Time to ask: YouTube video "stars" and the rising cost of games

[Jon]

The basic question here is do wanna be Youtube "stars" contribute to the rising cost of games?

I've brought this topic up at various conventions and the answer I usually get is "yes". I'm also not saying it's the only cause of rising prices, just one of them.

I'll give you guys one example where I think this happened: Super Back to the Future 2. I've never owned the game, however, my brother has bought it several times...all for $60 each time. BTW, $60 for a CIB copy, to boot. Now, after James Rolfe (AVGN) released that video about various Back to the Future games and, how SBTTF2 was the only good one, the prices on it went up overnight. The last copy my brother had, also CIB, ended up selling for over $300...crazy.

Maybe I'm different, however, back when ROMs started being circulated, circa early 2000's, we were going through lists of games on various systems and seeing what was good. If there was a game I liked via emulation, I'd try to buy a copy of it.

Now, it seems that people that are playing games need some Youtube "star" to tell them what they should be playing. If these people manage to get their point across that a game is good, suddenly, the market seeing (depending on number of subscribers) a million new people who want that game. Many examples of this.

Anyway, just curious what everyone's thoughts are on this.

Jon

 

[ballzdeepx]

I think there are numerous factors at play for the overall state of games.
Here's a brief synopsis of everything that seems to be happening from my perspective

More people, including teenagers are using youtube/online/forums than ever before. This gives the world a much easier way to join up with a collective group who share similar interests.
Youtube is fast replacing TV in many cases due to it's inherit nature, subscription features etc
People who grew up with these games, now have the disposable income to buy back something after seeing it again on the web - nostalgia kicks in
Ebay allows for multiple relists at no penalty to the seller, this has increased the number of stupid BIN prices, and each subsequent seller uses that BIN as a price point
People use ebay as a source of truth for pricing these games
Resellers do what they do to take advantage of the situation
Buyers keep paying the ridiculous prices, some actually consider it an investment, others have OCD and it's all about collecting period, and the rush of the postman's approach

Here were are.

 

[smokehouse]

Young folk have no reference outside of videos...

For those of us that actually lived during this time...we know what is and what isn't. I was a very active gamer throughout the entire 8 and 16 bit era, games didn't come in floods and I would rent games all of the time. I pretty much knew the big name titles and found the "off the beaten path" gems myself...20+ years ago.

Someone that is 20 at the moment wasn't even aware of video games until 2000 or so...fucking 2000. Expecting them to know a good NES game is like someone expecting my to know a quality product that came out in 1973...

They watch these videos and then EXPECT the product to be costly...often, it came out 5-10 years before they were even born, like they know a copy of NES Contra is common as hell and not worth $50.



...I've said it 1000 times...I'd emulate all of this shit before I'd drop the current asking prices on these games...

 

[Pope Sazae]

This is why I'm a fan of services like the Nintendo Virtual Console, PSN, etc. Don't have the space or the desire to have all these carts I don't currently own when my only goal is to play the game. Pay $100 for Super Castlevania on eBay or pay $7 to Nintendo so I can play it on the Wii U looking and sounding amazing, it's pretty easy to me. Plus a LOT of the games that seem to be going up in price thanks to the numerous YouTube folks are pretty shitty. I'd much rather have a dozen or so games that I play a lot and enjoy vs 50 carts of crappy games that do nothing but sit on a shelf.

 

[Dr Shroom]

The price of Rap Jam Vol.1 really went up recently, no idea why.

 

[Danthor]

This is why I'm a fan of services like the Nintendo Virtual Console, PSN, etc. Don't have the space or the desire to have all these carts I don't currently own when my only goal is to play the game. Pay $100 for Super Castlevania on eBay or pay $7 to Nintendo so I can play it on the Wii U looking and sounding amazing, it's pretty easy to me. Plus a LOT of the games that seem to be going up in price thanks to the numerous YouTube folks are pretty shitty. I'd much rather have a dozen or so games that I play a lot and enjoy vs 50 carts of crappy games that do nothing but sit on a shelf.

You pretty much nailed my thoughts on this , Pope. Being the fan of classic Nintendo games I am, I'd be too frustrated to be trying to build a library with today's going prices. I have the carts for the games I love, and for everything else, there's just better solutions. Exact same scenario I faced with a different game; Earthbound. I've never been able to get a cart, and when I was given the choice of the current laughable price, vs the pittance of the VC version... yeah. Easy choice.

 

[kahel]

Plumbers don't wear ties on 3DO is a great example of this . This game is total and utter shit, and there are ton of those interactive story game on 3DO . But now you see a sealed copy for over 1k on EBay and a non-sealed for 350$ + for this game wich is no better or worst then the other bad story game on 3DO.

Only difference is that Plumbers was reviewed by AVGN. He is the only reason this game is being sold that price today.

 

[ki_atsushi]

The price of Rap Jam Vol.1 really went up recently, no idea why.

All your fault, dude.

P.S. - I'm done collecting (again). Flash carts are really getting good, so there's no reason to pay exorbitant amounts for these games anymore. Let the idiots do what they do.

 

[norton9478]

The herd mentality.

 

[FAT$TACKS]

I think there are several reasons that are driving the prices up.

I do think the reviews drive up the price in a few different ways. Mainly though, as stated in a previous post, new younger players (Collectors) without a frame of reference to how common a game is or what it should be worth, use the online videos as source material for building their library. However, I don't expect this trend to continue too many more years. I think the disconnect between the age of the games and gamers will make the 8 and 16 bit era less desirable to the new generation of emerging gamers. Once the cool factor wears off I a lot of collectors will dump their collections and move on to the next thing.

I think one of the main forces in inflating the prices of games is the changes in ebay structure over the last 7 or 8 years. The move from being more auction oriented to changing focus to ebay stores is the main issue I see.

First off for the basic level store it costs a seller 20.00 per month. With that you get a large amount of auctions with free listings, free upgrades and other types of price breaks such as final value discounts when you perform a certain way. Anyhow, This allows a seller to keep 100 or so games just parked as buy it now items at no expense to themselves. Doing so, you can slap prices on things that are more than you would expect them to auction for and it costs you nothing to let them sit there and sell. (I say costs nothing but you pay a monthly fee, however this is easily covered with your regular selling items via the discount you get in fees.)

Without a store, still a person can do almost the same thing. I sell a lot of vintage books. I list them for 7 day auctions at a minimum price I would be happy they sell for. Some times they will sell, but when they don't, most items will relist for free up to 3 times, then after that you can relist and they will relist for free 1 time. That's all done with the 50 free auctions a non store seller gets each month, then at the end of the month they usually have a few days of unlimited free auction listings. Sure if something sells you pay a final value fee but I'm able to park many items on line every week or so a few things sell for more than they were when I was auctioning the exact same items.

Next up is the local shops. Well, most of them seem to go by ebay prices and then jack their prices up above that. As the shops are already established, it's a safe bet that their primary source of income is not from 16 bit games so there is no reason to price them fairly. They don't take up enough space unless you have huge numbers of them to be an issue, and for most people going to the local shop is a last resort or when you want something right now. The store owners know this and because of that they lift the prices. It becomes a matter of, do I sell this game for 5.00 now or let it sit in a case over there and maybe someone will pay 75 not knowing any better.

The local video store prices its loose copies of Super Mario World at 34.99.

Where as it used to be if your prices were not competitive you went under, now with online out of the home not really a business people running a business but calling it a hobby and not paying any taxes on it, there is no penalty for not being competitive. Now you can just slap a high price on something, let it be displayed on line at ebay with huge market exposure, at zero cost to yourself until it sells. At no cost you can list items for years at a time at any super high price you want and only pay something when it sells, and that is as a basic seller not a store.

 

[Azra113]

Kids are willing to pay money to have a selfie taken with youtube stars. I am sure they would pay crazy prices for videogames that their idols play to connect with them.


http://www.vice.com/en_ca/read/vlogger-meet-ups-amelia-tait-222

 

[snes_collector]

I think sometimes the price is driven up by people fearing that the price will skyrocket, which in turn causes what they are afraid of to actually happen. Let's say somebody reviews a game on youtube and it gets a lot of hits. There are currently 20 copies on ebay for $10 each. Someone on the forum post "..... reviewed game ....." now 100 collectors think "I better go ahead and grab this" and all 100 end up swooping up those copies, even paying a bit more to have it now than later. Since one person pays a little bit extra, someone else has the same mindset and so on until the price is $100 for just the cart.

 

[andsuchisdeath]

I think the lesson we can derive from this thread, among countless others, is that video games are attracting more sub-human cretins than ever.

 

[Moon Jump]

I still remember my friend buying Wild Guns at Video Games NY, a store that's notorious for overpriced games for only 25 dollars and look at the game now. Most of the original Happy Video Game Nerd's episodes games have shot up in price. Thank god I had some of them like Journey to Sillius but stuff like Metal Storm almost the price of a current generation game.

 

[Gozer]

I hate walking around flea market tables and picking up unpriced carts and asking how much and seeing the seller pick up a smartphone.

 

[NeoSneth]

I don't think they have a major influence in the long run. You might see a spike that week, but I don't think people add rare games to their ebay feed or anything.

Pat the NES punk talked about this issue in one of his random youtube casts.

 

[TheBigBB]

In general I don't see the market for physical copies of old games going up. For every Super Back to the Future 2 there are 50 other games that you still can't get more than a couple bucks for even CIB.

 

[Jon]

The price of Rap Jam Vol.1 really went up recently, no idea why.

Shroom, pls. Less than 50 people watched that video.

Jon

 

[Dr Shroom]

Shroom, pls. Less than 50 people watched that video.

Jon

Less than 20 actually

 

[NeoTurfMasta]

I feel like I'm the only person who doesn't watch these YouTube Celebs. When we were at Retropalooza a few months ago, I swear it was a YT star circle jerk. 99% of the game videos I watch on YT have no commentary or no annoying persona behind it.

The 1% is exclusively for Shroom videos, which I only watch for the commentary.

 

[Teddy KGB]

I feel like I'm the only person who doesn't watch these YouTube Celebs. When we were at Retropalooza a few months ago, I swear it was a YT star circle jerk. 99% of the game videos I watch on YT have no commentary or no annoying persona behind it.

The 1% is exclusively for Shroom videos, which I only watch for the commentary.

Pls. You are a YouTube celeb.

 

[Maury V.]

There's a game store here in Texas called Game Over Videogames and they sell games at ultra high prices. I traded in some of my domestic and imported titles and I got a lot back in store credit. In return, they sell them high. For example, I bought Rez on the PS2 in Japan for a little over $2.50. I sold it to GOVG and got back $15 for it and they're selling it for $30. Super Back To The Future 2 on the SFC was $9 and i'm sure it will go for more if I sold it elsewhere.

Gamers today have NO effing clue on how retro gaming works. Those games have a limited life span; they will NOT last for years and years. Spending $100 on a game (hell even $20 on something as common as Street Fighter 2 on the SNES) is NOT a wise investment but of course, it's all about the money for the sellers and such. It's sickening.

 

[ChuChu Flamingo]

Ballsdeepx pretty much summed up the problem. A combination of retarded factors.

 

[Moon Jump]

I hate walking around flea market tables and picking up unpriced carts and asking how much and seeing the seller pick up a smartphone.

There's this new retro game shop I discovered off Facebook that's a few towns from me that does just that. Nothing in the "store" has prices on them. You take what you want up to the guy at the counter and he checks PriceCharting.com then he lets you know how much you owe him. I was able to haggle the guy down a couple of bucks, but it's annoying because you have to wait for him to look up each game, get the price, total it up and then you have to pay him. Thankfully a few shops keep it simple, you pay the price listed, no bullshit. After seeing how his operation worked that just made me want to go right into selling off the shitty games I own, keeping the really good ones I like and just going with the multicarts. For the price that Mega Man 4 and 5 are going for I can just buy one flash cart and have everything and it works the damn same.

 

[norton9478]

I got thrown out of a store of scoffing at a guy when he told me that Mega-Man 5 was $50.00.

And that was over 10 years ago.