17th September 2021, 4:37 PM
Let me show you an example:
Castlevania Legacy of Darkness is not a rare game. At any time there's around a dozen copies floating around eBay for example. It's price has skyrocketed in the past year or so though, and this one company seems to be the cause.
https://www.pricecharting.com/game/ninte...f-darkness
Take a look at this tiny site. Pay attention to the chart demonstrating it's price over time. It had a slow rise, that much is true. A natural progression upwards that charted well with inflation and the steady removal of copies from the market. At the very end, some time in 2019 or so, the price shoots up dramatically. Why did it do that? I can see no reason. Nothing else appears to have changed. It's not like everyone's suddenly had a change of heart that Legacy of Darkness is actually a secret amazingly good game. It's still got a pretty low reputation among Castlevania games, only just beating out Castlevania 64. I will note that there's actually fewer copies of 64 on eBay at the moment than Legacy.
This auctioning company is ruining game collecting as a hobby. Right now, steer clear of N64 games. It looks like it's their current target for price inflating after doing their damage in NES and SNES games. It may be a good time to start collecting for other systems. For my part, I've been collecting PC DOS games. Physical copies of some of those are FAR more rare than a lot of console games, yet I've been getting many on the cheap. I recently picked up an unopened copy of Star Trek Judgment Rites (the collector's edition at that, the one that came with a VHS episode of the show), for $19 exactly. I'm getting some amazing deals because these fools that don't actually care about games or their history have completely glossed over a whole set of rarities.
Castlevania Legacy of Darkness is not a rare game. At any time there's around a dozen copies floating around eBay for example. It's price has skyrocketed in the past year or so though, and this one company seems to be the cause.
https://www.pricecharting.com/game/ninte...f-darkness
Take a look at this tiny site. Pay attention to the chart demonstrating it's price over time. It had a slow rise, that much is true. A natural progression upwards that charted well with inflation and the steady removal of copies from the market. At the very end, some time in 2019 or so, the price shoots up dramatically. Why did it do that? I can see no reason. Nothing else appears to have changed. It's not like everyone's suddenly had a change of heart that Legacy of Darkness is actually a secret amazingly good game. It's still got a pretty low reputation among Castlevania games, only just beating out Castlevania 64. I will note that there's actually fewer copies of 64 on eBay at the moment than Legacy.
This auctioning company is ruining game collecting as a hobby. Right now, steer clear of N64 games. It looks like it's their current target for price inflating after doing their damage in NES and SNES games. It may be a good time to start collecting for other systems. For my part, I've been collecting PC DOS games. Physical copies of some of those are FAR more rare than a lot of console games, yet I've been getting many on the cheap. I recently picked up an unopened copy of Star Trek Judgment Rites (the collector's edition at that, the one that came with a VHS episode of the show), for $19 exactly. I'm getting some amazing deals because these fools that don't actually care about games or their history have completely glossed over a whole set of rarities.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)