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Thread: Why did common SNES games skyrocket in price over the past 2 years?

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    Default Why did common SNES games skyrocket in price over the past 2 years?

    As a starting SNES collector attempting to regain his childhood collection and more, I've noticed a sharp spike in SNES prices in the past few years. Copies of Mario World that once went for $8-10 now tend to START around $15 at most places (and to be completely fair, both of those prices seem kind of high for the most common game in the SNES library). Super Mario All-Stars starts around $20. Heck, pretty much every mario game except paint and the educational titles (which are probably harder to find than most of the main series minus RPG in the first place) goes for a pretty penny. The Donkey Kong Country series sits at around $15-20 each, maybe a bit more for the third. Heck, Link To The Past starts around $30! The majority of quality common games have doubled in price (especially licenses like animaniacs, the lion king, aladdin, tiny toons, magical quest, etc) and some have absolutely exploded for no apparent reason like RunSaber. I understand completely that these titles are being affected more by demand than rarity, and I can understand some of these that are slightly harder to come by but reasonably common fetching a bit more, but I have to wonder exactly what pushed the super nintendo into such a godly status to make a game like Super Mario World with 20.6 million copies available worldwide worth more than many harder-to-find titles on other consoles?
    Last edited by recorderdude; 01-03-2013 at 04:58 PM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by recorderdude View Post
    As a starting SNES collector attempting to regain his childhood collection and more, I've noticed a sharp spike in SNES prices in the past few years. Copies of Mario World that once went for $8-10 now tend to START around $15 at most places (and to be completely fair, both of those prices seem kind of high for the most common game in the SNES library). Super Mario All-Stars starts around $20. Heck, pretty much every mario game except paint and the educational titles (which are probably harder to find than most of the main series minus RPG in the first place) goes for a pretty penny. The Donkey Kong Country series sits at around $15-20 each, maybe a bit more for the third. Heck, Link To The Past starts around $30! The majority of quality common games have doubled in price (especially licenses like animaniacs, the lion king, aladdin, tiny toons, magical quest, etc) and some have absolutely exploded for no apparent reason like RunSaber. I understand completely that these titles are being affected more by demand than rarity, and I can understand some of these that are slightly harder to come by but reasonably common fetching a bit more, but I have to wonder exactly what pushed the super nintendo into such a godly status to make a game like Super Mario World with 20.6 million copies available worldwide worth more than many harder-to-find titles on other consoles?
    The same reason Atari 2600 and other classic games have mostly leveled off or decreased in price over the past few years. The kids and teenagers who had the SNES in the 90s are older, most likely working professional jobs, and have disposable income and therefore demand for even common games has increased. People collect what they remember and were nostalgic for. Eventually the demand will level out as these collectors age and have families and kids and collecting old games becomes less of an interest. My advice to you is to either wait it out or just accept that the higher prices are here for at least the near future.

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    Great Puma (Level 12) skaar's Avatar
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    Because all the idiots driving up NES prices have moved on to other things.
    <Sothy> its the internet <Sothy> who cares

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    Because as time marches forward old gen games become more scarce, and retro gaming is currently popular. So supply meet demand.

    EDIT: Also Popular Games are guaranteed sales for retailers. So common popular games sell for a premium cause businesses like staying in business.
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    That's another truth. The people who got their NES fullsets are now moving onto the next systems of choice - Genesis and SNES. The SNES is more sought after still, but look out. Even the Genesis stuff is going up in price. The cheapest Genesis console you can find on ebay or Amazon has gone from $12 to more like $20-$25 in the last 2 years. Stuff I tried to sell here for a low price that just sat got snapped up really quickly at my even higher buy it now price on ebay just because it must have been less than it is going for today when I priced the things months ago.
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    Quote Originally Posted by skaar View Post
    Because all the idiots driving up NES prices have moved on to other things.
    Yeah, they were all like, "mission accomplished! Now onto phase 2!" :P

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    Yeah, I can see all of that making a good deal of sense.

    Personally, I'm only getting a SNES now BECAUSE of those high prices even though it was my childhood console, especially because said childhood collection that got sold buy-it-now for $40 total by my unknowing father when I was about 10 had a LOT of rarer games (ALL the donkey kong countries, mario games and Kirby's Dreamland 3 just to name a few)

    I got a genesis first, even though I didn't have one as a kid; all I had was a SNES and a gamecube with a few new games and all the sonics including retro collections. The main reason I got into it was because it was comparatively cheaper and there was a lot on the system I hadn't played. Still trying to hunt down a copy of gunstar heroes at a decent price, but at least that has the excuse of being moderately rare. I have about 82 or so games in my genesis collection, a lot of them pretty hard to come by AND wanted (such as the Ballistic Double Dragon port, phantasy star ii, zombies ate my neighbors, ristar, gaiares, etc) and even more that are hard to come by but not half as sought after (Turrican And Universal Soldier Ballistic ports, Socket, High Seas Havoc, Earnest Evans, Atomic Runner Boxed, Dashin Desperadoes Complete In Box, MCDonalds TreasureLand Adventure Complete, both rolling thunder 2 and 3 boxed, #2 being complete and too many more to list.), and I haven't paid over $10 for any of them, most cost around $5 and Phantasy Star II cost me about $2.

    Moving onto the SNES, even some of the fairly unknown games are getting bloated and I find myself digging in the corners to get good deals on more obscure good games before people REALIZE they're good, like a copy of Super Turrican I snagged for $8, or Capcom's Goof Troop for $4. Even now online prices for super turrican start at $16 and online prices for goof troop start at $12. I'm guessing the store I got them from only kept up on prices for popular-selling games because those two had price stickers so worn from staying on the shelf and not selling that the clerk had to type the serial numbers in. Still, how can you have a SNES and not have mario world? that's like a genesis without sonic. That's my dilemna, anyhow.
    Last edited by recorderdude; 01-03-2013 at 07:50 PM.

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    I remember Tetris/Dr. Mario being a $5 or less title. Now it seems to sell loose for $15 - $20.

    As others have said, SNES is in that sweet collecting spot right now - the same spot Atari 2600 was in 8 - 10 years ago when prices seemed to be highest. They've declined now to the point where some R9 games can be had loose for under $50 like bumper bash. Also Nintendo has amazing brand recognition and anything with Mario, Yoshi, Donkey Kong, etc command big bucks.

    So common, yes. Cheap, no.

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    Besides now, and the fact that SNES prices will probably eventually decline, I have to wonder if prices for retrogaming in general will ever shoot up like this again in the future. Carts can't last forever - I can only imagine what working copies of even the most common of games will go for fifty years from now.

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    Quote Originally Posted by recorderdude View Post
    Besides now, and the fact that SNES prices will probably eventually decline, I have to wonder if prices for retrogaming in general will ever shoot up like this again in the future. Carts can't last forever - I can only imagine what working copies of even the most common of games will go for fifty years from now.
    Hmmm. I'm 43 now, I'll be 93 I doubt I'll care. I doubt I'll even remember my own name.

    Of course that's assuming I make it anywhere close to 93

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    Quote Originally Posted by Atarileaf View Post
    Hmmm. I'm 43 now, I'll be 93 I doubt I'll care. I doubt I'll even remember my own name.

    Of course that's assuming I make it anywhere close to 93
    I will live forever, I will never ever die. And neither will my games.

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    So with given logic on data.. That means PS1 and N64 games are next to see a crazy price surge

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    Quote Originally Posted by Collector_Gaming View Post
    So with given logic on data.. That means PS1 and N64 games are next to see a crazy price surge
    This seems to be already well underway for N64. Or maybe that's just local around here, I haven't really been checking ebay prices on the stuff.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Cornelius View Post
    This seems to be already well underway for N64. Or maybe that's just local around here, I haven't really been checking ebay prices on the stuff.
    No its everywhere. Actually N64 stuff has been on the rise for the last couple of years from what I've seen. Very gradual at first but its definitely the next big collecting console to see prices rise from collector demand.

    Glad I'm not into that system.

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    so I should start collecting N64 stuff now so when the N64 crazy hits, I can sell at a premium. I disliked the N64 anyway so selling what I have wouldn't be a huge loss.

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    Just about anything popular has gone up in price online which many times is on a Nintendo system.

    GameCube (sought after, in demand) games have also spiked and they are barely past the last gen phase age wise. GameStop not taking in GameCube games anymore is surely part of the reason.
    Last edited by FOnewearl; 01-04-2013 at 02:15 PM.

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    I've never found A-List First-Party N64 games going for less then $20 for YEARS. Its why I've never been able to get my hands on a copy of Super Smash Bros. Its always $25/$30.

    I'm just glad I had N64 as my console when it was new and got a lot of the best titles for it new. Also at the very tale end of its life cycle I got a copy of Conker's Bad Fur Day for $5 bucks brand new at EB.
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    Quote Originally Posted by bigbacon View Post
    so I should start collecting N64 stuff now so when the N64 crazy hits, I can sell at a premium. I disliked the N64 anyway so selling what I have wouldn't be a huge loss.
    I'm way ahead of you in that front, just got around 50 or more left to get.

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    I believe retro gaming has it's spikes in popularity and is now pretty damn popular. Lots of videos and websites talking about retro gaming makes people more interested again and revisit the past. people complain things aint dirt cheap, but should be happy because things are still damn cheap. Cheap enough where you can hoard a whole collection after a few years of collecting. I'm not trying to collect every game as fast as I can. I am taking my time and playing games I like.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Atarileaf View Post
    No its everywhere. Actually N64 stuff has been on the rise for the last couple of years from what I've seen. Very gradual at first but its definitely the next big collecting console to see prices rise from collector demand.

    Glad I'm not into that system.
    Yeah, I'm seriously considering selling off my N64 collection of about 130 games. The only thing I ever played on it was Goldeneye multiplayer at a friend's place, never owned it myself when it was current. So no nostalgia for me. And I played the Zelda games on Gamecube. Other than that, Conker's is one of the only other games that interests me much (not at all saying there aren't tons of great games). My backlog is just so huge I'm not sure I'll ever get to N64 games.

    Just got to figure out when/if things will peak (and actually convince myself to part with a collection).

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