Is the Retro bubble bursting?

[SegaNomadman]

I will say that I stopped buying games on eBay because the market is flooded with Chinese repros. I was looking for a copy of Ninja Gaiden Trilogy for SNES. It was axed from my list when I found out that it's being reproduced in China and is selling for $15. Now I don't trust any copy. It's too easy to get fooled. I used to look for perfect copies of games. Now I'm actively looking for games with BlockBuster stickers and such. It's pretty sad.

The fight against bootlegs is getting tougher. They've been starting to show up at my local stores but some bootleggers aren't even trying. There are games with totally wrong labels, like SUPER obvious fakes even to people who don't play games, but it doesn't seem to matter to the stores. They just want a quick buck same as the pirates.

[Oobgarm]

The market is normalizing finally, repros have had a hand in it to a degree.

As a collector who's been through the ups and downs of the hobby for 20+ years, I have completely given up on spending astronomical prices on legit copies of titles. If the game plays on my console, I don't care if it's a bootleg or not. For a person who's not basing their collection on the monetary value of what they have, and is simply looking to display and play, it just makes sense. To me, anyway. Snagging a playable copy of Ninja Gaiden Trilogy for less than $10 felt just as much of a bargain.

I know there are plenty of folks who hate the repro market, but if it's allowing you to play a game on an original system that you might not have been able to locate - let alone afford, in some cases - I don't see the harm in it.

Only top-tier games I am aware of that will still have you chasing legit copies are Mega Man X2 and X3...

[RealPlumpBox]

When it does burst i will be so happy.  I know it will never reach levels like they where 15 years ago but still.  I got into this to collect not for money/investments.  I give zero fucks about how much a game in collectin is worth since like I said, I collect. 

[sheep2001]

Only top-tier games I am aware of that will still have you chasing legit copies are Mega Man X2 and X3...

Try smurfs around the world or power strike 2 on master system, or pretty much anything new geo.

[wiggy]

^^^ I'm pretty sure he means that you won't find bootlegs of those two, since they aren't able to be duplicated because they each use a goofy Capcom proprietary enhancement chip.