How Are Video Game Prices Determined?

This blog will contain lots of data about prices and you might wonder how do I actually get the data and can it be trusted as accurate. The prices are based upon a propriatery equation I have developed that takes into account actual prices gathered from Amazon, Half, Ebay, and JJGames. I can’t tell you the exact equation because it is a trade secret, but I use it at www.jjgames.com to determine our prices so I definitely believe it to be THE price.

I have daily prices for thousands of games using this equation, but most of the blog posts and graphs will use 7-day averages instead of the daily prices. I do this because daily prices for video game are really volatile and a 7-day moving average gives a better indication of where the prices are going. Below is an example for daily prices vs the 7-day moving average for Super Mario 64.

When I show charts in future blog posts, the price will be the 7-day moving average NOT the daily price. I think this helps a lot with comparisons between different video games and allows easier discussion on trends, which is what this blog is all about.

Welcome to Used Video Game Pricing Blog!

I’m excited to start this blog about used video game prices, but first I wanted to let you know what to expect from the blog.

The blog will be about the pricing for used video games and how the prices change; when they change the most; and what certain events do to game prices. Examples of questions I will answer are: What happens to video game prices at different times of year? What happened to prices of old Pokemon games when Pokemon Diamond and Pearl came out for DS? And can collecting video games actually make you money? I plan on showing you graphs and reliable pricing data at the heart of all my posts. But most of the posts won’t be too technical.

Why should you read a blog that I am writing about video game pricing? I own a business selling used video games: www.jjgames.com. As part of this business, I have collected price data on thousands of video games for the last six years, which makes as close to an expert on this topic as you can get.

The first couple of posts will be introductions about how I get the pricing data and a bit more about myself, but then I will dive right into the first real post; how prices change on games through out the year? When do the prices go up? When do they go down? And by how much?