Used Game Prices

It's amazing how much used video games can cost.

It's not that I'm planning on buying any in the near future, of course. I'm really not in a position where I can afford to.

But I was looking some of these things up, just for the hell of it in recent days. I was astounded by the prices the local used game place was asking for some of these things. I'm sure there's a guide they use that helps them set their prices based on things like demand and rarity of the title.

Some prices were believable, after all. Three to five dollars seemed reasonable for a lot of them, especially the older 8-bit games. After all, those games are mostly 25 to 30 years old now, and several generations old. In other cases, some of the prices did seem like a bit of a stretch. The third and fourth Dragon Warrior games, for example. I remember them being good games when I played them, and I would hardly be surprised if they were collectors items, especially for folks who have the first two games as well. I just find it hard to believe that they were good enough and/or rare enough to be worth $30 apiece for just the cartridges. I've owned several role playing games for several systems over the years. There was a lot of stuff that came with those games, especially in the 8-bit era.

Another one that stood out for me was Conker's Bad Fur Day for the N64. It seems the asking price for that one was a whopping $70, cart only. For real. How rare a game must that be, anyway?

Based on what I saw listed for prices that I actually do own, if it comes to my having to go in and sell these things, I can only hope the hock value, to use an expression, is equally high. These are good games, of course, but for them to be worth as much as the web site says for essentially media only, in a lot of cases, or with just the jewel case if it's a CD-based game, these must be better or more rare than I realize, if not both.

But it makes me hope that if I find myself in a position where I have to sell my games, that I get a good sum for those titles I've got that are also being sold for quite a lot. I'm not planning on being in that position any time soon, but one never knows.