Biggest Value Increase

[Inzoreno | 102]

For all of you who keep regular tabs on the value of the game sin your collection, I am curious as to which item has had the biggest increase of value from the price you paid to what it is worth now? Out of my own collection, it's probably would be Dark Souls Trilogy for the PS4. Most of the valuable games I own I ended up buying after their value had already ticked up, such as PS4 The Messenger, the first two Shantae games, or YS VIII. But I was able to purchase Dark Souls Trilogy back when it was still new at GameStop for I think the $59.99 or so it went for at the time. It looks like now that game has easily double in price since then.  

[MrWunderful | 2,927]

Everything ive bought at garage sales for 1$ or less between 2004-2015 i stopped hunting for games “in the wild”. But still have 80% of what I found. 
 

So too many to mention. 

[B.A. | 1,139]

World of Nintendo neon that I bought from a video rental store that was shutting down in 2006 or so. 

[fcgamer | 4,754]

All the unlicensed originals I bought back in 2011-2014, for GB and Famicom. As supplies dried up and people started becoming increasingly interested in them, the prices skyrocketed.

[JamesRobot | 5,840]

[Hammerfestus | 3,891]

I got my Little Samson for free, so whatever the value of that is now.

[OptOut | 8,892]

18 minutes ago, Hammerfestus said:

I got my Little Samson for free, so whatever the value of that is now.

What the heck did you do to get a free Sampson? Stab a guy?! 

[RH | 4,983]

By way of percent increase, two weekends ago I picked up a $20 lot with a PS1 Mini, two controllers, 8 games and the king of the lot was Valkyrie Profile 100% complete and in mint shape. So, if we say that was $2 in cost, it's worth ~$400 and that's by far the best score of my life. (It's FS, by the way.)

That's not bad.

But if we're talking about what is the largest increase in FMV, regardless of what was paid for it, that's a bit tough. It could be my sealed Solatorobo. I got it for $160 value in a trade and it might have been valued at about $175 on eBay at the time. I also paid $150 for Toxic Crusader on the GB. At the time I felt I over paid but it was one of the last 5 GB titles I needed and I hadn't seen a clean copy in the many months I had looked for one. I "over paid" and now it goes for well over double that.

I also had a CIB Chrono Trigger in overall excellent shape which I sold a couple months ago. It was probably worth $200-250 when I got it. When I sold it in a lot, I'm sure I could have gotten $550-600 for it from the right buyer.

[Code Monkey | 2,014]

By percentage? Lots of games I got for $5 worth hundreds now.

By dollar value? All of my prototypes.

[Strange | 1,702]

Uhhh back when “game hunting” was a thing you could do (yard sales, thrift stores, etc.) we used to go cruising our bougie little lake town every summer for games. Mostly found newer stuff but my best “scores” were Stubbs the Zombie for $1 and Samurai Western for $0.25. Both of those finds happened before these games caught the online hype fire and shot up in value. Unfortunately, I sold them off once they did because I was in graduate school at the time and needed the cash.

[Californication | 1,490]

I think the jump of uncommone PS3 games from $9 to $79 - $90 is kind of crazy. So Puppeteer, Folklore, etc.

I got MegaMan 5 for like $6 ten years ago.

But in dollar value I bought Dragon Fighter about three years back for $150 which is $600 now. I scoured the internet and found a small shop in Canada with a tiny internet site because I knew the game was going to be solid. That was far the most I had ever payed for a game at that time.

Edited July 1, 2021 by Californication

[zoiks66 | 72]

Depending on how you measure either a 1st print CIB Zelda NES with “cassette” manual I paid $50 for that would grade as 8.0 or 8.5 overall, or a PS3 sealed 3D Dot Game Heroes I paid $1 shipped when a retailer was clearing them out.

[Tanooki | 4,953]

As far as what I have currently, no doubt it's Pokemon Red sealed.  I got it for $100 locally late 2018, even then it was a deal as it was worth just north of $300.  Currently the 'average' sealed non-graded price on VGPC(ugh) sits around $8500.

Come to think of it, even if i still had what I got rid of in the past, it still wouldn't come close (CIB Earthbound, Aerofighters complete minus box, Shantae GBC cart only to name a few.)

[3rdStrongestMole | 430]

I bought a CIB Zelda 2 in Pittsburgh from a game store for $25 bucks, because they didn't charge extra for boxes and manuals 6 years ago. It graded an 8.5... So I guess that's the biggest percentage increase. Then Earthbound CIB... 

[guitarzombie | 927]

Only because its part of the silliness thats going on but I see Toxic Crusaders for Game Boy is like $400.  I got it for $30 which was a fair price at the time.  I think it was the 2nd or 3rd GB game I bought.  I got Avenging Spirit for $15, Jimmy Connors Tennis for $2 and Sumo Fighter for $15.  All those 3 were undervalued games at the time that were just sitting in a store.  Nothing really crazy.  There might be more but nothing like whats been posted because I never cared for CIB/Sealed which is where the real jumps are. 

Edited July 1, 2021 by guitarzombie

[bowser | 600]

2 years ago I scored Pokemon Diamond and Pokemon Platinum sealed for $20 and $40 respectively. Their value seem to be all over the place right now though so can't get a grip on the percentage increase.

[YOURTURN | 1,257]

Last year I asked for a 'PS one Books' variant copy of Dragon Quest VII. The main reason was because the standard variant had two printings, and I did not want to get stuck with the second (corrected) version. The sealed copy I found, asked for, and got was priced on eBay for $75 (plus tax and possible shipping rates). The game currently goes for $240+ on both eBay and Amazon Japan. With the 'Ultimate Hits' version going for a bit higher. 

[chuppy44 | 56]

I bought a Panzer Dragoon Saga at launch and for the next 10 years or so I thought it was mindblowing to own a game that actually doubled in value.

There have been other things that have gone up more but that one is the most interesting to me since it's the only one to actually go up pre-2008. I didn't keep tabs on prices back then but I don't recall any other game going above the initial retail price, I mean, I'm sure Stadium Events did, but what else?

Edited July 1, 2021 by chuppy44

[DefaultGen | 5,436]

FOMO bought a sealed OOT and SM64 in 2019 because they're my favorite two games, and they're like what, 5-10 grand now in just decent shape. Didn't buy them to ever sell, but hey, didn't end up missing out so that's nice. Doing my best to avoid games that fit into Wata cases these days so I don't have to compete in markets like that.

[Hammerfestus | 3,891]

8 hours ago, OptOut said:

What the heck did you do to get a free Sampson? Stab a guy?! 

Nah. It was in a banana crate full of gifted NES games from back when that kind of thing still happened.

[RegularGuyGamer | 2,018]

1 hour ago, MrWunderful said:

So too many to mention.

I gotta 2nd this. I've gotten so much of my collection dirt cheap. 

If anything, the price increases have made me more selective with what I keep in the collection. Games that used to not be worth the time to list and ship now sell for $50, $80 even some for $150. Back in the day, I would just stock up on any game I didn't have that looked interesting but now it's gotta be special or really spark my interest just to stay on the shelf. 

[a3quit4s | 4,127]

From a percentage perspective, even though I only started collecting in 2015, pretty much everything that I have bought is up around 10-20% from what I bought it at. Biggest movers are definitely the rares. Samson loose, Earthbound CIB, Gun Nac CIB, and my higher end NES and SNES titles. 

Value doesn't really concern me though, it's nice that the stuff is valuable but honestly I wish it wasn't because I have no intention of selling and it just means stuff I'd like to have is much more expensive. 

[Tanooki | 4,953]

You know, this got me thinking...original period buys/gifts.

I would imagine, some stuff, despite being the old MSRP still likely could be someones largest increase in value.  Whether it was 90s retail, retail clearance, or even second hand offline shops of the 90s too as they had to direct compete with retail and their drops/supplies.

A random one since it came up, Dracula X SNES.  I don't have the box anymore or what some sick people charge enough for, the registration card, but I do have the game and manual in fantastic shape.  That was like a $40-50 game in the day, definitely neither the book or the game go for even close to that now.

Yet the reverse could be said too.  (On theme) Castlevania III in the day was a $50 game too, the cart and manual alone aren't worth even that now all these decades later despite the huge popularity of it and the franchise.  Things are just strange, because you can jump into Gameboy Castlevania II on there, the game and the manual, and yeah oof the box, ridiculous.  There's like no rhyme or reason for any of it other than when people call foul about manipulation.

[Tabonga | 2,348]

Since I bought almost all of my games back in the day (either new or used at gamestores) it is likely whatever game is most valuable in my collection.  I don't follow values very closely but I imagine it is my copy of SNES Earthbound which cost me around $70 new - I still have the box, game and guide.

[TDIRunner | 2,780]

If we are talking about what I paid vs. what it's worth now, it's hard to say for sure since I don't really track that stuff.  But I know I bought a CIB copy of Super Metroid from my neighbor for $2 back when the SNES was still the most recent Nintendo console.  Still have that copy today.