I heard retro game prices have peaked

[dreama1]

I heard retro game prices have peaked, and are beginning a slow decline as of 2016/2017. Examples include earthbound and wild guns. Any truth to this?

[basscross64]

I'm not too sure about that. I paid $310 recently for a bundle of six games and a Gamecube memory card, those being Earthbound ($200), complete in box Mega Man 2 ($70) and Donkey Kong Country ($30). I got three other free games that I wanted with them and I paid $10 for the memory card. A few years ago I remember seeing Earthbound for $100 and thinking it was ridiculous but prices have shot up tremendously since then. Personally I'd never pay more than $100 for any game, but the lot came out to $50/game so it was alright. I think that prices have perhaps stagnated, rather than decreased.

[fazerco]

6 months gone by already?

[ferraroso]

Everytime I hear the prices people use to pay for retro games in the US I feel that I could NEVER be a collector if I lived there.
Why don't you guys try buying from Japanese sites instead? For the price of this Donkey Kong Country you could easily bundle the whole trilogy AND a Super Famicom console CIB around here... I understand that it is not practical to play RPGs in Japanese, but other genres (such as platformers) do not suffer from any language barrier.

[sworddude]

@ferraroso

There are already plenty of people who do this with nintendo consoles

i have seen it especially with N64

That being said high prices can also be used as an advantage to aquire pieces.

Back on topic

Prices lowering I don't think so at least in europe

If you can move cib copies of star wing snes or mario 64 in very good shape to  excellent for around 40 euro's excluding shipping I wouldn't say that prices are lowering especially since it was 20 - 30. 1 year ago. Especially mario 64 was near the 20 euro's range in nice shape.

games like zelda are still rising in price even common games like ocarina of time complete in box are nearing 50 euro's in excellent shape wich were only 30 euro's at best cib in superb shape a bit more than 1 year ago. now even in decent shape it is easy 30 euro's in the black market.

I don't know the status in The US but in europe I guess the supply of great condition stuff is less. There are far more copies available in the US of certain games also in excellent condition.

The really expensive games overall have risen in price in europe, There are however games like castlevania symphony of the night panzer dragoon saga and some other expensive rarities that have remained the same value.

Nes in europe has been insane, I remember megaman 2 cib being like 30 - 40 euro's around one year ago for thelongest time easy everywhere at best cib. At the moment however it seems to have risen to around 60 - 80 euro's that was kinda shocking how that happened 

In europe it seems to get more expensive. There are games that have stayed the same price but there are also many examples that have become more expensive especially the common good games.

[indenton]

Nes in europe has been insane, I remember megaman 2 cib being like 30 - 40 euro's around one year ago for thelongest time easy everywhere at best cib. At the moment however it seems to have risen to around 60 - 80 euro's that was kinda shocking how that happened 

In europe it seems to get more expensive. There are games that have stayed the same price but there are also many examples that have become more expensive especially the common good games.

I can reiterate this, collecting NES in Europe must be a pain because you have to worry about PAL-A/B as well.

main-line Pokemon games are continuing to climb here in the UK, especially HeartGold / SoulSilver which I've been finding in box for about £60, above retail even those w/o pokewalker.  Gamecube games have pretty much doubled since 2009, I got Smash Bros. Melee for about £16 back then, now you'd be lucky to find it below £30. 

[sworddude]

Nes in europe has been insane, I remember megaman 2 cib being like 30 - 40 euro's around one year ago for thelongest time easy everywhere at best cib. At the moment however it seems to have risen to around 60 - 80 euro's that was kinda shocking how that happened 

In europe it seems to get more expensive. There are games that have stayed the same price but there are also many examples that have become more expensive especially the common good games.

I can reiterate this, collecting NES in Europe must be a pain because you have to worry about PAL-A/B as well.

main-line Pokemon games are continuing to climb here in the UK, especially HeartGold / SoulSilver which I've been finding in box for about £60, above retail even those w/o pokewalker.  Gamecube games have pretty much doubled since 2009, I got Smash Bros. Melee for about £16 back then, now you'd be lucky to find it below £30.

that's not really an issue only in certain countries pal A is available and in inferior numbers. it is expensive though Nes in europe

Nes in US is pretty cheap in my opinion with most of the common and even allot of uncommon sought after titles at least, same applies to snes.

double dragon 2 castlevania etc allot of examples pretty cheap in the US in europe however in very good condition upwards even though these should not be rare games are not easy to find and pretty pricy

Only for cib is this an issue as lose carts are really affordable the difference is really huge by multiple times usually in very good upwards condition. Bad condition boxes obviously don't add nice value but no collector wants those.

[indenton]

that's not really an issue only in certain countries pal A is available and in inferior numbers. it is expensive though Nes in europe

The United Kingdom is one of those countries that uses NES PAL-A.  I'm confused as to whether PAL a / B work across Matel & NES console versions

[sworddude]

that's not really an issue only in certain countries pal A is available and in inferior numbers. it is expensive though Nes in europe

The United Kingdom is one of those countries that uses NES PAL-A

Very true I do realise that. it is also slightly cheaper than pal b since pretty much the rest of europe is after those.

Except for italy and a few other countries if I am not mistaken.

If you buy from other countries It's pretty much always pal B so i guess many Uk buyers buy their nes games in the UK.

Pal a games work only on PAL A nes console in the UK italy etc

PAl B works only in the rest of europe and not on UK nes consoles. Pretty interesting that there was a region lock within europe, there are plenty of converters though.

[scoobs22]

I heard retro game prices have peaked, and are beginning a slow decline as of 2016/2017. Examples include earthbound and wild guns. Any truth to this?

These games are no longer being produced. As long as there is demand for these products with a static supply, prices will trend upward over the long term. Econ 101.

[bikingjahuty]

This is mostly anecdotal, but I do believe that the retro craze, including prices, has peaked and it is gradually declining. I have been trying to downsize a little recently and have several highly collectable, desirable games on ebay at the moment, all at competitive prices and no one seems to be biting. it isn't just me either, people either seem to be waiting for auctions now or someone to post a specific game really low, which brings the price down overall even more. I have noticed this on nearly every game I've been selling, which again, is a personal account, but having sold many games over the past several years, I can't recall it being this hard ever to get a fair price for your games on ebay.

The other part of me that thinks that the retro collecting craze has peaked is the amount of collectors I've seen leave the hobby over the past year and a half, some with massive collections (4000+ games). Being a regular at various retro game stores around town, I have also seen for the first time in years retro games remain on shelves for more than a few days, and in some cases gradually accumulate over time. A few store employees have even backed up my statement about collectors leaving the hobby, stating that they are getting people in on occasion who decided to sell of their collections to the store.

I think we as game collectors assume that far more people are into this hobby than there actually is, and I honestly beleive that not only are people just getting bored with the hobby and wanting to move on, but also many collectors have everything they want, or close to it, and see little desire to buy games they've had now for years.

I think what this all means is that prices will gradually come down on everything. Certain games like Contra or Super Metroid which aren't rare, but highly sought after will probably see the biggest decline in price, while games that are genuinely rare will probably still be insanely pricey, but they will get slightly cheaper. Sadly, prices will never return to their pre-collecting craze levels, but hey, as long as games like Super Mario World are going for around $5 again and a lot of the resellers get out of the hobby, I wont complain much.

[burningdoom]

I heard retro game prices have peaked, and are beginning a slow decline as of 2016/2017. Examples include earthbound and wild guns. Any truth to this?

These games are no longer being produced. As long as there is demand for these products with a static supply, prices will trend upward over the long term. Econ 101.

That's not necessarily true when it comes to collectibles, though. Collector market bubbles burst, and interest rises and fades with trends and changing generations.

The baseball card market bottoming out in the late 80s is a perfect example. Or the bubble-burst of the comic collector's market in the 90s.

[sworddude]

With lose carts I think it will happen allot sooner if it happens.

Cib is more collectible especially in very good upwards condition wich is harder to come by and in allot of cases not readily available in the better shapes. The amount of excellent condition boxed copies is far less than the amount of lose carts available.

That being said I can imagine the market really crashing and if it happens I'd say at least after 20 to 30 years when there is a chance that nobody cares, This will than also apply for more rare consoles such as pc engine neo geo etc since the generations do not really about those consoles.

but than again does one want to wait that long for really cheap games if it happens ofcourse.

It kinda seems less enjoyable to get into the hobby when your allot older in less healthy condition litterally. There is a reason why people pay high prices now.

There are however always emulators, so to be fair gameplay wise no one can complain at this moment and it will only become allot easier as the time progresses.

[bikingjahuty]

That being said I can imagine the market really crashing and if it happens I'd say at least after 20 to 30 years when there is a

I think 20-30 years is wayyy too generous an amount of time; I'm think by the end of this decade it'll cool off a lot, and by around midway next decade we may actually see prices on many things down to pre-2010 levels again.

Collecting trends correspond with age cohorts coming of age, getting careers, getting disposable income, and they likewise die with many of them taking on financial responsibilities (kids, marriage, mortgage, car payments, ect) that leave little room for collecting things from their childhood, and in some cases forcing them to sell off. Right now, the cohort of kids that grew up in the late 80s to early 2000s are this coming of age group, and while collecting may spread to PS3/360 collecting, like it has with SNES or NES, I highly doubt it will. Pretty much once the current wave of collectors gives up on collecting retro games from the 80s and 90s, nobody is going to give a shit about those games anymore, certainly not a bunch of kids that were born in the mid 2000s who don't even know what a PS2 is.

As someone else pointed out, collecting trends have come and gone over the years and follow the same pattern. Video games are no different.

[kamikazekeeg]

It's why I think we see Microsoft supporting backwards compatibility with the original Xbox.  Those that grew up with that era of gaming are older now and in that right place to market too.  Those of us that grew up in the 80's/90's era of gaming have largely gotten what we wanted, or hit the point of "too much" and scaled down or sold most of it off to pay for something else more important.  That in turns puts games back on the market and leads to more supply, where less demand then means lowers prices.

I'm curious if we'll see any significant rise with gaming based on the later generations.  Nintendo inherently has a stronger collector potential than other systems, no matter the generation, and there is already a market for it, but in a few more years, more of the young people from that time will be at the point a lot of us were a few years back and may want to get those games back.  I'm just curious if it'll have the same support the older generations had.  Cartridges as they are seem like they have more collection potential and not too mention with how easy it is to have bad discs that are unusable compared to cartridges.