I can safely say I fall into this camp. I'll never sell my collection and would rather donate it to charity in the end. I only buy games if I see myself playing them a lot, which is why you'll seldom find long games or RPGs on my shelf.
Going into retro game shops is incredibly depressing to me nowadays
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This thread blows my mind. So much complaining.
At the end of the day, prices are determined by supply and demand. Basic economic principles. That's it.
Additionally, staff and owners have to eat, too.
Lastly, some of these places have pretty good trade in deals that help offset some of the higher costs of retro games. I've traded in a lot of PS2, Wii, and PS360 games that have gotten re-releases in current consoles and PC. Why would I hang on to my PS3 God of War III, when I can buy a better version of it cheaply on the PS4, AND at the same time get store credit towards retro stuff I enjoy? If I'm a gambler, I'd bet that there's a much higher chance of Sony re-releasing one of its PS3 games on PS4 than, say, Konami re-releasing the SNES version of Sunset Riders.
At the end of the day, prices are determined by supply and demand. Basic economic principles. That's it.
Additionally, staff and owners have to eat, too.
Lastly, some of these places have pretty good trade in deals that help offset some of the higher costs of retro games. I've traded in a lot of PS2, Wii, and PS360 games that have gotten re-releases in current consoles and PC. Why would I hang on to my PS3 God of War III, when I can buy a better version of it cheaply on the PS4, AND at the same time get store credit towards retro stuff I enjoy? If I'm a gambler, I'd bet that there's a much higher chance of Sony re-releasing one of its PS3 games on PS4 than, say, Konami re-releasing the SNES version of Sunset Riders.
Yeah I stocked up on Gamecube titles a few years back after seeing SNES and N64 prices rocketing up. Turns out that wasn't such a bad decision...
Back when the N64 was practically, freshly dead, copies of Perfect Dark and Conker's Bad Fur Day were around $9 each.
Fast forward to last year, me buying some vinyl at one of these shops, a girl bought a cartridge only of Conker for $80. Insane mark up, that was depressing to watch happen.
Fast forward to last year, me buying some vinyl at one of these shops, a girl bought a cartridge only of Conker for $80. Insane mark up, that was depressing to watch happen.
The top loading NES literally released in October, 1993. I mean, it was still a product on the market. It might have been considered "outdated," but "retro" at the time of PSX release is basically revisionist history.
My perception of the top loader when it was new was that it was a retro product. It was really odd... the SNES was in year 3 or 4 depending on region. It would like Nintendo releasing a new Wii U revision 2 years from now.
For me NES was definitively retro by like 97-99. It was retro in the late 90s, anyway.
Bought an NES in summer of 98 to start collecting and re-living childhood memories and it felt absolutely retro and even ancient at that time. As others have said, though, the advance of the tech has plateaued and that's affected perceptions of what is "old" just as much, if not more so, than the timespan itself.
That's not a mark up, though, that just the worth of the thing. It's worth what people will pay for it.
Yeah, it was like that for the Atari 2600 in the early '90s, too (minus the widespread internet but still treated similarly by gamers in general). And it had only recently been discontinued as a budget system.
That's if you assume the store only paid $9 for it which they probably didn't. Those stores rely on people trading stuff in and then looking in all the same places for games as the rest of us. Thier prices are high because they also don't have a source where they can order as many games as they need for $5 a pop just because they are old games. That and wages, taxes, rent and utilities.
It's not just retro games that have made my local used game shops fucking useless in recent years. They've just gotten so damn greedy. In years past, these same stores would sell things at a fairly decent discount, and why not, they're used games, so they shouldn't be costing new prices. I remember the used to sell NES games for a standard all around price, every game was $3.99 at one time, regardless of the title. Miss those days.
What really has been pissing me off though is they're trying to sell PS4/XBONE/Switch games for way higher than they should for a used copy. I'll see games on their shelves for $45...and I know what you might be thinking "well games retail for $60, so that's a good deal"...not really when their store is literally next door to best buy, and you can get new games for $48 with gamers club. I've even seen them price certain games just way higher than they should, like Ultra Street Fighter 2 on Switch. They had that for $45, and im thinking...wtf. it's a $40 game new, and it sure as hell ain't rare.
These shops have gone into instead of just trying to make a profit, they're trying to make ALL the profit. I've seen people sell them PS4 games before, and they don't offer more than $15 a pop for them, so they're getting a $30 profit if they try selling them at $45. It's gotten ridiculous.
What really has been pissing me off though is they're trying to sell PS4/XBONE/Switch games for way higher than they should for a used copy. I'll see games on their shelves for $45...and I know what you might be thinking "well games retail for $60, so that's a good deal"...not really when their store is literally next door to best buy, and you can get new games for $48 with gamers club. I've even seen them price certain games just way higher than they should, like Ultra Street Fighter 2 on Switch. They had that for $45, and im thinking...wtf. it's a $40 game new, and it sure as hell ain't rare.
These shops have gone into instead of just trying to make a profit, they're trying to make ALL the profit. I've seen people sell them PS4 games before, and they don't offer more than $15 a pop for them, so they're getting a $30 profit if they try selling them at $45. It's gotten ridiculous.
I'm pretty much done collecting since the prices are way too high nowadays.
I was lucky enough to get a decent collection going since I used to have plenty of disposable income, and I'm satisfied of what I do have now.
I was lucky enough to get a decent collection going since I used to have plenty of disposable income, and I'm satisfied of what I do have now.
Well then my N64 game collection has better gains than my cryptocurrency portfolio lol
I haven't decided what to do with what I have left. I don't have many games worth a whole lot (at least I think), but something interesting I do have is boxes to some 90's games I threw in a closet after I opened them. I have the original boxes for every Gameboy Pokémon game (all 6 gen 1 and 2 mainline games as well as Pinball and TCG) and all of them except for one (Crystal) are in decent shape. I have 0 idea what kind of value they have though.
I think you're confusing a few things here. Literally the only value these old games have is irrational emotional attachment to the physical piece of plastic. The value of Chrono Trigger, the game, is like $5 on any app store, not several hundreds like the SNES cart. If people want to just play the game they'll buy that version. Buying the cart and holding on to it is the entire point in and of itself. It has nothing to do with playing the game. And these carts are a finite resource so at one point running out of them was bound to happen. There's no difference between this and baseball cards from the 30s. The value is not in the picture on the card.
It's not all collectibility. I do think there is a tangible quality element for many people playing real carts on real hardware. I used to think emulators or ports could replace the real thing a decade ago, but there were always quirks in performance and image quality that bothered me and took me out of the experience. There's a sigh of relief that I have playing the real thing, and I think is worth paying for.
Of course, flashcarts give a way to play roms on original hardware in a way that should be technically perfect. There are also FPGA solutions and accuracy obsessed emulators that output the correct resolution in a way that could be theoretically perfect gaming experiences ... but there's something about the experience of buying and playing the real cart that removes all doubt that the gaming experience is perfect. It's always 100% solid.
Not to mention the aesthetics of handling, putting in and booting the original media, for what that's worth.
There is a quality of experience appeal in playing the real thing that goes beyond just the idea of collecting the real thing.
Just went to Paris and bought many Megadrive games i wanted for prices cheaper or same as online. Also got Thunderforce 6 for the PS2.
So often you already save shipping costs and can often test the games before you buy.
So often you already save shipping costs and can often test the games before you buy.