Retro gaming prices 30+ years

[captmorgandrinker | 1,649]

3 minutes ago, DarkKobold said:

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?

Why not both?

[Jono1874 | 144]

On 9/29/2020 at 6:28 AM, 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 is (generally speaking) true for CD based media and cartridges that use flash based memory. However, cartridge based games that use mask ROMs will more than likely outlive everyone reading this thread. So long as caps and batteries are maintained as needed. NES carts are absurdly resiliant.

[Grondorr | 49]

I read through this whole thread. Been thinking about this a lot as my kids have no interest in collecting, so I have to think about the future.

Thoughts:
1) Franchises that live on should remain in-demand (early comic books that feature characters that are still popular are a good analogy)
2) Digital-only shouldn't kill off collecting. (Only have to look towards vintage vinyl to see a possible future.)
3) People aren't thinking about the impact of 30+ years of ADDITIONAL aging on these games. Even if a mint copy of XYZ will be highly in demand, many of the NM/M copies people have in their collections today, will deteriorate, and no longer be NM/M copies, even if encased.
4) Will future generations still have the collecting gene? (Who knows, but I can't imagine that all collecting activity will end.) 


 

[TheBiRD | 137]

On 9/29/2020 at 7:47 PM, captmorgandrinker said:

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.

I don't understand why we are now at Spiderman 17. And there is still no ''Zelda, the Beginning'' movie...

My guess is that video game based movie will be the next hype. What about a good Mario bros movie? or Zelda, Chrono Trigger or FF3 (not 6!) movie?!  Grand Theft auto or GoW movie?!

 

We had some here and there like warcraft, lara croft, resident evil... but there are so many untouched great franchise yet, I can't imagine Hollywood not to ends with a boring Zelda 17 movie someday...

[a_profile_name | 230]

On 12/10/2020 at 2:45 AM, TheBiRD said:

I don't understand why we are now at Spiderman 17. And there is still no ''Zelda, the Beginning'' movie...

My guess is that video game based movie will be the next hype. What about a good Mario bros movie? or Zelda, Chrono Trigger or FF3 (not 6!) movie?!  Grand Theft auto or GoW movie?!

 

We had some here and there like warcraft, lara croft, resident evil... but there are so many untouched great franchise yet, I can't imagine Hollywood not to ends with a boring Zelda 17 movie someday...

Oh, there were quite a few video game based movies over the years.

Not that I'm blaming you for forgetting them though - there are good reasons why no one wants to remember them.

[BortLicensePlate | 652]

On 9/30/2020 at 4:31 PM, CasualCart said:

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

I'm not sure how old you are but I'm kind of in the same boat, my first console was n64 but I enjoy playimg the older nes and snes games more nowadays.

[TheBiRD | 137]

20 minutes ago, sg17 said:

Oh, there were quite a few video game based movies over the years.

Not that I'm blaming you for forgetting them though - there are good reasons why no one wants to remember them.

exactly, I mean good, epic video game movie.. There is a way to do a FF3, zelda or CT epic movie based for sure!

[segashack | 15]

Honestly I can’t imagine many enthusiasts for 80s/90s/2000s videogames 30 years from now. Most of the “Rare” titles won’t be in the wild anymore but you will probably see collector’s ditching their items as they get into older age and simplify/downsize. As much as we enjoy collecting, I can’t imagine people’s spouses/children seeing thier collection as anything but a massive burden to get rid of once they pass on.

Are people in their 70’s / 80’s going to bother with the hassle of trying to collect old video games? Availability is already practically non existant in garage sales/ thrift stores.

I expect disc rot to be a huge issue as well as detioration of circuit boards to come into play. Rechargable battery systems like the PSP, DS, and GBA SP will not have any batteries that can hold a charge. Disc based systems will all need laser replacements with normal use (most PS1s and PS2s already need a new laser).

No one will want to collect for a large portion of PS4/XB1 games and on since a good portion of those require updates from servers that will no longer exist.

I don’t expect young folk born 30 years from now to have any interest in video game systems that came out 80 years before they were born. 

Edited May 3, 2021 by segashack

[bullz7210 | 4]

As someone who was a teenager in the 90's and went with my dad to baseball card shows regularly, I sure wish we'd have ponied up the 5-10k for that Mickey Mantle rookie we saw at one card show.  I also wish I'd have somehow had the 3k or whatever it was for the Michael Jordan rookie I saw at a card shop in 98?

I "think" there will be certain rare games that will always go up, or at least hold their value.  If that means it has to be stupid rare like Stadium Events, or something like Little Samson and Flintstones which is more the lines of the Michael Jordan rookie? Idk.  Michael Jordan is the best basketball player of all time and is still popular 20 years after he retired, and is still a brand that younger generations know about, my guess is there won't be anything in the public discourse that keeps interest in Little Samson and the Flintstones going?  

So, my guess is stuff that has shot up for no real reason the last year, basically any NES cart that was over $100, will fall back down to earth at some point while something like Stadium Events will gradually go up?  Maybe sealed copies of the original Super Mario Bros will wind up being like the Mickey Mantle 1952 Topps of the video game industry. 

[Strange | 1,700]

This thread is depressing and makes me wonder why we’re doing all of this lol

[a3quit4s | 4,096]

57 minutes ago, Strange said:

This thread is depressing and makes me wonder why we’re doing all of this lol

Same, I was hoping one day (if my son had no interest in games) when I retire that I would open a storefront and sell off all this stuff to people who will play and appreciate it. People keep mentioning bit rot though and it makes me nervous but from simple googling it seems to only impact optical media like CDs.

[Tanooki | 4,932]

We're doing it the same reason from other periods people did it with vinyl, comics, older era baseball cards, coins, stamps, even an entire home library of books.  They're entertainment, and a decent amount timeless, timeless enough it doesn't matter the age new people come along and enjoy a solid smaller percentage of them so they never die.  The rest, it's those more into having their big wall of one (or more) of those things that dig more into their interests and find more to enjoy not caring it's from 30 or 300 years ago.

I mean my kid was born almost a decade ago and that puts her squarely at the back end of the DS/Wii into mid-life PSP/PS3 era for perspective.  Aside from a few dopey mobile games and owning a Switch and 3DS, you know what often she more crawls into, the 8/16bit stuff emulated on those, the CLassiC Edition systems, or my old stuff direct or using old hardware with a flash kit or real cart supervised due to age.  She's no 80s or 90s kid, but that stuff is timeless, definitely NOT her era, yet really enjoys it.  Same can be said for someone who digs mid 20th century literature but is just in high school or something now, wrong period, but good material.

[phart010 | 1,707]

On 5/17/2021 at 12:08 PM, a3quit4s said:

Same, I was hoping one day (if my son had no interest in games) when I retire that I would open a storefront and sell off all this stuff to people who will play and appreciate it. People keep mentioning bit rot though and it makes me nervous but from simple googling it seems to only impact optical media like CDs.

I don’t think bit rot will affect all cds. And actually I don’t think bit rot is technically even the correct word to use for cds.

As I understand it, bit rot refers to the eventual loss of data in an eprom. This happens when data, which exists as stored electric charges (each charge represents a bit) eventually fades away over time. The point to be made is that the physical chip material isn’t failing, it’s just a loss of electrical charge.

With cds, what actually happens is failure of the material. The material in the cd itself actually decomposes. But I don’t think this happens at the same rate for all cds. CDs have varying levels of manufacture quality. Also some cds have more protective layers than others to better insulate the data layer from being affected by oxidation. I imagine that some of the sturdier cds will keep going and going.

Edited May 21, 2021 by phart010

[ALTQQ | 87]

99% will be worthless, dont be left holding the bag

[ThePhleo | 2,184]

Mickey Mouse is a great character icon. Made in 1928. But no one cares about “Animal Olympic Games” from the same year.

As long as Nintendo can tap into the same magic Disney has, they can milk Mario for all eternity. . . but a certain Olympiad themed game for the same platform maybe not so much.

Basically, comic guys buying up sealed fan favorites got it right.

[Capn_RDM | 9]

On 9/30/2020 at 3:51 PM, Shmup said:

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.

 

  Can't speak for sports cards but people are paying $1000s of dollars for comics outside of titles/characters the general public thinks of when comics are mentioned.

[segashack | 15]

PS1, PS2, and original Xboxes all now very commonly have laser issues. I think it's inevitable that unless someone just wants a copy for their shelf, no one will be buying these games to play them.

[AdamW | 713]

Uh, there are still tons of functional PS1s, PS2s and BC PS3s out there. Lots of people still play original PS1 and PS2 games all the time.

I've played two PS2 games I bought this year already (Gitaroo Man and Psychonauts, on BC PS3) and planning some more.

Edited June 2, 2021 by AdamW

[OptOut | 8,883]

I agree with @AdamW I play my OG XBOX all the time!

I HAVE seen plenty of Xboxes with disc drive issues, of course, but usually in cases where the system was neglected and stored in inappropriate conditions. Same for other disc-based systems.

But, you can still find working systems easy if you want, no sweat, and if you look after them properly they aren't in any immediate danger of failing.

Long-term, of course the survival rate of everything (and everyone!) trends to zero. But there will always be ways to repair systems, replace disc drives and continue to enjoy these games into the future!

 

[segashack | 15]

On 6/2/2021 at 3:24 PM, AdamW said:

Uh, there are still tons of functional PS1s, PS2s and BC PS3s out there. Lots of people still play original PS1 and PS2 games all the time.

I've played two PS2 games I bought this year already (Gitaroo Man and Psychonauts, on BC PS3) and planning some more.

Not saying there arent a lot of functioning ones still, but failures are becoming more common. I bought a PS2 and OG Xbox this year from people locally, both worked great initially had laser failures for me within a week or two of use.

I've heard stories of people opening sealed PS2s and Xboxes and the lasers dont even work.

 

It's definitely a consideration to make at the very least.

 

I think in the future it will be very important to have modded laser based systems whether its an optical drive emulator or using the PS2 fat HDD/Network Adapter or Gamecube Action Replay.

 

With the original Xbox the system EEProm locks the harddrive to that system, when you have harddrive failure on an unmodded system you are hosed.

Edited June 7, 2021 by segashack

[OptOut | 8,883]

3 hours ago, segashack said:

Not saying there arent a lot of functioning ones still, but failures are becoming more common. I bought a PS2 and OG Xbox this year from people locally, both worked great initially had laser failures for me within a week or two of use.

I've heard stories of people opening sealed PS2s and Xboxes and the lasers dont even work.

 

It's definitely a consideration to make at the very least.

 

I think in the future it will be very important to have modded laser based systems whether its an optical drive emulator or using the PS2 fat HDD/Network Adapter or Gamecube Action Replay.

 

With the original Xbox the system EEProm locks the harddrive to that system, when you have harddrive failure on an unmodded system you are hosed.

You're not wrong, certainly it is very important to be attentive to these old systems in order to maintain them properly!

But as long as there are people like us around who appreciate and care about these games, there will be people able to do the work necessary to keep them up and running for future enjoyment!

[GPX | 1,369]

On 5/18/2021 at 12:37 AM, Strange said:

This thread is depressing and makes me wonder why we’re doing all of this lol

For both the nostalgia and the hope we sell for something for a million dollars some day before we die.

[Link | 2,709]

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

I'm a bit surprised there hasn't really been a Zelda compilation since the Gamecube.

Looks like they’d rather re-release single games at full price (WW & TP on Wii U, SS on Switch)

 

ooh, sorry to necro-quote, lol

Edited June 7, 2021 by Link

[segashack | 15]

On 6/7/2021 at 12:42 AM, OptOut said:

You're not wrong, certainly it is very important to be attentive to these old systems in order to maintain them properly!

But as long as there are people like us around who appreciate and care about these games, there will be people able to do the work necessary to keep them up and running for future enjoyment!

Very true! Good point! 

[G-type | 2,480]

As long as video games remain a popular hobby, there will still be a subset of people who are interested in the history of that hobby. Articles will still be written. Anniversaries of popular systems and franchises will still be mentioned. So the collector market will exist in some form, although it might become more niche than it is now where it's fueled mostly by nostalgia.