Prices have gone up, way up, but as time goes, I don't see them getting cheaper, if anything more expensive.
Nothing deemed collectable rarely ever gets cheaper with time.
I paid some pretty good prices online for some Japanese Mega Drive games, but titles like Battle Mania, Pulseman, and other games in that bracket such as Gleylancer you're lucky to find for under $140.00
I recently sold most of them, for about 80 dollars each which was 30 dollars cheaper then the next cheapest copy maybe a year ago.
I wasn't looking to make money, I actually lost a small amount, but I just wanted to flip them and move on to another system.
Now these same games have shot up at least 50% more and I'm kinda kicking myself but these listings for 200 dollar games just sit there on Ebay forever.
You can catch a break if someone doesn't know what they have most likely from an estate, but if it goes to bidding that can get pricey as well.
The best time to collect is when a system is wrapping up it's lifespan.
Consoles are everywhere.
In 1997 or so, the EB Games here had literally a wall full of model 2 Genesis complete with the sidecar Sega CDs and 32X for about 60 dollars.
I bought a Nomad in 1995 for 180 dollars in 1995 and another in 1997 for 40 dollars.
Back in the early 2000's used Genesis and both NES and SNES games were also sold in much more retail stores.
If I really, really want a game badly enough to the point it's itching at me, I can afford about 80 to 100 dollars once a month to throw away on it, but that's rarely the case.
The fact is, less consoles are working, most retro games were owned by children, especially NES.
Sega sold the Genesis to an older demographic , signing deals with Joe Montana, Tommy Lasorda, and Arnold Palmer. ( The kids loved them some Arnold Palmer back in the day).
The system was expensive and heavily sports orientated as well as arcade.
Probably the 1st system whose majority of owners took care of.
But to wrap whatever point I think I might me making up, time is no friend to the serious collector and to some point even the casual one.
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