piles of games here and there...but I had all of it. There was nothing new. Nothing to get excited over. This hobby and the flea market specifically were fun when I had this tiny collection and I was digging for NES/Genesis/SNES carts for games. Some I remembered playing, some I had never heard of, which was even more exciting because it meant playing something new! Every weekend meant a new big ass heavy bag of cheap games to dig through.

Also where I am, my collection is pretty pathetically small right now, so I'm always running into stuff I've either never heard of or I have vague memories of reading about in magazines but never getting a chance to play. So much heart skipping excitement!

[Damaniel]

What is in that stage right now? PS2/X-Box/Gamecube/GBA. If you loved the original X-Box, holy crap, you can get most of that library for a song. People are giving games away, but they come in green jewel cases.

Yep - that's why I've started working on a complete US PS2 set (even though said set is unbelievably large). Not everything is cheap, but I already owned 100+ of the most valuable games in the set (especially the RPGs) when I started, which was nice.

As an example of what a PS2 buyer can expect, I walked into a local game store and bought 67 (complete) games for approximately $200. Most of the games (60 or so) only cost me $1 - $3 - and only about 20 percent of those were sports games. The other 7 games cost about $80, but were far less common games. I figure I can buy over half the complete set for less than $5 per game without even trying very hard, and 90 percent of the rest for $15 or less (most under $10). You can still buy them everywhere (even from Gamestop!), and nobody wants them.

I've given up on finishing any of my older sets. I *never* find any good stuff at the local thrift stores (I think one of the local game stores sends their lackeys out to pick up anything of value from thrift stores and garage sales, though I don't have definitive proof). I knew things were getting too rich for my blood when I sold three of my NES games (Little Samson, Action 52 and Fire n' Ice - with only the latter complete) for $650. I found all three of the those in the wild 5-7 years ago for less than $30 total, but there's no real chance of that happening anymore. As much as it pains me to do so, I'll have to leave the older systems to folks with more money than me.

[swlovinist]

Huge collector in the wild here. Yes finding deals is getting harder, but there still can be deals to be found. Broaden your base and hunt for stuff that you can trade for the stuff that you want to play. Are you a regular at the retro game stores in your town? What are they looking for? Are there any game conventions in driving distance? There are so many ways to still get some great deals, but it does take work. The days of walking into a goodwill and finding 39 cent games are over...however that does not mean there are not deals like others have said. Look at it this way...your games that you do have are worth more now.

This past year, I slowed down going for so much and have started to play alot more of what I own. Best decision ever.

[Steven]

Ha, coincidentally, I made this post below elsewhere not 30 minutes ago...

---

Man I remember the "last of the glory days" circa 2006... when most quality SNES games were available for literally $5-$10. It was a great time. Heck, in 2006, Earthbound cart only was fetching $40 on average. Most cart only SNES games were going for $40 on average or less. The ones that fetched over 40 cart only consistently I recall were NG Trilogy and Harvest Moon. Maybe EB and Dracula X were more in the $45 range, but with a bit of patience it was possible to snag 'em for $40 even.

I paid $40 MAX for all my SNES cart onlys in 2006 sans NG Trilogy and Harvest Moon (though HM I won with the manual which naturally upped its price a decent bit more)

[IHatedSega]

What is in that stage right now? PS2/X-Box/Gamecube/GBA. If you loved the original X-Box, holy crap, you can get most of that library for a song. People are giving games away, but they come in green jewel cases.

PS-1/Saturn/N64 era stuff is due for hitting the nostalgia bubble (if it hasn't already) as kids who grew up with these platforms as their first console are going to start graduating/hitting their 20's. Just like where the 16-bit has been for the last couple of years...and where 8-bit was when this hobby really gained traction online.

Right now is the the time to start buying PS2 and Xbox games. PS1 you can still get deals on great games, but some are really expensive like with great N64 games.


Also check out these videos Ive found of guys who find amazing deals on games. The first one is a doozy, and he bought a game for it later which works.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaB53wcRFC8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7FytzwnDcA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYoDoyMDc6g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H8A7Xst0wg

[snes_collector]

Another thing to consider is when your collection gets larger, you are going to find less things you need. If I even go to a retro store anymore I'll only walk out with one or two items. But I pretty much have to buy everything online anymore, as what is left that I want doesn't show up around here at all. It does suck to pay those prices, but what else can you do.

[The Adventurer]

Just walked into a local reseller (often over priced warez) and found a copy of Final Fight CD for Sega CD for $15 (albeit a loose copy). He also threw in a dirty Sega Saturn controller I needed for free.

Don't tell me, you can't find deals any more!

[Bubble_Man]

Yup, one of my very first posts as a member of these forums lamented what you describe. I check Goodwill's auction site sometimes, but never found a good deal on it. Games get bid up just as high -- if not higher -- as the games on ebay. Even more, they charge a handling fee by percentage and the shipping prices are horrific. The only good find I got recently was when a friend-of-a-friend got married and decided to sell his entire game collection from the NES era up until the Xbox 360.