The Tim Atwood Story

[PinBiohazard]

It all comes down to this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RC6qGiJXDA

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It all comes down to this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RC6qGiJXDA

It's funny, you hang on Pat the Punks opinion for everything. He's not an authority; no one is. However, examining other collectibles like stamps, civil war era items, or golden age comics, will people in 100 years desire our game collections? Yes! Working games will be lost to time and therefore, working items will be highly sought after.

[Ozzy_98]

It all comes down to this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RC6qGiJXDA

The nes is already 31ish years old, and gaining speed for collecting. While it's not "the first" system, it completely redefined perceptions of gaming.  Since we know video games aren't going anywhere anytime soon, think of the nes like early comics.  They'll still be rare and desired for a long time.

[larryinc64]

I like PAt, but I think he is wrong on that. The general public may not care about physical media, but video game collectors are not the general public.

One thing VG has above Vinyl, DVDs and comics is that many games are not available in 100% accurate states on new media. How many of the 900~ NES games are on Virtual console or other platforms? N64 emulation is not perfect yet.

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I like PAt, but I think he is wrong on that. The general public may not care about physical media, but video game collectors are not the general public.

One thing VG has above Vinyl, DVDs and comics is that many games are not available in 100% accurate states on new media. How many of the 900~ NES games are on Virtual console or other platforms? N64 emulation is not perfect yet.

Plus, we've lost a lot of companies over the years and their properties went down with the ship. Heck, Konami purchased a shitload of these little companies. They own almost the entire NEC/Hudson library and they'll never do anything with them in the foreseen future. The latest Konami games are pachinko machines. 

[Superchop]

will people in 100 years desire our game collections? Yes! Working games will be lost to time and therefore, working items will be highly sought after.

I actually disagree with this...I honestly don't believe that our collections will be really sought after.  Judging by the way "gamers" today easily sell everything they have to move onto the next big thing, I doubt that they'll care about anything 2+ generations before the current gen.  Right now the market is for people who have a nostalgic connection to the retro stuff or resellers (resellers of course don't care about anything game wise besides the value).  Once we reach die our kids or grandkids won't have that same connection to it but instead they'll have a connection to Xbone and ps4 or whatever was out during their childhood years.

My 18 y/o brother for example started with the 360 and now moved on to the xbone...he does not care at all for anything that came before it.  He might play with me a bit but at the end of the day he just simply doesn't care.  Even his poor x360 hasn't been turned on since he got the xbone.  Other kids/teens his age are exactly the same.

Granted there will always be a few people who will want to collect older stuff but it won't be anywhere near the level that it is at now.  Supply will eventually increase when current collectors start selling off stuff but the demand may not be there :/

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This is what your not understanding, many of these collections will not exist in 100 years. Some will be lost to fires, floods, natural disasters; others will be lost to corrosion or disc rott. Much will simply be lost to time. There's a point where items graduate from nostalgia to historical. In 50 years, the population will be at 9 billion people and a quarter of these collections will exist; you're arguing that the value will decline because there won't be enough people who care? I'm mean, it's not like we don't have examples of this in real life. Silver and Golden age comics are 4 to 5 generations removed from most youth. No one care, that's why you can buy Spider-Man number one for a dollar, right!? In a hundred years, no one will really want it and Spider-Man number 1 might be fifty cents? Your logic is that time reduces the number of people who care and as a result, prices drop.

If you're waiting for prices to fall or some bubble (that doesn't exist) to burst, you're going to be waiting forever because it will never happen.

[wiggy]

Prices will fall.

ALL collectible commodities gain and lose value, and the faster and larger the gain in value, the harder and faster that they lose value. The bubble will burst.  Find an instance of collectible commodities which hasn't gone through this cycle, I dare ya.

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Prices will fall.

ALL collectible commodities gain and lose value, and the faster and larger the gain in value, the harder and faster that they lose value. The bubble will burst.  Find an instance of collectible commodities which hasn't gone through this cycle, I dare ya.

80's Star Wars action figures. At no point in collecting history have the prices fallen, they've only increased. The comparison is similar to the collecting of vintage video games. The initial rise in price started in the early 90's due to nostalgia. 100 of millions of Star Wars action figures were produced.

It's not a bubble. A bubble is a summer of kids collecting Pogs. People have been collecting games since the 80's and 90's. Millennials entered a pre-existing world of video game collecting. Yes, many will sell of their collection and buy a car or something. That's been happening over the last decade. Only a mass exodus would cause prices to fall.

[Megatron]

I think people are focused a lot on extremes, either super expensive or dirt cheap.  When the "bubble" pops, prices will drop.  But they'll likely never be what they used to  be.  
Going back to the OP, Tim Atwood is introducing games in the market no one knew (or very few people knew) were there.  That is going to bring down the value.  Sure, Stadium Events will still go for thousands of dollars, but not as many thousands.  My hope is that if situations like this continue to happen, and values start to slide, the people who do only collect in order to resell and make a profit will sell it off before their ship sinks.
Once people who collect because it's popular get out of the game, their collections are likely to return to the market as well, creating additional supply.  It has already been said, but nothing stays popular forever.  I just hope we see a nice decrease soon.  But with the youtube craze the way it is, more and more people are getting in to the hobby.

[Megatron]

Prices will fall.

ALL collectible commodities gain and lose value, and the faster and larger the gain in value, the harder and faster that they lose value. The bubble will burst.  Find an instance of collectible commodities which hasn't gone through this cycle, I dare ya.

80's Star Wars action figures. At no point in collecting history have the prices fallen, they've only increased. The comparison is similar to the collecting of vintage video games. The initial rise in price started in the early 90's due to nostalgia. 100 of millions of Star Wars action figures were produced.

It's not a bubble. A bubble is a summer of kids collecting Pogs. People have been collecting games since the 80's and 90's. Millennials entered a pre-existing world of video game collecting. Yes, many will sell of their collection and buy a car or something. That's been happening over the last decade. Only a mass exodus would cause prices to fall.

Most of those figures have leveled out between $10 and $30 and have not seen a spike in a while.  Games went from $5 to $50 in just a few years.  This spike has been, really, since about 2012.  I'm not suggesting game prices won't rise over time, but 5x-10x the price in a few years is a pretty big jump

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With all that debating said, if the stock market crashed and million world wide found themselves out of work, that could cause prices to fall as eBay is flooded.

@Megatron
It's not that bad 70% of most games are at stagnate prices. It's only popular franchises that have jumped, like Mega Man. To the Earth is still $5.

[larryinc64]

Speaking as someone who is a around the 'next generation' and may of my collage/ late high school age friends have at least interest in retro games. Sure, not all gamers care for the old, just as some people like new pop songs, and some like classic rock.Hell, as I said, look at me. I'm 20 and probably a good 1/3 of my collection is older than me. I am not nostalgic for any retro system, except maybe the GBC a little. I


I think anything before NES is not going to ever be too sought after. The games are too simplistic and hard to hold the attention long. But I think as long as Nintendo is around making new systems, the NES, Gameboy, SNES, N64, NGC, and maybe Genesis will keep interest. Sonic is the biggest think keeping retro SEGA in the lime lite. My music channel that does chip tune music, and a large portion of my audience is 13-17, many are vary young. Nintendo keeps binging retro gaming to light for younger generations. I got into retro games after getting Mario Kart DS, then Googleing Nintendo and then found the AVGN.


It's hard to say Video Games are JUST collectables, when I think the Music or Comic comparison suits it better. Super Mario Bros. is a great game, just as Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band is a great album, and Spider Man is a great comic series. Beanie Babies are useless sacks of cotton, it can't be enjoyed much more than being put on a shelf. It was locked in it's era and no one after it's hype cares. Super Mario Bros is pushing 30 years, The Beatles and Spider Man are pushing 50 years, and none of these things are fading from the public eye, and all 3 are timeless.

Find an instance of collectible commodities which hasn't gone through this cycle, I dare ya.

Beatles LPs still hold their value fairly well.

Prices will stabilize at some point, because who in their right mind will pay $50 for a Super Mario/ Duck Hunt, but they will never 'crash' in value in our life times. The only thing that will drive prices down is a majority of the people getting priced out, even I'm at a point where I'm not adding to my collection much due to cost.


-Gah people posting faster than I can-
I think it's hard to compare figures to video games, They are making more Star Wars toys, and it's not like a kid is going to go "Oh this 2015 Luke figure is great, I wonder how they looked in the 1980s" VS "Super Mario 3D World is great, I wonder how older Mario games were like"

[Megatron]

@Megatron
It's not that bad 70% of most games are at stagnate prices. It's only popular franchises that have jumped, like Mega Man. To the Earth is still $5.

Yes, but I got that game, as well as 10 yard fight, Baseball, DUck Hunt and others for $.99 a few years ago.  Those were the games I would add to my cart on DK Oldies or Lukie games to get the value up to free shipping amounts.  Still cheap, but those games have gone up 5x-10x their 2011 value

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I'm really done with the subject. My only point was that if your waiting for some magical bubble to pop and you think Mega Man for NES will go from $60 back to $5, it won't happen.