Retro Games and Consoles!

What's your opinion on prices of retro gaming keep rising.

Flame

Me > You
OP
Global Moderator
Joined
Jul 15, 2008
Messages
7,201
Trophies
3
XP
18,339
From time to time you have a itch which you need to starch. my itch is to buy a retro console to play it or fix it or to mod it. so I looked at GameCube first. a pretty penny. then looked at PS1. okay, then OG Xbox. so those are not as cheap as I remember them. then I thought let me get a Gameboy which I can change the screen and what not, Gameboys are always cheap. always...

anyway.

its like I want to buy new crypto retro console. but its too pricey which makes me angry. but I'm balling in my big collection of bitcoin retro consoles. so idk how to feel.

idk if I should starch the itch?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Xzi and Mama Looigi

Mama Looigi

If you read this, I'm now your mother
Member
Joined
Aug 8, 2018
Messages
950
Trophies
1
Location
Looigi's Mansion
XP
5,819
Country
Ireland
My number one place for checking prices is https://www.pricecharting.com/

You can see analytics for prices over time on any individual item you choose.
This is where I noticed
1. Retro things are always cheapest from July-September
2. Prices suuuper spiked during Covid, but since then they’ve been coming down quite a bit. They’re still not back to what they used to be, but they are declining.
3. Don’t buy a GameCube right now… the game prices are at an all time high :sad:
4. Xbox stuff has always been dirt cheap and will probably only get harder for people to sell over time

My new favorite place to buy retro things online is Mercari (and eBay as a rare backup)
(Thanks to Jayro for showing me Mercari :3)




As for my opinion… well I think GameCube prices have spiked because the people who grew up with it that they’re now at the age that they’re getting nostalgic over it.
As a collector, I obviously can’t say I’m a fan of the rising prices, but at least they all seem to be declining again gradually.
 

FAST6191

Techromancer
Editorial Team
Joined
Nov 21, 2005
Messages
36,798
Trophies
3
XP
28,282
Country
United Kingdom
Limited supply, likely only getting smaller (more things vanish into attics, get chucked out as worthless, vindictive girlfriends*...) bar exceptional cases/publicity stunts.
Demand likely outstripping supply; people that are new to the games in question, collectors, those that had them as a kid and want them again, that shared them with siblings as a kid, that rented them as a kid, that played them round a friend's/family member's house...

To that end my feelings are moot; supply-demand cares not for such things and should not. I might be interested in pricing models ( https://gbatemp.net/threads/setting-about-making-models-for-prices-for-old-games.591553/ ) and trends but that is a different matter.
Short version. Buy all the failed consoles that will go on to be unsung classics or pinnacles of gaming at the time, especially look at any rare but good and at least notable RPGs on anything. If you have a crystal ball then anything a dev that will later blow up makes before then.

That said. Emulation, clone consoles, flash carts, mod chips... there is a reason we are all here.

*comments seemed to think the original owner's ex shoved them in a microwave
 

Deleted member 194275

Edson Arantes do Nascimento
Member
Joined
Aug 19, 2009
Messages
2,685
Trophies
2
XP
4,351
I cant buy American retrogames right now, too expansive. I can't buy Brazilian versions either, because they are being imported to USA.

As Japanese versions are way cheaper, thats the path I was taking before covid (right now shipping went crazy).

For me Japanese versions of games made in Japan make more historical sense and, at same time those are shielded from the huge USA demand that drive the prices way up.
 

Flame

Me > You
OP
Global Moderator
Joined
Jul 15, 2008
Messages
7,201
Trophies
3
XP
18,339
I cant buy American retrogames right now, too expansive. I can't buy Brazilian versions either, because they are being imported to USA.

As Japanese versions are way cheaper, thats the path I was taking before covid (right now shipping went crazy).

For me Japanese versions of games made in Japan make more historical sense and, at same time those are shielded from the huge USA demand that drive the prices way up.

oh thats a nice tip. is buying from japan really that cheap? wow.
 

FAST6191

Techromancer
Editorial Team
Joined
Nov 21, 2005
Messages
36,798
Trophies
3
XP
28,282
Country
United Kingdom
oh thats a nice tip. is buying from japan really that cheap? wow.
Yes, no, and there is a list of asterisks longer than any I manage in posts around here.

Step 1. Japanese gamers care about quality. Maybe not quite to the ridiculous degree we were having a little giggle at in sealed Mario 64 going for "could retire on that" money the other month but it is still way more than anything outside it in normal circles.
They also tend to keep packaging/boxes at a far higher rate.
To that end when you see shells from Japan for consoles, or similar offered on ebay and see "wow it was amazing quality" then know it was probably third rate Japanese (there is a somewhat informal rating system but still fairly well used) and only could be sold outside it (see also Japanese cars and the UK but that is a different matter as pollution regs get involved in that one).

Note 2. Japan speaks Japanese.
Code:
2428    bit Generations - Coloris 
2427    bit Generations - Digidrive 
2426    bit Generations - Orbital 
2425    bit Generations - Soundvoyager 
2418    bit Generations - Dotstream 
2417    bit Generations - Dial Hex 
2416    bit Generations - Boundish 
2375    Double Pack - Sonic Battle + Sonic Advance Plus 
2374    Double Pack - Sonic Pinball Party + Sonic Battle 
2335    Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters International Worldwide Edition (v01) 
2296    Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters Expert 2006 
1835    Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters International 2 
513    Space Invaders EX 
508    Hot Wheels Advance 
491    Chou Makai-Mura R 
482    The Pinball of the Dead 
399    Advance GT2 
358    Super Puzzle Bobble Advance 
274    Hyper Sports 2002 Winter 
271    Guilty Gear X - Advance Edition 
258    The King of Fighters EX - NeoBlood 
254    ESPN Winter X-Games Snowboarding 2002 
249    Tekken Advance 
1374    Famicom Mini Series 4 - ExciteBike 
1368    Famicom Mini Series 2 - Donkey Kong 
1366    Famicom Mini Series 7 - Xevious 
1365    Famicom Mini Series 3 - Ice Climbers 
1364    Famicom Mini Series 1 - Super Mario Bros. 
987    Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters International Worldwide Edition 
810    Elevator Action - Old & New 
803    Sega Rally Championship 
802    Sonic Advance 2 
790    Darius R 
753    Moto GP 
721    Contra Hard Spirits 
649    High Heat - Major League Baseball 2003 
547    V-Rally 3 
513    Space Invaders EX 
508    Hot Wheels Advance 
491    Chou Makai-Mura R 
482    The Pinball of the Dead 
1584    SD Gundam Force 
1574    Puyo Puyo Fever 
1552    Tottoko Hamutaro - Hamuhamu Sports 
1518    Sonic Advance 3 
1376    Famicom Mini Series 6 - Pac-Man 
1375    Famicom Mini Series 9 - Bomberman 
1374    Famicom Mini Series 4 - ExciteBike 
1373    Famicom Mini Series 10 - Star Soldier 
1370    Famicom Mini Series 8 - Mappy 
1369    Famicom Mini Series 5 - Zelda no Denzetsu 1 
1368    Famicom Mini Series 2 - Donkey Kong 
1366    Famicom Mini Series 7 - Xevious 
1365    Famicom Mini Series 3 - Ice Climber 
1364    Famicom Mini Series 1 - Super Mario Bros. 
1349    Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters Expert 3 
1292    Sonic Battle 
399    Advance GT2 
358    Super Puzzle Bobble Advance 
274    Hyper Sports 2002 Winter 
272    Gradius Generation 
271    Guilty Gear X - Advance Edition 
266    Pac-Man Collection 
258    The King of Fighters EX - NeoBlood 
254    ESPN Winter X-Games Snowboarding 2002 
249    Tekken Advance 
245    Sonic Advance 
235    Namco Museum 
228    Advance Rally 
150    ESPN X-Games Skateboarding 
142    Minna de Puyo Puyo 
14    Zen-Nippon GT Senshuken 
8    Advance GTA 
6    Chu Chu Rocket! 
1376    Famicom Mini Series 6 - Pac-Man 
1375    Famicom Mini Series 9 - Bomberman 
1373    Famicom Mini Series 10 - Star Soldier 
1370    Famicom Mini Series 8 - Mappy 
1369    Famicom Mini Series 5 - Zelda no Denzetsu 1 
1368    Famicom Mini Series 2 - Donkey Kong 
1366    Famicom Mini Series 7 - Xevious 
987    Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters International Worldwide Edition 
790    Darius R
There is the complete list of Japanese GBA games with English in them (total GBA releases are some 2700 + undumped/beta/speciality and now those Chinese unreleased games, home consoles are seldom better but you also have the non Japanese but still Asia stuff to consider in that one (they often will have English as a "because we can't be bothered to translate otherwise and enough still understand it to work in 5 countries rather than 1"). Note most of those are also emulated and minigames. Playable despite no Japanese knowledge adds a few more, usually puzzle games you might have played before on another system. Don't have a good list of current ones there but it is a thing some sites/blogs/whatever try to maintain.

If you want to play around with such things http://www.advanscene.com/ advanced search should be able to yield it, though stuff like offline list and things that parse dat files can also generate similar things as most of those include language data.

Quirk. Screen issues for console stuff plus region issues.
Probably not a problem here as the vast majority of CRT sets still working/desirable and made for PAL countries will also do NTSC.
Region issues is a given and one I probably don't need to cover much here other than to say classically there were three regions games got split into and locked down into (Japan, the US/North America where NTSC is usually a shorthand, and Europe where PAL is it, Australia varies depending upon what you are doing and what company was designated to help ship things there). Today South Korea has its own thing some of the time, China has kind of had a weird history here and there will probably be some others in the coming decades. Consoles tended to be region locked for most of history (wii was, PS3 mostly isn't, xbox 360 you will want to look up on a game by game basis, I suggest ABGX360 wherever that happens to be this week) with cartridge adapters and mod chips usually being avaialble where handhelds mostly were not (barring a few quirks DS was not, DSi kind of was, 3ds was) but hacks and flash carts to bypass things there.
There are also different models (see famicom vs NES pictures) but that is probably less of a concern if having something cool on your shelf of cool things/under the TV is what you seek. Can be harder if buying accessories though.
Colours on controllers, button layouts (in game) and such also can be different -- most will have long ago met the SNES button colours change and the X-O swap compared to other regions in menus to select/cancel for Playstation Family stuff but there are others.
Power adapters can be harder here to get going on. I don't like suggesting transformers outside of building site tools, and 50Hz (UK standard) is actually harder on things than 60Hz.

Depending upon where you pick up the Japanese games market story there is also a whole raft of things you might not have heard of. You might have heard of the PCE/TG16 but PC-8800 series, FM-7, MSX and X1 all would be comparable in mindshare and impact at least within Japan (though the MSX was popular in a few places outside Japan) with anything from Commodore, BBC, Amstrad or Atari in the west.
https://retronauts.com/article/342/gaming-computers-of-japan-the-nec-pc-8800-series
The weird thing with Japanese fondness (in some circles) for exclusivity is also kicked massively into high gear here as open devices mean lots of rare and undumped stuff. That said that is the sort of thing you want to know Japanese for, unless you were one of the non English speaking European or South American types that had a MSX and find local prices not to your liking.

It will also depend what you are getting. Big in Japan is not just a sweet Tom Waits song and trends and popularity there are not necessarily what you expect. Think my favourite is NES Zelda 2 (as in the platformer) is actually apparently really highly regarded there, do want to find the study comparing it if someone has it as I forgot to bookmark it.
All sorts of things to consider here as well; Japan does not do FPS games by and large so Japanese copies of such things can be kind of pricey as there were so few made to begin with. Similarly you say find that the 360 is a major shmup machine for reasons nobody has quite managed to figure out (they say the hardware is similar, and it is to some arcade boards, but this was several generations into recompile and press go so that explains very little) you are still facing local competition; it is not like Japan is not filled with people like you and I that will want all the games and not to pay anything for them, will feign ignorance of prices when dealing with old widows/bored mothers/dumb kids, be up before the sun to get the best deals, do the rounds to see if anything interesting appeared in fiercely guarded lists of shops that we also happen to have the most efficient route around and possibly a mental list of everything that was there last week to hone in on the new that much more quickly.

Japan speaks Japanese part 2.
Japan does not tend to use the same English speaking western sites (technically amazon and ebay exist there, nobody uses them though), or indeed internet in the same way (if you have ever been on the Japanese internet then it is often like a 90s time warp). There is also still a lot of offline stuff going on.
To this end there are Japanese auction sites, payment methods, things tend not to ship outside Japan (you can get local buyers/reshippers though, indeed something of a cottage industry as they will often be able to search for you too).
That video a while back on the guy that got the Japanese McDonalds game and the effort it took there. Now obviously this was rare and whatnot but it is a reasonable primer on some of the things available and stumbling blocks. If you have friends/family you can have things shipped to in Japan then good stuff.

Alternatively you can continue to watch ebay for Japanese copies of things (many do appear, again especially the lower quality stuff that is still perfectly playable), go on play asia, genki, the thousand other pretenders to those thrones and maybe amazon as well. You will probably pay a premium in money but spare yourself aggravation. Even with that then yes prices can be a bit cheaper, or cheaper when shipping is not troubled because whatever reason (free shipping like the free shipping on Chinese tat sites is also not a thing, be prepared to pay here)
 

Flame

Me > You
OP
Global Moderator
Joined
Jul 15, 2008
Messages
7,201
Trophies
3
XP
18,339
Yes, no, and there is a list of asterisks longer than any I manage in posts around here.

Step 1. Japanese gamers care about quality. Maybe not quite to the ridiculous degree we were having a little giggle at in sealed Mario 64 going for "could retire on that" money the other month but it is still way more than anything outside it in normal circles.
They also tend to keep packaging/boxes at a far higher rate.
To that end when you see shells from Japan for consoles, or similar offered on ebay and see "wow it was amazing quality" then know it was probably third rate Japanese (there is a somewhat informal rating system but still fairly well used) and only could be sold outside it (see also Japanese cars and the UK but that is a different matter as pollution regs get involved in that one).

Note 2. Japan speaks Japanese.
Code:
2428    bit Generations - Coloris
2427    bit Generations - Digidrive
2426    bit Generations - Orbital
2425    bit Generations - Soundvoyager
2418    bit Generations - Dotstream
2417    bit Generations - Dial Hex
2416    bit Generations - Boundish
2375    Double Pack - Sonic Battle + Sonic Advance Plus
2374    Double Pack - Sonic Pinball Party + Sonic Battle
2335    Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters International Worldwide Edition (v01)
2296    Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters Expert 2006
1835    Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters International 2
513    Space Invaders EX
508    Hot Wheels Advance
491    Chou Makai-Mura R
482    The Pinball of the Dead
399    Advance GT2
358    Super Puzzle Bobble Advance
274    Hyper Sports 2002 Winter
271    Guilty Gear X - Advance Edition
258    The King of Fighters EX - NeoBlood
254    ESPN Winter X-Games Snowboarding 2002
249    Tekken Advance
1374    Famicom Mini Series 4 - ExciteBike
1368    Famicom Mini Series 2 - Donkey Kong
1366    Famicom Mini Series 7 - Xevious
1365    Famicom Mini Series 3 - Ice Climbers
1364    Famicom Mini Series 1 - Super Mario Bros.
987    Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters International Worldwide Edition
810    Elevator Action - Old & New
803    Sega Rally Championship
802    Sonic Advance 2
790    Darius R
753    Moto GP
721    Contra Hard Spirits
649    High Heat - Major League Baseball 2003
547    V-Rally 3
513    Space Invaders EX
508    Hot Wheels Advance
491    Chou Makai-Mura R
482    The Pinball of the Dead
1584    SD Gundam Force
1574    Puyo Puyo Fever
1552    Tottoko Hamutaro - Hamuhamu Sports
1518    Sonic Advance 3
1376    Famicom Mini Series 6 - Pac-Man
1375    Famicom Mini Series 9 - Bomberman
1374    Famicom Mini Series 4 - ExciteBike
1373    Famicom Mini Series 10 - Star Soldier
1370    Famicom Mini Series 8 - Mappy
1369    Famicom Mini Series 5 - Zelda no Denzetsu 1
1368    Famicom Mini Series 2 - Donkey Kong
1366    Famicom Mini Series 7 - Xevious
1365    Famicom Mini Series 3 - Ice Climber
1364    Famicom Mini Series 1 - Super Mario Bros.
1349    Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters Expert 3
1292    Sonic Battle
399    Advance GT2
358    Super Puzzle Bobble Advance
274    Hyper Sports 2002 Winter
272    Gradius Generation
271    Guilty Gear X - Advance Edition
266    Pac-Man Collection
258    The King of Fighters EX - NeoBlood
254    ESPN Winter X-Games Snowboarding 2002
249    Tekken Advance
245    Sonic Advance
235    Namco Museum
228    Advance Rally
150    ESPN X-Games Skateboarding
142    Minna de Puyo Puyo
14    Zen-Nippon GT Senshuken
8    Advance GTA
6    Chu Chu Rocket!
1376    Famicom Mini Series 6 - Pac-Man
1375    Famicom Mini Series 9 - Bomberman
1373    Famicom Mini Series 10 - Star Soldier
1370    Famicom Mini Series 8 - Mappy
1369    Famicom Mini Series 5 - Zelda no Denzetsu 1
1368    Famicom Mini Series 2 - Donkey Kong
1366    Famicom Mini Series 7 - Xevious
987    Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters International Worldwide Edition
790    Darius R
There is the complete list of Japanese GBA games with English in them (total GBA releases are some 2700 + undumped/beta/speciality and now those Chinese unreleased games, home consoles are seldom better but you also have the non Japanese but still Asia stuff to consider in that one (they often will have English as a "because we can't be bothered to translate otherwise and enough still understand it to work in 5 countries rather than 1"). Note most of those are also emulated and minigames. Playable despite no Japanese knowledge adds a few more, usually puzzle games you might have played before on another system. Don't have a good list of current ones there but it is a thing some sites/blogs/whatever try to maintain.

If you want to play around with such things http://www.advanscene.com/ advanced search should be able to yield it, though stuff like offline list and things that parse dat files can also generate similar things as most of those include language data.

Quirk. Screen issues for console stuff plus region issues.
Probably not a problem here as the vast majority of CRT sets still working/desirable and made for PAL countries will also do NTSC.
Region issues is a given and one I probably don't need to cover much here other than to say classically there were three regions games got split into and locked down into (Japan, the US/North America where NTSC is usually a shorthand, and Europe where PAL is it, Australia varies depending upon what you are doing and what company was designated to help ship things there). Today South Korea has its own thing some of the time, China has kind of had a weird history here and there will probably be some others in the coming decades. Consoles tended to be region locked for most of history (wii was, PS3 mostly isn't, xbox 360 you will want to look up on a game by game basis, I suggest ABGX360 wherever that happens to be this week) with cartridge adapters and mod chips usually being avaialble where handhelds mostly were not (barring a few quirks DS was not, DSi kind of was, 3ds was) but hacks and flash carts to bypass things there.
There are also different models (see famicom vs NES pictures) but that is probably less of a concern if having something cool on your shelf of cool things/under the TV is what you seek. Can be harder if buying accessories though.
Colours on controllers, button layouts (in game) and such also can be different -- most will have long ago met the SNES button colours change and the X-O swap compared to other regions in menus to select/cancel for Playstation Family stuff but there are others.
Power adapters can be harder here to get going on. I don't like suggesting transformers outside of building site tools, and 50Hz (UK standard) is actually harder on things than 60Hz.

Depending upon where you pick up the Japanese games market story there is also a whole raft of things you might not have heard of. You might have heard of the PCE/TG16 but PC-8800 series, FM-7, MSX and X1 all would be comparable in mindshare and impact at least within Japan (though the MSX was popular in a few places outside Japan) with anything from Commodore, BBC, Amstrad or Atari in the west.
https://retronauts.com/article/342/gaming-computers-of-japan-the-nec-pc-8800-series
The weird thing with Japanese fondness (in some circles) for exclusivity is also kicked massively into high gear here as open devices mean lots of rare and undumped stuff. That said that is the sort of thing you want to know Japanese for, unless you were one of the non English speaking European or South American types that had a MSX and find local prices not to your liking.

It will also depend what you are getting. Big in Japan is not just a sweet Tom Waits song and trends and popularity there are not necessarily what you expect. Think my favourite is NES Zelda 2 (as in the platformer) is actually apparently really highly regarded there, do want to find the study comparing it if someone has it as I forgot to bookmark it.
All sorts of things to consider here as well; Japan does not do FPS games by and large so Japanese copies of such things can be kind of pricey as there were so few made to begin with. Similarly you say find that the 360 is a major shmup machine for reasons nobody has quite managed to figure out (they say the hardware is similar, and it is to some arcade boards, but this was several generations into recompile and press go so that explains very little) you are still facing local competition; it is not like Japan is not filled with people like you and I that will want all the games and not to pay anything for them, will feign ignorance of prices when dealing with old widows/bored mothers/dumb kids, be up before the sun to get the best deals, do the rounds to see if anything interesting appeared in fiercely guarded lists of shops that we also happen to have the most efficient route around and possibly a mental list of everything that was there last week to hone in on the new that much more quickly.

Japan speaks Japanese part 2.
Japan does not tend to use the same English speaking western sites (technically amazon and ebay exist there, nobody uses them though), or indeed internet in the same way (if you have ever been on the Japanese internet then it is often like a 90s time warp). There is also still a lot of offline stuff going on.
To this end there are Japanese auction sites, payment methods, things tend not to ship outside Japan (you can get local buyers/reshippers though, indeed something of a cottage industry as they will often be able to search for you too).
That video a while back on the guy that got the Japanese McDonalds game and the effort it took there. Now obviously this was rare and whatnot but it is a reasonable primer on some of the things available and stumbling blocks. If you have friends/family you can have things shipped to in Japan then good stuff.

Alternatively you can continue to watch ebay for Japanese copies of things (many do appear, again especially the lower quality stuff that is still perfectly playable), go on play asia, genki, the thousand other pretenders to those thrones and maybe amazon as well. You will probably pay a premium in money but spare yourself aggravation. Even with that then yes prices can be a bit cheaper, or cheaper when shipping is not troubled because whatever reason (free shipping like the free shipping on Chinese tat sites is also not a thing, be prepared to pay here)

I was think more of buying consoles to mod them. like LCD on Gameboys. like buying few PlayStation to install Xstation, few because im sure i wouldn't be able to do it at first go..... maybe a half a dozen. but now im thinking if they are region locked?
 

Deleted member 194275

Edson Arantes do Nascimento
Member
Joined
Aug 19, 2009
Messages
2,685
Trophies
2
XP
4,351
I was think more of buying consoles to mod them. like LCD on Gameboys. like buying few PlayStation to install Xstation, few because im sure i wouldn't be able to do it at first go..... maybe a half a dozen. but now im thinking if they are region locked?
most are region locked, some don't. Playstation is, but if you use ODE it do not matter. Nintendo early handhelds usually are region free. Japanese 3DS are region locked, but it is easy to make them run games from every region. All Japanese 3DS LL (or XL) are guaranteed to have dual IPS screen, witch is a huge benefit IMO.
 

Chary

Never sleeps
Chief Editor
Joined
Oct 2, 2012
Messages
12,329
Trophies
4
Age
27
Website
opencritic.com
XP
127,896
Country
United States
I was checking the price for MGS: The Twin Snakes, saw it's going for over $120, scoffed, and played it on Dolphin. Retro games are ridiculous, especially right now. Something about the pandemic has made old stuff rocket up in price.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Flame

The Real Jdbye

*is birb*
Member
Joined
Mar 17, 2010
Messages
23,182
Trophies
4
Location
Space
XP
13,693
Country
Norway
oh thats a nice tip. is buying from japan really that cheap? wow.
The Retro Future buys tons of stuff (mostly Game Boy related) from Japan all the time and not only do they have much higher standards and take care of their consoles better (stuff marked as used condition with scratches is often near mint condition by Western standards) so you might pay the same for a much better condition console, but stuff is overall cheaper, you can find a lot of things that would be hard to find on eBay and the like (like Japan exclusive limited editions) and for a third of the price.
You'll have to use something like Sendico since most of it is on Japan-only auction sites that don't ship internationally, but they only charge a flat $5 fee per order so if you are buying something that costs a bit the added fee doesn't amount to much.
 

duwen

Old Man Toad
Member
Joined
Sep 6, 2013
Messages
3,176
Trophies
2
Location
Bullet Hell
Website
www.exophase.com
XP
4,248
Country
United Kingdom
You'll have to use something like Sendico since most of it is on Japan-only auction sites that don't ship internationally, but they only charge a flat $5 fee per order so if you are buying something that costs a bit the added fee doesn't amount to much.
I've not used Sendico myself (although being a RetroFuture viewer it was the proxy service I was initially drawn to), but I have used Zenmarket and Buyee.
Buyee probably has the best selection in terms of sites they can buy from, but their fees can stack up beyond what you'd expect ('plan' fee + fee for each purchase + fee to consolidate packages + etc), but even with the fees my purchases have still been significantly cheaper than buying from anywhere else in the world.
Zenmarket's fees seem to be more in line with Sendico's.
 

Kioku

猫。子猫です!
Member
Joined
Jun 24, 2007
Messages
11,973
Trophies
2
Location
In the Murderbox!
Website
www.twitch.tv
XP
16,023
Country
United States
It's obnoxious. I'd like to show my kids the systems and games I grew up on... But the prices are only going up. So, the next best option is to buy an 8BitDo controller and emulate. I really don't want to do that, but I'm also not dropping $80+ on an N64/Genesis/etc. with no controller and then hundreds on just a handful of titles. That's ridiculous. Reproductions of older games can be a godsend, if they weren't of questionable quality.
 

godreborn

Welcome to the Machine
Member
Joined
Oct 10, 2009
Messages
38,471
Trophies
3
XP
29,103
Country
United States
it's kinda ridiculous. I wanted to buy an snes to replace the shitty retrons, since I do have a framemeister to upscale from 240p, which my tv can't display. however, the snes is like $200 last time I checked. that is just absurd.
 

Dr_Faustus

Resident Robot Hoarder
Member
Joined
Mar 25, 2021
Messages
680
Trophies
0
Age
34
Location
The Best State on The Best Coast
XP
826
Country
United States
It seems that the state of game pricing fluctuates on a number of scenarios. For instance I could get a stack of Atari 2600 games or even Genisis/NES games for pretty reasonable prices, however there is a factor of whether or not a game has individual value due to limited runs, history, popularity and so on.

There is also the "Retro Nostalgia Gap" in which something becomes Retro and Nostalgic to people in a way that makes games from a period of time more valuable than they have any right to be. I would say the current gap is placed around the Early to mid 00's given how GBA and DS games have greatly increased in price where as before they were cheap and abundant. I mean hell, my Pokemon Platinum is worth more now than when I payed for it back in the day brand new, with the pre-order bonus to boot. It's weird to me because its not that long ago to mind but apparently it is to many others enough to influence pricing.

All I can say is get your hands on physical Switch games now, because in 15 years its probably going to be just the same with rising prices.
 
  • Like
Reactions: godreborn

godreborn

Welcome to the Machine
Member
Joined
Oct 10, 2009
Messages
38,471
Trophies
3
XP
29,103
Country
United States
It seems that the state of game pricing fluctuates on a number of scenarios. For instance I could get a stack of Atari 2600 games or even Genisis/NES games for pretty reasonable prices, however there is a factor of whether or not a game has individual value due to limited runs, history, popularity and so on.

There is also the "Retro Nostalgia Gap" in which something becomes Retro and Nostalgic to people in a way that makes games from a period of time more valuable than they have any right to be. I would say the current gap is placed around the Early to mid 00's given how GBA and DS games have greatly increased in price where as before they were cheap and abundant. I mean hell, my Pokemon Platinum is worth more now than when I payed for it back in the day brand new, with the pre-order bonus to boot. It's weird to me because its not that long ago to mind but apparently it is to many others enough to influence pricing.

All I can say is get your hands on physical Switch games now, because in 15 years its probably going to be just the same with rising prices.
Good analysis. :)
 

FAST6191

Techromancer
Editorial Team
Joined
Nov 21, 2005
Messages
36,798
Trophies
3
XP
28,282
Country
United Kingdom
It seems that the state of game pricing fluctuates on a number of scenarios. For instance I could get a stack of Atari 2600 games or even Genisis/NES games for pretty reasonable prices, however there is a factor of whether or not a game has individual value due to limited runs, history, popularity and so on.

There is also the "Retro Nostalgia Gap" in which something becomes Retro and Nostalgic to people in a way that makes games from a period of time more valuable than they have any right to be. I would say the current gap is placed around the Early to mid 00's given how GBA and DS games have greatly increased in price where as before they were cheap and abundant. I mean hell, my Pokemon Platinum is worth more now than when I payed for it back in the day brand new, with the pre-order bonus to boot. It's weird to me because its not that long ago to mind but apparently it is to many others enough to influence pricing.

All I can say is get your hands on physical Switch games now, because in 15 years its probably going to be just the same with rising prices.
I have not checked properly but has NES stuff come down? That was always the main collector domain and thing to which everything else was compared.
I can see megadrive/genesis being lower than SNES as it was second place in a lot of places* (in the UK it more or less beat out the SNES so that gets interesting).
It is certainly the case for a lot of Atari, C64 and Amiga stuff though as they seem to enjoy far less mindshare. Indeed the only real thing to buck that trend is neo geo but as that is basically arcade games then eh.

*granted the gamecube was last place by most accounts and stuff there is quite silly. Though since the Wii launched/became a game desert then people shot prices up there considerably compared to what I was enjoying during the GC lifetime/why I have a nice collection that would cost me a lot today.
Mind you Nintendo seems to enjoy a special place in this game collecting lark, and in reviews if https://towardsdatascience.com/predicting-hit-video-games-with-ml-1341bd9b86b0?gi=41662a143ef is anything to go by. That said I am still not sure who thought the N64 was a) good, b) playable in current space year and c) worth paying an awful lot of money for.

This timeframes thing has me curious though as it is noted in other things. For instance guns/weapons/militaria. Generally held as being that what your grandfather fought in is what is collected, which is why world war 2 stuff is sort of dropping off at this point (if you were 18 in 1945 you are in your 90s today) and Korea, Vietnam and whatnot is on the rise a bit, and World War 1 has long since dropped off. Cars have similar stories but I am not as versed in that and you have all sorts of things there (dream car when I was a kid, my first car, my first dream car), or if you prefer go look at the prices of old VW Golfs (little hatchback cars, maybe just about in the pocket rocket world, but the prices people ask for them).
Toys I am even less familiar with but have seen some speak of that too as people start to die off, though it is kept higher than it might otherwise because I am not old enough to have even seen a toy metal golden age sci fi robot toys outside of a museum but if someone offered me a collection I would be going to my shed now to start building some shelves for my new treasured posessions.
I have not looked into retro stuff either but I do also note it when consoles come to end of life that you have a few years before people go "hold up there was something to that". Starting to see it now for 360 stuff where it had got really cheap at one point. Did similar with other things over the years (I usually get consoles at end of life/towards end of life when sellers are doing deals and then put together a collection then). There I generally note about one generation gap before prices go back up, PSP being a surprisingly quick rise back up.

In music/psychology of similar things it is generally noted your tastes around age 19 are probably going to be with you for life. That would be where I look next -- are all the at one point 19 year olds getting a job/income/divorced/... usual causes of taking up collecting and reliving youth.
 

Dr_Faustus

Resident Robot Hoarder
Member
Joined
Mar 25, 2021
Messages
680
Trophies
0
Age
34
Location
The Best State on The Best Coast
XP
826
Country
United States
I have not checked properly but has NES stuff come down? That was always the main collector domain and thing to which everything else was compared.
I can see megadrive/genesis being lower than SNES as it was second place in a lot of places* (in the UK it more or less beat out the SNES so that gets interesting).
It is certainly the case for a lot of Atari, C64 and Amiga stuff though as they seem to enjoy far less mindshare. Indeed the only real thing to buck that trend is neo geo but as that is basically arcade games then eh.

*granted the gamecube was last place by most accounts and stuff there is quite silly. Though since the Wii launched/became a game desert then people shot prices up there considerably compared to what I was enjoying during the GC lifetime/why I have a nice collection that would cost me a lot today.
Mind you Nintendo seems to enjoy a special place in this game collecting lark, and in reviews if https://towardsdatascience.com/predicting-hit-video-games-with-ml-1341bd9b86b0?gi=41662a143ef is anything to go by. That said I am still not sure who thought the N64 was a) good, b) playable in current space year and c) worth paying an awful lot of money for.

This timeframes thing has me curious though as it is noted in other things. For instance guns/weapons/militaria. Generally held as being that what your grandfather fought in is what is collected, which is why world war 2 stuff is sort of dropping off at this point (if you were 18 in 1945 you are in your 90s today) and Korea, Vietnam and whatnot is on the rise a bit, and World War 1 has long since dropped off. Cars have similar stories but I am not as versed in that and you have all sorts of things there (dream car when I was a kid, my first car, my first dream car), or if you prefer go look at the prices of old VW Golfs (little hatchback cars, maybe just about in the pocket rocket world, but the prices people ask for them).
Toys I am even less familiar with but have seen some speak of that too as people start to die off, though it is kept higher than it might otherwise because I am not old enough to have even seen a toy metal golden age sci fi robot toys outside of a museum but if someone offered me a collection I would be going to my shed now to start building some shelves for my new treasured posessions.
I have not looked into retro stuff either but I do also note it when consoles come to end of life that you have a few years before people go "hold up there was something to that". Starting to see it now for 360 stuff where it had got really cheap at one point. Did similar with other things over the years (I usually get consoles at end of life/towards end of life when sellers are doing deals and then put together a collection then). There I generally note about one generation gap before prices go back up, PSP being a surprisingly quick rise back up.

In music/psychology of similar things it is generally noted your tastes around age 19 are probably going to be with you for life. That would be where I look next -- are all the at one point 19 year olds getting a job/income/divorced/... usual causes of taking up collecting and reliving youth.


NES stuff has been mostly down for awhile now as far as I can tell and/or recall. Sure there might be some exceptions to this for some games as it always is but for the platform itself its no longer that hotly desired. As for SNES stuff I think there is some desire for it still but its not as bad. Note that the NES/SNES Classics kinda filled the gap for those who could have been potential collectors based on Nostalgia but with them existing might have quenched that thirst for the majority of them. Typically game collecting from a Nostalgia perspective is a trait I do not see as often compared to historical or otherwise. Not saying it does not exist, but Nostalgia driven people usually collect only within their field of nostalgia and general interest, they will only go after what was relevant to them from their childhood and not expand any further than that.

You also have odd outliers such as fandom as well with games such as Pokemon always pushing the envelope for price hiking. I remember back in highschool people carrying around gameboys again for some reason and this was over a decade ago, people are back to doing it again but with a higher yield of interest than before (and mainly directed at the GBA) but the Pokemon games command insanely high prices despite them being one of the most common and popular games from back in the day.

Also in the mention of Amiga I would be very careful to talk about the prices with their stuff as their fandom has been known to artificially inflate the prices of their hardware to keep it as elusive and exclusive as possible. They have an air about them that makes their fandom seem about as comparably ego driven as the diehard Apple fans (At least in the states this is the case).

But as for collectable points of focus when the demand and value of something is raised due to mass nostalgia its definitely a controlling factor for the markets. It does not matter much for the smart collector but for the nostalgia driven its a harsh market. Wait a couple of years and the focus will be shifted to the next generation that gets the same nostalgic feeling.

As for why I say start hoarding Switch games, well aside from the fact that in the future the switch will hit the same nostalgia driven market the fact that most of the games on the switch like with all current and future consoles have physical and digital copies exist with the push for digital releases becoming all the more relevant in the current time. This convenience will have a cost in the long run however as those who want to play these games again will probably not have access to their digital edition of the game, making the physical editions that much more desired in the long run. From a collectors perspective and a profitable perspective its a scenario that will happen, and probably even soon than expected.


As for myself I started collecting when I was in my teens for a few reasons, I remember hearing some kid in my class finding a sega game gear at a flea sale and flip it for solid cash which was my initial hook, but once I got in deep into the research behind it I found myself appreciating it more from a technological historical perspective than anything else. It basically grew into my collecting and repairing/using Retro computers and tech in general. It's interesting how the state of mind can mutate into a new and appreciated hobby.

(Also speaking of Retro Computing, now P4/XP Era is considered valuable because of Nostalgia driven folk, and I still cannot accept this reality given how old I am).
 

FAST6191

Techromancer
Editorial Team
Joined
Nov 21, 2005
Messages
36,798
Trophies
3
XP
28,282
Country
United Kingdom
(Also speaking of Retro Computing, now P4/XP Era is considered valuable because of Nostalgia driven folk, and I still cannot accept this reality given how old I am).
Yeah I remember reading about the last AGP cards released around then. I mean they can't even be used with anything with dual core CPUs and have about half the bandwidth of the literal same chips on PCIE boards... what a waste.

Guess what money they are today?

Anyway guess I will have to look into the NES trends. I can see it dropping off a bit, if for no other reason than its cost of entry, but I also don't pay much attention to the day to day stuff there.
That said I don't know how much I would attribute to the NES/SNES classics. Not like ROMs are a new thing, even officially sanctioned ones, and not like you can really do much with the devices.

On Switch stuff I don't disagree at all. If you find some bored mother selling the paperweight with physical copies (physical vs digital here will be fun, even more so if some government decides to force the possibility of resale of things) of vaguely well liked RPGs, Mario Kart, Smash brothers and all the rest. If you had done that on just about anything from the NES on up (probably not going to work for DSi, and time to get a return on virtual boy would have been long as well) then you would have made a pretty penny even without knowing anything.
 

Dr_Faustus

Resident Robot Hoarder
Member
Joined
Mar 25, 2021
Messages
680
Trophies
0
Age
34
Location
The Best State on The Best Coast
XP
826
Country
United States
Yeah I remember reading about the last AGP cards released around then. I mean they can't even be used with anything with dual core CPUs and have about half the bandwidth of the literal same chips on PCIE boards... what a waste.

Guess what money they are today?

Anyway guess I will have to look into the NES trends. I can see it dropping off a bit, if for no other reason than its cost of entry, but I also don't pay much attention to the day to day stuff there.
That said I don't know how much I would attribute to the NES/SNES classics. Not like ROMs are a new thing, even officially sanctioned ones, and not like you can really do much with the devices.

On Switch stuff I don't disagree at all. If you find some bored mother selling the paperweight with physical copies (physical vs digital here will be fun, even more so if some government decides to force the possibility of resale of things) of vaguely well liked RPGs, Mario Kart, Smash brothers and all the rest. If you had done that on just about anything from the NES on up (probably not going to work for DSi, and time to get a return on virtual boy would have been long as well) then you would have made a pretty penny even without knowing anything.
Don't get me started on Voodoo cards, I just can't stand them or their pull of fans. I have just no nostalgia or personal drive to appreciate them outside of their current trending value if I end up selling one I find for pennies of a dollar.

As for the whole ROM thing, while true its important to note that a vast majority of folks buying these for themselves probably have no idea how emulation works, how to set it up, or are just too scared of the legal ramifications of using an emulator. That said you are also talking to a guy here who used to emulate games on his P4 back in 2004, so its nothing new to consider if you have the know-how on the matter. For a lot of regular folk however they legitimately believe the only way to play these games is to have the actual game and hardware in possession. In some cases that might be true but most cases its false.

Also here's another variable bone I will toss out in regards to the collector market. Get your hands on anything Atlus published. Any Atlus game that makes its way outside of Japan is usually limited produced because they intend that the foreign audiences while they exist are not as large as their mainland for their games. As a result any Atlus game that comes out stateside or in the EU might end up very well valuable in the long term due to its limited production and of course the chance of it being a cult hit. This is a fact I picked up way back in my teens, and still seems to hold up.
 

Site & Scene News

Group statistics

Members:
382
Threads:
19
Messages:
260
Photos:
7