Retro game prices on Ebay

[Gatucaman]

Oh boy, the Supply and Demand Trap.

Wrong!, is because of the Speculator Epidemia we have now, and resellers, scalpers and even scammers who make counterfeit repros of games like Eartbound.

[PizzaKat]

I got Super Metroid for 20 on BIN I think in 2009. I thought that was steep. TMNT Turtles in Time for 15 or 17 BIN. Won an auction for Atari Jaguar with 13 games a few good ones for 65 in 2008 I think. Im floored to see how everything went up so much. Im glad I started hoarding years ago. I blame it a lot on those guys with game chasing videos showing the value worth and what they paid for.

[o.pwuaioc]

Oh boy, the Supply and Demand Trap.

Wrong!, is because of the Speculator Epidemia we have now, and resellers, scalpers and even scammers who make counterfeit repros of games like Eartbound.

That's part of supply and demand. The supply is limited and the demand from resellers is great.

[YoshiM]

Oh boy, the Supply and Demand Trap.

Wrong!, is because of the Speculator Epidemia we have now, and resellers, scalpers and even scammers who make counterfeit repros of games like Eartbound.

Now if we're talking about the "Buy It Now" or high startig bid type sales I'd agree but for those actual auctions that get the big bucks, that's the bidders that did that. If someone wants it bad enough, they'll pay. All back to supply and demand.

[DigitalKarma]

Seems like there are more of those type of sellers than the actual auctions themselves.. jacking up the going price about 40%. I think it was quite the opposite a few years back. Hmmm.

[The Adventurer]

Demand creates scarcity and leads to rising prices over time?

THE HELL YOU SAY?!

[Dashopepper]

At least everyone can benefit fro Ebay by selling there stuff on there. A "mom and pop" video game store was at a video game convention with over priced garbage, asked if they would take a trade for my NES Contra and $5 for Space station silicon valley n64. He said he only gives $5 for contra so sssv would only cost me $20 instead of the $25 it was marked. Fucking people.

[Tanooki]

You're another in a long line of people who have caught on to the abuses going on in the old game market, and in particular with Nintendo stuff, though TG16 wasn't spared either yet so far.

There's nothing singular to blame on it. The trendy shit over the last five years to bring 8/16bit graphics up as an art form has made things a curiosity to the younger and a reminder to the kids of that time. You have those in their 30s/40s now who grew up with the stuff wanting to chase a memory or treat it like comic and card collecting of decades earlier. We have this shitty economy that's not being helped by the scumbag in chiefs policies which turns people even more who are unemployed, underemployed or just underpaid to alternate sources of income to pad the books. Economy or not, the popularity got there enough it pulled the dregs and shitheads of society out in droves who want to pray on the uninformed, impatient and stupid people to rip them off blind playing off desires and memories. As mentioned, you have the popularity of Youtube with all these assholes bragging about their cheap finds videos talking up the hundreds in value for pennies to the dollar, or the poorly acted attention whores like Pat the NES Punk, AVGN and the Mike Mattei flushing out games into the public eye driving demand. And all around that, it's simple economy of supply (which isn't being increased) and demand (which due to all that shit above and more) getting higher, so we all suffer for it.

It happened before if you were a kid in the 80s/90s having comics and baseball cards wrecked. Same stuff with stores opening up all over, people raising prices inching it into the more well offs pockets to the detriment of the child who that stuff was targeted to, and it imploded. The stuff always in time will implode to a point and re-correct itself where the real rarities have value, and the rest get set down back on the bench of reality. But that's another topic, when/if the bubble or whatever you want to call it may or may not pop and how.

All I know is this bullshit drove me largely away from old games and selling off shit I don't want to use anymore, yet due to the awful prices I do keep some stuff had it been still worth $20 I'd ditch. If it wasn't for my recent discovery of the unique games in style and substance on the Famicom I would be a lot less happy about it than I am now. If you know my ebay account or read on NA you'll know I've been parting with a good bit of stuff in the last few years.


Karma you're also right about the 40% (or whatever) bump and a few years ago compared to now how sellers acted. Sure there were always rare games and their prices were justified like Little Samson(Lickle) was an easy $100 even going back 5+ years beyond what the video game price chart website shows, but notice I think it was maybe 3 years back now the game shot up more than double the price in months, under a years time, and if you track it back to ebay you can see this pissing contest of people with the gotta have it mentality and greedy resellers feeding those idiot beasts and it never fell back again after that. All it takes is some tipping point to trigger it and a game can go nuts in a matter of a week. Another one you can look up would be Zombie Nation on NES too which went crazy from cheapo obscurity.

[DigitalKarma]

Well said tanooki. That explains it. Its a combination of all those things. I've been out of the game collecting loop for several years now so when I finally got back on it, I had to shake my head at some of the prices. I'm sure the bubble will burst at some point.

I don't think I could ever find a great deal like I did when I got sealed copies of Cosmic Fantasy 2 and Exile for TG-16 at $5 a piece..especially not in today's overinflated market.

Anyway since I'm a new member I can't post in the marketplace forum yet. If anyone is interested I have an eBay auction for Grand Theft Auto IV Special Edition - Everything excluding the game. Starting bid @ $.99, and ends in less than 9 hrs. Only for the true collectors and those wanting to upgrade their existing standalone copies. USA buyer's only

http://m.ebay.com/itm/261458614999

or if the link doesn't work..

Look up item #: 261458614999

Sorry..shameless advertisement. just wanted to get it out there to as many interested collectors as possible.

[Gamevet]

As mentioned, you have the popularity of Youtube with all these assholes bragging about their cheap finds videos talking up the hundreds in value for pennies to the dollar, or the poorly acted attention whores like Pat the NES Punk, AVGN and the Mike Mattei flushing out games into the public eye driving demand. And all around that, it's simple economy of supply (which isn't being increased) and demand (which due to all that shit above and more) getting higher, so we all suffer for it.

It happened before if you were a kid in the 80s/90s having comics and baseball cards wrecked. Same stuff with stores opening up all over, people raising prices inching it into the more well offs pockets to the detriment of the child who that stuff was targeted to, and it imploded. The stuff always in time will implode to a point and re-correct itself where the real rarities have value, and the rest get set down back on the bench of reality. But that's another topic, when/if the bubble or whatever you want to call it may or may not pop and how.

It started with stuff like Classic Game Room and The Angry Video game nerd. Now you have Metal Jesus, Game Chasers, Gamestar81, Game Sack, Retro Ware etc.... You watch one of those and Youtube will start linking you to other users showing the same kind of stuff about retro gaming and collecting. 3 or 4 years ago, nobody cared about the 7800 or the Jaguar, but after Classic Game Room started giving positive reviews for those systems the prices started going up for a Jag and even the pitiful 7800 gained a little more value.


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I don't buy retro games from Ebay. There are other online stores and sites that will give you a better price.

Just last week I found a minty copy of Sword of Berserk for the DC ($14 shipped) by doing a google search for people selling it. I believe that game sells for around $20-$25 on evilbay.