Is it just me or have classic games prices skyrocketed?

[greedostick]

I sold a lot of my collection about 2 years ago because I needed to do some major repairs on my car. Today I looked online curious as to what prices are for some of the games I sold and wanted to get back. Games like Wild Guns, Dynastic Hero, Magical Chase, EVO Search for Eden, and the regular easy to find stuff like complete chrono trigger, secret of mana, final fantasy, dragon warrior etc.. In some instances prices have quadrupled! $1600 for complete Little Samson! Also over $1000 for complete evo! I just sold both those games on ebay for under $200 each a few years ago. I couldn't get $10.00 for a complete dragon warrior on ebay then. Now one over $40.00? A complete Final Fantasy around $250.00. Even games like Splatterhouse climbed in price. Did something happen recently? I figured with virtual console people would be dumping some of these games since you can buy most of them now. Maybe the exact opposite happened. Maybe people want to collect them now? I can justify the EVO price. Complete it is very rare, but for the most part it seems games have inflated in price dramatically. Am I alone here?

[Zing]

You are not alone, but you are very late to the party. Prices have been quickly rising since 2011. As you say, the high demand or low supply games have quadrupled, and even the most common of commons have doubled. As for what has happened? YouTube and related videos are probably the number one cause for higher demand.

I passed on Evo and Wild Guns a year ago when I felt the prices were too inflated at $100 and $70, reapectively. I'm sure this thread could be filled with people sharing similar stories.

[Informationator]

I sold a lot of my collection about 2 years ago because I needed to do some major repairs on my car. Today I looked online curious as to what prices are for some of the games I sold and wanted to get back. Games like Wild Guns, Dynastic Hero, Magical Chase, EVO Search for Eden, and the regular easy to find stuff like complete chrono trigger, secret of mana, final fantasy, dragon warrior etc.. In some instances prices have quadrupled! $1600 for complete Little Samson! Also over $1000 for complete evo! I just sold both those games on ebay for under $200 each a few years ago. I couldn't get $10.00 for a complete dragon warrior on ebay then. Now one over $40.00? A complete Final Fantasy around $250.00. Even games like Splatterhouse climbed in price. Did something happen recently? I figured with virtual console people would be dumping some of these games since you can buy most of them now. Maybe the exact opposite happened. Maybe people want to collect them now? I can justify the EVO price. Complete it is very rare, but for the most part it seems games have inflated in price dramatically. Am I alone here?

I started my SNES full set back in April of 2011 and I'm at a little over 500 uniques right now. Prices are horrendous and rares are impossible to find in good shape. I'm really glad I got all of the R8s and R7s out of the way early... R6s now cost what R7s cost last year, and what R8s cost a while before that. Like the other guy said, commons are 2-3x as expensive too. Thankfully I ended up with a crap ton of dups I've been hoarding all this time, so that should help hedge my costs (since they're just sitting there, rising in value), but it's still really rough. Even at this point in my collection with all of the rares and expensive commons out of the way I could easily spend another 2 grand on finishing my set...

It's a horrible time to start collecting NES and SNES!!!

[Nionel]

The problem I've had in my area is that it's getting hard to find anything worth while, the back half of last year one of the local stores started moving a lot of their retro stuff online due to poor in store sales and no anything they get in worthwhile goes to another store or on eBay, so they have mostly common and a handful of uncommons in the case as any given time. The only retro game I had seen worth while there recently was a copy of Mega Man 5 for the NES, but they wanted $50+ for it, which is more than I was willing to pay.

I've also noticed that my local Goodwill Electronics store seems to get hit by resellers before I can get anything there either, just about a year ago I had a ton of great finds there including boxed copies of Yoshi's Island, Actraiser, 7tn Saga, Mario 64, plus a number of decent games like Final Fantasy 7, Legend of Dragoon, Vagrant Story, Super Metroid, Shining Force II, etc. I also got a GBA SP and a blue Game Gear each for $10 there. Now when I go in all I find is sports games and the occasional deal on a console (picked up a model 1 Genesis for $4), but I haven't bought a game there in over six months. So, I've almost given up on hunting for retro games here in town, I mostly only look now if I'm in a bigger city where it feels like my odds of finding them are better.

[Immutable]

The price climb may be due to the rising demand from a new generation of retro gamers (kids of the 90's) who have entered the market and are snatching up all the retro goods.

[greedostick]

This is truly sad. I collected for 15 years and the prices always stayed around the same. I had so many complete games. I had a really awesome collection and always figured when I finish nursing school I could buy the 4k in games I sold back in a few paychecks. Some of the games are x10 what they use to cost. I checked out metal warriors on SNES and wasn't surprised that it is in the $250.00 range also. Then I looked up Hagane which was always rare but always surprisingly cheap. Found just the manual sold for $200.00 and a complete copy sold for over $2000.00! At that point I just gave up looking. It's ridiculous. I feel like i'm collecting rare neo geo carts. There has to be something going on. People can't really be dumb enough to consistently pay these prices for games that are listed on ebay on a daily basis.

I don't think I can even collect anymore. I remember always thinking to myself SNES is so great and there really isn't any expensive games compared to the other consoles. A few years ago I don't think there was a single complete game that would hit over the $150.00 mark except MAYBE E.V.O or Earthbound 100% complete...

Guess those days are over...

It just seems like it's Nintendo games.... Genesis and Master System seem about the same. I wonder if it is the 90's kids who now have Wii's and want to own all the games they forgot about until virtual console came out. I really feel like i'm dreaming here. I can not believe these prices.

[ncman071]

i feel the exact same way....this time last year i sold my entire snes collection....the system lots of controllers and about 130 games....including all the major rpgs....chrono, ff3, earthbound, etc.....i had to due to a financial situation....anyway over the last 6 months i've tried to recollect what i had to sell....i've obtained about 75 snes carts.....NONE of the rpg's so far because they are incredibly expensive.....250 for a loose earthbound....60 for a loose ff3 70-90 for a loose chrono trigger.....unbelievable.

i still plan to get at least a few of these games but its gonna take me much longer than i thought....i just cant justify spending 100 for a loose megaman x2 when i got to pay the bills and take care of my family.....i still love the system....but damn

[Niku-Sama]

i dont see the drive for this sort of thing continuing, i've noticed it lopes along where i am at where prices fluctuate alot.

i can see them dropping soon once the economy levels out and people start making real money, for the time being though it seems to people hard up selling them for unherd of prices

[sloan]

It makes no sense either when you consider supply and demand comparisons on ebay auctions. I go on there and see 3 pages of auctions for a given game, all priced in the $20-$30 range. Give me a break. When there are that many of a specific title available, then the price should be below $10. I always wish those greedy BIN sellers well in getting their asking prices.

[Polygon]

No, it's not just you. I think we're seeing a spike and that things will eventually calm down. However, I don't think it will ever go back down to the level they once were. Retro games are becoming more popular and with all these YouTube channels about retro games, it's certainly giving the market a boost I think.

It makes no sense either when you consider supply and demand comparisons on ebay auctions. I go on there and see 3 pages of auctions for a given game, all priced in the $20-$30 range. Give me a break. When there are that many of a specific title available, then the price should be below $10. I always wish those greedy BIN sellers well in getting their asking prices.

My favorite part is when you see the ones with rare in the title. I mean, did they not take a look before the listed to see the pages and pages of the same game they're selling?

[Archimboldi]

1st party Gamecube games got NUTS at some point when I wasn't looking. They used to be around $10 a piece, now $40, $50, $60, etc.

and yes, everything is "OMG RARE Burstrick Wakeboarding PS1 disc only L@@K"

I'm guilty of paying dumb prices for PS1 games and keeping prices up...thankfully the worst damage i'm looking at is $100-$150 for Suikoden II and Tron Bonne. What can I do though? I can't compete with the eBayers who knock on doors of garage sale houses at 6AM and those guys pick it all clean by noon. And every single pawn shop, resale shop, goodwill, etc. on my old game hunting route is all sports and no name games, because they're ebaying too. I went for old time's sake last weekend and it was almost a total bust. On top of that, I got accused of ebaying by some mom at a garage sale (what can i say? an ebayer would also say "no, i'm just a collector" like i did) It was all extra humiliating now that I'm all grown up. 2004-2008ish were prime for me. Though even towards the end of that, I could see the tides turning.

Half Price Books often has stock, but their pricing is incredibly hit or miss. My friend who worked there said they use ebay/amazon like everyone else, but the hipsterish peeps they have working there don't know what they're doing. Sometimes this works in your favor, other times it's a $80 copy of FFVII GH or something. They might just be trying to price out ebay sellers, but that seems a bit counterproductive because that $80 copy of Tales of Symphonia is not going anywhere.

I feel really bad for nintendo collectors though, that's just madness. Word got out about Hagane being a damn awesome game, apparently. also, $100 for disc only xenoblade

On that note, I'm thinking I should get all the DS games I want now.

[wiggyx]

Just remember, where there's big boom, there's almost always big bust. More a matter of when than if...

[o.pwuaioc]

Sad thing is that even Japanese games are starting to be pricier. I balk at the huge jump in Rockman games. I should have bought them all a couple years ago when they were manageable. Never again will I say, "I'll wait until I have extra disposable income." There's barely a difference in price now between US and J for some games.

[Tron 2.0]

This is truly sad. I collected for 15 years and the prices always stayed around the same. I had so many complete games. I had a really awesome collection and always figured when I finish nursing school I could buy the 4k in games I sold back in a few paychecks. Some of the games are x10 what they use to cost. I checked out metal warriors on SNES and wasn't surprised that it is in the $250.00 range also. Then I looked up Hagane which was always rare but always surprisingly cheap. Found just the manual sold for $200.00 and a complete copy sold for over $2000.00! At that point I just gave up looking. It's ridiculous. I feel like i'm collecting rare neo geo carts. There has to be something going on. People can't really be dumb enough to consistently pay these prices for games that are listed on ebay on a daily basis.

I don't think I can even collect anymore. I remember always thinking to myself SNES is so great and there really isn't any expensive games compared to the other consoles. A few years ago I don't think there was a single complete game that would hit over the $150.00 mark except MAYBE E.V.O or Earthbound 100% complete...

Guess those days are over...

It just seems like it's Nintendo games.... Genesis and Master System seem about the same. I wonder if it is the 90's kids who now have Wii's and want to own all the games they forgot about until virtual console came out. I really feel like i'm dreaming here. I can not believe these prices.

Most of mention it's demand at any thing at all.Part of it has to do with ones that grew up on a nes or snes and 'wants it again to relive there childhood.The other being youtube and any site that is all about classic gaming,it does give that exposure again.It is the worst time if you're into (TG16 or snes) at this point prices for it have really spiked.Though i find the genesis to be reasonable still expect for the sega-cd You can wait it out and hope it's market crashes,or just buy a flashcart and play the games you want that way.Last year i bought a sfc and a super everdrive and i'm pretty much 'satisfy playing it that way.

[ProjectCamaro]

The price climb may be due to the rising demand from a new generation of retro gamers (kids of the 90's) who have entered the market and are snatching up all the retro goods.

This is very true.

Speaking for myself the N64 was THE console that defined my childhood and I had always regretted selling it. I would periodically check eBay for N64's for sale and finally bought one two months ago. When I searched online for N64 forums I found out there was a huge retro gaming world out there. As I looked more into it the more I got into retro games and started buying all the consoles from my childhood, both the ones I or my family owned but also the ones I always wanted to get. A couple thousand dollars later I have a pretty large collection (by my standards) a couple TV's set up only for gaming and 13 consoles including some of the more rare ones.

Just remember, where there's big boom, there's almost always big bust. More a matter of when than if...

I see this happening, hopefully sooner over later.

[Urzu402]

Yeah I know what you mean, like 2 games have shot up so much in price are, Mega Turrican for Genesis and Run Saber for SNES. I remember when I got both of them they were under 10 dollars like I think 5 each. Now due to exposure on internet shows and such they've gone up a great deal on the ebay market. like now i think Run Saber goes for around 50 bucks and Mega Turrican for 30.

[recorderdude]

Ninflation has kept my SNES collection very small and mostly made of commons, but I just hit game #90 in my Genesis collection last night. Genny prices are just about right for me, so I've gotten to try out a lot of its library - I've yet to pay more than $10 for any single genny game, and I've got quite a few rares too; Ristar, Ballistic Double Dragon, Zombies Ate My Neighbors, Gaiares, Elemental Master, All the Shining games complete except II, etc etc. The only game I feel got bloated is Gunstar Heroes, which is "worth" $30 complete but, in dry times, I've seen listed and sold for $50 LOOSE, due to its reputation for being an amazing Run N Gun...though all of the other genesis TREASURE games, thankfully, are pretty affordable. Mega Turrican gets pricey too (especially complete), but at least that has the excuse of being legitimately rare. Same with MUSHA and Grind Stormer.

[Urzu402]

Two more games that went up in price are the 2 Sunset Riders games, both the Genesis version and SNES version.

[kupomogli]

I'm glad I only purchase games I like, but yeah. I've been waiting to find a good deal on certain overpriced games and the price has went up three or four times higher. So now I'm screwed out of getting it at any decent price. I should have just paid the already ridiculous price before because now I'm probably not ever going to get the games because I just don't find the games worth it.

I passed on Evo and Wild Guns a year ago when I felt the prices were too inflated at $100 and $70, reapectively. I'm sure this thread could be filled with people sharing similar stories.

A few years ago Wild Guns was around $60-70 complete. Now can't even get a loose copy for less than $100 unless you find it in the wild. I don't mind looking for loose stuff in the wild, but I never find anything complete and in good condition in the wild.

[wiggyx]

I see this happening, hopefully sooner over later.

Gosh, I hope so.

Honestly, the rate at which things are skyrocketing leads me to believe sooner than later. Bigger boom, bigger bust.