It is so hard to find good games in the wild anymore, or even good deals online. It seems as though there is too much competition. Deals on CL go fast, thrift stores get raided and nothing is left but stupid sports games, flea markets are competitive, eBay prices are going crazy. I understand there will always be completionists in every hobby, as well as douchebag scalpers. However, am I the only one who thinks video game collecting has gotten out of hand? It seems like so many people are willing to buy anything, as if they are trophies, with no prior connection or interest in such games whatsoever. And of course prices are being driven up because of such demand on about anything and everything. It's like why? Why do people need sooooooooooo many games? Some collections look nice, sure. But even junky consoles, beaten games, etc. It's just crazy! I can understand nostalgia. I can understand a hobby and the thrill of a hunt but this has gotten ridiculous! A lot to do with the insanely popular Youtubers no doubt. I have about 100 games myself on various consoles. Sure I'll buy more. But I don't buy games just to buy games. I'll even sell and trade some here and there. If I don't care for a game it's like why buy/keep it? Others can enjoy it and it can stay/go back in circulation. What do you fellow gamers/collectors think? Any thoughts on the matter?
i've actually read of people thinking they can get crazy rich buying and selling games. if a game is priced more than a console, not many people would go for it.
It's funny that you get mad at people trying to buy games when, at the same time, you're trying to buy games. Doesn't matter if you're a completionist or not, we're all trying to buy old games and a lot of us are sick of people trying to gouge us. But blaming other collectors isn't going to help you. Blame the assholes who try to corner the market by buying multiple copies and jacking up the price I'm personally going for a complete NES collection, and a complete N64 and maybe, hopefully, one day, a complete SNES and original Gameboy collection. Why? Because I want to. I can't say I don't see a few games as "trophies" like say my copy of Panic Restaurant, or taking pride in having a big collection that I can display. But my games will be played eventually because first and foremost I'm a gamer, and a collector second. But I also collect for a dozen other systems and they're games that I've played in the past and want to play again or games that appeal to me and I want to try. Very rarely will I purchase something just to put on a shelf and bask in its glory. Of course prices have gone way up due to the retro game craze and its popularity and like any fad (Beanie Babies) there's always going to be people who try and cash in without any love or nostalgic connection to the hobby at hand. The more attention you draw to something the more scalpers and re-sellers you're going to attract. It can't be helped. One popular Youtuber will do a review on an obscure game and we'll all try to find it and buy it and suddenly, resellers will notice the trend and start raising prices. It sucks but its inevitable. The only thing we can do is refuse to pay those prices and instead look to the retro/modern video game community for networking and better prices. My advice for people who don't want to buy every cart or spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars is to buy flash carts and download the ROMs (and you can still play the games on the original hardware). I'm hoping to get a NES/SNES cart one day so I can play all the expensive games/homebrews/prototypes etc. I'd like to have the original cart but maybe it'll tide me over until a good deal will come my way. I do feel your frustration at some of the prices nowadays. Just a few years ago you could get some great games for low prices. The bubble may burst one day but I'd like to think we're at the peak of the retro game popularity.
Hopefully that bubble at least shrinks, or at least moves onto the systems like PS2, XBOX, and GameCube, and maybe NES and SNES will lower in price as the nostalgia passes. Funny how Sega Genesis doesn't seem to be as big with the collectors/sellers as NES and SNES. Is it because Sega has released most of the good games for their systems on collections multiple times maybe? Games I'd love to have, but won't pay insane prices for... Mega Man 7 (SNES) Joe and Mac 2 (SNES) DuckTales 2 (NES)
I won't pay the insane price a copy of Mario RPG Legend of the Seven Stars for SNES goes for. Thankfully, it's available on virtual console.
