So.
Found a copy of Final Fantasy VIII (black label no less) in wonderful condition. The horrific price tag? 12 bucks.
If somebody told me that I would find a PS1 black label Final Fantasy anything for under $20 ten years ago, I would have called them crazy; 15 years ago, I would have added some flavorful language to crazy.
What the hell happened? The JRPG secondhand market is something I used to monitor fairly closely. I stopped doing so about three or four years ago, mostly because I was trying my hand at Warhammer 40,000. After that hobby bubble finally burst, I started paying attention to my vidya again. I noticed that things were a bit cheaper, a bit easier to find. That was good; my budget problems had eased in some respects, but worsened in others, leaving me with being sparing with my disposable income.
But I never expected the bottom just fall out of it like this either. Practically everything I liked and wanted to play was a collector item of one level or another, and required some gymnastics to get in any decent shape. Now it seems that this stuff is growing off trees. I used to have a 'dream list,' and figured that even with a good paying job it would still require a genie get more than a third or so of this stuff.
That list is close to completion now. This isn't a result of my awesome market savvy or leet consumer skills. Its plain dumb luck sometimes, but the kind that starts making you wonder when everybody else stopped caring.
Is it because most of my picks are now two or three generations old? That RPGs have come full-circle to being a niche genre again? Nerds pay real money for nerdy toys, and you can't get much nerdier than that. JRPGs haven't really been big since the PS2, but the genre in general is still pretty damn strong. So what's the deal, really?
No comments:
Post a Comment