I heard retro game prices have peaked

[Warmsignal]

What about for example SNES NA vs Saturn NA? Saturn was a flop, yet the prices on it are still higher on average than the very nostalgic SNES. PS1 NA was a very popular platform, yet it remains with a lower average of prices. What about more modern platforms with really expensive games like PS2 and GameCube? Even Wii U? That to me is indiciative that you can take them all as a whole. The same people who will pay out big money for a "rare" PS2 game are essentially the same ones collecting SNES. I think most collectors are cross-platform, cross-gen collectors who basically go for most of the mainstream consoles all at once. Everybody is in competition over just about everything, in my view. Hence we've seen averages increase with every platform save 7th gen, since the mid 2000s.

Saturn prices are high (and have been relatively so for many years) due to the limited supply.
All Nintendo games have a popular markup, and their availability (or supply) does not hinder their values. This covers Gamecube.
PS1 is on the rise. I do not consider PS2 to be "the platform with really expensive games." That is to say all PS2 games are expensive (they are not) as the average PS2 game value might be $2. This is in contrast to NES, where the average game value is much higher.

Of course, there are always "1%" titles of any library that are well above the average or "above average" portion of the valuation spectrum. These types of titles cannot be used for overall valuation of the library.

The problem with lumping everything together is not taking into account that the different platforms fluctuate independently. So if you say you are seeing all game prices, on average, increase, you are not taking into account that Atari 2600 prices have fallen and something else has taken up that slack to make up the difference.

 and the value of it's games while those considered to be uncommon already fetching hundreds of dollars. That's a symptom of game collecting as a whole. 7 years ago it didn't matter if a PS2 was "rare". Now there are Wii U games going for hundreds of dollars because they're "rare".

There is one misconception about rare games being valuable and the collecting aspect.

Usually the ones that do go for nice money are good excellentgames wich are rare so were not only talking about pure collecting aspect, There are truly rare ps2 games wich are pretty bad yet not really valuable since the games are trash. Bad games are only valuable if the games are superbly rare and hyped for being rare since otherwise none know. Usually far less valuable than more common good rare titles wich go for nice money even if it is known to be rare.

the sega saturn especially the japanese one, the really expensive games are all solid titles that pretty much everyone wants to play just to name one example.

Yes you have daytona link edition for 1 grant but it is hyped and it is considered extemely rare. for this instance you have full set collectors yet for the good games you have allot more people who want to have them

The market for full sets and rare games is allot smaller than people who want to collect games that they want to enjoy. I don't see why any collector who collects games that one could enjoy would need this game unless your going for a full set wich means you would also need all the trash, Or ofcourse the collectors who collect for rarity and value.

There is a very limited market for truly rare items, for the sought after good games the market is allot larger. For expensive rare mediocre games there might just only be a handfull of people who want one.

But my point is collecting has become a thing that involves all consoles at once. Most consoles didn't have games known to be rare before game collecting took off. It's indicative of the fact that people are collecting for virtually every console now, when every console has infamously rare and expensive games. I'm fairly sure that PS2s expensive games were not put in high demand by those who played them as kids and who want them back.

Some argue that prices will rise and fall between consoles independently, which we haven't seen happen since Atari collecting died off.

[sworddude]

What about for example SNES NA vs Saturn NA? Saturn was a flop, yet the prices on it are still higher on average than the very nostalgic SNES. PS1 NA was a very popular platform, yet it remains with a lower average of prices. What about more modern platforms with really expensive games like PS2 and GameCube? Even Wii U? That to me is indiciative that you can take them all as a whole. The same people who will pay out big money for a "rare" PS2 game are essentially the same ones collecting SNES. I think most collectors are cross-platform, cross-gen collectors who basically go for most of the mainstream consoles all at once. Everybody is in competition over just about everything, in my view. Hence we've seen averages increase with every platform save 7th gen, since the mid 2000s.

Saturn prices are high (and have been relatively so for many years) due to the limited supply.
All Nintendo games have a popular markup, and their availability (or supply) does not hinder their values. This covers Gamecube.
PS1 is on the rise. I do not consider PS2 to be "the platform with really expensive games." That is to say all PS2 games are expensive (they are not) as the average PS2 game value might be $2. This is in contrast to NES, where the average game value is much higher.

Of course, there are always "1%" titles of any library that are well above the average or "above average" portion of the valuation spectrum. These types of titles cannot be used for overall valuation of the library.

The problem with lumping everything together is not taking into account that the different platforms fluctuate independently. So if you say you are seeing all game prices, on average, increase, you are not taking into account that Atari 2600 prices have fallen and something else has taken up that slack to make up the difference.

 and the value of it's games while those considered to be uncommon already fetching hundreds of dollars. That's a symptom of game collecting as a whole. 7 years ago it didn't matter if a PS2 was "rare". Now there are Wii U games going for hundreds of dollars because they're "rare".

There is one misconception about rare games being valuable and the collecting aspect.

Usually the ones that do go for nice money are good excellentgames wich are rare so were not only talking about pure collecting aspect, There are truly rare ps2 games wich are pretty bad yet not really valuable since the games are trash. Bad games are only valuable if the games are superbly rare and hyped for being rare since otherwise none know. Usually far less valuable than more common good rare titles wich go for nice money even if it is known to be rare.

the sega saturn especially the japanese one, the really expensive games are all solid titles that pretty much everyone wants to play just to name one example.

Yes you have daytona link edition for 1 grant but it is hyped and it is considered extemely rare. for this instance you have full set collectors yet for the good games you have allot more people who want to have them

The market for full sets and rare games is allot smaller than people who want to collect games that they want to enjoy. I don't see why any collector who collects games that one could enjoy would need this game unless your going for a full set wich means you would also need all the trash, Or ofcourse the collectors who collect for rarity and value.

There is a very limited market for truly rare items, for the sought after good games the market is allot larger. For expensive rare mediocre games there might just only be a handfull of people who want one.

But my point is collecting has become a thing that involves all consoles at once. Most consoles didn't have games known to be rare before game collecting took off. It's indicative of the fact that people are collecting for virtually every console now, when every console has infamously rare and expensive games. I'm fairly sure that PS2s expensive games were not put in high demand by those who played them as kids and who want them back.

Some argue that prices will rise and fall between consoles independently, which we haven't seen happen since Atari collecting died off.

Just one simple example

You could say the same thing about hagane, wild guns for snes. Pretty much none have had those games back in the day yet these games are pretty excellent you cannot deny that.

Allot of people get into snes collecting because there are good games. Unfortunately some of them are rare. and because these are solid games the demand rises put that in combination with collectors who collect not to play the games and you have even higher prices yet multiple buyer groups.

They might not be the best games but they are up there in some cases.

In europe the really expensive ps2 games are excellent shoot em ups and certain rpg's ineteresting survival horror games unique 3D games wich in most cases are excellent games, people who get deeper into collecting want to have certain games a different experience than usual wich some of these games provide. Obviously there are usually also other games wich are cheaper but still people try to also get these. There are a few rarities wich are crap with amounst of only 200 pieces etc yet they fetch only around 50 - 100 euro's because no one wants them yet superbly rare.

Also take shoot em ups for example, why would you pay hundreds of dollars for copies of radiant silver gun or battle garrega musha etc. I'm pretty sure that pretty much no one has ever played those shoot em ups back in the day. Also as far as shootemups go the better games in this genre happen to be super expensive and rare wich pretty much no one played back in the day. Why would people get into those surely it's because of gameplay, afterwards speculators come in the market thanks to the high demand from the players.

Why do the valuable rare games usually happen to be actually good while pretty much no one played them back in the day?

Yes There are truly rare games but you have to consider that many people in this hobby don't give a **** about rare games wich are crap wich does influence the prices.

Atari however is pretty much 100% based upon rarity because the games are a bitt less to be desired. Atari collecting with the rare games are pure collectible the games them selves are not interesting or special at all you will not see people get out of their way to get a rare atari game and play it,

In my opinion your statement has allot of flaws wich don't make to much sense to me, there are plenty of people who also collect to play the games and want them original. Allot of these rare titles were usually not played back in the day because pretty much no one had them. Many titles were not really known back in the day thanks to this. You also have to take into consideration that allot of these rare games are bought by chance in a budget bin and never played because the owners were not really interested in games. I have had allot of deals with people who didn't care about the games at all, even with rare good stuff wich I am very intersted in how they did aquire them in the past. Usually multiple good games at ones as far as that goes.

Also as far as good rare ps2 titles go many of them aren;t even listed in proffesional game stores so just figure how they were sold back in the day.

I see many people who get into this hobby to play the games especially the first party titles and eventually go to the more obsecure good stuff, I will say that i see far less collectors who want to have the mediocre rare games not to many to be honest. Sure people will keep the rare games for anything goes collectors and treasure them because collectors hype them as rare but they would not spend nice money on those.

[tripredacus]

But my point is collecting has become a thing that involves all consoles at once.

That is only because the market is currently dominated by those types of collectors and sellers. Once the idea became that ALL games were valuable (ignoring supply or demand) you have many people who are buying, collecting and selling everything, which is currently what is driving the market. When this "crash" happens, those types will be the ones getting out.

The truly valuable games are a smaller percentage of each console's library and will always command a higher than average price. When the crash happens, those games prices will fall too, but they will still remain above the average for their console. Focused collectors will still stay in the market because it makes sense for them to do so. So you may not see too big of a drop on NES or PCE markets as compared to others were there is not a ton of dedicated console collectors.

[scraph4ppy]

Oh hey, its this topic again! I think I'll try to provide a different answer, just to keep things interesting.

I think that retro collecting will be a thing that 12 to 21 year olds get into in the near term future. It seems that, online at least, they have a good respect for this stuff. When I first discovered stuff like Gamefaqs back in the day, my degenerate 15 year old mind was opened to a whole load of video game things I hadn't known of before- and today's kids are just soaking in it. The internet is really kind to nostalgia and making people appreciate other people's childhoods. "Oh no, thats old", is something I never see people saying either online or off. When my younger family members are over its always more along the lines of "Wow, you have an N64!" As these kids get money, I think they will spend some on older games and retrons and such, provided they don't get priced out of the market. They're also lucky enough that, due to how long the seventh generation was, their "childhood" games are only one or two gens back and the super popular ones are still absurdly cheap. Of course I'd also say that the boom period is over in North America-prices seem to have visibly leveled off over the past half year. But that doesn't mean I think they'll be collapsing anytime soon- not on CIB games with any level of interest or rarity anyway.

However, thats a short term thing and the kids who come after them, though they might play retro games, probably won't give too much of a thought to owning physical media. Think of it as being like reel to reel films. Is it a good movie you'd want to see? Sure. Is it the way it was originally shown? Sure. Is the player right there next to it, also for sale at a reasonable price? Sure. And yet such things do not go for much in my experience. There's just little interest in the hassle and bother of such a set up when a download is so much easier. And thats only going to get more and more true as your 30 year old NES and games turn 40 and then 50, etc. Nintendium is a funny joke but these systems and games are going to start breaking one of these days, heck they already have, and thats going to frustrate a lot of people. Long term I see the retro fandom going more towards interest being dedicated to the games themselves and less to the hardware. Thats good for me, (I am a physical collector who's sick of the unnaturally high prices on common Nintendo titles,) but its good for the future players too- they'll have to put far less money up to buy into the hobby.

I also think that there's going to be, among game analyzers, a fine line between "classic" game design and "modern" game design. And thats going to be somewhere around the 5th/6th generation limit, with certain titles from both gens being on the "wrong" side, depending on how forward or backward thinking they were. Of course hindsight is 20/20 and PS2 linear shooters might join Mario 64 platforming in the dustbin of history, but I don't think they will. Thats relevant to this discussion too- old but "modern" games are going to offer less incentive to people looking for something they can't find in whatever the current release market looks like and might have lower prices because of it, despite being just as old as today's retro games are to us. Of course, conversely, the indie scene is pumping out loads of games that are just like 8/16 bit games but with fewer technical limitations. For all I know, the mere thought that these older games are out of date or in "dead genres" might be me showing how out of touch I am, compared to today's market.

[betelgeuse]

The internet is really kind to nostalgia and making people appreciate other people's childhoods. "Oh no, thats old", is something I never see people saying either online or off. When my younger family members are over its always more along the lines of "Wow, you have an N64!" As these kids get money, I think they will spend some on older games and retrons and such, provided they don't get priced out of the market. They're also lucky enough that, due to how long the seventh generation was, their "childhood" games are only one or two gens back and the super popular ones are still absurdly cheap. Of course I'd also say that the boom period is over in North America-prices seem to have visibly leveled off over the past half year. But that doesn't mean I think they'll be collapsing anytime soon- not on CIB games with any level of interest or rarity anyway.

This is true, but the "new old games" are still getting overlooked. Most of the so called rare games in my collection were purchased in store bargain bins or on clearance. Nobody wanted the damn things!! Now people are always on the lookout for the classics.
Target is still my place of choice to shop for older games. Most of the games drop down to $20 or less within 6 months or so.

[bikingjahuty]

I've been keeping track of this plateau and decline on pricecharting and there definitely seems to be a noticeable dip or flatline of prices on retro games lately. Given there are only a few months of recent data to support this so this still might be a natural decline, but considering it is spread over every retro system I looked up for NES and newer, I definitely am thinking there is a shift happening. We'll see how this develops over the course of the year, but some interesting theories as to why this is happening are bound to come up.


My own theory is that we are finally reaching that point where there are finally enough of most games to meet demand or maybe even too many games. Not enough new collectors are entering the hobby, and if anything a lot are leaving or downsizing. Could this be the start of the infamous crash that some have been talking about for several years now?

[gamerookiechat]

I sure hope you're right!

[Flashback2012]

LOL this thread kind of aged like milk. 

[sworddude]

It's probably going to drop somewhat after covid

However it will be interesting to see if things especially the actual rare uncommon sought after stuff will return to prices prior to covid or still a sizable chunk above that.

That being said super common stuff like pokemon. I really doubt that's going to stay skyhigh considering how common allot of the stuff is.

having a stack 6 cib pokemon games even ds being worth close 1000$ is just madness 

[Cartagia]

LOL this thread kind of aged like milk. 

It does make me wonder what the market would look like had COVID not happened.  So many industries and hobbies saw a big spike directly correlated to it.

[Warmsignal]

COVID was just hella rocket fuel in the never ending journey to the moon that had already taken off.

More stuff, maybe like 10% of every library is becoming priced out of realistic affordability to a large swatch of the collector crowd. CIB collecting is pretty damn well foolish for about 50% of retro collecting now. Like between gen 3 and 6, how many games are over $100 right now? Hundreds of them. I noticed something of a bidding war going on between people clamoring to pay $1500 for a copy of Stunt Racer N64 complete. That kinda stuff blows my mind.

Who in their sane mind would pay that much for a single N64 game just to pad out their collection? Obviously the insanely wealthy, or the insanely stupid. It's just another copy of another old video game that you'll probably never bother to play, and you've got $1500 to piss away on it? I'd feel so stupid and guilty, if I did that. I already feel guilty when I pay a couple hundred for one here and there. Because I know even if I played it start to finish and thought it was great, it wasn't worth that. Was never meant to be. That kind of money could serve me better in literally almost any other way. Unless they're honestly investing in the hope that it'll be worth a much larger fortune someday. Who knows, but I wouldn't bank that hard on it.

[sworddude]

COVID was just hella rocket fuel in the never ending journey to the moon that had already taken off.

More stuff, maybe like 10% of every library is becoming priced out of realistic affordability to a large swatch of the collector crowd. CIB collecting is pretty damn well foolish for about 50% of retro collecting now. Like between gen 3 and 6, how many games are over $100 right now? Hundreds of them. I noticed something of a bidding war going on between people clamoring to pay $1500 for a copy of Stunt Racer N64 complete. That kinda stuff blows my mind.

Who in their sane mind would pay that much for a single N64 game just to pad out their collection? Obviously the insanely wealthy, or the insanely stupid.

Investors are probably laughing right now when people laughed at them for buying sealed pokemon games even as short as 1-2 years ago let alone the ones that started earlier 

Factory sealed pokemon red selling ungraded for 8 to 10K. that stuff was well under 1000$ even 2 years ago

[kazumn]

About the pokemon games : fairly sure i still have a bunch sealed Ds games at my parents place of aleast one version or the other since i usually bought both versions when they came out.
Pretty sure my dutch box language versions would be going for a lot less money then american versions, same with french and german versions for that matter.

pokemon red/blue/yellow doubt a sealed pal copy would be going for even close to what an american version would go for.

[dharmajones93]

The r/gamecollecting subreddit is a good place to get a feel for what's happening now anyway, even if you're not there for the drama. Every other post is "What should I collect for next" and "I'm 12 years old, how am I doing?"

This tells me there is a surplus of people who just started collecting in the last year and have no actual investment in the hobby other than "bored at home with disposable cash" and "my parents handed down their collection to me so now I'm a collector" (read: My parents aren't in to it anymore, and my collection will be sold when I go to college/move out and have to pay my own rent in a few years).

I think this bubble will burst soon when all these temporary collectors get out of the game, especially when the youtubers all burn out and stop making retro collecting vids.

I'd wager most of us here have been in this hobby for years, if not decades (I started "collecting" as early as 1991). We're in it for the long run, and are (to the best of our abilities) patient. But the new comers just want to grab the expensive stuff/heavy hitters, post their "hauls on the instatwits", and are willing to pay too much for the stuff we grabbed at launch or in bulk in discount bins. They won't stick around and in 5-10 years all that inventory is going to flood ebay again. I don't know what that will do for prices, especially for the heavy hitters, but at least we'll have more choice.

Anecdotally I've seen more availability on ebay lately, but haven't been to a shop in a long time. Next month I plan to blow my budget at a few local places; which I'm surprised actually survived to be honest, I know some local places didn't.

[oldgamerz]

IF You want retro video games and legal retro games? than I'd recommend buying a PC. Because a lot of retro PC games can be bought digitally and there are no hard restrictions when putting them onto a backup external hard drive. Unlike a 2 of the current day consoles where the game depends on an active server for ALL your complete purchases (CHARGED AT FULL PIRCE) YOU NEED PATCHES for most modern games to even run properly and they might not be available forever

I met a man who bought a brand NEW PS4 Console AND and a NEW game but never got to it yet because he has a full time job he told me.

First off unlike on consoles their is a TON of free of charge online support group for older PC gamers, yes 99% of PC is all digital now but? there are easier ways around to getting modern OR retro PC digtial games to work or to future proof them IF whenever Steam or GOG ever goes offline.