PS2 game price spike?

[Warmsignal]

I' am personally really into collecting Ps2 titles, esp RPG's. I grew up with a Ps2 and Gamecube so that i have money im buying the ones i had, and didn't have now. I can't say im too surprised the prices are rising right now, it was bound to happen soon. My most recent additions being Dark Cloud 1&2 (Which was not cheap)

I used to see Dark Cloud absolutely everywhere, it was a $5 game easily. Dark Cloud 2 I got from a game store for about $12, but this was 2011.

[tripredacus]

Sega Genesis and Atari 2600 seems to still be safe.

I disagree on the Genesis... the rise in their prices is why I stopped trying to buy on Ebay. 2600 maybe, but I think people realise that
1. They are super common.
2. They aren't that fun to play anymore.

Now, PC games on the other hand haven't gotten this price hit yet. Big Box games were up a couple years ago, but it has gone down recently.

[bikingjahuty]

Sega Genesis and Atari 2600 seems to still be safe.

I disagree on the Genesis... the rise in their prices is why I stopped trying to buy on Ebay. 2600 maybe, but I think people realise that
1. They are super common.
2. They aren't that fun to play anymore.

Now, PC games on the other hand haven't gotten this price hit yet. Big Box games were up a couple years ago, but it has gone down recently.

It's funny that you mention Big Box PC games; they've become my new collecting obsession, and been able to grab a few over the past several months for fairly cheap. While 80% of the ones I've been after are pretty cheap, some are ridiculously expensive. Take the Ultima games, SSI D&D, System Shock (1 and 2), or Deus Ex, they are all really up there, especially when you consider many of them are available on Steam or GOG for significantly less.

[tripredacus]

I have a feeling the people buying the big box PC games aren't playing them. Playing those games in emulator or from Steam/gog just aren't very interesting to me. I want to play on an actual computer capable of playing them.

I also have a few (20-30) big box PC games and honestly I am not sure about actually playing most of them. This is especially true of the ones on floppy disk. I'm not certain how well that media has held up or how long it will last actually using it. At least I can say that  I feel more comfortable finding the game online if I actually have it in physical form.

Your examples are top-end titles, it makes sense. But it may also be true that the reason why PC games have come down is just because you can buy them online. It is an ease of use issue, where people don't have to source a working old PC and battle with the compatibility nightmares of the day.

Presuming the used video game market doesn't crash, we could see a similar drop in physical media value if some service comes along where you can play PS2 or other games online or in some downloading fashion. I know you can sort of do that on Sony consoles, but that doesn't seem to have effected the secondary market yet. Time will tell.

[burningdoom]

Where are you looking for Sega Genesis games if they're expensive? 

I mean, yeah, there's titles like Gunstar Heroes and Castlevania Bloodlines that go for a little more. But for the most part I'm still finding them dirt-cheap, on eBay at that. I can go look for a Sega Genesis lot on eBay right now and get like 10 games for $30, and I don't mean all sports titles either.

I think a lot of that has to do with Sega releasing their games a million times over in collection discs for 20 different systems, in emulation machines, and on plug-n-plays.

[atarileaf]

2600 maybe, but I think people realise that

2. They aren't that fun to play anymore.

Speak for yourself.

As for the PS2, I've noticed a price spike. The local pawn shops for months had all ps2 games at $2 each. In the last few weeks they've all become individually priced and based pretty much on ebay prices.

[bikingjahuty]

I have a feeling the people buying the big box PC games aren't playing them. Playing those games in emulator or from Steam/gog just aren't very interesting to me. I want to play on an actual computer capable of playing them.

I also have a few (20-30) big box PC games and honestly I am not sure about actually playing most of them. This is especially true of the ones on floppy disk. I'm not certain how well that media has held up or how long it will last actually using it. At least I can say that  I feel more comfortable finding the game online if I actually have it in physical form.

Your examples are top-end titles, it makes sense. But it may also be true that the reason why PC games have come down is just because you can buy them online. It is an ease of use issue, where people don't have to source a working old PC and battle with the compatibility nightmares of the day.

Presuming the used video game market doesn't crash, we could see a similar drop in physical media value if some service comes along where you can play PS2 or other games online or in some downloading fashion. I know you can sort of do that on Sony consoles, but that doesn't seem to have effected the secondary market yet. Time will tell.

I only collect PC games on CD-ROM/DVD-ROM because getting a floppy drive for my modern system just doesn't seem worth it to me. However, regarding the CD-based PC games, I have been able to get all of them to work, most without issue so far. Some do require far more skill and patching than others, but there are only a few out there that can't be ran on a modern Windows 7/8 OS. With that said, I do play them all, it is just a matter of having that big box with a manual, registration, and other goodies that makes it that much more awesome to collect PC games. I will also note that I do not consider my Steam/GOG/Origins games part of my collection.


Sorry for hijacking the thread to talk about PC games :p

[maximo310]

Where are you looking for Sega Genesis games if they're expensive? 

I mean, yeah, there's titles like Gunstar Heroes and Castlevania Bloodlines that go for a little more. But for the most part I'm still finding them dirt-cheap, on eBay at that. I can go look for a Sega Genesis lot on eBay right now and get like 10 games for $30, and I don't mean all sports titles either.

I think a lot of that has to do with Sega releasing their games a million times over in collection discs for 20 different systems, in emulation machines, and on plug-n-plays.

Most of the games are still pretty cheap, but some games, especially shmups like from Toaplan have risen quite a bit in price since a few years ago. I think that the price jump is mostly affecting rarer and more desireable games, since most of the common stuff, especially first-party sega can be found for cheap still.