I will agree with you that Earthbound was widely clearanced. It also sounds like others had a similar experience to yours in finding Suikoden 2 on clearance. Not sure what that really has to do with the topic though other than just reinforcing that there is no real way to predict.Originally Posted by kupomogli
The bigger question would be asking if video games will still be widely collectible in the future or will people just move onto something else. Video games could become the same like beanie babies.
Exclusivity plays no role in rarity, and I don't think it plays a huge role in value either. Anybody who wants to play Stadium Events can play it in the form of World Class Track Meet. The fact that the game is common and cheap in another form doesn't stop Stadium Events from pulling in massive figures. When valuable games are ported/remade, sometimes the value takes some degree of a hit, but it usually doesn't make a big difference.
While that was a concern immediately following the crash in the US, I think video games have been around for too long to ultimately be a fad. It's a basic form of entertainment now, like movies and TV, and will always have collectors among the fans. Prices will fluctuate as waves of nostalgia come and go, just as prices dropped on pre-crash games, but even past its height of collectibility, there are still people collecting pre-crash games and paying good money for the rarer games.
The original release of a game that's later rereleased is completely different than a game that's released across multiple consoles. People want the original versions of these games. Castlevania Dracula X Chronicles is the only retail version of a game that includes Rondo of Blood in the west but the original version is high priced and not this version of the game that can be played on a US console. Final Fantasy 4 has a PS1 release that's identical to the original Japanese release as well as includes Chrono Trigger, yet the SNES version of Final Fantasy 2 is higher price because "it's the original release in the west" despite that the game itself is an inferior version. It's not inferior in the sense of it being Final Fantasy 4 Easy Type which a lot of people like to say yet they have no idea what they're talking about, as Easy Type was based on the US version and made even easier, but it is still inferior to the original release of which the PS1 version essentially is(and no additional loading like Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy 5, and Final Fantasy 6.)
Like Smash Bros does for most Nintendo series, these rereleases likely have a positive effect on the oriignal versions of these games, because people enjoy the games and then likely want to get the oriignal versions of said games.
How many third party multi console games for past systems can you think of that are high priced? Games with the same title but are completely different games don't count, as the games themselves are essentially exclusive.
Everything in the above post is opinion unless stated otherwise.
Actually, on modern consoles, quite a few. For example F1 2009 on the Wii is valuable despite the fact that the same game can be had on at least three other consoles in superior versions at 10% of the price. Similarly, there are a lot of third party games on PSP that were ports of games on other platforms that are significantly more valuable than the original versions. Heck, it's happening right now with the LRG stuff. People are paying premiums for the Switch CEs and dumping their PS4 CEs. Exclusivity is only one factor in collectibility and value.
Last edited by Bojay1997; 12-12-2018 at 06:57 PM.
Indeed, there are tons of multiplatform games where one version is significantly more valuable, just because it's rarer. And the most valuable version is often not the best version.
As far as "collectibility" goes, the original version of a game counts for something, but I see far more people talking about wanting to play "definitive" versions of games, and later versions are often regarded as better in that regard. So the later version sells way more copies, and the older version commands a premium because there are fewer to go around. As for Rondo, the PC Engine version is not only significantly rarer, but it's also a superior version in a number of ways (it's the only proper physical console release, for one; playing a handheld game with TV out just isn't the same). So its price definitely has way more factors involved than it being the original release.
This. Besides, what fuels value of gamed to prospective buyers? Are younger, "current gen" folks going to be nostalgic for these games ten or twenty years down the road?
As mentioned before, what about digital downloads? Will it be a matter of just downloading the game or will people hoard their devices if it can't be easily downloaded? I can see it now:"iPhone 4S with Orig. Flappy Bird OMGRare!!!!!!!!!"
I'm going to predict that the market for modern games in the future is going to be pretty small. Many of the games that people (ie regular folk, not "gamers" per se) play are play and toss as they are about a buck a pop or free with ignorable micro transactions. I'd be very surprised if there would be a big push for something like the original "Candy Crush" or something along those lines. People will try to cash in on the concept ("Xbox 360 with Afterburner Climax RARE11112!!!Download") but will more than likely fail at getting anything reasonable or at all for such things.
Not so much Flappy Bird and Candy Crush but I could see Minecraft and Fortnight, or whatever the kids are playing these days. In 15-30 years kids who played those will have the same nostalgia that we have for the games we grew up with. What the market will look like for playing these games no one can guess. Or how you even "collect" a digital only game, but the nostalgia will be there.
"Game programmers are generally lazy individuals. That's right. It's true. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Since the dawn of computer games, game programmers have looked for shortcuts to coolness." Kurt Arnlund - Game programmer for Activision, Accolade...
I imagine those nostalgic for digital-only games will largely be turning toward emulation to recapture their childhood. But with the way Steam has more and more retro games available these days, the most popular digital-only games currently will probably be available to legally purchase when today's kids are adults. My guess is that there will be very little in the way of people buying systems because of what's installed.
In 20 years Nintendo Labo is going to be the next Earthbound..... except, well, it'd be the next Earthbound if Earthbound wasn't very good and you got bored of it in five minutes, but I'm atleast predicting Labo will be expensive. First off, it's a Nintendo product, then there's how easy this junk is to destroy. You can print the stuff out and create more, but there's still going to be the official Nintendo cardboard cutouts which will be rare to find in good condition. I'm not making a joke prediction. A complete version of Labo will be super expensive, but even if it's just the software, because Labo is such a massive failure, it's likely that it won't get more than one printing, and with it being a Nintendo product on Nintendo's second highest selling console(atleast I'm using that assumption anyways,) it'll have many more people who are interested in buying these in the future. What can I say other than Nintendo fans are stupid(j/k j/k.)
Everything in the above post is opinion unless stated otherwise.
I wouldn't put any money on Labo becoming collectible mostly because I see hordes of them still being sealed in the next 15 to 20 years and no one wanting to buy them because there's no nostalgia for something no one used
Oh please don't fill me with false hopes of a day when old games are reasonably priced.
That said personally I think our savior will be pirate repro carts.
Probably comparably... in DVD cartoon collection, years ago Shout Factory's Transformers Matrix of Leadership used to be $200 used while their GI Joe footlocker (and Time Life's Real Ghostbusters) were like $80 and getting lower. It was assumed this was because the existance of a bootleg of the Matrix of Leadership set (there is no comparable bootleg of the other two things) had made the real thing more desirable... but years later, the situation reversed: You can now get a legit Matrix of Leadership set for sixty bucks (And in fact, I did) while the GI Joe Footlocker and the Time Life Real Ghostbusters both go for $300-$500 on used markets, and a part of me at least thinks this might be because of that same bootleg--people who really want a Matrix can get the hong kong one, while if you want a GI Joe footlocker or all the special features of Real Ghostbusters, you have only one option.
I wonder if Earthbound will be the same in a few years.
Right now the console I see gaining in value is the TurboGrafx, hucards specifically, because I almost never see those get bootleged. I dunno why, because its definitely possible, but it just doesn't seem to happen very often.
After 29 years the TurboGrafx kids will finally have one up on the Nintendo and Sega crowds.
I shudder to think of TG-16 games getting even more expensive than they already are. I'm just glad the system was a lot more successful in Japan, so there are tons of good imports that are plentiful and still pretty cheap.
That's best way to way to look at it currently given how much TG16 has skyrocketed in price,is pce second hand.Beside,cheaper alternatives for playing such as the turbo everdrive flash cart and fpga clones such as the super sd system 3.
I said widely collectible, there will always be people collecting them just as people did before it became the cool mainstream thing to do. Even with beanie babies some people still collect them, and some are actually still quite valuable. It's just that now the majority of them are basically worthless or near worthless as most people only buy them for cheap to have a cute bear on display, not really to collect them anymore.
I remember around 2000/2001-ish Atari 2600 games became somewhat popular to collect, even common games could be sold for $2-$5 each. Now good luck getting $1 for a common game, most people moved away from collecting that console except for a few collectors and it's just the rare games that have significant value. Barely any collectors I run across actually collect pre-NES anything, Atari, Coleco, Intellivision are all basically ignored by most collectors now.
Here's my opinion, if something can be found on ebay at any given time then it's not that rare. Most valuable NES/SNES games are listed on ebay at any time, even if the prices are listed high they're still easy to find and available for purchase. Copies are still selling and more copies are being listed every few months, they're really not that rare compared to other collectibles. For example with actual rare stuff related to VHS tapes and laserdiscs, I have several where copies only turn up once every few months or even years, yet most still barely sell for $10-$30 when they are actually available. Value for anything really just depends on demand, something being rare isn't enough. If games aren't collectible in the mainstream anymore then the value will just drop as they're still too common to find. For most people dealing with original hardware is more of a pain than anything as most people don't have the correct TVs to even play them, using original hardware requires buying various converters and dealing with various shortfalls like having no working lightgun games, and with age more hardware needs to be repaired or maintained just to keep running. Eventually most people besides the die hard collectors will give up and move on.
I mostly hate pirate carts that look near perfect to the originals, I'll make exceptions to multicarts just because they're a neat oddity and of course translations or unreleased games are a bit different. I'm pretty sure someone released an alternate version of Streets of Rage 3 with added content a few years ago and it was available for purchase on a bootleg cart from a source, though I could be mixing it up with a different game instead. Old pirates from the 90's looked odd and were pretty hard to mistake for original games, they're still neat oddities to keep if found cheap. Straight modern pirates just irritate me and make me reluctant to buy anything I can't look over in person.
I'm not sure if bootlegs are specifically why those specific DVDs are cheaper. I thought that the Matrix of Leadership was reprinted or more widely available at some point, that's why it's cheaper now. It was in more high demand when the Transformers movies were starting to come out but now it dropped because the interest in the films dropped and the sets are more common to find. The GI Joe and Real Ghostbusters sets are harder to find and that's why they're so expensive now. I personally was waiting for the Real Ghostbusters set to drop in price before I would buy it but that never happened. Oh well. I've kind of moved on from older cartoons anyway so I'm not buying as many sets these days. Just wait until these series get released on Bluray, then the value of the DVDs will drop. As formats for video keep changing the older ones will get less valuable as long as they get re-released on the newer formats. Nobody would have thought their VHS tapes or laserdiscs would have become so worthless, people spent so much on these when they were new.
I wouldn't go so far as to call retro game collecting "mainstream". Modern gaming and buying AAA games digitally is what's mainstream. But retro collecting is less niche than it used to be, if only because there's more awareness of it, as there's more awareness of just about everything that's niche thanks to how ubiquitous the internet is now. Back in the day, a lot of us were more or less collecting in our own little bubbles, without talking to a ton of other collectors and making our collecting known to those who don't collect. I do think retro collecting has become something of a hipster-y fad for some, especially when the games in question are from before their time, same reason why vinyl collecting has become more popular recently. They enjoy watching AVGN and what have you on Youtube and decide to buy some retro games themselves on a whim. When the novelty wears off, their stuff will end up on the market again. But I think most people buying and selling are flippers who are aware enough of game collecting to think there's money to be made and people with nostalgia for what they're buying. Some will get their nostalgia fix and eventually dump their stuff too, likely causing prices to drop some on late 80s and 90s games as they did with pre-crash games. It makes sense that there seem to be more collectors than ever because the gaming populace grew over time. If there were more players of NES and the 16-bit systems than there were for pre-crash systems, it's only natural the ratio would carry through and result in more collectors of those games as well. And that's on top of the extra demand produced by the fact that companies like Nintendo and Sega are still around and still promoting awareness and nostalgia for their classics. It's easier to forget about and lose interest in pre-crash systems and games when they have little relevancy on the current market.
As for eBay, it's harder to use that as a judge of rarity than it used to be. When everything was an auction and most people started low, sure, a rare game game would come and go and then not be seen again for months. But now, it's more likely to see a rare game available at any given time, just it's so overpriced it'll sit on eBay for months and months on end. When there isn't a fee to list an item, there isn't much incentive to sell it immediately. And with the greater awareness of collecting, some stuff is bought for the purpose of selling. For example, I've been selling off some of my LRG stuff, and one game I'm selling is variant of which only 600 copies exist. I'd say that's pretty dang rare. That's probably not much more than a lot of rare games that pull in huge figures. But the demand isn't there for what I'm selling, and on top of that, a lot of people bought it to resell. There are always multiple copies of that variant available on eBay.
So things like the NES Classic or SNES Classic aren't available from major retailers? They're only available from specialty game stores?
The Atari 2600 was available for sale longer than both the NES and SNES combined, there should be more players for the Atari 2600 than the more modern NES or SNES consoles. People just got bored with the Atari games sooner, it'll still happen with more modern systems once the fad dies down. It's hard to remember that consoles like the NES and SNES were only marketed for about 5 years before replacements were introduced, compare that to the PS2, PS3, or XBOX 360. Flippers and resellers are only able to profit off of games because people are willing to pay big bucks for them, mostly hipsters like you've mentioned. When they stop collecting, there won't be as much money for resellers so they'll stop buying them to flip.
I think one reason Atari game prices and that era of games isn't expensive now is because those games haven't aged well at all. Just looking at screenshots of them makes my eyes bleed.
Well that was really the point, that there can be games on the current gen consoles that are expensive. Although we're likely not going to know that until 10 years or so atleast. There's not nearly as many exclusives the past two gens though, so there's likely not going to be as many games that are expensive or hard to get. I think if people are looking for games that will be higher priced in the future, they should look at 3DS games where nearly everything released is exclusive.
Everything in the above post is opinion unless stated otherwise.
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