I guess I was bound to get here eventually. I have 4 retail games left that I don’t own. As you might expect, they are:

Space Invaders
Gundam
Virtual Lab
Virtual Bowling

Now I’m looking at these and wondering if I really want to make the jump to spend thousands of dollars for 4 games. I wanted to get the opinions from some of you that may have these…
Was there any regret or were you always happy with the purchase?
Virtual Boy games have significantly risen in price in the last 2 years… but have these 4 stayed consistent in price or has there been a big jump here too?
What would be your best guess to a fair price on them? There are no Sold Listings for these on eBay, so it’s hard to tell what a normal price would be.
What would be your overall suggestion?

I only collect for a handful of systems, most of them having a smaller library. Thus my collection is not huge, and I would rather have a complete set of something I really enjoy, like the VB, rather than, say 1,000 PS2 games.

Hello!

2019 I had the opportunity to acquire a copy of Space Invaders locally for around $300, which I did. The condition was quite nice as well. For me it was worth it as I didn’t own a flash cart for the VB at the time. Still, my main reason for getting the game was to collect it. I only actively collect for the VB. The other games you mention are not worth it for me and I do not plan on buying any of them. I’m content with playing those on my HyperFlash32. Virtual Bowling I understand, beside being crazy expensive, is very hard to find.

About regret. At the time I felt it was a good decision to make. I can’t blame myself for that now, which I why I don’t really regret buying or selling stuff 🙂 (which I do a lot). Would I buy it today at that same price? Perhaps not. Will I sell my copy? Perhaps not.

As for prices. I can only, somewhat, speak for Space Invaders and at the time that I aquired my copy I think it was being listed at around $500-$600 (CIB). Retrogames (UK) has had a copy listed for years for around $680 (CIB): https://www.retrogames.co.uk/037029/Nintendo/Space-Invaders-Virtual-Collection-by-Taito#

Is it worth it? I think only you can answer that. Personally I would consider my economic situation and also think about what owning those games will add to my life, as that is a lot of money to spend on games that I most likely will not be playing. Remember, you are free to call your collection complete without those four games. It’s all in our minds 😉 Sorry if I can’t give you any more concrete advice on your eventual purchases.

My Virtual Boy collection also lacks those 4 games, I call them the Big Four. But luckily I have a Flashboy, because I will never buy any game for as much as even the cheapest one of those, Space Invaders, goes for. The most expensive game I’ve ever bought was Gimmick for Famicom, which I bought cartridge only for a little less than 200$. The next-most expensive one was 130. But 500? 1000? Nooo way. Just no. Collecting is not that important to me. And emulation does exist in various forms.