I've been going through a rough couple of months in my neck of the woods lately when it comes to finding decent games in the wild. All of my usual spots have dried up. And when something good does pop up, the same people who 2 years ago would sell Super Mario RPG for $12.99 or a Legend of Zelda for $5 are now charging 3-5 times that much. It's ridiculous, I can't explain the corruption of my area and retro gaming finds. It gets even worse when I see posts in the Monthly Finds 2008 thread that people get daily that I would literally kill for sometimes. Is it just my horrible luck?
Has anyone noticed a shrinking of the market, or at the very least sellers becoming ridiculously aware of nightmarish prices through eBay or what-not? It seems that if small second hand places have anything traded in of value or interest, it automatically goes to an auction site, like eBay- I NEVER see anything that makes me go "wow, i so have to get this!" No Baseball Stars for $1, no NES toploader for $20...no way. Instead, more often than not I come home empty-handed because nothing was affordable. Not cheap- affordable! I'm not paying 9.99 for some common SNES or NES game that I know I should be able to find for 3 or 4 dollars.
One place near me for sure has employees that are collectors that actually skim through all of the good games they take in on trades or what-not and keep them for themselves without ever putting them out. The only thing I can do is try and adapt- to find new places to look, which is exciting yet such a pain. Where do you guys like to go to find great games for the low?