Phantasy Star prices drop?

[cyberfluxor]

Man, it was just a year or so ago that Phantasy Star 1, 2, 3 and 4 were $15-40 complete around here, now they're not even hitting $10. Ebay is showing it as being cheap as all hell, like rock bottom prices. This of course means it's a great time to get the time if you haven't but what happened? There were Phantasy Star collections released in the past for the Saturn and Dreamcast, I wouldn't believe the GameCube or other new generation systems could have affected it that badly, did it?

I bought mine about 3yrs ago for $1 each boxed w/out manuals but it was expensive at that time so I jumped on the deal.

[jcalder8]

I'm guessing that the same thing happened with them as happened with NES games. The market just fell out on them around this time last year and still hasn't recovered. There was no warning and it seemed to happen across the board so it seems unlikely that it was a compilation that caused the crash. Games that were fetching at least 15 are now going for 5.

[cyberfluxor]

The "unexpected" part is what kills me. Quite a few people have money sunk into hundreds of games and a huge fluxuation like this really kills their investment, however it gives them a chance to buy at low prices. Of course the downside of this is if it'll recover, which to an extent I feel it's going to stay at these prices, like the 8-bit games are now.

[VACRMH]

Good to hear, I can complete my copys now. Just need the manuals for 1 and 4, and the map for 2

The one collection that could have dropped the price as well is the Sega Genesis Collection for PS2 and PSP.

[udisi]

Genesisi stuff in general has dropped off in the past year.

Games like Pirates Gold, the Shinging Forces, Toe Jam and Earl, they're all cheaper now than they were. There's been an across the board drop.

[scorch56]

The "unexpected" part is what kills me. Quite a few people have money sunk into hundreds of games and a huge fluxuation like this really kills their investment..

.. tell me about it.

The sad part is I HAVE to sell off my collection right now. I should have a couple years ago.

PS IV can still get a decent price though.. complete.. on a full moon.

Like someone else said.. the entire market has bottomed out. Sure everybody pays good money for the standard popular stuff still (FF's, Suikodens and such).. but there used to be a lot of obscure titles that only collectors knew much about that could command higher than normal prices.

Everytime I have to prove this point.. Metal Warriors on the SNES comes to mind. A complete copy in excellent condition used to fettch upwards of $100 on eBay. While I saw one go for $120 there just a couple of weeks ago; I also remember one of our members having to let one go for $28 about six weeks ago. I felt REALLY bad for him.

Hmmm.. I wonder what a complete copy of E.V.O. is going for these days.. <goes to look>.

[mailman187666]

I want the Saturn market to drop so I can pick up the rare ones I don't have yet so I can complete a collection.

[NE146]

"investing" in videogames?

Does my buying Phantasy Star 1 for the SMS at $99 new count as one?

[PentiumMMX]

This is actualy good for me. Maybe I'll finally buy Phantasy Star IV...

[cyberfluxor]

"investing" in videogames?

Don't know if this is sarcasm or not, but I have a few friends that buy games and sit on them til they're "rare" or demand goes up. It's generally on SNES RPGs they find for $1 or whatnot.

As for Metal Warrior, wow. I bought a loose one a few months ago for like $9. Someone PMed later in the day about buying it, of course since I don't own an extra copy I held onto it and have like it so I still play it from time to time. Interesting though.

[The Plucky Little Ninja]

I bought every one of my 4 Phantasy Stars new, so it's never something I could ever consider an investment. They were just too expensive when they first came out.

[diskoboy]

Yeah - I never understood why Phantasy Star for the SMS was so expensive.

The game is by no means rare. It was probably the SMS's most popular game, if you think about it. I don't run into SMS games, often. But when I do, they seem to be PS and Zaxxon 3-D..

Thank god I bought mine when they originally came out, for $50.

[Blitzwing256]

hee hee, i was fortuante enough to get the "Sega for the 90s" version when they sold them new for 15$

[Griking]

The "unexpected" part is what kills me. Quite a few people have money sunk into hundreds of games and a huge fluxuation like this really kills their investment,

Well that's where they made their mistake. Video games are fun. Video games are a hobby. Video games are collectible. They should NOT be an investment.

[scorch56]

Don't know if this is sarcasm or not, but I have a few friends that buy games and sit on them til they're "rare" or demand goes up. It's generally on SNES RPGs they find for $1 or whatnot.

As for Metal Warrior, wow. I bought a loose one a few months ago for like $9. Someone PMed later in the day about buying it, of course since I don't own an extra copy I held onto it and have like it so I still play it from time to time. Interesting though.

A bare cart of Metal Warriors can go for $50 alone on eBay.. so you got a very good deal.. especially if the cart looks good. There are several "non-RPG" SNES titles that can get a good price if they are complete.. and in good condition. Metal Warriors, Metal Marines, E.V.O. (kind of an RPG), Rock N' Roll Racing, Wild Guns.. hell even my sealed copy of Family Dog comes to mind; but these are titles you don't see a lot of on eB at any given time.. especially complete. Granted.. do a search and you'll find "dealers" with their "stores" asking exhorbanent prices.. but they sit on them forever.

Used to be a time on eB, that ended just about a year ago.. when a guy could throw any of these titles up with no reserve and almost be assured he'd end up with an auction closing around $100.. but not anymore. Like I said.. I've seen any one of these titles go for $30 one week.. and $120 the next (except for maybe EVO). the whole key is to watch and see when there ISN'T any listed.. then list yours.. but that's not foolproof either. About 6 months ago.. I was trying to sell my Turbo Duo.. I'd watced them for weeks on eB and they were topping out at $850 but averaging around $500. So I waited until about 4 days went by and no one even had a single one up on eB for a few days straight. Two days into the auction about 3 people listed one.. by the time my auction ended there were 8 units up! That was a record # of TDs for one week at one time (as far as I've seen.). Mine ended up fetching $350. Obviously many prople were using the same practices and theory I had .

Genesis titles are traditionally lower than SNES ones.. but it's STILL very hard to find any of the PS titles 100% complete. PS II & III came with a lot of extra documents and such thrown in the case. When I was collecting mine it took a lot of research and interpolation to deduce what came with what (Try finding a copy of PS II with the hintbook.. which originally came bundled with it.. next to impossible). I ended up "piecing" complete copies together.

I'm a stickler for "completeness" I don't care about reg cards, epilepsy warnings or promos for other games & merchandise.. but I have to have maps, charts, etc. that came with a game.. they needn't be sealed by any means.. just "complete". That's been somewhat my saving grace.. "complete" copies of games are still the ones that catch the highest prices. I would never consider buying a "bare cart no matter what the price.. but that's just my preference due to the amount of time and effort it takes to "complete" them. A bare cart of Chrono Trigger.. to me.. has no more value than a bare cart of Super Mario Kart.

As for "investing in games" that's been my downfall as well. I NEVER thought of myself over the years as doing that. I wanted the games and was buying them for my personal satisfaction and collection. Therefore.. when I bid on a game (98% of my collection was garnered off of eB) I didn't mind winning it at "market value". I've never been your average DP'er that waits and holds out to score a game at the absolute cheapest he can; but now.. that's biting me in the ass as I'm liquidating my collection.. and 80% of what I sell is taken at a loss.

I'm not bitter or anything because like I told my friends over the years.. I am very lousy at putting money in the bank and keeping it there. I instead bought video games.. and the way I looked at it.. the values would ONLY go up.. or level off. One day (as in now).. if I HAD to sell off my collection (as in now) I thought I would at least break even. I thought of it as a "savings account" with no interest. Unfortunately.. that hasn't proven to be true.. my bad; but at least.. I DO have something to fall back on that IS helping to sustain me and my family. Lousy business practices.. I know.. but I'm not a businessman.

[NE146]

Don't know if this is sarcasm or not, but I have a few friends that buy games and sit on them til they're "rare" or demand goes up.

Well yeah.. it was sort of biased sarcasm

I guess looking at value in videogames kind of leads to the idea of selling them. And I just have that sick mentality I need to keep everything videogame related I've ever owned since the 70's.

Anyway, selling them in general would be a loss since I bought the majority of them new for what.. $30-50 bucks a pop? Hardly any used vids sell for that much anyway. And what happens is actually, I've never sold a thing in my entire life! My preeeecciouuusss .. yeah I'm sick in the head. My wife tells me that.

But then again I don't exactly go for multiples of stuff either like some of you. I guess if I did, I could more easily let go of stuff. As is though, hell no

[GillianSeed]

Well that's where they made their mistake. Video games are fun. Video games are a hobby. Video games are collectible. They should NOT be an investment.

Amen. The arrival of speculators is rarely a good thing for a hobby. Look at the comic industry -- it has yet to recover from the crash that happened in the mid-1990s when the speculators jumped ship. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comic_book_collecting)

[carlcarlson]

nes crashed? when did this happen? I know that some of my normal resells (bubble bobble, tysons, zeldas) dropped a bit in price, but they're back up there now, and a lot of the games seem to have gone up. genesis in general seem to be pretty cheap. there are still a few games that bring decent prices, like toe jam and earl, etc, but most don't bring much. a genesis system can sell for $10 on ebay while an nes can go for $45. snes go for around $45 as well. I guess no one has nostalgia for sega..

[Ed Oscuro]

Well that's where they made their mistake. Video games are fun. Video games are a hobby. Video games are collectible. They should NOT be an investment.

They will be an investment, I'm afraid. Your sentiment is unfortunately as futile as saying that people shouldn't use money as a basis for determining who gets what scarce resources, or that the ocean should not be wet. I don't like collecting for investment it because that means that I have to pay for the the high demand games I get On the other hand, it means that if I need to sell something that I could count on getting something approximately like what I started out with, money-wise.

[cyberfluxor]

For NES games around here very, very few loose games even hit $5. Complete games that fetch more are generally the Mega Mans, Bombermans, Mario Bros. 2/3, Bubble Bobble, ect. Other than that, they're like dead. Back when GS/EB still sold them half were $5 and a bunch hovered towards $10+, of course this was about 5 years ago.