[SWCollect] Retro PC game collecting officially became big business

[Hugh Falk]

I was waiting for things to die down a bit before bringing this topic up, but the last few weeks have brought an extraordinary amount of activity on eBay…both in the number of good, old PC games for sale and the prices being paid.  My watch list has never been so full.  In fact, I’d say my watch list over the last few weeks was as long as the previous six months (maybe a year).  At least 3 individual sellers had lots to offer:   Hopey Rbgamehunter Carol!yahoo   Combined with lots of one-off sellers.   But what really struck me was that even with all the supply, the ending prices were just so much higher than I’ve ever seen before.  I would have expected prices to drop with so much stuff on the market, but it didn’t happen.  Things I’ve seen go recently in the $10 - $30 range were going for over $100.  Many of the usual suspects were bidding, but the most noticeable was Peter (sorry to call you out Peter), who by my rough calculations has dropped AT LEAST 10 grand in the last 2 months.   In some ways it is really great to see games appreciating in value so much.  Maybe we’ll remember March and April 2004 as the months that Retro PC game collecting officially became big business.   Hugh