What Collectible Category Should PriceCharting Add Next?

We are at the early stages of looking into some new collectible markets for PriceCharting to expand into. We do not have a set time frame for when this will be, but when we are ready we want to make sure we know what our users think.

Please take answer the questions below and give us your feedback.

We've Updated the Rare Sega Saturn Game Article

We've updated the rare Sega Saturn game article to show 20 games, their current prices, and what makes them so rare. The article includes some rare imports too.

Take the Saturn collector quiz:

What year were the majority of games on the list released? Hint: same year the console was discontinued.
What genre is featured on the list most often?
Which two games are the most expensive game in their series?

See if you can answer the questions then read the article to see how you did.

Xbox One: Where Nostalgia Goes to Die

Do you remember finding your old Nintendo in the attic after years in storage. Hooking it up and playing all your favorite games?

Or maybe after spring break you brought your Nintendo 64 back to college and played with your buddies for hours.

Or you might have popped Final Fantasy VII into your PS1 to play through your favorite RPG.

None of these nostalagic moments in gaming will be possible with the Xbox One.

Microsoft announced the Xbox One yesterday afternoon and it has been confirmed that you will need to pay a fee to play used games and will need to verify internet connection every 24 hours.

Both of those services require Microsoft's servers to actively allow you to play the games. If the servers are not doing that you cannot play. In 10-15 years when Microsoft inevitability stops support for Xbox One, you will no longer be able to play games.

When you find the Xbox One in your attic after 25 years you will think "I remember this. Halo 6 was awesome. I should buy it and play it again." But the system won't let you play a used game because you can't pay the used game fee required for activation.

In 10 years when you bring the system to college after spring break you won't be able to play multiplayer Gears of War 5 because the servers aren't active to verify you own the game.

The Xbox One will be the first video game console - and the first consumer electronic product I can think of - with a definite death. At some point Microsoft will disable the servers and it will be useless.

Which Video Games Are Increasing in Price the Most

During the 12 months video game prices have increased sharply for many consoles. The average SNES game has increased 35%. NES is up 23%. And the average N64 game is up 40%!

Games for non-Nintendo consoles have increased too, with Genesis up 14% and Saturn up 10%.

The average vintage video game has increased in price 9.5% during the last 12 months.

Are the increased prices evenly spread across games or are certain types of games increasing more than others?

For this article we looked at the price of the game to see which is increasing more expensive games or cheap games.

Before reading further, stop for a minute and ask yourself which games you think are increasing in price the most. Did you take a guess? Alright, continue reading.

Price Change of SNES Games Based upon Price in 2012

We compared the prices for every Super Nintendo game at the beginning April 2012 and the beginning of April 2013. Every game was grouped into ten categories based upon the 2012 price.

Decile 1 is the 10% of games with the lowest prices. Decile 2 is the next 10%. Onwards until Decile 10 which is the 10% of SNES games with the highest prices.

The table below shows the average price per decile in 2012. The average change in price from 2012 to 2013 and the % change.

	Avg. Price 2012	Avg. $ Change	Avg. % Change
Decile 1	$0.87	$1.01	116%
Decile 2	$1.24	$1.97	159%
Decile 3	$2.11	$1.61	76%
Decile 4	$3.13	$1.50	48%
Decile 5	$4.36	$2.30	53%
Decile 6	$5.64	$1.71	30%
Decile 7	$8.13	$2.01	25%
Decile 8	$11.46	$2.66	23%
Decile 9	$19.30	$6.37	33%
Decile 10	$92.74	$19.34	21%

As you can see the lowest priced games jumped in price by the largest percentage. The most expensive games actually increased the least, up only 21%.

Games like Populous, FIFA 96, and even Shaq Fu have increased substantially from their prices last year.

Expensive games like Harvest Moon and Lufia have increased in price quite a bit, but on a percentage basis it has not be as large a jump.

Historic CIB Prices for 100 Most Popular Games

For the most popular games on our site we have gone back and reconstructed the historic prices for Complete condition games.

We used our new pricing methods to determine which historic listings were loose, complete, and sealed. And then compiled the prices every month based upon this data.

Below are a few more examples of CIB prices going back several years:

If there are any games you want to see historic CIB prices for please let us know. We can't update every single game, but we can take requests and add specific titles you want to see.

CIB Prices on PricingCart

We have also added CIB pricing as an option in our PricingCart. You can now value video game lots more accurately. If some of the items you are looking to buy come with the box and instructions you get an accurate view of what the whole package is worth.


To learn more about the PricingCart you can watch this demo video. It is available to all account holders for free so go ahead and create an account and try it out. It is the most popular feature on our site for account holders.