RF Generation Message Board

Check this out. Gaming getting more exposure as a collectible.

http://tech.msn.com/guides/slideshowcollect_games.aspx?cp-documentid=9524472&GT1=40000

On one hand I'm happy that more gamers/people get to know about older/valuable games.

On the other however, I really think that articles like that makes things worse for us. If all these people knew what some of their games were worth, they wouldn't sell them for $1 or 2$, would they. :-\

Articles like that are the reason prices continue to skyrocket - especially where evilbay is concerned. Articles like that could also prevent games from ending up in trash bins. Seriously. You don't want to know how many games people have left in my friend's mom's apts for the trash bin.

That sucks =[[

Exactly my point.

And if this sort of "info" becomes more and more common knowledge, expect prices at garage sales and flea markets going up as well. :(

It's ironic how "getting the hobby out there" is in fact, killing it. :-\

There's more to this hobby than finding a good deal. It's about playing old games that you still enjoy.
And in the end, we're the ones who set the prices for this stuff, not the seller. If you don't like the price, don't pay it. It's as simple as that. Whether it's eBay or a garage sale, if the seller wants to sell Combat for $20, he can. But no one can force you to buy it.
Sure, it's a shame when there's a game you really want and the seller wants ten times what it's worth, but it'll only be a matter of time before you come across that game again. It may even come to the point where that seller realizes he can't sell it for that much and then lowers his asking price to a better price.

It seems like half of those "rare" games were protos anyway...

True but I was referring to the "collecting old games" hobby. ;)

I'm not worried really. I mean yeah word might be spreading just a little bit, but like old people don't care how much they're worth. They just want to sell their stuff so they can have some more space in their houses.

So, all in all we don't need to worry much about prices skyrocketing.

I didn't know the championship carts had cases for them!
Thats awesome!

At the same time, increased exposure makes forgotten games available once again, as closets, basements and back rooms are cleaned out to sell these old titles where otherwise they might have been thrown out, destroyed or still forgotten and gathering dust.

Good point.

I think its a mixed bag, with the "hobby" of collecting becoming more mainstream it will become easier to find the games we're itching to buy because like Tan said people will start paying attention to the old games they run across in they're closets. Plus most of the current gen gamers really dont care about the past just the newest, biggest budget games-just take a look at what games people are actually playing on xbox live for example its mostly just the newest games.
On the other hand look at where some of the past games are already-Panzer Dragoon Saga is usually $200 and up (last time I checked) and I personally dont like the idea of seeing games from the 16-bit era costing as much as games for my 360.

Actually games have never been so cheap as they are this generation. There were plenty of triple A titles on 8 and 16-bit in North America that cost $70-80 twenty years ago. Putting that into perspective, that's equivalent to $115-130 in today's money. :P