Cost of games going up

[Justinjcox20]

I only just started scratching the surface of NEC related consoles. Although I find it to be very fun, the price tag that goes along with these games are just crazy sometimes. And they are so few and far between. I'd love to play games like rondo of blood, gekisha boy, coryoon, gates of thunder, (sorry if I misspelled any of those) and magical chase. But I simply don't make the money to play these games. What is causing this inflation, me and my friends discuss this all the time, and we usually come to the conclusion of the trend in retro video games, and the inflation of the market due to resellers and dumb buyers are causing this trend. I want to know what people think. I can't be alone

[BlueBMW]

due to resellers and dumb buyers are causing this

The Pokemon gotta catch em all syndrome where new people "discover" the Turbo Grafx 16 and proceed to try and get a full collection over the course of a few months.  Then a month later get bored and move on to another poor system and dump all their stuff to the next insta-collector.

Game collecting as a hobby is dead to me.  Now its just about playing.  Pick up an everdrive for the hucard games and watch for repro's of the CD games to save some coin.

[CrackTiger]

The problem is too many people casually try new libraries without doing much research beyond the big website/youtube personality recommendations for the same cliched handful of games. Most of the best games are inexpensive, but people keep targeting the same titles. Many Turbo games are overpriced because of the perceived rarity by collectards, but the PCE versions are usually still cheap or at least a fraction of the price.

The other big problem is that most <16-bit game buyers don't understand the difference between asking prices, sold prices and unsold prices. We get too many threads like this every month and people constantly declaring "how can [game] be $200!?!" When it's actually selling regularly on eBay for $30 - $50. This actually leads people to pay $100 for a <$50 game, mistakenly believing that they scored a great deal as it's currently "going for" $200 - $500.

[NecroPhile]

What BMW and BT said.

I also blame the goverrats.

[SignOfZeta]

Well, the TG-16 was a niche console even in its day, the world is now much more populated and the supply of consoles less however many got chucked in the bin.

And now you're buying it too.

How could the price stop going up? We're all part of the problem.

[ginoscope]

due to resellers and dumb buyers are causing this

The Pokemon gotta catch em all syndrome where new people "discover" the Turbo Grafx 16 and proceed to try and get a full collection over the course of a few months.  Then a month later get bored and move on to another poor system and dump all their stuff to the next insta-collector.

Game collecting as a hobby is dead to me.  Now its just about playing.  Pick up an everdrive for the hucard games and watch for repro's of the CD games to save some coin.

That is what I did I used to have a big collection back in the day before I sold it.  I got myself an everdrive and it is great if all you want to do is play the games.  I still buy games but am more patient and not so eager to over pay.

[Otaking]

The cost of PC Engine games in the west has not gone up in the last few years, if anything the vast majority of prices have dropped a bit. The prices have gone up on a very small handful of games, but there are tons and tons of games that can still be bought cheaply.
My point is if you got into buying PC Engine games five years ago for the most part, price wise you'd be in the same boat as someone getting into it today.

I've said this before on similar threads, here's the last one.

I agree it appears the price of PC Engine games has gone up in Japan itself, but the price in the west for Japanese PC Engine games for the most part has either stayed static or gone down over the last few years.
A very small percentage of games have had a price increase in the west, games such as Tatsujin, Magical Chase, Dracula X, Liquid Kids and Ninja Spirit. But these games are in the massive minority, the vast majority have not gone up.
The common cheap PC Engine games have gotten even cheaper with all those auctions for 100 game lots with free shipping that have been on eBay for the last few years. They have completely over saturated the availability of the cheap common games.

Regards in Japan itself, I think a few years a back a load of gaijin all had the bright business ideas to move to Japan to buy games from Yahoo.jp and Akiba and then resell them on a western eBay shop. I get the impression that most of these entrepreneurs were French. This does appear to have effected the PC Engine prices in Japan, but not the west.

[SamIAm]

I think the fact that the yen has depreciated 50% in the last few years, along with the emergence of yahoo auction proxy bidders, has had an enormous influence on the entire situation. Things are more affordable in a sense, while at the same time they're becoming scarcer and ultimately being priced higher.

[crazydean]

Hai guyse, anyone want to sell me magicoal chaste for $50?

How could the price stop going up? We're all part of the problem.

Thank you, Zeta. Finally someone who admits they are part of the problem. It seems like all I've seen lately is, "I hate all these collectors driving up prices of games I'm trying to collect. I just want to play the games, but I need original disc/hucard, case, and manual. It's not the same if you just play the game on an everdrive."

[Justinjcox20]

Yeah, I can definitely say that getting into it myself doesn't help the situation. I usually always check sold listings to see what it is going for. I for one do like to collect, but I will not go totally crazy on something. I have been looking into the ever drive idea, seems like a good option. I have not been on this forum in a long time. I guess that is why I wanted to know what others think. It's pricey to buy for this console. That's why I only have a few games. I guess I will just need to wait until I can get in on an ever drive purchase so I can play alot of the other games. I still like having my own copies. But I can be patient and find it for the right price. I'm pretty green to NEC, so I welcome insight on it.

[julencin2000]

Don't forget Facebook or Twitter, making visible our once somewhat obscure hobby.

Yes, there were forums before FB/TW, but you know it's not the same.

[PunkCryborg]

I'd love to play games like rondo of blood, gekisha boy, coryoon, gates of thunder, (sorry if I misspelled any of those) and magical chase.

None of these games have ever really been cheap and of the ones you mention probably only GoT has ever even dipped below original retail price. So complaining about how expensive they are you need to consider that these are all excellent titles and are 25 year old games now in a booming retro game market. More duos have left Japan in the last couple years than ever before and everyone seems to want that game room with wall to wall stacked shelves. It's just the way it is and get an everdrive/cdr/emulation if you want to just play the games

[BigusSchmuck]

It's not just Turbo games, its almost every retro gaming system in the 16-bit era. Games like Metroid, Mario, Contra, Sonic, etc that sold millions have gone up in price considerably in the past 5 years or so. I recently went to PRGE and saw plenty of copies of Metroid but the asking price was $20. Keith Courage I saw as high as $25 just because it was "complete." Yeah, an everdrive really is your best bet if you want to play the games on the original hardware. I'm glad I got one.

[Trenton_net]

Personally, and this is just my opinion, I think people realized that in Japan the PC-Engine was a rather popular console. That means games would be cheap and easy to find in large numbers, so if you wanted to collect for something go for that. It also helps that PC-Engine games are small and easy to import as opposed to Genesis or Super Famicom games that require big shipping boxes for even a modest amount of games (CIB).

I sat on the collecting sidelines for a fair bit, but then I saw the writing on the wall and I made my move. I was able to focus on most of the major titles before prices started in the upward trend. Now I really only have mostly commons to get and the occasional rare title that I didn't manage to pick up. But considering those are few and far between for me, it's not as painful as starting from scratch at today's prices.

Edit: To agree with what has been said, I should prefix that I'm talking about price increases in regards to more sought after titles. For most common titles, the price change is flat, which is why there was no rush to get them in my case.

[Otaking]

this is not a dig to the OP or anyone else, but what's the deal with peeps these day and PC Engine prices?
I'll put it in caps just to hit it home, ok here goes
THE GENERAL PRICE OF PC ENGINE GAMES HAS NOT GONE UP
Am I missing something? peeps 5 years ago weren't complaing about prices when they were mostly the same as today.

Yes the the price of TurboGrafx games have risen massively, yes the recent price inflation in SNES and SFC games is just ridiculous, but this is just not happening with PC Engine.

If you base your opinion on the whole PCE library around monitoring the price of a couple of games like Dracula X or Magical Chase you would have a completely warped perception on the price of PCE games.
I could sit here and list the hundreds of games that haven't changed in atleast 5 years, games like Sapphire, Spriggan, Star Parodia, PC Denjin etc... etc.. etc.. are all the same, and rarez like all the Special Caravan HuCards I would say have dropped a little in the past 5 years

[Justinjcox20]

I would actually be very open to anyone recommending games for the pc engine. I'll start a thread on that. In the mean time. I actually see some very valid points. I'm bitching about games that were already rare, when I should see what else there is

[xcrement5x]

This is a shameless repost of something I wrote at another forum but I think it applies here:

My hypothesis on this has a couple of factors.

1) Retrogaming has increased in popularity with people in the 20s-40s who have more disposable income
2) Youtube personalities promote videos that drive interest in "hidden gems"
3) People remember when you could get the games cheaper and everyone knows prices have gone up a lot in the last several years

I propose, that it is mainly people who have been collecting for awhile and have had "backburner" titles they meant to pick up or hoped to find in the wild, but have seen prices rise so quickly and drastically that they are willing to pay higher and higher prices now, just to lock in owning a title before the price escalates even further.

I can speak to this of my own experience, as there are lots of titles I was hoping to find in the wild (such as Warsong) that I know I will never find cheap in the wild at this point since I'm fighting an army of resellers in my own area alone. I've debated a couple times just saving the cash for awhile and shelling out for a copy just so I don't have to watch it go from a $100 game into a $200 game (I've already seen it go from a $30 or less game into near $100, ugh).

I'm sure there are many other old timers like me there that want certain titles and would rather pay now and hedge their bets instead of watching prices continue to go up, and it contributes to the inflation even more. Unfortunately there isn't much of a solution except to stop paying those prices for the games, but that only works if everyone does it, which is unlikely to happen, so prices keep going up.

[Liquid Snake]

When did dracula x become a $200 game???!!!!!!!!!! 

[CrackTiger]

I would actually be very open to anyone recommending games for the pc engine. I'll start a thread on that. In the mean time. I actually see some very valid points. I'm bitching about games that were already rare, when I should see what else there is

It used to be that newer members would ask for suggestions of good but cheaper games. Most non-sales threads by newer members now are market or collecting related. There are still lots of great chip & CD games that aren't expensive, but the first thing everyone should buy before any HuCards is a Turbo Everdrive.

If you can narrow down the kinds of games that you do and do not want and your budget, you'll receive a lot of suggestions quickly.

[Bionic_Chef]

I was pretty hard into playing alot of NES games probably around 2008 or 2009. I have gone to the TooManyGames convention for a few years in a row and I lost it when I saw SMB 3 in person for 35 dollars. Since then Ive played alot of turbo games on emulators and a year ago i got my first turbo. Its such a great system but even over on Nintendoage.com, you always see  new posts stating "Want to trade for turbo grafx/ PC Engine games." That happens pretty often. Im highly debating a turbo everdrive now.

[Caseh]

My hypothesis on this has a couple of factors.

1) Retrogaming has increased in popularity with people in the 20s-40s who have more disposable income

That's about right for me. I'm finally settled in a well paid job with most necessities paid off. Rather than go nuts with collecting I'm gathering games I used to own or games I missed out on.

 It started out as a mad rush, pokemon-esque gotta catch em all style for fear of the prices escalating but then that fever cleared once I had cleared my bank balance several times.

I don't regret that initial rush though, I have the majority of what I wanted and I'm happy to stalk eBay for reasonably priced games I'm missing. Everything in-between is covered by everdrive devices else I figured I would ultimately fall into the collectard category that gets thrown about quite a bit on here.

[majors]

... Im highly debating a turbo everdrive now.

"get ready to black friday sales on krikzz.com"