Eerie Sense of Urgency in the Collecting World?

[MotoRacer]

I got a plus copy for 65. He had a best offer available with a 120 dollar price tag. Price was almost a joke, but it was simply what I was willing to pay. He accepted it in less than a minute. 15 prior someone sold one in a bidding war along with a copy of pso3 for 160. I feel lucky.

 

But it's still 65 for a game that I really don't think is worth it. I still remember buying it used in college for 15, haha. Should have kept my original copy.

[+GoldenWheels]

By the seat of my pants; sure feels like TurboGrafx 16 stuff is going up.

[jhd]

I refuse to use Ebay for a variety of reasons, but from what I see locally, the supply of second-hand games and consoles is sharply declining.

 

Surprisingly, there are no independent game stores in Calgary -- flea market vendors notwithstanding -- so the only retail options are thrift and pawn shops. Now, the selection always thins out around Christmas, but this year is is more dramatic. Over the past two weekends visiting local thrift shops, I have seen no gaming hardware other than a bare, original Xbox, and a small pile of Wii, Xbox, and PS 2 sports and music games.

 

Now, some things may be purchased by resellers for Ebay, etc., but remember that most of these systems have not been manufactured (or available new at retail) for between 5 (e.g. PS 2, Xbox) and 20 years (e.g. Atari 2600) and, as correctly noted by others, the volume of working systems is steadily declining.

 

There are also a much more limited number of places to purchase this vintage hardware than when it was new. Lack of competition drives up prices, just as much as a shortage of supply. For example, there are probably many thousands of Atari 2600 consoles currently sitting unused in closets, attics, and basements here in Calgary, but there is nowhere in this city that I could actually go and purchase one _today_. My only option* would be to resort to Ebay. The online sellers know this, and they set prices accordingly.

[leods]

Around here (Germany) in fleamarkets it's very rare to find 8 and 16 bit stuff. If you find it's usually SNES, and mostly will be some Sport games and other very common games, mostly for 5-15 euro. So in flea markets I usualy find stuff for handhelds, PS1 a bit, lots of PS2 and now also quite some xbox360 and PS3.

 

There are second Hand stores, but they mostly use e-bay Prices. And e-bay Prices are just ridiculous. With this new systerm that tells you what the games are selling for on average, what I see most stores doind is putting the Prices a bit ABOVE that. Not to mention things like the NAMCO arcade stick for PS1 being called rare, when you see a new one come up on e-bay all the time. There's one right now for 200 bucks. I bought one in box for 25 in an auction.

 

I see People writing RARE next to anything that's out of print. Somehow many People think anm old Videogame is an antique or something. Of course some games are hard to come by. But seems like too many People just can't tell the diference. If they hear there are NES games that sell for hundreds they just assume their copy of Mario and Duck Hunt is rare.

 

It gets to a Point where it's interesting to see. I kina laugh to myself when I ask Prices on some stuff. I have seen games on fleamarket, used, being sold for more than what the game costs to be bought new on Amazon. At least here sellers don't even give a damn. They just Price things the most ridiculously expensive they can and leave it at that. Also, some of them complain These old games don't sell. Well. Go figure.

[HoshiChiri]

I work two retail jobs- one in a department store, one in arts & crafts. Based on what I've seen... this is holiday shopping. I have conferred with every co-worker and similarly employed person I know, and everyone is flummoxed by how early this year's shopping spike occurred (pre-Halloween!) I would imagine, given the difficulty of tracking down older games, those who want to gift them would start even earlier.

 

It doesn't mean that's it for sure- goodness knows, we can be terribly paranoid as mentioned, which could hold prices higher with people seeing everything going up. I wouldn't be surprised, though, if things go back down a bit in the spring when everyone's good and focused on paying holiday credit bills. (Maybe even see supply go up as people sell things to pay those bills.)

[Austin]

Prices have been going up on everything for a very long time--this is not a new phenomenon. However, there has definitely been a sharper increase in prices over the last five years in particular. NES and SNES has boomed, Genesis has been picking up rapidly, and everything else--obscure or not--costs considerably more than it did a decade ago. I personally feel there are a lot of factors that are causing this, but I won't go into that now.

Dreamcast is sort of another world with it lacking the major franchises outside arcades and sonic. I don't doubt all systems will go though rise but with somewhat brittle gdrom drives, easy burning and arcade focus I'll be most curious to watch the DC.

Dreamcast is on the rise too. I completed a full US set a little over a year ago and prices now on everything across the board are up. Rarer games getting more expensive, and the commons aren't as cheap as they used to be. As collectors eventually wrap up their other collections, they'll eventually start focusing on the Dreamcast and you will see prices continue to rise.

[omegadot]

Dreamcast is on the rise too. I completed a full US set a little over a year ago and prices now on everything across the board are up. Rarer games getting more expensive, and the commons aren't as cheap as they used to be. As collectors eventually wrap up their other collections, they'll eventually start focusing on the Dreamcast and you will see prices continue to rise.

No doubt. Bad for me since its been a favorite since I bought one in 2000 but for life reasons it's my smallest collection after virtual boy.

[Daria_RPG]

The hobby's become pretty popular in the last few years - especially with completionist collectors. Seems like everyone's after the same specific rares, and/or trendy titles. Hell even the shovelware is getting scooped up in lots for the social media bragging rights.

 

The weird thing is - even with the influx of new blood to the hobby I'm finding it harder and harder to talk gaming with people. Sure lots of guys want to +1 your pick up posts, but getting someone to talk about gameplay (unless it's a childhood favorite) is like pulling teeth.

 

I'm still collecting on a budget - it's as slow going as it ever was but at least in the current market I can flip my extras and not have to pay extra for market inflation.

[mbd30]

Natsume games are very pricey for some reason... "Shatterhand" and "Shadow of the Ninja" going for $40 or more for a loose cartridge. "Pocky & Rocky", "Ninja Warriors", "Wild Guns" and "Harvest Moon" over $100.

 

"Contra" keeps going up. Get it before it's $60 for a loose cart.

 

Even "Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt" is now going for $10 or more for a loose cart. You'd expect it to be $3.

 

Some great NES games such as the first two Ninja Gaidens, "Jackal" and "Batman" are still cheap. "Super C" is a more reasonably priced alternative to "Contra."

[BassGuitari]

"Super C" is a more reasonably priced alternative to "Contra."

It's also a better game.

[G-type]

I suspect some of the new collectors might drop out, but plenty will stay. The supply of old games isn't getting any bigger, so if the demand continues, and the supply dwindles... well the economics are not surprising.

[cybercylon]

It also cycles too. Back in 2003-4, I remember retro stores in the area selling a SNES for $50-$60 at least, and something like A Link to the Past could easily run another $60. Then several years later, the market on that stuff kind of crashed. There were a few years where one could easily get a decent SNES for $30, and Link to the past was around $10-$15 give or take.

 

Now it is all back up there again. Yea... I am really going to shell out $30-$35 for SMB3 or at least $50 for a Link to the Past.

[SSG]

I started retro gamming collecting N64 and noticed how dang expensive it was. This was only Six years ago. I try to keep my costs down console wise by buying broken ones and fixing them. However I'm not like the rest of the people my age and have to run out and buy the brand new Call of Duty game annually. I feel like modern games got to complex for me. All this comming from a guy in his 20s.

[homerhomer]

While it's pretty common knowledge that certain systems have been seeing booms in the last few years, I've been noticing a more recent trend that's kind of concerning.

 

It seems that nearly everything is going up in price, rather recently (within the last few months) and rather violently. I'll explain.

 

Just a few months ago, you could easily find an N64 system with a memory expansion and a controller for under 40 bucks. You might find some for less or more, but that was the median price. Now, it seems that most of the N64s on eBay have randomly spiked to over 80-100 dollars! No games, no nothing.. just a system, controller and memory pack (if you're lucky).

 

Vectrex was worth about 90-120 about a year ago. Now they go for over 300 dollars, regularly. Gamecube collecting used to be rather cheap. Now Phantasy Star Online 1 & 2 have spiked to be worth about 80-120, depending on which version you get (regular or plus). This game was a 50 dollar game any day of the week not a year ago. Other Gamecube games are going up radically as well, including previously cheap titles like Rogue Squadron 2, F-Zero GX, etc.

 

I guess my point is, I'm sensing a concerning change, and I'm starting to think that the days of anything from the 90's (or early 2000's) or earlier going for a decent price are numbered, and closing in. In fact, I've been specifically targeting my favorite systems that haven't yet spiked, because I can sense they're about to go up, like the original DS and the PS1 & 2.

 

Considering I don't care too much for modern systems outside of a few games (mainly found on Nintendo systems or PC), the games I like to play are rapidly becoming rediculously priced. I'm not sure if it's because people are trying to be opportunists, or if the younger gamers are starting to figure out the older games were better, so the supply is running out. Either way, it sucks, as I don't really have the space for bookcases of games, nor do I believe that one should collect to that degree (past their ability to play the games they own). But then, I also don't want to have to rebuy games are prices I can't comfortably afford. So it makes you keep things you might not otherwise simply because you can see the value on it will shoot up.

 

Have you noticed the increase in prices in the last half year, and has it affected how you collect and what you're collecting for? More importantly, is there a ceiling before prices have to start coming down from a lack of interest of insanely priced goods?

I think that have collecting as a hobby is growing. YouTube and twitch has a ton of channels about collecting and playing games. And a chunk of those are retro games. It's also pretty common for video game reviewers to have a wall of games behind them. Monkey see monkey do.

 

Hate to say it, collecting retro seems to be in trend. My local shopping store is selling Sega Genesis clone. And I recently saw and Amazon or eBay advert with a PS4 and NES action set.

 

Plus now, everybody price checks. And thrift stores sell online.

 

It's though to get a good deal. Unless you're buying Wii games, I've said to much.

[teh_lurv]

I think a lot of the sense of urgency in this hobby is this dread that if you don't buy it now, you'll miss your chance to the profiteers in this hobby. I think that is fueling this speculative demand as people try and predict the next Air Raid or Little Samson.

 

An example going on right now is the Wii U game Devil's Third. No one in the US really cared about this game until Nintendo decided to minimize the print run and quietly bury the game after the negative press/reviews it got in Europe. Now that the "rare game" fire has been lit, people are tripping over themselves to grab a copy.

Edited December 16, 2015 by teh_lurv

[high voltage]

But lots of high priced video gaming stuff on ebay is just hanging around there for years.

[ubersaurus]

Gamecube games and that era are now in the new bubble, if you will, just as N64/Saturn/PSX games were a couple years ago, etc. as people get older, they can afford to buy these things they wanted in their childhood, or are interested in getting them again.

 

As for the Vectrex and such, I think it is important to remember we are talking about old electronics - ones that aren't necessarily all that reliable. Every year you have fewer functioning consoles on top of an ever-increasing number of people worldwide who are interested in the stuff, hence prices going up. I think there's a peak for a lot of consoles - the 2600 certainly has hit its, or the Odyssey 2, etc. - but those rarer machines and their games certainly get a higher ceiling.

[cybercylon]

But lots of high priced video gaming stuff on ebay is just hanging around there for years.

They hang around on Craigslist too. I guess since it does not cost money to post, people will just keep posting until that sucker runs across their ad.

[gladders]

I'm collecting consoles only right now. I'm happy to play everything with flash cards, so games aren't a priority.

 

I have one of every major console now apart from 2600, 5200, Master System and GameCube, and am venturing into some of the more obscure systems...once I have an Amiga CD32, 3DO, CD-i, along with a BBC Micro, I'll consider myself largely done. Would love to have a Neo Geo AES, but it's the most astronomically absurdly priced machine in existence. And I say that as an owner of a Virtual Boy!

 

Also a Vectrex if a working one wanders into view, but not actively hunting for one.

[vitaflo]

I've been following this trend recently and it's due to a number of factors. The main one now is Youtubers creating demand by playing old games on their channels, and resellers taking advantage of this by artificially propping up prices across the board.

 

For most games, there are plenty to go around for everyone. For example, Super Mario World sold 13 million copies in the US. Every single person who has any passing interest in games could easily get one given the supply. Yet they still go for $25 loose on ebay even though this is one of the most common games in existence.

 

Someone recently did an experiment with a cheap Gameboy game that nobody wanted, Rampart. At the beginning of 2014 they bought up the entire supply on ebay for around $3 each. Over the year they started posting it up for higher dollar values, eventually getting it up to $25 a year later. As the price went up, resellers entered the market with their copies and kept inflating it until it got up to about $40. This is for a game that until this guy did his experiment nobody wanted for $3.

 

This sort of thing is happening all over. Resellers don't care if the copies never sell, they are just looking for the one mark in the bunch to buy it. They can keep on relisting for years until someone desperate enough needs it for their "collection". Then they made their profit.

 

The collection scene right now is similar to the way baseball cards or Beanie Babies use to be. Prices are just being made up for mostly common and horrible games. This of course in turn shoots up prices of the actual rare games as well. But there are so many games still sitting in people's attics doing nothing, that it artificially makes scarce even common games.

 

Once all these games come out of hiding and into the market and people complete whatever collections they have (or get bored of them as they will, the current retro game trendiness will pass), the retro market will tank and resellers will start offloading inventory (tanking the market even more) to get out before it collapses. Resellers will then move on to some other market that is more profitable.

 

I can see actual rare games retaining some of their value but common and garbage games holding up to these ridiculous prices will not stay that way forever. Anything with a million+ copies cannot hold their value when all of them are out of attics and back in circulation. Most games have vastly more copies made than there are collectors to buy them.

Edited December 19, 2015 by vitaflo

[Flojomojo]

I think that's true, that eBay has helped to raise the floor for what old games will cost -- the system will tell a lister the average selling price, and a quick search of listings (if not sales) will show the wishful thinking of many sellers. Scalping and speculation sucks.

 

I refuse to translate this into any feeling of "urgency" in myself. Artificial scarcity is bullshit, and every retro ROM is easy enough to find. We frequently see "are you a player or a collector?" polls here. High prices on old physical goods is the #1 reason I'm 90% player, and the collecting I do is generally of digital and virtual things.

[bretthorror]

The Devil's Third debacle really got me thinking about my Wii U collection. I looked into some games I wanted, Bayonetta 2, for example, and it looks like it's gone out of print and the price never dropped for me, here. The prices never dropped at all for any popular Wii U titles, so I'm gonna just bite the bullet and get them so I don't gotta worry about them down the line. I already missed on Super Luigi U in my waiting. I'm normally a cheap gamer, but with the exchange rate slipping so bad in Canada, I can't compete for deals in the US at all, so I'm gonna just wait until Best Buy or Amazon.ca has one of those "pre-order 3, save 30%" deals they always run and pre-order all my games that way from here on out that way. So odd that after years of scoping used deals, pre-ordering in advance new is gonna be my new, ultimately, only, cheap way of getting games.

[SSG]

I think that's true, that eBay has helped to raise the floor for what old games will cost -- the system will tell a lister the average selling price, and a quick search of listings (if not sales) will show the wishful thinking of many sellers. Scalping and speculation sucks.

 

I refuse to translate this into any feeling of "urgency" in myself. Artificial scarcity is bullshit, and every retro ROM is easy enough to find. We frequently see "are you a player or a collector?" polls here. High prices on old physical goods is the #1 reason I'm 90% player, and the collecting I do is generally of digital and virtual things.

 

Ebay is the problem. I hate people that price check against ebay. That is one reason driving me away from buying games in person or online. It has made me incredibly selective on buying stuff.

[Rev]

Look at the JUST released game on the Wii U: Devil's Third.

 

There was rumors that is not many copies were shipped to stores. Now, Check Ebay. The going price is 75 to over 100.

 

Will price ever go down?

 

I wonder if the once rare always rare rule will apply to this game that was destined for the bargain bin.

[Rev]

The Devil's Third debacle really got me thinking about my Wii U collection. I looked into some games I wanted, Bayonetta 2, for example, and it looks like it's gone out of print and the price never dropped for me, here. The prices never dropped at all for any popular Wii U titles, so I'm gonna just bite the bullet and get them so I don't gotta worry about them down the line. I already missed on Super Luigi U in my waiting. I'm normally a cheap gamer, but with the exchange rate slipping so bad in Canada, I can't compete for deals in the US at all, so I'm gonna just wait until Best Buy or Amazon.ca has one of those "pre-order 3, save 30%" deals they always run and pre-order all my games that way from here on out that way. So odd that after years of scoping used deals, pre-ordering in advance new is gonna be my new, ultimately, only, cheap way of getting games.

 

AH, i didnt see you posted about devils third as well.