Is retro gaming getting more expensive?

Not too long ago, due to needing the money, I sold my N64 and a good slice of my collection (mostly third party titles I knew I could buy back). Recently, I've been craving to get back into my n64 games, but damn, are some of the prices ridiculous. I bought my N64 for maybe 30 bucks, and now I'm seeing prices for twice- three times that! And I've been wanting to start a SNES collection, but my god, it's even worse for the Super Nintendo.

I understand why these prices are high, especially with relatively high demand, I was just wondering if any of you guys thought it was ridiculous and what are the craziest prices you've seen people try to sell something for?

It is crazy. Which is why I don't get the completionist collectors who have to own every piece of merchandise related to their collection. I respect and admire them, but I don't get why anyone would put a mortgage on his house to buy a $100.000 Nintendo World Championship gold cart.

Why don't you just get a PC ?

Emulators are a good way to get retro games, but nothing beats the feeling of actually owning a physical copy of an old nostalgic game. And yes, they are getting more expensive because gamers have put a larger value on older games in recent years.

I think you're better off just buying HD remakes and collections of retro games.

It's a good thing if you own those platforms.

There's money to be made.

The older something gets and the rare a item becomes always gets the price to shoot up, since its all a question of supply and demand.

So now is a good time to start collecting the older games and consoles before they get up there and you have to pay a lot for them.

It would be for me, as I only want to purchase Japanese imports that are factory sealed. I would not even be able to get the hardware new or if I could, it be expensive for sure. Then either I get the hardware used or brand new; if the hardware breaks, I won't not be able to get it fixed by the company.

Yeah, it's annoying. People keep saying the prices will go back down, but they're still going up, especially for SNES and Saturn games. You know things are getting out of hand when Mega Man games start going for almost $200.

@Lulu_Lulu: I just like the authenticity of playing the real thing on the actual console. But for some reason, this only seems to apply mostly to Nintendo games. Sega games, I'll usually just by in an HD Collection.

@TheManofTin

Hmmmm.... I guess I'm not that kind of guy.... Played that old Wrestlemania game on an Emulator and it felt just like the way it did back when I played it on the Sega....

My suggestion is to scour Craigslist, thrift stores, garage sales and pawn shops locally. Ebay isn't an option anymore for most things. I've collected mainly hardware so far, as I have just recently decided to collect. I bought an original Game Boy off of eBay last week for $7 with 5 games. It works perfect and has one small scratch in the corner of the screen. Some local finds were an N64 with Smash Brothers in the original box and two controllers for $35. A Genesis in it's box, two controllers and Tecmo Super Bowl 3 for $20. Original Xbox with two controllers and 17 games for $40. A Gamecube, 5 games and two controllers for free.

A buddy of mine just bought Conkers on N64 a few months back for just under $70.

While I would love to play some of these games from my childhood again, I'm not going to pay that much just for a game that I'd play through once and be done with it. Nope. I think the most Ive ever spent on an older title was $20 for Metal Gear Solid (Hard Copy) on the original Playstation. Any more than that and I dont bother. I did pick up Dino Crisis for $6. One of the best $6 Ive ever spent.

That's why I'm starting to get in Retro Collection so that I collect as many games as possible before the prices get any higher.