Opinion: Game prices

Just about everything collectible has gone way up in price, most notably collector cars.

When the economy cools, the first thing to go down in value is the stuff people really don't need.
 
While this thread topic is a very interesting read, it really is a moot point to even ponder.

If there were no demand for these things you would be seeing "Free it's on the curb" posts for most of them.

But we must assume that the demand for games is growing as these prices would suggest.

It's just the simple economic formula known as supply and demand.

:D
 
While this thread topic is a very interesting read, it really is a moot point to even ponder.

If there were no demand for these things you would be seeing "Free it's on the curb" posts for most of them.

But we must assume that the demand for games is growing as these prices would suggest.

It's just the simple economic formula known as supply and demand.

:D

I don't think the point of the discussion was as much about market pricing, as it was about outrageous pricing (i.e. games prices WAY above that which you'd expect the market to support, in hopes of landing ONE person that doesn't know any better.) Sure, some would argue that if SOMEONE is willing to pay it, that's the market price, but I think that's more an outlier.

Again, as I think I posted very early on, I don't care what people ask for their stuff...it's their stuff. Just don't be an ass about it, if someone offers you MUCH less. Or complain that they are lowballing or trying to "rip you off". Respectfully decline the offer if you don't like it, and move on. I think it goes BOTH ways. If you don't like what the seller is asking, don't buy it (quietly, we don't want price policing). But if you don't like what the buyer is offering, don't sell it (and wait for the sucker).

I think often people ASSUME that there is a required "negotiation". So they price it high, so they have room to come down. That's fine too. I usually don't waste my time (throwing out a lowball offer so we can meet in the middle). I'll offer what I'm willing to pay...if the seller takes it, great. If they don't...no hard feelings.
 
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Here's what irrates me...I scratch built a Fix It Felix Jr., used the best parts....the machine was flawless. When I started that project, people were braggin on here they were selling copies using a legit DK cab for $2500-$3000 all day long.

When I was ready to sell mine after I got bored with it... nobody wanted to pay jack for it. I ended up letting it go for $1500 after months of sitting on it. Didn't make anything on it.

Now I see reps selling on eBay for $2000-2500 again.

It's all about that ebb and flow man...and my ebb sucks. Stupid market. Ha.
 
When I started that project, people were braggin on here they were selling copies using a legit DK cab for $2500-$3000 all day long.

When I was ready to sell mine after I got bored with it... nobody wanted to pay jack for it. I ended up letting it go for $1500 after months of sitting on it. Didn't make anything on it.

I think that's the outlier market. There will always be those people that will pay too much. But once that market dries up, it's back to "normal " prices for a while. So if you need to get outlier prices (i.e. you have a lot invested in the game), you may have to sell it when the market says it's time, not when YOU say it's time. :)
 
Toss it out. This hobby is way to niche to use any kind of stable "price guide."

These games are not commodities.

they most certainly are not. but they do have value. and with a price guide you
can determine an average mean of pricing of what a game is worth. you can do it
based off of the sales on klov alone. or sold ebay items. or common sense.

how much is an Atari Kangaroo? $200-500. any pricing less or greater than that are
beyond the standards of deviation and are consider to be the outliers.

the current market price is what dictates the average, you can't base a $250 donkey kong
of the late 1990's with today's AVERAGE pricing of a donkey kong of $700-1100 these days.
 
they most certainly are not. but they do have value. and with a price guide you
can determine an average mean of pricing of what a game is worth. you can do it
based off of the sales on klov alone. or sold ebay items. or common sense.

how much is an Atari Kangaroo? $200-500. any pricing less or greater than that are
beyond the standards of deviation and are consider to be the outliers.

the current market price is what dictates the average, you can't base a $250 donkey kong
of the late 1990's with today's AVERAGE pricing of a donkey kong of $700-1100 these days.

You assume buyers and sellers of arcade use common sense towards buying and selling games.
 
they most certainly are not. but they do have value. and with a price guide you
can determine an average mean of pricing of what a game is worth. you can do it
based off of the sales on klov alone. or sold ebay items. or common sense.

how much is an Atari Kangaroo? $200-500. any pricing less or greater than that are
beyond the standards of deviation and are consider to be the outliers.

the current market price is what dictates the average, you can't base a $250 donkey kong
of the late 1990's with today's AVERAGE pricing of a donkey kong of $700-1100 these days.

You're also dealing with a very small sample set. How many Atari Kangaroos sold in the past year? 2? 5? None? Hard to get any kind of (meaningful) average with low volume sales.
 
You assume buyers and sellers of arcade use common sense towards buying and selling games.

yeah that and i search daily on klov, CL, kiijii, offerup, letgo, and eBay. I see the games
getting listed, i verify all the sold "make an offer"s with http://www.watchcount.com/

too bad i didn't plug all those figures into an excel or database for the last 3-4 years. oh well
 
yeah that and i search daily on klov, CL, kiijii, offerup, letgo, and eBay. I see the games
getting listed, i verify all the sold "make an offer"s with http://www.watchcount.com/

too bad i didn't plug all those figures into an excel or database for the last 3-4 years. oh well

It wouldn't matter. Just because a Star Wars sold for $250 7 years ago doesn't tell us anything about what its worth now.
 
It wouldn't matter. Just because a Star Wars sold for $250 7 years ago doesn't tell us anything about what its worth now.

that's why its never-ending and price guides are always updated either
daily, weekly, monthly, or on an annual basis.

and around 10-20 star wars were sold in 2016, i can't prove it but i recall seeing
that many sold from a range of $1000 to $4000 each. Depending on condition,
monitor type, or whether or not it's a cockpit or upright.
 
yeah that and i search daily on klov, CL, kiijii, offerup, letgo, and eBay. I see the games
getting listed, i verify all the sold "make an offer"s with http://www.watchcount.com/

too bad i didn't plug all those figures into an excel or database for the last 3-4 years. oh well

I would just look to your OWN sigblock for the explanation. Statistics imply reason...arcade game sales are very emotional. You are not going to find any predictability in emotional purchases.
 
I would just look to your OWN sigblock for the explanation. Statistics imply reason...arcade game sales are very emotional. You are not going to find any predictability in emotional purchases.



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Prices shift around too much to have any sort of consistent price guide... even people suggesting a community driven guide that was constantly updated... it wouldn't make any difference.

People say "such and such game on exidy's list is priced too high/low" okay... um... where'd you get YOUR price for that game? If the game is priced at $500 on the price guide but you think it should be $900... why do you think it should be $900? Because you saw one sell for that much? Does one sale alter the going price for a game? Two sales? Three?

Too many factors go into the price of a game. Condition, rarity, perceived value, nostalgia value, location, size...

You can get a massive sit down game for like $50 because nobody wants to pay to haul it or has space for it... But a bartop can sell for $1000 and it has far less to it. A game in California would go for way less in some other part of the country... simply because the demand is greater in Cali and the pockets are deeper.

Some games are worth more parted out, so the condition of the cabinet is of little importance, while some games are all about cabinet condition because the cabinet itself is rare or hard to repro. Same for various parts, monitors, etc... Because so many things can be interchanged on games, some games have more value simply because of the parts they hold.

Then you have conversion games... Usually the original game would fetch more money than what it was converted to... but then you have to factor in the cost to restore.

Also every collector is different. Some like projects. Some don't want anything but minty NOS. For some, just side art missing makes them not want to buy... while others see an opportunity to get a deal and apply their own art.

Then there's the whole Mame and LCD screen shenanigans.. Which has a big impact on the market as a whole.

Sometimes a game is expensive because it's rare... but there are exceptions where rare games are worth far less than more common games of the same type.


Anyway... there are just so many things to consider when pricing a game. I don't see high prices as a big deal. If nobody pays those prices, the games don't sell, and eventually the seller drops the price.

As always, if you don't like the price of something, don't buy it... and if you honestly don't know what something is worth... just make a thread in the price check section and people are sure to chime in with their estimates... it will at least get you a better idea than some outdated price guide.
 
Well, lets put this whole discussion to the test. I recently picked up an original color tapper in very nice shape. Artwork is faded, i replaced the cpo, tapper handle stickers, 1+2 player buttons, new toe kick, and i have sent the boards to cdjump for a going through.

According to exidy, it is worth $2000 to $3500 with no fading. let's use this thread as a price check, what does everyone think it's worth? (there are pics in the "tapper find" thread in the general section) and when i list it on ebay, let's see what happens. I have decided that i'm going to put it on ebay for $4999 or best offer to see what happens.

Now before the price police crybabies chime in, i don't really believe it is worth that, but i know there is a good possibility of someone who is a beer memorabilia and has deep pockets. I figure the rarity of this game and it's original condition and the fact that only 1 has sold on ebay in the last 90 days for $2500 (griffin's i believe), and it was not the color cabinet make for the perfect storm

The price i have settled on in my mind is $3500, and to me, that is way more than i would ever pay for this game. I may be way off on what this thing is worth and that's fine, but i am going to test the waters. To me, this game is nothing more than a way to get the game i most want, so i like everyone else in the world, i want to get the most i can for it. That is why i never held to price police opinions or price guides even in my comic collecting days. They just simply are wrong most of the time and do not/can not account for all the human factors and variables.

let the hate begin...
 
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Well, lets put this whole discussion to the test. I recently picked up an original color tapper in very nice shape. Artwork is faded, i replaced the cpo, tapper handle stickers, 1+2 player buttons, new toe kick, and i have sent the boards to cdjump for a going through.

According to exidy, it is worth $2000 to $3500 with no fading. let's use this thread as a price check, what does everyone think it's worth? (there are pics in the "tapper find" thread in the general section) and when i list it on ebay, let's see what happens. I have decided that i'm going to put it on ebay for $4999 or best offer to see what happens.

Now before the price police crybabies chime in, i don't really believe it is worth that, but i know there is a good possibility of someone who is a beer memorabilia and has deep pockets. I figure the rarity of this game and it's original condition and the fact that only 1 has sold on ebay in the last 90 days for $2500 (griffin's i believe), and it was not the color cabinet make for the perfect storm

The price i have settled on in my mind is $3500, and to me, that is way more than i would ever pay for this game. I may be way off on what this thing is worth and that's fine, but i am going to test the waters. To me, this game is nothing more than a way to get the game i most want, so i like everyone else in the world, i want to get the most i can for it. That is why i never held to price police opinions or price guides even in my comic collecting days. They just simply are wrong most of the time and do not/can not account for all the human factors and variables.

let the hate begin...

I (personally) don't think there is a market for a $5000 Tapper, but I'm sure all the Tapper owners are hopping I'm wrong. I would be surprised if you got much interest at anything over $2500. But it only takes ONE person to be convinced that they MUST buy this one (I.e their "Must have" game and they may never see another one). So an "emotional" buy (fear of missing out). Again, the decision to buy is emotional, it's the decision to NOT buy that is logical.
 
I (personally) don't think there is a market for a $5000 Tapper, but I'm sure all the Tapper owners are hopping I'm wrong. I would be surprised if you got much interest at anything over $2500. But it only takes ONE person to be convinced that they MUST buy this one (I.e their "Must have" game and they may never see another one). So an "emotional" buy (fear of missing out). Again, the decision to buy is emotional, it's the decision to NOT buy that is logical.

The only time I would think it would be logical to buy a collectible is when you know you can flip it for more.
 
The only time I would think it would be logical to buy a collectible is when you know you can flip it for more.

Sure...but in this example, anyone paying $3500+ for a Tapper is not (hopefully) planning on flipping it.
 
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