Increasing retro game prices, how and why?

[speedlolita]

By comparison, I still have a fully operational year-of-launch Xbox 360 which sees heavy use.

Bit of a luck of the draw then?

Personally the only console that's ever failed on me is my original PlayStation, and that was after falling off of my desk.

[aticatac]

It is true that stuff is getting hard to find now which does not really help,so much retro gear now has either been snapped by collectors,retro game traders or simply being sold at inflated prices by other people trying to take advantage and make fast money off the retro scene, unfortunately these rogue sellers have increased much in the last few years and so have prices.Personally i believe the value of retro game items is determined by the individuals who wants to buy it and there is no fixed true value for each item although you can use auction sites to see the lower and upper end prices.
For example you can see the US Nes stand alone cart Stadium events go for $1K+ because there is someone out there stupid enough to pay that for a circuit board,plastic in cardboard but to me it is worth ?30.

[nakamura]

If you will sink hours into a game then it is will worth paying top dollar for something.

[Decider-VT]

Yes and no. It's worth paying the original price of the game but it's never worth lining a reseller's pockets because of prices being driven up. Obviously some games will rise in value but charging ?500+ for things like Earthbound is just ridiculous.

I'm actually surprised that the market has grown so quickly. I do wonder if emulation has played a part in it, in the sense that people are getting to try platforms and games out extensively before making the financial investment.

[crazymadone]

Are people so desperate to own a good game that they're willing to turn it into a premium item? I saw a copy of Skies go for ?55 on ebay, I sold mine for half that, for what is suppose to be a rough economic climate people seem to be able to spend more recklessly on games than ever. The only way I can justify such prices is if you buy a mega expensive game and then sell it back when you finish it but then you are effectively turning places like ebay into an expensive renting system, a renting system where depending on your luck could lead to you making a small profit, breaking even or losing a lot of money.

...

I say tell those high prices to go do one because if you pay those prices then you are only condoning it and giving people an excuse to push those prices even higher.

All been said already, but it's as simple as demand > supply leads to a higher price.

Maybe you got lucky with Skies of Arcadia for a ?12, but remember that game's pushing ten years now. Maybe in 2006, it was going for that price. But as time goes on, it becomes a cult title etc., there probably weren't that many in the first place, and ones that are left, people are more reluctant to sell.

Still, I don't think ?50 is "reckless" or expensive for a game. More or less the same price as a new game and you won't lose money on it.

You don't have to collect - if you're a "gamer," buy it, complete it, and sell it on for the same price. You won't lose anything.

But it's inevitable. As more people do take focus on their collections, it will push prices up.

Everything goes in cycles too. As people get older, they will want to revisit the systems of their youth. So prices aren't going down anytime soon for certain games on certain systems.

Recently I've been getting a small Neo Geo Pocket Color collection together, and I've been stunned at how much UK boxed NGPC games go for - though in their case, that's a peculiarity of the NGPC as a platform because the UK games are more desirable than the US ones due to having AES-style plastic boxes (whereas American and Japanese ones were card, like GBC/A games packaging <spit>).

I'd say that if you have a boxed UK Neo Geo Pocket Color game, you'll almost certainly be able to sell it for its original value (especially the SNK titles). Some of them like Match of the Millennium seem to easily fetch ?50-60.

Things like the NGPC are a whole different kettle of fish. Some of the titles for the system are genuinely hard to find, or at least rarely for sale. Of course, when they do appear, people will pay a premium. But it is a relatively small group of collectors.

The people paying money for these titles aren't the same as the majority of people paying ?15-25 for loose copies of Mario Kart and Zelda for the SNES - how many people played these games when they were younger and want another blast on the original hardware - and how many of these people will even know what a Neo Geo Pocket is?

Match of the Millennium though - ?30 tops!

[wakka]

Recently I've been getting a small Neo Geo Pocket Color collection together, and I've been stunned at how much UK boxed NGPC games go for - though in their case, that's a peculiarity of the NGPC as a platform because the UK games are more desirable than the US ones due to having AES-style plastic boxes (whereas American and Japanese ones were card, like GBC/A games packaging <spit>).

Not all Japanese games come in cardboard boxes. Only the later ones. The earlier games are in snaplocks.