/vr/ - Retro Games

[Anonymous No.796729]

Why?

Why are retro games so expensive?

I dream of a world where you can buy games for your SNES or your Dreamcast for $1-$2, where they are available at super cheap prices, so I could buy boxes of them and enjoy them all.

Looking at prices online brings me so much pain. I've even had dreams where i've found loads of great retro games at crazy cheap prices, only to be woken up and realise it was all a dream.

Help me /vr/, I keep hoping that there's a site out there, that no one knows about selling old games for a few bucks a pop, and it's all there to be discovered.

Why?

Why can't retro games be as cheap and easy to find as a bottle of milk, oh what a world that would truly be.

[Anonymous No.796736]

Because they're not being made anymore. The demand is greater then the supply, and things are worth as much as people are willing to pay for them.

[Anonymous No.796740]

I dream of a world where you can download retro games for free over the internet

[Anonymous No.796741]

>>796736
yeah I know why they're worth that much

I was just making a point, more of a whine, i'm just depressed ;_;

[Anonymous No.796742]

>>796740
>emulators

oh boy here we go, you can't post a single thread without them showing up

[Anonymous No.796761]

>>796742
As they SHOULD.

For chrissakes, it's the surest way to preserve the games.

[Anonymous No.796767]

>I keep hoping that there's a site out there, that no one knows about selling old games for a few bucks a pop, and it's all there to be discovered.
Well if there was such a site and if I posted a link to it, then everyone would flock to that site, and its prices would rise up to the same level as on all the other sites. It's a basic demand/supply thing, as the anon above said. And apparently you already knew this, so I'm not sure why you asked anyway.

Also, I want to buy a new and powerful gaming computer for $5, but that's an unrealistic wish to have. Just because you want something doesn't mean that you can get it. You're trying to buy stuff that was released decades ago and has a limited supply, so the items you want can get kinda rare and expensive. People who decide to start collecting old stuff will have to deal with that, no matter what they're collecting.
And at least you can still play the games on emulators. There's no scanner scene for an old magazine that I'm collecting, and no temporary digital alternative until I find physical copies of the issues that are missing from my collection.

[Anonymous No.796779]

You were born in the wrong place OP.
I'm in eastern europe I can go to a flea market where gypsies sell these games for half a buck. There's no market for it here.

[Anonymous No.796790]

>>796761

you can't compare emulators to collectors.

well you can but they're completely different.

you don't see collectors in emulating threads all the time, but it's always the other way round. People want to emulate, fine, but i'm not into that, I collect.

>>796779
i'm jelly

flea markets are so stupid here (Australia), people charging through the asshole, I was hoping for people who just wanted to get rid of stuff sitting in their attic to be like "each game is $1 but you can take the whole box for $20". People tell me stories like this all the time, even on /vr/, but none of it is true.

[Anonymous No.796808]

>>796729
>Why can't retro games be as cheap and easy to find as a bottle of milk, oh what a world that would truly be.
I don't get it. You're apparently a collector, but you want your collection to be worth nothing?

Oh, you aren't a collector? Get a flash cart or emulator and chill the fuck out then.

[Anonymous No.796809]

>>796779
Uh? Where in eastern yurop? Went to Estonia and there was nothing to be found except those delicious new with blister ps2 games like Okami, all the PS2 Suikoden games and other JRPG for 15 to 20€ one

[Anonymous No.796813]

>>796779
You have piqued my interest.
What country do you live in, and how do you find said gypsies?

[Anonymous No.796878]

>>796813
They're fake games. Don't trust gypsies. Gypsies know to sell the games on ebay to the market and to make cheap knock off carts that don't work. Also you're likely to get stabbed for your money so they can make crocodil or to caught and traded into slavery.
Gypsies don't have PO boxes you can mail them at.

[Anonymous No.796880]

>>796878
Also, they look like this.

[Anonymous No.796916]

>>796808
I don't collect for the money, I collect for the joy and fun over owning and playing games.

[Anonymous No.796924]

>>796916
I collect for the joy and fun of* owning and playing games.

fuck my bad typing

[Anonymous No.796929]

>live in bland Southern city that's big enough to not be a hillbilly shithole
>several years behind the times in every facet of life; we're still stuck in 2006 or so
>retro bubble hasn't consumed us yet
>people still selling games for a couple of bucks
>can go to a yard sale with the knowledge that a professional roving jewsquad hasn't picked them all clean of vidya yet

[Anonymous No.796935]

>>796929

I envy you man

I like to think that retro gaming isn't as big here in Australia as it is in Europe or the US, but there are still assholes charging such high prices because it's old.

Seriously, cash converters are selling a Madden 93' game on Genesis for $30 because it's old, that's it, just because it's old, it's ludicrous.

[Anonymous No.796939]

>>796935
You should trying selling your grandma, you'd be rich by their logic!

[Anonymous No.796948]

>>796742
>flashcarts

[Anonymous No.796964]

There are lots of pawn shops here in New York City, I mostly pick up comics though since I don't own the consoles for the games they're selling (things like Famiclone carts, 32X and Jaguar)

[stink_fist !U0WUgeiNHk No.797017]

>Why is retro so expensive

-Most people don't know about flash carts.

- Buyer/Seller collusion on eBay. Second chance scams, price padding on Completed Sell stats. Seller sells a game and colludes with a faggot dipshit buyer to win the auction, then the seller cancels the transaction. The item goes down in history as being sold, even though no money changed hands and no one was penalized for this. They do this over and over, inflating the average sell price, then offloading their copies for real once they feel the market is getting close to not being able to sustain their jew shit anymore.

- Greed. This is exemplified by not just eBay, but AssemblerX and Nintendo Age (especially the latter). People on NA poison search results to make people think a game is rare when people search about it on ebay. These guys are sitting on 12 copies and let them all go at the highest prices. Fat neckbeards did this in the baseball card and comic worlds, then moved to us.

- The illusion that most NES games are worth a god damn. Yes, I said it. Most NES games suck, their ports on other systems being usually superior in some way. Most NES games are not rare. the rare ones can be chucked up unto NEStopia and played with a USB nes controller. Theres no god damned difference DO NOT TALK TO ME ABOUT SCANLINES. Shut the fuck up. I'm all for real hardware, but NEStopia comes very very very close to the real thing. So close you can't tell the difference without. Scanlines are for people who use RF. Once you've seen Mario on a 15khz 4:3 LCD panel, you will toss all your CRTs.

- Completionist assholes like AVGN and NES punk.

- Hipster assholes who don't get into it for the love of the game or collecting but an image.

[stink_fist !U0WUgeiNHk No.797028]

>>797017

*without debugging code on a real NES. Yes, theres always some quirk, some edge case where somthing isn't emulated right, but as development of accuracy focused emulates continues these bugs are fewer and fewer.

[Anonymous No.797035]

>>797017
>Hipster assholes who don't get into it for the love of the game or collecting but an image.

I do it because I love the games, but I also enjoy the image that comes with it, looking at my bookcases of games and cartridges is just as fulfilling as playing the actual games, is that bad?

[Anonymous No.797063]

>>797035

No, there is nothing wrong with that but it's also not what that poster meant.

He means the image that others perceive of you when you have all of these retro chic games

[Anonymous No.797078]

>>797017
>Once you've seen Mario on a 15khz 4:3 LCD panel, you will toss all your CRTs.
Maybe. I guess it's a good thing nobody's ever going to see that.

[Anonymous No.797095]

>>797017
LCDs can only produce acceptable motion quality with either a scanning backlight or black frame insertion. Black frame insertion increases latency, but you can compensate for it by emulating at double speed and pausing for half the time (using a 120Hz monitor). This is what I do, and it's actually better than a CRT because you don't get the annoying 15KHz buzzing noise. I'm not aware of any scanning backlight LCD with acceptable gaming performance.

[Anonymous No.797117]

That's one good thing about living in a developing country. You can get retro games and consoles cheap as fuck.
I used to get a bunch of NES cartridges for like $2 at most.

[Anonymous No.797120]

>>797017
>Fat neckbeards did this in the baseball card and comic worlds, then moved to us.
I'm kind hoping that means there's a bubble to all this and it will pop soon just like it did with those two.
The fact prices on Genesis carts is increasing is getting me a little on edge to the whole thing.

>He means the image that others perceive of you when you have all of these retro chic games
Ugh I had a friend like that, he own all the Metal Gear games and memorabilia but if you talk to him about it you discover he has only really played MGS4 and has never played the others, he had it to impress the nerds and girls of the campus.

[Anonymous No.797125]

I bought Final Fantasy Adventure at a retro game store for $20 yesterday... then when I went home and went on eBay I saw I could buy it for like $5... but yeah, the prices are crazy.. hopefully they'll go down eventually.

[Anonymous No.797130]

>>796729
I'm just thankful I work at retro store that gets steady stock of good gems in. It helps the owners have us price stuff about 20% less than what they normally go for on ebay.

[Anonymous No.797135]

You don't know pain, OP.

[Anonymous No.797156]

>$10,000
>still charges $4 for delivery

scumbag retro seller needs to become a macro for this shit

[Anonymous No.797163]

>>797156
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B00008KU9T/

They cut it down to 1k.

[Anonymous No.797164]

>>797120
>collecting metal gear solid memorabilia to impress girls

[Anonymous No.797169]

>>797164
>Not showing your girlfriend your sealed copies of MG1&2
>Not getting laid every week because of it

[Anonymous No.797171]

>>797164
You be amazed at the amount of girls (and kind of girls) that loved MGS2 & 3

[Anonymous No.797170]

>>796729

They're not that bad, excluding a small few that are crazy expensive.

Look at it this way: if you could buy boxes of old vidya for peanuts, would you really give each game the time it deserved?

[Anonymous No.797172]

>>797120
>he only really played MGS4 and never played the others
How does he still like the series if he plays the weakest of the bunch?

Also
>girls
MGS is a game for grils, this is fact.

[Anonymous No.797174]

>>797170
>if you could buy boxes of old vidya for peanuts, would you really give each game the time it deserved?
I imagine this board wouldn't exist. Look at most retro PC, it's dirt cheap and easy to get a hold of, most people here don't talk about that stuff.

[Anonymous No.797179]

>>797169
>>797169
If you have a girlfriend and that you get laid only once a week, and just because of a game, you have a problem with your life.

[Anonymous No.797176]

>>796929
>Southern city

Where?

Atlanta is dry. The flea markets/thrift shops are full of 6th gen stuff only by now and CL is full of resellers (one of which is a total bro with good prices, but I have to drive like 90 miles round trip to meet him).

[Anonymous No.797178]

>>797172
I think what happen was people talk about how awesome the series so he decided to pick them up, maybe at first his intent was to play them and he just never got around to it.
His logic would not be so different than those gamers that buy titles because it's Mario with no bases on the game itself.

[Anonymous No.797182]

>>797179
What if he like that problem though?

[Anonymous No.797184]

You can buy old games for 1-2 a piece. You just have to put in the time and effort. You're probably just some lazy ass fag who sits at home crying about why good deals just don't fall into your lap. Get off your lazy ass and maybe you'll find something cheap.

[Anonymous No.797185]

>>797174
That's my problem with 360 games.

I have hundreds of them, and finished only a third.
I bought most of them between 1 and 10€ anyway

[Anonymous No.797187]

>>797182
2deep4me

[Anonymous No.797193]

>>797184
What if he is from a more rural area?
Or the flip a very urban area that price matches ebay?

[Anonymous No.797192]

>>797125

Did you go to 8-Bit and Up in the East Village?

You should have just punched that mouthy fuck in his stupid dreds and stolen it.

[Anonymous No.797198]

>>796742
No one mentioned emulators.
CD based consoles could have games burned for them.

[Anonymous No.797203]

>>796729
That's why some of us leave our house and go thrifting/flea marketing every weekend.

[Anonymous No.797210]

>>797203
>>797184

I go to garage sales, charity/thrift shops, gumtree, cl, ebay, flea markets, game fairs, cash centres, you name it, i've been there, i've done it, i've scraped the barrel, it's a dire situation, don't accuse me of being lazy, i spend every waking hour searching in every place i can find for games

[Anonymous No.797223]

>>797203
>go to thrift store/flea market
>Genesis/PS1/PS2 sports games
>sports games everywhere
>see decent game
>goddamn Goodwill wants $5.95 per game
>...

Also,
>be me in the tail end of the 90's
>be at a thrift store/Goodwill
>see a box near the checkout with an NES, 2 controllers, cables, SMB 3, Operation: Renegade all for $10-$15
>take it home
>play the shit out of SMB 3
>go to play some more later
>game won't boot
>blinking red light/flashing blue screen
>get sad and toss the NES (I was like 9 or 10)
>keep the rest
>finally bought this bad boy from ebay for $21.68 shipped across the US yesterday

I can't wait to clean the old fella up.

[Anonymous No.797224]

>go to flea market on sunday
>eat some freshly popped kennel corn and look through the stalls for some nice deals
>find a man selling a collection of SNES games, GBA games and some Japanese imports here and there

I bought a copy of Advance Wars for the GBA, Kirby's Avalanche, a Japanese copy of Starfox and Yoshi's Cookie for 30 bucks even. Was a good day. The guy tried to jew me out with Kirby's Avalanche when I was just gonna buy that game. He wanted 15 dollars for it alone.

[Anonymous No.797226]

>>797210
>i spend every waking hour searching
lying or for real omega sad

[Anonymous No.797229]

>>797224

All of the flea markets in my area are 99% mexican Jesus candles or fake bling.

Not the Anon you're responding to btw.

[Anonymous No.797234]

>>796878
>gypsies

Hungary pls go

[Anonymous No.797245]

>tfw I never was to fleamarket my whole life.

but what does it matter. I am neither a collector of retro vidya nor am I interested in used half fucked up shit because people always destroy their belongings

I just emulate until the day I pass away.

[Anonymous No.797251]

not flea market related but definately retro:

Steam sells Ys 1 and 2 right now for fucking 15 euro because that's about the regular price for Ys Origin and Ys Oath

half the price would be more reasonable.

[Anonymous No.797260]

>>797226
or figure of speech? yeah, yeah maybe that one..

[Anonymous No.797296]

>>797163

same game is less than £40 on Amazon UK.
Not factory sealed but who gives a shit?

oh, collector's do? oh well, you'd have to be insane to pay that price

[Anonymous No.797329]

I started collecting retro games in the mid 90's, basically going to local yard sales and picking up old video games if they had them. Basically, it's gone from "I'm punishing my kid for being a dumb twat and racking up a debt on the Nintendo hotline by making him sell his vidya" to "why do I need Nintendo games when I have a SUPER Nintendo" to "I'm tired of this crap cluttering up my house" to "zomg this is a collectible NES-001" over the span of two decades.

Why did this happen? In short, the supply doesn't meet the demand. Old games break. Meanwhile, the NES kids are now in their 30's, and they have money to throw at decades old technology in an attempt to buy back their childhood or whatever.

At some point, interest will probably decline, and maybe you'll be able to find people who want to sell at reasonable prices. But at the moment, the whole "you're a 90's kid if you remember this" is still a thing and it's pushing up the prices. If you just recently jumped on the bandwagon and started buying games, well, you really have no reason to complain because you're the reason why it be like it do.

[Anonymous No.798425]

>>797135
At that price you'd think they'd at least offer free shipping

[Anonymous No.798898]

>>797135

>dat fucking price
>still have the nerve to charge shipping

[tim the tool man taylor No.798931]

I started collecting 10 years ago and games were a lot more reasonably prices

right now it is a huge hipster fad and everyone wants old games

now I'm just waiting a few years and sitting on what I have, making some good deals on in-demand shit, and in a few years when the hype is over I will start buying again

[Anonymous No.800238]

>>797017

[Anonymous No.800374]

>>798931
>in a few years when the hype is over

/k/ here. Son, there comes a time in every man's life when he thinks the hype will die down, availability will rise, and prices will fall. Ain't happening. The worst hasn't even begun yet.

[Anonymous No.800386]

>>800374

This, kinda.

I graduated high school in '07 and my junior year ('06) every "HUEG NERD XD" tryhard was roaming the halls in their 1-up mushroom or triforce t-shirts talking about their NES.

The market has only gotten shittier from there.