I kinda feel like the days of that are gone, with people looking for the next thing that will be worth a pile of money, like the Devil's Third being scalped and no one wants it, or people buying 2 sets of amiibos, one open and one to keep sealed. sealed amiibos are going to be worth nothing in the future with how many collectors are keeping them in box. I hear the same thing happened with comics in the 90s.
It's only valuable because no one thought it was going to be.
Yup, and I've been saying this all along. The bubble WILL burst. It does with EVERY collectible commodity. It's and "when", not an "if".
I bought 2 of every image comic in the early 90's thinking they'd be worth a fortune. Prices on many shot way up after only a few months, so it seemed like a no-brainer. Amiibos are nearly identical IMO. EVERYONE knows that games are collectible now, which means that keeping brand new crap sealed isn't of ANY value. Got 5 Halo special Master Cheif whatevers sitting around, VGA graded, just waiting for the day that you'll cash in? Good luck. So do 1,000 other people.
This is why I pretty much avoid expensive games right now, especially common stuff that's become extremely expensive. The genuinely rare stuff will likely retail a good portion of its current value, but SMW sure as hell won't be worth $20 for too much longer. It's a $2 game, based on quantity available.
Its always interesting! I like the amiibos for what they are.. Collectible figurines. The game usage portion is awesome, but I'd buy them anyway. The fact that people are saving them for resale is crappy, but since we don't really know exact production numbers of any single figure, and the fact that you have to open them to use them in most cases will likely lead to supply of NIB being limited as time goes on, especially if they end support/production. If you want to know if they are "rare" just search for them on e-bay, if you get more that 10 hits, its not that rare.. I looked up some "unicorn" figures on ebay and people are asking 40 for some, but there are 100 or more listings! I just imported a bunch from Austrailia so I would have the English packaging, paid a little under US retail for all the "rarest".
Your example of Halo 5 is a good one though, digital copies of that game exist, so physical copies will only be worth money when XBONE is EOL, not really before then. And if there is a DRM system the physical copies may retain almost NO value, as they can't be used if MS shuts down support.
I agree that the bottom will drop out. I used to buy my games on the cheap, but this reseller market has elevated prices beyond my liking. Just glad I got my N64 and NES collections near completed in 2000, just getting the last few (which have tripled in price) is now unattractive. I'd rather have re-pros to play on HW and fill those slots on my shelves, as I am not reselling anything.
People seem to overlook the fact that games really don't retain value well, nor are some of those games clocking in at $60 really any more expensive than their original retail prices with inflation adjusted!
$60 is 1995 is like having almost $90-100 today!
http://inflationdata.com/inflation/inflation_calculators/inflation_rate_calculator.asp
