Collectively speaking
Video games are generally a lousy investment. Now, before you start writing me angry letters, games can have a tremendously high return as measured in hours of enjoyment per dollar spent on entertainment. There are many games in my collection which have ended up costing far less than $1/hour of entertainment. But I’m not talking about the somewhat intangible return of personal enjoyment - I’m talking about cold hard cash!
By a dollars and cents measure of return on investment, most games are quite poor as investments. I often pay $40 - $60 for a cool new game, that just a few months later can be had in a budget release (or used) for half as much. As the years go by, only a precious few games hold their resale value - and most never sell for more than orignial MSRP.
Even so, I find it enjoyable to collect some of my favorite games from over the years and rather than trade them in when I’m “done” with them, I tend to keep new releases on my shelf. And I’ve enjoyed picking up classic NES and Genesis games from eBay, too. Remember how expensive the original Phantasy Star was for the Sega Master System, and how revolutionary and expansive the game seemed? You can pick up a nice, complete copy for $20-30 if you’re so inclined.
As with all collectables, price is a function of supply and demand - and the supply of most games is quite high. If you start building up a collection of classic games over the past couple of decades, some of the more expensive games are consequently for some of the less successful platforms. The Sega Saturn, for example, has several classic titles for which you will have to pay $50, $100, $200, or more if you would like to include a nice copy in your collection. The RPG Panzer Dragoon Saga, for one, typically retails in the $150-$200 range. It’s an early 3D multi-disc RPG that had an unusually small production. A classic shmup, Radiant Silvergun, will set you back even more - plus you’ll need to figure out how to play Japanese import games (you’ll need a Japanese Saturn or a special memory card based region-unlocker).
Limited editions are an interesting step towards adding interest in treating new games as collectables - but it is terribly ineffective unless the limited editions are actually limited in suply (I bet you’re kicking yourself if you paid full MSRP for the Halo 3 Legendary Edition!) In this regard, I think game publishers could take a page from comics publishers and publish (say) 1 out of 25 copies of a game with variant box art.
Do you have a game collection? Do you keep everything or trade in your used games? Are there any gems in your collection that you keep as an investment? Let us know in the comments.