Name Some Currently Expensive Yet Common Retro Video Games

[turf]

Smash Bros. (Any iteration)
They all hold their value. There’s millions of N64 and Melee out there, but they’re still more than I like paying.

[Warmsignal]

Pretty much any Nintendo franchise game, and the majority of the SNES library in general. It's the console with the sole most artificially inflated prices of all time. Everyone and their grandmother has a copy of Chrono Trigger, or Mega Man 7 sell you for $200. Much of SNES is like Sega Saturn prices for PS2 level quantities, or at least equivalents of that era. How that bubble doesn't pop, I don't know.

[sworddude]

Pretty much any Nintendo franchise game, and the majority of the SNES library in general. It's the console with the sole most artificially inflated prices of all time. Everyone and their grandmother has a copy of Chrono Trigger, or Mega Man 7 sell you for $200. Much of SNES is like Sega Saturn prices for PS2 level quantities, or at least equivalents of that era. How that bubble doesn't pop, I don't know.

if crono trigger and megaman 7 where so "common" why don't you and a ton of older collectors did not find those for cheap back in the day also how the **** are prices that high if they where so common everyone would be happy and have these games in their pocket how are we in this situation right now There are some who did but majority who did not and complain I find that kinda funny actually. I would love to have both sadly luck is not on my side. megaman 7 more rare in europe I hate it.

anyways let's take this example

panzer dragoon sold 5K copies and sells for 700ish according to price charting

earthbound sold 140ish k copies

however a lose cart sells for 170

and a cib sells for 700+

so the lose carts are already way lower in value. you could probably compare a lose cart of earthbound with some of the more sought after ps1 games as rarity say suikoden II wich hey  also sold 150K copies and goes for around 150ish http://www.vgchartz.com/game/4405/suikoden-ii/

suikoden II sold more copies than earthbound and also goes for 150ish $

and than we have nintendo cardboard cib. we all know what the rates are for cart vs cib. like 10 vs 1 20 vs 1 30 vs 1. it's bad best probs 10% of all copies are cib than you can take 50% of that for nice collectible examples

wich leaves you with roughly 7K collectible cib copies in other words bigger market interested in nintendo with only slightly more copies than panzer dragoon saga price difference not that bad anymore than. could be less cib copies btw

and you could argue that many panzer dragoon saga copies are lost. but I disagree since you had to pre order them back in the day so only hardcore people pre ordered them who usually take care of their stuff unlike with earthbound wich was most likely bought by a mom and dad for their kid in a bargain bin.

also it seems to me that 30K copies of panzer dragoon saga where released in the US not just 5K. so if were looking at cib copies for earthbound it might be more rare than panzer dragoon saga. and the lose carts where already way lower in value and could be compared to the sought after ps1 games wich roughly have the same quantities and price such as suikoden II

https://www.megavisionsmag.com/retrospective-panzer-dragoon-saga/


suikoden Ii already had such prices for years. and ps1 isnt that hyped even suikoden II for sure not as with snes. are the rare games on snes that overpriced if we would consider this?

lose carts are already in the same price range as some of the more sought after disc based games in those quantities and only the cib stuff goes for insane amounts but fair enough have way lower quantities compared with more rare stuff since there are so many more cart only copies everyone threw those boxes away.

Obviously there are more rare shitty games but that's not what where talking about. compared to other older systems doesnt seem that overpriced to me considering my arguments. obviously emulation and remasters for slightly more than a tenner are the issue for newcomers but those people are usually not the buyers for these kinds of things. but heck isnt that the case with all older collectibles?

i mean like it's not like your forced to buy original silver age comics when the exact same thing is reprinted for 5$ or less. those are way more insane than videogames. consideringen these go for thousands or hundreds of thousands. same goes for videogames you can just get a remaster or a download only or better emulation for free.

[hoshichiri]

Pretty much any Nintendo franchise game, and the majority of the SNES library in general. It's the console with the sole most artificially inflated prices of all time. Everyone and their grandmother has a copy of Chrono Trigger, or Mega Man 7 sell you for $200. Much of SNES is like Sega Saturn prices for PS2 level quantities, or at least equivalents of that era. How that bubble doesn't pop, I don't know.

That's pretty simple: everybody who didn't keep their Nintendos back in the day, wants the Nintendo titles when they get bit by the nostalgia bug. They're a reliable seller, so the price doesn't go down. As for the SNES specifically, it's currently in the sweet spot of nostalgic love so it's getting a lot more attention right now. It's also quickly moving out of that spot as the people who grew up on SNES see their own kids getting too old to care about mom & dad's retro games anymore, and the people buying into their childhoods either complete that task to their satisfaction or quit caring.

Honestly I think we're overdue for a PlayStation bubble to hit, but Sony's dropped the ball HARD on capitalizing nostalgia & disc-based clone systems aren't yet a thing. The clone systems being the bigger deal- once anyone can go into a retro shop & get a working nouveau PlayStation with an HDMI hookup on the cheap, stuff's gonna change real quick!

I also don't think we'll ever see a proper bubble 'burst'- more of a deflation. There's a lot more dedicated retro collectors these days, all with different sized wallets. I suspect rather than a sudden drop as peole seek to offload inventory, we'll see a slow decline as people drop prices gradually, making a few sales with each drop as it hits prices collectors with varying budgets will pay.

[Warmsignal]

Pretty much any Nintendo franchise game, and the majority of the SNES library in general. It's the console with the sole most artificially inflated prices of all time. Everyone and their grandmother has a copy of Chrono Trigger, or Mega Man 7 sell you for $200. Much of SNES is like Sega Saturn prices for PS2 level quantities, or at least equivalents of that era. How that bubble doesn't pop, I don't know.

if crono trigger and megaman 7 where so "common" why don't you and a ton of older collectors did not find those for cheap back in the day also how the **** are prices that high if they where so common everyone would be happy and have these games in their pocket how are we in this situation right now There are some who did but majority who did not and complain I find that kinda funny actually. I would love to have both sadly luck is not on my side. megaman 7 more rare in europe I hate it.

anyways let's take this example

panzer dragoon sold 5K copies and sells for 700ish according to price charting

earthbound sold 140ish k copies

however a lose cart sells for 170

and a cib sells for 700+

so the lose carts are already way lower in value. you could probably compare a lose cart of earthbound with some of the more sought after ps1 games as rarity say suikoden II wich hey  also sold 150K copies and goes for around 150ish http://www.vgchartz.com/game/4405/suikoden-ii/

suikoden II sold more copies than earthbound and also goes for 150ish $

and than we have nintendo cardboard cib. we all know what the rates are for cart vs cib. like 10 vs 1 20 vs 1 30 vs 1. it's bad best probs 10% of all copies are cib than you can take 50% of that for nice collectible examples

wich leaves you with roughly 7K collectible cib copies in other words bigger market interested in nintendo with only slightly more copies than panzer dragoon saga price difference not that bad anymore than. could be less cib copies btw

and you could argue that many panzer dragoon saga copies are lost. but I disagree since you had to pre order them back in the day so only hardcore people pre ordered them who usually take care of their stuff unlike with earthbound wich was most likely bought by a mom and dad for their kid in a bargain bin.

also it seems to me that 30K copies of panzer dragoon saga where released in the US not just 5K. so if were looking at cib copies for earthbound it might be more rare than panzer dragoon saga. and the lose carts where already way lower in value and could be compared to the sought after ps1 games wich roughly have the same quantities and price such as suikoden II

https://www.megavisionsmag.com/retrospective-panzer-dragoon-saga/


suikoden Ii already had such prices for years. and ps1 isnt that hyped even suikoden II for sure not as with snes. are the rare games on snes that overpriced if we would consider this?

lose carts are already in the same price range as some of the more sought after disc based games in those quantities and only the cib stuff goes for insane amounts but fair enough have way lower quantities compared with more rare stuff since there are so many more cart only copies everyone threw those boxes away.

Obviously there are more rare shitty games but that's not what where talking about. compared to other older systems doesnt seem that overpriced to me considering my arguments. obviously emulation and remasters for slightly more than a tenner are the issue for newcomers but those people are usually not the buyers for these kinds of things. but heck isnt that the case with all older collectibles?

i mean like it's not like your forced to buy original silver age comics when the exact same thing is reprinted for 5$ or less. those are way more insane than videogames. consideringen these go for thousands or hundreds of thousands. same goes for videogames you can just get a remaster or a download only or better emulation for free.

They were readily available back in the day, and they still are. Lots of people have Mega Man 7 and Chrono Trigger. I personally don't want those titles because I have no passion for either series to be honest. In fact, I already own Chorno Trigger for DS though I've never felt compelled to play it. I also picked up the Mega Man on PS4 in case I felt the need to ever play those again. But everywhere I go, I see these carts for sale. The prices are that high because of the fandom and hype surrounding those series, a lot of people think those are some of the best games ever made, though I would highly disagree with that notion. Look at all the first 7 Mega Man games. All quite expensive, none of them truly rare, all of them basically the same thing. Chrono only entered the triple digit numbers over the past few years after being relatively affordable for many.

PDS, along with the other 1998 releases on Saturn are the exceptions, not the rule for Saturn rarity. I'm drawing a parallel more on the general prices for "common" Saturn games, which still command pretty hefty prices (as they should, they technically all bombed in sales), to SNES games which are on average much more plentiful than any Saturn game, commanding similar prices. For example, Nights Into Dreams -  fairly common by Saturn standards and roughly a $40 game. Contra III, quite common SNES game, roughly a $35 - $40 game. Both fairly popular titles on each platform. I'd wager way more copies of Contra III were printed compared to Nights, and yet prices are very similar. Hence how I conclude SNES is Saturn prices for PS2 level quantities. It's the most inflated prices of any mainstream successful console.

[Warmsignal]

Pretty much any Nintendo franchise game, and the majority of the SNES library in general. It's the console with the sole most artificially inflated prices of all time. Everyone and their grandmother has a copy of Chrono Trigger, or Mega Man 7 sell you for $200. Much of SNES is like Sega Saturn prices for PS2 level quantities, or at least equivalents of that era. How that bubble doesn't pop, I don't know.

That's pretty simple: everybody who didn't keep their Nintendos back in the day, wants the Nintendo titles when they get bit by the nostalgia bug. They're a reliable seller, so the price doesn't go down. As for the SNES specifically, it's currently in the sweet spot of nostalgic love so it's getting a lot more attention right now. It's also quickly moving out of that spot as the people who grew up on SNES see their own kids getting too old to care about mom & dad's retro games anymore, and the people buying into their childhoods either complete that task to their satisfaction or quit caring.

Honestly I think we're overdue for a PlayStation bubble to hit, but Sony's dropped the ball HARD on capitalizing nostalgia & disc-based clone systems aren't yet a thing. The clone systems being the bigger deal- once anyone can go into a retro shop & get a working nouveau PlayStation with an HDMI hookup on the cheap, stuff's gonna change real quick!

I also don't think we'll ever see a proper bubble 'burst'- more of a deflation. There's a lot more dedicated retro collectors these days, all with different sized wallets. I suspect rather than a sudden drop as peole seek to offload inventory, we'll see a slow decline as people drop prices gradually, making a few sales with each drop as it hits prices collectors with varying budgets will pay.

I feel like the SNES has been all the rage in collecting ever since I've been into the hobby, so at least ever since the late 2000s. Still in that sweet spot? By now you'd think it would be N64, maybe GameCube. To some extent it is, I'm already seeing young collectors fondly heaping praise on their childhood systems like GameCube. Still, nowhere near as insane as SNES still is. SNES lovers are true die hards. I don't think people will ever pipe down about that system. Hate to say it, but SNES feel quite overrated these days.

[sworddude]

Pretty much any Nintendo franchise game, and the majority of the SNES library in general. It's the console with the sole most artificially inflated prices of all time. Everyone and their grandmother has a copy of Chrono Trigger, or Mega Man 7 sell you for $200. Much of SNES is like Sega Saturn prices for PS2 level quantities, or at least equivalents of that era. How that bubble doesn't pop, I don't know.

if crono trigger and megaman 7 where so "common" why don't you and a ton of older collectors did not find those for cheap back in the day also how the **** are prices that high if they where so common everyone would be happy and have these games in their pocket how are we in this situation right now There are some who did but majority who did not and complain I find that kinda funny actually. I would love to have both sadly luck is not on my side. megaman 7 more rare in europe I hate it.

anyways let's take this example

panzer dragoon sold 5K copies and sells for 700ish according to price charting

earthbound sold 140ish k copies

however a lose cart sells for 170

and a cib sells for 700+

so the lose carts are already way lower in value. you could probably compare a lose cart of earthbound with some of the more sought after ps1 games as rarity say suikoden II wich hey  also sold 150K copies and goes for around 150ish http://www.vgchartz.com/game/4405/suikoden-ii/

suikoden II sold more copies than earthbound and also goes for 150ish $

and than we have nintendo cardboard cib. we all know what the rates are for cart vs cib. like 10 vs 1 20 vs 1 30 vs 1. it's bad best probs 10% of all copies are cib than you can take 50% of that for nice collectible examples

wich leaves you with roughly 7K collectible cib copies in other words bigger market interested in nintendo with only slightly more copies than panzer dragoon saga price difference not that bad anymore than. could be less cib copies btw

and you could argue that many panzer dragoon saga copies are lost. but I disagree since you had to pre order them back in the day so only hardcore people pre ordered them who usually take care of their stuff unlike with earthbound wich was most likely bought by a mom and dad for their kid in a bargain bin.

also it seems to me that 30K copies of panzer dragoon saga where released in the US not just 5K. so if were looking at cib copies for earthbound it might be more rare than panzer dragoon saga. and the lose carts where already way lower in value and could be compared to the sought after ps1 games wich roughly have the same quantities and price such as suikoden II

https://www.megavisionsmag.com/retrospective-panzer-dragoon-saga/


suikoden Ii already had such prices for years. and ps1 isnt that hyped even suikoden II for sure not as with snes. are the rare games on snes that overpriced if we would consider this?

lose carts are already in the same price range as some of the more sought after disc based games in those quantities and only the cib stuff goes for insane amounts but fair enough have way lower quantities compared with more rare stuff since there are so many more cart only copies everyone threw those boxes away.

Obviously there are more rare shitty games but that's not what where talking about. compared to other older systems doesnt seem that overpriced to me considering my arguments. obviously emulation and remasters for slightly more than a tenner are the issue for newcomers but those people are usually not the buyers for these kinds of things. but heck isnt that the case with all older collectibles?

i mean like it's not like your forced to buy original silver age comics when the exact same thing is reprinted for 5$ or less. those are way more insane than videogames. consideringen these go for thousands or hundreds of thousands. same goes for videogames you can just get a remaster or a download only or better emulation for free.

They were readily available back in the day, and they still are. Lots of people have Mega Man 7 and Chrono Trigger. I personally don't want those titles because I have no passion for either series to be honest. In fact, I already own Chorno Trigger for DS though I've never felt compelled to play it. I also picked up the Mega Man on PS4 in case I felt the need to ever play those again. But everywhere I go, I see these carts for sale. The prices are that high because of the fandom and hype surrounding those series, a lot of people think those are some of the best games ever made, though I would highly disagree with that notion. Look at all the first 7 Mega Man games. All quite expensive, none of them truly rare, all of them basically the same thing. Chrono only entered the triple digit numbers over the past few years after being relatively affordable for many.

PDS, along with the other 1998 releases on Saturn are the exceptions, not the rule for Saturn rarity. I'm drawing a parallel more on the general prices for "common" Saturn games, which still command pretty hefty prices (as they should, they technically all bombed in sales), to SNES games which are on average much more plentiful than any Saturn game, commanding similar prices. For example, Nights Into Dreams -  fairly common by Saturn standards and roughly a $40 game. Contra III, quite common SNES game, roughly a $35 - $40 game. Both fairly popular titles on each platform. I'd wager way more copies of Contra III were printed compared to Nights, and yet prices are very similar. Hence how I conclude SNES is Saturn prices for PS2 level quantities. It's the most inflated prices of any mainstream successful console.

chrono trigger sold about double the amount that earthbound did it's not in the millions.

i mean at least compared to other systems that are less hyped say ps1. suikoden II sells for more than a lose copy of chrono trigger wich is around 100$

only cib sells for insane amounts but there are most likely far less cib especially collectible cib copies of chrono trigger than cib suikoden

in terms of prices it's not that much higher compared to other very sought after items. ps1 isnt hyped compared to snes and yet it's not to much of a difference.

chrono trigger sells for allot less than earthbound thanks to the amount it is reflected on it's price but considering that probs around 10% only survived as cib copies it is the reason why those prices are way higher than a cib suikoden II

contra III sure  on that one I agree ps2 quantities if done vs saturn but for the more rare expensive stuff it's kinda comparable to other systems.

is it overpriced most likely but you could say that for the entirety of the sought after retro games.

examples such as contra III are the exceptions of having decent value while being common and yes snes has some of the finest examples in that regard i dont disagree on you with that.

[hoshichiri]

I feel like the SNES has been all the rage in collecting ever since I've been into the hobby, so at least ever since the late 2000s. Still in that sweet spot? By now you'd think it would be N64, maybe GameCube. To some extent it is, I'm already seeing young collectors fondly heaping praise on their childhood systems like GameCube. Still, nowhere near as insane as SNES still is. SNES lovers are true die hards. I don't think people will ever pipe down about that system. Hate to say it, but SNES feel quite overrated these days.

I agree with you, really- but there's one thing that's kept the SNES artificially popular that the system that should have supplanted it don't have- clone systems.

At this point, TVs have moved beyond any system older than the seventh generation of consoles- they don't display the older, standard definition signals well (assuming they even have the connection ports for them.) Clone systems provide accessibility for people not willing to fiddle around with ageing hardware and signal converters.

My understanding is there's patents still on the books preventing disc-based clones from coming out- but I imagine once those are gone (and I believe it's coming soon), and the new PlayStation/Gamecube/Xbox players hit the market, they'll be a shift.

Even if that takes longer than I expect, eventually age will catch up with SNES- the people who grew up with it will see their kids finish growing up & raising their own family. Much as today's kids wouldn't much care for Grandpa's Atari, so too will the grandkids of the future push back at the 16 bit era as too old, preferring a different flavor of retro than we have now.

[marvelvscapcom2]

Smash Bros Melee.  It's been the bane to my existance for so long because it infuriates how it's such a 5 dollar game.  It's literally the best selling Gamecube game of all time.  Everyone has it.  I can't walk out my door in the morning without tripping on one.  I'm pretty sure for a few autumns they grew on trees and fell on my porch.   Throughout the entire late 2000s.  3 years after it came out or so.   You couldn't give it away.  I remember being in my local game crazy and looking at clearance bins filled with it.  5 dollars each if I remember correctly.  Might have been 10.   And now here we are.  It's 55 for a players choice.  And like 70 for a black label in mint condition.   Simply popostrous.  I get demand is high.  But I don't think it warrants such a hike.  Resellers really do collapse our hobby


Mario Kart Double Dash too.  Their is no need for these games to be hovering near 50 dollars.  I see them at so many savers.  But sadly my local savers is the biggest scalper of all and they charge full ebay price.


As a whole I think Gamecube has been hit the hardest by the inflated price bug.  It's just not that old to be so scarce,  everyone saved cases back then,  and really they are abundant at every flea market but always pricey.  Even complete shovelware for the system are 5-7 bucks each.    Hard to full set it.  My brother almost has a full set

[Cartagia]

GameCube titles are odd like that, but it is important to remember that even though these games are the best selling on their consoles that GC was still easily the lowest selling console of the generation, so compared to their PS2 and XB contemporaries these games are harder to find.

[oldgamerz]

I was going to post the following somewhere else but didn't know exactly where

The Gamecube in my memory was once the cheapest console to buy used at GameStop. I remember it used to cost $60 USD while the PlayStation 2 and Xbox origional was still more than $100 USD around Christmas time the year in one of the following years 2003 2004-2005.

Also it was not really highly praised at that time, games were cheap for it

Also during this time a used Nintendo 64 at my local gamestop was $20 USD with all hookups. and the games were all less than $20 USD a piece including games like StarCraft 64. all extra controllers were only $10 USD a piece at GameStop also.

Gamestop was a great store to go to during this era.

Now before anyone gets mad most of my games growing up were purchased and given to me brand new but as I got older funds were not there so I went to used video game stores.

[98dgreen]

GameCube titles are odd like that, but it is important to remember that even though these games are the best selling on their consoles that GC was still easily the lowest selling console of the generation, so compared to their PS2 and XB contemporaries these games are harder to find.

Actually, I believe that Xbox and Gamecube sold about the same.

[sworddude]

GameCube titles are odd like that, but it is important to remember that even though these games are the best selling on their consoles that GC was still easily the lowest selling console of the generation, so compared to their PS2 and XB contemporaries these games are harder to find.

Actually, I believe that Xbox and Gamecube sold about the same.

gamecube sold about 30% less than xbox in the states and europe. in japan on the otherhand xbox is uber rare compared to gamecube.

[pzeke]

Most Pokémons stuff still retains its value. Some Kirby and Metroid games, too.

I tend to use the Ebay test for true rarity- basically, look up a game and see how many listings there are. If you can find a dozen copies for sale at any given time, it's not really that rare. There's several dozen Earthbounds up once you scroll past the obvious fakes. Then on the flipside, you have something like Video Whizball, an old Channel F game that most people won't have heard of. That one's rare enough that most days, there are zero copies available on Ebay. Most games like that, that are truly rare, have no set value becuase there's no past data to really pull from. In the case of Whizball, in the year I watched Ebay, lamenting listings I missed by minutes, I saw it go as low at $5 and as high as $200. I ultimately paid $40 on a different forum.

I often do that, too. Some good examples of this include Forever Kingdom, MS Saga: A New Dawn, Mobile Suit Gundam: Gundam vs. Zeta Gundam, Graffiti Kingdom, Steambot Chronicles, and OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast for PS2, and The Kore Gang for Wii. On the import side both 10,000 Bullets and The Sword of Etheria for PS2, as well as Dynasty Warriors Gundam: Reborn for PS3 come to mind. There was a time where I would search for Sub Rebellion and would often only get around 6-8 results, most being for disc only. I also used to have difficulties finding AirForce Strike Delta for the PS2; I would usually get listings for disc only or for complete copies in god-awful conditions. Just recently did I finally managed to find a copy I'm quite content with.

[ferraroso]

At least here in Japan, it is pretty easy to find any game in the King of Fighters franchise released from 1994 to 1998 to the Neo Geo AES, and yet, they rarely can be found for less than the equivalent to US$100.00 or so...

Akumajo Dracula: Chi no Rondo for the PC-Engine CD is another one that is farely easy to find, but never for less than ¥17,000 (around US$155.00)...