The Top 5 Reasons Retro Video Game Collecting is Expensive

 

I recently uploadeda video on my YouTube channel giving my top five reasons retro video games havegotten expensive, especially sealed or at least complete-in-box. You can watchit HERE. My list goes all the back to the ‘90s up until the present day. Beloware some of the comments on the video. Feel free to weigh in as well over onYouTube, or here. Thanks for watching! And commenting!

@smog-097 says:

It only seemsridiculous because people were giving away 80s and 90s video games for pennieson the dollar.  When a console wasconsidered obsolete, people literally threw them away. Even though it seemsexpensive today, and I agree there are ridiculous examples out there, the vastmajority of classic games still barely sell for the original MSRP, and most arefar less. I mean if you paid $50 in 1989 for a new Nintendo game, and it mayhave gone for $2 used at flea markets in the ‘90s…most of them have reboundedto what?  Like $20?  That's not a real return on investment after4 decades unless you happened to be the one hoarding them out of clearancebins.

@MrShady365:

One of the majorfactors imo is that a lot of the games still hold up. There’s still a demandfrom people like me who didn’t even grow up with them.

 

@80s_Gamr:

 

When I first gotinto collecting, I used to tell people that the lowest barrier to entry was theVCS/2600. You could get a working console for $10-$20, and games typically were$1-$3. My, how times have changed.

@segaherman6458:

I want to collectmy childhood, but it can be tough to collect video games now a days

@enfieldjohn101:

It's gettingharder to find, but still once in a while I find Atari games cheap. Got a boxof 2600 games for $1 a piece last week when a local game store was having asidewalk sale. None were rare, but a lot of them were in very good condition.

Found two NES games for $11 each that are good ones and a CIB Sega Genesis game of theWilliams Arcade Collection for $11 too. Glad to see sales l😅ke that still.

Sealed, gradedcollectibles are silly indeed. I figure that if I wanted to just look at a gamebox, comic book cover, toy box, etc, I'll take or download a photo of it andhang that on the wall.

 

I've done thatalready with covers of the super expensive first appearance comics.

 

Another reason whydemand has gone up for some of these games is because of emulator consoles likethe HyperKin consoles and the Atari 2600+ which can play original cartridges.

 

@benaiahburns4046:

I have beenplaying since the 70's, but I didn't have the available income to startcollecting before 1997. The most amountof games I had at any one time was 60 games before 1997. However, at Christmas that year, I broke 100games, and I haven't looked back since. Today, I own over 13,600+ games, 363 consoles and 44 complete libraries.

I will sayhowever, that to me, collecting ended with the 360, PS3 and Wii U. Today, with the PS4/PS5, One,Series X andSwitch, most games REQUIRE an update before you use them for the first time,WHICH MEANS, that in the future, when these games are no longer supported,those games will be worth about as much as a coaster. Thus, I only buy what I will play for thoseconsoles.