This must be the third or fourth time I’ve explained this in the comment section here. Whenever you hear about a really high auction price for a video game in the past few years, that is the result of market manipulation.
A very small group of collectors and auction house owners work together to artificially drive the price up, frequently buying the games from themselves. It is unethical and very likely at least partially illegal.
I know this sounds like a conspiracy theory, but not only do the public records of these big sales make it obvious, it also shows that these are often the same exact individuals who did the exact same thing in the rare coin market a couple decades ago.
This must be the third or fourth time I’ve explained this in the comment section here. Whenever you hear about a really high auction price for a video game in the past few years, that is the result of market manipulation.
A very small group of collectors and auction house owners work together to artificially drive the price up, frequently buying the games from themselves. It is unethical and very likely at least partially illegal.
I know this sounds like a conspiracy theory, but not only do the public records of these big sales make it obvious, it also shows that these are often the same exact individuals who did the exact same thing in the rare coin market a couple decades ago.