Diamond and Pearl release raises classic Pokémon prices
by Kyle Orland 
{ Jun 22nd 2007 at 12:29PM }
The drive to catch all 493 beasts in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl is causing a surge in demand for old Pokémon games. JJGames' used video games price tracker shows the average price for used, classic Pokémon games rising over 20 percent since early Feburary. Used game prices in general went down nearly 20 percent during the same period.
As the above graph shows, the Pokémon prices largely track with the market through the end of February, when they surged ahead of the DS games' April 22 release. The prices take a downward turn for the month after Diamond and Pearl's release, then shoot up again after Memorial Day, the traditional start of summer.
While this meteoric rise might encourage you to invest all your savings into used Pokémon games, we encourage caution. A well-diversified portfolio of used games is the only way to avoid fiascos like this one.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Chris @ Jun 22nd 2007 12:47PM
Most of the rare Pokemon I have now I got from when I worked at Blockbuster/Gamerush in college. When people would trade in their games or return the rented copies I would hook up my GBA to the stores GBA and transfer all of those hard eared Poke's to my game. It makes more sense to buy used copies of Pokemon so you can transfer the previous owners catches into your new game.
That's when I was hard core into Pokemon lol. I thought my addiction had subsided until DP came out.
Shagittarius @ Jun 22nd 2007 12:53PM
Pokeman DP? Double Penetration?
machrc @ Jun 22nd 2007 12:56PM
wow you gots to be a famous game to have statistics and a freaking chart showing 20% increase in used games..
I my self picked up red and blue for GBA for my sister, since she has both diamond and pearl and she wanted to "catch 'em all" (sigh)
"did I mention shes has the song on her ipod that starts, "i wanna be the very best............
calthaer @ Jun 22nd 2007 1:15PM
I can't wait until I finish the main "quest" so that I can jack up the GTS (Global Trading Station) with Jirachis from the bonus disc, which is worth more than the game that it was a pre-order bonus for now. SO glad I bit the bullet and spent the full $50 for Colosseum when it first came out. I'm gonna drive a hard bargain and bleed someone for their legendaries so that they can get my promo.
Likewise, I'm savoring the efforts I went through to obtain Deoxys, Celebi, and Mew. It's practically money in the bank.
Still, the price for USED games...? The only game that isn't that readily available new is Ruby, from what I can see - and perhaps Colosseum. What goes for BIG bucks are Pokemon Box and the pre-order disc for Colosseum. But Box just has a bunch of semi-useful novelty variations on guys you can already get (although Colosseum has some unique ones).
Jonathan Tran @ Jun 22nd 2007 1:17PM
wait I don't get it.. you can xfer pokes from the old games into the new ones? how?
Like, if I have pokemon red and blue lying at home, those save games can be put into diamond and pearl??
shirizaki @ Jun 22nd 2007 1:18PM
Not only that, the DS doesn't even play old GB games. So the price of an old GBA should be going up too. Good thing I kept my old one, as well as my old R/B/Y/G/S carts. Oooo, and my gameshark.
That should fetch a pretty penny.
kingofwale @ Jun 22nd 2007 1:22PM
i blame the parents.
They were bugged endlessly by their kids for the new game, The smarter ones went online to check it out. And they saw that the new DS games look IDENTICAL to the older game.
so... instead of wasting 40+ dollars on a new game, they went out and bought older, used Pokemon games, and the kids wouldn't even be able to tell.
Quastor @ Jun 22nd 2007 1:28PM
@shirizaki
I doubt the price for the old GB games are being affected much. The reason this is happening is because a variety of different things happen if you have a Pokemon GBA game in the second slot on the DS. The biggest one being the fact that you can transfer pokemon from the GBA cart save onto your DS save, so everyone who didn't have the old games are now trying to get the pokemons that aren't in the DS version.
Since GB games don't fit in the second slot on the DS, there is no added value to the GB versions.
SaraAB87 @ Jun 22nd 2007 2:26PM
I did pretty well, I went to the Toys R Us mew event, I got home, duplicated them with a GBA memory stick, then sold them on ebay and made like 80$ on Mew sales alone. So yes it is money in the bank, I don't think ebay allows you to do this anymore though.
I laugh at all the people who sold their old pokemon gba games thinking they would be useless in the future...
I also coughed up the 50$ for pokemon Colloseum and it was well worth it for me as well, not to mention you get that nifty berry-fixing program on the bonus disk as well.
SKI @ Jun 22nd 2007 2:30PM
@kingofwale
That doesn't make sense.
tickle_my_left_nut @ Jun 22nd 2007 3:47PM
I cant believe anyone older then twelve plays this shit.
Mr Khan @ Jun 22nd 2007 7:34PM
@ kingofwale
Yup; cuz people are too dumb to see the intermittent 3D polyganal structures scattered around, as well as the other, quasi-3D structures
I was skeptical that i would still find pokemon fun at age 17, but after all my friends got it, they managed to convince me. Now that i actually have the patience to grind, the games are actually more fun than when i was 10...
miguelon918 @ Jun 23rd 2007 2:53AM
@tickle_my_left_nut
I second that, i mean i do have old pokemon games but i bought them when i was like 8 years old, now they look so dumb to me...
kingofwale @ Jun 23rd 2007 4:33PM
>I was skeptical that i would still find pokemon fun at age 17,
Pokemon is fun, at 1996 when the first one came out. but when you have a DS game 11 years later pretty much recycled most of its content from the 1996 game, then, that's what makes it insulting. How long can we start making DS = two GB taped together jokes?