Would you pay $31,000 for a terrible video game? The copy of Air Raid I wrote about a week or so ago finally sold for the aforementioned staggering price after a fierce eBay battle. Atari Age authenticated the cartridge before the auction ended and concluded that it is likely the only boxed edition in existence. 

While the story is very cool, I want to touch on what this will do to the retro games market. Retailers will be flooded with calls about Atari 2600 games, unnamed cartridges will go for thousands in hopes of finding a rare gem, and shady people will markup their wares in an attempt to trick consumers.... 

Retro games are the new antiques, but hugely successful auctions like this will turn them into the new comic books. Not everything is rare, but everything can give the illusion of being rare, just like a comic issue could become iconic.

I readily admit to being part of the problem. I recently started looking for discontinued DS games going for ridiculously low prices. Since I'm not at all greedy, here's a tip: Clubhouse Games is now out of print. Many people predict this lesser-known collection of mini games could reach Electroplankton levels of obscurity now that Nintendo has stopped production. Will it reach similar prices, though? 

Clubhouse Games is a collection of card games, any number of which you can get for free on the Internet or on your phone. What makes this different is that Nintendo made it and barely promoted it before letting it fade away. Does that make it collectible? Air Raid proves that quality is not a factor in price as it is a Taiwanese bootleg of the game Space Jockey. 

What is the defining factor of worth when it comes to rare games? The most conclusive answer is limited production, but that seems like a bad reason for placing something on a pedestal. It works in all other forms of collecting, but games should meet a different standard.

Collecting games should not be about hoarding. A game is meant to be played, and if you aren't intending to play what you collect then you are missing the spirit of entertainment software entirely. 

Unfortunately, the future of retro games is not a pleasant one. People are breaking apart copies of Panzer Dragoon Saga and selling each piece for hundreds of dollars -- making a decent and complete game extremely difficult to find. That's not an inspiring sign for someone hoping to procure a copy simply for enjoyment.

My want of Clubhouse Games is a sign that I may be slipping into this monetarily obsessed mode of collecting, and because of this I am putting my foot down about buying it. I want to enjoy what I bring into my home, and even though I have an all-but-useless Virtual Boy sitting in my living room, someday I will use it to play Jack Bros. 

Is my cynicism misplaced? I want to hear your stance on the state of rare and retro games in the post -31,000-dollar auction world.