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One could argue it took comic books a lot longer than it's taken video games to go from throwaway kids product to desirable collector's item. Only 25 years ago we were still jamming fiddly cartridges into front-loading Nintendo Systems and impatiently tearing packaging and manuals asunder - embellishments that now constitute the vast majority of a game's worth.I remember picking up a copy of Whirlo for Super Nintendo sometime in the early 90s, finishing it, and promptly trading it in for something else, such were the budgetary constraints of a 12-year old. Early in October a beaten up copy with no manual ended for £240 in an eBay auction, while complete copies - like mine once was - have reached £500 even in sat-on condition.
Of course anyone who has paid even the slightest attention to eBay knows that it's a hive of scum and villainy, ably positioned sellers sucking everything out of Japan's Akihabara and Yahoo Auctions and demanding huge profit margins in resale to western pundits. This mass software expatriation has sent Japan's domestic prices skyrocketing, reducing it from the shopping mecca it once was to a cluster of boutiques best kept at arms length. In recent years interest in buying back PAL and US versions of classic games has increased exponentially, despite often being plagued with dreadful packaging, censorship, and in the case of Europe, poor 50hz ports. That finding these often-lesser western equivalents in semi-decent condition is a mission unto itself, values have gone through the roof.
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