VGCollect Forum
General and Gaming => General => Topic started by: bikingjahuty on July 03, 2020, 11:31:38 am
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I belong to a retro gaming facebook group where surprisingly a lot of people have been in a frenzy to buy certain high demand games. What's surprising about it is when they people are asking for a specific game i'll often look up the price and am shocked at what they're currently selling for. I guess it's people not wanting to be FOMO'ed; many have said they were thinking about buying X game a few months ago, they held off, the pandemic happened, and now that game is selling for double what it was back in January.
As luck would have it I have many of these super high dollar, rapidly rising games. I've looked at the prices of several and various others and it's kinda crazy how much money I could make by just unloading about a 100 or so heavy hitters I own. Like I could seriously pay my car off with that money, which has led me to evaluate just how important some of these games are to me.
Has this happened to anyone else recently? Have you taken the plunge and started collecting massive profits?
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Some retro video game physical stores might be having sales I think.
At least the one I was just at yesterday, Disc Reply Sold me a bunch of PS1 games even games that were not sports games for 50 cents 2 for $1 USD each. maybe I was just lucky but maybe other stores are doing the same thing :-\
(edit) All I needed was to wear a mask and get a ride down there, I got a bunch of racing games I didn't have and even a Tetris game for the PS1 also
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Yes, in fact I'm going to start selling games I know I'll pretty much never play. I think I want to focus on having a much more curated and personal collection. I've noticed some games have doubled / tripled in price during this Covid business and my interest in collecting has wained a lot since I got my own house.
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Im a little tempted to get rid of my extra copies but im not sure it's worth the effort retro stores won't give me what their worth anyway and I don't sell online.It's just that I have so many boxes I would have to go through to find the best stuff thay are all stored away and it would take awhile.Mabey I should though now would be the time.
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I sold off a bunch of my doubles to local collectors and made about $1500. Took minimal effort and it was fun clearing out some crap. I'm tempted to sell some stuff since prices are so crazy but the hoarder in me won't let me do it. My PS2 collection basically doubled in value in 3 months- crazy... Eventually some prices will start to go down, but it doesn't look like retro collecting is dwindling in popularity right now. And if we get another stimulus check, oh man, rule of rose might reach 1k.
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Im a little tempted to get rid of my extra copies but im not sure it's worth the effort retro stores won't give me what their worth anyway and I don't sell online.It's just that I have so many boxes I would have to go through to find the best stuff thay are all stored away and it would take awhile.Mabey I should though now would be the time.
If you want more money online is the way to go for selling, but if you're buying than physical stores are better priced
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Not really. I'm not finding the need to liquidate as I've got enough in the bank & my investment portfolio combined with the fact that I'm debt-free (car, house, student loans all paid off).
What has affected me is that since I'm not really finding what I want for prices I like, is that I've just been focusing my collecting on other things, so I've been instead bulking up my collections of board games, Lego Sets, vintage toys, and books & Manga.
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I have sold a box full of Wii Sports for 30 each that I couldn't sell last year for 5 dollars.
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on the one hand you could think sell high and buy low later
but for a ton of retro stuff condition is kinda hard to find even if your willing to pay good prices for the more obscure especially cardboard stuff let alone how much it would drop later on to make it worthwhile.
If it ain't duplicated imo not worth it hard to find probably not worth the hassle to find in a really good condition again even if your willing to spend the normal prices.
Obviously if your not planning on playing it anyway and have no nostalgia for it at all, definitely a great time to sell stuff atm, no arguments there.
Im a little tempted to get rid of my extra copies but im not sure it's worth the effort retro stores won't give me what their worth anyway and I don't sell online.It's just that I have so many boxes I would have to go through to find the best stuff thay are all stored away and it would take awhile.Mabey I should though now would be the time.
If you want more money online is the way to go for selling, but if you're buying than physical stores are better priced
Physical stores are 9 out of 10 times more pricy than online.
Sure retro game stores could have some deals for more niche stuff but literally the same things apply for such stores online.
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on the one hand you could think sell high and buy low later
but for a ton of retro stuff condition is kinda hard to find even if your willing to pay good prices for the more obscure especially cardboard stuff let alone how much it would drop later on to make it worthwhile.
If it ain't duplicated imo not worth it hard to find probably not worth the hassle to find in a really good condition again even if your willing to spend the normal prices.
Obviously if your not planning on playing it anyway and have no nostalgia for it at all, definitely a great time to sell stuff atm, no arguments there.
Im a little tempted to get rid of my extra copies but im not sure it's worth the effort retro stores won't give me what their worth anyway and I don't sell online.It's just that I have so many boxes I would have to go through to find the best stuff thay are all stored away and it would take awhile.Mabey I should though now would be the time.
If you want more money online is the way to go for selling, but if you're buying than physical stores are better priced
Physical stores are 9 out of 10 times more pricy than online.
Sure retro game stores could have some deals for more niche stuff but literally the same things apply for such stores online.
The stuff I'm mainly considering are a bunch of PS1 and PS2 JRPGs that I bought close to a decade ago when I thought I loved those games way more than I actually did. I was a huge JRPG fan from around 2000 until 2003 or so, then I took a break from gaming, and then when I got back into it I assumed I had the same lust for the genre. It wasn't until I had a bunch of JRPGs I owned again from when I was younger and quite a few I didn't that I realized I wasn't as into them after having countless false starts with trying to get into them. I suppose someday maybe I'll have a change of heart and get really into JRPGs again, but considering my decreased interest in JRPGs seems to coincide with my decreased interest in anime I kind doubt that'll happen anytime soon, if ever.
One thing I've considered doing in the future with certain high price items is rent-buying them. That's pretty much buying a super expensive game with the intention of likely reselling it for around what you paid after playing it. I more or less did this with Panzer Dragoon Saga, and as luck would have it I actually ended up making money doing it. But even if I lost 10% of what I paid I suppose it would be worth it to be able to experience a game and then sell it, unless of course it was just so awesome that I felt like keeping it at the several hundred dollars or whatever I paid for it :p
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I can't help but wonder if this sudden boom in retro game demand and prices will result in an actual crash on the other side of this?
I know this is beating a dead horse since we've been talking about a "bubble" for years, but seriously. The economy is getting worse, people's stimulus checks are going to be gone soon, assuming they aren't already; there are still millions out of work and unable to even pay their rent, and of course someday everyone is going to be able to go back to work, go out with friends, and return to the life they had prior to COVID. What then? Does everyone just hang on to these games they wouldn't have bought without $1200 or if they weren't being forced to stay at home? Or do people sell everything all around the same time, creating a massive glut of supply that brings prices crashing down?
I personally believe this boom in prices will be pretty temporary, and without another large stimulus or a massive economic recovery I don't see prices staying where they're at. Whether it's businesses reopening, people needing to sell non-essential stuff to pay for essential needs, or the economy being so piss poor that video game collecting demand essentially dies, I think we will see a potential crash sometime next year, possibly towards the end of this year.
I guess if you are planning on selling do it soon. I'm still on the fence, but with everything I've picked out of my collection I'd be sitting on around $15,000 if I sold everything at the prices they're currently at. Mind you that's only about 150 games too. Makes me wonder what i'd get if I sold half my collection which sounds crazy, but if I was looking at $40,000-$50,000, maybe it wouldn't be so crazy....
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I've been tempted to sell a few pieces here and there. Mostly consoles that don't see much use. I could probably get about 10x what I paid for my Virtual Boy set right now.
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If the Economy goes down no more jobs mean more poor people sell their games. people buy for a higher price sell to more rich people richer people sell, to other rich people, they sell it and the prices just keeps going up, then everything game wise goes up, Digital Modern game companies become the only option, (I am hoping not)
Game physical media value goes up, most people get upset and possibly find a new thing to spend their money on,
= dead video game industry for collectors not into the 6 digits
repeat that with movies and CD's and then most physical media becomes like gold. then we can't own a damn thing and if this happens to all media in which it may.
and if cash is stll king by then, there will be unstoppable commercial advertisements on everything media Life would become work work and no play,
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I have over the last couple of days. While pricing at this time is a factor, my major factor is getting rid of stuff I dont want right now. In particular, games I could play somewhere else without taking up pace or games I have had for a long time and never getting around to it. As it stands, I have boxed up those games in particular and will put them away for the time being until I get the time to actual go about selling them. I updated my sell list to reflect that and will post a sell thread here just to see if there is any interest here for anything I have.
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If the Economy goes down no more jobs mean more poor people sell their games.
If people are out of work for long enough (irrespective of the economy at large), this will happen, yes.
However, everything else you said is incorrect. I'll explain.
people buy for a higher price sell to more rich people richer people sell, to other rich people, they sell it and the prices just keeps going up, then everything game wise goes up
If a large supply of games hits the market, that won’t cause their value to go up, but down (or at least, plateau). The values now are high because everyone’s cooped up, and many people are (foolishly) using their relief money to buy games, and so demand is high while supply is dwindling. If supply increases because people need to liquidate, then as a result the number of prospective buyers decrease, and demand will drop.
It doesn’t matter if the shrinking pool of buyers are rich. Rich people don’t stay rich by being stupid, and tend not to outbid themselves for a product no one else is clamouring for. If you’re selling something and there are only 2 prospective buyers vs the previous 10, then the wealth of those 2 is irrelevant as the demand is less and their won’t be as furious a bidding war (literally and figuratively).
Digital Modern game companies become the only option, (I am hoping not)
Ignoring the ever closer reality of all digital gaming for a moment, new physical releases won’t suddenly have increased retail prices just because retro game prices are on fire. They are catering to very different audiences, and again, the supply/demand in one is vastly different than in the other.
Game physical media value goes up, most people get upset and possibly find a new thing to spend their money on.
People might move on from the retro scene if they are priced out, but it won’t have any appreciable effect on current gen game sales.
= dead video game industry for collectors not into the 6 digits
And this is why your doomsday scenario for the game industry (which is about modern releases, they don’t profit from secondhand retro sales) will not happen. They still have to earn money, and they won’t do that pricing themselves out of the market, nor is there any impetus to do so based on second hand values of old games no longer in production.
repeat that with movies and CD's and then most physical media becomes like gold. then we can't own a damn thing and if this happens to all media in which it may.
Is there a significant markup on used DVDs and CDs now?
and if cash is stll king by then, there will be unstoppable commercial advertisements on everything media Life would become work work and no play.
??? Not sure how you think cash transactions (vs direct payment via cards) have any impact on advertising, or how it affects the average person’s work-life balance?
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You're right @bunnybear I just don't want to lose access physical media especially music CD's and video games, I don't know what is going to happen.
I don't want to have to rely on an online pay to play service to hear music or need to put up with ads, and if I ever lose my games I would not be able to replace games, maybe I could still replace most of the music since music CD's are still being sold new and used quite a lot in fact.
there is ad blockers but I don't want to mess with them, I've been spoiled in life with a lot of media shopping but I need to look back at my own signature
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If the Economy goes down no more jobs mean more poor people sell their games. people buy for a higher price sell to more rich people richer people sell, to other rich people, they sell it and the prices just keeps going up, then everything game wise goes up, Digital Modern game companies become the only option, (I am hoping not)
Here's the thing though, the majority of the people that are buying actually have work that needs to go on where never in a dire situation to begin with, this isnt usa exclusive btw same things apply in europe aswell. In europe around 10 to 15% lost their work everyone else went on with the difference being that they had to work at home, and only some jobs to actually be at work. the 10 - 15% had it rough the 80+% kinda has more money in their pocket than ever.
And these people have less options to spend their money on, cancelled vacations to other countries till next year etc they have more money in their pocket than ever, If money runs out it would only affect the people who where in a dire situation already wich are selling games right now wich get bought up by the people who have more money in their pocket atm
Covid is getting less and less we'll see what happens, people will get to work sometime soon the worst is over in europe at least so that the remaining 15% can get to work again, a ton of things are getting back to normal again.
Prices will probably go normal after covid, however some games that have risen to much will probably stay higher than prior though.
again don't know the situation in the USA in terms of % of people that lost their job, but if it's simular to europe only the 15% will suffer while the 85% will just have enough money to spend like always. if it's 50/50 than sure pretty high odds at the market crashing but with just a minority the people with money will spend the higher amounts.
according to an article it's around 30ish % in the usa that had to take a pay cut or lost their job. so 70% having more money than ever.
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I am open to buy extra copies in better state for some bucks, I was open to pay some big bucks but since ebay is sometimes filled with scammers and other dastardly people I left the idea and I put myself a 60$ limit.
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I am open to buy extra copies in better state for some bucks, I was open to pay some big bucks but since ebay is sometimes filled with scammers and other dastardly people I left the idea and I put myself a 60$ limit.
ebay is kinda a buyers paradise if there are any scammers they are mostly buyers abusing the system to get free stuff from a seller.
Current ebay and Paypal is extremely in favor of the buyer, a bit to much I'd say. you'd be a fool if your trying to scam as a seller if where talking current ebay era.
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Not necessarily foolish. People selling counterfeit game cartridges probably get away with it more often than not. With as many fakes as I have seen on eBay and in the wild, I feel pretty sure a large contingent of buyers never think to check authenticity or don't know to.
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I can't help but wonder if this sudden boom in retro game demand and prices will result in an actual crash on the other side of this?
Probably not to a degree as high as you'd hope but I wouldn't be surprised to see them go down a little bit compared to before covid.
For example, the Pokemon Go craze of 2016 made old Pokemon games shoot up in price for a while, but afterwards they went down to even lower than they were before. I remember generally seeing Pokemon Red for $20-30 before 2016, then it shot up to $50 when Pokemon Go mania increased demand, and afterwards I frequently saw the game for $10-20. Not all of them had a noticeable decrease after the craze died down (like Heartgold), but they at least went back to what they were beforehand. And with video game sales in general being at a record high (and not just for old games), this would seem to be on a larger scale.
I think that best case scenario they'll get a little bit cheaper than they were previously, and worst case scenario they'll go back to roughly what they were before. All I know is that stuff like people being willing to pay almost $40 for Goldeneye 64 isn't going to last, so if you want to get rid of some stuff then now's your chance.
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I can't help but wonder if this sudden boom in retro game demand and prices will result in an actual crash on the other side of this?
Probably not to a degree as high as you'd hope but I wouldn't be surprised to see them go down a little bit compared to before covid.
For example, the Pokemon Go craze of 2016 made old Pokemon games shoot up in price for a while, but afterwards they went down to even lower than they were before. I remember generally seeing Pokemon Red for $20-30 before 2016, then it shot up to $50 when Pokemon Go mania increased demand, and afterwards I frequently saw the game for $10-20. Not all of them had a noticeable decrease after the craze died down (like Heartgold), but they at least went back to what they were beforehand. And with video game sales in general being at a record high (and not just for old games), this would seem to be on a larger scale.
are you serious?
Most cib gba gameboy games before pokemon go where 30 - 40$ max in excellent condition, way less if the condition was just mediocre. Heartgold soulsilver was just 30$ 40 with the cardboard box and pokewalker Even years after pokemon go hype the prices are above or close to 100$ Pokemon prices have stayed inflated after pokemon go really big time. cart only maybe havent checked that but cib it stayed inflated, and that was withouth covid.
Pokemon yellow red & blue where 40$ max before pokemon go, not to uncommon close to 100$ for a cib these days before covid.
I wish prices where the same as before pokemon go hype I absolutely regret not buying a pokemon yellow cib in excellent shape for 30$ wich frequently happened and was easy but I was a cheap guy and I literally got all pokemon games for cheap in deals pretty easily except yellow so yea kinda amusing how that did not work out. Either you don't remember the prices prior to pokemon go correctly or you must be confusing it with some other prices because prices have stayed inflated after pokemon go by allot, maybe just a tad bit lower but it's not much
I literally sold a soulsilver for 30$ a few weeks before pokemon go craze the normal price very easy to find game at the time. you can almost not find it for that price anymore people are literally buying it up for double that amount to resell it for a profit these days since yes it's easy money.
Base pokemon ruby sapphire cib, some of the cheaper advance games for just 30$ in nice shape your literally getting close to 100$ now let alone stuff like emerald or crystal.
Also this isnt even the mainline games exclusive, the pokemon cube games are inflated aswell.
XD gale of darkness was just 35$ before pokemon go, like legit it's almost path of radiance price lvl withouth covid close or sometimes surpassing 100$, Prices would be a hell of a lot lower if it was even lower than before the pokemon go craze.
USA could be different I guess, but if where talking europe pokemon ds and pre era prices have stayed extremely inflated after the pokemon go hype, the only games that have dropped in value are diamond & pearl because platinum is so much better than those 2.
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Well, I'm taking the plunge! I have a lot of high dollar JRPGs that I honestly can't see myself playing either ever or for a very, very long time that i'm going to be unloading. The financial benefits to selling right now are just too good to hold on to some of this stuff. Given I'll still be holding onto easily 75% of my collection after my downsize, however I wouldn't be surprised if the value of my collection is halfed by selling what currently on the block. I have a few games that are worth over $400 right now that I'll be selling and those alone amount to around $5000 just on their own.
Am I sad about selling some of these games? I little, but again I just can't justify holding onto them at their current prices, not even close. I never in my wildest dreams thought they'd increase so much in value, in fact I believed for years we were actually headed in the other direction where my collection would probably be worth a fraction of its 2019 value in a few years. Looks like I was terribly wrong about that lol
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I might have to investigate, I have a lot of portable games which realistically I don't play as much. I do have to admit I have difficulty letting go of Physical Editions even if I have multiple ports of the same game I have loads of PS3 games which got PS4 Remasters and still have the originals boxed up.
Question is, how do you know these game won't go up in price in time? I went through my PS3 games and selected a bundle which seem to be going for a decent price - especially in comparison to what I got them for. Then of course if you're selling on eBay you have to factor in eBay Fees/Paypal Fees & Postage...
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I've been thinking about selling stuff, but what would I do with the money? Realistically, I'd spend it on more video games.
Regardless, I probably will try to start selling stuff soon. I just have the problem that I don't feel like leaving the house every couple of days just to ship stuff.
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In europe around 10 to 15% lost their work everyone else went on with the difference being that they had to work at home, and only some jobs to actually be at work. the 10 - 15% had it rough the 80+% kinda has more money in their pocket than ever...according to an article it's around 30ish % in the usa that had to take a pay cut or lost their job. so 70% having more money than ever.
That’s not how it works. Even if your figures are correct in terms of percentages of people who took pay cuts or lost their jobs, that in no way implies that everyone else becomes better off. In fact, people taking pay cuts/losing their jobs is a direct consequence of their employers being unable to pay them, which is not how one accrues more wealth.
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In europe around 10 to 15% lost their work everyone else went on with the difference being that they had to work at home, and only some jobs to actually be at work. the 10 - 15% had it rough the 80+% kinda has more money in their pocket than ever...according to an article it's around 30ish % in the usa that had to take a pay cut or lost their job. so 70% having more money than ever.
That’s not how it works. Even if your figures are correct in terms of percentages of people who took pay cuts or lost their jobs, that in no way implies that everyone else becomes better off. In fact, people taking pay cuts/losing their jobs is a direct consequence of their employers being unable to pay them, which is not how one accrues more wealth.
I'm not saying those people are more wealthy than usual they have the same funds as before, However the people that still have a job at the same salary cannot go on vacation concerts etc.
Wich means record sales in other sectors such as hobby's etc. Online stores having record sales as in multiple times the amount than usual wich has been on the news also sectors that have been doing way better in covid than normal times even if physical store sales are gone atm. obviously the people that still have a job aren't richer it's just that they have less options to spend their money on wich inflates the sales rate in certain sections of the market. wich again even if people deny it, it's even been in the news, it has actually been mentioned multiple times that allot of people who still have work actually have it way more easy atm since less options to spend their money on.
Not to sure about the US, but in my country that was the case at least.
And again this topic is about the high prices of retro game atm, with the stuff that has been going on with people having more funds in their pocket left with less options to spend their money on it makes sense. If a far larger part of the economy had a pay cut lost their job Retro prices would have probably crashed bargin bin prices since people would be forced to sell stuff quickly and pretty much no one to buy it than. people expected a market crash yet it has only increased.
a ton of retail sectors are doing better atm even with the loss of physical stores, if the majority of the population would have it rough that would not have happened.