/vr/ - Retro Games

[Anonymous No.1645572]

Do you think retro gaming is too expensive these days? I'm talking about mainly NES/SNES consoles and their games. I used to do a bit of retro gaming few years ago and it seems that prices have doubled since then. I understand stuff like Neo Geo AES having insanely high value but regular Nintendo stuff as well? Is it because all the guys in their 20's/30's are trying to relive their childhood?

[Anonymous No.1645604]

>>1645572
>Is it because all the guys in their 20's/30's are trying to relive their childhood?
Partially, however there are other factors.

Retro gaming has also become chic among the hip kids, but this fad seems to be dying -- albeit slowly.
Additionally, resellers hoard games and consoles, creating an artificial scarcity, which contributes to the inflation of prices.

I predict the popularity dying within a few years,
resellers will then have to lower their prices to meet the now-weakened demand,
which will bring prices down overall and help true collectors and enthusiasts.

Hopefully this is soon, because the market now is unhealthy.

[Anonymous No.1645615]

>>1645572
Well, that's the simplest theory of course. By that logic, the prices will drop again in another ten years. One might even look at how low Gen 2 prices are for everything but the rare examples as proof but with NES and SNES, though not rare games were never overproduced in the same way Atari games were.

I like to look at it as parallel to comic books though since video games are just beginning to be seen as legitimate art the same way comics were in the 1960s. Gens 1 and 2 were kind of like the primitive comics age, where the medium was just beginning to be established. Very early comics, though somewhat valuable have more of a historical significance than a cultural one.

Gens 3 through 5 are like the golden age for video games and Nintendo is like the DC comics of the golden age. They have the most obvious, iconic cultural impact and so are the first to be seen as truly significant artifacts and will always be seen that way.

What we're experiencing right now in video games is also kind of like the 60s where the reverberating culture of the "retro"/"golden age" of video games is basically more significant than the impact of the current games, which like 60s comics will probably be looked back on as pretty terrible.

Hopefully the increasing interest in these "retro" games and their ballooning value will begin to effect game design and we'll see a return to the old, good ways combined with the modern techniques and we'll get to enjoy the beginning of a "silver age" of video games soon.

Then, if the comic analogy holds true it won't be long before video games actually find the correct formula and fully mature into a "modern age", which will be the year you see a working NES console with a CRT all three Marios, both Zeldas and Metroid sell for a hundred thousand dollars.

Don't count your chickens before they're hatched of course this is still a big if and hinges on a lot of the copies circulating in less than serious collectors' hands being lost.

[Anonymous No.1645643]

>>1645572
Collector/Reseller here
Mainly a collector.

Nintendo is dead. The hipsters have it. It's not worth the price of admission any more.
Sega and Sony are where your best bet to have fun with retro collecting is.
Get into the Genny. Its the new NES

[Anonymous No.1646257]

>>1645643

I hate that. I have some Nintendo games I want returned to my collection after they were stolen, but hipsters are driving the market into insane levels. I just want to get my games, and leave the Nintendo market entirely.

And Genesis is fantastic. Prices are still good.

[Anonymous No.1646270]

It's mostly the fault of resellers. They grab up any consoles and games they can find at decent prices at flea markets, garage sells, etc., then they turn around and demand outrageous prices on eBay. Other resellers see these price trends and just follow suit.

If you're just putting together a personal collection, your best bet is to deploy the same buying methods - look around local flea markets and other second-hand mediums, and you'll probably find games and consoles much more reasonably priced. Do *not* resort to buying from resellers. You're just allowing yourself to be ripped off because it's convenient. The footwork is really not worth the degree of compensation resellers are asking. If they wanted only a modest profit, it would be fine; but most don't. They want to gouge you for all you're worth.

[Anonymous No.1646552]

>>1645643
>>1646270
>hipsters with too much money
>resellers with too much free time to scour markets/garage sales
Terrible combination.

I'm actually from a PAL territory, but even through an emulator games like Chrono Trigger and Earthbound defined my childhood. These and too many other titles weren't released over here and if I now want to replay them on the actual hardware, for the experience I never, I'm now forced to pay the stupidly inflated reseller prices.
I'd kill to see NES and SNES games return to a more appropriate value. I've already caved on importing the Super Mario RPG/FFIII, but it'd be nice to get CT or EB without taking out a small loan.

[Anonymous No.1646613]

>>1645572
More video game collectors than ever before
Rise of YouTube gaming channels
nostalgic adults wanting to relive childhood
"Hipsters buying some old Nintendo games"
Resellers exploiting demand

[Anonymous No.1646703]

>>1645643
>reseller

Fucking scum, all of you.

[Anonymous No.1646709]

>>1645615
>What we're experiencing right now in video games is also kind of like the 60s where the reverberating culture of the "retro"/"golden age" of video games is basically more significant than the impact of the current games, which like 60s comics will probably be looked back on as pretty terrible.

You're full of shit.

[Anonymous No.1646713]

>>1645643
KILL THE FILTHY RESELLER SCUM

[Anonymous No.1647189]

Whats the verdict on "Quality vs. Quantity" when it comes to collecting?

There are lots of good games but there are loads of shitty ones. Do you guys buy the shitty games just because they're cheap or what? I can see why having a large collection is cool, but I think honestly I'd rather have the really good games on every platform, then just a shitload of games all together.

[Anonymous No.1647203]

>>1646270
Hey man some places are just barren in terms of retro vidya. In most of my garage sale adventures, I was lucky to find any vidya of any kind let alone a decent retro game.

I do have a local reseller that gouges most games but I have been able to get games like F-zero, Star Fox, and Zelda II for cheaper than ebay prices from this guy.

I may start some garage sale adventures again now that summer's here, but I'm not expecting anything.

>>1647189
I only buy games I want to play. So quality > quantity.

[Eventsguy No.1647216]

It was expensive when they where new
£40 for a game.
£100+ for a console
Ok there was 8bit computers where games would be a few quid and where mostly pap

[Anonymous No.1647217]

>>1647216
>It was expensive when they where new

Well yeah sure so were VCRs and DVD players but you don't see those costing as much as they did now.

[Anonymous No.1647225]

The prices of NES and SNES games have definitely gone up on online auction sites. I bought majority of mine in the early 2000s and back then most NES games cost me about 5 to 20€ and nowadays people are asking for 30€ for loose copies of common as fuck games like Castlevania. Is this only because of online celebrities like AVGN making people more interested in retro games?

Also to contribute to the "reseller scum" discussion:
I grew up with NES and SNES and apart from trading some game to other ones as a kid I never sold any of my games.
I then got a modchipped Playstation in 1998 and suddenly had access to every game ever made for the system.
I basically did the same thing with PS2 when it came out and having also bough a DVD writer I had my hands full of downloading PSX and PS2 games from internets, burning them to discs and playing them.
While pirating and playing every PSX and PS2 game I could find on internets at this point was basically a fucking job for me I still kept collecting NES and SNES games at the same time.
When PS3/360 and Wii came out I honestly lost interest in modern games and really got into collecting NES and SNES games and also bough many systems I missed on before.
During the following years I bought hundreds of NES and SNES games and had a blast collecting and playing them.
Now fast forwarding to present, I recently bought flashcarts to NES and SNES and had a huge "What's the fucking point?" since I now have every goddamn game I had collected over the years for the systems on two cartridges.
Given my current financial situation and the fact my retro game collection takes ridiculous amount of space I ended up selling some of my NES games on online auction sites and made more than 2000€ in couple of days

Have I become a FILTHY RESELLER SCUM that must be crucified for his sins or not?

[Anonymous No.1647230]

>>1647225
No, resellers don't have a personal collection, you just moved on from your collection and made a bit of a profit on the way due to the currently inflated prices.

Resellers horde games, they're the kind of people with 15 copies of earthbound, 15 copies of Panzer Dragoon Saga, and all that shit just because its better to artificially decrease the amount of them for sale.

[Anonymous No.1647234]

>>1646703
>>1646713
Thanks guys.
But I mainly sell doubles I happen to pick up. I don't scour the earth for rare games and mark them up, I just sell doubles to fund the collection.

[Anonymous No.1647237]

>>1647225

Are you selling said games at FILTHY RESELLER SCUM inflated prices?

[Anonymous No.1647243]

>>1647237
You tell me, I sold most of the NES games I sold for 15€ (many of them were CIB or boxed copies of common as fuck games like Megaman) but I was to get 800€ for a CIB copy of Mr. Gimmick.

[Anonymous No.1647257]

You know guys, you don't have to buy from resellers if you want to get into retro gaming.

Go out to garage sales, talk to people, make sure to always ask because most sales I go to, the old folks don't have the games out because they just didn't think about it, so when you ask they sometimes do have retro consoles, and when they don't have retro consoles, but newer games, you can either take those too (PS2 is what myself and my brother have been collecting lately because of the quality and how many of them are in our area) and either keep them or sell them on your own or at a store (we have a local store that sells games from retro to brand new and can give in-store credit at very fair prices for games. You can buy a stack of newer games and leave the store with a large stack of retro games).

The point is, you can probably get into retro games for relatively cheap, and your collection can grow very fast, if you look around and talk to folks. Garage sales, estate sales, local auctions, flea markets, taking advantage of local store liquidation (my brother just got an absolutely massive collection of PS1/PS2 games from the people who bought all the stock from a local video store when it sold off last year, and he got it for VERY cheap, because they were starting a video store and didn't want the games and needed them gone), and even giving out your phone number to people who meet who claim to have games but need to look for them. Most of the time they won't call back, but when they do it can sometimes lead to some serious gold.

Most importantly, having a friend or sibling that collects is even better, because its serious fun running around with them looking for old games. It also helps if you're looking for different stuff, though that's not totally necessary if everyone helps each other and you set a few ground rules (we have a rule that if we run by something very expensive like but not actually worth playing, we'll just sell it and split the cash).

[Anonymous No.1647263]

Genesis prices have gone up enough to make me upset but not enough to stop buying them yet. I have noticed a shitload of games being sold with an unofficial case without stating it is and reproduction carts of stuff like Wily Wars listed for $80 without listing it is a repro lately.

[Anonymous No.1647293]

>>1646703
Buyers drive up the prices, not resellers.

[Anonymous No.1647314]

>>1647293
Resellers drive up the prices through artificial scarcity by hoarding.
Sure the buyers are the ones failing to exercise restraint, but don't pretend the former are without blame.

If all the faggots hanging onto dozens of copies of Earthbound finally relinquished them prices would normalise, or at least somewhat.
Besides being held in private storage, there's no conceivable reason one of the most common SNES games could have a $200 pricetag. That is unless hundreds of thousands of carts were mysteriously destroyed, which I doubt.

[Anonymous No.1647317]

>>1647314
>Resellers drive up the prices through artificial scarcity by hoarding.

When did the definition of resellers change on this board? It was my understanding that they were just people buying valuable games for cheap and then selling high.

[Anonymous No.1647337]

>>1647317
>buying valuable games for cheap and then selling high
>Resellers drive up the prices through artificial scarcity by hoarding.

That's the exact same definition.

[Anonymous No.1647364]

>>1647337
Not at all, the first doesn't imply intentional hoarding.

[Anonymous No.1647427]

Collectable markets have highs and lows, they run in fairly predictable patterns. NES games will probably maintain price or a slow price increase until there is a collapse of the collectable market.

Something will occur that will make the values of anything but the boxed/ near mint/ rare games crash in price. (sd cart? reprints? who knows?)

Im no expert in the patterns on values of collectables, but I bet you can compare videogame collecting to baseball cards, barbies, older toys, art.. lets watch antiques roadshow.

[Anonymous No.1648336]

>>1646709
>You're full of shit.
Maybe, but you're not really specifically refuting anything I'm saying. With the exception of The Last of Us, 9 out of the top 10 games of 2013 were just the newest rehash of a franchise that hasn't been fresh or innovative in ten years. Great games do come out but they're few and far between - very much like comic books in the 50s and 60s.

These few great games will influence the next real age of of video games that hopefully is coming once developers realize that they've gotten too far away from the roots of what made golden age video games fun.

[Anonymous No.1648356]

>>1647427
baseball cards collapse though

[Anonymous No.1648427]

>tfw I modded my Wii with every SNES, NEs, Sega, Sega Saturn, N64 (majority), Gameboy, GBa and Gamecube games.

[Anonymous No.1648451]

You know what I found out today? Super Famicom games are way fucking cheaper than the SNES versions. Someone on craigslist was wanting to sell their entire Super Famicom game collection, with Chrono Trigger, Mario RPG, FF5&6, SF2, DKC2 and a few others, only for 75$. So I looked online and to my surprise, this isn't just a one time deal. I saw Chrono Trigger, Mother 2, DKC2, Mario Kart, Mario RPG all boxed on ebay, with the highest one being maybe 40$, and I think that was for Mother 2.

What the fuck? Why do I have to pay out the ass for Chrono Trigger when you can get the Super Famicom version, BOXED, for only like 20$? What's the deal? I know some of them might be a little rare, but I even checked plentiful games like Mario Kart, the boxed copy for the SNES version is like 40-50$, while the Famicom version way like 10$. I hate our used game market so much, this is ridiculous.

[Anonymous No.1648662]

>>1645572
NES- yes, but not too bad if you look in the right places.

SNES-fuck this, just get an everdrive and save yourself the pain.

[Anonymous No.1648893]

>>1647189
Shitty games aren't always cheap.

[Anonymous No.1648904]

>>1648427
>Sega Saturn, N64 (majority)
A damnable lie!

[Anonymous No.1648905]

>>1648893
I can't fathom paying the what, 1500 price tag that thing gets.

If it was a fucking masterpiece of a game, then absolutely. But its a piece of shit.

[Anonymous No.1648907]

>>1648905
Nono 1500 is the number of them that exist.

But yeah the price broke a G rencetly, I think.

I think Greg Pabich has like 500 of them by now. He keeps buying them up for some godforsaken reason.

[Anonymous No.1649043]

>>1648893
>Caltron

This is more exciting than any Earthbound pickup.

Story on how you found it?

[Anonymous No.1649239]

>>1647293
>>1646703
This. I just sold a lot on ebay of SMW, Mario Paint, and Super Mario Kart for $30. Very fair, no driving up the price. Am I being unreasonable?

[Anonymous No.1649251]

>>1645572
People who want to collect are now holding onto the games and in a lot of cases holding onto more than one copy of a rare game or variant because they are hoarders. It used to be you didn't play the game so you could justify selling it or trading it to a friend, but now even the Sesame learning games are fetching decent money because people are "collecting" them. I have a modest collection but only games that I am playing or have played and enjoyed

[Anonymous No.1649260]

>>1648451
It's because you need to read moon to play them. It's really cool having a mint copy of a fun RPG like Super Mario RPG or Secret of Mana on my shelf for 20$ each including shipping. I've played the games so much I even beat them in Japanese. It's the games that don't require much moon to read that are going up in price because people figured out what you just did.

[Gor No.1649271]

>>1649239

Some re-seller scum just bout it from you cheap so they can sell each game for 20 each.

[Anonymous No.1649659]

>>1645572
Not really.
It's only expensive if you're uninformed and buy from people that are resellers.

[Anonymous No.1649719]

I don't think reseller scum are the problem upping the prices of retro games, the way I see it this is what is actually going on:

There are two kind of retro game collectors, the kind that buys games in order to play them and the kind that buys games in order to have them sitting on their shelves never being touched or played. The latter are willing to pay ANY price for games (especially if they are in CIB/MINT condition) while the former look out for reasonable price and are willing to buy the games regardless of their condition. IMO the collectors that are willing to pay ridiculous prices for games they are never going play just to have them is problem increasing the prices of retro games.

[Anonymous No.1652775]

>>1645604
I've been buying and reselling since 1985. I was only 7 then. Even at 7 y/o I knew the value of "buy low sell high" Instead of selling my games to my local "big time" video-game reselling depot which, was Game Dudes in North Hollywood, I would buy them from my friends and their friends and their friends and so on. In turn I would ask my parents to have yard sales almost every weekend and sell them for a profit. On top of that I kept the original boxes and manuals. Holy shit even I knew they would be worth some shit. All-in-all what I'm saying is, there will always be those who buy and those who supply. I have an immense video-game collection and memorabilia. To this date I still hunt them down , sell them for a profit , and increase my collection with the proceeds. It's a hobby you know.

[Anonymous No.1652796]

>>1652775
Here are some more!!!

[Anonymous No.1652806]

>>1652775
Hi Isaac, I'm sure your mother would be proud

Captcha : Isaac etelsiv

[Anonymous No.1652817]

>>1649719
All this may be true except, there are those like me. I grew up in the 80's and played my NES games . I still love to play them but not into anything 6th generation or above. I hunt, buy and resell those which I already poses . I do get the most out of what I sell. Does it make me a greedy re-seller ? Fuck NO!! I'm simply taking advantage of the demand. I supply you demand. That's how it works in the USA, it's called capatalism. Here are some more!!! PICS.

[Anonymous No.1652823]

>>1652806
Sorry dude, not Isaac. But I'm sure there are a lot of people like me around this part of the world. It's not uncommon for collectors to do the same as me. Here are some more!!! PICS.

[Anonymous No.1652838]

>>1647257
That's all fine and well if you have garage sales and flea markets and whatnot available to you, or if you're LGR and live in a parallel universe where you can't leave your house without tripping on old consoles, computers and games. There's pretty much nothing where I live.

[Anonymous No.1652851]

>>1652838
So sorry you don't live in southern California. The density and diversity of people living here for so long has made it a gold mine for retro-game-hunting. Especially in (213,310,818,661,805) and any surrounding areas. I mean seriously " and live in a parallel universe where you can't leave your house without tripping on old consoles' this is basically true here if you know what your'e doing!!! Here are some more!!! PICS.

[NESfag No.1652852]

>>1647257
You must be from north america. From the looks of what people say on this board, as well as what I see on shows like The Game Chasers, you can easily find retro games there.

Let me tell you, where I live it's very rare for video game stores and even pawn shops to have retro games, and when they do, it's at incredibly high prices and only the most common stuff.

Flea markets? I've been going to every flea market in my area for more year. Except in winter when there is none, that means from 2 to 6 flea markets every week end (1 flea market can range from 15sellers to 300).
Without counting the same 2 resellers I always see (with prices WORSE than even pawn shops and games in terrible quality; like, if it's running on the day of the flea market they catch rain, no kidding) I only see retro games once every 10 flea markets, and then again that only means the most common stuff.

I've compeltely lost hope of finding games at flea markets. I still go every time but mostly for comics.

There is also no such thing as yard sales.

for info I live in the middle of France
so, even if there WERE games, chances are I wouldn't want them anyway because in most cases it's 50hz crap and only people with no standar at all would still play games made for 60hz in 50hz in this day and age)

[NESfag No.1652853]

>>1652852
in other words, you guys complain sometimes but you don't know how good it is for you

[Anonymous No.1652858]

>>1652852
>Anonymous 05/28/14(Wed)14:27:40 No.1652851 ▶
>File: IMG_1809.jpg (279 KB, 960x720)
>>>1652838
>So sorry you don't live in southern California. The density and diversity of people living here for so long has made it a gold mine for retro-game-hunting. Especially in (213,310,818,661,805) and any surrounding areas. I mean seriously " and live in a parallel universe where you can't leave your house without tripping on old consoles' this is basically true here if you know what your'e doing!!! Here are some more!!! PICS.

This, actually I've sold and sent some of my stuff over to France. Or was it Canada, can't remember. Anyways, Here are some more!!! PICS.

[Anonymous No.1652863]

>>1645572

>buying expensive and increasingly rare games when emulation can give an authentic experience with CRT monitors or Wii+ CRT TV

[Anonymous No.1652903]

>>1652863
Flash carts are even better

[Anonymous No.1653342]

NES games are way to expensive, but at the same time you have to know where to look for them. If you go to a fucking video game store, theyll try and sell you Contra for like 50$. But if you go to like garage sales and goodwill, then they have hella good deals. I found a 3DO there for like 15 bucks... Not that it should really cost that much .-.

[Anonymous No.1653396]

Buy older games has become expensive because of the niche of kids and grown ups going back to them. It only was since the past few years it has gone up. Wouldn't that new book Console Wars that is also being adapted into a movie make the prices go up especially Sega games if it does well. Just curious to see what you guys thing?

[Anonymous No.1653412]

NES games aren't too bad, unless you're looking for Dragon Warrior sequels. I put together a decent collection without paying more than $10 for a game, and I have some popular titles like Dragon Warrior, Gradius, Ultima, Wizards & Warriors, and so forth.

Dragon Warrior I is extremely common, and you can usually find copies in very good condition for no more than $5. The sequels on the other hand are often absurdly overpriced by reseller dipshits. If you have to, just restrict yourself to buying games from local second-hand stores, yard sales or flea markets. You'll usually see much fairer prices.

[Anonymous No.1653473]

>>1652823
The joke was you acted like a jew should

Damn doing irony on the internet is hard

[Anonymous No.1653537]

>>1652838
Become a youtube celebrity and get free games then you lazy faggot

[Anonymous No.1653541]

>>1652852
Learn japanese and import then you whiney fag

[Anonymous No.1653550]

>>1653342
>goodwill
I am extremely jealous of people who report finding games at Goodwill. I've been to close to a dozen different Goodwills across 3 different states and have never found a single video game. Closest thing was a random Sonic comic

[Anonymous No.1653695]

thankfully retro consoles are by far the easiest to emulate with the shittiest of hardware. now if you were talking xbox i could understand...

[Anonymous No.1654092]

>>1647314
>Earthbound
>one of the most common SNES games
You are full of shit. Earthbound sold a grand total of 150,000-160,000 carts during it's entire lifespan in the US. It wasn't even close to breaking the top 40. The entire reason it was usually more expensive than other SNES RPGs was because it sold that much less than the others.

At least do your research before you start making claims.

[Anonymous No.1654914]

>>1653473
I understood the joke actually. I'm just trolling the dude. Here are some more!!! PICS

[Anonymous No.1655331]

>>1653412
i fucking love DW 2 and 4.
found these 2 CIB in a box of nes games.
seller wanted 10 for the boxed games and 5 for the loose ones. though, this was like 2005 and DW 4 would have been like 60-70 CIB at the time.