Shocking Ebay Prices

[Lorfarius]

What caused the vinyl scene to crash?

[Tirian]

Yeah, we need to be careful what we say in this thread or it might be used against us...

One that's really annoying me at the moment is Kolibri... That was ?20-30 about 3 years ago and I foolishly didnt buy it. Not because of its value now, but because I really want to play it...

It's a decent game, but not incredible .. I found it pretty fun and engaging to begin with, but with quite limited replay value. For Sega 16 bit shooters, I much preferred Lords of Thunder on the MCD, which can be had for much less than Kolibri.

As for ?20-?30 for Kolibri, that's an insanely low price. It's typical price was ?40-50 for ages, then it seemed to drop a little bit briefly and now it's shot right up. I'm pretty sure it's rarer than Chaotix, but often tends to tail it a bit in price - I guess because of the Sonic connection Chaotix does better than it ought.

There are some other good 32X games though - both Star Wars and Darxide are pretty good plays (although hard as nails!).

Syndicate is a funny one - as far as I can tell, it is scarcer than Samurai Shodown and Fatal Fury Special, but quite a few copies seem to have been turning up recently. I'd wager that once they've cleared, ?120 will seem a bargain ...

Similarly with Adventures of Batman and Robin - one with spine finished for ?130ish over Christmas, which is incredibly low for that game. I bet there will be a lot of people cursing over that one ... apart from those two sealed ones floating around for insane asking prices, that one is a real horror to find.

[garrz32]

Hmmm, im not convinced to be honest. You only need to look at the prices of certain comic books now.

The difference to all these phases is that this time round, Retro is mainstream as apposed to a nieche. A large majority of these collectors who are getting nostalic about these consoles, are beginning their careers/stable jobs with a bit of disposable income to treat themselves.

Previously, it was a select few older people who had cash to burn. Im speaking with confidence on this, as I fall into the younger category enjoying a wage. Until I was working full time, I was relying on buying/selling a few games to buy other smaller priced games.
If we took a poll on the average age of Retro gamers, im sure you'd find its around the 21-26 mark.

To strengthen this point, the era of nostalgia we are talking about, is often refered to as the Golden Age of gaming... The 16bit era. It's gaining more fans every day alongside the ones who grew up with it.

Most of us will always hold those gaming memories close, most likely for the rest of our lives, so why would we lose interest in collecting? As i've said before, if there are rares you still want/are debating, don't leave it too late...


But I still hope I am wrong... I dont particuarly want to see our hobby fall the same way as comics. Undoubtably the recent arrivial of slabbing sealed games will soon arrive for regular games, ruining the fun for all...

(And just for the record... The VGA, since when did some self appointed 'Authority' have the say on what 'ratings' each game has condition wise... It's nothing other than a scam for those with too much dosh)

I agree with most of what you say on your post,but i think you might be out with the average age of Retro Gamers...I personally think they are in their 30's.Most 21-26 year olds are only interested new gen stuff,bet if you asked them what a PC-E is, they wouldn't have a clue.

[Wolverine]

this is crazy right?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/T-MEK-SEGA-32X-EXTREMELY-RARE-PAL-VERSION_W0QQitemZ290389500244QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_PC_Video_Games_Video_Games_JS?hash=item439c902154

[teenagewasteland]

Depends how badly you want it I guess. Personally I think it is. There was one on Amazon a few months back cart only for £500 I think. A complete copy of T-mek is worth around the £1000 mark condition dependent. I think the last copy I saw went for £1100 but I may be wrong.
Comparitively, a complete copy of Darxide is worth around £750 and a cart goes for around £200ish.
That being said, these are silly rare games and if two people want it, it'll sell for whatever it feels like.
Disclaimer: Prices are based on what I remember from eBay. I am not a pricing service etc etc lol

[Cauterize]

I agree with most of what you say on your post,but i think you might be out with the average age of Retro Gamers...I personally think they are in their 30's.Most 21-26 year olds are only interested new gen stuff,bet if you asked them what a PC-E is, they wouldn't have a clue.

Maybe so Either way, gamers who gre up in the golden age, now have disposable income and are getting nostalgic... Its inevitable. And the more that get nostalgic, the more compeition for the titles, meaning more money is thrown at them.

I am not a pricing service etc etc lol

Awwww
I think you're spot on about the 32X prices there. Fingers crossed a huge warehouse haul of the big three is found eventually

It's a decent game, but not incredible .. I found it pretty fun and engaging to begin with, but with quite limited replay value. For Sega 16 bit shooters, I much preferred Lords of Thunder on the MCD, which can be had for much less than Kolibri.

As for ?20-?30 for Kolibri, that's an insanely low price. It's typical price was ?40-50 for ages, then it seemed to drop a little bit briefly and now it's shot right up. I'm pretty sure it's rarer than Chaotix, but often tends to tail it a bit in price - I guess because of the Sonic connection Chaotix does better than it ought.

Hmmmm, my memory is hazy, but im quite convinced a few Kolibri auctions (when it was seen more often) ended around the ?20 mark.

Im not too pleased that an eBayer is attempting to drive up the market personally with his games. Im refering to the ?250 Kolibri on eBay here.

[Cauterize]

Oh and also, who got this bargain!?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Rapala-Pro-Fishing_W0QQitemZ170425779341QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_PC_Video_Games_Video_Games_JS?hash=item27ae2b048d

[BeyondJumpFish]

Oh and also, who got this bargain!?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Rapala-Pro-Fis...item27ae2b048d

This actually made me laugh my ass off! ?2000 for that front cover aswell!?

[HC_O]

What caused the vinyl scene to crash?

I guess it was around the time of the general death of DJing on Vinyl as everyone finally moved away from the Technics Decks and on to other media, but still I'm not really sure what caused the crash but as the prices started to tumble everyone started to sell thier collections, I guess maybe thinking to get out quick before the prices dropped even further, in the end it just killed it completely thousands of sellers and no buyers.
I didn't really follow the buying and selling of Vinyl as I'd bought all my tunes new when released or had Promos I got sent for free, I just knew it was a big thing on ebay and had a general idea of the prices.

[Cauterize]

I guess it was around the time of the general death of DJing on Vinyl as everyone finally moved away from the Technics Decks and on to other media, but still I'm not really sure what caused the crash but as the prices started to tumble everyone started to sell thier collections, I guess maybe thinking to get out quick before the prices dropped even further, in the end it just killed it completely thousands of sellers and no buyers.
I didn't really follow the buying and selling of Vinyl as I'd bought all my tunes new when released or had Promos I got sent for free, I just knew it was a big thing on ebay and had a general idea of the prices.

Surely this was due to the rise of Cassette Tapes, CDs and eventually MP3s.
The majority of Vinyl owners were just music listeners surely, kowning that there was a better format to listen on, moved on.

Games will be a completely different ball game. Were not playing the same old games again and again on newer consoles, unlike music that is reusabkle on any format nearly (and rereleased repeatedly).

[^Katsu]

I still buy new Vinyl and use 1210's, even new tech such as serato has Vinyl versions? Mainstream music ditched the Vinyl format as a whole, the sheep followed.

[wakka]

You can't really blame people for moving on from vinyl, when there are cheaper and more convenient methods of listening to music.

I agree with you Cauterize, I don't think we can look to vinyl to explain what will happen to game values in the future - I think the market for 16bit games might currently be peaking with many gamers of the time now having a reasonable amount of disposable income for the first time in their lives, but this might drop off in the future...

Will mint PlayStation and N64 games be fetishized on Ebay next? Obviously games for both systems are already collectible, but there seems much less focus on them than systems like the PCE and SFC on retro forums like this one.

[nintastic]

Will mint PlayStation and N64 games be fetishized on Ebay next? Obviously games for both systems are already collectible, but there seems much less focus on them than systems like the PCE and SFC on retro forums like this one

We're to busy playing on them

[HC_O]

Surely this was due to the rise of Cassette Tapes, CDs and eventually MP3s.
The majority of Vinyl owners were just music listeners surely, kowning that there was a better format to listen on, moved on.

Games will be a completely different ball game. Were not playing the same old games again and again on newer consoles, unlike music that is reusabkle on any format nearly (and rereleased repeatedly).

Vinyl was phased out in pop and main stream music I think in the eighties?? I'm not sure as I've never bought that kind of music.
but vinyl was the main medium that Dance music was sold on up untill a few years ago as since the beginning of the DJ culture in the mid eighties millions of people have wanted to pretend they were DJs and mix the tunes they bought on Technics 1210 decks in thier bedrooms.

Due to limited pressing and not enough to go around the older Vinyls became very rare and highly collectable (just like Retro Games), people amassed huge collections to reminisce on thier personal golden era and niche genre and would nearly always say along the lines of "all other music is rubbish, especially all this modern crap".

Anyways I think the two are very similar and I never would of guessed that Vinyls would loose thier value like they did but they did, so who knows it may happen with Retro Games too or it may not, I guess my point is thier future value isn't a guaranteed safe bet.

[Cauterize]

Did the emergence of MP3 Decks, Fruityloops and all other digital mixing software have an impact on Vinyl?

Never the less, fair points all round I say... I guess only time will tell.
Either way, as long as we can play our games!