Personally I have to disagree I have sold many snes games in recent times especially cib in excellent shape it sells very fast and It's not the kinda stuff that people keep to long unless your prices are unfair or the condition is just bad not to great.
Lose carts have remained the same value wise in the past few years that is. CIB excellent shape on the otherhand in the past few years have increased even titles such as super castlevania or link to the past here in europe by quite a bit if the condition is nice. Not to mention that foreign buyers who are looking are very aggresive in trying to get them and not shy of spending big It's kinda ridiculous really that people search for games worldwide while not even talking about ebay some even using google translate and I'm not talking only about top tier titles exclusively in this case. Cib in nice shape is not always available and pretty rare in the desired condition for allot of items these days.
Collectors can be quite desperate at times I've had some hilarious stories over the years.
That being said do we really need higher prices. People are always talking about that prices do not increase etc but than again think about the 2nd 1st tier rare games in the 500+ category
Allot of people in this hobby are not rich and there are some very passionate collectors out there who will otherwise never squire certain items. Of those less wealthy people some have to save up for a single item for years to finally aquire it meaning that they cannot buy anything else no birthday or christmas presents. They also have to deal with kids wifes who find the hobby ridiclous etc wich also slows things down for higher purchases
The more rare an item is the higher the chance that these passionate collectors will probably never aquire one since there are people while not many who can easily afford it and are rich. only if it is that rare an item might increase in value big time since the bigger spenders might not have it yet.
I'm pretty sure we can rest assured that prices of the normal and semi rare stuff wil either decrease, stay stable or increase a bit I do not expect a big rise in prices but I also not expect a major decrease since cib snes sells very nicely these days if the condition is there. Lose carts I'd say maybe but the majority is pretty cheap even of the better games It's only a mere fraction that has some decent value to be fair but than again to many 20$ for a retro game is an expensive thing indeed
That being said retro games are now easily available to everyone thanks to these high prices. Would we really have roms and everdrives if prices were low not to mention many people would not be in this hobby. I'm pretty sure that the hyped games of today hagane wild guns etc would not even have good roms if any on pc to play if not for the high prices and thus potential interested players in the community of today not to mention that old roms of older game sites would not be maintained an would expire vanish since nobody uses them anymore.. Nintendo eshop snes mini would not be there. I'm pretty sure a very niche group would collect all the games but for many it would have been an unknown thing. Would be a pretty interesting world to see really if one were to be such a collector. Than again with such few collectors even for the more rare games there would be more games than collectors so that would work out pretty easily since nobody is interested in it.
I think zelda metroid and mario sure but allot of games would probably only be gotten by some who played it back in the day orm a a very niche market of some of the very old collectors not to mention that many would get over their child hood at some point since they will probably not get the other games that they never played. If the prices were low I think many people would rebuy their child hood with them games for a a short while and either keep or sell it on.
I personally would have probably be gone after my 20 - 30 childhood games orso while never discovering the other games if prices were cheap and i would not have such an expensive taste of child hood nostalgia since those games were harder to come by at the time. Not the most expensive things but prices ranging from 30 - 70 euro's is pretty pricy I'd say if one has less money. You would expect allot less from used games. Just imagine if games were 5 to 10 $ at most it would be totally different everyone could buy the games he had as a kid and since it is so easily available many would not go on. It would be a short nostalgia moments to many I'd figure since many would not give other titles a chance since there is not much known about it. Would apply to me personally and I can't imagine my friends doing it any different since we did play simular games back in the day.
