The Long Game - Has My Collection Appreciated

30th June 2023 (Friday)

Monthly Rambling: The Long Game – Has My Collection Appreciated?

Back in 2017, I finally overcame my hoarder’s compulsion and sold my first preloved boardgame to a stranger at a petrol station. I had just gotten a cheap BNIS copy of Sushi Go Party! which made my existing copy of Sushi Go redundant. So, I put it up at a low, low preloved price and it was gone by the weekend. It was easier than I thought. My fears of being scammed, having to travel long distances to find a buyer, buyer seeking refunds and most of all, that fear of “what if I need it later?” would appear to be unfounded, at least over a small card game like Sushi Go. And so, the Marie Kondo-ing commenced… at the rate of about, 1.5 games a year.

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Now when I started selling my preloved boardgames, I mainly focused on how much I paid for it. This way I don’t make too much of a loss and since most boardgame prices have gone up, my boardgames are usually snapped up pretty quickly. I was not looking to profit off of this, rather it was more akin to putting up my favourite boardgames for adoption. As such, now and again, my sale post would create quite a stir as I had inadvertently put an OOP (out-of-print) boardgame up for sale at a discount from the now “paltry sum” I had paid for it years ago. Still, I never backed out of those deals and I never knew if the new owners turned those boardgames around for a quick profit, but it did get me to thinking if I had any other secret gems lying around in my collection. So let’s find out together.

Tbh, I doubt if there’s going to be a lot of treasure

I won’t list boardgames I got for free, obviously, or boardgames that have only increased less than 50% of what I originally paid. I will be using the average prices of “Very Good” quality boardgames on GeekMarket as a benchmark and as a counter measure against inflation. And I will be converting to USD for ease of comparison. Let’s start at the lowest…

Vindication + Leaders & Alliances : Paid $73 – Value $143 (96% increase)

This was somewhat of a surprise, since Orange Nebula Games just began fulfilment of the latest expansion to Vindication in February. One would think that there would be copies of Vindication in abundance, it would appear that Vindication is a well-loved cube pusher and rightfully so.

Would I consider selling my copy at this price right now?
I contemplated this question for long minutes. On the one hand, the value right now is probably inflated and would come down once people have played the recently fulfilled Vindication enough times. On the other hand, I have only played Vindication once so far and have yet to truly appreciate what the boardgame has to offer. I decided that I would give Vindication time to prove that it belongs in my boardgame collection.

Lords of Vegas : Paid $35 – Value $74 (111% increase)

It is a crime against boardgame humanity that Lords of Vegas was out of print as long as it was. Thankfully Lone Shark Games has remedied the situation with a successful kickstarter for a revised edition this is expected to be delivered by December 2023. Hopefully this enables them to make future print runs to keep Lords of Vegas in circulation.

Would I consider selling my copy at this price right now?
From the moment of my first play of Lords of Vegas, I knew that it would have a place in my boardgame collection. It naturally generates excitement, happiness, sadness and fulfilment because it rewards keen observation and clever tactical play. I have yet to come across a similar game to Lords of Vegas so there is no way I’m letting Lords of Vegas go from my collection.

Shadow Hunters : Paid $39 – Value $86 (121% increase)

Whilst it is common knowledge that Shadow Hunters has been OOP for a while now with no reprint in sight, I still regularly see copies of the boardgame going up on sale in the secondhand market that it doesn’t feel particularly difficult to obtain, albeit at an inflated price.

Would I consider selling my copy at this price right now?
Truth be told, I sold my copy back in 2018 for a fraction of the price. It was a particularly beaten copy, the Shadows, Hunters and Civilians having duked it out over many, many epic battles whilst it has remained in my ownership. Do I regret not making double on the sale? Not really. Getting someone to pay Caverna prices for Shadow Hunters feels like extortion to be honest. So I’m quite happy I sold Shadow Hunters at the price I did, hoping it makes happy memories for someone else.

Yokohama Deluxe : Paid $77 – Value $177 (130% increase)

Single print deluxe editions tend to appreciate in value due to the limited supply, this is particularly made worse by the publisher going out of business, as was the case with the publisher of the deluxe edition of Yokohama – Tasty Minstrel Games. The deluxe edition of Yokohama was one of the nicer deluxification projects although there exist enough third party upgrade packs out there to bring your retail copy pretty close to the deluxe copy.

Would I consider selling my copy at this price right now?
Given that there is a low probability that this edition would ever be reprinted ever again, I would say no. Not that I’m hoping for the value to appreciate into the stratosphere, rather I actually like the boardgame enough that if replacing it is not a possibility, then I would like to keep it in my collection.

Glory To Rome : Paid $22 – Value $188 (755% increase)

I came across this unicorn of a boardgame in a foreign games store in another country, unsealed and stashed in the side of a shelf amongst other card games. I managed to bargain with the store person there and got a discount on a boardgame he didn’t seem to realize even existed in the store. To be fair, the store was more interested in selling Warhammer than boardgames.

Would I consider selling my copy at this price right now?
If I could score a copy of the even more exotic and elusive black box edition, then and only then. It was hard enough finding it the first time a decade ago, it would be nigh impossible to locate these days.

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I learned two things through this little exercise. One, inflation has not caused secondhand boardgame prices to rise high enough to surpass the relatively higher prices of boardgames in this region from a decade ago. Two, value is still largely determined by what I teach in the first chapter of Economics – Supply & Demand. And yet despite this knowledge, I don’t think my feelings about my collection or these boardgames in particular have changed in any way. Perhaps this is because I view boardgames as generators of experiences rather than commodities for trade.

Until next time, keep calm and play better.