Shmups as an investment

[Cagar]

Anyone who thinks of PCBs as an investment can literally GO FUCK THEIR OWN FACE.

PCB speculators are basically the worst thing. If that's why you buy PCBs, just get the fuck out.

If you want to invest in shit, go play the stock market or buy gold or something.

We will give you a freedom without objections.

[moh]

hehe.

[MR_Soren]

When I saw some copies of Gradius V on clearance for $11, I bought them all and flipped them on eBay. (Well, all but one.) However, that was a really good deal, and I was basically doing people online a favor since the locals clearly were not interested in the game.

However, I think it would be foolish to buy a game at a normal price and hope to resell it for profit later. Aside from a few exceptions, prices trend downward on games. Furthermore, the shoot-em-up fanbase seems to be shrinking and most people aren't interested in playing games on old hardware.

Most of the high STG prices are simply members of this community gouging each other. It can't go on forever.

[Hagane]

Speculative parasites are everywhere it seems.

[Skykid]

Speculative parasites are everywhere it seems.

And wrong, too.

Furthermore, the shoot-em-up fanbase seems to be shrinking and most people aren't interested in playing games on old hardware.

Most of the high STG prices are simply members of this community gouging each other. It can't go on forever.

Smaller communities don't actually mean smaller values: it's to do with availability. The shmup community was probably at its smallest some years ago, if anything Cave and Touhou introduced a minor renaissance that has brought about fresh interest in the genre.

Values are not determined solely by members of this one forum (or TonK): there are shmup forums all over the place, and the French guys gouge Europeans way harder than we do. That's why so many 1st time posters leap into sales threads saying "I want to buy please. Sorry for my English!!"

Also, entrepreneurial gaijin have been exporting Japan's gaming goods en masse since 1997, meaning eventually Akiba will either be slim pickings or hugely expensive (as it's getting now.) If the Japanese market are willing to pay top dollar for something, the overseas price is very unlikely to crash.

[Casey120]

The source of most popular older PCB's where the Arcades in Japan and they got rid of them slowly starting years ago but now that well has dried up pretty much , look at the prices demanded on YHJ lately , you are better of buying outside of Japan now .


Buying Shmups as an investment is crazy , boards die and prices might be on an all time high now .

So

[Stevas]

Anyone who thinks of PCBs as an investment can literally GO FUCK THEIR OWN FACE.

PCB speculators are basically the worst thing. If that's why you buy PCBs, just get the fuck out.

If you want to invest in shit, go play the stock market or buy gold or something.

Speculative parasites are everywhere it seems.

POW - RIGHT IN THE KISSER

[Edmond Dantes]

I see Shmups as an investment in preventing Alzheimers.

[zlk]

Sometimes investing in games can pay off. I bought a particular PCB for $2000 and was offered $6500 for it a few months later. I didn't want to rip the guy off, so I refused to sell it and thankfully the guy found the same pcb for much cheaper in a short amount of time. Once cave started to reprint many items, their value plummeted. A DOJ BL poster used to sell for around $1000. Now they are much, much cheaper. Because of the unpredictability of what Cave will reprint, collecting their stuff for value is pointless. Collecting the rare cave stuff because it is simply cool is also a nightmare. There are quite a few "money is no object" people bidding on things and occassionally it is funny to see people go to war on yahoo.jp with hilarious results.

One thing that does pay off is finding an obscure pc/console game that you hope will eventually blow up into a huge franchise. If you can buy things associated with a game early on, later on when the series becomes more popular a lot of people will try to buy the old stuff to complete their collection. Doing things like this is a bit less costly than buying new pcbs and hoping their value goes up when more often than not it doesn't.

[Edmond Dantes]

To be honest, selling games sucks.

I used to own a complete copy of MUSHA for the genesis. Sold it... and now that I'm a hardcore shmupper, I want it again...

And now it's like in the triple-digits (when I had it, it was only worth $20-$30)

Never making that mistake again.

[kamiboy]

If you are speculating in gaming platforms whose games might experience a rather large increase in value in say, a decade or two I'd say keep an eye on the PS2.

In fact this is good advice to collectors as well, prioritize the PS2 titles on your want list. The platform is in that awkward faze between being old enough that the mainstream has lost all interest in it and not old enough to be considered a classic by collectors nostalgic for their childhood.

Then again, being one of the most successful gaming platforms of all time might mean the more common games will never bubble much in value, but get those copies of God Hand while you still can.