The most expen$ive retro titles of all time.
Retro Gaming

Recently I've had an interest in buying/collecting old games. I picked up a Sega Saturn a few years ago and more recently a Dreamcast. Even when I bought a ps3 within the last few months I made sure to get an old 60 Gig model that could play all the old ps2 games I missed out on. Anyway, I was looking at lists of top games for these systems and for the Saturn I constantly see "Panzer Dragoon Saga" cited as one of the best. Since I love JRPGs I figured It would be perfect and quickly looked around the net to see where I could get it from.

And then my jaw dropped.

As of writing this, Amazon has 7 copies, 5 of those being pre-owned. The cheapest one is $180 and its missing the first disc (There are four). From there the price shoots up to $319 and yes, that's still used copies. New copies go for anywhere above $600. The cheapest way I figure I could ever get it is to buy the discs individually from ebay for about $50 each.

All this got me thinking, what is the most expensive old game you have ever seen or purchased? Do you own that non-existent arcade copy of Polybius, or perhaps simply splurged on that Gold cartidge copy of the Orcarina of Time? More importantly, can anyone top the $600+ price tag I saw? I want YOUR story.

I haven't gone for any particular expensive games as I usually end up finding them cheaper soon after anyway, but there has been a few interesting ones. A collectables shop near me (that is sadly moving premises to somewhere I can't get to ) has Baten Kaitos on GameCube sealed for £100, and also Chibi Robo GC in the same condition for slightly less. A very tempting one was a premium boxed blue GameCube with Tales of Symphonia, that is unfortunately way out of my range at £200.

The rarest/most expensive one I do have though would be the Japanese copy of Pokemon Heart Gold I imported at £50, a few months before it arrived here. Yup, cheapo.

The most expensive I ever bought personally was Final Fantasy on NES (US import). 75€, loose copy .

(For the the record that was before I had the ability to order online, so I thought this was rare to find in European stores that sold oldies. Not sure I'd spend that much on a game now)

I say, for cheap awesome retro titles, try yard sales as much as possible. You could buy for cheap titles that wouls usually cost a fortune, from guys who are totally unaware of how rare or sought after what they're selling is.

( Edited 07.08.2011 22:11 by Kafei2006 )

The only one I really know about is Vib Ribbon


( Edited 07.08.2011 22:48 by Echoes221 )

Saw Chrono Trigger going for £70 in GameStation a few years back, original SNES version n'all! Thank god I didn't buy it with the DS one out last year!

Come to think of it, the most expensive I ever got was Conker's Bad Fur Day, at about 82€ (but that was before Euro was introduced, so it could be a bit more than that, and the price was in Swiss Franks cuz' I bought it there, when I was on vacation during Summer 2001)

But this doesn't really count as a retro title, since the game was brand new and freshly released back then ... and I didn't pay, my aunt who I was staying at did .

( Edited 07.08.2011 23:19 by Kafei2006 )

On that note, was passing by Singapore airport when Gold/Silver (the original GB ones) came out and just had to get a copy. Was pretty pricey from what I remember, I think each were around £40/£45. Considering they were GB games at the time that's a pretty big cost!

Its becoming harder and harder around where I am to find anyplace that sells old games. Gamestop in my area doesn't even carry old psone games anymore. There is a store that sells all that good stuff, but its a 40 minute drive to get there. I almost wish I were in a bigger city area like New York or Chicago so I could just walk down to the local nerd shop. Some of the nicer ones will even import stuff for you. Of course... then I would NEVER have ANY cash.

The most I've ever payed for a used old game, I think, is $50 for Marvel vs. Capcom 2 on the Dreamcast. It was in mint condition. I opened it and the cd didn't even have a speck of dust on it.

I'm contemplating importing Tales of Hearts. I think the last I checked Playasia had it for around $65. Plus shipping, of course. Anybody seen it cheaper?

( Edited 08.08.2011 00:02 by Duggler657 )

I got it from Play-Asia for 32.90$ on July 30. For two or three days, it was at that price. Always subscribe to get email alerts on price cuts for the games you're in interested in getting from Play-Asia, otherwise you miss some great opportunities (like Bahamut Lagoon at 19.90$ when it usually sells at 61.99$ ).

My copy of Tales of Hearts (anime movie edition) shipped on August 4th, so it should arrive in the post at my house by the end of this week .

I've seen Earthbound for the SNES for sale twice (other than online where prices are usually crazy). The first time was in a store that kind of caters to nerdier tastes (old games, comics, card games, etc). It was in the city where I go to college. It was $80 and I seriously thought about getting it. Ultimately, I could not justify the cost for a video game.

The second time was a flea market near my small hometown. It was for $3.00. I think I made a noise when I saw it. Earthbound rocks, by the way


Check flea markets in your area every so often. If they're anything like the flea markets in my area, you often won't find anything. But occasionally you find something cool for cheap.



Also, if you can make good friends with someone from Japan, they might pick up some used games for you. I recently went to Japan for three weeks (awesome way to get college credit!) and the used game market there is super cheap! I think the most expensive used games I bought was Super Mario 64 and Pokemon Blue. They were both 500 yen (about $6.00), and both were still in the cardboard boxes. That's nuts to me. I picked up a couple more Pokemon games, WaveRace 64, Diddy Kong Racing, Shenmue, Pokemon Stadium 1 and 2, Mario Kart 64, Captain Rainbow (a Wii game even), and some others. The cheapest was Pokemon Yellow for 50 yen. I can't buy a freaking Snickers for that.

I bought it all from a chain of stores called "Book-Off." If anyone is planning a trip to Japan, you should check them out. Each store is different in selection and prices. They sell other used stuff, too (manga, movies, books, music). I went to several different Book-Offs. One was a rip-off: it didn't have that much and the prices were relatively high. One was an absolute gold mine where I bought most of my games (somewhere in the city of Gifu). The rest fell somewhere in-between.

Thank you! What a steal! I'll have to subscribe like you say and keep an eye out. Let us all know how that game is after you try it out.


All day Friday and Saturday in my area people all across the ol' "Lincoln Highway" set up their annual yardsales. I really wanted to go hunting for stuff, but had to work both days. Really was a shame. It was literally down my road and I was stuck cleaning dishes. My neighbor picked up two DS Lites for her kids for about $10 each... At that price you could use them for coasters.

( Edited 08.08.2011 06:01 by Duggler657 )

Last Hope and Hyper Dual cost me a couple hundred pounds each. I'll only spend that much on shmups.

My most expensive game is one of my cartridges. I don't think I could pin it down to one of them. It's one of these for sure:

Bare Knuckle III (Mega Drive, NTSC-J, boxed mint and complete)

Chrono Trigger (SNES, NTSC-U, loose cart)

Banjo-Tooie (N64, PAL, boxed, mint and complete)

Banjo-Tooie (N64, NTSC-U, loose cart)

Majora's Mask Limited Collector's Edition (N64, NTSC-U, boxed and complete)

Duke Nukem 3D (Saturn, PAL, boxed and complete)

Quake (Saturn, PAL, boxed and complete)

None of those fetch the kind of megabucks that your Panzer Dragoon Sagas or your Radient Silverguns do. Together though, they're worth a few hundred, not to mention all the others I have.

P.S. Duggler, torrent a copy of Panzer Dragoon saga and just do the disc swap thing to get it working on your Saturn with no mods.

I bought a copy of PDS on eBay for about £70, 5 or so years ago, great condition but missing the cardboard sleeve that the PAL release came in. If you've never played it before just download it, Sega have had plenty of time to commercially exploit it. If you like it as much as I do, perhaps look out for a good deal on a real copy.

It's a pretty rare game but amazon prices are just stupid and it's bread and butter to a collector.

( Edited 08.08.2011 20:44 by Raff )

Good idea. I've tried this before, but couldn't get it to work. I'll have to give it another shot.


Amazon's prices are stupid. The super Nintendo starts at $30. Highway robbery I say.

My fully-modded Super Famicom cost less than that.

My brother once invested in 2 extra copies of OoT. They were f10 (€5) back then and he hoped to sell them with profit one day.
He still has them.

I've recently sold some games for more than I bought them new (discount), but I've never bothered with the really expensive games.

I thought about doing that with RE: The Mercenaries because of the save file thing. I figured since you can't delete the save data new copies might actually have value some day. I don't have the heart though.

Well, you made me curious. I looked and the cheapest Nes Amazon has as of right now is $40. -_- That's used mind you.

You should wait until the price of RE:TM drops. That's when you invest in them.

In my experience the best investment is a great game with very low sales.
A while back I bought The Conduit and Disaster for Wii, but at the moment they're going for €8 or so... that's slightly below what I paid for them. So now I'm waiting, hoping for the price to rise again.

Reminds me how I saw The World Ends With You for 5€, bought one, and regretted afterwards not to have bought more, seeing how expensive the game is today .

( Edited 11.08.2011 09:26 by Kafei2006 )

I've not played them, but I was under the impression the Conduit wasn't that good. It just doesn't have hardly any competition on the Wii, but Conduit 2 fixed a lot of the problems, right?

And I've pretty much forgotten Disaster. Never played that one either. How's that?

I recently played through Chibi-Robo. I could see that becoming a rare classic one day. It definitely feels old school in a lot of ways, and it's just generally a neat idea. It's got that Nintendo charm, I think.

Also, look what I found:
*Video Game Values*
It's a site that shows the current prices of games, and whether they are rising or falling (it looks like the stock market or something). Pretty cool! If you're a collector, it seems like it could be handy if it's accurate.

( Edited 11.08.2011 09:56 by TAG )

Panzer Dragoon Saga is easily in my top 5 games of all time. If you love RPGs, you do yourself a disservice by not playing this one. It is unlike any other RPG ever made. Knowing what I know now, if my only choice was to pay $500 to play it, I would pay it. (added bonus, all voice acting is in the original japanese, with subtitles)

Everybody who I have ever known who has played PDS has said the exact same thing. Sadly, because there is a group of people willing to pay $500 for a game there are many people selling it for just that.

$500 for a game is fucking sinful. Think of the things you could do with that cash.

I was lucky enough to get Panzer Dragoon Saga for £70 when game station still sold retro games. Worth every penny.
Darxide for the 32x is 1 of the rarest i've heard of, it was only released in europe at the end of the 32x's short life and goes for £1000 and up.