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Does Anyone Know Why Pokemon Game Prices Are Going through the Roof?


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I was watching one of the latest Nintendo Collecting videos where he speaks about how Pokemon games are crazy expensive right now and he also speculates what's going to happen in the near future. Today I saw that some of the Pokemon Ranger titles are really expensive too, especially Shadows of Almia and I'm tempted to get more than one copy so that I can resell it or trade it in the future. I know that there's a huge market for Pokemon games of the main series, I also know that Pokemon Snap has increased in price because a new Pokemon Snap has recently been announced. But I can't for the life of me, figure out why Shadows of Almia is 50 USD and why Guardian Signs is more than 20 USD. And that's just for the cartridge itself, CiB copies are even more expensive. I know those games are cool and everything, but am I missing anything? Do people suddenly realized that those games are rare/hard to get? Is everyone getting them all of the sudden? I'm more than welcome to other crazy ideas or conspiracy theories. Oh and here's the video I mentioned https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gR_3pNlaR7k

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All I can guess is the current crop of Pokemon games just aren't "doing" it anymore. Between needing a service just to trade Pokemon, a big part of the game, and modern games not even being able to catch/trade all of them anyways, the older games are more appealing even to us old school players. Sure sword/shield or evee/pikachu may look amazing, but their amazingly dumbed down from their earlier counterparts.

 

Still, those old games were produced in obscene numbers, so uber common ones going for $20-100+ just doesn't make sense. I've been going back through the series getting games I've missed over the years, but finding them in decent shape is rather costly atm.

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3 hours ago, Video said:

All I can guess is the current crop of Pokemon games just aren't "doing" it anymore. Between needing a service just to trade Pokemon, a big part of the game, and modern games not even being able to catch/trade all of them anyways, the older games are more appealing even to us old school players. Sure sword/shield or evee/pikachu may look amazing, but their amazingly dumbed down from their earlier counterparts.

 

Still, those old games were produced in obscene numbers, so uber common ones going for $20-100+ just doesn't make sense. I've been going back through the series getting games I've missed over the years, but finding them in decent shape is rather costly atm.

That's a fascinating way to look at what's happening right now. I completely forgot about Pokemon Bank, mainly because I don't have a Switch.

 

I'm still trying to track down some classic Pokemon games and it's frustrating to see that most are completely out of my price range. I just bought loose copies of two of the three Pokemon Ranger games for the DS, though and I'm super happy about that. Especially now that I know that those have increased in price significantly over the past few months. In fact, I feel bad that I didn't get an extra copy of Shadows of Almia for trading purposes.

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The biggest reason to why pokemon games are going up in price probably has something to do with the controversy surrounding Sword and Shield. Gamefreak gained some heat from fans due to them removing certain pokemon from the game and changing the trading system without showing any good reasons to justify their decisions. This may have caused people to flock to the older games. I also think another reason why is that late 90s to early 2000s nostalgia is going in style, which leads to a growing demand for games released around that era and not enough supply to keep up.

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48 minutes ago, The Mr. Video said:

The biggest reason to why pokemon games are going up in price probably has something to do with the controversy surrounding Sword and Shield. Gamefreak gained some heat from fans due to them removing certain pokemon from the game and changing the trading system without showing any good reasons to justify their decisions. This may have caused people to flock to the older games. I also think another reason why is that late 90s to early 2000s nostalgia is going in style, which leads to a growing demand for games released around that era and not enough supply to keep up.

That sounds accurate. I don't have a Switch, but if I had one, Sword and Shield are not that appealing to me due to the reasons you mention in your comment. I'm more interested in classic Pokemon than newer Pokemon, if there's such a thing. What's more interesting to me is that even spin-off games are becoming expensive too. Collecting Pokemon games is becoming harder and harder and I'm pretty sure we won't certain games in the wild soon, at least not where I live.

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You think it's absurd a complete GB through DS era game can hit $100?  I guess, but you want really wrong insane stuff, check the new copies of the old stuff, in particular the really old Gen 1 and 2 era things.  Pokemon Red/Blue Version are touching the $2000 mark.  I only know this because someone said something awhile back recently since I have that (red) and my jaw dropped...and while I could use it, that won't be sold, not tempting enough.:)

 

People can be snarky selfish ignorants about it all they care to with the newest titles, but they're fine, quality of life improvements included.  I don't see the big issue over a partial pokedex as it was getting a bit asinine thinking you need to really get all 800+ of them or whatever it's at now.  The games handle far better than the stuff from the DS and early 3DS (XY) back, that's for damn certain.

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  • 5 months later...

I was also having that kind of question actually. I just do not understand why they are so expensive. I can understand paying 80 euros for call of duty black ops  cold war, however almost 60-80 for a pokemon game... that is just too much, even though I am a great fan of the Pokemon Series, I do consider that those prices are just way too exaggerated. The last Pokemon game I bought and I do not regret it, is the remake of the red and blue game, Pokemon firered. The game is awesome actually. However I liked the older one way more. Nevertheless, you can actually get some cheats from https://www.inversegamer.com/pokemon-firered-cheats-codes-and-hints/ and trust me the game would be better and it would give you way more fun.

Edited by Halian
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If I was going to suggest a "best" Pokemon game to get, it would be either new sun/new moon, or one of the remakes, fire red, soul silver omega ruby, games like that. Most of those are 3ds games (or compatible) too.

 

Don't get me wrong, I doubt many people will ever 100% their pokedex, it's just annoying when you can't get a favorite for your team because the new games have removed them. Like others said, I have some older ones I like better than many of the new ones anyways. Really? A trashbag? Wtf?!

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Super high demand. Pokemon is a popular franchise, the games are fun, and now that Gen 1 and 2 games are entering the "nostalgia zone" it's rising in price... a lot. Same reason why Zelda games are ridiculously expensive.

 

I bought my copy of Pokemon Silver at a game store along with my Gameboy for $30; I thought I'd overpaid for it (which I kinda sorta did) but now that I think about it I really didn't. The game was worth every penny.

 

Interestingly enough, they are really cheap in Japan/Korea, except for the rare variants. A few people I knew were giving copies of Silver and Yellow away, and some were selling the entire lot Gen 1 and 2 games for about 50,000krw which works to around $45usd. That's a lot of six games, Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, Silver, and Gold.

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7 hours ago, bluejay said:

Interestingly enough, they are really cheap in Japan/Korea, except for the rare variants.

Yep. They are like 500 yen max in town, and there are some copies of Red  for 1 yen + shipping on Amazon. https://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/offer-listing/B00005OVDD/ref=dp_olp_ALL_mbc?ie=UTF8&condition=ALL

 

Game Boy games are generally one step above junk-tier prices here aside from rare things like Akumajou Dracula Dark Night Prelude... and even then, 1 yen is definitely a junk-tier price.

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Just to rub some mixture of wasabi and pepper spray into this I remembered I replied to this last year about Pokemon.

 

Someone brought up the GB pricing problem and so on with the Pokemon games again yesterday or day before on another site and I had pasted this whopper of a jump.  There is no reason at all for this other than sheer stupidity mixed with free money being thrown around.  When I last posted was August of last year, pointed out Pokemon Red version (sealed, not even graded or perfect) was averaging around the $2000 mark.  How's this make you feel sick to your stomach?  If the paste isn't showing well due to sizes.  The last 2 sales were $5000, the one before that $13,622.22 for sealed.  The two below it were $10000 and $15000 that paid out.  Others below aside from a few outliers seem to range from $2500-$10K range for the few that sold since last August... it has shot up hardcore.  Why so much on a game that was the most printed title on GB outside of like Tetris?!

 

Other stuff is just as ignorant... why is Pokemon Emerald selling for like $90-110 for a loose average cart that's not perfect, but not showing obvious signs of sticker damage?!  A year ago, $30 was about it maybe on that.  Pokemon is now poke-crack habit.  I only hope as this stupidity expands it finally breaks the so called 'it is not a bubble' people say about the sustained pricing abuse on old games.  This WILL drive off all but the most deep pocketed and stupid of collectors.

 

image.thumb.png.bc7ab6443b99d16e16f7773995b26366.png

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It is, but Pokemon is the one getting the most abused at least from the Nintendo side of the fence at least.

 

I've noticed across the board even dumb common $5-10 Gameboy or console stuff is like now asking 2-3x the price and some dimwits paying it, perhaps fear of going higher, or new blood with stimulus and refunds on the pea-brain are causing it.  It really sucks, but no, it's not isolated to Pokemon as it's far more wide spread and aggravating.  I'm only for some months now sticking to the GB-C-A family of systems/games on what I'll pick up and 90% of their libraries up until recent months have been just ignored, you get the OOOH titles and truly rarer stuff that is explainable, but most it falls into that $5-30 range on a game so they're at or under their old MSRP.  Recently though that 90% is toast, I'd knock that down probably 20-30% as there's some clear price trolling going on.

 

Crystalis on GBC went from like a $10 to a $30 cart.  Wario Land 3 which is common as dirt barely hit $10, now you see twits paying like $20-25 on that.  I'm hoping it's not long term as it'll really aggravate me if these crooks have ruined the last Nintendo system not to get exploited to hell and back.  So it's not even the expensive ones taking the hit, it's the spectrum of it now. ?

 

Oh and for a more idiotic expensive one, Kid Dracula over a year went from $90 to $150 on average, with some outliers upwards of $200 and I'm speaking loose cart here...no paper.

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On 1/23/2021 at 10:56 PM, Tanooki said:

It is, but Pokemon is the one getting the most abused at least from the Nintendo side of the fence at least.

 

I've noticed across the board even dumb common $5-10 Gameboy or console stuff is like now asking 2-3x the price and some dimwits paying it, perhaps fear of going higher, or new blood with stimulus and refunds on the pea-brain are causing it.  It really sucks, but no, it's not isolated to Pokemon as it's far more wide spread and aggravating.  I'm only for some months now sticking to the GB-C-A family of systems/games on what I'll pick up and 90% of their libraries up until recent months have been just ignored, you get the OOOH titles and truly rarer stuff that is explainable, but most it falls into that $5-30 range on a game so they're at or under their old MSRP.  Recently though that 90% is toast, I'd knock that down probably 20-30% as there's some clear price trolling going on.

 

Crystalis on GBC went from like a $10 to a $30 cart.  Wario Land 3 which is common as dirt barely hit $10, now you see twits paying like $20-25 on that.  I'm hoping it's not long term as it'll really aggravate me if these crooks have ruined the last Nintendo system not to get exploited to hell and back.  So it's not even the expensive ones taking the hit, it's the spectrum of it now. ?

 

Oh and for a more idiotic expensive one, Kid Dracula over a year went from $90 to $150 on average, with some outliers upwards of $200 and I'm speaking loose cart here...no paper.

it's just utterly ridiculous to me how expensive the prices for GB/NES stuff have become given how much of the stuff is out there.

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Supply & demand. Even if Pokemon games were printed in huge numbers, they’re incredible popular. You’ve got adults who threw away their copies in 2001, when they thought they outgrew the series, then you’ve got kids who want to experience the older games.

 

I am a bit worried some of this is driven by a collector mindset, like comic books in the mid-90’s, & that the used game market will crash fairly soon. Games & toys are not investments; I’m afraid some people think they are.

Edited by pacman000
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youtube dorks with their bizarre need to brag and boast about their collections are a big part of the blame too.    the bubble is about to go pop big time.

 I think as soon as covid starts to subside and possibly even sooner the bubble is going to pop. Most of these games sold millions of copies and aren’t even close to rare or in low supply in any condition except new. The only reason I would buy anything new is if I was loaded with money that I just didn’t need, or if the price was very close to what the good- very good condition ones were selling for.

 

I do like to have the CIB copies if possible, but most of the time I just want to play the game so a cartridge or disc is good enough.

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14 hours ago, pacman000 said:

Supply & demand. Even if Pokemon games were printed in huge numbers, they’re incredible popular. You’ve got adults who threw away their copies in 2001, when they thought they outgrew the series, then you’ve got kids who want to experience the older games.

 

I am a bit worried some of this is driven by a collector mindset, like comic books in the mid-90’s, & that the used game market will crash fairly soon. Games & toys are not investments; I’m afraid some people think they are.

I'm going to 100% not agree with that first part and 100% agree with the second.  As you even said there are huge numbers, millions of copies of each release out there, doubled down when you figure some just overlap for that trade factor.  Given the huge surge in price in a matter of months, not over years, it's right in line with your other part, idiocy based collect(ard) mindset, not the smart collector, the but the dumbass who looks at it as an investment property, commodity trading, acting like it's working the stock market like ebay is e*trade.  I think the fears aren't so much a some, but a large fact when the recent irrational surge beyond what would be seen as normal.  I don't like VGPC as they're not accurate not accounting for partial completeness, condition, etc, but still when a game has 100k copies or millions, it won't scatter too far.  And looking at the line graph on anything a game would have been in 2019 to 2020 into 2021, it's looney tunes.

 

It makes me reflect back to the arguing back in those NA days and I'm thinking around 2012-2014.  One side calling this stuff natural, defending their habits, defending VGA like they were sacrosanct, etc.  Always going on how this was normal, this jump is catching up, etc.  People talking about investing in this and that.  Now here we are, same people, now pointing out how collecting is being abused by the very types the complaining defended years ago.  It's like reality finally caught up with what's going on, because now here we are talking about the bubble going to burst.  Back then bringing up the bubble was bringing on a fight because people would argue it was no bubble, this will last for years, decades to come, etc.  What we've seen, and this is some years going back now, a huge up-tick in those piratey handhelds, pi stuff, android stuff, etc that just run the games as people are more and more tapping out due to the expense leaving the dedicated and the investors to chew away at it more and more.  The sooner this recent trend in damage implodes upon itself the better, so many will get the reality check they deserve.

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I'm going to 100% not agree with that first part and 100% agree with the second.  As you even said there are huge numbers, millions of copies of each release out there, doubled down when you figure some just overlap for that trade factor.  Given the huge surge in price in a matter of months, not over years, it's right in line with your other part, idiocy based collect(ard) mindset, not the smart collector, the but the dumbass who looks at it as an investment property, commodity trading, acting like it's working the stock market like ebay is e*trade.  I think the fears aren't so much a some, but a large fact when the recent irrational surge beyond what would be seen as normal.  I don't like VGPC as they're not accurate not accounting for partial completeness, condition, etc, but still when a game has 100k copies or millions, it won't scatter too far.  And looking at the line graph on anything a game would have been in 2019 to 2020 into 2021, it's looney tunes.
 
It makes me reflect back to the arguing back in those NA days and I'm thinking around 2012-2014.  One side calling this stuff natural, defending their habits, defending VGA like they were sacrosanct, etc.  Always going on how this was normal, this jump is catching up, etc.  People talking about investing in this and that.  Now here we are, same people, now pointing out how collecting is being abused by the very types the complaining defended years ago.  It's like reality finally caught up with what's going on, because now here we are talking about the bubble going to burst.  Back then bringing up the bubble was bringing on a fight because people would argue it was no bubble, this will last for years, decades to come, etc.  What we've seen, and this is some years going back now, a huge up-tick in those piratey handhelds, pi stuff, android stuff, etc that just run the games as people are more and more tapping out due to the expense leaving the dedicated and the investors to chew away at it more and more.  The sooner this recent trend in damage implodes upon itself the better, so many will get the reality check they deserve.



The other side to this pricing bubble continuation is the fact that many more gamers enter the market everyday as time marches on, and their is a somewhat limited supply of these games. Even if they made millions of copies. If millions of new gamers are in the market every 5-10 years and they go after the same games because they are always YouTubed/tweeted/metacriticed about then I can see why demand isn’t going down. Also the finite number of pristine copies is going to go down gradually as they continue to change hands.

I just don’t understand how prices can keep going up, unless we all keep getting stimulus checks every few months. And we all have good jobs on top of the checks then maybe for a while . But not indefinitely.
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What we have right now is a perfect storm of factors for price jumps on something like Pokemon.

 

1- extended closures of most social gathering spaces means people are seeking more methods of home entertainment, so games in general are getting more attention.

2- ever increasing housing costs means a number of these newly housebound people are in smaller apartments & could be drawn to space-saving handhelds.

3- Pokemon is 25 years old now. The perfect age for the nostalgia bug to be hitting the folks who grew up on it.

 

End result: there's a lot of folks who are working from home, want something to occupy their off-hours that doesn't involve being near the same monitor they use for work, burned out on Netflix, & remembering how when they were a kid they could waste a whole Saturday just sitting on their Gameboy hunting Pikachu. Then the government sends them a random check and they think hey, maybe I'll give Pokemon another go.

 

It's kind of how games in general are spiking in price right now, amplified by the popularity of the series. The fact that Pokemon Snap is in the news just makes it worse!

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13 hours ago, Tanooki said:

I'm going to 100% not agree with that first part and 100% agree with the second.  As you even said there are huge numbers, millions of copies of each release out there, doubled down when you figure some just overlap for that trade factor.  Given the huge surge in price in a matter of months, not over years, it's right in line with your other part, idiocy based collect(ard) mindset, not the smart collector, the but the dumbass who looks at it as an investment property, commodity trading, acting like it's working the stock market like ebay is e*trade.  I think the fears aren't so much a some, but a large fact when the recent irrational surge beyond what would be seen as normal.  I don't like VGPC as they're not accurate not accounting for partial completeness, condition, etc, but still when a game has 100k copies or millions, it won't scatter too far.  And looking at the line graph on anything a game would have been in 2019 to 2020 into 2021, it's looney tunes.

 

It makes me reflect back to the arguing back in those NA days and I'm thinking around 2012-2014.  One side calling this stuff natural, defending their habits, defending VGA like they were sacrosanct, etc.  Always going on how this was normal, this jump is catching up, etc.  People talking about investing in this and that.  Now here we are, same people, now pointing out how collecting is being abused by the very types the complaining defended years ago.  It's like reality finally caught up with what's going on, because now here we are talking about the bubble going to burst.  Back then bringing up the bubble was bringing on a fight because people would argue it was no bubble, this will last for years, decades to come, etc.  What we've seen, and this is some years going back now, a huge up-tick in those piratey handhelds, pi stuff, android stuff, etc that just run the games as people are more and more tapping out due to the expense leaving the dedicated and the investors to chew away at it more and more.  The sooner this recent trend in damage implodes upon itself the better, so many will get the reality check they deserve.

I'd argue that the irrational collector mindset is driving demand to the point where it outstrips supply. When these folks realize that the games can't increase in price forever, we'll have a crash.

 

You'd think Pokémon fans would've learned that in 2000 or 2001 when their friends stopped buying trading cards; I remember near the end of the craze kids only collected Pokémon cards because they could resell them. :(

 

A year or so after that I could buy as many cards as I liked, for $1 a page, or less.  And I did. :)

Edited by pacman000
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