Topic: Will retro games always increase in value?

As notable rare retro games like earthbound become digitalized, will the physical forms decrease in value. While there will always be collectors, demand will inevitably decrease when other options arive.
I own the somewhat rare Secret of Mana Snes cart. I got it for practically nothing over a decade ago. Unlike many who've played it, I never got into the game and, therefore, have no sentimental value for it. However, I'm wondering if I should keep it for collectors value.

I might be mistaken but Secret of Mana is not that rare of a game last I checked.

Secret of Mana is only valuable due to high demand, much like EarthBound & Chrono Trigger, none of these titles are actually rare.

I thought it was somewhat hard to find but I guess that's more to the point. The value would decrease with demand. Obviously, that's usually the case but some still prefer physical carts. Last I checked, Secret of Mana was around 60 on amazon which I would never pay.
I suppose I'll sell it as I would rather buy a dozen VC games than own it.

Yeah, its not really that hard to find Secret of Mana. Really the only reason that is fetches a high price is because of how popular the game is as MortalKombat2007 pointed out. Its one of the post popular adventure games that the SNES has to offer.

There is a time that it will eventually not grow. Some people only want that rare games to play it, and a digital release of a retro game is like a shot. Racketboy made a good article with graphics:

http://www.racketboy.com/retro/how-digital-downloads-affect-v...

Rumor: $25
Announced: $50 (peak)
Released: $45
Current: $25 (down 50% from peak)

Values (Average of Ports):

Rumor: $69 (peak)
Announced: $48
Released: $38
Lowest: $35 (down 50% from peak)
Current: $45 (down 35% from peak)

Values:

Rumor: $60
Announced: $63 (peak)
Released: $48
Current: $28 (down 56% from peak)

If you aren’t especially attached to the game, you might want to sell on a strong rumor of re-release
Values will start to tumble right after an official announcement
Prices won’t bottom out completely until it is actually re-released
Physical copies of rare/popular re-releases can lose around 50% of their peak values.
If you would still like a copy of the game, buy it a few months after the re-release as it might get a slight bump

There's some games that go up since a digital rerelease. Wild Guns for SNES is probably one of those.
I guess since the physical copy is pretty uncommon, it might go up as many people probably hadn't heard of the game before the VC release.
But common games will probably eventually go back down.

It depends on why people want the game in the first place. If I am looking to acquire a game for the purpose of playing it I will most likely search for the most affordable option. However, if it has TRUE collector value it will maintain that value regardless of the number of rereleases. The truth is collector value, and play value are two different things.

correct.
same applies to scat for nes/vc

I don't think anyone would care about trying to track down the first COD in ten years time

This bloke wins.

I think this question all depends on the game and the current state of the economy.

For some reason, I decided to buy a cart of the even-harder Famicom version. (from what I recall: you can take twice as many hits in the NES version, you keep your powerup after taking a hit while you don't on FC and I think you had a multi-direction subweapon from the start on NES and not on FC.)
I'm kind of surprised they released SCAT as is, including identifying the characters as Arnold (obviously Schwarzenegger) and Sigourney (EVEN MORE OBVIOUSLY Weaver, I mean really, that is a very unique name ). While the PAL version had the same characters, they at least removed the names to not make their inspiration blatant.

Yes, physical copies of retro games will always increase in value unless they were for a Sega console. You better sell those Sega games now while you still can before you are going to have to pay someone to take it.

I'm fairly certain that COD 1 was a 32X exclusive rarity edition

watch it pal, i know where you post at!

They get pricier as they become rarer. Some games that are linked to the console, in the sense that they were very popular in the past and were best sellers may be found in pawn shops/flea markets for relatively low prices, in the sense they produced in higher quantity and were a big hit back in their time. Some games I can point their names our are:

• Super Mario 64
• The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
• Super Metroid
• Star Fox 64
• And many more.

As these games age older, their production grows scarce and they're a difficult task to look anywhere, even at GameStop and sometimes at Walmart. Pick them up as you have 'em on sight, because those are hidden treasures. In 20 years in the future, those games will cost half a kidney to pay, like some games that had never seen the spotlight ever again due to their bad sales. Collectors invest much money on getting copies before the major distributors run out of 'permanent stock'.

Good luck on finding a game that rings your interest.

I hope they do, because then Nintendo will have more of a reason to put the sought after games on the eShop. I wouldn't doubt Itoi knows that Earthbound goes for $80+ on eBay. That's 10 sales in Nintendo's pocket if they just release the game on VC, plus, the actual amount of people that want it, which is more than 8, obviously.
It's not worth collecting(IMO) because of the prices and value people put on whatever amount of materials that aren't worth that much anymore.
The Earthbound cartridge is actually worth $5 at most in actual material(maybe $10-15 when it was first released). The game is what people want, not the cartridge per se(especially at that price).

1. thats not how nintendo thinks lol
2. if you come across an eb cart for 80$ you should get it