Retro Game Price Gouging Thread

[Pissmaster]

Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door is one of the games I regret the most about not buying before it got really expensive.

For what it's worth, I thought it was overrated as all fuck.

The funniest thing about collecting is the Xbox. The original xbox is uber undervalued. Why idk. 95% of the library is still like under $20. there are games above that price, but its still hella cheap. I got a ton of games in the last few years. most of the cheap heavy hitters. Most of the multiplats on the system are the definitve versions of that game (GTA nonwithstanding). And it was the most powerful console of that gen. But no one wants to buy. Scott the Woz is correct when he called the Xbox "The Joke of the Collecting World".

My best guess is that the kind of people who seriously would drop $300 on a 20 year old game are the kind of people to see the entire Xbox brand as icky and gross, because it was always marketed towards college dudebro types. Even though the system itself is a hell of a lot more reliable than the PS2, and tends to be the best way to play games that were released on both.

Plus, you can play a tiny smattering of Xbox discs on all the newer Xboxes, so that's a very nice bonus. It'd be surreal to see reprints of original Xbox games in Xbox Series packaging like they've done with 360 games. Hell, I could even see that happening for the 20 year anniversary this year.

So here's another retarded one:

It's not a hidden gem or anything, it's just a bad game. It also happens to be the first game Limited Run ever published, so, here we are.

 

[AsbestosFlaygon]

You know what's really the most retarded thing you could spend money on?

Case only listings.

I've been looking at some GameCube titles lately out of curiosity, and it's very annoying to see out of the corner of your eye some real good deal on something, only to see it's just the fucking case. It's a tad annoying when it's 10 bucks or something, which at least is not a completely unreasonable price to be selling it for. But it's way more maddening when it's actually a fucking sizeable amount of money. For example someone's selling the Path of Radiance case and manual for $51, Jesus Christ I got my copy for just about the fucking price this guy's selling the fucking case for. WHO FUCKING PAYS THIS MUCH FOR A CASE!?

Oh wait, here's something extra retarded. You can't play this game on the vast majority of consoles, it's region locked. You have to track down the ultra rare and stupidly expensive Japanese Xbox 360 just to get it to run... WHY THE FUCK IS IT ALMOST A HUNDRED BUCKS.

By the logic 64DD games and Satellaview cartridges should be the cheapest Nintendo games on the market. I'm not saying it's fucking worth it by any stretch, but expecting something on a rare platform to be cheaper is more retarded thinking than the fucking pricing.

 

[Pee Cola]

I have one myself, but unfortunately the thing doesn't age well over time and it's decided it doesn't want to work anymore.

I know it's a meme at this point, but have you considered getting it recapped? It could have been affected by the capacitor plague, just like later Amigas and the CD32 were. Anyone that offers a recap service for Amigas or Macs could probably recap a Saturn easily enough.

 

[NoonmanR]

By the logic 64DD games and Satellaview cartridges should be the cheapest Nintendo games on the market. I'm not saying it's fucking worth it by any stretch, but expecting something on a rare platform to be cheaper is more retarded thinking than the fucking pricing.

Satellaview cartridges, i'm pretty sure are coveted because the roms inside of the cartridges, many of which undumped. DD is mostly a curio, but Xbox absolutely does not have the same kind of pull Nintendo games do. Many of which are still at somewhat sane prices because of it.

 

[Marissa Moira]

I'm pretty sure the Steelbook Xbox 360 version of Tales of Vesperia goes for insane prices last I looked.

 

[Kosher Dill]

For example someone's selling the Path of Radiance case and manual for $51, Jesus Christ I got my copy for just about the fucking price this guy's selling the fucking case for. WHO FUCKING PAYS THIS MUCH FOR A CASE!?

Someone with just a disc who's hoping to reassemble a CIB listing and flip it for a bajillion dollars.

 

[Judge Dredd]

The funniest thing about collecting is the Xbox. The original xbox is uber undervalued. Why idk. 95% of the library is still like under $20. there are games above that price, but its still hella cheap. I got a ton of games in the last few years. most of the cheap heavy hitters. Most of the multiplats on the system are the definitve versions of that game (GTA nonwithstanding). And it was the most powerful console of that gen. But no one wants to buy. Scott the Woz is correct when he called the Xbox "The Joke of the Collecting World".

My guess.

There are two parts of collecting. Value and "nostalgia". I put that in quotes because it's more like pseudo nostalgia.

I never heard of MUSHA back in the day, it wasn't until it was rare and expensive that it retroactively became "the best game on the Mega Drive!". Games like Haunting Grounds and Gotcha Force were considered mediocre back in the day.

So, let's go back to the original Xbox. What games did it have that people are nostalgic for, or are considered good? Well, there's Halo 1 and 2 ...and that's it. Games I care about like Wreckless The Yakuza Missions, Unreal Championship, and Tau Fang were 6 out of 10 at best. The Halo games on Xbox are not the definitive editions, and the multiplayer for Halo 2 shut down long ago.

Because of this, the spiral of rarity>cost>demand never got off the ground.

There's no big Xbox nostalgia YouTuber. If tomorrow, Metal Jesus Rocks, Nostalgia Nerd, or some other retro YouTuber put out a video declaring Unreal Champions 2 to be the greatest game ever and a real hidden gem, then the prices would double or triple.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

Its weird. Japan doesn't have this markup on their games used. Probably cultural difference. Before the coof, I would import Saturn games from Japan. I got Saturn Bomberman for like $15-20. Goes for insane prices in the states (us version). D was like $1. IIRC, its like $70-100 in the states. Japan Post stopped shipping to America when the coof started and they still haven't started service back up. it was like $10 shipped.

You know what's really the most retarded thing you could spend money on?

Case only listings.

Dubs quoting, but I think these two go hand in hand. Cases/packaging in the west are often missing, incomplete and/or in bad condition, leading to tons of cartridge only sales. Finding a complete copy of a western release in good condition really elevates the price. Japan seems to have had a different mindset and so much of the old games they have are complete and in great condition, the rarity just isn't the same.

Wreckless The Yakuza Missions

That game looked so good, it was so technically advanced and it was released within the Xbox launch window. For a while it was arguably the best looking game in the world on a technical level, they really put those shaders to work. What makes it even better is that it came from a Japanese book publisher.

 

[Marissa Moira]

The prices for CRTs are also crazy, you can search ebay and you have many bullshit common models going for over 100 bucks.

They don't even include the repair schematics with them (that that used to be a thing where something would ship with instructions on how to repair it and what the interior resembled).

Like goodwill would be selling TV's for maybe 5-10 dollars if they were CRTs with 20 dollars being considered high.

 

[Vyse Inglebard]

I'm just glad I own both versions of Skies of Arcadia.

Dreamcast has been ignored for awhile so prices went down on a few games. But stuff like Elemental Gimmick Gear is still kinda up there.

My favourite games are 100 plus usd.View attachment 2342491
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Lucky bastard. Mine are all twice to god knows that.

Meh, nothing too unusual, seeing as how both versions of SoA didn't sell very well (great job marketing it, SEGA ) but then I saw something that literally made me say "WHAT THE FUCK?!" out loud.....

$140. FOR A GODDAMN MANUAL. Shit, the game itself costs that much, if not more, on Ebay nowadays! They can fuck right off with that bullshit.

 

[Pissmaster]

There's no big Xbox nostalgia YouTuber. If tomorrow, Metal Jesus Rocks, Nostalgia Nerd, or some other retro YouTuber put out a video declaring Unreal Champions 2 to be the greatest game ever and a real hidden gem, then the prices would double or triple.

Modern Vintage Gamer's the closest one I know of, though he covers a little bit of everything, and actually is a developer. He ported SNES9x to the Xbox, as well, so he's also sort of a reason why anyone cared about the original Xbox.

 

[XYZpdq]

You know what's really the most retarded thing you could spend money on?

Case only listings.

I've been looking at some GameCube titles lately out of curiosity, and it's very annoying to see out of the corner of your eye some real good deal on something, only to see it's just the fucking case. It's a tad annoying when it's 10 bucks or something, which at least is not a completely unreasonable price to be selling it for. But it's way more maddening when it's actually a fucking sizeable amount of money. For example someone's selling the Path of Radiance case and manual for $51, Jesus Christ I got my copy for just about the fucking price this guy's selling the fucking case for. WHO FUCKING PAYS THIS MUCH FOR A CASE!?

By the logic 64DD games and Satellaview cartridges should be the cheapest Nintendo games on the market. I'm not saying it's fucking worth it by any stretch, but expecting something on a rare platform to be cheaper is more retarded thinking than the fucking pricing.

tbh it makes sense to me if you want a "complete" of a game for your own sake
like I knew a guy who assembled a few hella expensive transformers from parts lots for less than even one would have cost him

My guess.

There are two parts of collecting. Value and "nostalgia". I put that in quotes because it's more like pseudo nostalgia.

I never heard of MUSHA back in the day, it wasn't until it was rare and expensive that it retroactively became "the best game on the Mega Drive!". Games like Haunting Grounds and Gotcha Force were considered mediocre back in the day.

So, let's go back to the original Xbox. What games did it have that people are nostalgic for, or are considered good? Well, there's Halo 1 and 2 ...and that's it. Games I care about like Wreckless The Yakuza Missions, Unreal Championship, and Tau Fang were 6 out of 10 at best. The Halo games on Xbox are not the definitive editions, and the multiplayer for Halo 2 shut down long ago.

Because of this, the spiral of rarity>cost>demand never got off the ground.

There's no big Xbox nostalgia YouTuber. If tomorrow, Metal Jesus Rocks, Nostalgia Nerd, or some other retro YouTuber put out a video declaring Unreal Champions 2 to be the greatest game ever and a real hidden gem, then the prices would double or triple.

MUSHA was pretty dank

 

[Pissmaster]

tbh it makes sense to me if you want a "complete" of a game for your own sake
like I knew a guy who assembled a few hella expensive transformers from parts lots for less than even one would have cost him

I've tried doing that, it just doesn't seem to work with video games unless you got at least one thing for an extraordinarily good price

 

[XYZpdq]

I've tried doing that, it just doesn't seem to work with video games unless you got at least one thing for an extraordinarily good price

as long as I got a hundred bucks out of some asshole for a box and some manuals and shit I don't care lol

 

[ZMOT]

So, let's go back to the original Xbox. What games did it have that people are nostalgic for, or are considered good? Well, there's Halo 1 and 2 ...and that's it. Games I care about like Wreckless The Yakuza Missions, Unreal Championship, and Tau Fang were 6 out of 10 at best. The Halo games on Xbox are not the definitive editions, and the multiplayer for Halo 2 shut down long ago.

...bruh

I never heard of MUSHA back in the day, it wasn't until it was rare and expensive that it retroactively became "the best game on the Mega Drive!". Games like Haunting Grounds and Gotcha Force were considered mediocre back in the day.

because it's one game called musha aleste, and aleste as a franchise still gets remembered even with the fuckload of shoot'em ups back then. the genre itself was popular (either due to demand or getting in on the popularity, take your pick), but over time disappeared almost completely due to various factors, among them sony being retarded and requiring 3d which pushed companies right in the arms of it's competitor microsoft, which bombed in japan.

there is legit nostalgia for that stuff, else zoomers would've nothing to latch onto in the first place. same way people liked beanie babies before people got retarded over it (it's not even anything new, the comic book snob which is a variant of that is an old enough stereotype that it even made it onto the simpsons).

 

[NoonmanR]

Its weird. Japan doesn't have this markup on their games used. Probably cultural difference. Before the coof, I would import Saturn games from Japan. I got Saturn Bomberman for like $15-20. Goes for insane prices in the states (us version). D was like $1. IIRC, its like $70-100 in the states. Japan Post stopped shipping to America when the coof started and they still haven't started service back up. it was like $10 shipped.


The funniest thing about collecting is the Xbox. The original xbox is uber undervalued. Why idk. 95% of the library is still like under $20. there are games above that price, but its still hella cheap. I got a ton of games in the last few years. most of the cheap heavy hitters. Most of the multiplats on the system are the definitve versions of that game (GTA nonwithstanding). And it was the most powerful console of that gen. But no one wants to buy. Scott the Woz is correct when he called the Xbox "The Joke of the Collecting World".

Aside from the fact that it's in English(always commands a premium), that's more because Saturn did dogshit in the west, but pretty good in Japan. There's also release date to consider(US ver got delayed bad because they added online support), so it also came out during the "Saturn is not our future" stage in it's life, meaning print runs were probably not too good. There's other factors, but as an aside, it's also not too uncommon for some of the rarer US games to also have Japanese games that skyrocket. Try to get an authentic copy of Cotton on the Turbografx or Magical Chase for anything under three digits, not too likely to happen..

Xbox, people don't have nostalgia for yet, for one thing. Lot of these games are getting rereleased for PC, and if you were to look at the exclusives, vast majority are just racing games. Here's a guy going through all of them, look at this and ask yourself if these are anything you'd want an xbox for.

(RGM) Counts down of every KILLER Xbox exclusive

reasons to collect xboxthis video wasn't supposed to be this long. don't watch this. like half of it isn't even in character.

www.youtube.com

 

[Jeff_the_Thriller]

The prices for CRTs are also crazy, you can search ebay and you have many bullshit common models going for over 100 bucks.

They don't even include the repair schematics with them (that that used to be a thing where something would ship with instructions on how to repair it and what the interior resembled).

Like goodwill would be selling TV's for maybe 5-10 dollars if they were CRTs with 20 dollars being considered high.

I thought that was a joke about the CRT TVs. Who is buying these 30 year old nicotine stained TVs for $150?

 

[Sangria]

Spoiler: BW2 Prices

These prices are just for the cartridge. No cases or anything, just the cartridge.
The other DS Pokemon games are bad, but BW2 are the worst offenders.

 

[cummytummies]

Lucky bastard. Mine are all twice to god knows that.

Wow I had no clue the prices had spiked like that. Just out of curiosity, what do you think I would get now had I hung on to the GameCube I sold back in like 2008?

Black GameCube
2 WaveBird wireless controllers
2 Wired controllers
1 Third party controller
2 Memory cards

Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door
Pikmin
Mario Kart: Double Dash!!
Def Jam: Fight For NY
Super Mario Sunshine
Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones
Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life
GoldenEye: Rogue Agent
Tony Hawk's American Wasteland
Burnout 2: Point of Impact
Spider-Man 2
FIFA Soccer 06
NHL 2005
Madden 2005
Freeloader

I even found the picture I used for eBay lol (I sold the wavebirds and whatever games I could separately before listing the rest).

I think I got around 200€ for everything back then, but unfortunately that e-mail address is lost to time.

 

[AsbestosFlaygon]

tbh it makes sense to me if you want a "complete" of a game for your own sake
like I knew a guy who assembled a few hella expensive transformers from parts lots for less than even one would have cost him

When the case costs ten bucks or less I'd agree, but some of these rarer games have people selling the fucking case for the price of a fucking new game, I'm sorry but no case and manual is worth that much.