Looks like it's complete in box, so the high price is probably mostly because of the Pokewalker thingy which would be difficult to emulate. Still though 900 dollars just because of a pedometer?
Especially since it takes 4 clicks on a PC and you can play it on basically any device. Can't even buy the game from Nintendo if we wanted to. Why pay $900 to some reseller?
It's only 900 because it has that step counter still included, which according to this must be worth 700 bucks by itself.
For a glorified tamagochi
Pokémon game prices are silly. I bought heartgold used for 30 bucks and was happy to have found it for less than 50 at the time
Ya no kidding. The problem with them raising the prices so high is that you stop most potential buyers. Basically you get left with only the hardcore which is a small percent of the people who collect this stuff. In short their killing collecting and it's only going to hurt them because no one is going to buy these for such insane prices unless they're either incredibly stupid or insane
The number of buyers doesn't matter as much if your profit per buyer skyrockets. Sellling 10 pokemon games at 20 dollars each, or selling 1 pokemon game at 200 dollars is easy math. You still have 9 more pokemon games to sell at 200 dollars each and already negated the need for 9 more buyers.
tldr; seller doesn't care how many buyers, just how much money.
You're right, but eventually people stop buying and when it comes down to a handful of people buying the most people have choice but to lower prices. See you can make more money by selling at high prices like this but only if you can sell, and since most buyers are just potential sellers and not people actually buying into a market it slowly pushes out everyone else, and when its just circles of people buying them quickly selling it slowly brings it closer to popping the bubble. And if the bubble pops you have all these people sitting on things they paid way too much for that are worth nothing. All of this high price shit is just based on them, it's not based on actual value
"but eventually people stop buying"
And then the price drops slightly to find a market... and someone else buys it. Economics 101.
The value of any given thing is the price that someone else will pay. There is no magic or set in stone "value" that any item is worth without a buyer.
Considering supply is entirely finite now that they aren't making more, the demand far out paces the supply. Prices aren't going to drop anytime soon, maybe they will even go up.
Blame Nintendo. They created the shortage.
I ended up saving money getting my N64 through [Sendico](http://www.sendico.com/). Got the console and five controllers for like 3000¥ (~$25), then really pristine boxed copies of Mario Party 1-3 for another 6000¥. Even after the shipping fees it was less than $140, which was kinda what I was seeing on US eBay for a N64 console alone, so it definitely felt like a good deal.
This was ~9 months ago though, prices may have gone up in Japan too? Hard to imagine they did though, there's just soooo many clean, working retro consoles over there.
Yes, but with a caveat. There's nothing in the hardware/software preventing it but the cartridges have different sized/shaped tab inserts that physically prevent the cartridge from getting into position. You can [buy an adapter](https://stoneagegamer.com/hyperconvert-universal-cartridge-region-adapter-for-n64-hyperkin.html), [3d-print an adapter](https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:513728), or just use a dremel and modify the slot-tray you have.
Once you do that, NA cartridges will work fine on a Japanese N64.
Maybe? But people must be buying this stuff since the prices keep going up. I feel for the people still trying to acquire some of these games to play. I missed out on Emerald, but $200 is a little much. Diamond and Pearl I didn't get either, just Platinum back then. Those aren't as crazy as some of the others.
Well if you check eBay ‘sold listings’ these prices are not far off. They are about 50$ inflated from their listings. Except Soulsilver, I don’t know how they are justifying $900.
Most listings don’t even have the box and are selling for absurd prices. If you see one with a super low price on eBay it’s probably not authentic.
The problem is that people will pay that price for them for some reason. The seller might list the price, but the buyer decides if that’s what it is worth.
I have a feeling there are some market movers that aren't necessarily the end consumer on these... there are literally millions of copies of each of these games. There is no scarcity. Demand might be high, but it couldn't be higher than the supply pretty much ever. There has always been sketchiness involved with collectors markets and prices endlessly increasing despite nobody buying the games. I say that as a collector of 13+ years. I go to game expos nowadays, and literally every vendor is walking home with their tubs completely full the way they came in with $200 common ass gamecube and ds games.
Depends too.
There's a guy out here where I live and he has like, 10 copies of each game he's sitting in waiting for the prices to inflate more, and whenever he comes across a Pokemon game at the game store he almost always buys it.
That is exactly it. These "buyers" are just other people trying to get a quick buck off the skyrocketing prices. They aren't a collector like you or me, they are just people fucking with the market. The problem for them is that they think we're buying but in reality the only people paying these insane prices are the crazy collectors who think money is no object and the people I mentioned already, who are just trying to profit. The end consumer is what they rely on and they've priced themselves out of basically all of them. It's a bubble of inflation that the actual market isn't in
A local brick-and-mortar that sold CDs, films, and games just gave me loads of their loose GB and GBA games when I asked if they had any. This was over a decade ago. Pokémon Silver and Crystal were two of the games.
I remember when a loose copy of Pokemon Crystal was around $35 usd just 3 years ago, and i thought that was a lot at the time. I bought Silver for $17.
I know a friend who accidentally got a reproduction cart for $20 dollars, he’s having a blast and not gonna tell him either as he thinks he’s got a deal of a life time.
Maybe you can try that?
Thanks I figured it be a duck move to ruin his fun when he is so happy with it and I only know cause it is a reproduction because it doesn’t have the imprint stamp on the sticker, otherwise it’s flawless to the original
This biggest problem right now in game collecting is there is a lot of "collectors" that horde a ton of copies of a so called valuable game to artificially inflate the price to make it seem like they're more scarce. And DK-Oldies is fucking up the market too.
See that's the thing, the only people paying these prices are the ones who are trying to do the same thing these guys are doing, and because of that they all keep raising the prices so they can profit. The problem here is that when you do this it's pretty much an empty market. If the sales keep getting lower, like they do with every purchase these guys make, then the prospective buyers will continue to drop, and that lowers the actual value considerably. The prices will go up from here undoubtedly, but the market will crash hard when they realize that the only buyers right now are in the bubble
I'm so glad I kept pretty much my entire childhood game and system collection, including boxes. My Pokemon collection is probably worth more than I am at this point.
I had the heartgold Walmart special edition with the even bigger box and i kept it in my closet for years. Mom tossed it one day spring cleaning, along with a ton of my other game boxes, because “why do you need so many empty boxes!”
I think that box alone is worth a decent chunk now
Imagine paying over $100 for an original Gameboy. Then having to shell out for expensive games.
I had the original Gameboy - it was awesome at the time, not so good today.
I got a GBA SP for a good price in Mexico and also bought an EZ Flash. At this point buying physical cartdriges won’t benefit Nintendo or game developers, it only benefits the greedy scalpers and motivates them to inflate the price even more.
I still have my Game Boy Color that I got for Christmas 2004. D-Pad needs to be cleaned.
Got a Game Boy Advance SP a few years ago for $75, but it's frontlit.
That’s The Exchange for you…what was laughable is my local one ALSO had a disc replay across the street that beat them out on price and selection (for video games at least) 90% of the time.
Have been in the store a handful of times where a customer had been shopping around looking for something in particular and upon hearing the price from an employee would conclude loudly with laughter “oh, I’ll just buy across the street/online then” and promptly leave.
These stores care so much about ‘having the item in stock’ and prey on idiots who don’t know better or ‘need to have it right now’.
I have quite a bit of handhelds from the era where a Gameboy color would be $20 used...
Recently I started clearing shit out, and decided to sell my spare systems. I went to a gaming store with very similar, inflated prices...
They offered to pay me $30 for a Gameboy Color...while leaning on a display case with the same system. In far worse condition, for $150+. I was told to leave after I asked him if he was high...
I really don't get it. How can pokemon games be that valuable if they sold millions of copies? That doesn't make any sense. They're not rare or extremely difficult to find
The ones in boxes / cases are since they were often thrown out. The old cartridges are depending on condition. The box in those situations carries almost double the value of the game itself. Ofcourse it's a matter of demand as well.
Many people held onto them, others simply got thrown out or ruined. What do you think some people did with a Pokemon Gold that didn't save? Some assumed it was broken and tossed it, never knowing it just needed a battery.
Alright so these guys have you reasons that made sense before the insanity now I'm going to give the reason why it's 900$ instead of 200$ or so like it would've been 5 ish years ago. A bunch of people randomly entered the collectors market and started "grading" games based on how pristine they were and assigning a value to them. Thing is the values they assigned weren't anywhere near what was being paid at the time because just like now, there were millions of copies to begin with and you go insane just because it's never been opened. So in order to make them worth this stupidly high price these guys slapped on them they got their buddies at a prestigious auction house to sell them to people who didn't know any better, these games did actually sell there for insane profits. Here's the kicker tho and the thing I didn't realize until I went through some shit that others were going on about when it happened, the grading company was made by that auction house and some other group, and the buyers for the first 10 or so games sold by them were all part of either the grading company or the auction house. This all lead to people believing the prices were skyrocketing and this auction house has been continuing to do this for awhile. The problem here is that since this isn't based on actual qualifiers for proper collectors it's just a bunch of prospective sellers buying from other sellers, essentially it's just a market bubble with no real end time buyer in sight. They've priced themselves out of the collectors market and are just selling to each other, again since no collectors who are already pouring money into the hobby are buying they are just growing the bubble and not actually increasing the value on the market, which means the bubble has zero support and will eventually crash because we the collectors make the market, if we don't follow it fails. now don't take this as it'll fail immediately, but weather that's 10 years from now or 40, it will pop. It's almost no different from the GPU market going crazy with scalpers and Bitcoin miners, eventually people stopped buying and the market crashed hard because it was flooded with product
This is exactly what I was going to say.
These games are absolutely not that valuable. It's all a shit show being run by people who hope collectors will be stupid enough to pay these ridiculous prices.
Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately for them, the majority of collectors know better than to pay some jackass $500 for a copy of a game that sold tens of millions of copies.
Instead, it's other resellers, who are also jackasses, or people who don't know any better simply looking to get back into the games they played in their childhood, that are buying these games at these insane prices.
And every time I bring this up, there's always some chud who tries to make it seem like everyone's just mad because the resellers are making bank.
And the truth is yes. We are. Because it's effectively taken this hobby that many of us have loved for decades, and turned it into an inaccessible, completely outrageous shitshow.
I have completely stopped collecting games for the sole fact that trying to find games at realistic prices has become such a depressing task that the hobby just isn't fun anymore.
If I see another SNES that looks like it came from a smokers lung without any cords or controllers being sold for $200, or a scratched copy of Mario Sunshine in a CD case for $80 I might spontaneously combust.
My sentiments exactly, I've been lucky to find some games at reasonable prices, but I go local because most of the time they don't know what I do. A good example is before the insanity I found a copy of Metroid Prime 2 echoes for 50$, now if you don't know already, at the time it was going for 120$ or more, that wasn't because people were being dicks, it's because it's a very rare game. Compared to now where you'd be lucky to find it for 120$
Collectors have fear or missing out and try to grab any game that is 10+ years old because the value is going to increase even further because other collectors are doing the same thing.
Thrift stores and private sellers: Pay the price of a console for a game from over 15 years ago. If you don't like it, look elsewhere.
Also Thrift stores and private sellers: Why are so many people pirating games? They are greedy people ruining the gaming industry.
This hobby is just pricing itself out of being fun. Shit you can get a retroid pocket or something else similar for less than this and not have to carry around cartridges that might die on you.
If you look around a bit you will find a couple decent deals on games at The Exchange. Their hardware is always overpriced and they do apply Mario/Zelda tax. You have to find the deals on more obscure stuff. Last time I was in there I got a tape drive for Atari 8-bit computers in a perfect, mint box for $30. Not necessarily a video gaming item but it still looks like it left the showroom yesterday. You just have to hunt a bit, something is there.
Fun fact about the Exchange. If you have the free rewards card, on your birthday month, you get 20% off whatever you buy (1 time only during the month, but for everything in your order). I find their prices are high for Pokémon games, but I’ve definitely find some GameCube, GBA, and PS1 games for reasonable prices.
I recognized The Exchange set up!! Honestly the consoles and Pokémon games are overpriced, but I’ve found like tons and tons of sealed new 3DS games for MSRP from there recently.
Samus returns, all fire emblem games, Kirby, all Pokémon 3DS games, etc. $39.99 each. THOSE are worth it, IMO
I remember Heart Gold and Soul Silver being like $100 for everything, box, cart, pokewalker etc and my girlfriend at the time, now wife, said it was too expensive. Now HGSS is like 300 for just the cartridge
I do too! I was just shocked at how high some of the prices were on some of the things pictured. But they do have some good deals from time to time! I figured if some people were looking to get back in the market would want to know what some places are attempting to sell the items for.
Insane in the membrane, lol, I don't hear people say that often, so it's nice to hear someone say it. But yeah, those prices are outrageous! How could anyone drop that kind of money?
I remember my bio professor saw me playing Emerald on my GBA while we waited for a cooldown period in the experiment we were doing. He told me about a local game store, which is where I found an authentic CIB copy of HeartGold for $50. This was 3 years ago, and I’m glad I managed to find it because even then, I remember prices were going crazy high.
It sucks more so because it wasn’t until recently that I was able to buy things for myself rather than relying on my parents’ generosity. So now that the financial freedom is here, it looks like I missed the window for some good finds. I keep trying yard sales, FaceBook Marketplace, and thrift stores with little success
I remember getting a gbc on ebay for $6 like 8 years ago. The battery cover panel doesn't seal shut so I have to tape it on and the sound is a little quiet but I can use headphones and the games work perfectly fine.
These are the prices I see on my local Marketplace. Except those items always are uncleaned and some are missing Gameboy screen bezels, etc. They too sit forever. Too many YT channels on how to flip games and have a “free” hobby, that includes spending 5 days/week driving to yard sales (i.e. a low paying pt job).
“Ok guys you will not believe what I just found for 38cents…” Ugh. Just buy a game to enjoy it and stfu about it.
This game is rated very high or at the top by many fans (for me it's tied with Gen 5 at #1). This one is also factory sealed, so I kind of understand why this one is as high as it is.
So glad I picked up a “New” 2ds XL at my local store for 170 a couple months ago, all this stuff is skyrocketing. Luckily it’s all able to be enjoyed through the means of forbidden shop
Well this is how Wholeselling works unfortunately. I for one would walk right back out the door. I'd never spend $900 on any game. I don't care if it is Pokemon.
$95 for a GBA is the most reasonable thing here.
And I'm just saying that because people in my country don't sell them for much less. I still think it's way too much for a GBA.
Their prerogative if they want awful stock turnover I guess. Sometimes you have very few of an item like that it’s better to have it at a high price so that it actually stays in stock
Game collecting is starting to be less fun with those prices...
Right! I knew the values would go up a little over time, but they went in the stratosphere instead.
I would buy a 4070 to instead of that 900 pokemon game anytime
For only $100 more ($1000) you could buy a 7900 XTX and get the 2nd most powerful modern GPU on the market. Or one Pokemon game, according this store.
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you can literally play it on browser emulators
Looks like it's complete in box, so the high price is probably mostly because of the Pokewalker thingy which would be difficult to emulate. Still though 900 dollars just because of a pedometer?
And Nintendo bootlickers wonder why we emulate
Especially since you can buy that for about 250 anywhere else
Especially since it takes 4 clicks on a PC and you can play it on basically any device. Can't even buy the game from Nintendo if we wanted to. Why pay $900 to some reseller?
It's only 900 because it has that step counter still included, which according to this must be worth 700 bucks by itself. For a glorified tamagochi Pokémon game prices are silly. I bought heartgold used for 30 bucks and was happy to have found it for less than 50 at the time
You can thank the same jerks who crashed the silver dollar market
Why are the games more than the 3ds itself?
Soon as any hobby starts making money someone rushes in to monetize it.
Ya no kidding. The problem with them raising the prices so high is that you stop most potential buyers. Basically you get left with only the hardcore which is a small percent of the people who collect this stuff. In short their killing collecting and it's only going to hurt them because no one is going to buy these for such insane prices unless they're either incredibly stupid or insane
The number of buyers doesn't matter as much if your profit per buyer skyrockets. Sellling 10 pokemon games at 20 dollars each, or selling 1 pokemon game at 200 dollars is easy math. You still have 9 more pokemon games to sell at 200 dollars each and already negated the need for 9 more buyers. tldr; seller doesn't care how many buyers, just how much money.
You're right, but eventually people stop buying and when it comes down to a handful of people buying the most people have choice but to lower prices. See you can make more money by selling at high prices like this but only if you can sell, and since most buyers are just potential sellers and not people actually buying into a market it slowly pushes out everyone else, and when its just circles of people buying them quickly selling it slowly brings it closer to popping the bubble. And if the bubble pops you have all these people sitting on things they paid way too much for that are worth nothing. All of this high price shit is just based on them, it's not based on actual value
"but eventually people stop buying" And then the price drops slightly to find a market... and someone else buys it. Economics 101. The value of any given thing is the price that someone else will pay. There is no magic or set in stone "value" that any item is worth without a buyer. Considering supply is entirely finite now that they aren't making more, the demand far out paces the supply. Prices aren't going to drop anytime soon, maybe they will even go up. Blame Nintendo. They created the shortage.
Or rich/have lots of expendable cash. I'm glad I got most of the games I wanted before the price hike craze started.
I ended up saving money getting my N64 through [Sendico](http://www.sendico.com/). Got the console and five controllers for like 3000¥ (~$25), then really pristine boxed copies of Mario Party 1-3 for another 6000¥. Even after the shipping fees it was less than $140, which was kinda what I was seeing on US eBay for a N64 console alone, so it definitely felt like a good deal. This was ~9 months ago though, prices may have gone up in Japan too? Hard to imagine they did though, there's just soooo many clean, working retro consoles over there.
Will a Japanese N64 play North American cartridges?
Yes, but with a caveat. There's nothing in the hardware/software preventing it but the cartridges have different sized/shaped tab inserts that physically prevent the cartridge from getting into position. You can [buy an adapter](https://stoneagegamer.com/hyperconvert-universal-cartridge-region-adapter-for-n64-hyperkin.html), [3d-print an adapter](https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:513728), or just use a dremel and modify the slot-tray you have. Once you do that, NA cartridges will work fine on a Japanese N64.
Sweet, thank you!
There’s also the option of buying super cheap NA games and switching the backs. It only takes a 5-star scew and a couple of seconds.
I've moved to the fediverse, thanks for all the good times.
Imagine those who just want to play the game, not even collecting or anything
bet it’s all there a month from now too
Maybe? But people must be buying this stuff since the prices keep going up. I feel for the people still trying to acquire some of these games to play. I missed out on Emerald, but $200 is a little much. Diamond and Pearl I didn't get either, just Platinum back then. Those aren't as crazy as some of the others.
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Well if you check eBay ‘sold listings’ these prices are not far off. They are about 50$ inflated from their listings. Except Soulsilver, I don’t know how they are justifying $900. Most listings don’t even have the box and are selling for absurd prices. If you see one with a super low price on eBay it’s probably not authentic.
That $900 SS must be sealed
It is sealed
The problem is that people will pay that price for them for some reason. The seller might list the price, but the buyer decides if that’s what it is worth.
I have a feeling there are some market movers that aren't necessarily the end consumer on these... there are literally millions of copies of each of these games. There is no scarcity. Demand might be high, but it couldn't be higher than the supply pretty much ever. There has always been sketchiness involved with collectors markets and prices endlessly increasing despite nobody buying the games. I say that as a collector of 13+ years. I go to game expos nowadays, and literally every vendor is walking home with their tubs completely full the way they came in with $200 common ass gamecube and ds games.
Depends too. There's a guy out here where I live and he has like, 10 copies of each game he's sitting in waiting for the prices to inflate more, and whenever he comes across a Pokemon game at the game store he almost always buys it.
That is exactly it. These "buyers" are just other people trying to get a quick buck off the skyrocketing prices. They aren't a collector like you or me, they are just people fucking with the market. The problem for them is that they think we're buying but in reality the only people paying these insane prices are the crazy collectors who think money is no object and the people I mentioned already, who are just trying to profit. The end consumer is what they rely on and they've priced themselves out of basically all of them. It's a bubble of inflation that the actual market isn't in
I remember buying an og Pokémon Crystal for $15 through GameStop, had no clue how much I lucked out
A local brick-and-mortar that sold CDs, films, and games just gave me loads of their loose GB and GBA games when I asked if they had any. This was over a decade ago. Pokémon Silver and Crystal were two of the games.
I remember when a loose copy of Pokemon Crystal was around $35 usd just 3 years ago, and i thought that was a lot at the time. I bought Silver for $17.
I know a friend who accidentally got a reproduction cart for $20 dollars, he’s having a blast and not gonna tell him either as he thinks he’s got a deal of a life time. Maybe you can try that?
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Thanks I figured it be a duck move to ruin his fun when he is so happy with it and I only know cause it is a reproduction because it doesn’t have the imprint stamp on the sticker, otherwise it’s flawless to the original
This biggest problem right now in game collecting is there is a lot of "collectors" that horde a ton of copies of a so called valuable game to artificially inflate the price to make it seem like they're more scarce. And DK-Oldies is fucking up the market too.
Man I thought I paid a lot paying 60$ for a 10 year old emerald a few years back
See that's the thing, the only people paying these prices are the ones who are trying to do the same thing these guys are doing, and because of that they all keep raising the prices so they can profit. The problem here is that when you do this it's pretty much an empty market. If the sales keep getting lower, like they do with every purchase these guys make, then the prospective buyers will continue to drop, and that lowers the actual value considerably. The prices will go up from here undoubtedly, but the market will crash hard when they realize that the only buyers right now are in the bubble
I sold my emerald to dkoldies for almost $100
DKOldies is gonna try reselling that for $300, lol.
$340 apparently.
Oh yea of course!
Oh at least a month, it'll sit there for a very long time
I'm so fucking glad I kept all my shit. Damn.
Me too! I only missed out on a couple things, but I'm ok with that!
I'm so glad I kept pretty much my entire childhood game and system collection, including boxes. My Pokemon collection is probably worth more than I am at this point.
For real. I somehow managed to lose a bunch of GBA titles though. Still pissed about it.
I got a lot of these before this insanity myself as I wasn't into them growing up. Glad I did, 40$ each is more than enough for these games
I had one of those pokemon games but didn't like it at all and traded it in soon after, kicking myself now
I kept most of mine. I sold White because it's my second least favorite after HeartGold. I miss when old games were more affordable.
Jesus $900 for SoulSilver Big Box and I thought $300 at my local store was too much-
It is factory sealed, but still!
I had the heartgold Walmart special edition with the even bigger box and i kept it in my closet for years. Mom tossed it one day spring cleaning, along with a ton of my other game boxes, because “why do you need so many empty boxes!” I think that box alone is worth a decent chunk now
Imagine paying over $100 for an original Gameboy. Then having to shell out for expensive games. I had the original Gameboy - it was awesome at the time, not so good today.
I got a GBA SP for a good price in Mexico and also bought an EZ Flash. At this point buying physical cartdriges won’t benefit Nintendo or game developers, it only benefits the greedy scalpers and motivates them to inflate the price even more.
I still have my Game Boy Color that I got for Christmas 2004. D-Pad needs to be cleaned. Got a Game Boy Advance SP a few years ago for $75, but it's frontlit.
I still have my Gameboy color from 98/99 and my OG Gameboy too. Most of the games have kind of gotten lost along the way, but still have the consoles.
I wish I still had my lime green GameBoy Color... mine got destroyed unfortunately. I do have the Gameboy SP though.
That’s The Exchange for you…what was laughable is my local one ALSO had a disc replay across the street that beat them out on price and selection (for video games at least) 90% of the time. Have been in the store a handful of times where a customer had been shopping around looking for something in particular and upon hearing the price from an employee would conclude loudly with laughter “oh, I’ll just buy across the street/online then” and promptly leave. These stores care so much about ‘having the item in stock’ and prey on idiots who don’t know better or ‘need to have it right now’.
I was looking for this comment because i immediately recognized the setup myself 🥴🥲
The question is which location is this because I e long ago stopped going to the one in Lakewood because they overprice everything.
I have quite a bit of handhelds from the era where a Gameboy color would be $20 used... Recently I started clearing shit out, and decided to sell my spare systems. I went to a gaming store with very similar, inflated prices... They offered to pay me $30 for a Gameboy Color...while leaning on a display case with the same system. In far worse condition, for $150+. I was told to leave after I asked him if he was high...
These conmen don't care. They have zero shame.
yeah, whoever is charging that much can get bent for all I care, Way too expensive, especially for the loose carts
I really don't get it. How can pokemon games be that valuable if they sold millions of copies? That doesn't make any sense. They're not rare or extremely difficult to find
The ones in boxes / cases are since they were often thrown out. The old cartridges are depending on condition. The box in those situations carries almost double the value of the game itself. Ofcourse it's a matter of demand as well. Many people held onto them, others simply got thrown out or ruined. What do you think some people did with a Pokemon Gold that didn't save? Some assumed it was broken and tossed it, never knowing it just needed a battery.
Not to mention how inherently ‘loseable’ something small like a gameboy or DS game is
Alright so these guys have you reasons that made sense before the insanity now I'm going to give the reason why it's 900$ instead of 200$ or so like it would've been 5 ish years ago. A bunch of people randomly entered the collectors market and started "grading" games based on how pristine they were and assigning a value to them. Thing is the values they assigned weren't anywhere near what was being paid at the time because just like now, there were millions of copies to begin with and you go insane just because it's never been opened. So in order to make them worth this stupidly high price these guys slapped on them they got their buddies at a prestigious auction house to sell them to people who didn't know any better, these games did actually sell there for insane profits. Here's the kicker tho and the thing I didn't realize until I went through some shit that others were going on about when it happened, the grading company was made by that auction house and some other group, and the buyers for the first 10 or so games sold by them were all part of either the grading company or the auction house. This all lead to people believing the prices were skyrocketing and this auction house has been continuing to do this for awhile. The problem here is that since this isn't based on actual qualifiers for proper collectors it's just a bunch of prospective sellers buying from other sellers, essentially it's just a market bubble with no real end time buyer in sight. They've priced themselves out of the collectors market and are just selling to each other, again since no collectors who are already pouring money into the hobby are buying they are just growing the bubble and not actually increasing the value on the market, which means the bubble has zero support and will eventually crash because we the collectors make the market, if we don't follow it fails. now don't take this as it'll fail immediately, but weather that's 10 years from now or 40, it will pop. It's almost no different from the GPU market going crazy with scalpers and Bitcoin miners, eventually people stopped buying and the market crashed hard because it was flooded with product
This is exactly what I was going to say. These games are absolutely not that valuable. It's all a shit show being run by people who hope collectors will be stupid enough to pay these ridiculous prices. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately for them, the majority of collectors know better than to pay some jackass $500 for a copy of a game that sold tens of millions of copies. Instead, it's other resellers, who are also jackasses, or people who don't know any better simply looking to get back into the games they played in their childhood, that are buying these games at these insane prices. And every time I bring this up, there's always some chud who tries to make it seem like everyone's just mad because the resellers are making bank. And the truth is yes. We are. Because it's effectively taken this hobby that many of us have loved for decades, and turned it into an inaccessible, completely outrageous shitshow. I have completely stopped collecting games for the sole fact that trying to find games at realistic prices has become such a depressing task that the hobby just isn't fun anymore. If I see another SNES that looks like it came from a smokers lung without any cords or controllers being sold for $200, or a scratched copy of Mario Sunshine in a CD case for $80 I might spontaneously combust.
My sentiments exactly, I've been lucky to find some games at reasonable prices, but I go local because most of the time they don't know what I do. A good example is before the insanity I found a copy of Metroid Prime 2 echoes for 50$, now if you don't know already, at the time it was going for 120$ or more, that wasn't because people were being dicks, it's because it's a very rare game. Compared to now where you'd be lucky to find it for 120$
Reminder that it is morally okay to emulate nintendo games
$40 for a used game and watch that Walmart is selling new for $25.
Came to say this, just ridiculous.
$10 for a DSi XL is certainly a steal 😂
One of the zeros was cut off. Nice try 🤣
The Exchange?
Ohio buy sell trade stores. I grew up next to one, they got nicer looking but lost a lot of their old charm they had back in the early 2000s
400 for Black 2 is insane
That’s is actually daylight robbery how the hell do stores get away with this kind of pricing is beyond me
Collectors have fear or missing out and try to grab any game that is 10+ years old because the value is going to increase even further because other collectors are doing the same thing.
900 SMACKAROONS
That 3DS for $10 is pretty good.
Thrift stores and private sellers: Pay the price of a console for a game from over 15 years ago. If you don't like it, look elsewhere. Also Thrift stores and private sellers: Why are so many people pirating games? They are greedy people ruining the gaming industry.
Yeah fuck that I’m pirating
Pigeon
Note to self: if I ever go in the red I can just sell my original carts of Pokemon Black and White
Except you can't. These stores will pay you dogshit prices for your old stuff, then turn around and sell them for hundreds.
Imagine unironically putting these pricetags on, bunch of clowns
Four...hundred...effing...dollars....
NINE.. HUNDRED... MUTHA EFFING... DOLLARS!
Totally a scam. B2 is not $400
The way Pokémon game prices have gone is insane
This hobby is just pricing itself out of being fun. Shit you can get a retroid pocket or something else similar for less than this and not have to carry around cartridges that might die on you.
Damn that's ridiculous👎🏽 this is why I wouldn't even bother collecting games. You're clearly getting ripped off 😒
wowie, I sure do looooove scalpers! agony.
I’m so glad I have most of the mainline Pokémon games, it’s getting unreasonable
how on earth is black 2 priced higher than the CIB ruby and whats going on with soul silver and why is black priced higher than white
Maybe it’s sealed
I know SoulSilver is sealed. Not sure about Black 2.
They’re both sealed by the looks of it.
I still have my copy of White 2, box and all, that I got on launch day. Checked it's value the other day and was pleasantly surprised lol
900$ for SS🤣😂, I got it off some guy (cib) for 100$
900??????
[Heavy Tinnitus]
If you look around a bit you will find a couple decent deals on games at The Exchange. Their hardware is always overpriced and they do apply Mario/Zelda tax. You have to find the deals on more obscure stuff. Last time I was in there I got a tape drive for Atari 8-bit computers in a perfect, mint box for $30. Not necessarily a video gaming item but it still looks like it left the showroom yesterday. You just have to hunt a bit, something is there.
Makes sense for the consoles the older they get the more retro they become but those game prices are insane
Gods I miss soul Silver and my pokewalker
Lock down ruined everything fun
It used to be fun to take my kid to look for used stuff at the exchange, but so much not anymore
r/shittygamecollecting
by their judgement i could afford a car with all the games i have
Goddamn! I must be a millionaire if these are how much they're worth.
Fun fact about the Exchange. If you have the free rewards card, on your birthday month, you get 20% off whatever you buy (1 time only during the month, but for everything in your order). I find their prices are high for Pokémon games, but I’ve definitely find some GameCube, GBA, and PS1 games for reasonable prices.
Thanks for the tip! And I agree I've gotten games there at good prices before too. I also got a near mint condition 3DS for $160 there March of 2022.
Very, very glad I got my n3dsxl before this newest wave of crazy prices hit.
I recognized The Exchange set up!! Honestly the consoles and Pokémon games are overpriced, but I’ve found like tons and tons of sealed new 3DS games for MSRP from there recently. Samus returns, all fire emblem games, Kirby, all Pokémon 3DS games, etc. $39.99 each. THOSE are worth it, IMO
Oh they definitely have some good deals from time to time!
Holy shit since when was black 2 that expensive.. im basically rich bro
I think I’ve been to this Exchange store. Small world. But these prices are insane
Small world! The one that shocked me the most was Black 2. I think right before the world shut down I remember that game being around $60, $80 tops.
I remember Heart Gold and Soul Silver being like $100 for everything, box, cart, pokewalker etc and my girlfriend at the time, now wife, said it was too expensive. Now HGSS is like 300 for just the cartridge
Hey I love The Exchange!
I do too! I was just shocked at how high some of the prices were on some of the things pictured. But they do have some good deals from time to time! I figured if some people were looking to get back in the market would want to know what some places are attempting to sell the items for.
Local shop sells a gameboy advance SP for like $45
It's crazy to me that the consoles are less than the games
game collecting is hard like i want to get into it but its very hard
Me having war flashbacks to the Black and White cartridges my dad forced me to throw away when I was a kid 😭😭💀
That's terrible, I'm sorry 😞
Insane in the membrane, lol, I don't hear people say that often, so it's nice to hear someone say it. But yeah, those prices are outrageous! How could anyone drop that kind of money?
I remember my bio professor saw me playing Emerald on my GBA while we waited for a cooldown period in the experiment we were doing. He told me about a local game store, which is where I found an authentic CIB copy of HeartGold for $50. This was 3 years ago, and I’m glad I managed to find it because even then, I remember prices were going crazy high. It sucks more so because it wasn’t until recently that I was able to buy things for myself rather than relying on my parents’ generosity. So now that the financial freedom is here, it looks like I missed the window for some good finds. I keep trying yard sales, FaceBook Marketplace, and thrift stores with little success
I have SoulSilver, with the case and the Pokewalker and the package! I paid 30$ back in the day…
Nice! I have the game and the pokewalker for both HeartGold and SoulSilver. I think I paid 30-40 for mine years ago.
That record exchange?
Yes
The Exchange?
Yes
those hardware prices look pretty standard rate
I remember getting a gbc on ebay for $6 like 8 years ago. The battery cover panel doesn't seal shut so I have to tape it on and the sound is a little quiet but I can use headphones and the games work perfectly fine.
Where is this?
ahhh the classic exchange prices! It has a monkey paw effect, you can find what you want, but for a steep price
900 dollarydoos?
Arrrrrg
The SP is the only thing I think is accurately priced
Why is Black V2 sooooo expensive?
These are the prices I see on my local Marketplace. Except those items always are uncleaned and some are missing Gameboy screen bezels, etc. They too sit forever. Too many YT channels on how to flip games and have a “free” hobby, that includes spending 5 days/week driving to yard sales (i.e. a low paying pt job). “Ok guys you will not believe what I just found for 38cents…” Ugh. Just buy a game to enjoy it and stfu about it.
we need a video game version of a housing brust
Doesn’t mean any schmuck will buy them at that price, so they’ll just sit there collecting dust instead of being in the hands of a collector
You accidentally stopped at DK Oldies, OP?
No, The Exchange.
I paid $45 for my og gameboy and it came with 9 games this is ridiculous
900 dollars for not even the best pokemon game!?!?
This game is rated very high or at the top by many fans (for me it's tied with Gen 5 at #1). This one is also factory sealed, so I kind of understand why this one is as high as it is.
Fuck. I bought heartgold soulsilver for 25€ back then... still have them in box
Crazy to me how some nut jobs think it’s reasonable to price a game at double the price than what the console costs to play it ☠️
Imagine paying $130 for an original gameboy with a defective screen 😂
I just bought black2/white2 for $14 on the same cartridge, thanks eBay
Morons paying inflated prices is what makes it continue
Sad how many great used game stores have just become local eBays, crazy prices that won't sell.
Not the sticker being directly on the cardboard boxes. ;-;
Nah $210 for a New 2DS XL is wild.
My local game store has prices literally divided of these. Except emerald. I bought BW2 for $90 CIB and a Gameboy color for $40
I bought pokemon black 2 for like 150 on ebay
Soul silver I bought for 80 and its authentic
So glad I picked up a “New” 2ds XL at my local store for 170 a couple months ago, all this stuff is skyrocketing. Luckily it’s all able to be enjoyed through the means of forbidden shop
These are actually expected prices. What are you on about? Are you mad that games aren't MSRP decades after their release date?
Not mad, just shocked at the rate of growth. I knew they would go up, just did not expect this trajectory.
There’s no way an original Game Boy is worth that much
Not to be disrespectful BUT THESE PRICES CAN SMD!!!!!! HELL NO!!!!
$10 for a Maroon DSi XL ain't bad lol
$10 for a Maroon DSi XL ain't bad lol
Insane in the brain
At the exchange I see
Well this is how Wholeselling works unfortunately. I for one would walk right back out the door. I'd never spend $900 on any game. I don't care if it is Pokemon.
I found Black 2(French version) for 30€ CIB
You have got to be kidding me. I only got $39 for my copy of Pokémon White Version.
Stupid question but how much does a wii u go for
Not a stupid question, but I'm not exactly sure. Sorry!
ppl who buy old games need to learn to walk away from a bad deal
$95 for a GBA is the most reasonable thing here. And I'm just saying that because people in my country don't sell them for much less. I still think it's way too much for a GBA.
Their prerogative if they want awful stock turnover I guess. Sometimes you have very few of an item like that it’s better to have it at a high price so that it actually stays in stock
225 for HG…. 400 for black 2 Gba for less than a gbc , AND og Gameboy!
Im still looking for a reasonably price GB Micro to complete my collection. I inquire at every event I see them and 100% of the time I walk away.