The Top 5 Reasons Retro Video Game Collecting is Expensive

 

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

@smog-097 says:

It only seems ridiculous because people were giving away 80s and 90s video games for pennies on the dollar.  When a console was considered obsolete, people literally threw them away. Even though it seems expensive today, and I agree there are ridiculous examples out there, the vast majority of classic games still barely sell for the original MSRP, and most are far less. I mean if you paid $50 in 1989 for a new Nintendo game, and it may have gone for $2 used at flea markets in the ‘90s…most of them have rebounded to what?  Like $20?  That's not a real return on investment after 4 decades unless you happened to be the one hoarding them out of clearance bins.

@MrShady365:

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

 @80s_Gamr:

 When I first got into collecting, I used to tell people that the lowest barrier to entry was the VCS/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 collect my childhood, but it can be tough to collect video games now a days

@enfieldjohn101:

It's getting harder to find, but still once in a while I find Atari games cheap. Got a box of 2600 games for $1 a piece last week when a local game store was having a sidewalk 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 the Williams Arcade Collection for $11 too. Glad to see sales l😅ke that still.

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

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

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

 @benaiahburns4046:

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

I will say however, that to me, collecting ended with the 360, PS3 and Wii U. Today, with the PS4/PS5, One,Series X and Switch, 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 those consoles.