As we're all painfully aware, retro gaming is an expensive hobby. Not only does the value of hardware appreciate as the years roll by and components start to fail, making working systems a rare commodity, but some of the most iconic and collectable games are now selling for several times more than they cost brand-new, with seemingly little logic applied to how these prices are concocted.
Given their level of fame, titles in the Zelda series tend to retain their value quite well, but we get the impression that some retailers are simply picking a figure out of the air and bumping it upwards to arrive at their selling price.
As spotted by Modern Vintage Gamer, North American used book retailer Half Price Books is selling a copy of Zelda: Minish Cap on the GBA for the eye-watering price of $400:
For reference, a copy is currently on eBay today for £160 / $200 – half what this particular copy is being sold for.
And, as several of the replies to that tweet have noted, the horrible price sticker has been applied directly to the box – so removing it could end up causing damage and reducing the value of the game.
Do you think there's a science behind the prices Half Price Books comes up with? Or do you think it's just one particular staff member here taking a punt and hoping for the best? Let us know with a comment.
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Comments 24
HPB has been known to do that. I remember one time i saw a copy of MGS on GBC and it was in not-so-good condition. They were asking $100 for it. No thanks.
And I’m selling it for $399.99. Best price right here 😜
Okay, so in addition the sticker is on the cardboard? These are amateur reseller no-nos. I’d beat them up on that price.
That same chain also wanted like $150 for a boxed copy of Dragon Warrior 1 for the NES.
Surely that can't be what a copy sells for these days!
That was the game that Nintendo had to literally give away to clear out inventory.
That's price manipulation
Utter lunacy.
They saw what DKoldies was doing and figured they wanted some of that.
Places like this need to get robbed more tbh. Anyone who thinks a game is worth any price above 60 dollars is up their own arse lmao.
I've only been to a HPB once. I picked up a near mint CIB GameGear for $40. I'm guessing it was about 10 years ago.
$400 is insane! I still have my OG copy I bought back when the game came out.
Half-Price Books, Double-Price Games
@PinballBuzzbro
"Anyone who thinks a game is worth any price above 60 dollars is up their own arse lmao."
I have a bunch of games that I think are worth more than 60 dollars. What are you saying, here?
I saw these USD prices on ebay just 15 minutes ago. And yes, these prices are ridiculous too.
But they also drive home how indefensible and scummy Book Off's pricing is.
I shop at HPB all the time - but not for games. The prices are too high, and yeah they stick their dumb sticker on everything. HPB also doesn’t seem to be aware of the concept of “condition” as a factor in pricing games (or music or movies, but in practice only the games have these crazy prices). However HPB can be a good place to find reasonably priced books.
You have to becareful with HPB too they sell repros as original games.
I haven't had any issues with their stickers coming off without leaving residue, thankfully. Even still it looks on this one like it's on a small Post-It note just in case.
Minish Cap, Maxish Price
Half-Price used to be pretty great place to get second hand stuff dirt cheap, but ever since they've become more widespread their prices have skyrocketed. Last time I was in the local one they had one of the Ame-Comi statues, either Black Canary or Batgirl, I forget which. They retail NEW for around $55...sticker price on a USED one, $120. Absolute buffoonery. I don't think I've found anything in one of their stores that was reasonably priced in over a decade.
Rather, anything of actual value, I'd argue. If you want 100 copies of some old James Patterson novel or NCIS The Complete 17th season on DVD for pennies on the dollar, they've got your back.
Not the first time the "collectors" cough*scalpers*cough have ruined a good thing, though. ShopGoodwill used to have a ton of reasonably priced games and toys and collectables, but once the resellers found out about it they all but burned the place down in terms of finding anything worthwhile at anything other than absurd prices.
It’s Nintendo. Gold plated nostalgia at it’s lowest?
Bookstores here in Kuwait started selling video game stuff too. It’s a little surreal.
@-wc- I do echo this sentiment actually. Certain rare games do deserve to be more than $60. Depends on the game of course.
@Yousef-
Some games just are worth more than 60 bucks, so I don't really see why someone would be wrong for thinking so, that was my point. ive actually never heard anyone begrudge someone else for thinking an old game was valuable, that's a wild take imo.
I personally have never paid even close to 60 dollars for a used game, but my collection includes a few valuable games including Earthbound, Rtype 3, Xenogears, and Metal Storm. 👍
Vintage Stock / Entertainmart is selling a copy of the movie "Unsane" on 4kUHD for $750 USD.
They offered me $200 for my copy.
@-wc- you conveyed yourself quite well, friend. No worries there. 👍
Indeed those games are worth more than a couple of bucks. I myself never got used games that are worth more than $70 although grey market can be a big ol’ jerk.
Even though I own a mint condition, barely played copy of this game, I have no moral quandaries in regards to flashcarts / ODEs / emulation. Let the foolish collector's waste their money on overpriced old games.
I think this is fairly common for second-hand book shops that move into other mediums, especially games. World of Books, a pretty large second hand book retailer online in the UK, has a video games section and some of the prices are mad. A used copy of 51 Worldwide Games on Switch for £67.99 for instance. Who knows how they came to that figure.
I used to love HPB, then I started seeing more and more of these ridiculous prices. Nowadays, Gamestop's used prices don't seem so bad.
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