Recent NES black box sales

[BeaglePuss]

the collectors and the gamers are the ones getting screwed here by price inflation.

Yeah, that's not true. Sealed collectors are the only individuals that can claim that these sales have any bearing on their collections.

Why would a gamer give two shits what a sealed title commands on eBay? All of these titles sell for $20 or less loose regardless of what their acrylic counterparts sell for.

[skaar]

Yeah, that's not true. Sealed collectors are the only individuals that can claim that these sales have any bearing on their collections.

Why would a gamer give two shits what a sealed title commands on eBay? All of these titles sell for $20 or less loose regardless of what their acrylic counterparts sell for.

To deal with all the "this only hurts the buyer and benefits the seller" statements in one swoop...

Anyone who's bought from a pawn shop, flea market, used game seller - whatever - has had the wonderful experience of having an eBay listing or final value price thrown in their face at some point as "this is what an item is worth"

Anomalous listings like this WILL affect all of this pricing at some level - from a seller seeing it and throwing up a listing at an inflated price in the hopes of riding the price wave to a valuation site compiling final sale prices of similar titles and skewing its pricing accordingly. This is where it affects everyone.

I've often said and I stand by my belief that anything is worth what a person is willing to pay for it - to that person, and that person alone.

Fluke sales will always happen. People are dumb. People have problems. The collector mindset is often characteristic of many other issues.

MY GOD PAWP ITZ N ORIGNAL NINTENDER THOSE ARE LIKE SIX GRAN ON EBAYS!

Addendum: I'm aware the market eventually corrects itself from these issues, but in the meantime we all have to contend with people overvaluing - and that's just a pain the ass

[BeaglePuss]

While I understand your stance, I don't agree with it. These high-end sealed sales have taken place for some time now (years), while loose Black Box titles haven't increased more than a few dollars over past decade.

I agree that there will be plenty of morons overpricing their goods as a result of these sales (We've all seen it happen on Pawn Stars and Storage Wars), but they have yet to have a real effect on loose game sales. I'm not big into speculating, so I'll be worried when it actually happens.

For the time being I'll just scoop 'em up for cheap, slab them, and make the $billions$.

[jonebone]

Well I see both points.

Skaar is making the point that inflation of the hobby in general, not just sealed sales, hurts the collector / gamer. That's true to an extent, when a Little Samson cart goes from $100 to $300, someone who wants to play it is genuinely "hurt". Of course there's still emulation, but most gamers prefer original hardware, especially on platformers which require good timing / coordination.

However, the collector also benefits from the value spikes, as their collection is now worth more. The argument then becomes "But if the person is truly a collector, they aren't selling so they never see a penny of the increase". That's also true, but how many times have we seen a collector sell out for a true need? Loss of a job / loss of housing / death of a family member / etc. Collectors don't always plan to sell out, but when they have to, valuation does matter. So the inflation helps them.

And Beagle's point is that high end sealed sales does not affect loose cartridges, which I completely agree with. You might get a bonehead trying to sell used stuff at new prices, but it's not like you have to search for an eternity to find a $2 NES Tennis cartridge. You are merely inconvenienced by having to sift through a couple more bogus listings to find something at the price you want to pay.

Just my .02. The only one truly hurt by inflated prices are the brand new collectors who have nothing. But normal gamers / collectors also benefit by having their games increase in value.

[skaar]

One could say that a lot of the people who "sell out" have not properly evaluated their spending ON their hobbies...