Rant: Pricey Games, Gold Mine or Rip-off?

This is something that I've been thinking about since a few weeks ago when I coughed up fifty dollars for a copy of Final Fantasy VII to add to my collection. It made me wonder if I had simply wasted my money, sure Final Fantasy VII is an amazing game and possibly one of the best Final Fantasy games out there but was it worth that much when it wasn't even sold for that much when it was originally released.

This also made me realize just how much games could go up in value after only a few years which had me thinking if more recent games will also sky rocket in worth in the future. Chances are, no but of course there will always be those gems that are demanded to the point where in five or six years they just may do something very similar.

The Final Fantasy series is a fine example of this as the other day I was taking a look at Final Fantasy III Complete at a local used game store and guess what? It's forty dollars for an SNES game. Sure that may seem a little extreme for those who don't have it but think about if you did have it and were looking to sell it, I bet that would make you really happy to get a nice load of cash for a game that you had probably payed about half of that for when it was originally sold in stores back in the day of the SNES.

I'm not saying that these games arn't worth the cost but it seems to be more of a rip off to have to pay so much for a game that could have been gotten for about half that price when it was brand new. Of course that's a problem with everything as whenever something in high demand starts to become harder to get they slowly begin to pick up in price.

One sad thing is for new gamers who pick up on a series in later parts and even if they wish to go back and play some of the older in the series but they soon discover that in order for them to do this will cost them a lot of money, usually more money then the newest in the series cost.

I only used the Final Fantasy games as an example here and of course there a lot of other series in similar situations. Take Super Mario RPG for example which costs in the upper twenties which is quite a bit for a SNES game. I guess this is to be expected from such an extensive game such as Super Mario RPG.

Whether it's a blessing or a rip off for us gamers what is certain is that the prices on games are completely unpredictable but from what we've seen it's to be expected for popular and extensive games to be the most likely to become the more valuable of games so if you are a collector who's looking to make a profit in the future make sure to keep your eyes open for these sorts of games as they may actually be worth far more one day.