Ownership and the Trade Market

(Part of Loaded Dice.)

Excess copies by publication year

I define "excess copies" as the number of copies put up for trade, minus the number of people who want a copy in trade. If a game is in demand, its "excess copies" will be a negative number.

Newer games are much more in demand. Newer games are also more likely to be available, though a game that's only one or two years old is almost certainly not available.

Excess copies versus rating

The median game rating is about 6.8. Games with a rating lower than that tend to have excess copies, and games with a rating higher than that tend to be in demand.

Excess copies versus rating

Low-rated games that are in demand anyway

These games have low ratings but lots of people want them—often because of a media tie-in or prurient interest.

Low-rated games with many excess copies

People bought 'em, and now they're trying to unload 'em.

Low-rated games people are holding on to

These games have low ratings, but a lot of people own them, and they're not trying to get rid of them. (This list does not include childrens' games.)

High-rated games with many excess copies

Some good games you should be able to get cheaply.

High-rated games people are dumping

These games have high ratings, but a substantial fraction of the owned copies are up for trade. Perhaps they lack replay value.

High-rated games that almost nobody owns

These games have strangely high ratings, given how few people own them. I limited this list to non-self-published games published before 2011 and having at least seven ratings.

Pre-1990 games still greatly in demand

These games are probably out of print or too expensive. Reprinting these games, or coming out with a cheaper edition, would make a lot of people happy.

Pre-1990 games with many excess copies

My goal with this list was to find fads that have come and gone, but I don't think it worked. Most of these games are in the oldies-but-goodies category.

Games that aren't moving

Lots of people are offering to trade these games, and lots of people want them. They're not rare: just about everyone who wants a copy could get one. But for some reason, the market isn't clearing. Apparently people don't want these games as badly as they think they do.

If wishes were horses

These games are on lots of wishlists, and they're available for trade, but nobody actually wants to take the "receiving" end of the trade.

Next: 2012 Update

This document (source) is part of Crummy, the webspace of Leonard Richardson (contact information). It was last modified on Monday, August 13 2012, 12:10:37 Nowhere Standard Time and last built on Saturday, April 01 2023, 20:00:22 Nowhere Standard Time.

Crummy is © 1996-2023 Leonard Richardson. Unless otherwise noted, all text licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Document tree:

http://www.crummy.com/
writing/
Loaded Dice/
ownership.html
Site Search: