LogFAQs > #975099348

CRON posted...

What caused prices to skyrocket for almost every platform? I remember a decade ago a local used game store would have Goodwill-tier prices and nowadays even shovelware goes for a lot.

Covid

I'm not joking. I've been collecting for years, and the two months after lockdowns hit were the biggest, fastest price spike I've ever seen. Across the board. But JRPGs in particular seemed to be hit the hardest as a genre. And games from the very late 90s through about 2010. And the spuke never settled; prices have been consistently high ever since.

Pokemon is a prime example. In 2019, paying $50 for a copy of soulsilver would be gearing fleeced for it. By 2020, you wouldn't see one for less than $150, loose cart only, on a good day. God help you if you wanted a case, even without the manual.

My theory is that with everybody stuck at home, they got bored, ended up pulling their old systems out of storage, and began trying to "recapture" some childhood memories. Pokemon, naturally, got hit especially hard, with the Paul Brothers making the TCG scene explode with their YouTube series buying packs.

Animal Crossing NH came out around that time, sold gangbusters, and suddenly old nintendo games exploded in price.

FFVII Remake came out at that time, and suddenly old JRPGs explode in price.

Persona 5 Royal comes out at that time, and damn near every Atlus game nearly triples in value within like a week.

Covid boredom completely upended the market, and got a LOT more people into the space.