A General Retro Video Games Price Crash

[Otaking]

I sense it's coming soon...lately I've seen the first small tremors of people now starting to get out and selling up, but buying in retro games in general seems now to be slowing down. For example recently I've seen on other forums some large collections come up for sale that would have sold quickly before but have had little interest. I predict there will be an avalanche coming as all the tens of thousands of collectors sitting on huge collections in their "man caves" all scramble to get out as they see their investments plummet in value.

[Gypsy]

Would take. I will also add I have seen quite a few others getting out as well.

[SignOfZeta]

It will happen, it will be awesome, I will laugh.

However I think it's probably not going to be a massive instantaneous crash, most likely a gradual happening, first with the shitty systems like PS1 and then to a lesser extent with older systems. NES will be affected least.

Now, the *non* retro game crash...that very well could be instantaneous. What happened with Konami may happen to anyone if moods change. There's not much of a reason to be in the AAA game dev business these days where losing money has come to be the expected norm.

[780racer]

I think it may be just coincidence. People getting out is not indicative of people getting out to the scene all together. But we shall see.... Maybe I will be able to get more turbo games at cheap prices one day

But in all serious-ness, I doubt it will happen quickly if at all. I see local stores both struggling in my area, and opening up new locations.

I think people who may have been in for the fad is dying off, but that won't mean the prices will go down anytime soon.

[TheClash603]

The games where they made 100,000 copies that sell for $100+ are the ones that will become more affordable for all of us eventually, supply and demand will win out.

The games that pop up once a month or a few times a year on ebay are the ones that likely won't budge, but that's about 2% of what's out there.

This has been my expectation for years, fingers crossed.

[BigusSchmuck]

Hopefully $100 Kirby games will no longer be the norm and *maybe* some sanity will come back to the market. Again, if emulation hasn't killed prices on things nothing will.

[Gypsy]

Hopefully $100 Kirby games will no longer be the norm and *maybe* some sanity will come back to the market. Again, if emulation hasn't killed prices on things nothing will.

This is why I just laugh at people that are so staunchly anti-emu/flash cart. Like it's so evil and wrong or something. The only people that get anything out of old games sales are the sellers and most old games are not available digitally through legal means. Plus for the ones that are, people that want to support the companies for putting them up can easily do so. A friend of mine that has a game store is pro-emulator. He knows that people that emulate don't even really effect his bottom line, they are not his market. People that think I should have to pay $1000 or w/e for the privilege of playing Keio can eat me.

Mini-rant over. Wasn't directed at anyone here.

[NecroPhile]

I'd love to see it crash, but I don't think it'll ever get that bad.  At best prices will go back to the way they were 5+ years ago, where most games were worth original MSRP or less and only a small percentage of titles went for $100 or more.

[khyron65]

I hope it comes sooner then later. I only collect for the turbo and I already got some of the "higher" end games. So far I think my most expensive purchase was $65 for a single game. Im not collecting for any investment purposes this is solely for my own satisfaction but no one wants to pay anymore then they have to. I think systems like the turbo and neo geo will stay pretty stable since they were not that popular and in the case of the neo geo super expensive so there are not many copies floating around. It would be nice to get a bonks 3 or air zonk and magical chase but I already made the decision im getting those in repro form. As long as the handful of repros I will have in my collection look good im not going to sweat it. In all honesty I have been thinking of getting an everdrive. Ill still collect since the nostalgia and the hunt still apeal to me but ill be more discerning in my purchases.

wow. that turned into a little more then I wanted to write.

[SignOfZeta]

If the waves of deceptive pirate shit haven't devalued Neo nothing will. Too many Neo douche nozels want to protect their purchase to the point where they don't even want to know if their stuff is fake or not. The same thing is detailed in some degree in the art world in the amazing movie F for Fake.

[DildoKKKobold]

I think it may be just coincidence. People getting out is not indicative of people getting out to the scene all together. But we shall see.... Maybe I will be able to get more turbo games at cheap prices one day

But in all serious-ness, I doubt it will happen quickly if at all. I see local stores both struggling in my area, and opening up new locations.

I think people who may have been in for the fad is dying off, but that won't mean the prices will go down anytime soon.

I see two types of video game stores these days - ones that have great inventory, and awful prices, and ones that have great prices and no inventory. One of our local stores posts to our local FB group. Half of the good stuff is gone before it hits the shelf, and the other half is gone in the same day. Video game collecting is so ridiculously out of control in my area, stuff 5% less than eBay sells insanely fast.

I still see new people joining the hobby. I thought NES collecting was dead, and yet, a few local people started going for the set in 2016. However, it does seem like more stuff is rotating these days than actually being found at yard sales and the like. One collector downsizes, and sells to another collector that is upsizing. This would suggest that demand is staying stable, rather than increasing or decreasing, which would lead to a leveling of prices.

[sirhcman]

I sense it's coming soon...

Wanna bet?

[sirhcman]

I still see new people joining the hobby. I thought NES collecting was dead, and yet, a few local people started going for the set in 2016.

UGH.. Set collectors are the worst!!

[johnnykonami]

I just got Kirby's Dream Land and Kirby's Adventure along with a bunch of other great NES/GB games from a buddy, so I am grateful to have side-stepped whatever horrible prices they are asking for on Ebay.  I can't imagine Dream Land goes for that much, I should look up Adventure.  In either case, the value means jack to me because I always wanted to play these games and will probably never re-sell.  I still collect NES games but only opportunistically.  It's not one of my main systems like the PCE and the GB, and even for those I'm not interested in full sets but just curated sets of my favorite titles.

[bartre]

I'd love to see it crash, but I don't think it'll ever get that bad.  At best prices will go back to the way they were 5+ years ago, where most games were worth original MSRP or less and only a small percentage of titles went for $100 or more.

I'd be happy with that.
I got into old games because they were cheaper than the new shit.

*sigh* back to the good old days when demon's crest was $30 and super metroid was $25....

[khyron65]

If the waves of deceptive pirate shit haven't devalued Neo nothing will. Too many Neo douche nozels want to protect their purchase to the point where they don't even want to know if their stuff is fake or not. The same thing is detailed in some degree in the art world in the amazing movie F for Fake.

When I was collecting Neo Geo the only thing you have to worry about was getting freaked carts. A company Neogeofreaks.com bought up a huge amount of NOS carts and basically put stickers on the manuals or anywhere else they could not be removed. Also they were douchbags. I wonder whatever happened to those guys?

My memory has since been jogged. I forgot about them making their own inserts and such and shredding the originals among other BS. Also the Jigen incident. I cant believe i forgot about all that

[Gypsy]

I'd love to see it crash, but I don't think it'll ever get that bad.  At best prices will go back to the way they were 5+ years ago, where most games were worth original MSRP or less and only a small percentage of titles went for $100 or more.

I'd be happy with that.
I got into old games because they were cheaper than the new shit.

*sigh* back to the good old days when demon's crest was $30 and super metroid was $25....

Yeah I'd welcome that too. Titles like Keio, Snatcher and other popular hard to find titles may never recover, but stuff like LttP and Super Metroid...those are extremely common and I could list many other games on Nintendo consoles that fit that bill.

Re the bolded portion: Right now that's Xbox, PS2, PS3, 360 and Wii. With Xbox being the nutter butters. Almost anything you could want is $20 or less. Super quality titles for under $10 even. High end is around $40 and the a number of good games in that range I can count on one hand.

[bartre]

Yeah I'd welcome that too. Titles like Keio, Snatcher and other popular hard to find titles may never recover, but stuff like LttP and Super Metroid...those are extremely common and I could list many other games on Nintendo consoles that fit that bill.

Re the bolded portion: Right now that's Xbox, PS2, PS3, 360 and Wii. With Xbox being the nutter butters. Almost anything you could want is $20 or less. Super quality titles for under $10 even. High end is around $40 and the a number of good games in that range I can count on one hand.

God I know - I've been snagging up anything even remotely interesting on PS3/Wii lately.
I'm up to like 2 rather large boxes.

I'm also picking up some of the cheaper (nintendo selects) titles on wii U - I get the feeling that system is gonna be a bitch later on

[SignOfZeta]

If the waves of deceptive pirate shit haven't devalued Neo nothing will. Too many Neo douche nozels want to protect their purchase to the point where they don't even want to know if their stuff is fake or not. The same thing is detailed in some degree in the art world in the amazing movie F for Fake.

When I was collecting Neo Geo the only thing you have to worry about was getting freaked carts. A company Neogeofreaks.com bought up a huge amount of NOS carts and basically put stickers on the manuals or anywhere else they could not be removed. Also they were douchbags. I wonder whatever happened to those guys?

My memory has since been jogged. I forgot about them making their own inserts and such and shredding the originals among other BS. Also the Jigen incident. I cant believe i forgot about all that

ChrisR still occasionally rears his head to remind the world that they are all peons unless they have a fully corrected NGF set and a Freaked KOF 2000 blessed by the Pope. Aparently Crazy Dion is no longer winning at life to the extent that he once was and I haven't heard from him in a while. He's no longer physically threatening people and destroying irreplaceable SNK stuff and bragging about how he worked at Neo Geo Word so they gave him the floor mat. 

Now we just have fakes. NGF, as gross as they are, were less interested in selling you a genuine looking fake for money than they were in selling you a something that had the NGF mystique smeared all over it and convincing you that this made it better and more exclusive than genuine stuff. That made them feel cooler and more loved than SNK themselves. Somehow people did and STILL go for this. There are people who are like, "Is my US KOF 2000 real and complete?" Not undertataing that since every copy is Freaked that there is no such thing. NGF would have us believe that there are in fact FAKE US KOF 2000s, fake things perpetrated as NGF, which is semi-fake in the first place. It's a weird world.

Now we mainly have stuff that pretends to be real, like a case of fake US Aero Fighters 3 being sold for 10s of thousands of dollars per unit to people who clearly don't ask a lot of questions.

And I say "we" somewhat disingenuously. I am not and have never been an AES collector because I was born with a dick already. I have had other SNK systems though and have been mostly lurking in the US Neo scene since the mailing list days.

I wasn't joking about the Pope, btw.

[Gypsy]

Yeah I'd welcome that too. Titles like Keio, Snatcher and other popular hard to find titles may never recover, but stuff like LttP and Super Metroid...those are extremely common and I could list many other games on Nintendo consoles that fit that bill.

Re the bolded portion: Right now that's Xbox, PS2, PS3, 360 and Wii. With Xbox being the nutter butters. Almost anything you could want is $20 or less. Super quality titles for under $10 even. High end is around $40 and the a number of good games in that range I can count on one hand.

God I know - I've been snagging up anything even remotely interesting on PS3/Wii lately.
I'm up to like 2 rather large boxes.

I'm also picking up some of the cheaper (nintendo selects) titles on wii U - I get the feeling that system is gonna be a bitch later on

I could see that being the case as well. With the way it flopped all but the best sellers should be pretty hard to get later compared to PS4 and XBone titles.

[khyron65]

If the waves of deceptive pirate shit haven't devalued Neo nothing will. Too many Neo douche nozels want to protect their purchase to the point where they don't even want to know if their stuff is fake or not. The same thing is detailed in some degree in the art world in the amazing movie F for Fake.

When I was collecting Neo Geo the only thing you have to worry about was getting freaked carts. A company Neogeofreaks.com bought up a huge amount of NOS carts and basically put stickers on the manuals or anywhere else they could not be removed. Also they were douchbags. I wonder whatever happened to those guys?

My memory has since been jogged. I forgot about them making their own inserts and such and shredding the originals among other BS. Also the Jigen incident. I cant believe i forgot about all that

ChrisR still occasionally rears his head to remind the world that they are all peons unless they have a fully corrected NGF set and a Freaked KOF 2000 blessed by the Pope. Aparently Crazy Dion is no longer winning at life to the extent that he once was and I haven't heard from him in a while. He's no longer physically threatening people and destroying irreplaceable SNK stuff and bragging about how he worked at Neo Geo Word so they gave him the floor mat. 

Now we just have fakes. NGF, as gross as they are, were less interested in selling you a genuine looking fake for money than they were in selling you a something that had the NGF mystique smeared all over it and convincing you that this made it better and more exclusive than genuine stuff. That made them feel cooler and more loved than SNK themselves. Somehow people did and STILL go for this. There are people who are like, "Is my US KOF 2000 real and complete?" Not undertataing that since every copy is Freaked that there is no such thing. NGF would have us believe that there are in fact FAKE US KOF 2000s, fake things perpetrated as NGF, which is semi-fake in the first place. It's a weird world.

Now we mainly have stuff that pretends to be real, like a case of fake US Aero Fighters 3 being sold for 10s of thousands of dollars per unit to people who clearly don't ask a lot of questions.

And I say "we" somewhat disingenuously. I am not and have never been an AES collector because I was born with a dick already. I have had other SNK systems though and have been mostly lurking in the US Neo scene since the mailing list days.

I wasn't joking about the Pope, btw.

Jesus. Some things seem to never change. I bought my original collection for $200 back in 98 and sold it shortly there after for about $1000 which I promptly used to get a candy cab and an MVS 4 slot.

I saw the writing on the wall way back then.