This is your lesson in supply vs demand Demand for these games are higher than ever. Games like Emerald and BW2 sold badly, but people want them The demand is higher because these are tangible bits of data that can transfer forward to current games FOR NOW. With Pokémon Bank ending one day, these games are more and more sought after for collecting mons to transfer before you can’t anymore
One of the biggest regrets I have is not rebuilding my Pokémon collection ten years ago when the idea originally crossed my mind. At the time with how cheap things were it was really just a "oh I can do it later" because at the time there was other things I was interested in buying. I played Yugioh, I collected kpop, and I had the most recent games at the time so worrying about older games and re-obtaining them never felt like a huge priority when I had other priorities. Fast-forward and here we are in a market that I don't think the me of ten years ago would have ever predicted. Getting into full odds shiny hunting also accelerated my desire to obtain these older games and while I'm quite close to finishing both a set of English and Japanese games it still feels so insurmountable to finish with these prices. And I unfortunately don't see prices going down ever just because that's the nature of it. Great video; always enjoy seeing takes on the absurd state of retro games Oh and my favorite game is probably Black 2/White 2
I am right there with you with wishing I collected earlier. At the time I didn’t think it would ever get here either lol good luck with finishing your collection! You’ll get lucky with some deals and patience.
There is an old saying - the best time to plant a tree is.... 20 years ago, the second best time is today. Or better yet wait until the recession when prices drop. That's my plan.
I thought it would be cool if Pokemon Home would actually be like NSO and let us play the old games for a subscription price. Even if they bump up the price, to be able to play the old games again and fill up the Home DEX and even bring over those Pokemon to the Switch games.
It really pisses me off because as a kid I had zero funds to my name so once I got a job around 2020 as a new adult, all of a sudden everyone is back into fucking Pokémon and the prices are high. This will sound like gatekeeping and please forgive me I'm just disappointed, but I remember when half these people didn't give Black and White 2 a fair shot and NOW look at everyone. Unbelievable. Now while I do have my respective copies, this is still insane. I like to think there are still so many loose copies out in the wild that does not justify these prices I mean they've sold millions. We just have to look towards remakes and the new generations now to get back those old experiences moving forward
Right there with you! Great point especially with B2W2. Games that no one really mentioned as top tier are now some of the most expensive games lol. Fingers crossed on the remakes!
I played BW2 religiously when it came out, I remember so many people hating on those games back then but I always thought that they were one of if not the best games in the series. And yeah I remember really getting back into Pokémon around 2019-2020 pre Covid and prices were CRAZY. I decided to just home brew my 2ds and get them through CFW because I'm sorry I won't be paying these prices.
I think you're falling victim for Goomba Funnel syndrome If you haven't heard of it, essentially it's taking one common opinion from the faceless online masses and another common opinion from the faceless online masses, and thinking they're the same people. One group of people hated Black and White when they were new. Another group of people grew up with them and have strong nostalgia for them. The group who grew up with them didn't have much of an online presence when the games were new, on account of, you know, being in the process of growing up. Most children are not avid social media users, or at least they weren't when I was growing up - I didn't start seeing all my classmates on social media until high school. Any game can be someone's favorite childhood game. Pokémon is particularly predisposed to this because it's a globally popular game with multiplayer aspects and enough content to easily suck up hundreds or even thousands of hours of kids' free time. Fast forward a decade, when countless copies of Black and White were lost to a child's carelessness or pawned off or simply worn out - there are more people who want to relive a childhood favorite than there are people willing to sell copies, thus prices go sky high. And this is why I have no qualms with pirating games that are out of print.
You're right though. I didn't like Black and White nor Black 2 and White 2. I just found out recently that they aren't that bad. I'm also the kiind of Pokémon player that just wants to finish the story collect nice Pokémon and doesn't care after that. That's why I didn't even care about all those other changes. Heck, I thought my entire life that you need the same Pokémon twice or a Ditto to breed them. I didn't even know egg groups 😁 But that also means I can replay them as they were new in 2024.
It's hard to believe that just back in 2018-19 when I started buying the GBA games for myself I could get them for about $40 USD apiece loose -- and the most expensive DS game was HGSS at about $50 USD loose. The current prices are absolutely distorted. As much as I think resellers and scalpers have a role in that, I also think it's just the nature of Pokemon game collecting. Think about it -- most Pokemon fans tend to hang onto their games, which constrains supply. It's fascinating because few other games follow this trend. Try to buy a game that came out a decade ago on another console, like Skyrim for instance. It's depreciated in price, as have most others. Pokemon games somewhat break this rule as they've consistently appreciated in price. I also think some of it might have to do with the fact that Pokemon games only have one save file, which incentivizes accumulating multiple of the same game (I've done this for several) but this logic doesn't seem to hold for any game post-gen 5. XY are actually worth less than when they released, last I checked, and I can purchase games like Sun and Moon for similarly low prices too. I think this is because they remained available first-hand for so long, for one thing. The GB games (RBY, GSC) skyrocketed in price the moment the Virtual Console games became unavailable, at least at my local used video game store. I also think another factor is that generations that grew up with previous games are now old enough to have disposable income and indulge their nostalgia -- as I've seen the reputation of games like BW improve as the people who played them as kids grow into adulthood, their prices have also gone up. Just a few of my thoughts on this. The state of the secondary market for Pokemon is somewhat depressing. These games have become utterly unaffordable for all but the most dedicated collectors. It feels like almost everything has undergone ridiculous price inflation within the last few years though.
@@cencil6497 The market works the way it does because consumers are willing to pay crazy amounts of money for Pokémon games. If people stopped buying them, the resellers would have to lower their prices to keep doing business.
Kept all of mine. Thank God my mom didn’t throw them out when I was in college and began my adult life. Rediscovered them all this year when my parents finally moved out of my childhood home of 30 years. Have one from every gen. Blue, Gold, Fire Red, Ruby, Emerald, Pearl, Platinum, White 2, X, Omega Ruby. Still have every single one. Just finally moved everything from everything Ruby forward on over to home. So glad I have my Pokémon from way back when my journey started in 2004 when I was 7 to now 20 years later as a 27 year old. You are correct. Nostalgia is a powerful thing. It hit me in the best way possible when I fired up my SP and DS and booted these games for the first time in a very long time. Long live Pokémon!
Biggest troll ever would be if Nintendo one day miraculously said "we're going to flood the market with all the retro pokemon games from days past and make them easier to obtain for all" Would never happen though. Emulation it is I guess
They do that with digital games, that’s what kept the physical prices low. It wasn’t till the company WATA started grading games that investors started collecting games.
At the end of the day, there are emulators for price-conscious consumers but having the physical copy of the game you played as a child is a whole other feeling. Especially that Emerald CIB 🐉
For me the problem is the people that buy them at these prices , if everyone and i mean everyone had a limit on how much they value the games the prices wouldnt be like this.
I mean a gba game with or without a working battery that sold millions of copies worldwide at triple digits used is ridiculous , no matter how good it is. I cant help but laugh when youtubers defend these prices , like no bro , nobody should pay more than 60$ for a used copy of emerald without box , manual etc , its just a ripoff no matter how you look at it , and the resellers tell you they are collectibles , so that they can justify their scammy tactics.
@@darkdestroyer4970 Supply and demand, you think about it for a minute. If everyone wants to have a copy of all mainline games (or at least their favourite ones) Then that means more people will be looking to buy and there will be less on the market as they all get bought. There only so many millions of copies of each game, there are possibly hundreds of millions if not Billions of pokemon fans on the planet. Of course the prices will go up. I'm not saying whether it is right or wrong, it is the way things are. Just like house prices.......If there aren't many houses available, but a lot of demand, prices go up.
the same scalpers who resell sneakers, clothing, playing cards, etc. infected the gaming community (retro games) and are now preying off of our nostalgia and it’s truly saddening.
I can understand the frustration with how pricey the older OG games are. That’s just life unfortunately. Save up and grab the games you want. You’re not in a race. Get off social media, slow your life down, save money, and buy that emerald when you have enough. Life is fantastic ❤
I've been buying pokemon games since the 90's, kept all and never sold, had no Idea 20+ years later it would turn into a massive collection, I just enjoy my pokemon games. So glad I did buy them during release because the prices are out of control
I completed my non cib collection during Covid. I do have to admit that I was buying a bunch of lots of games and handhelds from OfferUp. I ended up keeping the best labeled games and selling off the rest. I built my collection almost for free, minus the time it took to hunt and buy the lots. With the amount of people doing it now I couldn’t imagine trying to hunt a full collection at a reasonable price and time.
Well spoken. We can only speak from experience but the last few years i've seen loose games be at or above these prices in stores or at conventions. I can't really blame vendors for setting a price, the FOMO is real and both the vendors, collecting and thrift haul videos all contribute to that. Plus, add to that pokemon being the multi generational franchise that parents get their children into and you have a recipe for increased prices. I think if people have the money and can afford the prices, good for them, but some of these games are literally portions of my monthly rent so im sure its not cheap for others. I think the best we can do is educate people on prices, that yes, we can choose to NOT buy something, and to find ways to reduce those costs associated with collecting. My last three pokemon games were acquired from trading pokemon cards, which is not a cheap hobby to collect for, but something about not paying the full market price associated made me proud to finally get a deal, even if the cards were at a similar value. I got more to say but i'll leave it there, im curious about what everyone else thinks as well!
Amazing points Zombie. Kind of like you said, at this point it's what we have to deal with and it's our choice to buy or not. Trading cards are a whole new world for me, but I do love the concept of using them as trade pieces. Might have to keep that on the short list of things to try out!
I was about that old when someone stole my whole collection. I had Emerald, Pearl, Platinum and Heart Gold. I had them all in my DS case for convenience and a trusted friend stole them while I wasn't watching.
There are entire generations that want to play Gen 3, 4, and 5 and can’t because of the prices. Nintendo not releasing them on virtual console is probably hundreds of millions of dollars being left on the table.
Yeah absolutely! You'd think a company focused on revenue would just port the games over and charge whatever price and reap the benefits. I wish they would.
This may be a unpopular opinion. It’s just that, an opinion. If emulation isn’t cutting it for you, maybe it’s not the game itself you’re nostalgic for, but something you can’t get back.
Yea these games have some insane prices now. I had Crystal on the 3DS and wanted to get the rest of the older games but the eShop shutdown and ruined my plans. I found some ppl online that were selling a 3DS with all the old games but it was $750. Really wish I held onto the older games when I was younger. I still want the old games and am longing for Nintendo to release them on the Switch. Pokémon will never stop. The biggest multi-media franchise on Earth. They'll continue the trend even long after we're gone. 150 years from now it will be a trailer like "A century ago, collecting best friends was born!" Pokémon forever!!! 😍😍😍🔥🔥🔥🔥
Dude it's nuts. I recently tried to re-buy red blue and yellow because I stupidly sold / traded them 9 - 10 years ago and have wanted to replay them on my restored / upgraded to IPS Game Boy DMG-01 - I feel like such an idiot because I had all of the games up to Ruby. I can't believe how much they have gotten.
@@wishbonefan I was looking for real copies of the GBA games and got scammed with some fakes. My fire red and leaf green are real, I'm fairly sure my emerald is real, but my sapphire and 2 ruby's are fake. My brother has a real Sapphire, so I can always use his if necessary, but I need to find a real ruby at some point (and potentially an emerald).
This is why ROMs exist. It's the easiest and cheapest way to play any of these old games. Many you can play on your phone. I just bought a Retroid Pocket 4 Pro to feed my nostalgia. Anbernic, Powkiddy, Miyoo, or many more all exist for this reason. Handhelds and emulators get better and better everyday.
Not only are the prices increasing, many of those people who buy the games don't play them... Like the point of those games is to buy them and enjoy them. If you buy this game just to have it sit on your display and not play it ever then that's kind of sad.
@throwbackkb Yep, the Gamecube Fire Emblem is one of the most expensive games for the system. You will, no doubt, also be aware that 3 of the 4 Pokemon games for Gamecube are also amongst the most expensive for the system. At least there is some level of sense to things like Pokemon Box being so expensive - Unlike most Pokemon games it didn't sell millions upon millions of copies, because the GCN wasn't particularly popular and Pokemon Box didn't offer much value (it's really just a storage system for the GBA games) so not many people bought it. For what it's worth, my theory on the rapid rise of Pokemon game "values" is a deadly combination of nostalgia from people who now have a disposable income, rabid reseller activity (which combines with the abundance of "side hussle" culture), covid-era interest in collecting, and the youtuber driven "Pokemon is a speculative market that can be manipulated" idea typified by Logan Paul's Pokemon card videos.
A majority of the people that would buy the games or get them as gifts wouldn't care about CIB. Yes, the prices have gone up (that's what inflation and demand for specific games do) and they're not going to go down anytime soon. Loose is still cheap and you can get the box with the inserts for relatively cheap, so doing CIB isn't worth the hassle imho
Pokémon is the best franchise is the world. When it hit the rest of the world back in 98-99, it was unlike anything else. There’s a reason millions remember it as “Pokemania”. Glad I was born in 1990 and was able to be a kid for the beginning.
Right? Exactly what I say. Everyone had those games. They’re not rare in the slightest. Those prices are absolutely out of this world, and people that encourage them by buying are part of the problem.
im always so thankful that i was a total pokemon nerd as a kid and was trying to get every game i didnt have at the age of 10, so i got most of the more expensive games today for decent prices. seeing how it is today is totally nuts to me. its so inaccessible for people who either have never gotten the chance to play these games or who want to play them again but dont have their copies anymore. i really do hope it goes back to a more normal level someday, or that maybe they get rereleased on new platforms (although i personally dont think that feels as authentic, it would work for a lot of people)
It really depends, because if we're talking GBA era or earlier, there a whole ton of non-genuine bootleg cartridges saturating the market. These are of course, not genuine copies, not legal, and shouldn't even exist, but they are super cheap. So if you only care about playing the game, just buy one of those. those regularly go for like $20, problem solved. It's a whole different story when we're talking about *_authentic_* complete in box (CIB) copies of pokemon games. Those are exceedingly rare, especially in good or excellent condition. This is because while yes, millions of copies of these games were sold back in the day, most kids did not take good care of the box, or it's contents, nor the cartridge itself. To find everything in immaculate condition after nearly 20 years is pretty uncommon. Most people looking for all that in the modern day are collectors, plain and simple. The average person probably doesn't even care whether they have a CIB version. They just want to play the game. Hell, most would rather just use an emulator.
Another major reason I think a lot of that these older games are holding their value is the cross gen transfer feature. I wouldn’t be surprised if prices would be affected once Bank inevitably shuts down
Never played it when I was younger, but now that I’m in my 40’s I am collecting like crazy. Paid $40-100 for each of the GB/GBC games. HG/SS were around $120-140 CIB. D/P/P were $50-120 CIB. I’ll probably take a break because the GBA ones are pricey. Maybe B&W next.
Just completed my GB through 3DS collection last week. Hope to share them if I ever have kids. That being said, It did not feel great caving in to buy some of these. Sucks too cause there's no excuse as to why most of these aren't on Virtual Console at this point.
@throwbackkb True enough! I can't deny the sense of satisfaction it gives me. It's like I reclaimed part of my childhood. That being said. I hope future Pokemon fans get an opportunity to play these games in some form with things like multiplayer easily accessible. Especially with how well they stand the test of time. Plus it'd be an easy layup for Nintendo haha.
Crazy to think black 2 i paid 29.99 at ebgames over 10yrs ago, and now I paid over 200 for white 2.. I'm holding onto my ps3, ps4 games and my resident evil collection for sure.
One thing that is overlooked in driving up prices is GBA/DS cart scammers, there have been times I've felt like it was safer to buy a CIB copy because it is far less likely to be a bootleg.
As someone trying to collect Pokemon AND Zelda games, yeah I feel this 100% I hope the games go back down in price, but honestly I kinda doubt it will. At this point, I'm just hoping Nintendo sells Virtual Console copies of the games on the eShop for Switch 2 so I can at least call that good enough.
Not really legal but homebrew a 3ds you'll get every Pokémon up to 3DS, the switch games are cheap and Zelda up to N64/3DS. You are screwed for Zelda's on GameCube/Wii but at least you will get the rest and it will just cost you the 200 of a 3DS and homebrew it (which is relatively simple)
I was lucky enough to get all my Pokémon stuff at a time when the market was alright. So I have almost every main series game except for brilliant diamond on the switch.
I wish I've could take care of my original HeartGold copy more plus the thick blue DS I bought from my young neighbor for $20. I used to work as an overnight security guard in 2015-16 and video games helped passed the time. One early morning, I left behind my DS with HG inserted at the property and never recovered it. Went to GameStop, HG copy was like $60, I was shocked and the female employee said "Yeah, Pokémon games are always pricey." Still bought it and still lost it at my job.
@throwbackkb Well, I still have the original case for it (has value for some reaspn). I'll get an original copy one day. I still play HG with a "fake" copy.
Back in 2016 I started to collect all the Pokémon games that I used to have when I was a kid, I always was a Pokémon fan and I used to play every game as I can, usually one per generation, but after enjoyed that game I used to trade it o sell it to get the next one. With the release of Pokémon sun/ moon and the 3ds Virtual Console Pokémon Gameboy games release I wanted to get back those games. I thought that it would be easy, because at that point, I remembered that older Pokémon games were cheap but when I start researching, notice that those games were rising in price, games that were 10 to 15 bucks then seems to cost 30 to 40 just cart, I remember that this used to be the CIB price. It was alarming because a brand new game were 40-50 back in those days, I remember been so confused about how a just cartridge game that sells millions could cost almost the same price as a new release, then I decided that I don't want spend that ridiculous amount of money and started hunting some deals for only cart. At start I just wanted one game per generation, I gave preference to that one that I have back when were release, but soon got some deals offers that couldn't resist, I got all generations one trough 3 including the remakes for 7 to 15 bucks each except for Leaf green that was the last one and got it for $20, remember been so happy and proud when I find Emerald for $12 and Cystal for $7 and both for me are a most have, for ds games the well... by then I already haved Soul silver and Diamond CIB from back in the day when were released and awaited too much time thinking that prices could fall to get the the others. This year I got Heath gold CIB without cardboard and Pokewalker and in 2023 Platinum CIB and can say that didn't paid more that $100 each😢.
@@throwbackkb Yes, but only Firered. I didn't have the intention to collect them. I got Emerald for $20 which is crazy.. My friend bought everything CIB at that time. Even Gen 4 and 5. Also some Zelda and Metroid.
I collect games too, but just games I actually like to play. We were a Nintendo family so there were many games I WANTED but never got, before covid I used to come home from these hunts with alot of loot, but these days I usually come home empty handed because the games are so expensive now, most of the games I want are over 100 dollars, and you might think "Yeah you first got the stuff thats easier to find first and now you only have the harder to find stuff left" but even stuff I bought for like 20 bucks then are now over a 100, its crazy
I live in Asia and my countries second-hand app ill sometimes find great deals on these games, but more times than not Japanese imports are way cheaper than the American version of the games. I also import games from both Japan and America, and I've discovered more and more people are discovering that the Japanese version of games are often significantly cheaper, in much nicer condition and CIB is obtainable so with that more and more people knowing that, even the Japanese version of games are sky rocketing unfortunately.
Yeah the more people that realize how nice the Japanese version are the more the price will go up sadly. That is awesome insight though! Just knowing there are other options out there.
More people are trying to buy them than ever due to nostalgia. Re sellers like Dk Oldies are price gouging and the supply isn't as high as release due to broken/lost copies.
It's crazy that back in the early 2010s, I could always find just an old sega genesis game, sometimes even an original xbox old controllers etc at a local thrift store. You won't see any of that there now. The only thing I'll see is old pc peripherals, that's it. The market is wild now people know what they have and sell it online instead. Even goodwill sells that stuff online now, too, instead on the shelf.
Spot on. Going thrifting for any retro games is legit pointless anymore. You might see like a Wii or Kinect game, but the odds of anything halfway decent is near 0 percent. I think the most expensive game I found at a thrift store was Wii Sports lol.
i remember when i started collecting around 5 or 6 years ago i found an insane deal for the GBA games. LG, Ruby and Sapphire all CIB for 90 euros together. even got the case and manuals from Firered with it as a bonus. I later sold just the Firered case and manuals for 50 euros and bought a CIB copy for 70. to complete the set I bit the bullet and bought a CIB copy of Emerald for 90 which at the time felt insanely pricey to me. fast forward to now im insanely glad I did
ive held on to gba sp with fire red(i cant find my copy sapphire) which i bought off ebay 10 years ago for less than $100 all together. I been wanting to get a 2ds/3ds and experience those games but the market is ridiculous
I was walking around a game shop last week and saw how much gen 3 games were going for.... I remembered I have LG/FR/Emerald and a gameboy sp buried at home! First thought was go make money and sell. I ended up keeping them... 5 days later and I have 33 hours on leaf green 😅 I only played it once as a kid and it was a fake cartridge.. being able to play the real thing almost 20 years later is amazing.
Watching videos like these makes me feel better about paying 100 bucks for all 5x mainline GBA games (Japanese version) 5 years ago. At 20 a piece, makes dealing with the language barrier less of a problem, especially if you have a western version to play side by side.
That price chart seems to be very wrong in the UK the prices have been the same since 2016 overall with go and CoVid causing a Brief spike. Those US Resellers and speculators have killed your market for gamers
The only reason resellers are "reselling" video games is because of the demand. IF and when something else is worth "reselling" resellers will focus on that catagory. Resellers have little to nothing todo with "setting" the market. Its not like they are getting together and saying "Only sell pokemon Emerald for $250"... lol
The answer is really simple: artificial scarcity. These games are NOWHERE near rare (MILLIONS of copies were sold) but people still love to convince themselves that they are rare. The only reason why the prices are this high is because Pokémon is the biggest case of consumerism in the world and their fans let the prices reach these heights. It's because there are people like you who value these games at these prices and contribute to the market instead of stopping because you're so sold on the games that you believe that you just can't live without them. You comprehend that the prices are comically unreasonable but still go "I'm gonna keep buying these games" I enjoyed the video and I subscribed, but it's really sad to see people fall into this trap of thinking
You have an amazing point that I absolutely agree with. I know that continuing to buy them definitely does the opposite of bringing the market down. Just a tough spot, now that I'm an adult and can spend the money to buy a lot of the games I never had it's just a crossroad. Part of me is like "one life to live just buy them if you want them" and the other part of me is thinking that I'm contributing to the problem. At the end of the day it's just up to the consumer. With there being emulation and other ways to play it certainly is not a MUST to buy them unless you are an avid collector (which I have sadly become as I've gotten older lol).
@@throwbackkb I 100% understand your perspective, but it's just really sad to me that the masses just shrug this reality off as "normal" and continue to go with it. It's sad to me because these were intended for children and leisure and nothing further than that. At the end of the day though, what can you really do? You can't control whether people pay a premium for these games or not.
Mistakes were made when I was a young child when trying to grow up and sold my pokemon games and gameboy :( now I’m paying the price for it. 😢 it’s gotten expensive! 🤣
I currently have all mainline pokemon games CIB from gbc to switch. I started hunting for them in 2020, so glad I bought those older games for cheap. Now they're all sitting in my room for display 😊
@@ChicagoMel23 I play them whenever I have free time. I already completed my shiny living dex in Violet, Shining Pearl, Legends Arceus, Shield and Let's go Eevee. I am currently focusing on my Ultra Moon this time around 😌
seeing people with 10 copies of the same game has genuinely made me give up on collecting anything retro anymore, id rather just emulate it and save the money for something better, no reason the market is the way it is other than greed
I feel you man. These prices are crazy ridiculous right now, especially for people who just wanna play them casually for nostalgic purposes. I'm happy I own every game but to try and own every game CIB is a damn nightmare.
Should've started collecting 15 years ago like I did... Before prices were crazy I have doubles and triples of all the Pokemon Gameboy games complete in box. You can see them in the latest short video on my channel. Funny thing is I paid $10/each CIB for some of them... Pokemon Crystal being one of them. And that's just the complete in box copies I have....I have them loose too
Just subscribed to you channel, your game room is next level. You got in with collecting at the perfect time for pricing lol. Has to be crazy for you to see how things are now.
@@throwbackkb it is crazy nowadays. Funny thing is I never got into collecting because of value and I still don’t collect for value. The value of everything is just a bonus to me. I remember paying $10 for CIB Pokémon Gameboy games, $30 for super bowling on N64, $400 for Earthbound complete in box, $200 for Mighty Final Fight complete in box, $350 for Sculptors Cut on N64 and I finished the complete NTSC N64 set in 2016…just to name a few crazy deals back in the day. Luckily I decided years ago to try and get the rarer games on the systems first then work on the sets. N64 and NES (minus SE) licensed sets are complete. I’m 200 away for SNES and maybe 200 on GameCube. I have all kinds of crazy stories and finds over the years. I could make multiple videos on that for sure.
*Pirates of the Carribean theme plays* I'll buy them *again* when they are available on a reasonable platform at a reasonable price. Until then, im preserving my nostalgia and this art any way i can.
The reality is if a game have a price tag and somebody buys it, it means this is its value. People can cry about it, but if they do, it means they want it, right ? Meaning there is demand.
Well, the only console they are selling at least in my country is the Switch 1, so it's Planned Obscolance. Even if you try, you can not buy their products. That leaves one option.
I am glad here in Europe resellers aren't as big and prices are a little bit more reasonable. I picked up a CIB copy of Emerald last year for 200€ and I also have a loose Japanese copy which I bought for about 25€. Luckily a lot of my other games I bought in 2016/17, where prices were really reasonable or I had them still left from my childhood. But yeah, I kind of get why so many people want these games, especially Gens 3 to 5 - they are just really good games.
While I do still have a good number of my physical Pokemon games, there are a few I don't have purely because I either traded it in (SoulSilver because I was a dumb kid who got stuck and decided the game was trash) or lent it to a friend who didn't bother giving it back (Pokemon Mystery Dungeon EOS, How I miss you 😭) I was lucky to find a cartridge for Pokemon Diamond some odd years back, because while I didn't trade it in or give it to a friend, one of my cousins had stolen my copy. But yeah, trying to get the ones back that I've lost is hell in a handbasket
I don’t care what the reason are for why the prices are outrageous. It’s simply not worth it. This is one of the reasons why emulation will always exist
Glad I hoped on getting all the main games early covid when you could find the games for a decent price if you searched for it and that I had most of the collection already. The rarest I was missing were white2/black2 and got Colloseum as a gift from a friend's personal collection.
@@throwbackkb Got black 2 for 50 euro and White 2 for 40 they have now doubled in price in my country. Needless to say the friend that gave me Colosseum is a very good friend and has been for more than 15 years. ^^
The best thing to do when prices get unreasonable is to take advantage of it and sell into the FOMO. I can play these games a million different ways now.
Major Resellers have hundreds/thousands of copies of gen 1-5 pokemon games Ebay has thousands if not tens of thousands of listings of "authentic" copies of Gen 1-5 There is no reason it needs to be priced the way it is. The fact of the matter is, people will buy it, because people absolutely love Pokemon. It's the same reason the newer games are made horribly with 0 technical optomization or graphical polish. I hope one day it changes, but I don't know if it ever will. The one hope I have, is so many of the people wating their money on these games are people who hope to turn future profit, so if demand ever goes down ( which it probably won;t for a long long time) they will have to sell at a loss if they want to sell. It's a sad time when 5 years ago gen 1-5 were less than retail prices, and after covid and the nostalgia boom, now they are 4 to 6 times as much as retail.... it's gross.
Yeah it truly is sickening. Personally I’m not holding on to any of these for resale. I wish more people would just collect to collect because of there love for the game. Maybe one day!
I am an avid gamer since childhood and I am not a collector, I am a preserver of the gaming culture of which I have been apart of for a very long time and will continue to preserve my games for future use. Remember this, save all the media you have on cd format to a jbod when you can! CD rot is a thing and when you want a good copy you will need a good copy to copy from. Copy that? 2nd push and push for cartridges again! CD today can store way more than and music album or game can hold, carts will always be the best bet as of today. The new CD coming out will not make it due to people not knowing enough of it.
I’ll never forget one of my friends got completed his entire Pokémon game collection with just a summer job in high school back in like 2016 or so. We were both collecting games and he didn’t have any of the GB/C or GBA games and got them all dirt cheap. Anyone who thrifted or went to yard sales at the time would know that Pokémon games were everywhere, and usually like $10 a piece. Got my copy of Ruby CIB for like $30 around 2014 or so!
What’s happening?! I had all the pokemon games CIB (including the GameCube title pokemon box) up until 2020. I even had pokemon gold sealed. Sold em all literally 3 months before the gigantic price jumps
It's because people want the physical copy for 1 or more reasons. Some are shiny hunters, some are collectors, some do it for money making, some like myself want to be able to trade between games. I also want them so if I ever have kids, I can sit there and physically play pokemon with them on the old consoles, as emulators take some of the fun out of it.
@@SilentHotdog28 I can understand that. That would actually be my preference specifically for trading purposes and stuff. But GBA’s and gameboys can be so damn expensive on top of the game itself. I’ll wait until the economy gets better lol
Honestly don’t mind it, the absurd prices made me do two things I won’t regret. 1. Installing randomizers, the convoluted transfer methods are an immense waste of time if it’s not your original file and mons, why would I want to transfer statistically inferior pokemon for an extra $2000? Not to mention the allure of it with link cables and trading in the GTS are all defunct now, there’s not a person to person joy of trading to complete a dex, and all the single player enjoyment you can get can be had on a rom and even more so by changing the file to your liking. 2. The $200 I could’ve spent on Emerald got me another retro console and led me to discover a whole different library of games I could now enjoy and purchase multiple different titles for the same cost as one loose copy of a Pokémon game. I have no regrets not being into the franchise anymore, if anything Gamefreak and Nintendo’s staunch stance against bringing these to virtual console has just made me go enjoy other consoles and IP’s.
I really feel bad for people who got into video game collecting now. They’ll never truly experience the CRAZY lots you could get for dirt cheap. I remember buying a GameCube with Metroid prime, wind waker, double dash, twilight princess, and the Zelda bonus disc for $40 all games cib. I miss those days but I’m happy I collected all of my GBA and GameCube stuff back when it was affordable. Pokémon games used to be worth next to nothing until covid basically shot them up. I owned multiple copies of black and white 2 that I got for like $20 sealed, wish I held onto them😂
I had a copy of white 2 I got sealed on amazon for $15 back in 2015. I ended up opening it for the club nintendo promo when the store closed but never played it but I sold it CiB for about $150 during the pandemic days. Was a nice flip. I originally bought it for my nephew who had a 2DS at the time but wasn't interest in pokémon and the return window passed on Amazon so I sat on it for a few years.
Glad I got Gale of Darkness for $90 right before it sky-rocketed. Sadly, only box and disc. Can't believe just the manual is going for the price of an actual game at like 55-60 bucks.
As for me, I've been personally noticing that since the fiasco of both Scarlet and Violet older generation Pokémon games have been in both high demand and the prices have gone up. Unfortunately, for both Scarlet and Violet fans, the games do suck and have forced more players to start buying the older generation games and the older generation systems. I'm 1 of those players who was forced to do so in order to play good Pokémon games again.
This is such an incredible point. I haven't thought about it that way until you mentioned it and it's spot on. I played Scarlet and Violet for like 5 hours and then went back to playing older games immediately lol
@throwbackkb I currently have 2 nintendo 3ds and Pokémon Y and Alpha Sapphire because of the problems that I have had with both Scarlet and Violet. This is the only incident that I've had to go backwards in terms of playing Pokémon games. In my opinion the other 7 switch titles are also good. They might have a few problems but at least they were released playable on day 1.
@@bradhaley8432 Agreed! Might not be a popular opinion, but I really enjoyed Sword and Shield. Legends was also fun with it being a different type of game.
Right??? It's so odd. With as long as the switch has been out there's just no reason to not have them. Especially when they could also capitalize on that knowing everyone is using emulators.
If they would just re-release these on the switch and their future console piracy would slow down on these games and the prices would tank plus its MASSIVE money for them. I actually do not understand why they don't port them over it genuinely doesn't make sense.
I trade stuff on facebook marketplace for old pokemon games. So far Ive been able to get; White, Ruby, FireRed, and Silver w/ a new battery, all from trading like pc parts and random stuff like lego sets. It takes a while...just those 4 games took over a year but I didn't have to pay collector prices!
recently been going crazy getting any Pokémon game I can possibly get my hands on. HOURS a night on fb marketplace just browsing anything Pokémon long story short I've spent at least $300. That's with getting decent deals here n there, n i still have middle market carts (like silver) Dont even get me started on the cost of an Emerald or Black 2...... Fire R/ Leaf G, Soul/Heart.... Etc
Man I remember when you could buy the first two gens for loose for $10-15, It's crazy these games are being scalped so badly when these were far from uncommon
@@throwbackkb Though I'd say the main reason the prices went up had a lot to do with Pokemon Go's success and the franchise becoming trendy again more than anything, There was definitely a period there where openly liking pokemon was seen as "uncool" especially during gen III in the mid 2000s.
Nintendo/ Gamefreak can rerelease the original versions of these games and the price will plummet. We have seen prices for Paper Mario TTYD, Megaman Battle Networks, and Mario Sunshine go down recently from their Switch releases. Plus the money will go to Nintendo and the developers and not the reseller's pockets.
I know Nintendo won't but them on the NSO since the NSO uses Save States, Rewind and Cloud storage. But they could make a separate app that only has the pokemon games.
The Virtual Console releases of Pokemon games already disabled save states so if Nintendo were to do NSO releases they could disable save states as well.
I don't really agree with the people calling resellers scum. Both the resellers and consumers play a hand in the price like you say. For example, I have my copy of Emerald but why would i sell emerald for $100 right now when its market price is around $230?
![Final Battle vs Red [Pokemon Gold]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Jpdy9pZyGH4/mqdefault.jpg)
Nostalgia is the happiest yet saddest feeling ever
you aint lying Lopie lol
in Greek, nostalgia means "The pain from an old wound"
This is your lesson in supply vs demand
Demand for these games are higher than ever. Games like Emerald and BW2 sold badly, but people want them
The demand is higher because these are tangible bits of data that can transfer forward to current games FOR NOW.
With Pokémon Bank ending one day, these games are more and more sought after for collecting mons to transfer before you can’t anymore
Amen
Looking at these prices, I'm about to become king of the pirates ☠️
🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️
One of the biggest regrets I have is not rebuilding my Pokémon collection ten years ago when the idea originally crossed my mind. At the time with how cheap things were it was really just a "oh I can do it later" because at the time there was other things I was interested in buying. I played Yugioh, I collected kpop, and I had the most recent games at the time so worrying about older games and re-obtaining them never felt like a huge priority when I had other priorities. Fast-forward and here we are in a market that I don't think the me of ten years ago would have ever predicted. Getting into full odds shiny hunting also accelerated my desire to obtain these older games and while I'm quite close to finishing both a set of English and Japanese games it still feels so insurmountable to finish with these prices. And I unfortunately don't see prices going down ever just because that's the nature of it. Great video; always enjoy seeing takes on the absurd state of retro games
Oh and my favorite game is probably Black 2/White 2
I am right there with you with wishing I collected earlier. At the time I didn’t think it would ever get here either lol good luck with finishing your collection! You’ll get lucky with some deals and patience.
There is an old saying - the best time to plant a tree is.... 20 years ago, the second best time is today.
Or better yet wait until the recession when prices drop. That's my plan.
@@Miakel This is so real lol
Because retro game market went mainstream and people infected the hobby to make a quick buck.
I thought it would be cool if Pokemon Home would actually be like NSO and let us play the old games for a subscription price. Even if they bump up the price, to be able to play the old games again and fill up the Home DEX and even bring over those Pokemon to the Switch games.
Fantastic idea!!!
It really pisses me off because as a kid I had zero funds to my name so once I got a job around 2020 as a new adult, all of a sudden everyone is back into fucking Pokémon and the prices are high.
This will sound like gatekeeping and please forgive me I'm just disappointed, but I remember when half these people didn't give Black and White 2 a fair shot and NOW look at everyone. Unbelievable.
Now while I do have my respective copies, this is still insane. I like to think there are still so many loose copies out in the wild that does not justify these prices I mean they've sold millions. We just have to look towards remakes and the new generations now to get back those old experiences moving forward
Right there with you! Great point especially with B2W2. Games that no one really mentioned as top tier are now some of the most expensive games lol. Fingers crossed on the remakes!
I played BW2 religiously when it came out, I remember so many people hating on those games back then but I always thought that they were one of if not the best games in the series.
And yeah I remember really getting back into Pokémon around 2019-2020 pre Covid and prices were CRAZY. I decided to just home brew my 2ds and get them through CFW because I'm sorry I won't be paying these prices.
i remember going with the homie going to pick up B/W on release there was no one but us
I think you're falling victim for Goomba Funnel syndrome
If you haven't heard of it, essentially it's taking one common opinion from the faceless online masses and another common opinion from the faceless online masses, and thinking they're the same people.
One group of people hated Black and White when they were new. Another group of people grew up with them and have strong nostalgia for them. The group who grew up with them didn't have much of an online presence when the games were new, on account of, you know, being in the process of growing up. Most children are not avid social media users, or at least they weren't when I was growing up - I didn't start seeing all my classmates on social media until high school.
Any game can be someone's favorite childhood game. Pokémon is particularly predisposed to this because it's a globally popular game with multiplayer aspects and enough content to easily suck up hundreds or even thousands of hours of kids' free time. Fast forward a decade, when countless copies of Black and White were lost to a child's carelessness or pawned off or simply worn out - there are more people who want to relive a childhood favorite than there are people willing to sell copies, thus prices go sky high.
And this is why I have no qualms with pirating games that are out of print.
You're right though. I didn't like Black and White nor Black 2 and White 2. I just found out recently that they aren't that bad. I'm also the kiind of Pokémon player that just wants to finish the story collect nice Pokémon and doesn't care after that. That's why I didn't even care about all those other changes. Heck, I thought my entire life that you need the same Pokémon twice or a Ditto to breed them. I didn't even know egg groups 😁 But that also means I can replay them as they were new in 2024.
It's hard to believe that just back in 2018-19 when I started buying the GBA games for myself I could get them for about $40 USD apiece loose -- and the most expensive DS game was HGSS at about $50 USD loose. The current prices are absolutely distorted. As much as I think resellers and scalpers have a role in that, I also think it's just the nature of Pokemon game collecting. Think about it -- most Pokemon fans tend to hang onto their games, which constrains supply. It's fascinating because few other games follow this trend. Try to buy a game that came out a decade ago on another console, like Skyrim for instance. It's depreciated in price, as have most others. Pokemon games somewhat break this rule as they've consistently appreciated in price.
I also think some of it might have to do with the fact that Pokemon games only have one save file, which incentivizes accumulating multiple of the same game (I've done this for several) but this logic doesn't seem to hold for any game post-gen 5. XY are actually worth less than when they released, last I checked, and I can purchase games like Sun and Moon for similarly low prices too. I think this is because they remained available first-hand for so long, for one thing. The GB games (RBY, GSC) skyrocketed in price the moment the Virtual Console games became unavailable, at least at my local used video game store. I also think another factor is that generations that grew up with previous games are now old enough to have disposable income and indulge their nostalgia -- as I've seen the reputation of games like BW improve as the people who played them as kids grow into adulthood, their prices have also gone up.
Just a few of my thoughts on this. The state of the secondary market for Pokemon is somewhat depressing. These games have become utterly unaffordable for all but the most dedicated collectors. It feels like almost everything has undergone ridiculous price inflation within the last few years though.
Incredible points General. Pokémon truly is different than other franchises in so many ways. I never thought about the save file aspect like that.
You can’t blame resellers for how the market works…
@@Jupiteerrrrr24 The market works the way it does because of resellers lol
@@cencil6497 The market works the way it does because consumers are willing to pay crazy amounts of money for Pokémon games. If people stopped buying them, the resellers would have to lower their prices to keep doing business.
Glad I kept all my OG Pokemon games from Red and Blue to Pokemon Platinum when I was a kid 💯
Ayyyy glad you kept them!
I wish I was able to do the same, had all of mine stolen.
Kept all of mine. Thank God my mom didn’t throw them out when I was in college and began my adult life.
Rediscovered them all this year when my parents finally moved out of my childhood home of 30 years.
Have one from every gen. Blue, Gold, Fire Red, Ruby, Emerald, Pearl, Platinum, White 2, X, Omega Ruby. Still have every single one.
Just finally moved everything from everything Ruby forward on over to home. So glad I have my Pokémon from way back when my journey started in 2004 when I was 7 to now 20 years later as a 27 year old.
You are correct. Nostalgia is a powerful thing. It hit me in the best way possible when I fired up my SP and DS and booted these games for the first time in a very long time. Long live Pokémon!
Biggest troll ever would be if Nintendo one day miraculously said "we're going to flood the market with all the retro pokemon games from days past and make them easier to obtain for all"
Would never happen though. Emulation it is I guess
That would be wicked lol
They do that with digital games, that’s what kept the physical prices low. It wasn’t till the company WATA started grading games that investors started collecting games.
At the end of the day, there are emulators for price-conscious consumers but having the physical copy of the game you played as a child is a whole other feeling. Especially that Emerald CIB 🐉
Spot on!
For me the problem is the people that buy them at these prices , if everyone and i mean everyone had a limit on how much they value the games the prices wouldnt be like this.
You are indeed spot on. If we could all for a united front we could turn the market. Just hard to imagine that happening sadly.
I mean a gba game with or without a working battery that sold millions of copies worldwide at triple digits used is ridiculous , no matter how good it is. I cant help but laugh when youtubers defend these prices , like no bro , nobody should pay more than 60$ for a used copy of emerald without box , manual etc , its just a ripoff no matter how you look at it , and the resellers tell you they are collectibles , so that they can justify their scammy tactics.
People pay more for old games bc they r better then new games
@@darkdestroyer4970 Supply and demand, you think about it for a minute. If everyone wants to have a copy of all mainline games (or at least their favourite ones) Then that means more people will be looking to buy and there will be less on the market as they all get bought. There only so many millions of copies of each game, there are possibly hundreds of millions if not Billions of pokemon fans on the planet. Of course the prices will go up. I'm not saying whether it is right or wrong, it is the way things are. Just like house prices.......If there aren't many houses available, but a lot of demand, prices go up.
@@throwbackkbit's entirely artificial wash trading and grading bubble bursting
the same scalpers who resell sneakers, clothing, playing cards, etc. infected the gaming community (retro games) and are now preying off of our nostalgia and it’s truly saddening.
Yeah I do think that's a huge piece of the issue! Really sad to see.
I can understand the frustration with how pricey the older OG games are. That’s just life unfortunately. Save up and grab the games you want. You’re not in a race. Get off social media, slow your life down, save money, and buy that emerald when you have enough. Life is fantastic ❤
I have like 3 loose xatra but not one Xomplete in box but i wanna sell 2 of my emeralds to get one xib but idk
That's not "just life." Those games never ever should have grown to those prices ever, and it's because people let them.
@@icymilesWomp Womp go cry 😂😂😂
@@LavaCakes-g1g I literally own the game loser
but red/blue/yellow gold/silver ruby/sapphire loose copyies are pretty fairly priced in my opinion
I've been buying pokemon games since the 90's, kept all and never sold, had no Idea 20+ years later it would turn into a massive collection, I just enjoy my pokemon games. So glad I did buy them during release because the prices are out of control
You did it the right way! I'm glad you are just collecting and holding on to them.
I completed my non cib collection during Covid. I do have to admit that I was buying a bunch of lots of games and handhelds from OfferUp. I ended up keeping the best labeled games and selling off the rest. I built my collection almost for free, minus the time it took to hunt and buy the lots. With the amount of people doing it now I couldn’t imagine trying to hunt a full collection at a reasonable price and time.
Yeah it's pretty wild times!
Well spoken. We can only speak from experience but the last few years i've seen loose games be at or above these prices in stores or at conventions. I can't really blame vendors for setting a price, the FOMO is real and both the vendors, collecting and thrift haul videos all contribute to that. Plus, add to that pokemon being the multi generational franchise that parents get their children into and you have a recipe for increased prices. I think if people have the money and can afford the prices, good for them, but some of these games are literally portions of my monthly rent so im sure its not cheap for others. I think the best we can do is educate people on prices, that yes, we can choose to NOT buy something, and to find ways to reduce those costs associated with collecting. My last three pokemon games were acquired from trading pokemon cards, which is not a cheap hobby to collect for, but something about not paying the full market price associated made me proud to finally get a deal, even if the cards were at a similar value. I got more to say but i'll leave it there, im curious about what everyone else thinks as well!
Amazing points Zombie. Kind of like you said, at this point it's what we have to deal with and it's our choice to buy or not. Trading cards are a whole new world for me, but I do love the concept of using them as trade pieces. Might have to keep that on the short list of things to try out!
Started collecting when I was 17 in high school (07), it was such a fun somewhat niche hobby. Really miss those days.
The good old days!!
I was about that old when someone stole my whole collection. I had Emerald, Pearl, Platinum and Heart Gold. I had them all in my DS case for convenience and a trusted friend stole them while I wasn't watching.
@@SilentHotdog28 damn sorry that happened :(.
I’ve been on a childhood nostalgia kick in a HUGE way lately and decided today I was gonna look into the Gen 1 Pokemon games. Holy crap…
Oh yeah. Exact thing I went through earlier this year. So much excitement turned to my jaw on the floor looking at prices lol.
There are entire generations that want to play Gen 3, 4, and 5 and can’t because of the prices. Nintendo not releasing them on virtual console is probably hundreds of millions of dollars being left on the table.
Yeah absolutely! You'd think a company focused on revenue would just port the games over and charge whatever price and reap the benefits. I wish they would.
This may be a unpopular opinion. It’s just that, an opinion. If emulation isn’t cutting it for you, maybe it’s not the game itself you’re nostalgic for, but something you can’t get back.
That's deep, but also super real lol.
Yea these games have some insane prices now. I had Crystal on the 3DS and wanted to get the rest of the older games but the eShop shutdown and ruined my plans. I found some ppl online that were selling a 3DS with all the old games but it was $750. Really wish I held onto the older games when I was younger. I still want the old games and am longing for Nintendo to release them on the Switch. Pokémon will never stop. The biggest multi-media franchise on Earth. They'll continue the trend even long after we're gone. 150 years from now it will be a trailer like "A century ago, collecting best friends was born!" Pokémon forever!!! 😍😍😍🔥🔥🔥🔥
Absolutely love that last line. Pokémon forever is right!!!
I hope they just officially release all these games on current Nintendo consoles.
That would be amazing for the entire community. Accessible to all and would drop some of the prices in the collecting market.
Or do something like the Mario 3d all stars, minus the limited time
Original hardware is nice but not with 1x speed. As a kid I didn't mind but now as an adult time is limited.
Dude it's nuts. I recently tried to re-buy red blue and yellow because I stupidly sold / traded them 9 - 10 years ago and have wanted to replay them on my restored / upgraded to IPS Game Boy DMG-01 - I feel like such an idiot because I had all of the games up to Ruby. I can't believe how much they have gotten.
Yeah I feel you there. It's really sad honestly.
So happy i have every single one of them. These prices are absolutely insane
clutch that you already have them!
If you don’t like the prices emulate it, it’s a collectors item at this point, vintage sells for more.
Or honestly at this point just buying fake copies isn't a bad alternative
@@wishbonefan I was looking for real copies of the GBA games and got scammed with some fakes. My fire red and leaf green are real, I'm fairly sure my emerald is real, but my sapphire and 2 ruby's are fake. My brother has a real Sapphire, so I can always use his if necessary, but I need to find a real ruby at some point (and potentially an emerald).
@@SilentHotdog28 in my experience the fake copies you can find for like $5 from ebay work just as well as real ones.
This is why ROMs exist. It's the easiest and cheapest way to play any of these old games. Many you can play on your phone. I just bought a Retroid Pocket 4 Pro to feed my nostalgia. Anbernic, Powkiddy, Miyoo, or many more all exist for this reason. Handhelds and emulators get better and better everyday.
Spot on!
Not only are the prices increasing, many of those people who buy the games don't play them... Like the point of those games is to buy them and enjoy them. If you buy this game just to have it sit on your display and not play it ever then that's kind of sad.
couldn't agree more!
if you think pokemon games are expensive, wait till you see how much some of the fire emblem games are 💀and they sold way fewer units.
lol I've heard a little about fire emblem - isn't it one of the most expensive games on gamecube?
@throwbackkb
Yep, the Gamecube Fire Emblem is one of the most expensive games for the system.
You will, no doubt, also be aware that 3 of the 4 Pokemon games for Gamecube are also amongst the most expensive for the system. At least there is some level of sense to things like Pokemon Box being so expensive - Unlike most Pokemon games it didn't sell millions upon millions of copies, because the GCN wasn't particularly popular and Pokemon Box didn't offer much value (it's really just a storage system for the GBA games) so not many people bought it.
For what it's worth, my theory on the rapid rise of Pokemon game "values" is a deadly combination of nostalgia from people who now have a disposable income, rabid reseller activity (which combines with the abundance of "side hussle" culture), covid-era interest in collecting, and the youtuber driven "Pokemon is a speculative market that can be manipulated" idea typified by Logan Paul's Pokemon card videos.
A majority of the people that would buy the games or get them as gifts wouldn't care about CIB. Yes, the prices have gone up (that's what inflation and demand for specific games do) and they're not going to go down anytime soon. Loose is still cheap and you can get the box with the inserts for relatively cheap, so doing CIB isn't worth the hassle imho
Pokémon is the best franchise is the world. When it hit the rest of the world back in 98-99, it was unlike anything else. There’s a reason millions remember it as “Pokemania”. Glad I was born in 1990 and was able to be a kid for the beginning.
Yeah you were born at the perfect time. I was in 94’, so it took me a few gens to fully get it lol. I think that’s why gen 3 is my favorite lol
Theses are some of the most popular and high selling games. They're everywhere. Makes no sense for them to be so expensive.
as long as theres people willing to pay..
Right? Exactly what I say.
Everyone had those games. They’re not rare in the slightest.
Those prices are absolutely out of this world, and people that encourage them by buying are part of the problem.
They aren't. I was out at my local store and found cib fire red and emerald for 250 a piece.
@@ibapreppie 250 is still insane for such common games
They arent as common now. Collectors want to keep theirs and some have probably got damaged. He said it in the video, pay attention
im always so thankful that i was a total pokemon nerd as a kid and was trying to get every game i didnt have at the age of 10, so i got most of the more expensive games today for decent prices. seeing how it is today is totally nuts to me. its so inaccessible for people who either have never gotten the chance to play these games or who want to play them again but dont have their copies anymore. i really do hope it goes back to a more normal level someday, or that maybe they get rereleased on new platforms (although i personally dont think that feels as authentic, it would work for a lot of people)
It really depends, because if we're talking GBA era or earlier, there a whole ton of non-genuine bootleg cartridges saturating the market. These are of course, not genuine copies, not legal, and shouldn't even exist, but they are super cheap. So if you only care about playing the game, just buy one of those. those regularly go for like $20, problem solved.
It's a whole different story when we're talking about *_authentic_* complete in box (CIB) copies of pokemon games. Those are exceedingly rare, especially in good or excellent condition. This is because while yes, millions of copies of these games were sold back in the day, most kids did not take good care of the box, or it's contents, nor the cartridge itself. To find everything in immaculate condition after nearly 20 years is pretty uncommon. Most people looking for all that in the modern day are collectors, plain and simple. The average person probably doesn't even care whether they have a CIB version. They just want to play the game. Hell, most would rather just use an emulator.
Spot on Nick!
Another major reason I think a lot of that these older games are holding their value is the cross gen transfer feature. I wouldn’t be surprised if prices would be affected once Bank inevitably shuts down
Never played it when I was younger, but now that I’m in my 40’s I am collecting like crazy. Paid $40-100 for each of the GB/GBC games. HG/SS were around $120-140 CIB. D/P/P were $50-120 CIB. I’ll probably take a break because the GBA ones are pricey. Maybe B&W next.
Yeah breaks are very needed lol I'm doing the same right now I only really need Black 2 White 2 which are like $200 each CIB. Absolute pain.
Yeah your pockets will be burning if trying to buy gen 3 and/or 5.
Just completed my GB through 3DS collection last week. Hope to share them if I ever have kids. That being said, It did not feel great caving in to buy some of these. Sucks too cause there's no excuse as to why most of these aren't on Virtual Console at this point.
Ayyy, congrats though! Atleast you have them now 🫡.
@throwbackkb True enough! I can't deny the sense of satisfaction it gives me. It's like I reclaimed part of my childhood.
That being said. I hope future Pokemon fans get an opportunity to play these games in some form with things like multiplayer easily accessible. Especially with how well they stand the test of time. Plus it'd be an easy layup for Nintendo haha.
So glad I kept my HGSS copies with everything, box, Pokewalker, manuals. Those are so expensive now
I'm mad jealous lol.
@@throwbackkb you have some pretty cool games too!
Crazy to think black 2 i paid 29.99 at ebgames over 10yrs ago, and now I paid over 200 for white 2.. I'm holding onto my ps3, ps4 games and my resident evil collection for sure.
oh yeah, holding on to those will pay off long term for sure
One thing that is overlooked in driving up prices is GBA/DS cart scammers, there have been times I've felt like it was safer to buy a CIB copy because it is far less likely to be a bootleg.
this is so true!
As someone trying to collect Pokemon AND Zelda games, yeah I feel this 100%
I hope the games go back down in price, but honestly I kinda doubt it will. At this point, I'm just hoping Nintendo sells Virtual Console copies of the games on the eShop for Switch 2 so I can at least call that good enough.
Pokemon and Zelda, the dynamic duo of high prices, fingers crossed a miracle happens with the market!
Not really legal but homebrew a 3ds you'll get every Pokémon up to 3DS, the switch games are cheap and Zelda up to N64/3DS. You are screwed for Zelda's on GameCube/Wii but at least you will get the rest and it will just cost you the 200 of a 3DS and homebrew it (which is relatively simple)
My favorite is Gold version. I had the original Blue version. But Gold version was my favorite. Both ended missing for some reason.
I feel you. I’ve been making game hunt vids also.
For the DS games , I just use my hacked DSIXL .
Ayyy, love the shorts!!! Just subbed lol.
@@throwbackkb thanks bro! Appreciate it.
I was lucky enough to get all my Pokémon stuff at a time when the market was alright. So I have almost every main series game except for brilliant diamond on the switch.
One of the smart ones!
Before the pandemic, I bought Black CIB for $25. I should’ve bought more at that time
I wish I've could take care of my original HeartGold copy more plus the thick blue DS I bought from my young neighbor for $20. I used to work as an overnight security guard in 2015-16 and video games helped passed the time. One early morning, I left behind my DS with HG inserted at the property and never recovered it. Went to GameStop, HG copy was like $60, I was shocked and the female employee said "Yeah, Pokémon games are always pricey." Still bought it and still lost it at my job.
Hey atleast you snagged it for a third of what it goes for now lol
@throwbackkb Well, I still have the original case for it (has value for some reaspn). I'll get an original copy one day. I still play HG with a "fake" copy.
@@BreadFred3 Yeah the case value is super weird lol That's awesome though. Any way you can play such a great game will work!
Back in 2016 I started to collect all the Pokémon games that I used to have when I was a kid, I always was a Pokémon fan and I used to play every game as I can, usually one per generation, but after enjoyed that game I used to trade it o sell it to get the next one. With the release of Pokémon sun/ moon and the 3ds Virtual Console Pokémon Gameboy games release I wanted to get back those games. I thought that it would be easy, because at that point, I remembered that older Pokémon games were cheap but when I start researching, notice that those games were rising in price, games that were 10 to 15 bucks then seems to cost 30 to 40 just cart, I remember that this used to be the CIB price. It was alarming because a brand new game were 40-50 back in those days, I remember been so confused about how a just cartridge game that sells millions could cost almost the same price as a new release, then I decided that I don't want spend that ridiculous amount of money and started hunting some deals for only cart. At start I just wanted one game per generation, I gave preference to that one that I have back when were release, but soon got some deals offers that couldn't resist, I got all generations one trough 3 including the remakes for 7 to 15 bucks each except for Leaf green that was the last one and got it for $20, remember been so happy and proud when I find Emerald for $12 and Cystal for $7 and both for me are a most have, for ds games the well... by then I already haved Soul silver and Diamond CIB from back in the day when were released and awaited too much time thinking that prices could fall to get the the others. This year I got Heath gold CIB without cardboard and Pokewalker and in 2023 Platinum CIB and can say that didn't paid more that $100 each😢.
this is why preservation through emulation is important
Spot on.
So happy I bought all my gen 3 games in 2015.. Prices are crazy!
2015 was perfect timing lol. Do you have CIB?
@@throwbackkb Yes, but only Firered. I didn't have the intention to collect them. I got Emerald for $20 which is crazy.. My friend bought everything CIB at that time. Even Gen 4 and 5. Also some Zelda and Metroid.
I collect games too, but just games I actually like to play. We were a Nintendo family so there were many games I WANTED but never got, before covid I used to come home from these hunts with alot of loot, but these days I usually come home empty handed because the games are so expensive now, most of the games I want are over 100 dollars, and you might think "Yeah you first got the stuff thats easier to find first and now you only have the harder to find stuff left" but even stuff I bought for like 20 bucks then are now over a 100, its crazy
So spot on with that last point! It is truly insane.
Japan-only video games are pretty much common in Japan. It is a good thing too to also ensure you are getting the uncensored versions.
I'll have to keep that in mind when I look for them!
I live in Asia and my countries second-hand app ill sometimes find great deals on these games, but more times than not Japanese imports are way cheaper than the American version of the games. I also import games from both Japan and America, and I've discovered more and more people are discovering that the Japanese version of games are often significantly cheaper, in much nicer condition and CIB is obtainable so with that more and more people knowing that, even the Japanese version of games are sky rocketing unfortunately.
Yeah the more people that realize how nice the Japanese version are the more the price will go up sadly. That is awesome insight though! Just knowing there are other options out there.
More people are trying to buy them than ever due to nostalgia.
Re sellers like Dk Oldies are price gouging and the supply isn't as high as release due to broken/lost copies.
Let's all buy a thing and then jack up the price for reselling. Surely this won't ruin the market and or economy.
It's crazy that back in the early 2010s, I could always find just an old sega genesis game, sometimes even an original xbox old controllers etc at a local thrift store. You won't see any of that there now. The only thing I'll see is old pc peripherals, that's it. The market is wild now people know what they have and sell it online instead. Even goodwill sells that stuff online now, too, instead on the shelf.
Spot on. Going thrifting for any retro games is legit pointless anymore. You might see like a Wii or Kinect game, but the odds of anything halfway decent is near 0 percent. I think the most expensive game I found at a thrift store was Wii Sports lol.
i remember when i started collecting around 5 or 6 years ago i found an insane deal for the GBA games. LG, Ruby and Sapphire all CIB for 90 euros together. even got the case and manuals from Firered with it as a bonus. I later sold just the Firered case and manuals for 50 euros and bought a CIB copy for 70. to complete the set I bit the bullet and bought a CIB copy of Emerald for 90 which at the time felt insanely pricey to me. fast forward to now im insanely glad I did
Yeah I think you made some awesome decisions there lol
ive held on to gba sp with fire red(i cant find my copy sapphire) which i bought off ebay 10 years ago for less than $100 all together. I been wanting to get a 2ds/3ds and experience those games but the market is ridiculous
I was walking around a game shop last week and saw how much gen 3 games were going for.... I remembered I have LG/FR/Emerald and a gameboy sp buried at home! First thought was go make money and sell.
I ended up keeping them... 5 days later and I have 33 hours on leaf green 😅 I only played it once as a kid and it was a fake cartridge.. being able to play the real thing almost 20 years later is amazing.
Nothing better than that!
Watching videos like these makes me feel better about paying 100 bucks for all 5x mainline GBA games (Japanese version) 5 years ago. At 20 a piece, makes dealing with the language barrier less of a problem, especially if you have a western version to play side by side.
Gladly would take the language barrier for 20 a piece as well lol
That price chart seems to be very wrong in the UK the prices have been the same since 2016 overall with go and CoVid causing a Brief spike. Those US Resellers and speculators have killed your market for gamers
yeah 100% what's happened sadly
The only reason resellers are "reselling" video games is because of the demand. IF and when something else is worth "reselling" resellers will focus on that catagory. Resellers have little to nothing todo with "setting" the market. Its not like they are getting together and saying "Only sell pokemon Emerald for $250"... lol
lol you are spot on. Definitely isn't them, however some of them are easy to pick on.
The answer is really simple: artificial scarcity. These games are NOWHERE near rare (MILLIONS of copies were sold) but people still love to convince themselves that they are rare. The only reason why the prices are this high is because Pokémon is the biggest case of consumerism in the world and their fans let the prices reach these heights. It's because there are people like you who value these games at these prices and contribute to the market instead of stopping because you're so sold on the games that you believe that you just can't live without them. You comprehend that the prices are comically unreasonable but still go "I'm gonna keep buying these games"
I enjoyed the video and I subscribed, but it's really sad to see people fall into this trap of thinking
You have an amazing point that I absolutely agree with. I know that continuing to buy them definitely does the opposite of bringing the market down. Just a tough spot, now that I'm an adult and can spend the money to buy a lot of the games I never had it's just a crossroad. Part of me is like "one life to live just buy them if you want them" and the other part of me is thinking that I'm contributing to the problem. At the end of the day it's just up to the consumer. With there being emulation and other ways to play it certainly is not a MUST to buy them unless you are an avid collector (which I have sadly become as I've gotten older lol).
@@throwbackkb I 100% understand your perspective, but it's just really sad to me that the masses just shrug this reality off as "normal" and continue to go with it. It's sad to me because these were intended for children and leisure and nothing further than that. At the end of the day though, what can you really do? You can't control whether people pay a premium for these games or not.
Great video! was very exited for this video and you made really good points!
went for more of a discussion as opposed to tooooo deep in the wormhole lol
@@throwbackkb youd be good at making icebergs
Mistakes were made when I was a young child when trying to grow up and sold my pokemon games and gameboy :( now I’m paying the price for it. 😢 it’s gotten expensive! 🤣
Ugh same!
I currently have all mainline pokemon games CIB from gbc to switch. I started hunting for them in 2020, so glad I bought those older games for cheap.
Now they're all sitting in my room for display 😊
Heck yeah. Nothing better than having the display set lol.
Theyre meant to be played
@@ChicagoMel23 I play them whenever I have free time. I already completed my shiny living dex in Violet, Shining Pearl, Legends Arceus, Shield and Let's go Eevee. I am currently focusing on my Ultra Moon this time around 😌
seeing people with 10 copies of the same game has genuinely made me give up on collecting anything retro anymore, id rather just emulate it and save the money for something better, no reason the market is the way it is other than greed
Do not blame you at all.
I feel you man. These prices are crazy ridiculous right now, especially for people who just wanna play them casually for nostalgic purposes. I'm happy I own every game but to try and own every game CIB is a damn nightmare.
You ain’t lying Ray 😭😂
just geta rom boii
Should've started collecting 15 years ago like I did... Before prices were crazy
I have doubles and triples of all the Pokemon Gameboy games complete in box. You can see them in the latest short video on my channel. Funny thing is I paid $10/each CIB for some of them... Pokemon Crystal being one of them.
And that's just the complete in box copies I have....I have them loose too
Just subscribed to you channel, your game room is next level. You got in with collecting at the perfect time for pricing lol. Has to be crazy for you to see how things are now.
@@throwbackkb it is crazy nowadays. Funny thing is I never got into collecting because of value and I still don’t collect for value. The value of everything is just a bonus to me.
I remember paying $10 for CIB Pokémon Gameboy games, $30 for super bowling on N64, $400 for Earthbound complete in box, $200 for Mighty Final Fight complete in box, $350 for Sculptors Cut on N64 and I finished the complete NTSC N64 set in 2016…just to name a few crazy deals back in the day.
Luckily I decided years ago to try and get the rarer games on the systems first then work on the sets. N64 and NES (minus SE) licensed sets are complete. I’m 200 away for SNES and maybe 200 on GameCube.
I have all kinds of crazy stories and finds over the years. I could make multiple videos on that for sure.
*Pirates of the Carribean theme plays*
I'll buy them *again* when they are available on a reasonable platform at a reasonable price. Until then, im preserving my nostalgia and this art any way i can.
Enjoyed reading that with Pirates of the Carribean playing in my head lol
The reality is if a game have a price tag and somebody buys it, it means this is its value. People can cry about it, but if they do, it means they want it, right ? Meaning there is demand.
100%.
Well, the only console they are selling at least in my country is the Switch 1, so it's Planned Obscolance. Even if you try, you can not buy their products. That leaves one option.
I just download all generation until ultra sun and moon for free on internet in my computer
Not a bad way to go!
I am glad here in Europe resellers aren't as big and prices are a little bit more reasonable. I picked up a CIB copy of Emerald last year for 200€ and I also have a loose Japanese copy which I bought for about 25€. Luckily a lot of my other games I bought in 2016/17, where prices were really reasonable or I had them still left from my childhood.
But yeah, I kind of get why so many people want these games, especially Gens 3 to 5 - they are just really good games.
Agreed 100% on gen 3-5 lol
While I do still have a good number of my physical Pokemon games, there are a few I don't have purely because I either traded it in (SoulSilver because I was a dumb kid who got stuck and decided the game was trash) or lent it to a friend who didn't bother giving it back (Pokemon Mystery Dungeon EOS, How I miss you 😭)
I was lucky to find a cartridge for Pokemon Diamond some odd years back, because while I didn't trade it in or give it to a friend, one of my cousins had stolen my copy.
But yeah, trying to get the ones back that I've lost is hell in a handbasket
Everything you said is so relatable here especially giving up games and thinking they were horrible because we were just bad at them 😂
I don’t care what the reason are for why the prices are outrageous. It’s simply not worth it. This is one of the reasons why emulation will always exist
Emulation is amazing. Prices are indeed outrageous cannot deny that!
Glad I hoped on getting all the main games early covid when you could find the games for a decent price if you searched for it and that I had most of the collection already. The rarest I was missing were white2/black2 and got Colloseum as a gift from a friend's personal collection.
Black2/white2 are insane. I rarely see them anywhere lol. Jealous about Colloseum!
@@throwbackkb Got black 2 for 50 euro and White 2 for 40 they have now doubled in price in my country. Needless to say the friend that gave me Colosseum is a very good friend and has been for more than 15 years. ^^
Downloading Roms and then moving save data on to authentic cart 🤤🤤
this is the pro move lol
Is that a fairly easy thing to learn to do? Pretty cool that it can be done apparently and I’m interested
The best thing to do when prices get unreasonable is to take advantage of it and sell into the FOMO. I can play these games a million different ways now.
I got lucky once and found a copy of fire red for $50 at my local GameStop. Best purchase I made
Heck yeah!!!
Major Resellers have hundreds/thousands of copies of gen 1-5 pokemon games
Ebay has thousands if not tens of thousands of listings of "authentic" copies of Gen 1-5
There is no reason it needs to be priced the way it is. The fact of the matter is, people will buy it, because people absolutely love Pokemon.
It's the same reason the newer games are made horribly with 0 technical optomization or graphical polish.
I hope one day it changes, but I don't know if it ever will. The one hope I have, is so many of the people wating their money on these games are people who hope to turn future profit, so if demand ever goes down ( which it probably won;t for a long long time) they will have to sell at a loss if they want to sell.
It's a sad time when 5 years ago gen 1-5 were less than retail prices, and after covid and the nostalgia boom, now they are 4 to 6 times as much as retail.... it's gross.
Yeah it truly is sickening. Personally I’m not holding on to any of these for resale. I wish more people would just collect to collect because of there love for the game. Maybe one day!
I am an avid gamer since childhood and I am not a collector, I am a preserver of the gaming culture of which I have been apart of for a very long time and will continue to preserve my games for future use. Remember this, save all the media you have on cd format to a jbod when you can! CD rot is a thing and when you want a good copy you will need a good copy to copy from. Copy that? 2nd push and push for cartridges again! CD today can store way more than and music album or game can hold, carts will always be the best bet as of today. The new CD coming out will not make it due to people not knowing enough of it.
Very great shoutout I'll keep that in mind! Absolute legend!
Crazy only maybe 5 years ago I picked up a Copy of Emerald at a Street festival for like $35
cannot beat that lol
I’ll never forget one of my friends got completed his entire Pokémon game collection with just a summer job in high school back in like 2016 or so. We were both collecting games and he didn’t have any of the GB/C or GBA games and got them all dirt cheap. Anyone who thrifted or went to yard sales at the time would know that Pokémon games were everywhere, and usually like $10 a piece. Got my copy of Ruby CIB for like $30 around 2014 or so!
What’s happening?! I had all the pokemon games CIB (including the GameCube title pokemon box) up until 2020. I even had pokemon gold sealed. Sold em all literally 3 months before the gigantic price jumps
I honestly can’t believe that the Delta emulator didn’t drive these prices down now that you can play them all for free
agreed. After seeing that it seems like the only thing that can stop it now is the games making it onto switch somehow.
It's because people want the physical copy for 1 or more reasons. Some are shiny hunters, some are collectors, some do it for money making, some like myself want to be able to trade between games. I also want them so if I ever have kids, I can sit there and physically play pokemon with them on the old consoles, as emulators take some of the fun out of it.
@@SilentHotdog28 I can understand that. That would actually be my preference specifically for trading purposes and stuff. But GBA’s and gameboys can be so damn expensive on top of the game itself. I’ll wait until the economy gets better lol
Honestly don’t mind it, the absurd prices made me do two things I won’t regret.
1. Installing randomizers, the convoluted transfer methods are an immense waste of time if it’s not your original file and mons, why would I want to transfer statistically inferior pokemon for an extra $2000? Not to mention the allure of it with link cables and trading in the GTS are all defunct now, there’s not a person to person joy of trading to complete a dex, and all the single player enjoyment you can get can be had on a rom and even more so by changing the file to your liking.
2. The $200 I could’ve spent on Emerald got me another retro console and led me to discover a whole different library of games I could now enjoy and purchase multiple different titles for the same cost as one loose copy of a Pokémon game.
I have no regrets not being into the franchise anymore, if anything Gamefreak and Nintendo’s staunch stance against bringing these to virtual console has just made me go enjoy other consoles and IP’s.
Fantastic points. Love that you got into Randomizers! Any that you would recommend?
I really feel bad for people who got into video game collecting now. They’ll never truly experience the CRAZY lots you could get for dirt cheap. I remember buying a GameCube with Metroid prime, wind waker, double dash, twilight princess, and the Zelda bonus disc for $40 all games cib. I miss those days but I’m happy I collected all of my GBA and GameCube stuff back when it was affordable. Pokémon games used to be worth next to nothing until covid basically shot them up. I owned multiple copies of black and white 2 that I got for like $20 sealed, wish I held onto them😂
That is amazing lol You did it the right way early on!
I had a copy of white 2 I got sealed on amazon for $15 back in 2015. I ended up opening it for the club nintendo promo when the store closed but never played it but I sold it CiB for about $150 during the pandemic days. Was a nice flip. I originally bought it for my nephew who had a 2DS at the time but wasn't interest in pokémon and the return window passed on Amazon so I sat on it for a few years.
@@oOignignoktOo1 Damn, that's pretty kool, but if you had have kept it sealed, it would have gone for close to if not over $1000 I reckon.
Emerald is the predecessor to Ruby and Sapphire? 3:42
Yeah I mixed the words up there lol
Glad I got Gale of Darkness for $90 right before it sky-rocketed. Sadly, only box and disc. Can't believe just the manual is going for the price of an actual game at like 55-60 bucks.
absolutely insane. I saw it out recently and it was well over $200 CIB lol.
God this hit home. I paid $280 on XD today because it was cib in great condition.
It didnt feel good, though, lol
Some things you just have to do lol I'm dreading getting XD (but I need it lol).
As for me, I've been personally noticing that since the fiasco of both Scarlet and Violet older generation Pokémon games have been in both high demand and the prices have gone up. Unfortunately, for both Scarlet and Violet fans, the games do suck and have forced more players to start buying the older generation games and the older generation systems. I'm 1 of those players who was forced to do so in order to play good Pokémon games again.
This is such an incredible point. I haven't thought about it that way until you mentioned it and it's spot on. I played Scarlet and Violet for like 5 hours and then went back to playing older games immediately lol
@throwbackkb I currently have 2 nintendo 3ds and Pokémon Y and Alpha Sapphire because of the problems that I have had with both Scarlet and Violet. This is the only incident that I've had to go backwards in terms of playing Pokémon games. In my opinion the other 7 switch titles are also good. They might have a few problems but at least they were released playable on day 1.
@@bradhaley8432 Agreed! Might not be a popular opinion, but I really enjoyed Sword and Shield. Legends was also fun with it being a different type of game.
@@throwbackkb I agree with you 100% 👍.
I genuinely don’t understand why the older games aren’t put on Switch, Nintendo has to hate their legacy content
Right??? It's so odd. With as long as the switch has been out there's just no reason to not have them. Especially when they could also capitalize on that knowing everyone is using emulators.
You are right it doesnt feel the same. Playing classic games on a 65 in screen with a ps2 controller is much better 😊
You got me there lol
If they would just re-release these on the switch and their future console piracy would slow down on these games and the prices would tank plus its MASSIVE money for them. I actually do not understand why they don't port them over it genuinely doesn't make sense.
Couldn't agree more. Legit nonsense for them not to double capitalize on the games lol
I trade stuff on facebook marketplace for old pokemon games. So far Ive been able to get; White, Ruby, FireRed, and Silver w/ a new battery, all from trading like pc parts and random stuff like lego sets. It takes a while...just those 4 games took over a year but I didn't have to pay collector prices!
That's a fantastic way to go!
recently been going crazy getting any Pokémon game I can possibly get my hands on. HOURS a night on fb marketplace just browsing anything Pokémon
long story short I've spent at least $300. That's with getting decent deals here n there, n i still have middle market carts (like silver)
Dont even get me started on the cost of an Emerald or Black 2...... Fire R/ Leaf G, Soul/Heart.... Etc
Yeah I feel you there on everything lol Black 2 White 2 are my old big games left and they’re like $200 a pop CIB lol
$200 CIB is honestly not bad at all🤦🏼😂
Man I remember when you could buy the first two gens for loose for $10-15, It's crazy these games are being scalped so badly when these were far from uncommon
Absolutely insane man lol. It wasn't that long ago that they were all affordable.
@@throwbackkb Though I'd say the main reason the prices went up had a lot to do with Pokemon Go's success and the franchise becoming trendy again more than anything, There was definitely a period there where openly liking pokemon was seen as "uncool" especially during gen III in the mid 2000s.
you make disney adults look good
I suppose I'll take this as a compliment 🤣
Nintendo/ Gamefreak can rerelease the original versions of these games and the price will plummet. We have seen prices for Paper Mario TTYD, Megaman Battle Networks, and Mario Sunshine go down recently from their Switch releases. Plus the money will go to Nintendo and the developers and not the reseller's pockets.
I agree completely!
I know Nintendo won't but them on the NSO since the NSO uses Save States, Rewind and Cloud storage. But they could make a separate app that only has the pokemon games.
That app would be incredible lol.
The Virtual Console releases of Pokemon games already disabled save states so if Nintendo were to do NSO releases they could disable save states as well.
I don't really agree with the people calling resellers scum. Both the resellers and consumers play a hand in the price like you say. For example, I have my copy of Emerald but why would i sell emerald for $100 right now when its market price is around $230?
Spot on. I can't blame anyone for reselling how they do. It's just how the market works.