Pokemon fans are driving some of the most absurd retro game price gouging

gamesradar.com:

If you've had an eye on the retro game collecting scene recently, you know the price of old games has risen dramatically in the past few years - and Pokemon fans in particular are driving some of the most ridiculous price gouging.

As a not-altogether-serious collector I've been vaguely aware of this trend for a bit, but a tweet from Goodwill Goblin (opens in new tab) - an account that highlights video game items posted on the ShopGoodwill auction site (opens in new tab) - really put the situation in perspective. Loose Pokemon Emerald cartridges are now selling for close to $200.

You know how popular Pokemon is today? You know how popular Pokemon was back in the early 2000s? The best selling games on the GBA were Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire, with 16 million units sold, Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen, with 12 million units sold, and Pokemon Emerald, with 7 million units sold.

we interrupt our usual programming to bring you this important public service announcement: Pokemon Emerald sold more than 7 million units and is not rare, please do not spend this much money on the third most-common Game Boy Advance game. pic.twitter.com/PIZIXBagVTFebruary 25, 2023

Despite that, auction tracking services like PriceCharting (opens in new tab) show that they're also some of priciest games on the GBA, rivaling even the handheld's most obscure, sought-after titles. Emerald averages a sale price of $178. The others routinely reach near $100. None of these games are hard to find, so why are they so expensive?

I can't pretend to be able to fully pin down the market dynamics of retro game collecting, but I've got a few theories. First, it's worth noting that average retro game prices have effectively doubled since the beginning of 2020, but