Video Game Prices

As most people who collect or just simply want to buy classic games are acutely aware the prices have skyrocketed as of late. Spurred by nostalgia in most cases it’s a simple supply and demand formula. There are only so many copies of any given game available (not counting re-releases or remakes obviously) so with scarcity comes price. Nothing wrong with that and just about every collecting market works this way (looking at your Sega Saturn games, sheesh).

But that doesn’t account for things like a copy of Super Mario Brothers selling for a record $2 million recently. That’s right. Millions.

https://www.polygon.com/22613037/super-mario-bros-sells-for-2-million-investment-rally

Now anyone even remotely aware of video game prices can tell this isn’t normal. Sure a mint and sealed condition copy of this very iconic and classic game should fetch a higher price. $2 million is not that price. Just about everyone who heard this the first time assumed something fishy was up. Money laundering, a scam or something else like that. Well it may very well have been something akin to a scam.

A YouTuber named Karl Jobst released a pretty daming expose in a video going into some detail in the major players in this. Heritage Auctions and Weta Game Ratings. If these allegations are true it’s simply a matter of very wealthy people profiting on their own inflated and overvalued goods. Video games just happen to be the target as this has happened to the comic book as well as coin collecting hobbies in the past.

The problem with this of course is that is pulls everything else with it up as far as prices go. Suddenly everyone thinks they are sitting on a gold mine with their old games and prices follow suit. But it’s all based on a bubble that may very well pop soon. And the people already getting rich off this will take their money and move on to their next target or scheme. It’s really sad it finally came to our cherised hobby of game collecting.

I’d highly recommend watching the video and see what your own conclusion from this is. I came out informed but definitely not a happy camper…