What would a TG16 price crash look like, anyway? It's not like there's millions of these things sitting around unwanted, waiting for someplace to go.
First, it has to peak. All crashes looked like an upward line until the actual crash. You can't see it as a crash until it has crashed. "There has never been a crash in this segment." is not an economic indicator and it isn't protection from anything. See: The Big Short. They hurt so many people because so many people don't see it coming.
Since we first started speculating on this here I've noticed a few trends. New...stuff, gadgets, games, music, media is ever more obsessed with miniaturization, simplification, and cheapification. However, while that is the biggest market it's not the only one and there is a multi-billion dollar "long tail" that exists now in multiple retro markets because iPhones have one button, because lightweight Bluetooth headphones suck and blow at once, because new games don't have manuals, because iTunes downloads and Spotify streams don't have liner notes, because really, honestly, if we're being *really* honest, 8 and 16 bit games looked better in RGB on an SD monitor they do on that jackoffs giant TV no matter how much he's spent on super high tech scalers.
And because if this Turbo games are expensive. Also, quality mid-range stereo equipment from the 1970s holds its value *astoundingly* well, people still hoard VHS, etc. The current leaders of the electronics industry are clearly leaving something on the table if so many people would rather pay more just to ship a Laserdisc than it would to have a BluRay. Just look at sales of vinyl records. Many many people want the fun of the entire experience more than they want just the single stated purpose of the thing's existence.
Until this changes, old shit will continue to be as popular as dumb beards and shitty tattoos. However, there is a limit to each individual thing's potential fame. After a while, the people who care just die off, literally, then you only have second gen fans who are never going to be quite as devoted as the people who lived it. So really, someday someone's going to say "What the zorking farp is a Bonk?" and nobody will care. If the scene is sufficiently entrenched we'll see a plateau for a long time (just look at comics and sports cards...shit holds it's "value" forever even when nobody is actually buying it) but eventually it will crap out. Consider 78 RPM records. Sure, some are priceless but most are completely worthless. Same with Popeye colectables which used to be huge. The younger people will have their own dumb shit to blow their money on. They aren't going to be able to go sky surfing twice a year while maintaining their f*ck robot collection *and* keep propping up the economy of a game machine they've never heard of. There are only so many people in the world and dollars in the economy.
A plateau would almost be a crash, at least by normal investment standards. We've being seeing %100 gains per year on even the lamest shit so a flattening would represent serious shrinkage.
