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Anyone else noticing meaningful price increases?

 
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LM
Microvision


Joined: 30 Dec 2009
Last Visit: 07 Apr 2012
Posts: 20
Location: Chicago, IL

PostPosted: Sun Feb 12, 2012 2:56 am    Post subject: Anyone else noticing meaningful price increases? Reply with quote

Particularly amongst the always popular tabletops, but across the board?

I attend to my HHVG collection once or twice a year, since I"m pretty much at where I want to be.

I admit I haven't been keeping up with prices over the last year, but just today nosed around ebay in hopes of filling a couple holes in the collection- man, they've sure beat the hell out of the stock market over 2011 Shocked

I kind of suspected this was going to happen with these as the 80's nostalgia wave continues to swell as people my age get deeper into our earning years.

Anyone else noticing the price rises, or is it just me?
I think this is a pretty remarkable thing, given that several other 'collectible' fields are absolutely tanking, given the tight economic conditions and the dearth of buyers.
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vcoleiro1
Tiger Jawbreaker


Joined: 08 Jan 2012
Last Visit: 07 Jul 2020
Posts: 221

PostPosted: Mon Feb 13, 2012 6:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yes definately. Prices seem to be going up proportionally with the amount of people referencing handheldmuseum.com in item lsitings
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Haku
Coleco Pac Man


Joined: 12 Mar 2006
Last Visit: 27 Oct 2018
Posts: 38
Location: UK, South West

PostPosted: Sat Feb 18, 2012 10:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

About 6-7 years ago I managed to get two Tomytronic 3D Jungle Fighter games off eBay for about £40 each. I listed one of them on eBay last month, it ended at £132, which was nice Smile

I have no plans to sell the other, but I have noticed there appears to be an increase in the number of LCD wrist watch games on eBay, which I like collecting because they look cool and take up relatively little space (a large shoebox) so am enjoying increasing my collection of those.
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blanka
Atari Cosmos


Joined: 14 Dec 2010
Last Visit: 13 Oct 2022
Posts: 561
Location: Eindhoven, the Netherlands

PostPosted: Sun Feb 19, 2012 1:04 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I see the other side: thanks to the crisis, Europe and the US are clearing its closets at bargain prizes. The only exception is when it carries the Nintendo brand (not the Wii off course, they are below 25€ nowadays), or Coleco thanks to the crap quality (try to find a Coleco TT in nice boxed condition). I think it is cheaper than in 2009 now (the year I started collecting).

You might conclude a prize increase from the combination of Ebay + really scarce items. Well that is the only thing Ebay is still good at: inflate prizes of the really weird stuff.
If you focus on game-play, well made cool looking items, and style, there is absolutely no problem with the prizes: they go down.
If you want sucky games, that offer no game-play, look craptastic, and were built from garbage materials: go ahead and skyrocket on Ebay.

Don't forget: the scarcer a game is, the suckier it was back in 1980-1985, or the badder the built quality! Otherwise it would have sold much better or survived better! SO MOST SCARCE GAMES SUCK
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Rik
Site Admin


Joined: 07 Oct 2005
Last Visit: 25 Mar 2024
Posts: 1932
Location: California

PostPosted: Sun Feb 19, 2012 3:34 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

It all depends on the game, and to some degree, whether the 'big collectors' already have it... (Assuming it doesn't have a broader appeal.)

Adventure Vision- has been going up in value at a decent pace...

Coleco arcade games in average condition have gone down in value over the years (but really mint ones, especially mint boxed ones still do well, but I think they've been hovering around an average price for years.)

Some games, like the Entex 3D Grand Prix for example, sold for over $200 when they first started appearing on eBay. After about 4 or 5 had been sold (and the people that are really willing to spend money on games got one), they couldn't sell for $50.

eBay continues to flood the market with the common stuff (Mattel sports games, Coleco arcades, etc), but it does hold a certain value. The rare stuff can go up or down depending on various desires (Look at that Tiger Pyramid game recently for $400, but I can't say that's an increase since it's the only one I've seen sell... Two people bid $400 on it, the next bid was $80. To me, that marks the value of an auction item. Not the high bid, not the under bidder, but one below that.)

What I do agree with, however, is that 80's collectibles in general will be increasing in value over the next 10-20 years... More and more people are rapidly being made re-aware of the games/toys they had as kids back in the 70s and 80s... That will help the value of the rarer games (and REALLY mint condition copies of the common games). I don't think demand will ever out-strip supply on average condition common games... Some games, like the Mattel Football, were made in the 100,000s (even over a million for some)... They will always be available to people that just 'want one'.

Interesting analogy about collectible fields tanking due to death of buyers... Right now (or 10 years ago), toys from the 40-50s are worth seemingly tons of money. Tin toys, wind-up toys, stuff like that. Stuff I really don't care too much about since it was before my time. As the people who's time it was start to pass away or stop collecting, how much value will this stuff hold? Sure, there will always be collectors of it (stuff made in the 1800s and older is desired by people), but the _huge_ amount of nostalgic and sentimental collectors will be decreasing. It'll just be the antique collectors that have an interest in it... Now seems to be our time. 30+ years from now a mint-condition PS Vita or iPhone 4S still sealed in it's box will be worth thousands (10s of thousands with inflation Cool ), but there will be far less people that really care about a Mattel Football...

I may be wrong, but I get the impression that collecting as a general hobby didn't really exist too much prior to the 60s or 70s... I don't think people that were adults in the 1930s had a huge desire to try to collect the things from their youth... Life was just different back then. The whole 'market' seems to be a new industry, and we seem to be approaching the first time large portions of the first generations of die-hard collectors/hoarders are starting to leave us... Not only does that produce less buyers, but increases 'inventory'... I wonder if this is going to be a curse of the collectible market in general as time goes on... Stuff that's 30-50 years old are the 'hot items', especially with regards to toys.
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GameHoarder
Entex Crazy Climber


Joined: 25 May 2010
Last Visit: 26 Nov 2021
Posts: 75
Location: Minnesota USA

PostPosted: Sun Feb 19, 2012 4:50 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The first brick cell phones can bring a nice price. I have a few of those boxed up somewhere in storage. Some have their boxes and what came with them.

Many people thought they were getting the best of me when I hauled their unwanted items away years ago for free. I figured that the price was right and I had the room to store it.

I have enough old computer stuff to fill a semi truck trailer and then some if I was to put it all in one place. The list goes on and on. Shocked

Yes, I do hoard most of the items I have, but I'm in no rush to sell as I have other things to do and I have a long range plan that is going along well enough as of now. Want to get things sorted out a bit better and selling costs money, takes time and can cause other problems in many ways.

One persons junk is anothers treasure.

I have always liked things that were of a electronic nature so I hauled all I could get my hands on home and packed it away for a rainy day. Wink
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LM
Microvision


Joined: 30 Dec 2009
Last Visit: 07 Apr 2012
Posts: 20
Location: Chicago, IL

PostPosted: Sat Apr 07, 2012 4:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

@ Blanka

I've definitely noticed (and taken advantage of) price decreases that have occurred in various markets since the Great Economic Maelstrom of 2008.

Heck, I bought an acre and a half of waterfront on an island off the coast of Florida for $9000 USD cash in 2009 from a land speculator who was going bankrupt Yessss! That same property in 2005 would've been $100K.

Still, the 80s toys market seems to be at least pretty darn stable. I was hard-core into NES buying 2004-2006, those things have REALLY caught fire in the past year. There's a site that tracks their prices- here's an example of one rare game that I was paying $10-$20 for in 2005,



That's about 20% CAGR, over a period of time when any given index fund is at about 0% (or slightly negative) during that same time frame.
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LM
Microvision


Joined: 30 Dec 2009
Last Visit: 07 Apr 2012
Posts: 20
Location: Chicago, IL

PostPosted: Sat Apr 07, 2012 4:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Rik wrote:

Interesting analogy about collectible fields tanking due to death of buyers... Right now (or 10 years ago), toys from the 40-50s are worth seemingly tons of money. Tin toys, wind-up toys, stuff like that. Stuff I really don't care too much about since it was before my time. As the people who's time it was start to pass away or stop collecting, how much value will this stuff hold? Sure, there will always be collectors of it (stuff made in the 1800s and older is desired by people), but the _huge_ amount of nostalgic and sentimental collectors will be decreasing. It'll just be the antique collectors that have an interest in it... Now seems to be our time. 30+ years from now a mint-condition PS Vita or iPhone 4S still sealed in it's box will be worth thousands (10s of thousands with inflation Cool ), but there will be far less people that really care about a Mattel Football...

I may be wrong, but I get the impression that collecting as a general hobby didn't really exist too much prior to the 60s or 70s... I don't think people that were adults in the 1930s had a huge desire to try to collect the things from their youth... Life was just different back then. The whole 'market' seems to be a new industry, and we seem to be approaching the first time large portions of the first generations of die-hard collectors/hoarders are starting to leave us... Not only does that produce less buyers, but increases 'inventory'... I wonder if this is going to be a curse of the collectible market in general as time goes on... Stuff that's 30-50 years old are the 'hot items', especially with regards to toys.


That's a darn salient observation and I completely agree.

I've been a pretty hard-core 'collector' since I was a little kid. I'm a good bit reformed from my earlier 'collecting' years and a lot more focused, but have observed that world pretty keenly, watched it's various evolutions and devolutions, saw the whole collecting world change with the advent of ebay and overall, meditated pretty deeply on just why people 'collect' stuff.

I do draw a distinction between collecting and hording.
Collecting is done deliberately with purpose and usually has objectives. Hording is simply relentless acquisition for its own sake.

You're completely right.
"Collecting" popular culture artifacts is a relatively new cultural phenomenon. There have always been 'collectors' of rare/significant objects and art but collecting popular culture (video games, baseball cards, toys, comic books, movie posters, etc) is relatively new and honestly, I don't see the next generations taking up 'collecting for collecting's sake' as has been so common for the past 40 years.

You're also right on the money that certain fields of collecting can be cyclical or boom-and-bust.

There are artists that sold for a lot more in the 1970's than they do today... Their fad died off, so did interest in their work.

There was a period of time when the most desirable classic autos were those made in the 20's and 30's... Then, people lost interest in those and all the interest (and money) shifted to muscle of the 60's... now, it's shifting back to the classics again.

Stamp collecting was once enormously popular. Now, it's a niche hobby.

We all saw what happened with Sports Cards in the late 80's, early 90's. That market died all together and won't be coming back any time soon...

Heck. Lets not ignore that a lot of very savvy marketers exploited the culturally immature collectors market in the United States in the 80's and 90's with all manner of "Limited Edition" and dedicated "Collector" kitch that was absolutely worthless, but nevertheless collected relentlessly by some people.

Collecting is a fascinating human behavior, watching the collector world evolve over the past 20 years has been equally fascinating.

Great discussion

Very Happy Very Happy
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physics223
Entex Crazy Climber


Joined: 05 Mar 2010
Last Visit: 15 Nov 2012
Posts: 53

PostPosted: Mon Apr 16, 2012 5:40 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

blanka wrote:
I see the other side: thanks to the crisis, Europe and the US are clearing its closets at bargain prizes. The only exception is when it carries the Nintendo brand (not the Wii off course, they are below 25€ nowadays), or Coleco thanks to the crap quality (try to find a Coleco TT in nice boxed condition). I think it is cheaper than in 2009 now (the year I started collecting).

You might conclude a prize increase from the combination of Ebay + really scarce items. Well that is the only thing Ebay is still good at: inflate prizes of the really weird stuff.
If you focus on game-play, well made cool looking items, and style, there is absolutely no problem with the prizes: they go down.
If you want sucky games, that offer no game-play, look craptastic, and were built from garbage materials: go ahead and skyrocket on Ebay.

Don't forget: the scarcer a game is, the suckier it was back in 1980-1985, or the badder the built quality! Otherwise it would have sold much better or survived better! SO MOST SCARCE GAMES SUCK


Actually, I think the Super Micro was built quite well. It just was too advanced for its time and people didn't like to think to play games. All of its games are essentially puzzles, after all.
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