Retro hunting at yard sales - is it dying?

[Pichu]

This is why I like older people (the cool ones, not the bitter douchebags), they have life experience. And thus give me hope.

Get off my lawn.

I want to hear more stuffs though.

[brandman]

I don't remember the last time I found any sort of video game at all in a yard sale. I've been looking diligently, too; this must just be a total dead zone for this sort of thing.

Same here.

[prfsnl_gmr]

This is why I like older people (the cool ones, not the bitter douchebags), they have life experience. And thus give me hope.

Get off my lawn.

I want to hear more stuffs though.

The only thing you will hear is the sound of me loading my shotgun, you whipersnapper!

Seriously, though, I remember seriously contemplating spending over $100 on a copy of New Mutants #87 when I was collecting comics in the '90s. A quick eBay search revealed that I can pick up a first edition of that issue for about $20 today. A quick eBay search also revealed that the once-coveted Leaf gold rookie baseball cards are now available for about $1. I guess that I have just seen so many "bubbles" that I am convinced the price of loose, semi-rare video games will not increase forever (and, in my opinion, will very likely fall spectacularly in the next few years). As in interesting exercise, you should compare a chart of Las Vegas, Nevada home prices between 2000 and 2007 with a chart of showing the price of Earthbound carts. I see a similar trend in prices, and I expect that the price of Earthbound carts will plummet to "normal" levels within the next few years. (I cannot see the future, however; so it is possible that the price of Earthbound carts will continue to skyrocket, and the U.S. government will one day pay off its national debt with a complete copy of the game that it found at a yard sale.)

[Pichu]

The only thing you will hear is the sound of me loading my shotgun, you whipersnapper!

Seriously, though, I remember seriously contemplating spending over $100 on a copy of New Mutants #87 when I was collecting comics in the '90s. A quick eBay search revealed that I can pick up a first edition of that issue for about $20 today. A quick eBay search also revealed that the once-coveted Leaf gold rookie baseball cards are now available for about $1. I guess that I have just seen so many "bubbles" that I am convinced the price of loose, semi-rare video games will not increase forever (and, in my opinion, will very likely fall spectacularly in the next few years). As in interesting exercise, you should compare a chart of Las Vegas, Nevada home prices between 2000 and 2007 with a chart of showing the price of Earthbound carts. I see a similar trend in prices, and I expect that the price of Earthbound carts will plummet to "normal" levels within the next few years. (I cannot see the future, however; so it is possible that the price of Earthbound carts will continue to skyrocket, and the U.S. government will one day pay off its national debt with a complete copy of the game that it found at a yard sale.)

I will eat my soul if Earthbound gets anywhere near 15 trillion dollars of worth. Anyways, I appriciate you sharing what you've seen. That's quite amazing looking at the prices of collection hobbies over the years.

[prfsnl_gmr]

The only thing you will hear is the sound of me loading my shotgun, you whipersnapper!

Seriously, though, I remember seriously contemplating spending over $100 on a copy of New Mutants #87 when I was collecting comics in the '90s. A quick eBay search revealed that I can pick up a first edition of that issue for about $20 today. A quick eBay search also revealed that the once-coveted Leaf gold rookie baseball cards are now available for about $1. I guess that I have just seen so many "bubbles" that I am convinced the price of loose, semi-rare video games will not increase forever (and, in my opinion, will very likely fall spectacularly in the next few years). As in interesting exercise, you should compare a chart of Las Vegas, Nevada home prices between 2000 and 2007 with a chart of showing the price of Earthbound carts. I see a similar trend in prices, and I expect that the price of Earthbound carts will plummet to "normal" levels within the next few years. (I cannot see the future, however; so it is possible that the price of Earthbound carts will continue to skyrocket, and the U.S. government will one day pay off its national debt with a complete copy of the game that it found at a yard sale.)

I will eat my soul if Earthbound gets anywhere near 15 trillion dollars of worth. Anyways, I appriciate you sharing what you've seen. That's quite amazing looking at the prices of collection hobbies over the years.

I know. In that scenario, I will really regret not picking up one of the $250 copies floating around on my local Craigslist at the moment.

[Michi]

I blame it all on Storage Wars. I've had way too many people tell me that my NES is worth $20,000 recently. TV stupidity spreads quick and we all suffer.

Yeah. That and stories like this, where people only read part of the article and immediately think that those old slimy sports carts they have in their basement are worth a fortune, and don't take into consideration that games in such articles are complete and/or still in their shrink wrap.

[scarper]

One of the bigger problems right now are hipsters.

Hipsters and El Niño, they're to blame for everything.

I blame rock and roll.

I blame flexwood. Damn inhabitant of Hipsterville MN.

[benderx]

I blame Game Chasers for acting very douche. Look at this video on how they react towards sellers. if you can't afford then don't buy it and acting very weirdly. These guys are just collectors who are less likely play video games. Oh his friend are fightning over an old atari game he got dibs on. They are like Storage Hunters. Oh, I hate craiglist spammers that want your games and consoles for a fair price, watch out for their tricks or scams. Wait till you see the rest of their videos and episode 14.

http://thepunkeffect.com/?p=6311

[Gunstar Green]

I don't remember the last time I found any sort of video game at all in a yard sale. I've been looking diligently, too; this must just be a total dead zone for this sort of thing.

Same here.

I was going to agree to this but then a yard sale sprung up literally across the street and I picked up a handful of things. Nothing terribly rare or expensive but some stuff I wanted so it was nice.

[pvt_awol]

I'm likely to agree with the "bubble" theory.


Which is why I won't buy anything retro, be it rare or not, for more than I deem it's worth at all. I own Earthbound, but did I pay $250 for it? Hell no. Would I? Hell no. The $3.99 I got it for at Goodwill was good enough for me.

I did pay $80 for a sealed copy of Secret of Mana. Now that might seem steep, but the way I justify it is, it's a new game that I wanted to play, and the current gen console games are $60 as it is, not counting the Limited Editions. I remember when some SNES games actually were $80+ when they were new. So to me, a price like that is valid if you're buying the game to play, as you would any other new game.

Of course, there are limits. Any more than that, for a game that isn't worth it, and I'll gladly walk away.

On a side note, I cannot count the number of times I've been told that my boxed NES's are worth $500+ dollars. I'm sorry to say, but no they just really are not. And that's coming from a guy that loves money. LOL. But I gotta be realistic too.