Your journey into retro games?

[noiseredux]

Why are the prices so damn high?

supply/demand.

I've only been collecting for close to two months but from common sense and context clues I can tell that most things are overpriced.

Not "overpriced." You mean to say "more than I'm willing to pay."

Is it the fault of Youtuber's like game chasers or the retro gaming community themselves?

It's the fault of supply.

And demand.

[oxymoron]

I've only been collecting for close to two months but from common sense and context clues I can tell that most things are overpriced.

Not "overpriced." You mean to say "more than I'm willing to pay."

So you don't think it's overpriced when someone asks $30 for Super Mario 3? More than I'm willing to pay is one thing and overpriced is another.

[noiseredux]

So you don't think it's overpriced when someone asks $30 for Super Mario 3? More than I'm willing to pay is one thing and overpriced is another.

I think that if people are willing to pay $30 for SMB3 then that's what it's worth. This is determined by... supply and demand.

If you see it going for $30 and you had a copy to sell, how much would you want to get for it?

[oxymoron]

So you don't think it's overpriced when someone asks $30 for Super Mario 3? More than I'm willing to pay is one thing and overpriced is another.

I think that if people are willing to pay $30 for SMB3 then that's what it's worth. This is determined by... supply and demand.

If you see it going for $30 and you had a copy to sell, how much would you want to get for it?

Personally I'd want it 15-20. I don't get why everyone can't work together to lower prices because the games only worth what someones willing to pay, like you said.

[isiolia]

I've kind of been wanting to debate this for a while. Why are the prices so damn high? I've only been collecting for close to two months but from common sense and context clues I can tell that most things are overpriced. Is it the fault of Youtuber's like game chasers or the retro gaming community themselves?

This has been discussed plenty of times, though not always in its own thread.

More or less, because retro is very "in" right now, and there are plenty of people with the means to spend a decent amount of money on it. The spread of information via the internet is unprecedented as well.

To a fair point, there's also inflation to consider. The dollar number on a sticker can go up, but the relative value can stay the same, or even go down. New video games are relatively cheaper now than in most cases in the past.

[noiseredux]

Personally I'd want it 15-20. I don't get why everyone can't work together to lower prices because the games only worth what someones willing to pay, like you said.

Correct. But if you take $15-$20 that's great. You'll sell your copy before the other guys sell their $30 copies. But their $30 copies will still sell as long as somebody is willing to pay $30 for it.

You can't just expect that everyone selling SMB3 is going to lower their price to $15 when there are peopling handing them $30 for it all day.

Again, this is a supply/demand thing. Right now the game - which is in high supply, mind you - is in high enough demand that folks are willing to spend $30 on it.

[brunoafh]

New video games are relatively cheaper now than in most cases in the past.

Yeah for sure. This kind of boggles me considering how expensive modern games are to make now (most of them that is, ie the AAA ones). People complain that $60 is a lot for a game... I'm pretty sure the Phantasy Star games were even more than that to name a specific example, and this was like 20 years ago.

[Menegrothx]

I've heard that Phantasy Star games were 90-100 dollars new in the early 1990s, feel free to correct me on that

[oxymoron]

I've kind of been wanting to debate this for a while. Why are the prices so damn high? I've only been collecting for close to two months but from common sense and context clues I can tell that most things are overpriced. Is it the fault of Youtuber's like game chasers or the retro gaming community themselves?

This has been discussed plenty of times, though not always in its own thread.

More or less, because retro is very "in" right now, and there are plenty of people with the means to spend a decent amount of money on it. The spread of information via the internet is unprecedented as well.

To a fair point, there's also inflation to consider. The dollar number on a sticker can go up, but the relative value can stay the same, or even go down. New video games are relatively cheaper now than in most cases in the past.

Then you believe that sooner or later when that fad goes away (1-2 years) the prices will deflate?

[isiolia]

I've heard that Phantasy Star games were 90-100 dollars new in the early 1990s, feel free to correct me on that

Cart prices often depended on the amount of memory needed, leading to high prices on RPGs in particular. I think at least one of the Phantasy Star games did hit that price bracket, though even for the time that was a bit more than others. Usually carts were in the $60-80 range, though it wasn't rare for games to come out at $50 either.

While there are more factors to consider, you can look at the Consumer Price Index that would suggest that a dollar had around 60% more buying power in 1993 versus 2013.

Then you believe that sooner or later when that fad goes away (1-2 years) the prices will deflate?

Hard to say. I do think that things will settle down somewhat. But, just like we grew up knowing that some baseball cards or comics books were worth a lot, I expect games will stay the same way. Maybe we're just seeing it really become apparent due to the age of the medium, and in turn the age/financial security of the generations who grew up with it.

There are other collectible markets that burst (comics, Beanie Babies, etc), but it's not necessarily a good thing for the industry.

Personally, I'd rather just see more extensive official emulation with physical copies