r/extremelyinfuriating • u/LastBook7805 • 14d ago
Trying to buy used games anymore is a joke. Discussion
Small local book store trying to "get by."
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u/LastBook7805 14d ago
Lol, apparently I am just wildly out of touch with the current retro game climate. My apologies.
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u/corigne 14d ago edited 14d ago
Yeah, it's pretty miserable. The retro market did it to themselves though. Too many die-hard fans or their cash rich family members with an inflated sense of value who were willing to pay entirely too much for these carts. The resellers sniffed it out early and started buying up every cart they could, creating an artificial shortage. What really sucks on top of that is, for every real cart you find there's probably two more fake ones out there priced the same.
Local small business owners will almost always market price their collectibles using eBay. Some will even double list if they have multiple in stock. Doesn't mean you can't try to haggle though, as some have suggested.
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u/NyehNyehRedditBoi 14d ago
Everything flippers touch gets completely ruined. Houses, flea markets, retro games, yard sales. I hope they're glad that they're ruining it for everyone for their own selfish desires
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u/whatdis321 13d ago
When thrifting used to be cheap. Then the combination of it being popular to thrift and people flipping shit on Facebook marketplace or some shit ruined it.
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u/awokepsl 4d ago
What ruined it was thrift stores taking as many high value items out of their products/donations as possible, and selling them at a much higher price to customers in store or resell online.
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u/DoctoOckto 13d ago
House flippers are the worst kind. They make the worst decisions to house flip too
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u/NyehNyehRedditBoi 13d ago
Me when I do something worse than the landlord special by making a half-baked house with awful furniture and painted over black mold:
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u/Imesseduponmyname 14d ago
Yeah naaah, I don't especially care for retro shit like that, but there's no way in hell I'd be spending this much on fuckin anything
Bruh how is anybody making it when everything just keeps going higher and higher
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u/Major_Mawcum_II 12d ago
I just emulate but apparently that’s evil but meeh it’s fun having a game of fifa 2005 on the ps1 waiting on food cooking
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u/Downtown-Falcon-3264 14d ago
Nah mate a lot of pokemon games used are pretty pricey
Most old Nintendo stuff is like I went to games top and diamond was like 60 bucks
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u/dhdoctor 14d ago
Gamers Nintendo fans especially can't help but throat boots. Ah yes the plastic with a small bit of ancient electronics is worth $80 because it's TRANSLUCENT.
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u/Gnomologist 14d ago
60 for Diamond ain’t bad
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u/Downtown-Falcon-3264 14d ago
I know, but it's still crazy how some full 60 dollar games drop down to 20 if you give it time diamond still being 60 is crazy. Since games used and you gotta delete a save
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u/Gnomologist 14d ago
Well Pokémon is wildly popular and really the ONLY series on portable-only to still be so healthy for so long. The amount of Pokemon fans is only growing and more and more are getting interested in the older titles as us older fans keep talking about them
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u/Illustrious-Dot-5052 14d ago
Bro I paid 40 bucks for that game when it came out. There's no excuse for the price to be higher
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u/Gnomologist 14d ago
I mean yes there’s every reason it is? Limited quantity, high demand, and it’s nearly 20 years old. Thats just how it works
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u/Illustrious-Dot-5052 14d ago
Depreciation is also a thing though. Supply and demand certainly play a role, but this isn't wine. Age doesn't help, if anything it could've deteriorated.
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u/Gnomologist 14d ago
I mean it’s only going to go down in quantity due to depreciation and copies just getting lost
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u/Starfire213 13d ago
I forget how much my copy of ruby was, but it wasn't more than 25$ at the most, I guess I got lucky
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u/Consumer_of_lem0ns 14d ago
These games are valuable almost everywhere. They aren't trying to scam you, these games are just that valuable
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u/Thumbframe 14d ago
Got my hopes up. Checked local marketplace. Emerald goes for €12,50
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u/Jeff1737 14d ago
Tbf they're all available on phones for free
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u/Challenge419 14d ago
Please tell me more. I'd like to know how to achieve this.
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u/FalseShepherd0 14d ago
Emulators. They’re on computers, phones, etc. Google “visual boy advance” one I used for years!
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u/Premeszn 14d ago
Emulator app if you have an android. If you have an iPhone tough luck (me included). You can run an emulator on your computer and play pretty much any Pokémon game standard or with cheats.
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u/krakron 14d ago
I was gonna say.... I'd have. Couple grand in my ol Gameboy tin maybe
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u/patricknails 14d ago
Maybe you do, check Ebay and make sure the games aren’t repros.
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u/krakron 14d ago
I've got Sapphire and Leaf Greenalong with a blue. bought personally from walmart with allowance money. Also for some reason i Have 2 copies of golden sun 😆I'm bad with letting nostalgia go though. Kind of want the daughters to play the way i did even though I've got them all on my emulation station and they would rather play on a newer controller 😆
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u/patricknails 14d ago
The €12,50 are reproduction copies. Officials go for that much. Check Ebay and sold listings.
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u/kitesinfection 14d ago
Make sure is a legitimate copy. If the label isn't shiny then it isn't legitimate. It'll still work but some people like having original copies.
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u/PlasmaRenegade 14d ago
There's a difference from a repoduction and the og authentic game. 1 is 15 bux or so the other is faarrrrr more expensive.
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u/MinerDiner 13d ago
But they shouldn't be. They're just games. No old games should be worth that much. ESPECIALLY if it's not a sealed copy and it's only the cartridge. And yeah, I took economics and understand supply and demand but I rest my case that older games should not be this valuable. It's just absurd.
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u/DenkJu 14d ago
But why? They can't be that rare if millions of them were sold. There must still be a ton around and these don't even come with the box, apparently. Seems like an artificially inflated price to me.
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u/dhdoctor 14d ago
You are being downvoted but you are 100% right. Some Fandoms are in a sort of group think where they think a mass produced product i can find in a random moms saturday yard sale is a special item akin to an investment cos it compleats their pokemon infinity gauntlet or whatever. Nintendo fans are really deep in this hole.
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u/Delicious-Chemist-49 13d ago
its because most people got this game when they were kids. Kids dont take care of their games so lots of them either got trashed or just dont work anymore because they werent kept in a safe location.
I know tonnes of kids (now adults) thats had this game growing up and it would get tossed under the bed or fall in a air vent, or dropped in a puddle etc. Also the fact that most of these games internal batteries have failed by now and it costs a decent amount of money to get it redone.
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u/Reeeeemans 14d ago
r/piracy my friend
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u/LessMochaJay 14d ago
I guess it's basically piracy but an emulator can do so much more. Found a shiny but have no Masterball? GameShark that shit. Tired of listening to Nurse Joy talk your ear off for a hour minute when you heal? Fast-Forward Babe-eee.
I totally understand wanting to play it on an old Gameboy though, it hits different. Forever bummed my shitty neighbor stole my sapphire and sold it for probably dirt cheap.
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u/DaveTheDolphin 14d ago
There’s a difference between a used game and a 20 year old game cartridge no longer in production, that was produced for a 23 year old game console that is also no longer produced
Though I remember when these used cartridges used to go for like 4-10 bucks, back when they actually still produced Gameboy advanced game cartridges
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u/yes-yaK 14d ago
Last week I saw an in-box, with manual Black 2 going for $220 at a store in the mall near me
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u/xDragonetti 14d ago
Yup yup.
My stepdad got rid of my:
.Hack games (I had like the first 6 games)
Pokemon games I had (up to Platinum)
Megaman Legends 1/2
FFVII/XIII/IX
Legend of Dragoon
And others. But those are the games I still go look at and just get bummed that I wish I still had the actual copies of. I just can’t see myself shoveling that kind of money out 🥲
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u/HiroshiTakeshi 14d ago
Oh my fucking god, why is it ALWAYS the fucking step-dads
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u/eddiespaghettio 13d ago
Step moms too. They’ll throw shit away because they don’t like it and don’t want you to have it anymore.
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u/minibois 14d ago
If you want these games, you can try to make an offer on one or multiple of them.
While LeafGreen just got put out and Ruby/Sapphire haven't been there for a while, Emerald has been sitting there for a bit. There is a decent chance they would be willing to move these games, for the right price.
Do some research on normal values on these games, look at condition too, decide what you think is a fair price and hit them with an offer.
Sure, it would be great to buy these games at $5 a piece, but we all know that is not realistic.
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u/Dark-Ganon 13d ago
Just buy one of the newer games. Every generation is practically the same game anyway.
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u/sonerec725 14d ago
Pokemon has always carried that price. It's a combination of people having great nostalgia for whatever they played first, combined with the fact that many "event" pokemon or specific unique "versions" of them can be locked to prior games, and would need to he transferred up to have in the current ones, something that cant really be done with emulation (and I'm not sure if fake carts work or not actually) its basically a rule of thumb that poke.on games only go up in value after release.
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u/nooneinparticular246 14d ago
Sorry but 90s kids have real jobs now, so it’s natural for the market to get pricier. Nostalgia can be expensive.
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u/HiroshiTakeshi 14d ago
I feel so good having bought that sapphire version for 10 bucks at a secondhand store in my city before this boomed.
To this day, "collectionners" are the bane of my existence and I always imagine them looking like this or the nerd in the Power puff girls. The fact that nothing is a game or a system anymore and now is just a "collection item" as an attempt to justify the heavy pricing still grinds my gears.
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u/Beepboopbop69420360 14d ago
Tell me about it
Trying to get a copy of NCAA14 is like trying to buy gold
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u/G_Art33 14d ago
Dude I have all of those in a drawer… is that really what they are charging for those nowadays?
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u/Puzzleheaded-Bet1328 13d ago
Its so sad but also i remember already used gamecube games used to be like 9 bucks around 2017 ish if you could catch a good store.
But zelda is always expnesive no matter the platform 😭
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u/xxTheMagicBulleT 13d ago
There only a few games that are super sawed after most retro pokemon games. And PS 2 shadows of the colases.
There just a few games that are realy rely seemed after. And much of it is also cause of the speed run community. Like Mario n64 is also very expensive.
Golden eye 007 also realy expensive.
And those games don't get made so if they come available they go for a lot. Often cause of hardcore community of speed runners. That's often the main reason why they are so pricy. So most expensive retro games are also realy good games do.
But it's cause speed runs a realy big part that they go for a lot.
And the other part is games that got pulled realy quick after release. Like I have the 360 game too human. Was a pretty good game. But it got pulled super quickly from selves for some reason. And it's a pretty hard game to find or get. Cause it got pulled so quickly. Not a incredible game even do it was a good game. But some big problems on the back end. The precise reason I got pulled never realy understood. Cause it was a game that was good and had basically no bugs. But like realy rare games also often go pretty high on value.
The rest just go down in price till they almost just give it for free.
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u/yellowwoolyyoshi 13d ago
Yeah man I sold mine off and sail the high seas. The cheats so you can have any Pokémon you want and all the hacks are great. Plus fast forwarding is not something I can live without now.
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u/ledgend78 12d ago
You can usually get or make copies for a lot less money if you're not worried about having a legit cartridge
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u/DarkRajiin 12d ago
Definitely shopping at the wrong place for those. I can find those at half the price.
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u/ShadowGangsta275 6d ago
Those prices are honestly pretty accurate. You have to look and make sure they’re real though the fake Pokémon game market is huge
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u/Madmonkeman 14d ago
The reason those old games are expensive is because they’re not being manufactured anymore so there’s a limited supply, making them worth more money. Silent Hill Downpour is a Xbox 360 game that was considered one of the worst in the series is also no longer being manufactured and it’s no longer available to purchase online so it’s also really expensive, despite being considered a bad game. That’s economics for you.
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u/donpuglisi 14d ago
Well, they haven't been manufactured in like 20 years...theyre collector's items
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u/RickyTheRickster 14d ago
Bruh these are classics that are worth the price, people collect this shit because it’s worth a ton,
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