POLL: Post EMP shockwave retro game prices

[phart010 | 1,708]

Let’s say there was an EMP shockwave that somehow reached the whole world. All communications devices were instantly destroyed. No more Androids, iPhones, internet servers….. nothing! And no more hardware devices to be made for like 1-2 years.

Ebay and Amazon are deleted and have to be recoded from scratch. So no more centralized references for price checking. Basically we won’t be back to something even close to recognizable in terms of communications and apps for like 3 years.

How do you think that would impact retro game prices?   In a good way??

Edited July 28, 2021 by phart010

[arch_8ngel | 1,597]

I'll vote "no" -- since the scenario you're describing is basically cataclysmic. 

[Hammerfestus | 3,889]

What?  I’m fighting off these zombie hordes and you’re worried about the price of my contra?

[phart010 | 1,708]

9 minutes ago, arch_8ngel said:

I'll vote "no" -- since the scenario you're describing is basically cataclysmic. 

I know. But it’s the only way I can contemplate prices coming back down

[Tabonga | 2,344]

With your scenario things are going to take much much longer to rebuild then a few years since just about everything is going to go down.  (Think of how few vehicles would remain operable - not to mention production and distribution of fuel.)  

What would happen with the price of video games would be irrelevant - they likely wouldn't even have any value in the barter systems which would likely replace current monetary systems.

So a really big no.

[Strange | 1,701]

There won’t be social media to score those sweet sweet internet points so with no motivation to collect video games some will be out of the game and prices will go down

[phart010 | 1,708]

25 minutes ago, Tabonga said:

What would happen with the price of video games would be irrelevant - they likely wouldn't even have any value in the barter systems which would likely replace current monetary systems.

So your saying the prices will come down?

[Tabonga | 2,344]

7 minutes ago, phart010 said:

So your saying the prices will come down?

I am saying they would be so irrelevant as to be worthless - so prices would not exist.  Board games would likely attain increased value though.........

[phart010 | 1,708]

8 minutes ago, Tabonga said:

I am saying they would be so irrelevant as to be worthless - so prices would not exist.  Board games would likely attain increased value though.........

So then we have a yes  

Edited July 28, 2021 by phart010

[DefaultGen | 5,436]

Instinctively I want to say mass suffering, panic, and a huge pause button on the entire online market would obviously cause a luxury like collectible, old video games to decrease in price. But COVID-19 happened and here we are, so truly I don't know. I would guess in the short/medium term prices increase. When the market was hazier pre-Ebay, dealers were able to exploit knowledge gaps and local supply by selling things like stamps, rare books, and Beanie Babies at a premium to buyers with less info and fewer choices. Once the online market existed, more common stuff was so easy to get, and tons of stuff crashed in price.

[sp1nz | 615]

Uhm wouldn't the functionality of all floppy / circuit board / card based games be destroyed by the EMP too? So the parts of your collection that would be generally even be valuable would tank into worthless paperweights for the masses. For disc based games the systems are still fried, so the value of games would plummet there too.

So my vote is big no but not necessarily for the value of the items (higher or lower) but the value of the function. Many people always wish games were worth as little as possible, so they could get everything they want for peanuts but I personally don't think collecting would be that interesting, if nothing was of value - but on the other hand games have some value to me even as paperweights due to the artworks/manuals/memories associated.

In case games, systems, monitors and your home electricity network would be magically exempt from the global EMP effects then I still expect people to not give a damn about value of games due to the catastrophic effects on daily life. Modern world is too dependent on electronics and electric networks, so it'll make you think more in terms of how will you even get food to eat than trading any luxury items or having even time to enjoy them.

EDIT: Okay I guess the modus operandi for EMP is that it's a temporary effect but sometimes it can have permanent effects too. So refer to my last paragraph before this edit.

Edited July 29, 2021 by sp1nz

[phart010 | 1,708]

18 minutes ago, sp1nz said:

Uhm wouldn't the functionality of all floppy / circuit board / card based games be destroyed by the EMP too? So the parts of your collection that would be generally even be valuable would tank into worthless paperweights for the masses. For disc based games the systems are still fried, so the value of games would plummet there too.

So my vote is big no but not necessarily for the value of the items (higher or lower) but the value of the function. Many people always wish games were worth as little as possible, so they could get everything they want for peanuts but I personally don't think collecting would be that interesting, if nothing was of value - but on the other hand games have some value to me even as paperweights due to the artworks/manuals/memories associated.

In case games, systems, monitors and your home electricity network would be magically exempt from the global EMP effects then I still expect people to not give a damn about value of games due to the catastrophic effects on daily life. Modern world is too dependent on electronics and electric networks, so it'll make you think more in terms of how will you even get food to eat than trading any luxury items or having even time to enjoy them.

EDIT: Okay I guess the modus operandi for EMP is that it's a temporary effect but sometimes it can have permanent effects too. So refer to my last paragraph before this edit.

This is the kind of EMP that just knocks out Ebay, Amazon, Mercari and cell phones and PCs. Don’t overthink it, it’s an imaginary scenario.

[RH | 4,980]

Jokes on all of you! My entire collection exists exclusively in a Farraday cage, so when the power does come back on, my 8 CRTs, 15 consoles and thousands of games will go for a king's ransom!

[Estil | 1,265]

Even if just the Internet went down for more than a few days it would be rather catastrophic.

[PII | 1,898]

4 hours ago, phart010 said:

But it’s the only way I can contemplate prices coming back down

Don't take this the wrong way, by any means because this will almost certainly happen somewhere in the not too distant future even if it isn't worldwide, but all it's really going to take is no food on the store shelves, no money coming out of the ATMs/currency value being reduced to near worthless, no electricity in many areas - and a cache o video games turns into chump change.  The boxes and manuals magically convert into kindling.

¡Happy Wednesday Everyone!

[Hammerfestus | 3,889]

I will let you have this mint boxed copy of Ghosts n Goblins for 3 wolf pelts and a box of ammo.  Too steep you say?  Now see here!  The markets hot!  If you can catch a courier to WATA your ROI will be through the roof.  Probably at least 5 wolf pelts and a bone sword.  What’s that you say? It isn’t even worth a half dozen elixirs?  Pah!  You insult me sir.  Have at thee.

[Ferris Bueller | 495]

If you're thinking about retro games after a worldwide EMP, you're going in the first wave. 

[Tabonga | 2,344]

 

[DefaultGen | 5,436]

1 hour ago, Ferris Bueller said:

If you're thinking about retro games after a worldwide EMP, you're going in the first wave. 

At this point there could be a nuclear war and I think video game prices would go up because people are travelling less.

[Tanooki | 4,952]

No an EMP blast destroys microchips, just because they were made in the 80s through the 00s(GBA) doesn't make them immune.

The EMP would bring on the worst of people as they take advantage.  And even as things return to normal once the grid, etc are restored, the prices would be far far more awful than they were previously.  Instead of selfish pricks fighting to pay $50 for a game printed into the 100s of 1000s of copies into the millions, now they'll be fighting for a few hundred if that left that somehow were under the right materials to shield them from being wiped.

 

No the EMP would just screw everything, hard.  There is no winner.

[Estil | 1,265]

11 hours ago, Tanooki said:

No an EMP blast destroys microchips, just because they were made in the 80s through the 00s(GBA) doesn't make them immune.

I hope this doesn't sound like a stupid question but is that only for electronics that are being used at the time of the EMP blast or are they F-ed up even if they're just sitting on a shelf like a collection of cartridges?

Maybe we need a non-EMP treaty or something...

[PII | 1,898]

On 7/30/2021 at 12:26 AM, Estil said:

I hope this doesn't sound like a stupid question but is that only for electronics that are being used at the time of the EMP blast or are they F-ed up even if they're just sitting on a shelf like a collection of cartridges?

Maybe we need a non-EMP treaty or something...

Everything unprotected is toast.  While yer workin' on that treaty, see if you can get the politici- er, I mean wolves to stop eating the sheep and go vegan.

Sincerely, 

Sammy Sunshine

 

Edited December 18, 2023 by PII

[Tabonga | 2,344]

31 minutes ago, PII said:

Everything unprotected is toast.  While yer workin' on that treaty, see if you can get the politici- er, I mean wolves to stop eating the sheep and go vegan.

Sincerely, 

Sammy Sunshine

 

[Tanooki | 4,952]

Yeah PII nailed it.  If it's not under some level of proper shielding, it's done.  Just because you're sitting on it, or it's in a pocket, not good enough.  You'll need to think levels of shielding on the magnitude they say would be effective from the radiation side of a nuclear blast, not just the EMP that it throws.  Lots of dirt, concrete, lead or some other acceptable metals, etc.  Anything that can dissipate or bounce the pulse away from the device.

 

That's why I said no good will come of it.  Suddenly those games, once the rest sorts out and people get self serving for collector crap again, will get obscene to the level what HA is doing not seems like chump change.  Suddenly your one of 10M copies of a game is like 1in10 in the world, then stuff gets real.

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

I'm going to vote no simply because what you're describing would absolutely destroy 99.9999999% of all video games, systems, etc. available today and previously.  A strong enough EMP to do what's been suggested would damage/destroy all of the chips in all of the devices that we have and do take for granted.  Basically only those items which were somehow kept inside of a protective cage would survive, causing the value on those few remaining examples to skyrocket even more ridiculously than cryptocurrency money has wreaked havoc currently.  I'm sure such an occurrence would send prices of other toys and games not immediately and easily able to be replicated through the roof, so I guess stock up on non-electronic board games before the near-literal Earth shattering price spike?