The reality of how the retro game pricing trends work

[SMiTH]

Ebay User Deliberately Drives Up Game Price

[Aleron Ives]

To be fair, this is how eBay pricing works, because eBay has a vested interest in getting sellers to list their wares at unreasonable prices, since eBay gets a cut of all sales. It's also a seller's market, because as they say in the video, buyers can't control the number of copies on eBay or the prices sellers ask for those copies. Refusing to buy at a high price doesn't work very well, as most sellers are content to relist their items for months on end, since they only need to find one rube willing to bite. Pretty much as soon as any game sells for a high price, that price becomes the new price floor, because some sap indicated he was willing to pay that much, and now all the other sellers want to try to get that price for their games, too.

[Impulse]

Interesting and also scary how ebay can work. It's fun to observe the ebay economy especially in niche markets like games. I just hope some a-holes don't decide to try this with other games. But I suppose that's inevitable.

[krssn]

I just hope some a-holes don't decide to try this with other games. But I suppose that's inevitable.

Too late. That's exactly how they bombed the PAL Mega CD market.

[SMiTH]

To be fair, this is how eBay pricing works, because eBay has a vested interest in getting sellers to list their wares at unreasonable prices, since eBay gets a cut of all sales. It's also a seller's market, because as they say in the video, buyers can't control the number of copies on eBay or the prices sellers ask for those copies. Refusing to buy at a high price doesn't work very well, as most sellers are content to relist their items for months on end, since they only need to find one rube willing to bite. Pretty much as soon as any game sells for a high price, that price becomes the new price floor, because some sap indicated he was willing to pay that much, and now all the other sellers want to try to get that price for their games, too.

Yup.
I like the way this exposes the manipulation of the so called value of retro games.
It shows how flawed the pricing actually is.
Considering the retailers all base their selling prices on these standards.

Interesting and also scary how ebay can work. It's fun to observe the ebay economy especially in niche markets like games. I just hope some a-holes don't decide to try this with other games. But I suppose that's inevitable.

Yup.
The other side of the this is when you happen to own the game that now has gone up in price.
You might not have bought it at this price, nor manipulated the current price.
I say when this happens.
Sell now.
example: Shenmue 1 DC, Shenmue 2 DC, Shenmue 2 XBOX
Make the crazy retro gaming pricing trends go in your favor for once.

I just hope some a-holes don't decide to try this with other games. But I suppose that's inevitable.

Too late. That's exactly how they bombed the PAL Mega CD market.

Sorry to hear that krssn.

[GameOverYeah]

I say when this happens.
Sell now.
example: Shenmue 1 DC, Shenmue 2 DC, Shenmue 2 XBOX
Make the crazy retro gaming pricing trends go in your favor for once.

But I want my Shenmues

[SMiTH]

But I want my Shenmues

I completely understand.
It is one of my favorite games for sure.
It is a tough choice to make when you really like the game, and now it sells for 4 to 5 times what it used to.
I am tempted to sell all of my Shenmue stuff because of this.

[krssn]

Yeah, I still have 2 sealed PAL copies of Shenmue, and one sealed copy of Shenmue 2...

And a sealed copy of Evolution 2 too...

[SMiTH]

Yeah, I still have 2 sealed PAL copies of Shenmue, and one sealed copy of Shenmue 2...

And a sealed copy of Evolution 2 too...

[FinedrivE]

What is really scary is how quickly this happened with certain Genesis titles. I gave almost nothing for the 100 plus Genesis games I had. I always envisioned it as a system anybody could afford to collect for because of how cheap it was. People have gone mad for it. You can't find a good copy of Castlvania: Bloodlines for under 40. If you go on eBay and look though there was a single dude with 7 copies for sale at the same time. So now every ass hat who has a copy thinks its worth 9.3 million dollars and wants to charge you to smell his hands after he's held it.