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As someone who buys a lot of used video games, especially from older generations, I have long wanted to know how game prices change throughout the year. Do they tend to decrease and increase at predictable times of the year?
If you search for the answer to this question you will find many articles that are more about new and currently popular games, and will mostly suggest looking for deals on Black Friday, or perhaps January. That doesn't really apply if you're looking for something more than a few years old
So in late 2018 I made a new account on http://www.PriceCharting.com and added 50 complete in box games from 23 systems to my collection so I could track its price; a sort of price index of 1,150 used games. Every morning at just about the same time I recorded the value of the collection. The systems I included were the North American versions of everything from Nintendo, Sony, Sega, and Microsoft, but not the most current systems at the time (Switch, PS4, Xbox One), or some small and short lived systems (Virtual Boy, Sega CD, Sega 32X, Sega Pico). The newest system's games weren't included because their prices haven't stabilized. I chose the 50 most popular games for each system on the site, the games that were getting price checked the most.
I excluded all games that cost over $200. My thinking is, games over this price are being searched for because they are known to be rare, and people are curious about how high the price is now, are looking to complete a collection, or are looking to buy games that they suspect will go up in value, not that they are personally interested in playing. Perhaps I should have set the threshold higher or lower, but I think this was useful in not letting speculative market manipulation have an outsized impact, and to keep the data more useful and practical for more people.
That said, two years later 59 games now had a value of over $200. Most notably, as of this writing, Kuon is selling for $564 on average when complete. Pokemon Crystal, Emerald, and Sapphire also rose over $200. No games from the 7th generation rose to this price.
There were a few anomalies with the PriceCharting site. Twice a game was removed from my collection, and I assume from the site. I didn't keep a list of every game included so I have no way of knowing which these were. There were also a few days where the total value of the collection changed by less than a dollar, which probably means that sometimes the site does didn't update prices for an extended period of time.
I was initially just going to do one year. Then in early 2020 thought I maybe two years would be good for a comparison, but I wasn't sure I wanted to keep recording. Eventually it became pretty clear that the pandemic was going to be a big thing and that there wasn't going to be a nice comparison year, but a year that should be interesting in its own right.
The Data
[img width=700 height=305]https://spritecell.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Daily-Average-Value-of-Used-Complete-Games.png[/img]
[img width=310 height=281]https://spritecell.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Monthly.png[/img]
[img width=463 height=185]https://spritecell.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/records.png[/img]
Please note that the Y-axis does not start at 0, which makes the change from highest to lowest look more dramatic.
On January 1st, 2019 the average value of a game from the included systems was $40.59, and on December 31st, 2020 it was $61.68.
Assuming 2019 is a typical kind of year that we may return to in 2022 and beyond, prices grow most quickly in February and March, continue to grow in April and May, and then decrease or grow very slowly June through November. I'm quite surprised November was the biggest decrease in price. There's a lot of Christmas shopping in both November and December, yet the change between these months is the most dramatic of the year.
2020 starts much like 2019, but in March people realize they will be spending a lot of time at home and game prices spike, hitting a high in May, and not approaching pre-pandemic price changes until October. November again sees the largest price decrease of the year, but it's an even larger swing.
While prices have begun to shrink a bit, we're still a long way from pre-pandemic. I don't expect prices to get anywhere near what they used to be, or for the price decreases to last much longer. We just experienced an unprecedented surge, but game prices have always increased over time and I don't think anything will stop that.
I do more video game related statistical studies on my site https://SpriteCell.com, so please check it out if this kind of thing interests you.
In this episode Chris is the Atreus to Kelsy's Kratos as we discuss the much loved God of War (2018) in depth. Also a bonus at the end where we talk about the HBO sci-fi series Raised by Wolves first season.
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[img width=468 height=513]http://rfgeneration.com/podcasts/shmupclub/images/2021-01-24_stcc_ep_030_flight_of_pigarus_and_top_5_of_2020.jpg[/img]
In Episode 030, Addicted and MetalFRO look at our December Shmup Club selection, Flight of Pigarus! This SMS homebrew surprised us in a good way. We also take a look back at the shmups we played during 2020, and choose our top 5 games we played, out of all the games for the year!
Download or stream the episode right here at RF Generation:
http://rfgeneration.com/podcasts/shmupclub/?name=2021-01-24_stcc_ep_030_flight_of_pigarus_and_top_5_of_2020.mp3
Check out all the feeds where Shoot the Core-cast can be found via our LinkTree page:
https://linktr.ee/shootthecorecast
Check out the original discussion thread for the game here:
http://www.rfgeneration.com/forum/index.php?topic=19455.0
[img width=700 height=697]https://i.imgur.com/9oVY0Ja.jpg[/img]
I never got into arcade collecting to make friends or meet people; quite the opposite actually. As a lifelong introvert and lover (addict?) of solitude, I'd much prefer to make a few clicks on my favorite money-sync websites and wait for my new treasures to arrive in my mailbox, sans interaction. With console game collecting, this approach works great. However, if you were to get into full-sized, real-deal, space sucking arcade game cabinets, things get a little bit more complicated. Taking a quick look on eBay reveals some hard-to-swallow truths for the burgeoning arcade collector. Shipping prices alone for these massive pieces of memorabilia can easily climb to $500 or more, and local pickup options aren't going to be helpful if you live in Nowhere, USA. Where is an arcade addict to turn for their fix?
Enter craigslist and the thrills therein. Every arcade game I own, barring my starter "fake" SNK NEO GEO cabinet, a chance offer from a local friend was found on the magical world of craigslist. Having collected for the arcade cabinet's little brother, the home console, for near two decades now I am no stranger to the strangers of craigslist. Contrary to the horror stories that pervade discussion on local meetup sites, I have never once had a negative interaction with anyone on craigslist. Even for the most introverted of collectors, setting a price, time, and meetup location to pick up a cardboard box of someone's discarded childhood is fairly simple and painless. Public places like gas stations or truckstops provide relatively safe locations to wheel and deal, and being a 6-foot-tall surly-in-looks-only man doesn't hurt. But, what if the object of your neurotic affections is located in that strangers basement? Or deep in the back of a dimly lit garage or barn? Such is the life and times of an arcade collector.
The siren's call of just one more game to build my arcade empire is a seductive one. My first craiglist arcade adventure came with the classic Namco fighting game Tekken 2. I had never played Tekken, nor was I a fan of fighting games, but the one thing I did have was a hunger for a cheap mate to my first cabinet no matter what the title. Messages were sent and arrangements were made. For the low, low price of $360 my faux NEO GEO could have a friend and I could start a bonifide collection. But like any good introvert, the desire for treasure soon began to clash with the terror of meeting a stranger, in THEIR own home no less! What if this game owner was a weirdo? Even worse, what if I was the weirdo? The siren's call could not be silenced, however; yet this gave way to new fears. It was the final hurdle of any arcade collector: logistics.
Arcade games are less collectables and more pieces of furniture with near-antique electronics inside. The monitors themselves can approach 100 pounds of fragile glass and circuitry. The laminated wooden cabinets, even when gutted, are unwieldy and heavy on the best of days. Trying to muscle a fully loaded arcade game without help is a fool's errand. Sourcing an appliance dolly is in your best interest (as well as the interest of your new trophy), and the help of a second fool, er, friend doesn't hurt. Good old dad helped source the dolly but was unavailable in the muscle department. Now that you have your dolly, the logistics further complicate. Are you going to wheel it all the way home on your discount, Harbor Freight friend? Best to leave wheeling arcade games through heavy traffic to George Costanza. What you need is a larger set of wheels, be that a truck or van. Or your wife's SUV with all the seats torn out, pending her approval, of course. Dad came through as dad's do again by lending me his pickup truck for the day with ramps in tow.
So I nervously made my way across town to meet my new friend, as well as its former owner. The owner seemed nice enough, or at least any Buffalo Bill vibes had not come through the fog of email. With much trepidation and hopeful drooling, I pulled up to the rural-ish home down a long road out of town. What met me as I climbed out of the protection of dad's pickup cab chilled me to my introverted core; an extremely personable and affable man approaching middle age. All joking aside, the guy was very friendly and put me at ease immediately. As soon as you show the strangers of craiglist that you are indeed there to purchase and carry away their old junk and not murder them, they are generally more than happy to chat about the arcade hobby. Or at the very least efficiently and quickly get this junk collector out of their home, which works for this introvert. The owner opened up his detached garage and revealed a mancave of wonders; a fully stocked barcade complete with a full bar, arcade games and slot machines! The owner confided that he was parting with Tekken 2 to purchase a Quarter Pusher machine (put quarter in, get quarters out in the rare event you win). I'm still not sure what use such a machine would be in a private arcade for one, but as a fellow collector of weird ephemera, I won't judge. After a quick demonstration of the game and any special instructions (game has xyz quirks, here's the keys, don't feed after midnight, etc.), we loaded the game up on the dolly and safely secured it to the bed of the truck. Slightly shaking from nerves, I happily shook his hand and was on my way. A call was made to a fellow collector friend on what felt like the longest 5 mile drive home ever to help unload and I was in business. The entire ordeal had more or less gone off without a hitch, accidently tearing off the oversized control panel and almost plummeting to my blood-soaked death while unloading the game notwithstanding. The game proudly stood in its (temporary) new home in the dining room for months, much to my wife's chagrin and my great amusement.
I had not gone into this adventure expecting much more than a thinner wallet and a new toy. Yet the start of my collection brought with it new thoughts and questions. How many people had played on this machine? Was it someone's favorite? Where had it spent it's 25 year life? What fun-filled nights with friends or dates had it seen? I cannot think of any other group of items I own that have been touched literally and figuratively in their life than my stable of arcade games. Along with the haunt of the smell of stale cigarette smoke, this new game was also haunted with a little piece of every person who had ever played it.
Those of you who watched the progress videos for the 2019 RFGeneration NES Challenge may recognize this track as it was included in one of the medleys I recorded. This was always one of my favorite segments from those medleys, so I suppose it was only a matter of time before I revisited it with a full cover. I really enjoyed being able to flesh this one out a bit more, and it's really cool to compare the two recordings and see how far I've come in regards to recording quality and production values. I hope you guys enjoy it!
[img width=640 height=760]https://gamefaqs1.cbsistatic.com/box/8/3/5/24835_front.jpg[/img]
Dragonsphere is a point and click adventure game published by MicroProse and developed by their internal development studio MPS Labs. This internal team at MicroProse had developed two point and click adventure games prior, Rex Nebular and the Cosmic Gender Bender and Return of the Phantom. Dragonsphere would release as MicroProse's third, and final, internally developed point and click adventure game. Dragonsphere was developed for MS-DOS and would release in 1994. Much later in history the game would be put under a new spotlight when it was released as a permanently free game through CD Projekt's Good Old Games digital store in 2011.
Continue reading Dragonsphere
Don't eat the Red Flowers in this month's "A Brief Look At"
This month, we check out Cave Story + for PC, Wii, 3DS, and Switch!
[img width=500 height=624]https://i.imgur.com/FaWhVuC.jpg?1[/img]
As I've written about a few times, I'm a big fan of selling on eBay. For all of its shortcomings on the seller side, I still find myself able to leverage it to earn enough extra money that it is worth my time. One speed bump I have run into lately is that I am running out of big ticket items in my video game collection to purge, so I had been doing a bit of thrifting in the hopes of finding things to flip for profit, but I was having little success. Recently, I started visiting the Goodwill Outlet Center which is conveniently on my way home from work. It is quite an experience to go there, and I have been able to find some great loot, most of it to flip, some of it to add to my collections.
If you have been to a normal Goodwill store (or any traditional thrift store), you will be greeted with retail furnishings stocked with used clothing and miscellaneous items that have been donated by the general public. A Goodwill Outlet is something completely different. When you walk in, all you will see are big blue bins with people digging vigorously through them looking for treasure. At the particular location I go to, books are five for a dollar, and everything else is weighed and charged $1.49 per pound. Bins are changed out one aisle at a time about once every half hour, and people line up for the fresh bins to be released upon them in a Black Friday style frenzy. I have yet to line up because the action is a bit too much for me, and I like taking my time.
Continue reading Dig and Flip
[img width=550 height=688]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-215/bf/U-215-S-06800-A.jpg[/img]
Happy New Year! As we head into 2021, we all know it is a different world than even a year ago. Most brick-and-mortar retail, including for video games, has taken a very rough beating. Somewhat surprisingly, even online stores often had a short supply of many new games. If ever there were a catalyst to speed up our medium's transition to primarily digital download, it was 2020. Conversely...
The retro game market spiked in prices, as would be expected. Even PS4s and XBox One systems became hot commodities in some areas, not to mention the Switch. The massive increase in at-home workers using programs like Zoom meant less bandwidth for online play and slow download speeds. If anything, for me the last year was another reminder of why I enjoy collecting physical copies of video games.
Continue reading Thoughts on Gaming and Collecting Going Into 2021
[img width=700 height=394]https://frontier-drupal.s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/production/frontier-corp/s3fs-public/styles/970px_wide/public/press-releases/mastheads/PC_Console_Keyart_Logo_1920.jpg?itok=EFc7viMY[/img]
Let me be up front to start- I know I'm the Top 20 guy, but admittedly the Christmas season got away from me, as well as a hectic start to the new year. If you're looking for a new top 20, then take a look at the newest thread for more info, should be a lot of fun. You can find that link here- http://www.rfgeneration.c...topic=19486.msg276303#new
But with not having a top 20 to post for January, I thought it would be fun to talk about my recent experience with Planet Coaster: Console Edition, released in November by Frontier Games.
Continue reading Planet Coaster: Worth the Wait
[img width=275 height=490]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-231/bf/U-231-S-05960-A.jpg[/img]
On October 20th, 2016, Nintendo revealed what was to be their next console. Known up to that point as the 'Nintendo NX' in gaming media circles, the Nintendo Switch was officially unveiled to the world. The very first game to be revealed was The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Not only had it been in development for some time, to be the final hurrah for Nintendo's flagging Wii U console, but was also to usher in their new console, as part of the launch line-up. As we know now, not only did the Switch change Nintendo's console fortunes around, after the market failure of the Wii U, but this latest entry in the storied franchise has also turned out to be the biggest selling game in the entire series. Nintendo revealed a direct sequel to the game in June of 2019, but in the interim, details were revealed about a forthcoming Hyrule Warriors game, focusing on the events leading up to The Great Calamity. On November 20, 2020, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity was released.
Continue reading Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity - First Look
So Vans partnered with Nintendo in the past to put out some cool shoes. Well Nintendo did it again, this time with shoe company Puma. They had to celebrate Marios 35th Anniversary in style. I take a look at these shoes that are a through back to the old school NES
[img width=365 height=499]https://i.imgur.com/93GUoDO.jpg[/img]
I thought about doing a top 10 list this year, as I always try to do, but I'm just the latest in a seemingly endless string of writers saying 2020 was unlike any year I've seen in my lifetime. I feel like I have an excuse every year for why I didn't play as many games as I would have liked, but frankly, I feel less apologetic about it this time.
On the bright side, this was a great time to dip into the warm, fuzzy, comfort food of pixel art. I recently came across the book Arcade Game Typography: The Art of Pixel Type and hadn't seen anything like it before. As the name suggests, it highlights early gaming fonts and details the differences from the perspective of someone who is a trained typeface designer. Paging through it was just the kind of happy place I've been going to a lot this year, and I have a feeling it'll spark some interest with this group as well.
Continue reading Arcade Game Typography
[img width=616 height=353]https://i.imgur.com/AWYpcGf.jpg[/img]
As I wrote in my blog post last month, I created a new YouTube channel earlier in the year which has been quite fulfilling for me, but it has also taken up a considerable amount of my time and left me with much less time for gaming than in previous years. However, I think I still managed to carve out a nice beaten games list this year that is just shy of 90 titles. As usual, I try to mix my gaming up with a wide variety of titles from different consoles, genres, and generations, and this year was no exception.
Continue reading My 2020 Gaming Wrap-Up
[img width=299 height=594]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-095/ms/U-095-S-05810-A.jpg[/img]
About 5 years back, a strange and interesting game for the Playstation 2 was reviewed called Steambot Chronicles. It can be described in many different words and phrases, such as mecha sandbox rhythm role playing game. Steambot Chronicles was developed by Irem, a company mostly known for arcade games and especially the R-Type series of shoot 'em ups. The transition to its RPG swan song might be a little unexpected to long time arcade fans, especially given the fact that few people even know about Irem's RPG passion project. Somehow, Steambot Chronicles was successful enough for the company to develop a handheld spinoff for the Playstation Portable. Steambot Chronicles: Battle Tournament would release in Japan in 2008, developed and published by Irem themselves. The following year would see the game's release in North America with Atlus as its publisher.
Steambot Chronicles Review: http://www.rfgeneration.c...ambot-Chronicles-3030.php
Continue reading Steambot Chronicles: Battle Tournament
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We are a community of collectors, gamers and the likes, and some of us enjoy to let the world know what is on our mind. For those members, we have the community blogs, a place where they can publish their thoughts and feelings regarding life, universe, and everything. Some of those members might even choose to write about gaming and collecting! Whatever they write about, you can find it on their blog. You can either see the latest community blog entries in the feed you see to the left, or you can browse for your favorite blog using the menu above. Interested in having your own blog hosted on RF Generation? It's rather simple, first be a registered member, and then click the "My Blog" link that you see in the navigation above. Following those two steps will certainly get you on your way to blogging.
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