Retro gaming prices 30+ years

[ConsoleCollector88 8]

When us guys and gals who grew up with Atari, Sega, Nintendo, Dreamcast are in our 70s what will todays collectibles bring? Kids born today and in the past who never had any of these consoles never played or even know what these are... just had me thinking so wanted to hear the communities thoughts.

[OptOut 8,451]

Not much, tbh. Other than the top tiny percent, the vast bulk of this cheap plastic crap will be worthless in 30 years.

[Hammerfestus 3,591]

In the year 2525 2050?  Let’s just say you’re gonna wanna stock up on last print copies of Star Voyager.

Edited September 27, 2020 by Hammerfestus

[Estil 1,182]

1 hour ago, Hammerfestus said:

In the year 2525 2050? 

 

[joehalford01 10]

That's an interesting thought exercise.  On one hand, a large portion of buyers buy for nostalgia now, but in 30 years, that won't be the case for Nes or Genesis.  It'll be more like atari. On the other hand, IPs that are still alive may still be collectable,  in the way old comic books still remain collectable.  So....who knows? 

[DefaultGen 4,935]

Kids grow up with iPads in their hands now. By 2050 they're going to have their own recreated Apple App Store with all the Minecrafts and Cut The Ropes they played growing up. They'll probably pay $1000s for sealed graded tablets and some of their aging, constrained batteries with no room to expand will explode and burn their houses down.

Personally I see more people growing up to become digital hoarders with curated collections of nostalgic touch screen software, platforms, and services that would otherwise have been lost. But who knows. I mean I honestly don't know. Do kids have toys or anything these days or do you just give them a phone so they shut up for a couple hours. Maybe I have a cynical view on modern parenting.

Edited September 29, 2020 by DefaultGen

[Code Monkey 1,865]

All physical based media from today will be lost to bit rot so nobody is going to want it unless they're collecting games they can't play.

[Strange 1,657]

18 hours ago, DefaultGen said:

Do kids have toys or anything these days or do you just give them a phone so they shut up for a couple hours. Maybe I have a cynical view on modern parenting.

Some company (Amazon?) makes some cheap ass tablet with ugly brightly colored protective cases that I see (or used to see, back in the Before Times) at restaurants. A family with three kids would walk in and all three would have one. It’s today’s pacifier.

My brother and his wife (millennials) try to limit their daughter’s screen time while my parents (boomers) don’t understand why the hell they care. It’s weird.

[ConsoleCollector88 8]

9 hours ago, Code Monkey said:

All physical based media from today will be lost to bit rot so nobody is going to want it unless they're collecting games they can't play.

This makes me sad. It’s already going that way too. I personally love physical discs and having the actual item. 

[captmorgandrinker 1,610]

Take a look at the model train market to get an idea of where video games are heading.

[doner24 1,131]

1 minute ago, captmorgandrinker said:

Take a look at the model train market to get an idea of where video games are heading.

Too lazy, tell me!

[captmorgandrinker 1,610]

1 minute ago, doner24 said:

Too lazy, tell me!

While not an exact parallel, I think you'll see the same among the casual collectors. 

As the collectors are getting older and starting to pass away the next generation isn't taking up the same interest.

[doner24 1,131]

Just now, captmorgandrinker said:

While not an exact parallel, I think you'll see the same among the casual collectors. 

As the collectors are getting older and starting to pass away the next generation isn't taking up the same interest.

Ah, I don’t agree for a couple reasons. A. Many forms of trains are irrelevant in real life these days I.e. steam locomotives. As long as video games stay around, along with the key characters, the future generations will continue to collect....similar to comics IMO.

[captmorgandrinker 1,610]

Just now, doner24 said:

Ah, I don’t agree for a couple reasons. A. Many forms of trains are irrelevant in real life these days I.e. steam locomotives. As long as video games stay around, along with the key characters, the future generations will continue to collect....similar to comics IMO.

If consoles ever go digital only, I think it'll end up more like trains than comics.

And again, you'll still have your outlier stuff like sealed.   I'm thinking more of the bins of common games in this example.

[doner24 1,131]

11 minutes ago, captmorgandrinker said:

If consoles ever go digital only, I think it'll end up more like trains than comics.

And again, you'll still have your outlier stuff like sealed.   I'm thinking more of the bins of common games in this example.

Yeah, could definitely see that on less rare cart only stuff. I think sealed and CIB will be more like baseball cards and comics though. 

[captmorgandrinker 1,610]

Just now, doner24 said:

Yeah, could definitely see that on less rare cart only stuff. I think sealed and CIB will be more like baseball cards and comics though. 

Yep, or at least nice conditioned CIB.    

Also, do you think comics would be enjoying their current market without the superhero movies of the last 15-20 years?  That's what makes me think that most of the video game stuff will gather dust; I don't see any hook like that to boost it in 2040.

[Brickman 3,437]

8 hours ago, captmorgandrinker said:

Take a look at the model train market to get an idea of where video games are heading.

This was my thought too.

Unless parents are actively making their children play NES games before they move onto modern games I can’t really see younger kids having any attachment.

I’m sure stuff like Mario and Zelda will hold up pretty well because Nintendo will keep them relevant, but I can’t see many games holding their value.

Also, gaming in 30 years will be so different. Probably all cloud based and VR. Will kids even want to look at NES graphics? 

[captmorgandrinker 1,610]

6 hours ago, Shmup said:

This was my thought too.

Unless parents are actively making their children play NES games before they move onto modern games I can’t really see younger kids having any attachment.

I’m sure stuff like Mario and Zelda will hold up pretty well because Nintendo will keep them relevant, but I can’t see many games holding their value.

Also, gaming in 30 years will be so different. Probably all cloud based and VR. Will kids even want to look at NES graphics? 

If Nintendo thinks there's any money in it, they'll gladly publish Mario and Zelda collections until the end of time.  I'm a bit surprised there hasn't really been a Zelda compilation since the Gamecube.

So the stuff like sealed and nice CIB of those games would stay relevant as in Doner's comic example, and the rest would just wither away in junk bins.

[Bearcat-Doug 4,944]

I don't know if the original stuff will hold up that long. I'm not sure if having a CIB or sealed copy of SMB or Zelda for the NES will have that much appeal to someone that didn't grow up with them. At least not at the prices they are going for now.

[The Count 466]

I think more systems will have to be reverse compatible to keep older games relevant. 

[captmorgandrinker 1,610]

4 hours ago, Bearcat-Doug said:

I don't know if the original stuff will hold up that long. I'm not sure if having a CIB or sealed copy of SMB or Zelda for the NES will have that much appeal to someone that didn't grow up with them. At least not at the prices they are going for now.

Yeah, but you'll still have peeps that grew up with Mario in some form that would want SMB as a collectable.

[T-Pac 6,345]

I think too much weight is given to the "nostalgia factor" as a driving force for retro gaming and collecting. I didn't grow up in the 8-bit / 16-bit era, but I'm drawn to those games and hardware from both a gaming and collecting standpoint, and on a much deeper level than the typical "see the origins of franchise X or character Y". 

That being said, there will always be a small subset of people like me who love the aesthetics and physical media of classic gaming even if it was before our time. We will likely be the ones keeping the market going for "standard" (non-CIB / sealed) games, both as collectibles and "player's copies", well into the future.

-CasualCart

[Bearcat-Doug 4,944]

2 hours ago, captmorgandrinker said:

Yeah, but you'll still have peeps that grew up with Mario in some form that would want SMB as a collectable.

Probably so, but I'm guessing it would be a small percentage compared to the people that grew up with it.

[Brickman 3,437]

I’m not well informed on comic and baseball card collecting but I would think maybe there are similarities we can look at.

Besides the key issues like Superman, Batman etc. surely no one is paying say $1000 for an Archie comic or the thousands of other comics released in the 50’s.

Same with baseball cards, I’m sure a Babe Ruth would still command a high price but I’m guessing the majority of other cards from that era aren’t worth as much.

That’s what I think will happen to NES games. Key franchises will probably still get good money but the majority of it will drop as people approach retirement.

 

[DarkKobold 112]

On 9/30/2020 at 8:08 AM, captmorgandrinker said:

If Nintendo thinks there's any money in it, they'll gladly publish Mario and Zelda collections until the end of time.  I'm a bit surprised there hasn't really been a Zelda compilation since the Gamecube.

 

Probably because its trivial to put each game out on their e-shop, and get money with near zero cost of publishing. Why print physical, when you can sell a digital copy of SMB3 alone for $5 every time you release a new console?