Do Wii games hold their value well?

[ItsThere]

In Pal land there seems to be no decent places to purchase a 2nd Hand Wii game for a reasonable price.

Is this because less people sell them, or people are stupid enough to buy them for ?2 less than RRP 2 nd hand (Game I'm looking at you)...

It seems that compared to PS3 and 360 games the are always far closer to RRP in places like Game Focus or CEX as well as more mainstream outlets.

This annoys me because I want a cheap Wario Ware and I cannot got that or Eledees for the love of God nor money.

[Kieran76]

Seems to me that decent second hand Wii games are hard to find. if I strolled into my local Game I could buy huge quantites of second and thrid rate movie tie-ins for just under 30 quid. I think game is keeping the prices of the games hig becuase the console itself is still in such high demand. Give it a few weeks and the prces will drop, perhaps.

[Swallow]

It's the same with DS games - 2nd hand software is £23-£25 on the high street. Absolute madness.

[VR46]

Second hand prices on the high street are a joke yes, eg a used £40 360 game will be marked up at £37.99 at GAME and Gamestation normally.

Have no experience of the Wii market, however I use www.find-games.co.uk for comparing prices of PAL games, it throws up a few bargains from places you wouldn't expect now and again so worth using before splashing the cash.

[Jebus]

I think the thing about Wii games is that places like shopto sell them for really cheap brand new, I've never got more than £20 for a Wii game when selling on here and that was only once.

[SegaMark]

Second hand prices on the high street are a joke yes, eg a used ?40 360 game will be marked up at ?37.99 at GAME and Gamestation normally.

Yeah the problem with 360 prices is that they're ?49.99 on the system new, but obviously stores compete with ASDA etc so price them at ?39.99 instead. Since this is standard practise now they really should think of revising the used prices...

[MikeRox]

PAL Nintendo products on the whole have always retained their value alot better than any other companies. I mean especially first party nintendo software, is still sold at near enough RRP even now if you can track it down. Mario Smash Football is still £32.99 pre owned in GAME and GameStation despite the sequel now being out.

It was the same for games like Pikmin, Pikmin 2, Chibi Robo etc and is now becoming the case for DS games too. Basically if you want a format where the RRP of games crashes, avoid Nintendo formats like the plague. I know Nintendo hate the idea of fast dropping RRPs, and to some extent I agree.

I can't be the only one that gets really really pissed off when I buy a game for £40 or so, and 2 weeks later it's been slashed to £15-20 everywhere. It leads to a "I'll wait til it drops" mentality which ultimately hurts developers. At least when I buy a Nintendo game I know theres a 95% chance it'll still be £40 in most places as much as 12 months later.

Latest casualty for me was FlatOut, slashed to £29.99 3 days after I bought it (2 weeks after release).

[EDDIE M0NS00N]

When the Wii console drought ends then you'll see them sell for **** 2nd hand, just like 360 games seem to be doing at the mo.

[tanooki]

This annoys me because I want a cheap Wario Ware and I cannot got that or Eledees for the love of God nor money.

I picked up Eledees yesterday from Argos' clearance sale for ?24.99. I'd been hanging on, hoping to see it come down to about ?20 but ?24.99 is pretty good. It's that price in store and online.

[smithers0105]

As I also hate paying over the odds in Game etc for pre-owned, I've found ebay is the best place to get 2nd hand PAL Wii stuff from (and Gamecube too), obviously you have to keep your wits about you as is usual on ebay, but usually you will find a Buy it Now price that's not too bad (e.g. around the ?25 mark inc postage for Wii, ?10-?20 for 'Cube - Chibi Robo excepted!). I can never be arsed waiting for the normal auctions to run their course unless it's for something I'm desperate for.

There are, of course, the rob dogs who will try and sell new or used but selling as 'new' copies of Wii stuff around the ?35 mark inc postage, which is too much IMHO (and you may as well walk into town and pick up a pre-owned copy from the usual sharks in that case).

I had set up an ebay search to email me for a couple of weeks when any Buy it Now copies of stuff like BG&E on the Cube and RE4 Wii Edition had come up and that allowed me to pick up a few things at fairly decent prices.

[MattyD]

Nintendo not dropping their RRPs is probably part of it but I always thought it was because of the general lack of titles on Nintendo home systems full stop - especially with regards to third-party software. Retailers know they can ask silly prices and get them because people aren't exactly spoilt for choice when choosing their next title. Tales of Symphonia for GameCube is still £40 preowned FFS.

I tend to think DS pricing is an anomaly in that the majority of DS owners probably don't know what second hand games sell for so they don't mind paying the £23-mark for a second hand game.

[J0e Musashi]

I won't spend more than £10 for used DS games as a rule, unless it is somethnig I really want. I've bought over 50 games at £10 or less.

[C']

PAL Nintendo products on the whole have always retained their value alot better than any other companies. I mean especially first party nintendo software, is still sold at near enough RRP even now if you can track it down. Mario Smash Football is still ?32.99 pre owned in GAME and GameStation despite the sequel now being out.

It was the same for games like Pikmin, Pikmin 2, Chibi Robo etc and is now becoming the case for DS games too. Basically if you want a format where the RRP of games crashes, avoid Nintendo formats like the plague. I know Nintendo hate the idea of fast dropping RRPs, and to some extent I agree.

I can't be the only one that gets really really pissed off when I buy a game for ?40 or so, and 2 weeks later it's been slashed to ?15-20 everywhere. It leads to a "I'll wait til it drops" mentality which ultimately hurts developers. At least when I buy a Nintendo game I know theres a 95% chance it'll still be ?40 in most places as much as 12 months later.

Latest casualty for me was FlatOut, slashed to ?29.99 3 days after I bought it (2 weeks after release).

I remember thinking that the death of the Gamecube would mean being able to snap up a ton of classic titles that I missed out on as I did for the Dreamcast in 2001.

'Twas not to be.

[dataDave]

LOL yeah, my mum can't find F-Zero GX to save her life.