According to Amazon, Homeworld Cataclysm is worth up to $115.

And don't get me started on the current wargame companies. DRM out the ass, no digital distribution and they think they can charge the same prices that big-name console titles get for a moderately updated copies of 15 year old games

I have a copy at home. :)

However on ebay you get it new for 17$.

I own so many rare games that I fell off my chair when I saw some of the prices. Games I have owned for years are now selling for 3-4 times what I paid for them.

Take Dungeon Keeper Gold: I bought this along with 9 other games (Theme Hospital, etc.) for $10.

My only regret is selling Touché Fifth Musketeer for $100. That was a LOT of money for me at the time (the dollar was worth 40% more than it is now, too) and since I had only paid $15 for it, it was a great deal. Little did I know how rare it was - it's rare to find a complete version on eBay - and mine was in mint condition.

It happens.

I got in to the game late, but a few years ago I'd decided to start collecting Infocom releases. My first experience with their stuff had been through the 'Lost Treasures of Infocom' collections, so I'd never actually experienced Infocom's fabled 'feelies' and lavish packaging (before they hired an in-house artist, they were paying around $60,000 for packaging design for each game).

Anyway, obviously Infocom's a lot harder to come by now than it was in the '90s, so...It's not unusual for complete packages in decent condition to go for $50+. Not too bad since Infocom games were originally sold for $50 new.

Some of Infocom's earliest games were released in even more unique packaging -- notably Suspended's plastic mask packaging and Starcross's saucer packaging.

Both of those routinely sell for $300+ when you can find them.

If I were a wealthy man, it'd be nice to have two copies of everything, one sealed and one to be played with, but...

On the upside, with the exception of those two items (and the Zork/Enchanter trilogy sets), pricing really isn't too unreasonable. Sure, you've got the opportunists who try to put up $100+ listings on eBay for items that are worth half that, but you've got plenty who are selling at fair value or a little below.

Back in the PlayStation days before PS2 and PS3, Final Fantasy Tactics was one of the most popular and fun games for the platform. Beofre they did the Greatest Hits series, you'd be lucky to get a working copy of FF:T for under $100. It's not some insane amount, but considering the PS games were about $35 new, it was significant to have to pay triple that for a used copy.

Very true. That's why I prefer Ebay over say, Amazon for my older goodies. It's usually much easier to spot the sellers that are using entirely reasonable prices. For the most part I won't go over $50 for the things I grew up on, but it really matters just what the asking price is and the condition (it kills me to see older games being sold just in a cd sleeve or jewel case for $50+. I recently bought the disked version of the Dagger of Amon Ra, all the goodies were in great condition and I only paid $50 for it so it was worth it).

A few years back I was looking to gather some of the Infocom games and their feelies, most definitely A Mind Forever Voyaging. I put it off for a long time though since all the asking prices were way more than I personally wanted to spend. I'll just have to keep my eye out for a better price range if it ever comes.

This is basically why I don't have a legitimate copy of Suikoden 2. :( I love the game so much but the Suikoden series has never been much more than niche titles, so the printing on them is pretty limited. These days trying to find a copy of Suikoden 2 under $200 is quite the task.

I will say that the Infocom boxes are one of the few examples of old games I'm comfortable paying $50 for (and I prefer paying less, definitely).

If you're not particularly adamant about sealed boxes or complete contents, it can also be pretty cheap. For instance, I just picked up a copy of Infocom's Stationfall in great shape for $10 because it was missing the Stellar Patrol sew-on patch (one of the more commonly missing items). All documentation and other props were there right down to the Infocom "Passport" advertising catalog.

Likewise, I got a complete copy of The Witness (which has incredible cover art) for $12 because someone at some point had stacked something on top of the box which left a dent in the back of the box.

Of course, both of those purchases weren't made on eBay or Amazon, but from a storefront run by another collector who is very fair with his pricing.

Oh, and good luck with the hunt for AMFV. For whatever reason, it's one of the harder to come by, not that Infocom games are exactly easy to find anyway, but...AMFV is one I'm still looking for myself.

As for newer older games....If you happen to be anywhere near a Half-Price Books, I've found some fantastic things there really cheap, including some fairly rare stuff like the boxed DK mentioned earlier for around $8.

I almost died a little bit on the inside cause I decided to check Ebay for some of the Infocom games as our little discussion has reminded me that I really would like the boxed copies and I found: A complete version of the Witness selling for $179.00

That and Deadline were two that I really wanted, but seeing the asking price from some sellers really tells me I won't be getting them any time soon... I do wish flea markets happened around where I live still. I used to get a lot of old comics and games dirt cheap but I haven't stumbled on a flea market or garage sale in a long time. One of my friends had a copy of the Witness but it was the Apple II version, I might still grab it from him even if I can't play it on anything.

I'll keep an eye out for Half-Price Books. Thank you for the heads-up. :)

One tip....I might be shooting myself in the foot a bit, but....

For the Infocom stuff and other old-old games like the Magnetic Scrolls stuff or The Third Courier/Presumed Guilty/Old Sierra games, etc. I've found a fantastic place to get it is from Ye Olde Infocomme Shoppe: http://yois.if-legends.org/

Site's even laid out like the old IF games.

Anyway, guy that runs the place says he doesn't get as much Infocom in as he used to, but he still tries to buy the big lots that come available every now and then. Got in a huge collection last year, something like 30+ boxes full of games. So....doesn't have frequent inventory updates but when they happen, they're usually substantial.

And FYI, he has a copy of the Atari folio for The Witness that he's asking $12 (or trade) for. It is, however, missing the matchbook which is probably one of the more commonly lost/missing props, so....

System Shock 2 for $120 on Ebay. Although someone else is selling it for $40. It's entirely driven by scarcity, Thief 2 was released before SS2 and can be had for less than $5 since Eidos happily still sell it. Getting a copy of SS2 now is very difficult, I had to have mine shipped over from Australia.

I've been, a few times, on the verge of paying quite a bit of money for game extras. The manuals in old games were sometimes pretty fantastic, and thumbing through a paper copy while looking back and forth at your screen is much, much easier than ALT-TABBING out of your game screen and back again all the time.

But mostly it has been for things like quick-references of commands on a small card, and build order charts. With some games, it's not always clear what buildings you need to build in order to get a certain level of tech, or soldiers, or superweapon, etc. Sometimes, you need to build an unintuitive combo of prereqs to get where you want to go. Since you can mix and match in so many ways, keeping track of it all can be a huge pain. And it can mean the difference between winning and losing, or spending hours wasting your time versus hours just having fun.

So far I have controlled myself, and also lucked out. I got the original game manual for X-COM: UFO Defense for ten bucks on Amazon, for instance. But I have come close to spending tons of money on e-bay for this stuff.

I have an original copy of Dungeon Keeper...

The disc... anyway...

I'm not sure there is a reasonable price that would actually make me part with it. I still play it.