Decline of the collectors market, how low can it go?

What items do you refer to? Perhaps I'm just too out of the loop to know. (^_^);

But, I would agree with that statement for sure. I think things will bottom out while the economy is unstable and then rise up again once people regain their footings and can afford more important things (like paying your bills, etc).

 

Any cheap Nitro videos yet?

 

I've got to be honest. Although I'm a collector just like anyone else here, I don't really look at my collection as a solid investment. Sure, it keeps some value and I'll get a return on it, but I just don't bank on it as much as other people might do.

But that's the problem I find. You ether need to buy things as a collector, or as an investor, but not both. Because generally speaking if your an investor, you need to know when it's time to cash out. Ie. 6 months ago when ndev's were up. If you blur the lines as a collector and an investor, you'll make bad decisions. IMHO anyway. That's why I view myself as a collector, not an investor.

 

My Collection is intended to be a sort of Video Game Museum where friends can take a glimpse into days gone by.

and I'm not even scratching the surface either.

 

It's hurting my Saturn sales with people in the US however my European customers are still coming and buying loads as always. The thing that gets me is shipping has go up recently.

Yakumo

 

I don't buy games as an investment. I mainly buy them to play them, and partly as a collection. I like having a lot of games so I have a wide range of choices of what to play. I like having a lot of consoles so I can play games for almost any system. I don't really do it as an investment, but I think that's kind of a nice side effect. Even if the prices go down, I have so much stuff that I could still make a large amount of money if I sold all of it.

Preferably, I would never sell any of it. But if I'm really hurting one day and I need the money, selling my collection would be a good source of revenue.

 

I buy games for value actually, but I enjoy collecting them as I never know when I'd might need to cash all my stuff out.
I haven't seen any cheap development systems yet, but I have seen rare affordable accessories especially for Nintendo 64. Only from the US, other countries are selling these controllers for $100+

Personally I think people are selling these units at weird prices mainly cause they want the money sooner rather than waiting..

 

Honestly games have become like the stock market now, where the value goes up then drops down all of a sudden. There will be times where a copy of Mario world or yoshis island will go for a high a price, then for 2 or 3 months it will go for next to nothing. I would imagine it's hurting Japanese sellers with the current exchange rate.

Plus the new online tax laws are scaring a lot of people who would usually sell this stuff from time to time resulting in scarce availability online driving some games like turtle in time up when they use to be had for $15 at most.

Honestly the system that has taken the biggest dive is the genesis mega drive. I have never seen so many low prices for games on one system since ps1, though suprisingly streets of rage/ bare knuckles value has gone up quite a bit.

Even dc value is starting to outrank the saturns and it was more successful. But now a days I buy what I want, not what's going to sell.

 

Heh. Too bad Rockman 8 isn't bottoming out like the sadly low US PSX edition...

 

I'm so tempted to get an Everdrive + Mega Drive/Mega CD/32x from somewhere, they have to be model 1 (UK - EUR) though, anyone got any advice on where this lot could be had for cheap(ish) since they're supposedly going down in price. Apart from the Everdrive that is.

Just testing the waters at the moment, PM me if you have any suggestions so this thread isn't derailed..

 

I can't confirm that here in Japan.

 

Not me either sadly. Where I'm from UK models are of exceptional rarity also.

 

And watch all the TG-16 price gauging which is happening in the US right now. Or a pity new PAL SNES going for 3000£ over the ebay desk? lol?

The world went pure crazy.

 

I might be shooting you an e-mail soon My new Saturn needs it's fix

 

Saturn fixes huh? Yeah I've been slacking off. The mods on my Japan one aren't completed. It's chipped but needs 2/3 more things... Euro RGB cable support, region free, and perhaps hz switch in case of PAL games needing it.

 

I don't trust it or knew that people here tried to make a profit off their collections. I just buy consoles and put modchips in them and burn the whole game library on DVD/CDs and put it in my closet for later use years down the line when I feel like replaying a game. I don't own physical copies of any games nor have I bought any since Gamecube era. Eventually you have to sell all that crap or find somewhere to store it all, but why bother when you can still play the games and have the whole library in a CD holder/spindle?

 

In my case fix as in how a junkie needs his fix. I only have about 8 or 9 games at the moment and the only one I'm really playing right now is
Toshinden URA.

I have a shit ton of PS2 and Dreamcast burns but for the most part I'd rather have the actual games the only games I burned are Imports that are impossible to get now or rare games that fetch too much second hand. Plus there's something about sharing pics of my collection and giving other gamers throbbing erections with the awesomeness of said collection that's satisfying.

 

I'd rather see dev hardware go cheap so everyone has access not just the really rich. People that can use the stuff could get hold of it & make something interesting rather than somebody with loads of cash that would buy it just for the bragging rights & it sits there forever unused. Sometime with dev stuff it's like a willy waving contest, someone posts something dev related & without fail you'll get several posts with people creaming themseves with admiration.

Either way using videogame stuff as an investment is stupid as the chances of it making a decent return is slim at best, from what i have seen it depends on where on earth you are and what collectables your going for. It has always been like this, it comes & goes in waves, yahoo auctions is the same. Right now buying ds games is an expensive hobby, thanks to the Japanese exchange rate & sellers charging a fortune even for used copies i can't exactly see the market bottoming out on ds stuff.

However on other games it might have hit rock bottom, either way patience always pays off.