Hypothetical Question -- Could a Massive Boardgame Value Collapse Happen?

I don't know if it will crash overnight versus a long steady decline, which is already started in a lot of cases . I've been seeing it for wargame prices for awhile, but that is not only a much smaller market, but also affected as much by an aging population as a glut of stuff being produced ( although that is an issue as well IMO ) . A sad by product is that you occasionally see a big listed somewhere and its an estate situation, where the widow/friend of the deceased is selling stuff.

If you're on any Facebook groups dedicated to selling all types of games, you no doubt see an increase of posts where instead of a text listing of say a half dozen games, you see a picture with dozens upon dozens of Euro/AT/former KS games. In a LOT of cases, I don't recognize ANY of them. Sometimes there isn't even a price, just "make an offer" since the seller has no idea of what to ask/and or just needs shit GONE. I think its slowly dawning on people that the relentless binge buying of recent years is gonna bite them in the ass, either financially, space , or both. In extreme cases, I have no doubt it causes marital strife. I've seen it happen.

I've long been a proponent of selling locally/at cons since a lot of cheap stuff is hard to sell thru the mail. The WBC auction fills up in less than 2 days and the auction store/flea market fills pretty fast too nowadays.

I've seen a few stores hold sales days where gamers bring in stuff to sell off in a flea market/auction type environment. I think this sort of thing could really take off if stores pushed it. It wouldn't necessarily displace new game sales, it would give gamers cash for stuff gathering dust on their Kallax shelves and they might spend it in the store on more games. Sell 100 boxes of utter trash, buy a couple new ones with the money.

When I think "Bubble" I think of a market where price has outstripped value, as we saw in the tech and housing bubbles (an oversimplified def. for sure). The board game market doesn't seem to be conforming to this.

The average price of games has ticked up somewhat, but the value in that box seems to correspond; better components, thoughtful game play, great service, etc.

Games go in and out of print, and some producers can't keep up, but the market is mostly stable. The secondary market can become inflated, but the vast majority if gamers are never going to be affected by this niche.

Market Oversaturation is a different problem and I suspect is what you mean when you say "Bubble."

RolandHemisphere wrote: When I think "Bubble" I think of a market where price has outstripped value, as we saw in the tech and housing bubbles (an oversimplified def. for sure). The board game market doesn't seem to be conforming to this.

The average price of games has ticked up somewhat, but the value in that box seems to correspond; better components, thoughtful game play, great service, etc.

Games go in and out of print, and some producers can't keep up, but the market is mostly stable. The secondary market can become inflated, but the vast majority if gamers are never going to be affected by this niche.

Market Oversaturation is a different problem and I suspect is what you mean when you say "Bubble."

Who's the new guy with insightful comments and fine penmanship?

I'll mention that I don't think I used "bubble" though I should probably check my follow-on posts.

Some games are cheap as dirt because they aren't stunners. But some games now are getting big print runs and are maintaining value or even climbing because a lot of people are buying with the attitude that "if I don't like it I can sell it for what I paid for it.". The demand allows them to hedge their bet. My concern is that a significant change in that attitude could catch everyone off-guard, and modern games could bounce.

Won't hit title like Goldland or Tikal, but could hit Kingdom Death Monster and its ilk.

S.

I remember getting back into gaming when I bought Cheapass games on vacation in the discount bin. It took me over ten years to get off that dopamine-producing hamster wheel. I miss good cheap small games.

I was very impressed with Cheapass Games for a while. I even played in a big Cheapass Games event at GenCon that year, where a group of eight players competed to win three different Cheapass Games: Kill Dr. Lucky, Lord of the Fries, and Deadwood Studios (which might have been just Deadwood back then). The eight player game of Kill Dr. Lucky was epic, and continued until after the deck had been emptied and shuffled twice. That's impressive considering that the discarded Failure cards do not get shuffled back into the deck until the game is over. In hindsight, Kill Dr. Lucky was the only Cheapass Game that was really good.

I like Enemy Chocolatier, but I was raised in Hershey PA.

Shellhead wrote: In hindsight, Kill Dr. Lucky was the only Cheapass Game that was really good.

Ooooooh I will fight you on that one. Cheapass has loads of winners from that era. Not the thread for it though.

I wish I still had enemy chocolatier! I guess I like the idea of cheapass more than the actual implementation, and the odd humor.

Until a Cheapass (pronounced Chia-pass by me for many years) thread is created, I'm hanging on to my signed white cardboard editions of Kill Dr. Lucky and Deadwood and my Brawl decks (technically James Ernest Games, I guess) are just waiting for someone to play them.

I'm just wondering who really is worried about it. Many, if not all, people in this thread wouldn't blink an eye about a social night our with family or friends to see a movie or visit a pub/bar/restaurant and spend maybe half the retail cost of a game with the end result of a good time and a good memory - buying a boardgame is in the same bucket apart from being able to repeat it as many times as you want for no more outlay and possibly have something still worth something when you've finally finished.
As for whether it is happening, well it's the same in any market - supply and demand rules. You have an increasing number of companies putting out an increasing amount of 'similar' stock and prices will sink, and I suppose you could wonder why they do make big print runs as any follow-up runs will be hit by the secondary market but if they do shorter print runs then they probably have a good chance of not being affected by secondary sales (say like FFG and Cosmic Encounter).