Is it getting harder to be a retro gamer?

[Reprise]

In the 'olden days' I used to be able to walk into most game shops (of which there were loads of both independent and national shops around), and be able to look at loads of games across numerous generations. It was reasonably cheap as well.

Now, there are pretty much two national/international game shops available. GAME and Gamestation. Both are now owned by GAME (Gamestation used to rock for Retro stuff... Now it's just like GAME - i.e. pretty much current generation only and a few shitty/common games from last gen).

In that sense, it is harder now. However, thanks to the internet, Ebay etc, it's easier to find any game I want and find all the information and reviews etc I need. Not to mention great communities like this. But, it is undoubtedly ridiculously expensive now, in a lot of cases thanks to collectors on Ebay. Also, if you're lucky enough to find a decent game shop that stocks retro, more often than not, they price the games according to general 'Buy it Now' Ebay listings, which is expensive and annoying.

[J T]

I thouht GAME just closed its doors?

[RyaNtheSlayA]

I thouht GAME just closed its doors?

As far as I know they're barely holding on. They may have gone under though.

[Reprise]

GAME is still open. Close to going into administration probably.

[BoringSupreez]

I'm in the camp of "Not harder but sure as hell more expensive".

I guess that does make it harder for me.

Exactly. I've nearly stopped buying specific games, because of the price. I just buy whatever looks good at the thrift store. For sure, nearly everything has either held the price steady or increased in the past 3-4 years. This totally sucks. Being a retro gamer was so much easier in 2006. And back then, I remember people saying how much better it was in 2003, before Saturn and PS1 RPG prices really kicked off.

[Cronozilla]

Honestly, you need to find a place that's NOT a game store. Pawn shops and second hand stores, for example. They'll price things based purely on stock, not on individual item's ebay listing. They're more about getting inventory throughput, not on hassling customers over individual items.

However, in the last few years (at least in the US), these places have become scarce in my area, just because people decided to jack up the rent in most shops. It wasn't until last year that the area stopped looking like an abandoned ghost town in shopping centers.

[Reprise]

Honestly, you need to find a place that's NOT a game store. Pawn shops and second hand stores, for example.

The problem with this, though, is that not only do these hardly exist in my area, the odd ones I find seem to pretty much just stock common PS1, PS2 and current generation games.

I believe, too, that because of the rise in popularity of games and Ebay, more people are aware of how much more money they can gain from selling popular and sort after games over Ebay, instead of taking them to pawn stores.

[Cronozilla]

Yeah, that can happen.

I think it's more common here to find semi-hard to find games sometimes just because a lot of people are really lazy. They just don't want to take the effort of putting it up on ebay, they're more interested in just getting rid of it. (How else would GameStop be booming? Surely it's not because of the immense value they give when buying your used games)

Maybe just look around more for things like swap-meets too. You really never know what you'll find at one of those unless it's a really small community.

[Menegrothx]

Isnt that a natural consequence of time moving on? The economics of game collection has its own quirks and there are certain variables and fluctuation, but in general you could say that the more time passes, the more expensive everything becomes after a certain point.
There is a limited stock of the original item, the CD-i console for example. Old warehouse finds aside, the amount will never grow. It can only decrease as a consequence of people, time and natural forces breaking them. Sure its nothing major, but every flood, fire and earthquake has a chance of making the overall amount of a few consoles smaller.
The global population is rising and gaming is becoming more popular, which means that there are more potential collectors who want the console. Naturally its not that simple in real life, and there are things like inflation etc which you also need to take in count.

Like already said in this thread, in most cases games, even for more rare platforms from the 80s and 90s, are still cheaper than they were as new. For example you can find many Jaguar CD and CD-i games unopened for 15-25 dollars. Both, especially Jaguar CD were quite rare platforms in their prime time, not to mention nowadays. Yet their games can be that cheap. The reason is that only a handful of game collectors are really intrested in that stuff. People might also be intrested in games that are retro, but not completely outdated, and then after those games become officially outdated, their prices drop as only retro collectors care about them anymore. Atari 2600 games might serve as an example of this. You can still find many for a dollar a piece!

[foxhound1022]

Yes and no. Yes, due to the simple fact of accessability to almost any system and game, no mostly due to price. Ebay has ruined “the hunt” for most retro collectors, because of all of these scrubs going around to flea markets, Goodwills, etc.; simply because their old game stuff fetched a decent price.

So they do some research, and find out there's z market for it, and from then on; it's only about money. I cannot count how many times I've seen people thumbing through PS1 games or SNES carts while checking prices on their phones. Pfft! I openly tell them how weak their game is, and move on. Irritates the shit out of me.