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Price Gouging On Pokemon Games?!

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YaelleG

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I - am - so - angry right now. :boom:Its like, not even funny. I have been trying to find some older Pokemon games because I've never played anything so far besides Pearl. Well, I have checked in my local store and I will go back there again, since they get new things all the time. But I ended up on Amazon. I think its rather clear what happened. Well, this is my theory, anyhow. I'm betting a lot that I'm correct here:

Ok so they've got many of the old games that I have seen many a time in person & online go for just a handful of dolalrs - they have got them marked up for $300, $600 and even $1,099 apiece. THAT IS SO WRONG because what happens is, other sellers see that Mr. Greedypants has his copy up for some outrageous amount & they start thinking, oh this game must be super valuable. I had better mark up my copy also!
And that creates a very ugly ripple effect and just destroys the entire market for these things. :boom: Gaaaahhh!!! I am strongly considering contacting Amazon & letting them know people are doing this - maybe its against the rules. Seems like it would be, but ya never know.

There is just no logical reason why this is happening! Its not like they are games that there were like 3 copies of made & people are trying desperately to get ahold of! I doubt I'm allowed to post the links here so I am going to go to that site in another window & just type here some examples. Hold on LOL.

OK here they are:
1. Pokemon X $39.99 free shipping. That's decent & average, right?
2. Pokemon Fire Red/Leaf Green Combo for GBA: $1,350.00 (that's one thousand....)
3. Pokemon Leaf Green $179.99
4. Pokemon Red $599.95
5. Pokemon Yellow - Special Pikachu Edition $767.50
6. Pokemon Ruby $274.95
7. Then they've got a Pokemon Emerald for $600, a Gameboy advance SP for $600 (the system)
8. Pokemon Sapphire $185, Emerald for $349.95 and on & on & on.

WHAT THE HECK!!? THIS IS MORALLY CORRUPT!!
Reminds me of the time somebody paid me $75 for a copy of Lost in Blue for DS lol! But like, come on...! Seriosuy. How am I ever going to get my Gen I & Gen II games and without even considering my selfish whims just, come on. This is wrong. Don't you all think?
 
You think that's bad, in Australia that is done commercially.

Go ahead, check gamestop's prices and then go to EB games. We have to live with that.
 
I know how you feel. Salesguy at game stop told me that pokemon games don't usually go down in price. And he was right.
 
well thats up there with the 1987 toyota corrolla AE86 i saw for $130,000 and after the gamecube was ended the games reaching 70, 80 even 110$
 
Alright, my question is why are you looking on Amazon? They never have good prices on used games and those very expensive ones are either in mint condition or pretty darn spanking new. New as in haven't been open...

But still you don't need a mint condition game, right? I did not think so. Really, it's not exactly price gouging. Mint condition games of this popularity (just like a mint condition Ocarina of Time) are valuable...to collectors. :p

My suggestion is, look on Ebay. Yes, you'll need to figure out how to tell if the seller has a good reputation, because that will tell you the likelihood of them selling you a good and workable copy of that game. Also, make sure to check their location. You don't necessarily want to get something from Europe or Hong Kong, I think...:p
 
Yeah as Pokemon games get older they seem to go up in value.

At my local shop Black and White are £5 more than Black2 and White 2. The gen 4 games are even higher.

They don't have Crystal, but I've looked on Amazon and ebay, a good condition one costs in the hundreds or sometimes thousands.
 
I though Gen 4 games on ebay where generally cheap due to most of the unboxed ones being *cough* counterfit.

Saying that I did sell my Gen 1 pokemon gameboy and games for a fair amount a while back.
 
Wow i was thinking of getting some older games myself but not at those prices.
 
It's kind of risky to buy those used ones as most of them would be pirated or in really bad translation. I had a Pokemon Gold once with horrible translation. The moves and Pokemon names are wrong.
Anyway, I think I saw pre owned Red and Blue in Gamestop once.
 
tell me about it, Im in the UK and I've been holding up for a year to buy the games Im missing so far.... prices aren't quite as preposterous as the ones you re showing, but still Im not paying £40 for an old crystal game ôO especially since I have to buy like 5 of these old Gen games I dont have plus X and Y in october... I m not exactly poor but I aint rolling on gold(uck) (sorry for the pun T_T)
 
eBay usually has Gen I games anywhere from 10-50 USD and as far as I can tell Gen III games are usually cheaper than that.
The main thing you'll want to be careful about are Gen II games because they won't always tell you if the batteries are still good.
 
YaelleG said:
I - am - so - angry right now. :boom:Its like, not even funny. I have been trying to find some older Pokemon games because I've never played anything so far besides Pearl. Well, I have checked in my local store and I will go back there again, since they get new things all the time. But I ended up on Amazon. I think its rather clear what happened. Well, this is my theory, anyhow. I'm betting a lot that I'm correct here:

Ok so they've got many of the old games that I have seen many a time in person & online go for just a handful of dolalrs - they have got them marked up for $300, $600 and even $1,099 apiece. THAT IS SO WRONG because what happens is, other sellers see that Mr. Greedypants has his copy up for some outrageous amount & they start thinking, oh this game must be super valuable. I had better mark up my copy also!
And that creates a very ugly ripple effect and just destroys the entire market for these things. :boom: Gaaaahhh!!! I am strongly considering contacting Amazon & letting them know people are doing this - maybe its against the rules. Seems like it would be, but ya never know.

There is just no logical reason why this is happening! Its not like they are games that there were like 3 copies of made & people are trying desperately to get ahold of! I doubt I'm allowed to post the links here so I am going to go to that site in another window & just type here some examples. Hold on LOL.

OK here they are:
1. Pokemon X $39.99 free shipping. That's decent & average, right?
2. Pokemon Fire Red/Leaf Green Combo for GBA: $1,350.00 (that's one thousand....)
3. Pokemon Leaf Green $179.99
4. Pokemon Red $599.95
5. Pokemon Yellow - Special Pikachu Edition $767.50
6. Pokemon Ruby $274.95
7. Then they've got a Pokemon Emerald for $600, a Gameboy advance SP for $600 (the system)
8. Pokemon Sapphire $185, Emerald for $349.95 and on & on & on.

WHAT THE HECK!!? THIS IS MORALLY CORRUPT!!
Reminds me of the time somebody paid me $75 for a copy of Lost in Blue for DS lol! But like, come on...! Seriosuy. How am I ever going to get my Gen I & Gen II games and without even considering my selfish whims just, come on. This is wrong. Don't you all think?
Click to expand...

Those are new prices... I bought used Yellow ten bucks.

They aren't in production so there is a limited amount left unpackaged. It'd be stupid to buy those all new anyway, now try looking at the used and stop bashing amazon. :)
 
Like the above says, buy used ones if you can. I was able to get the cartridge only of FireRed for about $20.
 
The only way you can get a older Pokemon game without being Bill gates or stealing the TARDIS is buying a pre-owned game. Still that's risky because a nearly 20 year old game probably won't work so well. The battery might be dead, or the saves like to corrupt, or it might be a pirated or bootleg version.
Took a look on Amazon:
Pokemon blue New - $417 plus $3 shipping (God this guy's greedy)
Pokemon Blue Used - $22.39 + 3.99 shipping.
I'd recommend finding someone with at least 90% positive reviews and at least 100ish ratings, but don't quote me
Not responsible if you get scammed, use tip at your own risk
You might get a better deal off E-Bay, but those might also be scams
 
EmpoleonProd said:
YaelleG said:
I - am - so - angry right now. :boom:Its like, not even funny. I have been trying to find some older Pokemon games because I've never played anything so far besides Pearl. Well, I have checked in my local store and I will go back there again, since they get new things all the time. But I ended up on Amazon. I think its rather clear what happened. Well, this is my theory, anyhow. I'm betting a lot that I'm correct here:

Ok so they've got many of the old games that I have seen many a time in person & online go for just a handful of dolalrs - they have got them marked up for $300, $600 and even $1,099 apiece. THAT IS SO WRONG because what happens is, other sellers see that Mr. Greedypants has his copy up for some outrageous amount & they start thinking, oh this game must be super valuable. I had better mark up my copy also!
And that creates a very ugly ripple effect and just destroys the entire market for these things. :boom: Gaaaahhh!!! I am strongly considering contacting Amazon & letting them know people are doing this - maybe its against the rules. Seems like it would be, but ya never know.

There is just no logical reason why this is happening! Its not like they are games that there were like 3 copies of made & people are trying desperately to get ahold of! I doubt I'm allowed to post the links here so I am going to go to that site in another window & just type here some examples. Hold on LOL.

OK here they are:
1. Pokemon X $39.99 free shipping. That's decent & average, right?
2. Pokemon Fire Red/Leaf Green Combo for GBA: $1,350.00 (that's one thousand....)
3. Pokemon Leaf Green $179.99
4. Pokemon Red $599.95
5. Pokemon Yellow - Special Pikachu Edition $767.50
6. Pokemon Ruby $274.95
7. Then they've got a Pokemon Emerald for $600, a Gameboy advance SP for $600 (the system)
8. Pokemon Sapphire $185, Emerald for $349.95 and on & on & on.

WHAT THE HECK!!? THIS IS MORALLY CORRUPT!!
Reminds me of the time somebody paid me $75 for a copy of Lost in Blue for DS lol! But like, come on...! Seriosuy. How am I ever going to get my Gen I & Gen II games and without even considering my selfish whims just, come on. This is wrong. Don't you all think?
Click to expand...

Those are new prices... I bought used Yellow ten bucks.

They aren't in production so there is a limited amount left unpackaged. It'd be stupid to buy those all new anyway, now try looking at the used and stop bashing amazon. :)
Click to expand...


I got all three English Gen I games for like $20 when GameStop was still kind of cool and carried used GameBoy games.
 
I guess you just need to look, because I found a used FireRed cartridge for 25 dollars and used Red and Yellow cartridges
for 20 each at used game stores so you could check those places. But those games ARE hard to get new.
 
PockyAddict said:
I know how you feel. Salesguy at game stop told me that pokemon games don't usually go down in price. And he was right.
Click to expand...

This is correct, and you could extend this to Nintendo games in general. They're a different beast than other video games when it comes to prices.
 
Oh yeah I'm definitely cool with used. I get my best deals that way.

So..... I was soooo.... I don't want to say desperate, that word is a bit strong, but I wanted another game so badly that I MAY have acted impulsively & got something from somewhere in Asia from eBay. I really should've checked the language thing. TBH I don't think its going ot be an issue because I didn't even notice that it was from Japan or wtvr until I got the tracking info. At least we don't have to worry about regional differences with this. Um, I think.

All I want is to complete a Pokedex!!! LMAO is that too much to ask? I don't mind not playing the old games. In fact, I have one old one & I don't like it that much. (mystery dungeon) I can not see shelling out for a *third* handheld system just to be able to play 1 or 2 ga.... augh!
 
YaelleG said:
Oh yeah I'm definitely cool with used. I get my best deals that way.

So..... I was soooo.... I don't want to say desperate, that word is a bit strong, but I wanted another game so badly that I MAY have acted impulsively & got something from somewhere in Asia from eBay. I really should've checked the language thing. TBH I don't think its going ot be an issue because I didn't even notice that it was from Japan or wtvr until I got the tracking info. At least we don't have to worry about regional differences with this. Um, I think.

All I want is to complete a Pokedex!!! LMAO is that too much to ask? I don't mind not playing the old games. In fact, I have one old one & I don't like it that much. (mystery dungeon) I can not see shelling out for a *third* handheld system just to be able to play 1 or 2 ga.... augh!
Click to expand...
It's fine to order a used game, but just beware of anything from Hong Kong or China( I think they're said to have a lot of bootlegs) If it's a Japanese game from Japan, the gameplay is exactly the same, though you wont' be able to read the text unless you can read the language However you can look up move names and such on Bulbapedia if you need to. I don't understand Japanese and have played through games in that language easily.
 
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