Tuesday, January 4, 2022

Update To How New Prices Are Calculated for Some Video Games

We've improved our pricing for retro video games in new/sealed condition.

We've been tracking video game prices since 2006 so we have a lot of data. For some retro games the most recent new sale might be 4-5 years old because they are rare. During this time game prices have increased a lot. If we base our values on sales from 4+ years ago, then our values will be inaccurate.

Starting last week, if the sealed condition sale is more than one year old we will look to see if the CIB price for that same game has changed and adjust our estimate of the sealed price to take that into account. CIB condition is much more common with video games so there is much more sales activity to use for our estimate AND the relationship between CIB and New prices is very stable for games on a specific console.

Any valuation for a brand new retro game is an estimate though because the exact condition for each item greatly impacts the value. For example, a water damaged sealed game is worth much less than a crisp, perfect seal. And there are many levels of variation in between. Our new value estimates are not based on actual brand new sales, but they are much more accurate than our old sealed prices and give collector's a much more accurate view of what their games are worth.

This change impacts about 20% of NES, SNES, and N64 games.

Let me know if you have any questions about this change.

2 comments :

alkoka said...

This is a very useful change, it really helps narrowing down one's collection's real value.

How are these changes implemented into the value system? Is it happening somewhere under the hood or are we going to get new possible selections in the "Which condition(s) describe your item? " menu?

Thanks for keeping this project up!

JJ said...

@alkoka - Glad you like the change. The changes happen under the hood. The new prices are automatically updated if needed. Users don't need to make any changes on their end.

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