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Why are some common games insanely expensive

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    Why are some common games insanely expensive

    This one baffles me, games that are in plentiful supply that are expensive, what's the rational?

    Great example, Tatsujin on PC Engine, so it's a good game, but right now there are around 30 copies on ebay in great boxed shape, yet commands prices north of £300 typically.

    If you look at the Megadrive version, also not uncommon, plentiful supply but again surfs around the £50 - £65 mark, why is it any more expensive than the equally excellent Thunderforce II, what market forces did that.

    Buggers me.
    Last edited by Baseley09; 21-02-2020, 20:17.

    #2
    Originally posted by Baseley09 View Post
    This one baffles me, games that are in plentiful supply that are expensive, what's the rational?

    Great example, Tatsujin on PC Engine, so it's a good game, but right now they are around 30 copies on ebay in great boxed shape, yet commands prices north of £300 typically.

    If you look at the Megadrive version, also not uncommon, plentiful supply but again surfs around the £50 - £65 mark, why is it any more expensive than the equally excellent Thunderforce II, what market forces did that.

    Buggers me.
    Sometimes on eBay, this is genuinely because people have kinda "decided" how much it costs and they just choose to charge that. Not like some kind of conspiracy; just they see other people selling it for a price, and then they put their copy at the higher end of the bracket, which pushes up prices. When every copy available is £65, there's a general understanding that the game is worth £65.

    That's why I generally only bid on games that start at £1. The whole point of Ebay is to let the bidders decide the price!

    Comment


      #3
      Originally posted by Asura View Post
      Sometimes on eBay, this is genuinely because people have kinda "decided" how much it costs and they just choose to charge that. Not like some kind of conspiracy; just they see other people selling it for a price, and then they put their copy at the higher end of the bracket, which pushes up prices. When every copy available is £65, there's a general understanding that the game is worth £65.

      That's why I generally only bid on games that start at £1. The whole point of Ebay is to let the bidders decide the price!
      Exactly right, I'm absolutely stuck in that mad loop trying to get Truxton on Megadrive, it's a £25 -30 game to me I wont pay a quid more which means I cant get it. Pffft.

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        #4
        Are they all being bought at £300? Or just sitting there? If it's the latter they'll presumably drop unless people starting paying the asking price.

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          #5
          I remember a time when the only PCE games that commanded £300 price tags were Sapphire and Darius Alpha. I daren’t look what they go for now.

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            #6
            I just tell myself to concentrate on what I have, I'd go crazy thinking about all the games I should have bought years ago that go for stupid money now.

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              #7
              I think dealers put stuff on Ebay for stupid money and then normal sellers are influenced by it. The retro 'hype train' has driven prices up and up over the past 5-10 years.

              So you have a badly yellowed copy of Tatsujin for the PCE going for £175. HuCard-only is £80.

              I think a lot of enthusiasts have sold off their expensive games because of all this retro madness -- and they've embraced emulation or FPGA instead. The retro scene has gone bonkers and mainstream because of all the hype on YouTube.

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                #8
                Originally posted by Baseley09 View Post
                This one baffles me, games that are in plentiful supply that are expensive, what's the rational?

                Great example, Tatsujin on PC Engine, so it's a good game, but right now there are around 30 copies on ebay in great boxed shape, yet commands prices north of £300 typically.

                If you look at the Megadrive version, also not uncommon, plentiful supply but again surfs around the £50 - £65 mark, why is it any more expensive than the equally excellent Thunderforce II, what market forces did that.

                Buggers me.
                Because 'retro' is cool, and to quote Phil Connors, "people are morons".
                3DS FC (updated 2015): 0447-8108-3129

                Comment


                  #9
                  I've found a happy middle ground in real hardware with flash carts - I keep some real software around as a "taster" and have the rest on flash carts as and when I fancy it (never put all the roms on a flash cart, it'll just spoil it - put a handful on at a time and properly commit to them). There's a lot of games out there that I could never justify owning but I want to play them, as well as many games where I enjoy them but not enough to look at the box every time I look at the games cupboard.

                  What I do think is pretty insane is paying proper money for games in awful condition when flash cart solutions exist. I was always less fussy than most, but I would have thought the main appeal to owning a real game in the flash cart/roms era is that you can enjoy looking at it. If the label is all torn up and the box is missing, what's the point? Might as well just fish out an old copy of Greendog, peel the label off and say it's Slap Fight MD.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Originally posted by Hirst View Post
                    I've found a happy middle ground in real hardware with flash carts - I keep some real software around as a "taster" and have the rest on flash carts as and when I fancy it (never put all the roms on a flash cart, it'll just spoil it - put a handful on at a time and properly commit to them). .
                    My games collection would be tiny if I hadn't put it together 10+ years ago. I'd never spend over £50 for a game, so I couldn't embrace game collecting these days.

                    I'm really happy with my extensive collection of import machines, which is far more important to me than owning physical copies of games. I'm happy to use flash carts and CDR.

                    I've sold quite a few games that became really expensive, but I'd never sell any hardware. The games that I still have in my collection are all worth under £50, so I'm not tempted to sell them. Luckily, they're all good to great games, so I'm only missing a few gems. I'd have to come into loads of money to think about buying them again.

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                      #11
                      My sycophantic method is buying Ali Express 160 in 1 carts etc then finding joy buying the games that arent on them I want. These carts usually have the big hitters on them leaving you to sweep up the sweet obscure efforts.

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                        #12
                        Originally posted by Hirst View Post
                        I've found a happy middle ground in real hardware with flash carts - I keep some real software around as a "taster" and have the rest on flash carts as and when I fancy it (never put all the roms on a flash cart, it'll just spoil it - put a handful on at a time and properly commit to them). There's a lot of games out there that I could never justify owning but I want to play them, as well as many games where I enjoy them but not enough to look at the box every time I look at the games cupboard.

                        What I do think is pretty insane is paying proper money for games in awful condition when flash cart solutions exist. I was always less fussy than most, but I would have thought the main appeal to owning a real game in the flash cart/roms era is that you can enjoy looking at it. If the label is all torn up and the box is missing, what's the point? Might as well just fish out an old copy of Greendog, peel the label off and say it's Slap Fight MD.
                        +1

                        This is my entire collection these days, and I have very little desire of expanding it beyond the odd title or two:

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Originally posted by samanosuke View Post
                          +1

                          This is my entire collection these days, and I have very little desire of expanding it beyond the odd title or two:

                          You could have at least zoomed in so nosey gits like myself can see what titles they are lol. It's nice when you can have a focused collection but i see a shocking lack of magical flying hat turbo adventure. I thought you had it then i just realised it was a bare knuckle box booooo lol

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Originally posted by Hirst View Post
                            I've found a happy middle ground in real hardware with flash carts -
                            I think that's the best way, these days. I also do much like Van does and just to focus on a couple of systems for real software and just use Flash carts for the rest. That said, I am amazing at how cheap most OX Box games are, even now

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Originally posted by samanosuke View Post
                              +1

                              This is my entire collection these days, and I have very little desire of expanding it beyond the odd title or two:

                              I don't think I will ever get to this point. Nice set of SegaCD games there, Popful Mail and Space Adventure Cobra are definitely too rich for my blood these days.

                              Originally posted by importaku View Post
                              You could have at least zoomed in so nosey gits like myself can see what titles they are lol. It's nice when you can have a focused collection but i see a shocking lack of magical flying hat turbo adventure. I thought you had it then i just realised it was a bare knuckle box booooo lol
                              It's a much larger image if you open it in it's own tab.

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