Retro game prices on Ebay

[Melf]

I'm not exactly sure why people are looking more favourably towards the SMS now, the games were cheap because few people cared about the system. It used to feel like a crappy loser next to the NES. Now it's feeling more "nostalgic" than it used to. Even for me, and I used to hate it except for a select few games. It's sort of like how people are warming up to the Gamecube when it was the third place loser when it was current.

I think it's because people are finally discovering what a wonderful little system it is. Back in the 8-bit era, most people missed out because of Nintendo's bullying of retailers and publishers. When you corner 90% of the market with a monopoly, it's hard for other machines to get an audience.

The GameCube wasn't the same situation because Nintendo's hold on the market was long gone by then. I guess most people didn't have room for a third machine, and now that it's cheap, they're finding out that the GC was a great console.

[Gameguy]

I think it's because people are finally discovering what a wonderful little system it is. Back in the 8-bit era, most people missed out because of Nintendo's bullying of retailers and publishers. When you corner 90% of the market with a monopoly, it's hard for other machines to get an audience.

I can't fully blame Nintendo for Sega's failure. It wasn't Nintendo's fault that Sega decided to make most games use the most boring cover art possible, and use no cartridge art at all by using plain text labels(with plenty of spelling mistakes). Just going by the marketing of the system for store shelves, it looked stupid and boring. I originally thought Sega's original controllers were horrible because the cables were stuck out the right side of them, but since the Famicom had the cables the same way I won't blame Sega for that stupid decision, though it was still stupid to just copy Nintendo. Putting the pause button on the console instead of the controller was also a dumb move. North America did miss out on a bunch of good games, but we would have got most of them if the system sold better here.

The GameCube wasn't the same situation because Nintendo's hold on the market was long gone by then. I guess most people didn't have room for a third machine, and now that it's cheap, they're finding out that the GC was a great console.

At the time having a system that was capable of playing DVDs was a big deal, Nintendo's system couldn't do that back then. The PS2 also had backwards compatibility with PS1 games which made it the best system to get at the time, that and the games had a more adult appeal compared to the kiddie image of the Gamecube. Now it doesn't matter if systems can play DVDs, players are pretty cheap. Playing PS1 games isn't that big a deal anymore either, people can use a PS3 to play them now. A few reasons why the Gamecube is more popular these days. Just a feeling of mine anyway.

[SparTonberry]

Also, GameCube was seen as a "kiddie" system when it was released. It was seen as a console mostly for first-party games, like the Wii U probably will be in the future.
Making purple the primary console color probably didn't help.

Master System HAD marketing? :P
(maybe I'm just not old enough to remember it, but I hear especially after Tonka took over, there was pretty much no commercials in the US, so I never even heard of the console until emulators came around in the late '90s. Knew the NES quite well, though.)

[bigbacon]

i would love to talk to the marketing directory of sega/tonka at the time of the SMS....i really want to know why....

sucks that the US got shafted with it as in europe there were tons of great games we never got.

[Einzelherz]

One thing I have noticed lately is a lot of auctions being bought with 2 seconds left by accounts with hundreds if not thousands in feedback score. I assume that these are standard ebay sniper-resellers using bots, but I don't recall that being a problem in old video games a couple years back.

[Gatucaman]

One thing I have noticed lately is a lot of auctions being bought with 2 seconds left by accounts with hundreds if not thousands in feedback score. I assume that these are standard ebay sniper-resellers using bots, but I don't recall that being a problem in old video games a couple years back.

Is this all true?, and if this happens with Japanese games as well with legit japanese sellers, (not those damn US sellers living in japan using the same trend tricks "RARE VINTAGE WHY THE FUCK WOULD I WANT TO START MY AUCTION AT 0.01 CENTS LIKE LEGIT AUCTIONS INSTEAD I WILL MAKE A BIN PRICE WITH ONLY A 10USD DIFFERENT FOR THE STARTUP PRICE THAT MIGHT GET EVEN HIGHER!"), then i may as well just try to get X3, Hoshi no Kirby 3 and Jikkyou Oshaberi Parodius, and be done)

[Tanooki]

Bot snipers have been around for more than a few years now, it's not just something fairly recent. The problem is all the reseller trash and predators getting into the racket especially in the last 3 years which is making it look like a recent thing. The volume of douchebags is just a lot higher trying to fight for stuff to flip.

[ProjectCamaro]

One thing I have noticed lately is a lot of auctions being bought with 2 seconds left by accounts with hundreds if not thousands in feedback score. I assume that these are standard ebay sniper-resellers using bots, but I don't recall that being a problem in old video games a couple years back.

When I bid on auctions I normally wait until there is 3 seconds or less. If you bid early all you're doing is driving up the price and giving yourself more competition. I've gotten some really good deals doing that in the past.