At least it seems like they are. I have my collection tracked in an app called Gameye and one of the reports adds up the value of everything. Over the past 3 months my game collection has doubled in value. 
. I’m guessing this is somehow related to the pandemic situation, but with unemployment so high and lots of economic uncertainty, I’m surprised people are willing to pay so much more for old video games.
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I think the price jump is due to the people working from home (because of the pandemic). They’re employed, and have more spare money than usual because they haven’t been paying for hot lunches, coffees and bus fares.
Also, and this might not be true at all, I suspect a lot of collectors work in IT and such, so they’re less likely to have lost their jobs.
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Yeah, I can see how those could be factors. I know my own amount of disposable income has shot up since I started working remotely 100% of the time. Trying to resist the urge to blow lots of it on eBay and instead double down on the savings…
It definitely feels like things have gone up quickly. I’ve been looking for a nice copy of World Series Baseball 98 on Saturn. Usually they go for around 15 bucks CIB. Now all of the sudden they’re around 35. I swear sometimes you blink and the price of a game goes up right away.
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3 months ago I thought everything would crash and I could pick up Snatcher, Rondo of Blood, and Valkyrie Profile for cheap. 
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Prices are up. A couple of examples of current asking prices from my world.
- Used Wii are double at 30–50
- Unpopular Japanese games I follow on eBay have jumped from 5 to 25
- Japanese Popils is now over 200
Same from my end, whenever I look to pick up a retro game, the listings post-lockdown have almost always been noticeably more expensive than the sold price before lockdown.
Only exceptions have been cheap games on formats where they got ported, e.g. Dead Rising on 360 cost me a couple of quid.
Global market instability like we are current experiencing always drives up the prices of tangible goods.
Time to hope they crash after everything clears and people start selling things back, while knowing that they will just go up more since the people selling will want more than they paid.
Every year that goes by I regret not getting more and more stuff. And instead I spent a few hundred on alcohol this month…
Retro video games are the new toilet paper.
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Japan post blocked mailing to other countries, so the amount of stuff market has shrunk.
Add to this people stuck indoors on the internet and what stock is out there will go up. It may be temporary, as generally things had been stabilising or even falling in recent years.
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I agree with the lack of availability of stuff direct from Japan drove the prices up, as most often local sellers of import stuff were more expensive before the lockdown.
At least for my part, there has been a lot more impulse buying, even at inflated prices. Being locked at home with nothing to do but browse the internet makes you do that. The ironic part is I only started to receive what I ordered after the lockdown was lifted in my country, so I don’t even have the time to play what I got any more 
Nothing new to add, but I also have seen a big increase in prices, retro and new.
I think people are probably also pulling out old systems they had put away and realizing they’re still fun.
Prior to most US states issuing stay at home orders I was seeing auctions with CIB, barely used Switch Lite’s for ~$200. OG Switches are now listed in the $700+ range, lol.
I have a bunch of games I was planning on selling, but not too keen on going to the post office or used game store when I don’t really need to.
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Some ebay sellers have taken to using DHL which is still shipping stuff out of Japan. Its a little bit more expensive but DHL is way faster than EMS or some of the other services.
Yeah I actually bought a book from Japan which came via DHL. Assuming the seller lost money on it as it was free postage, presumably originally going to basic airmail.
Great book too, ‘Tokyo Style’. Snapshot of 1996 Japan living. Will post some pics sometime.
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I’ve been waiting two months for multiple packages coming EMS. I wish i could go back in time and select DHL.
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Is EMS completely out of action now? Or are they still trying to clear the backlog at least?
EMS heavily relies on extra space in commercial flights for moving packages. We subsidize it by traveling. Since nobody’s traveling right now, all our EMS packages are just sitting there in warehouses.
My packages got shipped prior to them shutting down EMS completely so theoretically they could ship one day but it’s going to be a while.
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I have the English translation of another one of Kyoichi Tsuzuki’s photo books (Tokyo: A Certain Style) and cool as it is, the dimensions are tiny. It’s a little pocket-sized book. Are the Japanese versions any bigger? As detailed as the images are, these pictures deserve much more.
EMS is still going between Japan and the UK. Surprisingly there are two direct flights still operating between Japan and the country, which certainly now explains why EMS never stopped between Japan, having now read @Laevateinn’s helpful explanation.