Wrath of the "Hidden Gem"

[bizzarnage]

First off, Hiya! I'm new here and this is my first post so forgive me if this subject's been done to death already, but I figured I'd ask and see how the rest of you fine folks feel on the subject;

You go into a local mom & pop shop that sells old games and you happen to notice some suspiciously bloated price tags. Maybe last week you were looking at a PS2 or Xbox game that was on a wall and now, it's in a glass case with a ridiculous price. I've had a handful of instances where I look at a game that's not only OOB but commanding the price of almost two new retail's. Now don't get me wrong, I won't argue stuff like Rule of Rose some LRG game (That's a whole other problem) has it's place and reasons, but a lot of times just.. random things. This is how I learned about MetalJesusRocks. Some dude who REALLY can't get over Splashdown rides gone wild and every arcade racer I can think of. I feel like a lot of these people for some reason have legit influence on the prices of games and I find it to be ridiculous and exhausting as a collector to have to worry that some random quirky game I haven't bought yet suddenly doubles in average asking price because some dude who's famous for owning a 64DD makes a video and says it's a hidden gem. I've had store owners tell me this guy's calling what they're selling "Rare and hard to find" and going off that alone in charging loads.

What do you guys feel about this? Have you experienced the wrath of the hidden gem?

[vivigamer]

I've certainly noticed it has been harder to find games for a decent price in general stores. For years I would go to pre-owned focused stores and gather games at generic prices. Nowadays I have also seen such games been placed off the shelves and into glass cabinets at a premium price. Such actions have actually put me off even going to stores even before the pandemic hit.

Also, I volunteer at a charity store and my task is often to go through stock and see if I can find stock which is of decent value for them to sell on eBay - So I'd find stock given to us by dontation, price compare with Amazon/eBay & then have the stock sent off to the company HQ for them to re-list. This is a more recent trend of many charity stores so in effect, the shopping experience in store is sort of compromised in the same fashion.

I'm lucky in the sense that I feel I have a majority of the titles I want prior PS4 gen, so I feel less need to go to such stores but there was a sense of joy in the visit and finding something unexpected - Last year I snagged a copy of Jet Set Radio Future on Xbox for £1 A title I had more or less given up hope in finding, but that luckily day I got it!

[kashell]

I remember one store in San Diego asking for 50 dollars for a PlayStation 2 game called Legend of A'lon Dar (sp). That's not even a hidden gem; it was a hidden mess. It's crazy how some places price their stuff.

[thewelshman]

I sometimes think that people rely too much on YouTube videos and top 10 lists for their pricing. Like you mentioned, there are a lot of games like "Rule of Rose" that are more expensive due to the small number released, but often times I'll hear stories of games being rare just to find out a month later they are in abundance. It's a smart move to sell off games at a bloated price if you can whip the gaming community into a buying frenzy. It's just like whenever you watch TV shows like "Pawn Stars." They'll bring in a friend of theirs that's an expert and estimates the item's value being $4,000 and the person immediately wants to sell it for that amount. People look for the top dollar amount without really considering the quality of the item, the demand, or the customers they're selling to.

$50 for Legend of Alon D'Ar? Wow, did it come with a super rare demo? lol.

[baileykun]

Yeah, I stick to goodwill and the net. I've seen mind mindbogglingly expensive prices at pawn shops and such as of late. I'll never understand collector influencers so I don't watch them, but the bubbles are pretty obvious sometimes. Just wait them out, they usually seem to pop eventually when everyone who has one suddenly want to sell it to cash in.

[Cartagia]

Bulk thrift has been where I've been having my best luck lately.  Too many places think that just because they have a SNES cart they have a license to print money without doing the research.  And then if they do the research they find out they have "gold mine" or still won't price it down to market.

Bulk stores like Goodwill, etc. and yard sales that price everything the same are where you're gonna get your best value per dollar.  I've gotten some $40-50 games and blu rays for $0.50-2.

[bikingjahuty]

If it makes you feel any better, I've found through experience that 90% of "hidden gems" are typically mediocre to kinda crappy. Sure, there's the collectibility aspect of owning an uncommon or rare game that's decent, but the vast majority of hidden gems don't even come close in quality to their more common, well known counterparts. Whenever someone says a game is a hidden gem or underrated my suspicion always goes up.


But on that note, I've more or less given up on hunting down those unicorn games especially at the prices they go for now. Maybe someday if things cool off I'll jump back into SNES or PS1 collecting, but for now it's so outrageously expensive. Still, I find the good deal here and there on occasion.

[wartoy]

Yes I've run into over priced games lots of times and I just won't buy them.But sometimes that comes back to bite you later. I could of bought Rule of Rose for 50 dollars years ago but I thought it was going to go down in price so I waited and it went up instead.I ended up paying 100 dollars for it and it felt awful but luckily it not only held it's value it kept going up now I don't feel bad about it anymore. This has happened with quite a few of my games somtimes it's better to wait and see if a game holds it's value but if you rarely see a game it might be best to just buy it. cause you may never see it again I almost didn't buy Kuon for 35 dollars but I knew I never even seen it before so I took a chance and im glad I did. I find it's best to research games before you buy as much as possible so not to over pay for them but other times you just have to take a chance.And just because a game is good doesn't mean it's has too be expensive.

[Warmsignal]

Of course! This is have been one of the main anxieties I've had as a collector over the past 5 or so years. That game you've been thinking about picking up for a long time, that was also kinda on the cheap side too? Well not anymore, because apparently letting it go for anything under $200 would now be ludicrous!

This is what makes game collecting so frustrating. There's no real justification for some of the "established values" that you'll come across. A game can jump from dirt cheap to super expensive, literally overnight. All it takes is one dubious precedent, like an eBay listing ending for a really inflated price. If that happens, then everyone else in possession of the game now believes they're entitled to the same money for their copy, and a license to now call it "rare". In the world of game collecting, rare just means that people will pay a lot of money for it. The majority of games out there are a lot lower in print run than your staple games / greatest hits games, already. So what is rare? 40,000 copies? 12,000? 349? Who knows. It's just whatever sellers wanna call rare.

A recent example - there is a generic racing game for GameCube called City Racer. For ages, this game sold for about $10 on eBay. Until one day, when it sold for over $100. Why? Probably because some guy bought it from himself at that price to screw with the value of it. Regardless, ever since then, it sells for big money and because of that, a number of YouTube channels have now included it in lists of "ULTRA R@RE G@meCube game$ to look out for". Even though no one gave a flip a few months back, when it was just a dirt cheap game no one wanted. That's how game collecting goes. Usually, when that happens to a game I intended to buy, I'll just give up on it. However, with Klonoa on PS1, I'll probably end up buying it because I feel like that one is not gonna stop going up. It'll crest one grand eventually and collectors will be saying "Remember when it was $300? Wish I'd jumped on it back then!"

I do think some people who buy and resell games try to watch some prominent content creators like MetalJesus and then gouge on featured items, but it doesn't always take. Regardless of who sets the ball in motion, market manipulation does go on, and it's incredibly easy to persuade collectors of the rarity and value of games they've never heard of. A lot of games became more well known for just how expensive they are, and that could potentially happen to any game at this point, I'd think.

Fortunately, I've often stayed ahead of the hidden gem in terms of ones I actually wanted to add to the collection. I feel like I have an eye for the types of games that are most susceptible to this sort of thing, and I've proven myself right many times.

[burningdoom]

You make it sound as if it's his fault they go up in price. He's just a YouTuber who talks about what he likes. He's also a collector and used to work at Sierra games.

Its the rabid collector mindset that watches his videos that make them raise in value. It's not as if it's a scheme to make them rise in value. Nor is he saying he's the be all end all of collecting knowledge. In fact he readily admits when he's not too familiar with something. Blame the collectors and completionists.

[wartoy]

You make it sound as if it's his fault they go up in price. He's just a YouTuber who talks about what he likes. He's also a collector and used to work at Sierra games.

Its the rabid collector mindset that watches his videos that make them raise in value. It's not as if it's a scheme to make them rise in value. Nor is he saying he's the be all end all of collecting knowledge. In fact he readily admits when he's not too familiar with something. Blame the collectors and completionists.

I second this first off never believe a seller who says a game is rare they all say that. It makes me mad when they do that cause it makes me think they think im stupid.If everyone called them out on their bullshit they would not be able to sell at crazy prices.Do the research on a game before you buy don't fall for their games and if you miss your opportunity to buy don't worry it may take time but there will be other opportunities.I've been collecting over 30 years there is no need to rush just injoy your self with this hobby don't let it stress you out.

[dhaabi]

You make it sound as if it's his fault they go up in price. He's just a YouTuber who talks about what he likes.

I'm also of the opinion that influencers like these aren't at any fault. If short videos like these weren't made by the community at-large to which I could digest in small amounts of time, I'd be completely unaware of a lot of games that I'm now interested in. I don't think I've ever purchased any items from sources like these, but it's nice to simply add it to my wish list and call it a day.

[bizzarnage]

You make it sound as if it's his fault they go up in price. He's just a YouTuber who talks about what he likes. He's also a collector and used to work at Sierra games.

Its the rabid collector mindset that watches his videos that make them raise in value. It's not as if it's a scheme to make them rise in value. Nor is he saying he's the be all end all of collecting knowledge. In fact he readily admits when he's not too familiar with something. Blame the collectors and completionists.

I look at it this way. The guy has connections to people who own stores; people who go to conventions to sell their big goodies to traveling collectors who come loaded to break bank. Call it a theory or a conspiracy or what have you, but I've been to two stores who've outright stated that it's "Only gonna get more expensive" BECAUSE he's made videos about these games. If you call something a hidden gem people looking to make a buck are gonna use it as a certification to clown out and sell things at ridiculous prices which hurts the hobby and the availability. Then you have jerks online who ask for ridiculous prices and that domino's like crazy! One guy thinks that his copy of a game is worth hundreds and now EVERYONE follows suit because "If that person can, so can I". As far as I know, he has contributed to this. To suggest that he's a collector and unaware of his effect on the hobby is just not possible imo.

You know, it might seem tinfoil hatty of me but I also notice that he asks people to come over and talk about already rare stuff that he has /no/ idea about. Most times he outright says he doesn't know much or hasn't played the game. Can't tell you much about any of it. Call me crazy, sure, but there's a BIG difference beytween one of us to make a video of out "Top ten weird games" or "Sleeper hits" or whatever, the average joe with nothing to gain and then there's the guy with friends who own game stores and giant collections who could profit from said inflation. Just something that doesn't sit right with me.


And ANYBODY selling Alon D'aar for anything more than $20 is out of their noggin

[kashell]

Agreed. If anything, they should be paying us 20 dollars to play that crap.

[burningdoom]

You said yourself, the sellers are telling you it's rare and going up in value, and selling it to you for that much. Not him. How is it his fault that they take advantage of that?

Yeah, I'm sure he knows his influence. But does that mean he should just stop making videos because other greedy people said that? He doesn't control them. And to your point that if we make videos it wouldn't do the same...duh, we aren't as popular as he is. If we were, it would do the same. Price of popularity, I suppose.

He knows people that own a shop...ok. so it's a big evil conspiracy? That's a big leap in logic. He doesn't own the shops. He doesn't make money from the sales. How does that help him? If anything, it makes it harder for him because he has to pay those inflated prices, too.

Being mad at him because a game gets hot is ridiculous. Be mad at the right people, the scalpers, instead if the guy helping this hobby by informing us.