/'m a game collector, are you ?

[AnAngelsDeath]

Anyone that actually pays $400 when there are multiple cheaper ones is an idiot. He doesn't even say if its black label or Greatest Hits. Suikoden II and Panzer Dragoon Saga some of the rarest games ever released in the US don't command that kind of price unopened, no way in hell FFVII should.

thats what I'm sayin. Like I said in my original Post when I started this thread, I have a mint condition copy of "Chrono Trigger" w/ case and the case is in perfect condition (maybe a lil faded but barely) and thats one of the top 5 rarest games to have from what I've seen. And the most I've seen it going for is around 150$

 

[GreenMonkey]

thats what I'm sayin. Like I said in my original Post when I started this thread, I have a mint condition copy of "Chrono Trigger" w/ case and the case is in perfect condition (maybe a lil faded but barely) and thats one of the top 5 rarest games to have from what I've seen. And the most I've seen it going for is around 150$

It's not the rarest. It's actually not too uncommon. But it has high demand do to it being popular (great game) and most people chucking the case/instructions/etc.

There's a bit of a difference between rare and popular. When you get something that is a bit of both (like Panzer Dragoon Saga or Shining Force III) is when the price really escalates.

 

[boxterduke]

I still have most of the PC games I bought since early 90s, I sold a few here and there and I regret it just because the boxes were too nice. One of them was Stonekeep. I wish I can find the original box some where.

I used to buy a lot more games before but in the past 3 to 4 years, I've been only buying games I really want and not any game that comes out from a specific genre. I did that with FPSs during the 90s, any FPS game I would buy even if it sucked.

Right now I have about 120 games in total, 105 of them are PC games

 

[huxley]

It's not the rarest. It's actually not too uncommon. But it has high demand do to it being popular (great game) and most people chucking the case/instructions/etc.

There's a bit of a difference between rare and popular. When you get something that is a bit of both (like Panzer Dragoon Saga or Shining Force III) is when the price really escalates.

I had both of those games at some point, sold them when I was a poor college student several years ago. The thing about RPG's is they seem to always hold value or increase in value. It seems most RPG games are more limited runs and for whatever reason it seems that collectors of games are also fans of RPG's, not sure why.

I remember working at Toys R Us in high school, we got 3 copies of Panzer Dragoon Saga in and the price got cut to 20 dollars upon arrival so I went to buy all 3. Some poor kid came running in the store and said that another store said we had some copies and he was desperate so I couldnt help but give him one. Was probably one of the best deals/finds I ever had I think.

I used to collect games a lot, had some decent ones like
Lunar (sega cd)
Lunar Eternal Blue (sega cd)
Shining Force CD (sega cd)
Panzer Dragoon Saga
Shining Force 3
Albert Odyssey
Dragon Force
Ogre Battle (snes)

bunch of other ones. It was mainly due to the fact that I loved RPG's and had a group of friends who were really into them as early teens. I also had a friend who had a job at his dads friends pawn shop at 14 which led to a surprising amount of good, rare games before ebay was around and pawn shops really knew the value of certain items. I dont have any of the games anymore, I did see shining force cd in one of my old storage crates but thats about it. I prefer to just keep the nostalgia in my head rather than having the games to replay and find out they arent what I remember them to be as most of the best memories is due to playing them w/ buddies.

I also think collecting just leads to obsession. Your collection is never good enough and there is always more you want but will never be able to afford. Then again some people love the act of collecting in itself or finding a great deal. I feel ebay has really hurt some of the collector world. It made the very rare games extremely rare and expensive while bringing down some mid range rare games to a lower price as people found that there are more copies out there than they initially thought. I would rather just avoid it altogether but to each their own.

 

[piscian18]

I also had a friend who had a job at his dads friends pawn shop at 14 which led to a surprising amount of good, rare games before ebay was around and pawn shops really knew the value of certain items.

Once upon a time Pawnshops were goldminds for rare games. Got a lot saturn games for $5 at dan's cash america Including Dragon Force

Sadly I think games aren't as rare as they used to be. Haven't seen anything worth having at a pawnshop in years.

 

[huxley]

Once upon a time Pawnshops were goldminds for rare games. Got a lot saturn games for $5 at dan's cash america Including Dragon Force

Sadly I think games aren't as rare as they used to be. Haven't seen anything worth having at a pawnshop in years.

Yeah, its a different scene entirely. I think RPG games in general have garnered a much larger audience in the years since FF7. Now most games, especially good games get a wide release. There also seems to be no 'waning' console which is key for those rare great games. Xbox/ps3/wii all sell quite well. We would need another console to come out that sold relatively poorly to get a few rare gems again. With the cost of development these days, I dont know if we will see another contender that can get developers to actually make multi million dollar games for them. Just look at the market, what new, non major player console has come out in the past 10 years? I cant really even think of one. The old days we had

sega cd
jaguar
turbo grafx 16
a plethora of portable gaming platforms (game.com, neo geo pocket, etc)
3do (which I somehow owned due to winning a contest)
dreamcast
saturn
etc etc...

not to mention the new idea of multi-platform games. Its hard to have a rare title when the game goes to multiple platform (FF13 etc.). Games are so expensive that many devs look to put games on multiple systems. The exception to this is often 1st part published titles which obviously stay on their main console but also have very wide distribution.