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

[recorderdude]

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?

[Bojay1997]

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.

[skaar]

Because all the idiots driving up NES prices have moved on to other things.

[The Adventurer]

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.

[Rickstilwell1]

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.

[Guyra]

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

[recorderdude]

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.

[Atarileaf]

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.