Why Are Video Games Becoming Completely Worthless so Fast??

K

kingkiller33

CAGiversary!
Last weekend, I finished my monthly review of my video game collection. About once a month, I will go through every game, sort them and see how much I can get for reselling the game on Amazon Marketplace. I guess I've become more of a collector than a player as I have amassed more games than I'll ever have time to play.


I created this large collection over many years by getting caught up in the holiday excitement buying, and taking avantage of sales. Like many others, I used money from reselling my games to finance new purchases. But now I've noticed a disturbing trend that makes me take great pause towards every buying a game that isn't dirt cheap.

In July, my grand total of Xbox 360, PS3 and PSP games was 259. Almost all my games are titles that have received good reviews and worthwhile games. If I sold everything in July, I could have got $3100 for my lot. Now just a month later, I can only get $2800! A three hundred dollar decrease within just a few weeks.

Even more sobering is the fact that I've added a few games to my collection including Deus Ex Human Evolution and Dungeon Siege so the $2800 total includes these titles as well. I looked up one of the games that I had reviewed just a few days ago. Last Monday, I could have got $18 bucks for Just Cause 2. Now, $16. Tales of Vesperia - $21. Now, $18 bucks.


I'm well aware that media has no maintaining value and constantly depreciates, but I've never seen such a rapid decline. My games are selling for less every hour or the day. In no time, I'll be lucky to get a dollar for them. Before, it wasn't until Xbox360 really took off that my Xbox collection became worthless. I have games selling for $0.01 on Amazon now. Completely worthless!

On top of this is my PS2 JPRG collection which I had once hoped would become rare and valuable like the PS1 generation did. Now 90% of them sell for under 10 bucks. I refuse to sell less than I paid if I have not played the game.

Which leaves only one strategy. Never buy another game until I fnished my backlog, but this will obviously take years at my snail's pace and it is so hard to ignore the many great titles this year. Maybe I should sell now and cut losses before everything becomes garbage bin material.
 
It happens more and more often these days. I actually had the same surprise as you did about Deus Ex and Dungeon Siege, I was beyond shocked that they dropped in value so fast.

Now as to why they're becoming worth less right now is probably because the fall onslaught is about to occur, so all prices on recent games are being slashed so people will buy them up before the big games come out, which quickly led to a lower value in trades and sales. Late December/Early January a few of them may bounce back in TiV.
 
Give yourself a price point on all games mine is $30 for new
$10 for older stuff.
at that point it doesn't hurt too much when you see the games selling for less. Only get games you like/have good reviews. A $5 game that sucks is $5 that you just used as toilet paper and valuable shelf space.

Plus this makes the hunt more interesting.
IE Can I really get Batman Arkham City for $30 when it comes out? If I work hard enough and keep an eye out yes, if not no and it waits until it hits $30.

In the end if your collection makes you happy who give a shit about the price. If it doesn't make you happy drop em like a bad habit.
 
1) Increase in used volume: everyone is trying to cash in on used games, so more are available with less demand due to the recession. This lowers trade values.

2) Predatory pricing: Amazon used to be the king of undercutting stores on new games, but now everyone is turning cutthroat. It's like a race to see who can drop the lowest now. This pushes used pricing down, obviously.

3) Some games are more about pushing user-base sales to rake in money off DLC, online passes, etc. Volume sales look better in quarter analysis, too.

Nothing surprises me with this industry anymore. In an age where gimmicks sell millions, I can believe anything.
 
Everything changes with time, but a good game doesn't. Hold on to the good games as ppl start to buy more again in the future they will be worth something again. Just the sign of the times.
 
The ever increasing and long past absurd/unsustainable cost of developing games requires that the minimum print run is very high. The minimum sell through necessary to break even is very high and for the vast majority of games, impossible to meet.
 
You can also attribute it to gaming becoming more mainstream in the current generation. In anticipation of selling out of a certain video game, developers are producing larger quantities of it; remember when Mass Effect 2 was only $10 on Amazon brand new, not even a year after it first hit shelves? People are buying more video games, and the ones that don't sell are liquidated early to make way for another game. And that's another thing about the assimilation of gaming culture: More and more games are being produced than ever before. A company like Square-Enix, for example, might have only had two or three games out per year in the mid-90's; now, Square-Enix is churning out (rather shitty) games by the dozens.

Another thing to think about is the whole digital gaming revolution, which has only taken off during the current generation of hardware. Digital games cost less to produce because they don't have to be printed, meaning a lower price. That game is also instantly available to just about everyone in the world. The way the market is turning, people who just want to play a game will simply buy it digitally.

Lastly, it seems like your collection only consists of current gen games. Given my other points, it's obvious why your collection is going down in value. There are still plenty of older rare games out there that collectors would drop a good sum of money to have, like Tales of Destiny and Brigandine for PS1. Even Megaman X Collection for GC is rare. If you want to increase the value of your collection, buy games from previous generations instead.
 
Probablly the biggest reason anymore is that how availible games are. Games used to be worth a lot more because they werent as mainstream as they are now. And you can find games anywhere now.

Its like how all the comics that are worth anything are from the times when comics werent that mainstream and no one really kept them then, they would end up in the trash, traded or just beaten up so badly they became junk. But now the lack of them raises their value. New comics are not worth shit and when they are its just a brief window because now comics are sold by the millions and everyone collects them now thinking they will one day retire off them.

Basically the more people collect and the easier it is to get something then the less they are worth. When call of duty nets activision a billion dollars in one year then gaming isnt just for gamers and collectors anymore and the more games that come out the less demand and value you will find in them.

PLus the game industry itself is to blame by charging way too much for new games, collectors editions and even DLC. They are choking things out by greed so retailers have to drop prices faster in order to get more people to buy from them.
 
[quote name='Blade']You can also attribute it to gaming becoming more mainstream in the current generation. In anticipation of selling out of a certain video game, developers are producing larger quantities of it; remember when Mass Effect 2 was only $10 on Amazon brand new, not even a year after it first hit shelves? People are buying more video games, and the ones that don't sell are liquidated early to make way for another game. And that's another thing about the assimilation of gaming culture: More and more games are being produced than ever before. A company like Square-Enix, for example, might have only had two or three games out per year in the mid-90's; now, Square-Enix is churning out (rather shitty) games by the dozens.

Another thing to think about is the whole digital gaming revolution, which has only taken off during the current generation of hardware. Digital games cost less to produce because they don't have to be printed, meaning a lower price. That game is also instantly available to just about everyone in the world. The way the market is turning, people who just want to play a game will simply buy it digitally.

Lastly, it seems like your collection only consists of current gen games. Given my other points, it's obvious why your collection is going down in value. There are still plenty of older rare games out there that collectors would drop a good sum of money to have, like Tales of Destiny and Brigandine for PS1. Even Megaman X Collection for GC is rare. If you want to increase the value of your collection, buy games from previous generations instead.[/QUOTE]


Good points. The only thing I would disagree with is that there is still a valuable collector's market out there. Very few titles bring in any decent coinage nowdays. Even the PS1 RPGS that I owned have severely dropped in value after PSN releases them digitally. I used to be able to get $50 bucks for my Final Fantasy VII black label. Now it goes for 15 bucks used on Amazon.

Even Tales of the Abysss, which was one of the few valuable PS2 titles left, has dropped big time. And forget about Ico. Out of my entire 80 game Xbox 1 collection, only KOTOR and GTA San Andreas are above the 10 dollar mark. Shenmue 2 is now going for $4.90 on Amazon. Pathetic and depressing!!
 
[quote name='Jodou']3) Some games are more about pushing user-base sales to rake in money off DLC, online passes, etc. Volume sales look better in quarter analysis, too.[/QUOTE]

Very interesting - I was just thinking about this too - for example I paid more for Bioshock 2 DLC then I did for the original game.

Personally I have no problem with this model - I actually really like it because it means I can play alot of games for cheap and only invest in the games I love.

Gamers tend to complain about the length of the games getting cut to DLC, and no doubt that sometimes actually happens, but to me it sounds like whining. If you wait and pay a cheap price, games are still a great deal.
 
Games are meant to be played and not collected like some vintage wine or painting from Rembrandt.

If you know how to do it, you can minimize the amount of cash you're spending out of pocket by flipping games to get credit at various stores/sites to lessen your initial buy in cost for them.;)

OR

Just wait for the inevitable price drops and buy once games are half of the release price MSRP of $50-60.
 
[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']Games are meant to be played and not collected like some vintage wine or painting from Rembrandt.

If you know how to do it, you can minimize the amount of cash you're spending out of pocket by flipping games to get credit at various stores/sites to lessen your initial buy in cost for them.;)

OR

Just wait for the inevitable price drops and buy once games are half of the release price MSRP of $50-60.[/QUOTE]

Well flipping for credit is a joke. For example, Amazon will only give you 17 bucks for Deus Ex, or you could sell it on marketplace for $35. Take an older title like Red Faction G and they only give you 2 bucks. I feel like if I can't get at least a solid 10 bucks, the game is worth more keeping and replaying in the future.
 
It's not a joke if you know what to flip, where to flip it to and when to flip it.;) If I've paid with actual cash for more than 1-3 games in the last couple of years then it's a miracle.

Of course, flipping also requires buying games for cash(cheaply) at times to convert over to credit. But you do have to be willing to check various stores/sites to compare trade values and promotions to maximize your profit potential.

As for the tiv for Deus Ex being so low, it may also be because they're only selling the game for 2x that right now($34.99) as they matched the price this week at TRU.
 
Like others, the only thing I'll be near launch is something I want to play online at launch or something I'm absolutely dying to play (i.e. a sequel like Mass Effect 3).

Everything else I'll wait and get off Goozex or buy for $30 or less and trade it back on Goozex after I beat it.

Most games just aren't worth shelling out a lot of money for to me since I don't care about collecting them and mainly just play them once or twice and ditch them. I'm just paying for the experience basically, so I try to keep costs down.

I'm not as cheap with movies or cds etc. since I want own those and rewatch/relisten to them over the years.
 
On the other hand portable games retain their value a lot better. Since many people throw away their case and manual, some GBA games with case and manual more than kept their value
 
The thing with collecting is that 99% of items become worthless but people tend to ignore these in favor of the few that become priceless.

Look at all the old games, most everything from the NES, Genesis, gb, gba, SNES, Saturn, DC, PS1,PS2, xbox, eras are all worthless but people tend to focus on the few that still hold some value rather than everything that's worth a buck or less but retailed for $50 decades ago.

Videogames just went through a golden age in collecting and it went right along with the antique market in the economic collapse. Items tend to maintain their value only when the vast majority of the market isn't looking to sell, but when a significant chunk wants to or is forced by need for money and demand is also greatly reduced again by reduced available cash in buyer's pockets you hit these times when the market nose dives.
 
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It wasn't that long ago I used to be able to pick up a game for next to nothing, and if I didn't like it I could trade it in or sell it for what I paid for it or sometimes even more. Now people are willing to sell stuff for next to nothing. I don't even see how it's worth it to sell a game for a $0.01. I'd rather donate it or throw it out over spending the time to list it and ship it for basically no money.
 
I find Goozex is a good way to get games and not lose much value.

Most games I get and beat and send back out for the same amount of points I spent on it--so I'm only out $3-4 total in the trade token fee to request the game and shipping to mail it back out.

Service sucks if you want games anywhere near launch, but it's great for games you don't mind waiting 6 months or more to play.
 
iYou have a strategic flaw in your game collection: if you are truly a collector and happy and proud of your collection, why care so much about the resale values, since you are not gonna sell them anyway? If you keep those games just hoping one day they could worth a fortune, it's not going to happen, except for a few rare titles or collector/limited editions.

Let me ask a question; why did you buy the new games such as Deus EX? 34.99 may seem a good price, but in long run it's only going down. If you want to play the game, then play, finish, trade/sell for $30 before it's too late. Buy it back when the price hits $15, or even lower. If you are not interested in playing the game, don't buy it until the price is below $15. What's so depressing?

[quote name='kingkiller33']Good points. The only thing I would disagree with is that there is still a valuable collector's market out there. Very few titles bring in any decent coinage nowdays. Even the PS1 RPGS that I owned have severely dropped in value after PSN releases them digitally. I used to be able to get $50 bucks for my Final Fantasy VII black label. Now it goes for 15 bucks used on Amazon.

Even Tales of the Abysss, which was one of the few valuable PS2 titles left, has dropped big time. And forget about Ico. Out of my entire 80 game Xbox 1 collection, only KOTOR and GTA San Andreas are above the 10 dollar mark. Shenmue 2 is now going for $4.90 on Amazon. Pathetic and depressing!![/QUOTE]
 
[quote name='allen9917']iYou have a strategic flaw in your game collection: if you are truly a collector and happy and proud of your collection, why care so much about the resale values, since you are not gonna sell them anyway? If you keep those games just hoping one day they could worth a fortune, it's not going to happen, except for a few rare titles or collector/limited editions.

Let me ask a question; why did you buy the new games such as Deus EX? 34.99 may seem a good price, but in long run it's only going down. If you want to play the game, then play, finish, trade/sell for $30 before it's too late. Buy it back when the price hits $15, or even lower. If you are not interested in playing the game, don't buy it until the price is below $15. What's so depressing?[/QUOTE]


Well that's the ironic thing. I never wanted to be a collector. I just have little self control when it comes to buying games especially if it is a sale. It's a funny paradox. When I was a kid, I have tons of gaming time, and very few gaming choices as this was the NES generation. I squeezed every bit of gaming fun out of those games.

Nowdays as an adult, I can afford many games, but I don't have the time! I always think I will have huge gaming marathons during the holidays, but it doesn't seem to happen. I bought Fallout New Vegas last year for like 40 bucks thinking I would have lots of time to get into it, but I didn't take off the wrapper until last June when I could have bought the same game for 9.99. That is depressing!
 
In that case, you're problem is you just buy too much stuff.

Like you I can afford pretty much every game that interests me, I just don't have the time for many of them. Especially if I'm going to play time consuming games like online shooters and WRPGs.

So I just don't buy that many games. Probably 5 or so retail games and maybe 2-4 short XBLA games a year the past few years. No point in buying games I don't have time to play, so I only buy a new game if I have time to play it rightaway or in the very near future.

Everything else can wait until I have time--and will likely drop in price by then. And some games I was interested I just never get around to picking up and playing. And that's fine. With the time constraints (and gaming not being my top hobby) I'm fine with just focusing on playing the handful of games that look to be the best of the best in the genre's I play each year.


In short---quit buying games you don't intend to play through right away! They'll be cheaper and just as fun down the road when you do have time to play it. And if you never get around to some, who cares. No one has time to enjoy every great game or whatever in their hobbies. We all have to prioritize how we spend our free time.
 
[quote name='kingkiller33']Well that's the ironic thing. I never wanted to be a collector. I just have little self control when it comes to buying games especially if it is a sale. It's a funny paradox. When I was a kid, I have tons of gaming time, and very few gaming choices as this was the NES generation. I squeezed every bit of gaming fun out of those games.
u
Nowdays as an adult, I can afford many games, but I don't have the time! I always think I will have huge gaming marathons during the holidays, but it doesn't seem to happen. I bought Fallout New Vegas last year for like 40 bucks thinking I would have lots of time to get into it, but I didn't take off the wrapper until last June when I could have bought the same game for 9.99. That is depressing![/QUOTE]

well just keep reminding yourself what you need is not new game, but time to play games. If it is not a game you are dying to play, the $35 or $40 sale price two weeks after launch is not as good as they seem to be. 99% of games will go below $20 given time, and the price would be even lower if you are willing to buy used.

Another ironic thing is that even though you are not a collector, you'll probably be better off buying collector editions, because some (not all) of them tend to maintain or even increase values over time. Check the assassin's creed 1&2 collector edition prices online.
 
[quote name='kingkiller33']

Nowdays as an adult, I can afford many games, but I don't have the time! I always think I will have huge gaming marathons during the holidays, but it doesn't seem to happen. I bought Fallout New Vegas last year for like 40 bucks thinking I would have lots of time to get into it, but I didn't take off the wrapper until last June when I could have bought the same game for 9.99. That is depressing![/QUOTE]

I had the same problem for a couple years after college, all this extra money to spend on games and little time to play them. So I wound up selling and trading most games before playing more than a couple hours. Eventually I sold off the entire backlog and whenever I saw a game on sale I came to realize the price would always be even lower if I waited a few more months, after a while you forget about most of them and in the long run save yourself a ton on games you'll never have time to play.:D
 
[quote name='dmaul1114']In that case, you're problem is you just buy too much stuff.

Like you I can afford pretty much every game that interests me, I just don't have the time for many of them. Especially if I'm going to play time consuming games like online shooters and WRPGs.

So I just don't buy that many games. Probably 5 or so retail games and maybe 2-4 short XBLA games a year the past few years. No point in buying games I don't have time to play, so I only buy a new game if I have time to play it rightaway or in the very near future.

Everything else can wait until I have time--and will likely drop in price by then. And some games I was interested I just never get around to picking up and playing. And that's fine. With the time constraints (and gaming not being my top hobby) I'm fine with just focusing on playing the handful of games that look to be the best of the best in the genre's I play each year.


In short---quit buying games you don't intend to play through right away! They'll be cheaper and just as fun down the road when you do have time to play it. And if you never get around to some, who cares. No one has time to enjoy every great game or whatever in their hobbies. We all have to prioritize how we spend our free time.[/QUOTE]

LOL, I'm finally coming to my senses. I canceled my Amazon preorder of Gears of War 3. The 20 dollar credit sold me on it, but the reality is I never got around to playing Gears of War 2. haha
 
The problem here is that re-released editions of games make the first editions worthless. This is for current gen games.

i have been doing my research on this lately. Lets take Oblivion for example, no one is going to buy the first run of it when they can either get the GOTY edition or the 5th anniversary edition which has more content on the discs. The 5th anniversary edition also comes with some nice extras. If someone were to buy the first edition and download all the DLC from microsoft you are looking at a much bigger cost than picking up one of the newer editions, assuming you are new to the game and have not played it before. There really is no reason to pay even $1 for a first edition 2006 oblivion release because it really has no value due to containing less content than the other editions even though you paid $60 for it when it was new. When you save games this is what happens nowadays, they release new editions with more content for less money, so the old editions become worthless. You can almost guarantee that there will be a re-release version of almost every big game at some point provided the game is a blockbuster title.

I hate to see what has happened to the value of Red Dead Redemption now that a GOTY edition has been announced which includes ALL its DLC.

Now if you have the Oblivion 5th anniversary edition and decide to sell it later on you should get nearly full value on it (unless they release yet another edition) save any ebay fees and paypal fees you have to pay to sell that game. I say that because to get a fair value on a game in my area Ebay is really my only option.

If you are buying current gen games you are better off waiting until that GOTY edition comes out or at least waiting until you can get the game for $10 or less.

With original Xbox games the live service has been discontinued so naturally the games have plummeted in price since in some cases you are only getting half a game now. As far as I know you also can't get achievements and trophies from these games either. Most Xbox games sell for around $5 each on ebay including shipping, I know because I have been buying up some recently. Even the good titles like Jade Empire, Fable and Panzer Orta only sell for a few dollars these days.

Perhaps this might explain why half of your collection now has such low values. Though this is the low time of year for game buying, which is why I am doing some of my buying now so I don't have to compete with the gift givers at Xmas time. Keep in mind that prices do go up during Xmas time, I have also found this after many years of buying and selling games.
 
[quote name='SaraAB']The problem here is that re-released editions of games make the first editions worthless. This is for current gen games.

i have been doing my research on this lately. Lets take Oblivion for example, no one is going to buy the first run of it when they can either get the GOTY edition or the 5th anniversary edition which has more content on the discs. The 5th anniversary edition also comes with some nice extras. If someone were to buy the first edition and download all the DLC from microsoft you are looking at a much bigger cost than picking up one of the newer editions, assuming you are new to the game and have not played it before. There really is no reason to pay even $1 for a first edition 2006 oblivion release because it really has no value due to containing less content than the other editions even though you paid $60 for it when it was new. When you save games this is what happens nowadays, they release new editions with more content for less money, so the old editions become worthless. You can almost guarantee that there will be a re-release version of almost every big game at some point provided the game is a blockbuster title.

I hate to see what has happened to the value of Red Dead Redemption now that a GOTY edition has been announced which includes ALL its DLC.

Now if you have the Oblivion 5th anniversary edition and decide to sell it later on you should get nearly full value on it (unless they release yet another edition) save any ebay fees and paypal fees you have to pay to sell that game. I say that because to get a fair value on a game in my area Ebay is really my only option.

If you are buying current gen games you are better off waiting until that GOTY edition comes out or at least waiting until you can get the game for $10 or less.

With original Xbox games the live service has been discontinued so naturally the games have plummeted in price since in some cases you are only getting half a game now. As far as I know you also can't get achievements and trophies from these games either. Most Xbox games sell for around $5 each on ebay including shipping, I know because I have been buying up some recently. Even the good titles like Jade Empire, Fable and Panzer Orta only sell for a few dollars these days.

Perhaps this might explain why half of your collection now has such low values. Though this is the low time of year for game buying, which is why I am doing some of my buying now so I don't have to compete with the gift givers at Xmas time. Keep in mind that prices do go up during Xmas time, I have also found this after many years of buying and selling games.[/QUOTE]


Yeah, you are right about the GOTY editions. I have a used copy of Divine Divinity 2, and I couldn't even get 5 dollars for it after the remastered version was released. I hate double dipping too.
 
Gargus wins the thread again.

Anyways, yeah, and especially the amount of copies printed. Not too many games this gen have become rare. Even games like 999 for DS which held It's value eventually dropped when more copies got sold and then re-printed.

Looking at current gen rare/valuable games the only ones that sell for a lot are the actually limited limited editions: Likes Tales of Vesperia, and Dead Space Ultra Limited Edition.
 
[quote name='Monsta Mack']Gargus wins the thread again.

Anyways, yeah, and especially the amount of copies printed. Not too many games this gen have become rare. Even games like 999 for DS which held It's value eventually dropped when more copies got sold and then re-printed.

Looking at current gen rare/valuable games the only ones that sell for a lot are the actually limited limited editions: Likes Tales of Vesperia, and Dead Space Ultra Limited Edition.[/QUOTE]

Those are older LE and not as overprint as the newer stuff. Bioshock 2 LE and Halo Reach Legendary are 2 examples of recent LE that didnt hold their value.
 
[quote name='62t']Those are older LE and not as overprint as the newer stuff. Bioshock 2 LE and Halo Reach Legendary are 2 examples of recent LE that didnt hold their value.[/QUOTE]

That's why I said "actually" lol. I haven't seen much value in the recent LE's, even the Catherine one went on sale.
 
[quote name='Blade']You can also attribute it to gaming becoming more mainstream in the current generation. In anticipation of selling out of a certain video game, developers are producing larger quantities of it; remember when Mass Effect 2 was only $10 on Amazon brand new, not even a year after it first hit shelves? People are buying more video games, and the ones that don't sell are liquidated early to make way for another game. And that's another thing about the assimilation of gaming culture: More and more games are being produced than ever before. A company like Square-Enix, for example, might have only had two or three games out per year in the mid-90's; now, Square-Enix is churning out (rather shitty) games by the dozens.
[/QUOTE] all they've done in the past 3 years in FFXIII deus ex, and FFXIII- 2

in the mid 90s squaresoft

had well http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Square_games
 
Reprints are another problem, game company sees that ebay and second hand sales are through the roof then they just print more copies of a game. Basically ensuring almost nothing will hold its value these days.

Even the collectors editions go down in value quickly these days, Fallout 3 collector's edition was recently 29.99 on amazon, I almost bought one but then I realized I would still be stuck paying for the DLC because the collectors doesn't include that but there is already a GOTY edition out that does, so GOTY edition it is for me... Thank god for amazon because almost no store has any of this stuff locally. I don't have room to store these collector's editions either, really strapped for space here.

I think the mass effect collectors editions still hold some value, particularly ME1. I am predicting a GOTY of Mass effect 2 soon so I am hesitant to buy the game now.. I won't be getting around to playing it for a while so I may as well wait.

Dragon Quest V was reprinted, game is around 19.99 now and it was easily hitting $50 and $60 on ebay. Though its questionable if you bought the game at retail price of 39.99 how much profit you would actually make by selling it on ebay after fees.. still its value went up then it got reprinted.

Pikmin 2 is still rare though, I have a copy that I paid about $5 for, gotta sell that one off before it gets remade in some form. Its worth about $60.

Games that come out at the end of a console's lifestyle are a possibility though for being rare candidates, but ultimately we aren't seeing a single game go into the 100's and 200's, and you will have to have a source for buying them up cheap in order to make a profit since even most of those only hit $50-60.

Actually I can think of one game last gen that got into the hundreds and that is Pokemon Box for Gamecube, although its no longer at those price levels. I do recall it going for around $100 or $200 though.
 
Now that selling and buying on the internet is more mainstream for games of course we will see major price drops. I remember picking up a used PS1 at EBGames in the late 90's for 60 bucks.....that same game is still about that price but it drops here and there.

The demand for a game will effect its price as well as how many are currently being sold on the market, less copies higher price. (usually)
 
[quote name='YoshiFan1']It wasn't that long ago I used to be able to pick up a game for next to nothing, and if I didn't like it I could trade it in or sell it for what I paid for it or sometimes even more. Now people are willing to sell stuff for next to nothing. I don't even see how it's worth it to sell a game for a $0.01. I'd rather donate it or throw it out over spending the time to list it and ship it for basically no money.[/QUOTE]

I agree, I get lowball requests all the time asking for "so n' so game" $5 shipped. How is it even worth my effort to buy shipping materials, take a good 15 minutes out of my day and drive to the post then pay for shipping?

Even trade in values at GS baffle me. Are there people out there really willing to let games go for a $0.50 or even a penny?

I gave a bunch of games to one of my co-workers kids. It was crap like Street Fighter 4, Sonic All-Star Tennis, Chromehounds, etc. Just a bunch of stuff I couldn't make any money on but it made the kid happy as hell.
 
This thread is full of fail.

Collect not for the money. Duh.

Buy the games to play or like my friend, he likes it for the hunt. That is, he tries to complete an entire collection (for example, NES) and get every game as cheap as possible. He is only missing a few of the impossible's for the NES and is thinking between starting a new platform. I don't think he has spent over $20 on any single game.
 
[quote name='Rodimus']I agree, I get lowball requests all the time asking for "so n' so game" $5 shipped. How is it even worth my effort to buy shipping materials, take a good 15 minutes out of my day and drive to the post then pay for shipping?

Even trade in values at GS baffle me. Are there people out there really willing to let games go for a $0.50 or even a penny?

I gave a bunch of games to one of my co-workers kids. It was crap like Street Fighter 4, Sonic All-Star Tennis, Chromehounds, etc. Just a bunch of stuff I couldn't make any money on but it made the kid happy as hell.[/QUOTE]

I share the same sentiment, I am not sure how people get away with selling things on ebay for what they do and make profit off it. Like I said I have bought many, many games for $5 and under on there. I just bought a mousepad for just under $3.. shipped, its a specific kind that I like. You can't even get one at a store for less than $10 around here. When you factor in shipping costs, packing supplies and fees (ebay + paypal both take their cut of your sale) plus trips to the post office (unless you have a postal scale at home and print shipping labels yourself but then you are paying for printing supplies too) its just not worth it. There is no way people are making any profit off these smaller sales, in some cases its probably costing them money to send out their stuff, when you could simply donate it all and save yourself time and trouble.

If you have a bunch of games that you don't want you can always put them in a wholesale lot and probably make a few bucks off it but as far as letting it go for 0.01 + $4 shipping I would rather just keep the game.
 
[quote name='Jodou']1) Increase in used volume: everyone is trying to cash in on used games, so more are available with less demand due to the recession. This lowers trade values.

2) Predatory pricing: Amazon used to be the king of undercutting stores on new games, but now everyone is turning cutthroat. It's like a race to see who can drop the lowest now. This pushes used pricing down, obviously.

3) Some games are more about pushing user-base sales to rake in money off DLC, online passes, etc. Volume sales look better in quarter analysis, too.

Nothing surprises me with this industry anymore. In an age where gimmicks sell millions, I can believe anything.[/QUOTE]

Spot on. Also, publishers are printing more copies of games due to higher development costs.
 
I haven't seen anybody nail it just yet so...
In order to compete with used game sales, retail prices drop fast. ('should I buy Castlevania Los used for $28 or new for $29?) publishers don't get squat from a used game purchased but they still profit a bit from a cheap new game purchase, If C:LOS is now $30 new the used copies are now worth half that (with even less trade in value as gamestop has to make some profit flipping a game.)

I have to believe publishers have a deal with retailers to reimburse price drops because retail couldnt handle that much stock halving in value in 6 months...

It's a great time for buyers who don't need a game the day is a available...but it sucks for selling your games. Moral of the story: if you don't plan to play the game yet, wait 5 months and grab is for half price instead...
 
[quote name='deftoast'])
Moral of the story: if you don't plan to play the game yet, wait 5 months and grab is for half price instead...[/QUOTE]

Absolutely. I'm always baffled by people who buy games at launch and don't touch them for ages--especially on this site.

Unless it's some obscure game or a truly limited CE, prices are only going to go down over time. Absolutely no reason to buy 99% of games before you're ready to play them immediately.
 
I'm sorry - if you're upset that the value of items you buy go down thats just silly. You cant bank on investing in games.
 
[quote name='deftoast']I haven't seen anybody nail it just yet so...
In order to compete with used game sales, retail prices drop fast. ('should I buy Castlevania Los used for $28 or new for $29?) publishers don't get squat from a used game purchased but they still profit a bit from a cheap new game purchase, If C:LOS is now $30 new the used copies are now worth half that (with even less trade in value as gamestop has to make some profit flipping a game.)

I have to believe publishers have a deal with retailers to reimburse price drops because retail couldnt handle that much stock halving in value in 6 months...

It's a great time for buyers who don't need a game the day is a available...but it sucks for selling your games. Moral of the story: if you don't plan to play the game yet, wait 5 months and grab is for half price instead...[/QUOTE]

Video games are loss leaders. This is why game stores push accessories (profit) and pre-orders (capital to invest). Stores like Wal-Mart or Best Buy make up the difference through accessories and other departments. The video games entice people to visit the store.

The game market is quantity over quality right now. Truly great games do not need to drop in price. NSMB for DS is still over $30.
 
[quote name='willardhaven'] Truly great games do not need to drop in price. NSMB for DS is still over $30.[/QUOTE]

Actually that has more to do with Nintendo not channel stuffing games on launch and not cutting prices quickly to front load sales for quick sell through.

Also I'd say NSMB is on the same level as Madden 12, but Madden at least bothers to update a few names and pointless stats every year.
 
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