My $.02 on the retro game pricing insanity

[bb_hood]

One thing I am surprised that NO ONE mentioned on this thread yet that really bothered me... BATTLETOADS and DOUBLE DRAGON are not worth that and why would you buy them at those prices? Double dragon is all over amazon and ebay for 10 bucks or less and Battletoads sells for around $18-$20... Where and why are paying such prices for games? I was about to run to my local game shop and buy every copy of 7.99 and 16.99 double Dragon and Battletoad they had until I actually checked prices.

I think he means the nes game with battletoads and Double dragon in it, not the 2 seperate games. The one he is talking about generally is a 40$ game

[needler420]

Tell your dad the Extraordinary Guy On The Internet, Ed Oscuro, informs him that cartridge games are more durable than most forms of media. Many of them use mask ROM for the data, which is about as close to permanent as you can get in digital technology. The only things to watch out for are keeping cartridge contacts clean (cotton swab + 99% isopropyl), watching out for leaky batteries in the few games that have them (I don't know if it's really common for game cart batteries to leak though), and making sure things don't get rusty (bagged and boxed is good) or fried by static (in some rare cases you have to watch out for this; plastic game cartridges are pretty safe most of the time though).

Maybe there are better things to invest in, but games do seem to be enduring. One trick of the trade, if there is one, is knowing that if you're looking to invest, you'll turn down many "good deals" because they're just what everybody else would pay. You have to buy substantially below the "common" price to get ahead of the crowd.

But the more important trick of the trade is arranging all your finances so that you can actually afford to keep what you've bought longer than other people. Over the years, too many people bought tons of "awesome" games and carefully put together complete collections of (mostly shit) and it backfired spectacularly because nobody was remotely interested in buying the full deal. If you're genuinely interested in buying a game, because you like it, that's fine but it's not a financial incentive. If you're just buying something because it's "likely to make tons of money" you should have some kind of idea where you would stand if you had to sell it off, and you would also keep in mind if what you've already got has tied up enough of your money that you might end up needing to sell.

About the Sega CD and Nomad for $20, I question whether those really are things people would need to pay money for...if you put those on the shelves of your local store most people would pass them up because they don't have a use. I just like the Nomad because it's convenient, and sure, a nice complete one would be worth more than $20 to me. The Sega CD? Not so much.

This post says it well. I recommend to just collect at a pace.. If you're thinking of waiting till retirement to play your games or pass them down to kids who other wise might not even share your same interests then you probably got too far ahead of yourself.

[Rickstilwell1]

This is the funniest ebay auction I think I have seen in the overpriced games category:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SEGA-GENESIS...item337f1425f5

lmao, they have a Sonic 2 cartridge bundled with a Not for resale Sonic 1 box & manual for the silly inflated price of $30+ shipping and they don't even have the correct match for it to be complete in box. On top of that, complete in box copies of Sonic 1 or Sonic 2 are both usually $10 and below in value unless you're buying an import in which case you have to pay for international shipping.

What has this hobby come to? This is clearly someone who doesn't know enough about video games to know the difference between Sonic 1 & 2.

[bb_hood]

This is the funniest ebay auction I think I have seen in the overpriced games category:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SEGA-GENESIS...item337f1425f5

lmao, they have a Sonic 2 cartridge bundled with a Not for resale Sonic 1 box & manual for the silly inflated price of $30+ shipping and they don't even have the correct match for it to be complete in box. On top of that, complete in box copies of Sonic 1 or Sonic 2 are both usually $10 and below in value unless you're buying an import in which case you have to pay for international shipping.

What has this hobby come to? This is clearly someone who doesn't know enough about video games to know the difference between Sonic 1 & 2.

Yeah this is pretty good. But really, how often do you find one in NICE CLEAN CONDITION.

Best part:

yes that's right what you are reading is true ......

if you have any questions please contact me with eBay and ill give you my phone # so we can talk

-Gonna give her a call about that genesis cart...

[needler420]

Yeah this is pretty good. But really, how often do you find one in NICE CLEAN CONDITION.

Best part:

yes that's right what you are reading is true ......

if you have any questions please contact me with eBay and ill give you my phone # so we can talk

-Gonna give her a call about that genesis cart...

I think sonic 2 not for resale is the most mass produced sega genesis game there is. Not sure what Sonic 1 not for resale is from though.

[Ed Oscuro]

4. (most important) I NEVER spend more than a total of $50 on video games each month. I figure it's the average price of one new game, so it's something I can afford. I also never drive out to thrift shops/fleas just to go to them; only when I'm going somewhere more important and a thrift/flea is near. It happens more often than you'd think, and keeps me from wasting gas.

As for the SCD and nomad, they've definitely got enough demand to go for more than they did. The CiB nomad was an absolute steal and the working model 2 SEGA CD, while really only a modest deal, would have worked out really well for me specifically because I could have sold my malfunctioning Model 1 for about the same amount and broke even with a working system and a whole new library to explore. I'm stuck with what I've got, though, so I guess I'll keep trying to fix it :P

Haha, I definitely shouldn't be preaching at you. In fact, I've got two Nomads, and I'm looking at paying more than $50 just on system repairs, so...

[Gameguy]

This is the funniest ebay auction I think I have seen in the overpriced games category:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SEGA-GENESIS...item337f1425f5

Here's a typical type of ad that gets posted on my local classifieds site. This is the type of pricing I have to deal with.

http://toronto.kijiji.ca/c-buy-and-s...AdIdZ437323961

I used to find stuff priced well years ago, nevermind the great super cheap bundles but even bundles with games priced $5 each with a system included was pretty fair. That fair pricing rarely comes up anymore.

[Rickstilwell1]

I think sonic 2 not for resale is the most mass produced sega genesis game there is. Not sure what Sonic 1 not for resale is from though.

Sonic 2 not for resale is from the Sonic 2/Genesis 2 bundle sold starting at the very end of 1993. Sonic 1 not for resale is from the Sonic 1/Genesis 1 bundle sold from 1992-1993 which replaced the older Altered Beast/Genesis 1 bundle.

[wiggyx]

Is this really part of the problem?

No. Not at all.

The rise in retro game prices is mostly a Nintendo phenomenon, hence the term "Ninflation." Sega games are rising too, but only gradually. If you dig through Video Game Price Charts there are many categories of retro games falling in price, such as PS1, PS2, and PS3. (Of course, it's understandable that PS3 is going down since they start at $60 and fall to $40 very quickly). This kind've proves Flam's point though, that games hit a peak, then decline.

Check out US TG-16 and Saturn stuff. Prices have gone WAAAAAAY up. It's not just NES and SNES anymore.

It must be only certain systems, because I have bought a bunch of PC-Engine games over the last couple years, and they were dirt cheap.

Being that the great majority of US consumers can't rad Japanese, the market for JP games here in the US isn't nearly as substantial (and we're quite clearly in a huge retro boom right now). Typically the only JP games that carry hefty price tags are those that are A) noteworthy and B) weren't available here.

I just want to play Little Samson on my NES and not pay an arm and a leg.

Why is it frowned upon in the gaming community to make reproductions of games like this? I mean lable it reproduction all you want, I don't care; I just don't want to play it on my PC.

It's not frowned on at all, especially when sites like retrousb use completely new materials for them. We just don't consider it legitimately owning the real thing.

It's a total mixed bag. Some people think they're all that is evil in the gaming world, and some folks eat em up.

I don't like the idea of retail repros personally, but love them for stuff that wasn't ever available in whatever format the repro is representing (ROM hacks, translations, etc).

It's the same reason people still buy lottery tickets. You hope to find something so rare or valuable you'll have a hard time just finding it for sale anywhere else, even if it's unlikely to ever happen to you. Someone found plenty of rare NES carts at a garage sale, I think it included the Nintendo Campus Challenge cart and other rarities. You have to like going to these sales, just as Cornelius said.

You may be hoping to find very specific items, but since you're already going to these places you might as well get anything worth the asking price. Otherwise it's like you're just completely wasting your time. You see a $40 game for $5 but you don't buy it because you already have it? If you've already spent time and effort to traveling to these places you'll get anything that's a good deal. Don't even stick to just video games, there might be a ton of other stuff worth buying if only you knew something about it. It's the same with thrift stores, I hardly find any games worth buying anymore but I keep going anyway in case something great shows up.


Why not just buy a flash cart to play it on the NES? You can literally use it to play every game that exists on the system, and plenty of fan translations too for titles that never came to North America. To me it's better than paying someone to make a bootleg of a single game that actually already exists on a cartridge.

The hunt is 95% of the fun for me! I enjoy hunting even if it doesn't prove fruitful. That sort of thing has definitely become a bog part of what I enjoy about the hobby.

I think he means the nes game with battletoads and Double dragon in it, not the 2 seperate games. The one he is talking about generally is a 40$ game

SNES technically

[Flam]

From what I can tell most collectors frown upon reproducing games that were released in North America, due to the fact that they feel it will devalue the original copies (lame excuse I feel) and also it might lend it's self to a rash of fake copies on the market (which I feel is somewhat legit, but couldn't you crack open the game and easily tell if it was an original or reproduction? I'm not sure).

Seems to me that there is a level of elitism with the fact that if they feel that a game is too readily available that it might drive the prices down on the originals.

[bb_hood]

Check out US TG-16 and Saturn stuff. Prices have gone WAAAAAAY up. It's not just NES and SNES anymore.




Being that the great majority of US consumers can't rad Japanese, the market for JP games here in the US isn't nearly as substantial (and we're quite clearly in a huge retro boom right now). Typically the only JP games that carry hefty price tags are those that are A) noteworthy and B) weren't available here.

Yeah, TG-16 and Saturn stuff has gone up alot. I agree with what you say about the Japanese games, years ago they were way cheaper than they are now. Many more people are buying super famicom carts especially Ive noticed.

[wiggyx]

From what I can tell most collectors frown upon reproducing games that were released in North America, due to the fact that they feel it will devalue the original copies (lame excuse I feel) and also it might lend it's self to a rash of fake copies on the market (which I feel is somewhat legit, but couldn't you crack open the game and easily tell if it was an original or reproduction? I'm not sure).

Seems to me that there is a level of elitism with the fact that if they feel that a game is too readily available that it might drive the prices down on the originals.

I know that I wouldn't produce a repro of a US retail game. It just doesn't seem right. I tend towards repros strictly for stuff that wasn't/isn't available here or on cart format at all (ROM hacks). Anything else just feels like cheating. If I really wanna play a US release game that I don't own want to pay $$$$$$$ for, then I'll just go with a flash cart.

Yeah, TG-16 and Saturn stuff has gone up alot. I agree with what you say about the Japanese games, years ago they were way cheaper than they are now. Many more people are buying super famicom carts especially Ive noticed.

I've definitely started buying SFC versions of games when the language barrier is moot (SHMUPS, beat em ups, etc). It's just not worth it for me to own US versions of a lot of the games that I really still want for my SNES collection

[Gentlegamer]

As a 15 year old, I know that there are some younger collectors emerging and I can tell you a few reasons why:

1. People who had retro systems as young children (this would apply to people in their 20's now) want to play their games again or people who inherited older systems from their siblings want to explore more retro games.

2. They have parents who are reliving their past and as a part they live it too by playing the games as well and get into the retro scene.

3. They read about old ganes on the internet and become interested.

4. (This one is me) They realize the games of today are more about flashy graphics than about good mindless old school video game fun. They found out about a system from a sibling or neighbor and go on the internet to do more research and find out how cool retro games are. Then nearly 3 years later they're posting about how their generation still gets into these awesome games

Hey young fellas, did you know there's this nifty thing called emulation? You can play all your early childhood memories right on your PC!

(I try to spread the gospel of emulation to get as many as possible satisfied without driving up the prices for the real things. )

[Gameguy]

and also it might lend it's self to a rash of fake copies on the market (which I feel is somewhat legit, but couldn't you crack open the game and easily tell if it was an original or reproduction? I'm not sure).

Sure you could open it up if you were buying it in person, and had the right security bits with you. It's kind of hard to do that when you're buying something online from an internet forum or auction site. Just make a reproduction of a game, make some reproduction label that looks like the real label, take a pic with a cell phone, and you're good to go. If you said you needed the money for a new digital camera as your old one died few people would question the poor quality photos.

I'm sure not everyone selling one would even know that their copy would be fake. Some guy could buy one off craigslist from a scammer and think it's legit, and later try to sell it online as a legit one. Plenty of people can't tell if a Pokemon GBA game is bootleg when the label looks wrong and the cart shell is the wrong colour, having a bootleg NES game in a correct shell with a near perfect label is going to be harder to spot.

I've seen someone selling a bootleg Stadium Events cart along with their NES collection, there was no mention to the titles. It was just "I'm selling my NES collection, look at the pictures to see what's included." The label on Stadium Events looked really bad so I knew it was a fake, it looked nothing like the good quality repro labels from the various repro threads here. You know someone would just think it's real and make a higher offer on that stuff, thinking it was just some guy's old NES collection they dug out of their basement.

As for the people saying they'll never sell their games anyway so it's fine to replace the labels, that only works until they need money quickly. How many people have listed their collections for sale when they needed a new car or had to pay for sudden home repairs or medical costs? This stuff happens all the time. At least with rare book collectors when using a replacement jacket they indicate it's a reproduction on the inside of it, there's no indication like this with replacement game labels. You have to closely examine everything now like verifying designer handbags from counterfits. I'm against reproduction anything with video games, unless it's something that never came out at all.

[pseudonym]

I think it's a bubble that going to burst at some point, I mean, who would have thought that NES games that no ones cared about a few years ago like SCAT and Dragon Fighter would be selling for $150+ today. Lots of examples like that now.

[Atarileaf]

The hunt is 95% of the fun for me! I enjoy hunting even if it doesn't prove fruitful. That sort of thing has definitely become a bog part of what I enjoy about the hobby.

It'll get old soon enough, trust me.

[Ed Oscuro]

Or too expensive...

[The 1 2 P]

I've mentioned this before and I wonder how many people take things like gas and wear and tear on their vehicle into consideration when they hunt. If you find a $20 game for $1 but you spent the whole day hunting and half a tank of gas, are you really ahead? Of course not.

This is the truth, whenever you see people report their scores at Thrift Stores / Tag sales / Flea markets, all that ever gets reported is what was found, never the fact that they had to wake up a the crack of dawn on a saturday, spend $30 in gas, put 40 miles on their car, and spend 6 hours finding nothing until you find the one place where you bought a couple of commons for a buck a piece. The amount of time and effort it takes to find anything worth buying at tag sales absolutely negates whatever you might have found 99% of the time.

I guess it's different for everyone but for me I pass three Goodwill's and a no-name thrift store on my Monday commute to work. And if I have to go back later that week to the furthest store I will pass all four again. The majority of Goodwills and thrift stores are all on my way to or from work since I have to travel for my job. The things that I usually have to put effort into is yard sales and flea markets on the weekends where I have to get up early(on my day off) and travel a bit out of the way sometimes. But I don't travel as far as what I did back in 2011 where I was literally hunting in three different states. But that still worked out pretty well because I found all three of my PS3's in two different states and they were very cheap.

I HATE going to tag sales, every time you run into people parking their car in the middle of the road blocking the lane, people walking out into traffic, people pulling out without looking and comin close to causing car accidents, all for what? If I hit 10 tag sales in a day, I can guarantee you 9 out of 10 will be nothing but antiques or baby products, with the occaisional selection of junk books / CDs / VHS tapes. The 10th sale will be someone who thinks their junk PS2 or Gamecube games have still retained 90% of their original value.

Theres always the gamble of finding nothing, especially if you are only searching for one particular thing. While I mostly look for games, I also hunt for toys, PC software, wrestling belts, comic collectibles, dvds, cds and lately ink. Theres still times I don't find nothing but you need to expand your horizons in order to not come home completely empty handed everytime. Lately I've been hitting this flea market in the city every week instead of the normal once every two months I use to. In six weeks I've only come home empty handed once and one week I found a like new condition 3DS for $45 with games. Persistence pays off sometimes.

To comment on the OP, the video game market's prices will fluctuate like any other market. Thats the whole reason we hunt for deals. Now is actually a good time to unload factory sealed Nes and Snes games because the market continues to eat them up. But theres no telling how much longer that will last. I'm still waiting for the right time to sell my factory sealed N64 games. But as far as what I actually want to play, some of it is priced pretty high, especially 3DO import stuff I need to complete my collection. But I will just keep shopping around in hopes of getting the best deals.

[wiggyx]

It'll get old soon enough, trust me.

I'm 35. I think I'm old enough to know for myself, thanks.

[drtomoe123]

I guess it's different for everyone but for me I pass three Goodwill's and a no-name thrift store on my Monday commute to work. And if I have to go back later that week to the furthest store I will pass all four again. The majority of Goodwills and thrift stores are all on my way to or from work since I have to travel for my job. The things that I usually have to put effort into is yard sales and flea markets on the weekends where I have to get up early(on my day off) and travel a bit out of the way sometimes. But I don't travel as far as what I did back in 2011 where I was literally hunting in three different states. But that still worked out pretty well because I found all three of my PS3's in two different states and they were very cheap.

I totally agree. There's a Half-Price Books and a local chain used game store on my way home from work so I usually try to stop in three or four times a week and I've still found a ton of stuff without wasting a lot of gas, time, or money. I don't try to go too far out of my way to look for stuff unless I know for a fact that a certain store has a copy of something that I want, but I still take some day trips to go look around a nearby city.