Good job, Sega CD fans!

[jay_are]

Your constant comments and talks about how superior the Sega CD versions of Lunar or whatever games are, have caused the increased interest of buyers.







Yup. Lots of games today are so highly priced on ebay. I took Lunar as an example, especially Lunar 1 on Sega CD cause that one seemed to be the accessible one for many years while Lunar 2 has been very high the last few years.
But do they sell like this? Oh yes! You bet they do!



Someone paid $200 to have the 2 games. I'm not going to say they aren't worth it, buuuuuuuuuut...
Things aren't looking so bright for the future. What am I gonna do if my copy gets stolen or damaged like 10 years from now? That will be the END OF IT, cause by that time the games will probably cost $500. Just look at Dracula X on SNES or this other game... wait. No, I don't even wanna mention names anymore to avoid increasing interest,
I'm too scared to talk about games anymore. They might get popular and overpriced.

[brit]

I paid $135 for my copy of Lunar 2 for Sega CD a year ago. The Silver Star is next on my list to get and I know that one seems to vary in price based on which disc design it has. One of the sellers I stalk over there has an image of every disc and then I know there was someone selling all the discs together with a case for like $500 a few months back. @_@

Then there was also someone making just fake discs with the images on them but they don't have the game or anything so if you buy just the discs you might want to double check everything in the description box. >.>

Anyways I haven't played The Silver Star but I still prefer Eternal Blue on the Playstation. I feel like the sega cd was really talked up on how hard it was, but I think it's pretty normal and not as difficult as people make it out to be. Then again I tend to over play the series. :/ I do like some of the additional scenes (or original scenes I should say) in Eternal Blue Sega CD like Hiro in the crystal, the white dragon treasures, and a few of the cutscenes that got lost in the playstation one though. ^^

As for if they're wroth that price. I think it's more up to you. I normally have to have everything CIB without any damage to the case, disc, or booklet. If it has all of that and looks perfect then I'd pay it. I mean come May on my birthday I'm allotting up to $130 for The Silver Star. ^o^

[LuNaRtIc]

Oh my goodness... someday, I will have enough money to purchase these treasures! T^T

[jay_are]

Nooooooooooo that hurts me. I bought Lunar 2 for like... $30!
This was in 2007. How is 2007 any different than 2013? What happened during these years that didnt happen for 12 years since release?
If it took Lunar 2 12 years to become overpriced, how come there are games like Xenoblade Chronicles which are super popular and yet become overpriced so soon after release?
I have 2 theories:
A: that's BUUUUUULLsh... oh what's the use.
B: USA dollar is worth a lot less now.

[Sonic#]

^ Xenoblade Chronicles, like Radiant Historia and a few other games, had a small print run. Xenoblade is remarkable in particular because it was only distributed through Gamestop and (w/ pre-order) Nintendo, so they quickly became rare. Lunar has had more time for copies to drop out of the market (more people holding on to them) and for people to become interested (more people seeking them). The result - a big enough portion of the people seeking the games is willing to pay a higher price. So it's priced to a market.

A doesn't pertain because small print runs are not -Dung Beetle- [ ] but a valid strategy for publishers worried about making money back. B doesn't pertain because the dollar isn't worth that much less. Neither rates of inflation nor exchange rates over the last several years would cause a tripling of price.

[Dark_Fairy]

Yeah, I've noticed the increasing prices every time I go hunting on Ebay for Lunar merchandise. I got my copy of Lunar 2 on the Sega CD like, 3 to 5 years ago now I think. I got mine for $70 at the time, which was a bit pricey then I thought, but I really wanted to finally own the Sega CD version of Lunar 2. Especially since I had owned The Silver Star for quite a long time, and I had to have the two games together. The prices now on Lunar Eternal Blue are just insane now.

[jay_are]

Xenoblade Chronicles, like Radiant Historia and a few other games, had a small print run.

Which is BULL.
Think about it, go look for Radiant Historia right now, you can find it for a good price. That tells me that the game was reprinted.
Atlus confirmed it, so that's a good thing! Now everyone can play the game no problem. If the first print of games sold, I'm assuming the company has earned every dollar it required to make the game and more at that point. Will they LOSE that money if they reprint? Sounds hard to believe.

Xenoblade Chronicles is even more popular. Even more now that it's in Smash Bros. It saw a reprint some years ago and it was still getting GREAT DEMAND! MAAAYBE they were planning the 3DS version a long time ago. it doesn't sound likely though.

[Sonic#]

Will they LOSE that money if they reprint?

If they reprint and fewer people buy the game, then they might. That would be true of most releases, since they experience the most buzz and sales from interested parties in the first couple of months after release. Rarely do games experience enough buzz after that to justify a new print run - Radiant Historia was remarkable in that regard. Nor did the print run immediately impact the price on eBay. For even a year after the 2012 reprint, the game was mostly going for $60 or more, and I recall buying my copy around that time for $60. (There was a big bump in winter 2012-2013.) The price may have leveled out for a few reasons - fewer people are buying copies, more copies are being resold, the DS and 3DS have seen several great RPGs since then.

Xenoblade Chronicles differs for a couple of reasons. (Their prices are at a long plateau after their high of $100 in 2013, which at that point was set due to the pricing of "used" copies by Gamestop at $100.) It sold a considerable amount, and it has been reprinted by Gamestop and other game shops. However, the Wii didn't have that many RPGs (unlike the DS), and Xenoblade's sequel is getting a lot of coverage (RH has no sequel). As for supply, it is unconventional to reprint a game that's several years old, especially given that a port has been in planning for upwards to 2 years. So the demand is greater for the Wii version, and the supply won't be getting bigger.

And one minor note about quantity - games need to sell at least thousands of copies to be successful, and in a traditional release they need to do that in a couple of months. I find it hard to believe that eBay's numbers indicate the success of selling these games - 30 sales in 10 days of copies of Xenoblade is hard to translate into retail sales.
Anyway, I don't see the sense in claiming that small print runs are bull because the eBay price years after the game was released remains low. There are too many factors involved to assume that the price is lower *because of reprinting*, or that a price being higher on eBay justifies a new print run.

[jay_are]

Lol well if the bull isn't in that, then it must be somewhere else. Xenoblade Chronicles should never have gone beyond $60.
How is it so special? When was it ever accessible?
Why make limited quantities of something that so many people want? I've heard so much talk about this game in the USA before it was even released.
On top of that, it's a GameStop and Nintendo Store exclusive?
That might be the winged bull itself. So many much less popular games have no problem in releasing with enough quantities for people to buy and succeeding, also without being a store exclusive or whatever. Bravely Default, for example, could have very well done the same, no? And it didn't, so what's the difference?

Oh, here's another bull: http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/ ... of+time+3D
As of right now, just cartridges of Zelda OoT 3D go for at least $60.

I find it hard to believe that eBay's numbers indicate the success of selling these games

Well that's true, there's also the whole scalper thing...

So yeah, in around 2005 to 2007 when I started using ebay, these were the prices for which I got Lunar 2, SegaCD and PS1:




Today, the PS1 prices have remained pretty much the same. A little higher maybe, I do remember feeling lucky when I got it for THAT price. (It had absolutely everything and the Demo)

The SegaCD Lunar 2, i also remember feeling lucky when I got it for that, but it was only for being $10 or $20 less than the common auctions.
I saw the prices remain like that until like 2011 when I remember it increasing insanely.
Along with many other games! I'm just curious what happened during that year that changed everything. Is there a famous youtube reviewer out there pimping out these games?? Maybe Jontron? I heard a friend joke that he would hate if Jontron talked about my friend's favorite game cause then it would increase in price too.

[Sonic#]

^ Why do you assume that price increases are the work of scalpers? And why do you assume that quantity is the issue?

[jay_are]

Scalpers, quantities, popularity of the product, store exclusivity... all of these are valid issues for anyone to assume.
Worst case, all of these can be combined.
Like the amiibos for example?
There are popular characters (1st issue), store exclusive (2nd problem) amiibos that get a low quantity of production (3rd problem) due to the company's unknown reasons (they say it can be difficult to mass produce, or that they underestimate the sales success, or that it was on a boat and it sunk), which then are bought by the scalpers (4th issue) on day 1 or in the first few minutes of availability.
Do you think EVERYONE that bought Xenoblade Chronicles was an honest fan willing to try the game for entertainment? Please! A ton of those went directly to ebay to sell. I remember people with 30+ new copies of the game overpriced within just a few days of release. You can go to Amazon right now and check, it hasn't changed much.

At least 6 people I checked still have listed they have 30 or more copies of the game for $100, i'm assuming that number quantity is no joke, cause they they don't have that much quantity of just any product, some products they have 3, 5, 10...

[Kizyr]

...Sonic# already has the reasons covered, but generally there's no reason to suspect foul play or any kind of malice in these things costing a lot. Older games are typically rarer than new games, and if they're both rare and good, they're worth a lot. The price -- especially on an auction side -- is just reflective of that. Lunar 1 and 2 in English are typically worth about $100 -- if you ever see them for less, it's either because the seller isn't aware of how valuable they are, or it's in a venue where very few people are aware it's being sold.

Nearly all of the resale cost is based on four things:
(1) How much the game cost when it came out -- obvious reasons, more expensive games cost more than less expensive ones
(2) How good the game is -- also obvious, no one's paying a lot for old copies of Primal Rage
(3) How many copies were made / how easy it is to come by -- good comparison is the Japanese Lunar 1 vs. Lunar 2, since the Japanese Lunar 1 had a much bigger print run it's easier to find and thus typically <700 yen, while Lunar 2 had a smaller print run and often goes for 5000-10000 yen
(4) How old the game is -- this goes in either way, since if it's a really good game with a small print run (#2 and #3) then old = more expensive, but if it had a larger run then this often brings the cost down

Middlemen reselling the game, or people buying the game to turn around and resell it, really doesn't drive the price up. There are enough options for regular users to sell old games otherwise that it's hard to get away with selling a game for $100+ if it's not actually worth that much, and if there aren't people (who aren't intending on reslling it) willing to buy it. Games are a lousy investment since so many things cause the price to fluctuate; I have zero reason to believe that arbitrage or anyone in the middle is causing the price of rare games to go up that much. KF

[jay_are]

(1) How much the game cost when it came out

Did you know that GameStop removed the plastic wrapping of Xenoblade Chronicles reprints just to be able to sell it for more, due to a policy that says if it was new, it shouldn't be priced more than it originally retailed for?

[Kizyr]

(1) How much the game cost when it came out

Did you know that GameStop removed the plastic wrapping of Xenoblade Chronicles reprints just to be able to sell it for more, due to a policy that says if it was new, it shouldn't be priced more than it originally retailed for?

...given GameStop, I hate to say that this really doesn't surprise me. I'm wondering how much of that is managers' discretion at individual stores though. KF

[jay_are]

Lol yeah. Well at least it's what i heard in many news sites and seen that they were overpriced at stores.
So strange though, i know it's Gamestop we're talking, but I've still never seen that happen with other games that I know of.

[Taiyaki]

Gee I remember the Sega CD games used to go for around 70 ish even just a few years ago.

[Alunissage]

My vague recollection is that I bought EB new from WD for $64.99. In 1999.