>>11862625 (OP)There are a ton of guys on here who will say shit like, "You paid $130 for an N64 and a game? You could've gotten that for 20 bucks!", but they're either lying, posturing based on their own good luck, or they're out of touch with the current market.
In reality, collecting games these days comes down to three things:
>1) What are you looking for?>2) What condition are you willing to accept?>3) How much are you willing to pay?Don't listen to anybody who says pricecharting is an accurate indicator of market value, because that site is completely fucked. The best way to gauge the value of a game is to go on eBay and sort by price > lowest to highest, and work your way down the list. A game that's in great condition, CIB, etc., is going to go for a lot more than some a cartridge. If all you want is to play the game, then you can get better deals. If you want some shit that looks good on a bookshelf though, then you'll be paying twice as much or more.
Many will tell you that you can get these insanely deals on fb marketplace, craigslist, yardsales, etc. That is potentially true; there's always that chance you come across the grandson's NES and box of games for $15. That isn't realistic though. People started figuring out about 5-10 years ago that this stuff was valuable, and so 99% of them sell the goods online. If you are hawkish and patient, you can get a holy grail on the cheap, but it requires a lot of footwork with no guarantee.
The best thing you can do is say to yourself, "alright, I want X game, I know it goes for $80 in good condition on eBay", and accept it. Add listings to your watchlist, wait for a seller to offer a discount, and then make a offer that's a grade lower, and hope to meet in the middle. You aren't going to get an $80 game for 5 bucks, but you can shave off 15, 20 or 30 if you're smart, and thereby reduce the overall cost of obtaining your perfect collection by 20-40%. This is the most consistent way to do it, in my mind.