The Rise and Fall of Videogame Collecting

[pancho]

I'd be interested in what you think of the points made in this article. Has videogame collecting and prices dropped off in recent times? Will there be a resurgence of interest thanks to the extreme of scarcity being intensified by the extreme of ubiquity?

[Sabreman]

I pretty much agree with the sentiments of the article. Something has certainly happened to retro collecting in the past year or two. Whether it's the influence of download services or the current focus on a new generation of machines it's definitely on one of its downturns. I don't think emulators ever really had any bearing on it as that means nothing to collectors, and the notion of them is completely alien to the average high street Joe looking to catch a taste of nostalgia.

It's a strange time because it does feel like we're on the cusp of the inevitable digital library, and I really think most people are going to be happy with that. However, I do believe the collectors will always be there, and I do think that the market will grow healthy again in time. I think old games becoming available in purely digital form will only bolster the value and desirability of the originals to collectors and a certain type of dedicated nostalgic. Personally, I fall on the side of digital.

[gossi the dog]

Personally I think the reason is the volume of current generation games being released coupled with price deflation. You can pick up so many great brand new PS2 games for only a few quid, so why bother with older games?

[BeeJay]

I've been thinking about this quite a bit recently. I have turned away from retro collecting recently. I think my pure reasoning is that I am gamer first, collector second and the last 12 months have been a rich period for gaming.

I have loved re-buying and playing XBLA and virtual console titles and it's really emphasised to me the difference between my collecting and my gaming. If I saw a pristine copy of Alien Soldier for sale somewhere I'd be swooning after it. I have a cart only copy which I've played for 10 minutes and I have no compulsion to download it on the VC. It's really helped me come to terms with the fact that I don't HAVE to play every game I buy. Some games I buy to play and some I buy to collect. I find it easier to separate the 2 than I used to.

The price of collecting is low at the moment and I am constantly delighted at the superb condition retro items I am picking up at throw away prices.

I'm interested in what will happen to the PS2 and PS1 markets. PS1 and PS2 gamers are for the first time having to say goodbuy to their gaming catalogs due to the PS3s lack of backwards compatibility and jumping platform to Wii and 360.

[Gwynster]

Personally I think the reason is the volume of current generation games being released coupled with price deflation. You can pick up so many great brand new PS2 games for only a few quid, so why bother with older games?

I thought collectors never actually played any of what they hoarded? They just stockpiled it so that nobody else ever could either.

[Dandy_Sephy]

I thought collectors never actually played any of what they hoarded? They just stockpiled it so that nobody else ever could either.

Some do, some don't. But the forum's tendency to group all collectors together whenever the discussion turns that way makes it look worse then it is.

[Jug McKenzie]

Gwynster said:

 

[Sketch]

Yes, there is a huge drop in collecting/prices.

One of the main reasons I think is eBay now forces you to use payPal when dealing with videogames, and I know a lot of people are reluctant to sign up with Paypal. This as a result cuts of a huge amount of collectors from bidding.

it annoys me too, because I'm selling my whole collection. I've had Burning Rangers PAL go for £16, Secret of Mana £17, and a whole bunch of other stuff for stupidly low prices.

[bludr]

Does this fall of videogame collecting corresponds with fall of interest in retro gaming as whole? I mean, if main reason for this decline is "great shape of present gaming", then it makes perfect sense, isn't it? But I don't think this is the case. There is huge amount of new retro content on Virtual Console and Xbox Live Arcade so this may be part of the reason.

Also, some prices for retro stuff in the past were ridiculous so may be market just returned to healthy standard.

[Jug McKenzie]

Szczep said:

 

[masterhand]

As the article states I also agree that the phsyical media will hold a value, I'm sure that the interst and prices peaked for SOTN when it was released on Xbox Live for example. Collecting and the values are cyclic, at the end of a generation of hardware and before the new one starts the value of retro games has historicaly been higher. Gamers bored of the current hardware and nothing new to play on do look towards retro. As soon as the next generation starts then retro values fall.

As to the values being affected by download services I'm not so sure there is a stong a link as there might seem. It the person with a boxes snes collection going to sell up becuase of the VC? No, they didnt sell up fo the emulators before did they. Now the person that brought the loose snes to play for a retro fix would likley sell on and use VC. But this person is not a collector as people like to conjour up a stereotypical image, just a casual retro gamer.

Now the paypal hurdle on Ebay is a good point, but I've used paypal for sales exclusively for years and so have the colectors so I just think that's perhaps cut out the casual retro player, and to be honest this Christmas the casual retro player just wasn't there as the current gen had an amazing christmas.

Most machines have one period where they are sought after and prices rise but once the few people driving the market get what they want then the prices fall. What you see left behind are the Ebay shops with buy it nows for rare games stuck at the peak price of what a game once got. Go look at comparable auction for non professional sellers and you'll see much lower prices. Probably brough by Ebay sellers at a low price to resell at high price bin.

There is collectors stuff out there now for PS2 for example but these titles are only selling to two groups, average gamers looking for the early games of a popular series and hardcore gamers. Nobody has yet published a list of these titles so they largely get missed by the collectors that like to have all games that are added to rare lists. These will be the next collectable games but not until the end of this current generation I think.

[BossSaru]

The videogame retro market is becoming similar to the retro music market. Sought after records still go for a fortune, despite almost evrything being available on CD and digital download. Technically the experience with a record is better (sound quality, original artwork), in much the same way that playing a game on a classic console is generally a better experience (original controls and artwork, aesthetic, tactile experience with original machine). However, the convenience and cost benefits of playing older games via mame, Virtual Colsole and Marketplace outweighs this for many people. In much the same way, how many people would buy a record now when a CD is vastly more versatile with modern technology?

There will always be a market for retro systems, and the classically sought-after titles will always command a high price. It is a benefit to the retro market overall, as most retro collectors will not plan to sell their collection barring unforeseen circumstance, thus the reduction in the market will help keep the supply/demand ratio in check, preventing dwindling supply causing huge price increases.

I find it intriguing that, over fifteen years after purchase and following many, many hors of play my SNEs still works perfectly, as do my Mega Drive, Saturn, N64 and Dreamcast. Those consoles were really built to last. In contrast I wonder if current platforms will be collectable in future decades, as they just aren't built to last beyond the current generation. Any 360s that are still working in fifteen or twenty years time deserve knighthoods.

[memories]

Yes, there is a huge drop in collecting/prices.

One of the main reasons I think is eBay now forces you to use payPal when dealing with videogames, and I know a lot of people are reluctant to sign up with Paypal. This as a result cuts of a huge amount of collectors from bidding.

it annoys me too, because I'm selling my whole collection. I've had Burning Rangers PAL go for £16, Secret of Mana £17, and a whole bunch of other stuff for stupidly low prices.

Is that on here in Trading or on Ebay ?

Could you post some links as i might be interested.

[Sketch]

This is where you're going wrong, son. Trust me, you will regret this one day. Especially when you look back and realise you let Secret of Mana go for less than twenty quid.

Please tell me it was unboxed, had no instructions or map and it looked as though the previous owner must have used it to scrape the ice off his truck's windscreen in the winter...

It was boxed, mint, but no map. I'd completed it twice, loved it, but decided that if I wanted to play it again I could always emulate on my Xbox.

Most of these games I don't play anymore, so I'm only keeping stuff which is difficult to emulate on a console, like some N64 stuff. Too much clutter otherwise.

[GViper]

It's odd, as far as retro goes, my collection expands and contracts too fast to make buying most games worth it.

But the one I do want is still £70+ for a fully boxed copy. Tis of course, Panzer Dragoon Saga Well, was last time I checked anyway. Good news, anyone?

[213]

I thought collectors never actually played any of what they hoarded? They just stockpiled it so that nobody else ever could either.

Yes but thats because you don't actually know any, you have various misconceptions and stereotypes about them and because you feel the urge to demonise them.

I've seen your remarks about being the "scum of the earth" and I'd like to know who you specifically knew that fell into that category. From this and other remarks made, some of you project onto collectors a kind of stereotype that'd normally be projected onto another demographic. I await names of those you know who fit into this group who buy games and just sit on them. Names please, people you've met not "my mate..." annecdotal evidence.

Most of the remarks made by the ignorant masses confuse speculation with collecting, ironic for those who slate others for getting their words wrong in other posts..

All the collectors I know (and I reckon I know plenty more than most of the haters on this list) start out because they discover that loads of wonderful games are now stupidly cheap, they can go out and buy them for sod all. At this point, after picking up lots of cheap games they inevitably have a series of great, cheapo finds, items that were a fortune not long ago or are worth something now.

This is a flashpoint as right now our collector is a shopping addict and a compulsive hoarder, he's turned into his missus except she does/did it with shoes and dresses and he now does it with Atari 5200 carts and C64 tapes.

Sooner or later our collector starts wanting something else, something difficult to obtain - He buys something pricey and the story continues.

He may cross further barriers when he wants to complete a collection of say 30 games - the last, rare one will be stupidly high, he's now a completist.

No one gets into "collecting" as opposed to "speculating" for the money, they do it as they love the games but they also have a love for the mphysical media and this is an important point. Thanks to downloads future generations may not enjoy this, they may well never enjoy the act of buying something, such as a book or film or record or game they know nothing about, like the look of the cover and take it home. They will never stare at a record sleeve or infocom cover. Pop art of this kind is already diminished thanks to CD's and DVd cases, old games offer this kind of visual impact, a warm feeling of owning something real, it's why vinyl is just so nice to own and to look through even if you are not listening to it right there then.

Over Xmas I sold my psone collection as I wanted the money, the games were smashing and I never played them - I'd bought them with a mind to trying out all the rpgs I'd read so much about but why bother when I can just play more crackdown. The people buying them were at times anal but on talking to them there was a reason - most of them had been ripped off by speculators or rank amateurs , they were happy to deal with someone that understood they wanted a complete, clean, WORKING game, they just wanted what they'd paid for to work.

The irony was that my copy of madden 2008 on 360 was the highest priced individual game I sold, the other psone rpgs, the supposed rare stuff want for so much less, less than the cost of a 360 football game that people wouldn't think twice about buying. And thats it, none of them were anal about mint or sealed they just wanted to know what they were buying.

Collectors come and go, they get older, they start families, all those things that apply to normal gamers well they apply to collectors, it's just that gamers as far as I can see like to have a seriously smug "well I just want to play it" attitude, as if some how no one ever plays a game in their collection. And there's the thing - it's like the reprinted games thread, no one I've ever met or talked to cared, in fact most, like me wanted Rez out as a download so they could play it on their 360 - well we'll get that soon, can we have tempest 2k as well please?

People who accuse collectors of hoarding simply don't know collectors making wonder how long ignorance has been recordable as a point of view.

Heres the thing, almost all games can be played in some way, you don't have to buy the game if you just want to feel smug and houlier than though and pretend your some sort of gameing conousser over a collector, you can get a rom, you can get much of it on a compilation, you can borrow it, you can buy it and flog it with sod all depreciation.

No, what the problem is , is that these people also want to own the original, they want it as much as me, which is fine BUT they want to pay sod all for it, years after they "discover" the game or go on a binge of nostalgia. They get all jealous, but there's nothing to get jealous over, most people will pay 40 odd quid for a wii or 360 game right now but baulk at £20 for classic psone RPGs that will always be that - it's money lent not spent but they don't see it that way, they don't buy their games intelligently or they're come latelys - moaning about Saturn prices? Should have bought one and RSG when out.

I say, good for games companies finally getting their shit together and kicking off downloads and virtual libraries, it's inconcevable that something like Back in Black or The white Album could go out of print and not be available to purchase, why should games be any different. If games prices go down so what, bought it to play it, look at it and enjoy it - not whore it.

Game prices including old ones are supply and demand pure and simple and if you've ever been at a boot sale at the end you'll know that half the gear goes off to the tip - I've seen arcade cabs, ds's, ds games, psone games in my local tip and landfill, collectors buying this stuff at boot sales saves it.

I wish in the past I'd been more aggressive I might have bothered a mate who worked for a top london codeshop into checking if the sony and phillips snes cd units they had stored were "available" - they weren't they'd been skipped 3 months previously.

If any of you haters actually want to meet a collector then pm me and you can have the tour and a few drinks, my treat.