I don’t want to buy games digitally anymore until I can actually own the game rather than the license. But then some freak on eBay is asking for $500 for a copy of Klonoa on the PS1. Then there are even more freaks who are willing to bid higher than that! Then the smaller retro games stores around me base their prices on these prices. There needs to be a price cap on this stuff. We can’t let all of the richest nerds control the economy.
Scarcity and some artificial scarcity called grading. Take for example Pokémon vintage trading card game packs. Base set has a bunch of print differences but even buying a normal unlimited version pack is $300-400. The value of a Charizard, if you pull it out of that pack, is ~$200-400 raw. However, if you grade it and it comes back a 10, it’s suddenly “worth” $1000+.
This is not quite as prevalent in video games but it is happening. The price of popular Pokémon games that are complete in box are sky high because someone somewhere wants to buy it and submit it for the chance it’s “worth” 10x the price.
Pricecharting.com is your friend. Patience is a virtue.