Hebbe_84 wrote:
Money, money, money… Money, money, money…
Love the money, want the money,
Give me money, lots of money,
Big, big money; Oh! The money!
Money, money, money…
Well, your understanding of the word “profiteer” is mostly right, except for your limiting it to the sale of essential goods alone. That was its primary use many decades ago, but the English language is always changing, and definitions and meanings of words constantly change, especially as they find general acceptance and use. If you look into this subject more, you will find that profiteering occurs, and the word itself is used, in any situation where there is a short supply of any type of good that is in demand, and many modern dictionaries have even already been updated to reflect such. This word has already been applied and used for quite a while in relation to the sale of non-essential items in many other areas, and I am by no means the first person to apply it to the area of video games. But the rest of your understanding is right. It does involve the situation when the sellers can control, and therefore strongly influence, the market prices, rather than the market controlling the prices. Thus, the market must bow down to the sellers, rather than the sellers bowing down to the market.
The reason why it is so despicable with rare video games is because of why the video games are rare in the first place, which is often as a result of the failure with which the original creators of the games were met. As a rule, they put a lot of time and effort into the making of a product for a market that did not want or appreciate their work at the time, and as a result, they were hit with serious financial losses, and many of the game developers were no doubt out of work for a while and went through various hardships as a consequence. It wouldn’t be until many years later that their creations would be appreciated by some individuals, who would seek to honor the developers in some way by taking care of and appreciating their creations, and thereby preserving that piece of gaming history, which the vast majority of others still couldn’t care less about. But then enter the gaming profiteers who find out about the certain individuals and their appreciation for those creations and who find the opportunity to take advantage of those individuals’ appreciation and make excessive profits for themselves on the sales of single items, to which they are in no way entitled, if they simply get their hands on the rare items that they themselves don’t care much about and wait around for more people to start appreciating those items, some of whom they may be able to take advantage of in the future. Thus, not only do the profiteers tread on and take advantage of the original works of the developers who were met with failure, loss, and hardship – works that the profiteers themselves had no part in and, thus, no right to profit from – but the profiteers also take advantage of the hearts of the people who seek to appreciate those creations and honor the developers in some way. The fact is, if the video game collecting market only consisted of people who actually appreciated the video game creations, caring not about personal gain from the accomplishments of others, all market prices would be much lower for everything, and it would be a lot more fun and enjoyable for everyone involved, since “everyone” in the market would only consist of those who truly appreciated the creations, but with certain systems, the profiteers skew things and do exercise their control and strong influence on the market selling prices for the rare items. I should also add here that I don’t feel that people who “make profits” off of the selling of video games in general are treading on the works of the developers, for if they make a reasonable profit on the sale of each individual game, then they are being paid for their time and energy spent into the taking care of and distributing of the games, as well as the hassle with dealing with potentially angry and difficult customers, so it is that time of work and energy spent, which the original makers of the game have no part in, that they are being paid for, and the market should decide what is a “reasonable” price for that amount of time and energy spent on the work needed for the sale of a single item. And what a great world it would be if the “market” only consisted of the people who truly cared about the relevant products and did not consist of the profiteers, but of course, that is never going to happen.
Thankfully, with Virtual Boy, a person who has the profiteering mentality will find that he won’t be able to fulfill his heart’s desire in relation to Virtual Boy, as even the rarest of commercially released games maintain their steady values over a long time because there are still hardly any people who actually care about them, and there are still enough copies accounted for and available on a regular basis for the individuals who do. Of course, there are always exceptions to this, such as with the still unreleased prototype games, which many people in the Virtual Boy community would still love to appreciate, but these same people may be forced to bow down to the profiteers in the future if they ever want to cherish those failed creations. But for the most part, while the profiteers may find their success more easily with systems like NES and Atari 2600, they will almost always have to be met with disappointment if they seek to tread on Virtual Boy.
