How much is my video game collection worth and how to work it out

The most common mistake when valuing a collection is looking at what listings are asking. A listing tells you what someone wants to charge, not what anyone has paid. The games that stay up for sale for months are precisely the ones priced too high.

To know what a game is worth you need to look at sold listings: what has actually been paid for copies of the same edition in the same condition, over a recent period.

Condition and completeness

This is the biggest factor. The same game can have three very different prices:

• Loose: just the cartridge or disc.
• Complete (CIB, complete in box): cartridge or disc, box, manual and everything that came with it as standard.
• Sealed: unopened, in the factory shrink-wrap.

For cartridges from the 80s and 90s, the gap between loose and complete can be huge, because cardboard boxes got thrown away. Within each category, the specific condition (corners, spine, manual, label) moves the price up or down. The condition grades guide goes into detail.

Region and edition

A Spanish PAL, a UK, a North American and a Japanese copy of the same game have different markets. We explain this in what Spanish PAL means.

Variant

First editions versus budget re-releases (Platinum on PlayStation, Player's Choice on Nintendo, Classics on Xbox): the re-release is usually worth less, although there are exceptions. Special editions have their own guide.

Rarity and demand

A scarce game nobody wants does not go up; a plentiful but highly sought-after one can hold its price. What sends prices soaring is the combination of few copies and high demand: cult games with short print runs, such as Rule of Rose or Haunting Ground on PlayStation 2, are the textbook example.

Working order

A cartridge that no longer saves because its battery has died, or a scratched disc that freezes, is worth less even if the box is perfect.

1. Take an inventory. One line per copy, not per game: title, platform, region, condition and what it includes.
2. Look up sold listings for each copy in the same condition and region. Look at several recent sales and take a middle value, not the highest.
3. Set aside anything with no reference price. If you cannot find sales, do not make up a price: mark it as “no data”.
4. Add it up and be clear about what that figure is. The total is an indicative market value, not what you would get for it tomorrow.

That last point matters. If you sell in a hurry or as one lot, you will get less: a bulk buyer takes off their margin, and platforms and postage have costs. For insurance or dividing up a collection, on the other hand, what matters is replacement value: what it would cost to get hold of every piece again.

Doing it by hand works with twenty games; with three hundred it becomes impossible to keep up to date. In Games Library:

• You add each copy by searching for the title or using the camera, and record platform, region, format and condition.
• The Collection value screen adds up the market value of what you own, compares it with what you paid and tells you how many games have a real price and how many are estimated.
• On the paid plans, a snapshot of the value is saved every day, so you can see how it changes over time.
• If a game has no price, we say so. We do not fill gaps with made-up figures.

You can try it with a sample collection in the demo before creating your account.