Why is AC: Population Growing so expensive?

[TurnipBell20]

The game is titled as rare and not sold under 100 €. Is that different in other parts of the world? I mean, sure it’s an old game, but 100 €!? I would love to play it, but I don’t want to spend so much money. :[ Does anyone else have the same problem?

 

[Croconaw]

There seems to be used copies for around $50 on Ebay, if you’d rather go that route. I know some older games that just happen to be pricey due to their popularity or some other reason.

 

[Introspective Onlooker]

It's possible to see the game go for around 50$ on eBay, but that's only the game itself, not the complete package. Expect to see CIB copies sold close to $80. The Japanese versions are cheaper, but then there's that pesky region lock to worry about. Emulating the game might be your only option.

 

[VanitasFan26]

Because retro games in general are so hard to find and most times you find a game like AC from GameCube being expensive especially on Ebay. I don't really bother that, since I can just emulate games on my PC. If Nintendo would've made it easy to buy retro games this would not be this hard. I know thats a topic for another thread, but still it still highlights the issue of trying to buy retro games because most times it could be a scam.

 

[Ichiban]

nintendo games generally hold or increase in value because they're common collectors items. the gamecube didnt sell very well which means theres not as many used copies circulating, and since most collectors want a consoles best titles the first party nintendo games tend to be the most expensive on the collectors market.

 

[Mr_Keroppi]

All Gamecube games have been extremely expensive for a while. I though the 50 dollars before the pandemic were alot for an old game and then the pandemic hit and for some reason Double Dash, Thousand Year Door, ACPG and more have become INSANELY PRICEY.

 

[Holla]

That's retro games for you. Gamecube is especially expensive due to it's age, and it didn't have the crazy number of sales like the Wii did. Therefore less copies of games for it were made/sold.

Two years ago I bought Fire Emblem Path of Radiance for just under $200 Canadian. It came with the box but was missing the manual. Now you are lucky to find it for $250 Canadian just the disc with no box or manual.

I bought Animal Crossing on Gamecube several years ago at a local used game shop for about $40 Canadian or so. Unfortunately the game didn't work so I had to return it for a refund and I never found another copy since. It's easily $50 Canadian now for just the disc alone.

 

[xSuperMario64x]

short and simple answer is that it's a gamecube game lol. those games are always super expensive, hence why the only games I own for it are Animal Crossing, Luigi's Mansion, MK Double Dash, and Donkey Konga (all of which I've had for 8+ years).

I also technically own the gameboy player disc but even that was hella expensive back in 2013

 

[-Blue-]

Nintendo never prints enough of their games. It's always been an issue and why the amiibo cards being so hard to find is so prevalent. Nintendo also refuses to make their retro games available to the public unless you want to pay for the NSO/+ membership that has their cherry-picked versions and not every game.

That is why most of their games are so expensive.

 

[forestbats]

Old games are becoming rarer now days specially when the franchise becomes very popular later down the line. And then there are more collectors in the community buying them up so the sellers are going to jack up the price to make as much profit as possible. Plus Nintendo games are expensive in general even back in the day.

Don't forget the AC wasn't that popular then the franchise started, yeah there was a small community but not even close to what it is today. We never really saw AC merch outside of Japan till New Horizons arrived that how small it kinda was.

 

[Flicky]

In addition to what has already been said, I believe ACNH's popularity gave the game a further boost. Before New Horizons was released, it was selling for less.

 

[cherrytheone]

Retro games are always expensive because of nostalgia and collectors

I'd advise looking for smaller vendors if you want to buy ACGC. Not GameStop or anything kinda big. Sites like eBay and Amazon can be unreliable at times. If you find a copy at a smaller business it would be ideal - they probably have lower prices than bigger corporations. my copy (with the original case) was $70 lol idk if it was a good deal but it was cheaper than a lot of what was on Amazon

 

[ShinyDungeoneer]

I agree with all of the thoughts above, but I think it also has to do with LUCK. I have a used copy of ACGC, and I got it from a retro game store that had a ton of stuff I wanted (Animaniacs on Genesis was an item there, and I really wanted that, but me no have a Genesis), and I think it was 45-50 dollars, and SADX, the GameCube port of Sonic Adventure 1, was hovering around the 30 dollar mark for me, and both copies were used. Now, this could be due to SADX's lack of manual, and ACGC having its manual, but I digress.

 

[MiniPocketWorld]

Nostalgia and the new popularity of animal crossing in general.
The biggest problem with retro gaming is people insisting that it's wrong to play x game unless it is on original official equipment or the original offical carts. Prices get jacked up because of the demand of these products whether it is for collecting on a shelf, or a visit down memory lane, or getting the stuff so kids of people who grew up with this stuff can also experience it. However those things will eventually stop working. With Nintendo resisting to have the ability for consumers to buy old digital copies of games, or coming out with a mini physical system like sega did, soon the only way to play will be through emulation.

 

[Beanz]

i got a copy 6 months ago from an amazon seller for about $50. the disc seems to have been resurfaced at one point because it has a weird white paste on it, they’re very expensive probably because nintendo doesn’t manufacture the game anymore and there’s only a limited amount of copies.

 

[DarthGohan1]

It all comes down to supply and demand.

The supply side is pretty straightforward. Video games in general, Nintendo games, and especially Gamecube and its games were popular at a much different (less mainstream) level than they are currently. Animal Crossing was a top 10 Gamecube game in terms of sales, yet sold only 2.7 million copies. Take a look at the top selling Gamecube games to get an idea of how many copies best sellers sold in that era. And then compare that to this list for Switch. New Horizons has sold 40 million + copies to date. That's a 15x difference in sales for AC on Gamecube vs. Switch. Taking into account that most copies of Animal Crossing for Gamecube were sold 20 years ago means that some number of copies are broken, missing, thrown away when people moved, long forgotten/buried in a box in public storage, or gone for any number of other reasons. The number of remaining and available copies only goes down over time. And of those remaining copies, some number of those belong to people who would never consider selling their copy of the game (like yours truly). So as time goes on there's less and less supply available.

If no one cared about Animal Crossing for Gamecube, that limited supply wouldn't matter too much. There are 20 year old collectibles you can buy online for relatively low prices. But when demand goes up, especially significantly, for an older, out of print item, that limited supply leads to higher prices. Assuming there are now 40+ million Animal Crossing fans worldwide based on New Horizon sales, if even a small subset of the 2023 ACNH fans want to play the original, it's easy to see why the price of Animal Crossing for Gamecube (and likewise for other Gamecube games) are at the levels they currently are.

 

[Leo King]

I have seen cheaper copies on Mercari, there's a copy going for $14 right now ^^

 

[windwake-me-up-inside]

Got my copy around 6-7 years ago from a very small used games seller back when the prices weren't that steep- I believe I bought it for 30$ for a copy with its box + manuals. I think the other reason it's gone up in price is because the late 20-somethings that fell off gaming are coming back to get childhood games they feel nostalgic over or missed out on.

 

[Alolan_Apples]

It’s kinda funny that I saw this, because last February, I sold my copy of the GameCube version to Game Exchange.

 

[Gabby]

It's a classic now and people love to collect old games. I fortunately still have my GNC AC disc, but unfortunately not the case.