Are you people flipping nuts? I genuinely feel sorry for anyone now in 2021 who says, “You know my collection could use a Sega Saturn.” The prices of the games have no basis in reality. Now that being said, I should clarify there are some cheap Saturn games. Some you’ll want to play, but many you will not. However, when the Saturn version of Doom, largely hailed as the worst port ever, can fetch twice the price of a game the caliber of Virtua Fighter 2 something is not right. I mean are the people paying these prices even playing the games? I suspect in some cases they are merely filling empty spots in their collections. This is fine but that shifts the value from gaming experience to object.

Granted I still have the Saturn that I bought in August of 1995. A large number of my games are original purchases. I’ve kept them because I still enjoy playing them. Games I’ve traded in I did so because I stopped enjoying playing them. Yes that includes the copy of Panzer Dragoon Saga that I traded in for a copy of Resident Evil 2. A game which I did complete so I didn’t feel bad about doing the trade until the eBay prices hit $700 a few years back. I feel the pain for those who perhaps weren’t even alive at that time and still want to experience these games.

Look I get it, different strokes for different folks, but I fear that the high cost of some of these games may turn off collectors who then miss out on some of the best game experiences of the 32 bit era. Which interestingly enough are somewhat affordable. I’m looking at you VF2 and Sega Rally. What I’m really getting at is I never thought I’d see the day when video games would be thought of as investments. As a hobby gaming has come a long way and I hate to see its history locked behind prices only the richest of us can afford.