Also has "common sense" don't forget, yet doesn't know the difference between "your" and "you're". Awesome.
Resellers being the main and only reason why prices are where they are which he is suggesting, is just ridiculous and not worth arguing against. A part of the issue, sure of course, but not the only factor.
The joke is that you can't see it happening. And the degree does matter, to earn a business degree with an emphasis in accounting i studied eonomics and markets. Tell me were there is a hole in my logic.
I don’t care about your logic, I care about proof. Show me where the bottom is crumbling out of the market, and I will believe you.
I will believe almost anything with concrete proof.
I can see if Sony, Nintendo, or Microsoft ever elect to let you carry over your digital purchases, the retro market taking a huge hit. I believe some games when released digitally stopped climbing, and have now leveled out.
They are beginning to rerelease games which I feel will have a bigger impact than people realize now.
Why pay $100 for a nes or snes cart which you'll likely have to replace the battery instead of a copy you can download and (potentially) own forever on your network account? This won't happen for all games as they will never be able to rerelease full library's, but like someone above said, the common games will surely devalue. There will be just collectors left who want the super rare stuff.
But I'm no way do I think a "burst will occur or values will suddenly plummet. But I can see in 10+ years someone asking themselves why'd they pay $10k for SE when they have no nastalgia or fun from the game
Every game is available for free already. The ROMs are already out there, and have been for years. If that hasn't tanked prices already, digital rereleases that you have to buy won't do it, either.
Collecting is separate from gaming anyway, though some do both.
I run a game store in a city with around 10 other game stores excluding gamestops and 3 of them have closed just before the holidays this year and my store (Which has been around for 20 years) is def on its way out. Retro game sales are WAY DOWN and of course digital sales of new games keep people from buying physical copies of any games.
I think the biggest culprit with dropping prices is the insane amount of reproduction carts online. Most of the time when i search a game there is more repro's than the real thing and from running various game stores for 12 years of my life. Most people who buy older, common games are just people who want to play them and not collect, so why would you pay 70 bucks for conker when you can pay 30 for what looks to be the exact same thing?
The PHYSICAL videogame market is really hurting right now. Old and new games. I am thinking of finally after debating for years to finally offload my cart collection to the masses. I have over 7,000 games in my personal collection and while I do enjoy It I got into this hobby so early I am just sitting on so much money that I basically got for nothing and seeing it worth even 1/2 as much would be a killer.
I hope the market just kinda levels off where it's at right now, but like I said I do not blame the NES/SNES classic I blame REPRO's and of course any market just shifts over time.
I do think prices will start to slide in the future as people start to realize that they haven't touch any of this stuff in ten years and it just takes up space. With so many people getting into collecting in 2010-2014 I think we'll see a more gradual exit over the next few decades with more people leaving the hobby than entering. These days I still think there is more than enough demand to buy out people getting out, but I believe that will start to change in the not too distant future. I don't see the bubble bursting or an overnight crash.
That doesn't necessarily mean prices drop, it may just be a redistribution of assets. In an extreme example, let's say 10 people get out and 1 rich guy buys all of those collections. There would be no change in price because real market demand wasn't satisfied. Even if number of buyers starts to ween, if the buyers that remain have deep pockets then prices stay the same. I'm not arguing either way, just mentioning the fact.
Originally posted by: caratekid
I can see if Sony, Nintendo, or Microsoft ever elect to let you carry over your digital purchases, the retro market taking a huge hit. I believe some games when released digitally stopped climbing, and have now leveled out.
They are beginning to rerelease games which I feel will have a bigger impact than people realize now.
Why pay $100 for a nes or snes cart which you'll likely have to replace the battery instead of a copy you can download and (potentially) own forever on your network account? This won't happen for all games as they will never be able to rerelease full library's, but like someone above said, the common games will surely devalue. There will be just collectors left who want the super rare stuff.
Have you seen the NES and SNES classic? What you're describing has already happened. You can get an NES / SNES classic with basically every single ROM installed for that platform fairly easily. I haven't even played an NES or SNES in well over a year, I've only played the classic re-release and have hacked the ROMs I want on them. The change your describing is already affecting the market now, that's not a future thing. It's a lot more convenient to plug your emulator box into your HDTV with an authentic replica controller with save states.
Originally posted by: CaliforniaGamingSD
The market was inflated because consumer demand was not real. Now resellers aren't as willing to purchase inventory at higher and higher prices so the prices are dropping. Yes the consumer; us, were effected, having to decide whether we wanted to pay higher prices for a game or not, but our purchases are generally not as needy and large as persons needing inventory. (Also on a side note, because resellers were paying high costs for inventory, they had to mark up the cost of games to make a profit. Because games were held by many as inventory and the supply was somewhat tight people played the higher prices. This is now crumbling.
This isn't how resellers work, at least not successful ones. You buy games at undermarket value, not at market value and mark up. If buying at market is your strategy then you're the first to go out of business when prices stagnate.
This isn't how resellers work, at least not successful ones. You buy games at undermarket value, not at market value and mark up. If buying at market is your strategy then you're the first to go out of business when prices stagnate.
That makes sense. I remember back in the day Game Stop offering pennies for games. My question is do people still sell the uncommon and rare games for next to nothing to game stores or are the retro store owners paying a premium for them?
I am not saying that games will become value less. I am just saying prices are dropping and I expect them to continue dropping until an equilibrium is met. I am still purchasing games. I spent $400 last month and just picked up R-Type lll last night for $105. I am just saying that when I purchase games, I now purchase them with the expectation they may go down in value another 25% - 50%. (Those are just percentages i pick for myself.) If I spend $105 on a video game that is later worth $52.50, but I enjoy the game, I am happy with the purchase. Monetarily, for me, that is better than purchasing a current gen game for $60 that is worth $15 in 1 year.
I was talking with a large collector from Omaha on Friday that has several complete sets (NES, SNES, NeoGeo and more) and he claims that since the NES & SNES Classics are out and a N64 is comming soon that they are hurting the retro markets. Really?? I thought that these items would help get others into retro gaming???
Two possible reasons in my opinion:
1. The majority of customers for retro games are mainly interested in getting a console and a dozen or two of the popular games for each system. The NES/SNES minis with their curated library of games meets the needs of most causal retrogamers. The classics are taking away the bread & butter of physical stores (console & common staple game sales).
2. The NES/SNES classics are simple to hack to add more games. People who may not have been interested in going through the trouble of making a RetroPI box can do a couple of steps with their mini and PC and load almost any game they want onto the minis for free. That puts a dent on the incentive for people who caught the retrogaming bug through the minis to go out and spend several hundred bucks buying a real console + games.
I can see if Sony, Nintendo, or Microsoft ever elect to let you carry over your digital purchases, the retro market taking a huge hit. I believe some games when released digitally stopped climbing, and have now leveled out.
They are beginning to rerelease games which I feel will have a bigger impact than people realize now.
Why pay $100 for a nes or snes cart which you'll likely have to replace the battery instead of a copy you can download and (potentially) own forever on your network account? This won't happen for all games as they will never be able to rerelease full library's, but like someone above said, the common games will surely devalue. There will be just collectors left who want the super rare stuff.
But I'm no way do I think a "burst will occur or values will suddenly plummet. But I can see in 10+ years someone asking themselves why'd they pay $10k for SE when they have no nastalgia or fun from the game
Every game is available for free already. The ROMs are already out there, and have been for years. If that hasn't tanked prices already, digital rereleases that you have to buy won't do it, either.
Collecting is separate from gaming anyway, though some do both.
I agree with you that collecting and gaming are different. I disagree though with the fact that Roms are out means prices should have already dropped or flattened.
I’ve gamed for 20 or so years and I’ve never once tried to go online and do some type of hack or download to get all the games. I’m not sure the casual person would either.
Most people who collect, in my opinion, have some nastalgia to it. You beer generations who never grew up with the nes or snes have no connection to it. Maybe they venture out for physical copies, but I can see them just as satisfied with what they have available.
I’ve gamed for 20 or so years and I’ve never once tried to go online and do some type of hack or download to get all the games. I’m not sure the casual person would either.
Most people who collect, in my opinion, have some nastalgia to it. You beer generations who never grew up with the nes or snes have no connection to it. Maybe they venture out for physical copies, but I can see them just as satisfied with what they have available.
I've gamed for 30+ years (go Atari!), and have used ROMs (once they became available in the 90s) a number of times. Plenty of people here run games off of flash carts, even when they have collections.
I know plenty of young people who play older video games. They do so mostly with emulators and ROMs. They know they're out there for free, and it's a google search away. Running emulators isn't that hard, and the lack of nostalgia actually precludes them from buying the original consoles and cartridges. The games are still fun and they want to play them. They just get what they want for free (including music and movies. Games aren't a big leap once they've downloaded other stuff.)
The point is this has been going on for awhile. A sudden release of digital games on the PS4 or whatever isn't going to be the killer of buying old cartridges.
I do think prices will start to slide in the future as people start to realize that they haven't touch any of this stuff in ten years and it just takes up space. With so many people getting into collecting in 2010-2014 I think we'll see a more gradual exit over the next few decades with more people leaving the hobby than entering. These days I still think there is more than enough demand to buy out people getting out, but I believe that will start to change in the not too distant future. I don't see the bubble bursting or an overnight crash.
That doesn't necessarily mean prices drop, it may just be a redistribution of assets. In an extreme example, let's say 10 people get out and 1 rich guy buys all of those collections. There would be no change in price because real market demand wasn't satisfied. Even if number of buyers starts to ween, if the buyers that remain have deep pockets then prices stay the same. I'm not arguing either way, just mentioning the fact.
Originally posted by: caratekid
I can see if Sony, Nintendo, or Microsoft ever elect to let you carry over your digital purchases, the retro market taking a huge hit. I believe some games when released digitally stopped climbing, and have now leveled out.
They are beginning to rerelease games which I feel will have a bigger impact than people realize now.
Why pay $100 for a nes or snes cart which you'll likely have to replace the battery instead of a copy you can download and (potentially) own forever on your network account? This won't happen for all games as they will never be able to rerelease full library's, but like someone above said, the common games will surely devalue. There will be just collectors left who want the super rare stuff.
Have you seen the NES and SNES classic? What you're describing has already happened. You can get an NES / SNES classic with basically every single ROM installed for that platform fairly easily. I haven't even played an NES or SNES in well over a year, I've only played the classic re-release and have hacked the ROMs I want on them. The change your describing is already affecting the market now, that's not a future thing. It's a lot more convenient to plug your emulator box into your HDTV with an authentic replica controller with save states.
Originally posted by: CaliforniaGamingSD
The market was inflated because consumer demand was not real. Now resellers aren't as willing to purchase inventory at higher and higher prices so the prices are dropping. Yes the consumer; us, were effected, having to decide whether we wanted to pay higher prices for a game or not, but our purchases are generally not as needy and large as persons needing inventory. (Also on a side note, because resellers were paying high costs for inventory, they had to mark up the cost of games to make a profit. Because games were held by many as inventory and the supply was somewhat tight people played the higher prices. This is now crumbling.
This isn't how resellers work, at least not successful ones. You buy games at undermarket value, not at market value and mark up. If buying at market is your strategy then you're the first to go out of business when prices stagnate.
I’m not sure just because you can hack a library onto an nes or snes that the general public is doing this. If anything I think collectors aren’t more likely to do this, but collectors are also most likely to want the physical copy. I’m not arguing that prices will plummet, my opinion is just that prices may go down, which in some cases have already happened
I’ve gamed for 20 or so years and I’ve never once tried to go online and do some type of hack or download to get all the games. I’m not sure the casual person would either.
Most people who collect, in my opinion, have some nastalgia to it. You beer generations who never grew up with the nes or snes have no connection to it. Maybe they venture out for physical copies, but I can see them just as satisfied with what they have available.
I've gamed for 30+ years (go Atari!), and have used ROMs (once they became available in the 90s) a number of times. Plenty of people here run games off of flash carts, even when they have collections.
I know plenty of young people who play older video games. They do so mostly with emulators and ROMs. They know they're out there for free, and it's a google search away. Running emulators isn't that hard, and the lack of nostalgia actually precludes them from buying the original consoles and cartridges. The games are still fun and they want to play them. They just get what they want for free (including music and movies. Games aren't a big leap once they've downloaded other stuff.)
The point is this has been going on for awhile. A sudden release of digital games on the PS4 or whatever isn't going to be the killer of buying old cartridges.
I’d love for someone to actually do a research topic on the idea of downloading Rom games. I can only state it’s my opinion that the common practice is not to have there gaming library via Rom. I’m sure there are people who play numerous games that way (I have too) but I still own a physical library of games.
I’m just surprised people don’t think game values may go down at all in the future. I’m not arguing games will plummet, just that over time I can see these carts that are 30+ years old may only be desired for collector purposes which will negate a lot of the current market. If that happens the values will drop some, but what amount I have no idea
I find it very hard to sell anything anymore, i think the bubble is bursting but i never collected for a profit so i dont really care. I had a bunch of games including cubivore river coty ransom and punisher for genesis. Tried selling them here (below value) ebay as buy it nows and locally (didnt even get a low ball offer). Ending up selling to a local store for an ok price. If heavy hitters and damn good games like that sit for sale for 2 months id hate to NEED money and try selling, because now i dont see it happening
I'm not exactly smart but my thought process on it is this:
Supply and demand. Demand goes up when supply goes down aka right now. Games are hard to find because resellers and collectors buying up the games...people are game hunting thanks to it becoming popular via Youtubers and that TV show where they bought a storage unit and found a "rare" NES. Also smart phones and easy access to internet means people can look up prices of games on eBay to know if they should sell it at a yard sale or not. I've talked to so many sellers at yard sales that check their phones or say they looked up prices ahead of time or even that they're not selling the games at the yard sale, but online.
So to make the "bubble burst" so to speak...you need more supply. Since these games are old and we're not going to magically come across a warehouse stocked to the brim with old games, nor are they going to make anymore of these games...you need supply from somewhere. The only way for that to happen is collectors/resellers to start dumping all their games. Reason as to why this would happen is money issues, life issues, or just age. So economy tanks is one way. Another more likely way and I feel is safer/better overall is collectors get to a certain age and shit happens. They have kids, kids grow up, kids need money for school, job takes up to much time, wife needs a new car, spot's vet bills are expensive...so on and so forth. Money issues comes into play. And look who was sitting on a pile of rare expensive NES games? Sell it off...it goes into the market...supply goes up, demand goes down.
A less nice way of that happening is also health issues. Now I'm just going off of my own health and age but at 26, I'm fairly unhealthy, I'm also unhappy...which will shorten my life span. If I make it to 50, I'll be lucky basically. I can't say everyone who is a gamer is unhealthy...but it is a stereotype for a reason. I bring it up because medical bills, heart attacks, early death...means collectors drop like flies, their family needs to get rid of the collection and there again supply up, demand down.
My estimate for when this all happens is about 10 or so years. As I said I'm 26. I was born in 1991. My age group is deep in the nostalgia need right now...ten years from now I'll be 36 and others will be mid 30s or even 40s. That's when kids are about teenage years...a lot of shit happens then. So that's when we'll probably see the flood of games.
It's a waiting game. I've always said this isn't a hobby for me...it's a life choice. I'm in this till I die. I know that waiting it out, I'll be able to get all these stupidly overpriced "rare" games that are going for $100+ right now.
But that's just my two cents. Might be totally wrong and game prices keep climbing even ten years from now. Who knows the future.
I have been noticing this myself a bit too. Could be a seasonal thing, but prices on many games have leveled off. It has been awhile since we have seen any major price spikes, the market seems to have matured past that point especially on NES. I don't really see a "bubble bursting" but I can see prices becoming more stable and dropping a bit.
I agree with your logic, but I think the demand has already started to wain, there is a barrier to entry because of how expensive the games are.. so new collectors dont really start up.
Also I see it like stamp collecting, coin, etc... as we get old and die out the supply will outweigh the demand. because there isnt new collectors or at least ones with the passion we have.
Also the original hardware will eventually fail and crt's will disappear, so there will be no point in having the original cart because you wont get the original experience without that hardware and tv. so then emulation will be the only realistic choice. I think about the atari games i have... 3 of them, just to display, because i dont care about atari because i didnt grow up with it. but ET has a cool story so i display it....and i think a few carts will be worth doing that, but ya.... in a generation or two its done. I will say this though, dont not get something or play something just hoping to get it cheaper when your older. When were old and our reflex and eyesight begin to go you may not be able to enjoy the game anymore
I have been noticing this myself a bit too. Could be a seasonal thing, but prices on many games have leveled off. It has been awhile since we have seen any major price spikes, the market seems to have matured past that point especially on NES. I don't really see a "bubble bursting" but I can see prices becoming more stable and dropping a bit.
Kid Klown spiked this Spring but yes, the drastic hype spikes have definitely died down. Which is a good thing, it means the market is fairly saturated and mature.
I also agree with prices becoming more stable / flat and starting to wane. Mint will always command a premium though... even in a market when prices are falling, if you are the nicest conditioned item available for sale, you'll find someone willing to pay above the prevailing rate.
As the hobby matures further, there will be more emphasis on condition than there has been in the past. When there's 0 Samsons available, you take what you find. If there's 10 available, buyers are selective and will want the best conditioned copy they can afford.
A less nice way of that happening is also health issues. Now I'm just going off of my own health and age but at 26, I'm fairly unhealthy, I'm also unhappy...which will shorten my life span. If I make it to 50, I'll be lucky basically.
Always so negative. There are a lot of things you can do to change many of your issues. Otherwise you're just living a self-fulfilled prophecy.
There are plenty of members here with plenty of problems. But they don't plaster every thread they post in with them. To me, it seems that you LIKE having issues to complain about.
I haven't seen anyone selling off in my area. NES games aren't really even in Stock in most local game stores and they tend to price them up so they have something on the shelf or in the showcase.
I always laugh when people claim the bottom is falling out and in the same breath that they're waiting on prices to drop to buy.
I feel like things are slowing simply due the fad starting to dwindle, high prices detering new collectors and burning out old ones, and collectors moving on to other things and cashing out. Again, this doesn't mean a crash, maybe a flat line and slow decline of common games. I also think paper is king here. CIB ain't going anywhere but up, especially if u got the condition on your side.
I think nes price charting shows a better picture of what was happening since I was watching it regularly.
Sometimes some isolated sales prove to be outliers, which PC is not as great at accounting for in smoothing out it's chart. It's like saying Hagane has dropped hundreds of dollars when that's not true.
Comments
Hard to argue with "no proof but I have a degree"
Also has "common sense" don't forget, yet doesn't know the difference between "your" and "you're". Awesome.
Resellers being the main and only reason why prices are where they are which he is suggesting, is just ridiculous and not worth arguing against. A part of the issue, sure of course, but not the only factor.
The joke is that you can't see it happening. And the degree does matter, to earn a business degree with an emphasis in accounting i studied eonomics and markets. Tell me were there is a hole in my logic.
I don’t care about your logic, I care about proof. Show me where the bottom is crumbling out of the market, and I will believe you.
I will believe almost anything with concrete proof.
I can see if Sony, Nintendo, or Microsoft ever elect to let you carry over your digital purchases, the retro market taking a huge hit. I believe some games when released digitally stopped climbing, and have now leveled out.
They are beginning to rerelease games which I feel will have a bigger impact than people realize now.
Why pay $100 for a nes or snes cart which you'll likely have to replace the battery instead of a copy you can download and (potentially) own forever on your network account? This won't happen for all games as they will never be able to rerelease full library's, but like someone above said, the common games will surely devalue. There will be just collectors left who want the super rare stuff.
But I'm no way do I think a "burst will occur or values will suddenly plummet. But I can see in 10+ years someone asking themselves why'd they pay $10k for SE when they have no nastalgia or fun from the game
Every game is available for free already. The ROMs are already out there, and have been for years. If that hasn't tanked prices already, digital rereleases that you have to buy won't do it, either.
Collecting is separate from gaming anyway, though some do both.
I think the biggest culprit with dropping prices is the insane amount of reproduction carts online. Most of the time when i search a game there is more repro's than the real thing and from running various game stores for 12 years of my life. Most people who buy older, common games are just people who want to play them and not collect, so why would you pay 70 bucks for conker when you can pay 30 for what looks to be the exact same thing?
The PHYSICAL videogame market is really hurting right now. Old and new games. I am thinking of finally after debating for years to finally offload my cart collection to the masses. I have over 7,000 games in my personal collection and while I do enjoy It I got into this hobby so early I am just sitting on so much money that I basically got for nothing and seeing it worth even 1/2 as much would be a killer.
I hope the market just kinda levels off where it's at right now, but like I said I do not blame the NES/SNES classic I blame REPRO's and of course any market just shifts over time.
I do think prices will start to slide in the future as people start to realize that they haven't touch any of this stuff in ten years and it just takes up space. With so many people getting into collecting in 2010-2014 I think we'll see a more gradual exit over the next few decades with more people leaving the hobby than entering. These days I still think there is more than enough demand to buy out people getting out, but I believe that will start to change in the not too distant future. I don't see the bubble bursting or an overnight crash.
That doesn't necessarily mean prices drop, it may just be a redistribution of assets. In an extreme example, let's say 10 people get out and 1 rich guy buys all of those collections. There would be no change in price because real market demand wasn't satisfied. Even if number of buyers starts to ween, if the buyers that remain have deep pockets then prices stay the same. I'm not arguing either way, just mentioning the fact.
I can see if Sony, Nintendo, or Microsoft ever elect to let you carry over your digital purchases, the retro market taking a huge hit. I believe some games when released digitally stopped climbing, and have now leveled out.
They are beginning to rerelease games which I feel will have a bigger impact than people realize now.
Why pay $100 for a nes or snes cart which you'll likely have to replace the battery instead of a copy you can download and (potentially) own forever on your network account? This won't happen for all games as they will never be able to rerelease full library's, but like someone above said, the common games will surely devalue. There will be just collectors left who want the super rare stuff.
Have you seen the NES and SNES classic? What you're describing has already happened. You can get an NES / SNES classic with basically every single ROM installed for that platform fairly easily. I haven't even played an NES or SNES in well over a year, I've only played the classic re-release and have hacked the ROMs I want on them. The change your describing is already affecting the market now, that's not a future thing. It's a lot more convenient to plug your emulator box into your HDTV with an authentic replica controller with save states.
The market was inflated because consumer demand was not real. Now resellers aren't as willing to purchase inventory at higher and higher prices so the prices are dropping. Yes the consumer; us, were effected, having to decide whether we wanted to pay higher prices for a game or not, but our purchases are generally not as needy and large as persons needing inventory. (Also on a side note, because resellers were paying high costs for inventory, they had to mark up the cost of games to make a profit. Because games were held by many as inventory and the supply was somewhat tight people played the higher prices. This is now crumbling.
This isn't how resellers work, at least not successful ones. You buy games at undermarket value, not at market value and mark up. If buying at market is your strategy then you're the first to go out of business when prices stagnate.
That makes sense. I remember back in the day Game Stop offering pennies for games. My question is do people still sell the uncommon and rare games for next to nothing to game stores or are the retro store owners paying a premium for them?
I was talking with a large collector from Omaha on Friday that has several complete sets (NES, SNES, NeoGeo and more) and he claims that since the NES & SNES Classics are out and a N64 is comming soon that they are hurting the retro markets. Really?? I thought that these items would help get others into retro gaming???
Two possible reasons in my opinion:
1. The majority of customers for retro games are mainly interested in getting a console and a dozen or two of the popular games for each system. The NES/SNES minis with their curated library of games meets the needs of most causal retrogamers. The classics are taking away the bread & butter of physical stores (console & common staple game sales).
2. The NES/SNES classics are simple to hack to add more games. People who may not have been interested in going through the trouble of making a RetroPI box can do a couple of steps with their mini and PC and load almost any game they want onto the minis for free. That puts a dent on the incentive for people who caught the retrogaming bug through the minis to go out and spend several hundred bucks buying a real console + games.
I can see if Sony, Nintendo, or Microsoft ever elect to let you carry over your digital purchases, the retro market taking a huge hit. I believe some games when released digitally stopped climbing, and have now leveled out.
They are beginning to rerelease games which I feel will have a bigger impact than people realize now.
Why pay $100 for a nes or snes cart which you'll likely have to replace the battery instead of a copy you can download and (potentially) own forever on your network account? This won't happen for all games as they will never be able to rerelease full library's, but like someone above said, the common games will surely devalue. There will be just collectors left who want the super rare stuff.
But I'm no way do I think a "burst will occur or values will suddenly plummet. But I can see in 10+ years someone asking themselves why'd they pay $10k for SE when they have no nastalgia or fun from the game
Every game is available for free already. The ROMs are already out there, and have been for years. If that hasn't tanked prices already, digital rereleases that you have to buy won't do it, either.
Collecting is separate from gaming anyway, though some do both.
I agree with you that collecting and gaming are different. I disagree though with the fact that Roms are out means prices should have already dropped or flattened.
I’ve gamed for 20 or so years and I’ve never once tried to go online and do some type of hack or download to get all the games. I’m not sure the casual person would either.
Most people who collect, in my opinion, have some nastalgia to it. You beer generations who never grew up with the nes or snes have no connection to it. Maybe they venture out for physical copies, but I can see them just as satisfied with what they have available.
I’ve gamed for 20 or so years and I’ve never once tried to go online and do some type of hack or download to get all the games. I’m not sure the casual person would either.
Most people who collect, in my opinion, have some nastalgia to it. You beer generations who never grew up with the nes or snes have no connection to it. Maybe they venture out for physical copies, but I can see them just as satisfied with what they have available.
I've gamed for 30+ years (go Atari!), and have used ROMs (once they became available in the 90s) a number of times. Plenty of people here run games off of flash carts, even when they have collections.
I know plenty of young people who play older video games. They do so mostly with emulators and ROMs. They know they're out there for free, and it's a google search away. Running emulators isn't that hard, and the lack of nostalgia actually precludes them from buying the original consoles and cartridges. The games are still fun and they want to play them. They just get what they want for free (including music and movies. Games aren't a big leap once they've downloaded other stuff.)
The point is this has been going on for awhile. A sudden release of digital games on the PS4 or whatever isn't going to be the killer of buying old cartridges.
I do think prices will start to slide in the future as people start to realize that they haven't touch any of this stuff in ten years and it just takes up space. With so many people getting into collecting in 2010-2014 I think we'll see a more gradual exit over the next few decades with more people leaving the hobby than entering. These days I still think there is more than enough demand to buy out people getting out, but I believe that will start to change in the not too distant future. I don't see the bubble bursting or an overnight crash.
That doesn't necessarily mean prices drop, it may just be a redistribution of assets. In an extreme example, let's say 10 people get out and 1 rich guy buys all of those collections. There would be no change in price because real market demand wasn't satisfied. Even if number of buyers starts to ween, if the buyers that remain have deep pockets then prices stay the same. I'm not arguing either way, just mentioning the fact.
I can see if Sony, Nintendo, or Microsoft ever elect to let you carry over your digital purchases, the retro market taking a huge hit. I believe some games when released digitally stopped climbing, and have now leveled out.
They are beginning to rerelease games which I feel will have a bigger impact than people realize now.
Why pay $100 for a nes or snes cart which you'll likely have to replace the battery instead of a copy you can download and (potentially) own forever on your network account? This won't happen for all games as they will never be able to rerelease full library's, but like someone above said, the common games will surely devalue. There will be just collectors left who want the super rare stuff.
Have you seen the NES and SNES classic? What you're describing has already happened. You can get an NES / SNES classic with basically every single ROM installed for that platform fairly easily. I haven't even played an NES or SNES in well over a year, I've only played the classic re-release and have hacked the ROMs I want on them. The change your describing is already affecting the market now, that's not a future thing. It's a lot more convenient to plug your emulator box into your HDTV with an authentic replica controller with save states.
The market was inflated because consumer demand was not real. Now resellers aren't as willing to purchase inventory at higher and higher prices so the prices are dropping. Yes the consumer; us, were effected, having to decide whether we wanted to pay higher prices for a game or not, but our purchases are generally not as needy and large as persons needing inventory. (Also on a side note, because resellers were paying high costs for inventory, they had to mark up the cost of games to make a profit. Because games were held by many as inventory and the supply was somewhat tight people played the higher prices. This is now crumbling.
This isn't how resellers work, at least not successful ones. You buy games at undermarket value, not at market value and mark up. If buying at market is your strategy then you're the first to go out of business when prices stagnate.
I’m not sure just because you can hack a library onto an nes or snes that the general public is doing this. If anything I think collectors aren’t more likely to do this, but collectors are also most likely to want the physical copy. I’m not arguing that prices will plummet, my opinion is just that prices may go down, which in some cases have already happened
I’ve gamed for 20 or so years and I’ve never once tried to go online and do some type of hack or download to get all the games. I’m not sure the casual person would either.
Most people who collect, in my opinion, have some nastalgia to it. You beer generations who never grew up with the nes or snes have no connection to it. Maybe they venture out for physical copies, but I can see them just as satisfied with what they have available.
I've gamed for 30+ years (go Atari!), and have used ROMs (once they became available in the 90s) a number of times. Plenty of people here run games off of flash carts, even when they have collections.
I know plenty of young people who play older video games. They do so mostly with emulators and ROMs. They know they're out there for free, and it's a google search away. Running emulators isn't that hard, and the lack of nostalgia actually precludes them from buying the original consoles and cartridges. The games are still fun and they want to play them. They just get what they want for free (including music and movies. Games aren't a big leap once they've downloaded other stuff.)
The point is this has been going on for awhile. A sudden release of digital games on the PS4 or whatever isn't going to be the killer of buying old cartridges.
I’d love for someone to actually do a research topic on the idea of downloading Rom games. I can only state it’s my opinion that the common practice is not to have there gaming library via Rom. I’m sure there are people who play numerous games that way (I have too) but I still own a physical library of games.
I’m just surprised people don’t think game values may go down at all in the future. I’m not arguing games will plummet, just that over time I can see these carts that are 30+ years old may only be desired for collector purposes which will negate a lot of the current market. If that happens the values will drop some, but what amount I have no idea
Supply and demand. Demand goes up when supply goes down aka right now. Games are hard to find because resellers and collectors buying up the games...people are game hunting thanks to it becoming popular via Youtubers and that TV show where they bought a storage unit and found a "rare" NES. Also smart phones and easy access to internet means people can look up prices of games on eBay to know if they should sell it at a yard sale or not. I've talked to so many sellers at yard sales that check their phones or say they looked up prices ahead of time or even that they're not selling the games at the yard sale, but online.
So to make the "bubble burst" so to speak...you need more supply. Since these games are old and we're not going to magically come across a warehouse stocked to the brim with old games, nor are they going to make anymore of these games...you need supply from somewhere. The only way for that to happen is collectors/resellers to start dumping all their games. Reason as to why this would happen is money issues, life issues, or just age. So economy tanks is one way. Another more likely way and I feel is safer/better overall is collectors get to a certain age and shit happens. They have kids, kids grow up, kids need money for school, job takes up to much time, wife needs a new car, spot's vet bills are expensive...so on and so forth. Money issues comes into play. And look who was sitting on a pile of rare expensive NES games? Sell it off...it goes into the market...supply goes up, demand goes down.
A less nice way of that happening is also health issues. Now I'm just going off of my own health and age but at 26, I'm fairly unhealthy, I'm also unhappy...which will shorten my life span. If I make it to 50, I'll be lucky basically. I can't say everyone who is a gamer is unhealthy...but it is a stereotype for a reason. I bring it up because medical bills, heart attacks, early death...means collectors drop like flies, their family needs to get rid of the collection and there again supply up, demand down.
My estimate for when this all happens is about 10 or so years. As I said I'm 26. I was born in 1991. My age group is deep in the nostalgia need right now...ten years from now I'll be 36 and others will be mid 30s or even 40s. That's when kids are about teenage years...a lot of shit happens then. So that's when we'll probably see the flood of games.
It's a waiting game. I've always said this isn't a hobby for me...it's a life choice. I'm in this till I die. I know that waiting it out, I'll be able to get all these stupidly overpriced "rare" games that are going for $100+ right now.
But that's just my two cents. Might be totally wrong and game prices keep climbing even ten years from now. Who knows the future.
Also I see it like stamp collecting, coin, etc... as we get old and die out the supply will outweigh the demand. because there isnt new collectors or at least ones with the passion we have.
Also the original hardware will eventually fail and crt's will disappear, so there will be no point in having the original cart because you wont get the original experience without that hardware and tv. so then emulation will be the only realistic choice. I think about the atari games i have... 3 of them, just to display, because i dont care about atari because i didnt grow up with it. but ET has a cool story so i display it....and i think a few carts will be worth doing that, but ya.... in a generation or two its done. I will say this though, dont not get something or play something just hoping to get it cheaper when your older. When were old and our reflex and eyesight begin to go you may not be able to enjoy the game anymore
I have been noticing this myself a bit too. Could be a seasonal thing, but prices on many games have leveled off. It has been awhile since we have seen any major price spikes, the market seems to have matured past that point especially on NES. I don't really see a "bubble bursting" but I can see prices becoming more stable and dropping a bit.
Kid Klown spiked this Spring but yes, the drastic hype spikes have definitely died down. Which is a good thing, it means the market is fairly saturated and mature.
I also agree with prices becoming more stable / flat and starting to wane. Mint will always command a premium though... even in a market when prices are falling, if you are the nicest conditioned item available for sale, you'll find someone willing to pay above the prevailing rate.
As the hobby matures further, there will be more emphasis on condition than there has been in the past. When there's 0 Samsons available, you take what you find. If there's 10 available, buyers are selective and will want the best conditioned copy they can afford.
A less nice way of that happening is also health issues. Now I'm just going off of my own health and age but at 26, I'm fairly unhealthy, I'm also unhappy...which will shorten my life span. If I make it to 50, I'll be lucky basically.
Always so negative. There are a lot of things you can do to change many of your issues. Otherwise you're just living a self-fulfilled prophecy.
There are plenty of members here with plenty of problems. But they don't plaster every thread they post in with them. To me, it seems that you LIKE having issues to complain about.
https://www.podcastone.com/episode/retronauts-128-collectors-bubble
Coincidentally, Chris Kohler and Steve Lin were interviewed by the Retronauts podcast on this exact subject:
https://www.podcastone.com/episod...
This was cool. Nice share. Thanks.
I feel like things are slowing simply due the fad starting to dwindle, high prices detering new collectors and burning out old ones, and collectors moving on to other things and cashing out. Again, this doesn't mean a crash, maybe a flat line and slow decline of common games. I also think paper is king here. CIB ain't going anywhere but up, especially if u got the condition on your side.
I'm glad I didn't buy Super Turrican 2 last year since it dropped $70 in price.
http://gamevaluenow.com/super-nintendo/game/super-turrican-2?gameid=606
I think nes price charting shows a better picture of what was happening since I was watching it regularly.
Gamevaluenow is way more accurate than pricecharting IMO
I think nes price charting shows a better picture of what was happening since I was watching it regularly.
Price Charting is poor, unreliable and outdated compared to GameValueNow. PC misses sales or misquotes sales entirely.
Look at the last sale picked up by both PC and GVN on Super Turrican 2... says sold for $215 on PC and $180 on GVN.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/192385261159
http://offer.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBidsLogin&item=192385261159
You can see GVN captured it right. Whatever spike you thought happened because of PC never happened in the first place.
I think nes price charting shows a better picture of what was happening since I was watching it regularly.
Sometimes some isolated sales prove to be outliers, which PC is not as great at accounting for in smoothing out it's chart. It's like saying Hagane has dropped hundreds of dollars when that's not true.