Do you think its worth it to hold on to rare games and system for 20 more years?

I'm currently selling a lot of somewhat rare games on eBay. Specifically Nes, SNES, and 64. I'm tempted to sell some very nice boxed systems on eBay too. How much more will these systems be worth in the future? People who use to play all these games are now between 20-30 and have money to shell out on nostalgia. There is a high demand for these items now. In the future there will be a lower demand and lower supply. When this generation reaches the age of 50 they'll have more money but will they even care about this stuff anymore?
Sell now or wait 10+ years? Do you think it's worth storing and moving around, only to sell it 20 years later? Is it worth the hassle for the increased profit?

 

It's an interesting view one I've shared with people over the years, common logic states older and rarer = more valuable, but as i usually point out the people paying top money tend to be those in their late 20's and 30's and they will mainly buy what they know the best. i.e. the games and systems they grew up with. In another 10 years it may be be playstation and xbox that shoots up in value but who knows?

but what i will say, condition is everything. nintendo systems like the nes, snes and n64 which games in cardboard boxes are getting rarer and rarer and will most likely continue to grow in price.

 

I don't think prices will rise as much as they did in the past 10 years, they will probably either stagnate or depreciate to a certain normal point, then depreciate some more over time. In the end, there will only be a limited amount of hardcore collectors left and some new collectors who will have a hard time competing. Some items will probably rise in value even more until they are indeed commonly traded for $1000 or even $10,000+, similar to antique toys or militaria items.

If you like video games as such you should definitely hold on to them! They may not become MUCH more valuable, but nice condition items will become increasingly scarce.

 

I have to agree on holding rare stuff for as long as possible to get maximum profit but at the same time I worry the demand will cease making value drop. I have some rare stuff I got for fairly cheap that go for butt loads of money now. I have a pressed copy of Geist Force I got here for $25 and they sell for $150 to $200 when you are lucky to find one on eBay. So I don't know anymore. Will this game be worth more in 5 years or will it be worth less that what I got it for? I ponder this almost every day.

 

im not really interested in rarity or profit when it comes to games and systems, it's just what i enjoy, a hobby and how i relax and unwind and have fun.


priorities in life will change as will circumstances but i'll always be a gamer at heart and the systems and games i grew up with will always have a place there.

will i feel the same at 50? well who knows if I’ll even make it to 50 i'll just enjoy the now for now and the past erm... now.

if you need the money, sell, if not and you have the space / storage capabilities hang on to the stuff, or if you want it to be enjoyed by someone else sell. whatever it's all down to you and what you feel is best. depending on what happens in the world values/prices could crash or they could boom.

 

I love playing the games I remember fron when I was a kid and thats it. I really havent found any new old games that i have enjoyed other than when i was a kid. I guess its pure nostalgia for me. I could care a less about boxes and complete ness i just want to play it. Ill probably just regret selling all my stuff like ive already done and repeat history when i have more money.

 

Collecting/keeping videogames in order to sell them later is probably not a good idea. Used videogame prices fluctuate quite a bit over time, so it's very difficult to predict what they'll be like in the future. The trend does seem to be going upwards, but there's no way to know if that will continue or not, or even reverse. In the late 90s/early 2000's, older games were incredibly cheap. Only in the past few years have prices gone up significantly.

The bottom line for me is, you should collect videogames to play them. They're probably not a great investment. If you no longer get any enjoyment out of them, you should probably sell them to someone who will. If, on the other hand, you still enjoy them and think you will continue to enjoy them in the future, you ought to hold on to them. You might find, as I have, that you'll later regret getting rid of them. Then, if it turns out they are more valuable, that's a nice side effect.

Also, there are actually quite a few games that I wasn't playing at the time they were released, but I discovered many years later. For example, I never had a Saturn when they were still producing them, but I have a pretty nice collection of Saturn games now. Overall, I've gotten a lot more enjoyment out of games like that than I have gotten out of any new game in years.

 

i've discovered a lot of games especially on systems i didn’t have originally, and even some on systems i did have but i just never got playing, since i got back into "retro" games. and still there's plenty i want to get into on the NES and PC Engine etc

 

I think this very much depends on the specific item/system, how the whole economy will develop and how big of an issue retro collecting will still be in 20 years from now.

i think nobody can answer you this question at this time.

 

I agree, I've seen sealed Gameboy Zelda's move for stupid money as will the N64 ones in good time. I always wait until a machine is either dead or the software is subject to mass reduction sales and swoop on games published by the manufacturer to keep sealed, I had this feeling about Wonderful 101 on Wii U - I wanted to play it but I know I'll play it for a day and think 'I should have kept that sealed' so I just didn't open it, I think it could gain value one day.

I think the majority though, if you buy a game for £40-50 new and keep it sealed, it's rare that it'll get over that value in the first ten years of it's availability, Chibi Robo on Gamecube is probably a good example, late, low print run, hardly anyone stocked it in PAL territories yet a sealed copy in 2013 is still quite easily found for £40 which really isn't returning a profit unless bought in a fire sale for around £20.... It's such a tightrope with this sort of thing.

 

Glad I found this. Now I know my stuff will probably be worthless in a few years.

 

well as with anything it's only worth what people are willing to pay for it, as said in the late 90s and early 00's that wasn't much at all. price has risen but it could just as easily drop.

 

^^^ This. I figure someday I MIGHT be pleasantly surprised at how much games are worth. However I buy games because I will either enjoy them or just because I like to hunt some of this stuff down enjoy it for a bit and then pass it on. I always scratch my head at people who "invest" in video games. Since there are much better ways to invest that money/time that will yield better results.

 

I think that's a bit of an exaggeration. The good games for said consoles did not depreciate as massively as you said, and some games even increased in price e.g. the masterpieces for Mega Drive and Sega Saturn. Please list 1 example for a $150-200 Saturn-shooter that can be had for $50 nowadays? I don't know any. Mega Drive decreased in the meantime but increased again, especially in PAL & JPN territories. Games that were $10 10 years ago are not $15-20, with a few outliers having increased from $20 to $60, $100 or even more. Average titles had always been trash, but they get harder to find in good condition so the low prices increased a bit as well, or so I observed.

Demand by quantity certainly must have decreased, but purchasing power of the remaining demand increased at the same time.There is still a market for Sega and SNK games for a while, it will take longer than that until they are forgotten by the public. Stuff like 3DO, CDi and NGage, yes, but those were obscure even at their hayday.

 

Demand is king. While some Super Cassette Vision games are kinda rare they prices always stay in a somewhat fixed range because there's very few people looking for them. Question: will enough people care about Sega Master System games in 2025 or only care about "MARIO BROS. ZELDA DONKEY KONG #oldschoolgaem$ #ultrar@re #vintagenintendo"...? Who knows really. But I bet my money on sealed copies of Mach Rider being worth relatively nothing in the near future compared to the most famous franchises' games like Mario and Sanic.

Unless you're talking about 50~100 years timespan when physical copies might deteriorate causing the person with a working copy of any shitty Atari 2600 shovelware to be king. But why would you care, really? Are you even going to be alive in 2070? (unless you are SERIOUS about videogame preservation, of course.)

 

Short answer: no.

Long answer: perceived collectibles aren't good for investing.

 

Many non-Nintendo systems are forgotten at the moment, but that might make those collectibles worth all the more eventually. For example, let's pick a console that not too many people care about like Philips CD-i. What will happen when there's only a handful left due to disposal or neglect? Scenes, crazes, and a lot of money can revolve around some of the most uninteresting pieces of video game history (like that Barbie Horse game for Xbox or that one NCAA game that was barely published).

If anything, I'm kinda glad that non-Nintendo stuff remains obscure and cheap enough to still find in the wild. There are so many great games out there for pennies because a lot of people are too busy searching for the alleged holy grails or spending $50 on a beat-up copy of Mario 64 with a torn-off label from some indie shop "because Mario is Mario" or some BS.

...But markets always emerge out of nowhere. Remember! A 3DO or a Jag is retro AND obscure, so it almost automatically has the potential to give anyone who shows it off alpha-hipster status. I can see it now.. Quietly tucked away in Parliamentland behind the rolling Pumpkin Spice hills in some of the most densely-populated urban areas in the western hemisphere, there will be 'it' shops selling $1500 Apple Pippins complete with complementary wood-grain decals and a matching 13" Color TV exclusively designed in Japan to "completes the look".

 

The worrying factor in my mind is that digital re-releases on VC, PSN and XBL are fluctuating prices as most people are just happy enough to have the game on their shiny new console. I mean why pay exorbant prices for the physical copy of a game when I could download it costing less than a family meal at Mcdonalds or Kfc. Coupled with the newish clones that let you play everything and anything. I have noticed the value and popularity of the original Playstation FF games (VII, VIII and IX) have dropped on ebay since the releases on PSN.


EDIT - Spelling

 

sell your gaming stuff that will lack value and buy something more sustainable like gold or silver.