anybody else notice game prices lately?

[dedalusdedalus]

I fell asleep in the middle of that sentence and had to wake up again to finish it. I hated business school.

JT, don't you mean, you FEEL asleep? This is a retro game forum, man!

I guess it just baffles me that in a free market, some soul out there is willing to part with $20,000 for Air Raid.

That baffles me too, but that's exactly the reason why the free market has judged me unworthy of owning a CIB Air Raid. That CIB Air Raid clearly makes whoever bought it much happier than it would have made me.

I mean, I wish that Metal Slug for the AES only cost a nickel, but I might as well wish that water weren't so wet or the sky weren't so blue.

Well, you can freeze the water and pollute the sky.

lulz, I clearly needed an even more fanciful hypothetical wish in that post.

Revise that to read "I might as well wish that farts came out as rainbows, or that God would create a hamburger so big that even he's unable to eat it."

[env963]

I used to collect baseball cards and comic books. BOTH crashed in price in the 90's. I am predicting video games are going to do the same thing. Especially if people are collecting hoping to make money on games instead of just playing it. I dont own a single game for the purpose of "collecting". Been there done that. When all the collectors are done with collecting, the price of those old games will come down. I have many comics and baseball cards that aren't worth jack today to prove it.

[DNT 2.5]

Salesman gonna sell
Collectors gonna collect
gamers gonna game
hater's gonna hate.

[Weekend_Warrior]

I've started to notice that some PS2 games are starting to go back up in price. Don't ask me for specific titles because I wouldn't be able to recall them right off the top of my head. But I've been shopping around all weekend (hence my name Weekend_Warrior) and I've noticed quite a few PS2 games that were marked higher than I remember seeing them before.

Maybe this is because a lot of Gamestop's are starting to phase out their PS2 game inventories?

[tommyboy8689]

off topic here... but did i make a double thread? sorry if i did... i really suck at finding topics that are prolly related to what i wanna say, when i want to start a new thread

my biggest concern with why the prices have jumped so high lately is mainy due to the whole CIB air raid, sealed stadium events... it seemed like people saw them and said oh crap i have an old game, *looks in closet* oh here it is, a copy of nes play action football... this should get me 3000 easy, obviously im exaggerating this, but thats what im saying

[pepharytheworm]

You say that now, but what if all videogames become financially unavailable to you? He complains and you give him reasoning, but that won't solve his complaint. You might as well say life's not fair.

Well, hate to break it to you but life isn't fair. If all video games were too expensive for me I would either give up the hobby or get a better source of income.

Look, you play video games that are primarily produced in a global market for global distribution to a global audience. Meaning that the market for buying games aftermarket is also global. That's where the high prices come from. Your hobby is popular so you get to have a wide variety of games coming out constantly.

The saturated audience you have to compete with for collection purposes is an obvious outcome to this situation. So if you don't think it's fair to pay a price for a game...well, tough cookies. Until everyone else thinks the same way nothing will change. WHEN everyone else thinks that way, the price will come down.

Well I am glad you are happy if games fluctuate beyond your means. Man, I would hate to live like that, "well it is what it is, nothing I can do, so I might as well not complain".

WHEN everyone else thinks that way, the price will come down.

By the way start "thinking that way" so the price comes down. We who would like to pay less to own and play and not invest could use your help. I know life's not fair but no use answering gripes with similiar lines we already know that. I can't believe you just except everything for what it is, or at least pricing. There's gotta to be something that you personally think is priced to high and still understand the way the market works and don't think "tough cookies".

@ dedalusdedalus
Thanks for getting my point

[DonSilvestre]

Maybe at some point game companies will all go bananas releasing digital copies of games and that will drive the value down - otherwise I kind of doubt that video game market value will "crash" anytime soon. Maybe for the super rare games - but it's different with games. Particularly with games that were released in extremely limited quantities.

For one - a game is an all out experience as opposed to a picture on a card, or a quick story with some pictures like comics. Games can be considered on the same level of movies and books as far as I'm concerned. When there's less than 30,000 copies of PDS out there - and many fewer than that in mint condition, the experience of playing that game becomes a lot more valuable than a simple picture of a famous baseball player.

For two - consider the fact that video games STARTING prices are much higher than comics or cards. People bitch that they have to pay 50 - 60 bucks for a copy of Chrono Trigger - or 90 bucks for a copy of Earthbound. Those same people forget that a NEW copy of Chrono Trigger or Earthbound back in the day was between 70 and 80 bucks potentially. Video games as an investment is really only viable if you're finding games cheap and used after the fact - buying them new for an investment is typically a lost cause, unless you leave it sealed and never play it.

Me? The only game I've bought with a potential investment in mind is PDS. I got it for $130 a few months ago in mint condition. I want to play it, and will when I have time - but since the source has been lost and it's such a limited print game, I figured the cost was justified. Otherwise I collect because it's fun to play the games, and fun to sift through them on my shelf as well.

[Flake]

Well I am glad you are happy if games fluctuate beyond your means. Man, I would hate to live like that, "well it is what it is, nothing I can do, so I might as well not complain".

What's the point in complaining? Video games are a luxury. If I can't afford a game I want, I don't buy it. If I really want it then I'll make the personal sacrifice and save for it. I may want it to be cheap but the guy who owns it is going to want it to be expensive. I can't begrudge a seller for charging what they think they can get for their property since it is the buyers threshold that decides if the sale ever happens.

If food, electricity, or anything important was beyond my means, yeah I would complain. Video games? Those for fun, not getting upset about.

[yomomma1]

EARTHBOUND IS NOT WORTH 80 DOLLARS!!!!
seriously, I will never get it.

[DNT 2.5]

EARTHBOUND IS NOT WORTH 80 DOLLARS!!!!
seriously, I will never get it.

Are you kidding? I would sacrifice my family and 90% of the members of this forum to get a copy of earthbound.