Since I'm older than a lot of guys here, I feel that price is over-rated in a lot of cases. Here's how I see it. When I bought Final Fantasy 2 on the SNES way back when it came out, I paid $60 for it. What is that in 2010 money, double? There aren't a whole lot of games left that I need to fulfill my childhood memories, but the ones that are left will be expensive, games like Earthbound. I'm ok with that. How many times have any of you gone out on a date and dropped a hundy on food and wine only to strike out at the end of the night? For a hundy, I can buy something that is going to give me a lot more enjoyment than whacking off at the end of the night. Can you really place a price on happiness?
Now would I overpay for a game? Absolutely, but only if it's something I really want and had trouble finding in the past. Again, happiness rules.
To me, no game is irreplaceable. I would never pay more than current regular retail price for an older game. If it costs more than that, I just move on.
I find that if I'm patient, I can usually find a game for a decent price. I eventually found a complete US version of Mark of the Wolves on ebay for about $25 shipped.
The most I have spent on a Dreamcast game is about $45 for a complete US version of Power Stone 2. I'm not really sure if that is considered a good price or not, but I was fine with it.
Now, that damn broadband adapter. That is hard to find for less than $100 or even $150.
Incidentally, I just bought Project Justice for $53. I would gladly have paid more than that since my nostalgia for Rival Schools is incredibly high. But that's one of the very few games I would go that high on.
Maybe now Nintendo will acknowledge Metroid has a fanbase?
The most I have paid for a game is $75. I paid that much for Dracula X: Nocturne in the Moonlight when I found it in an Anime shop shortly after its Japanese release. It wasn't classic at the time so... I also paid roughly that much for my complete Guardian Heroes.
I've paid about $120 for 3 games now. I didn't really want to pay that much, but considering I've been holding out on 2 of them for years and they often bounced around $200 I went ahead and plunged. I'm very patient though and have waited and watched for years for some games before I got them at a price I wanted. Usually $30-40 is my max depending on what it is.