Games

At garage sales books can often be found for 25 cents a piece (320 books in $80).

No kidding. Not counting games I play 'any way I can':

• Oolite
• Endless Sky
• Nethack
• Shattered Pixel Dungeon
• Dwarf Fortress
• Liberal Crime Squad
• Mindustry
• WarZone 2100
• OpenTTD
• OpenRCT2 (though this requires some investment, you need the files from the original 2 games)
• FreeCiv
• EDOPro
• Card-Forge

That's just what I have on this machine. If I check my GOG account, I'd have more. And I don't give money to Valve.

For the last 10 years I've only paid full price for one AAA game: Elden Ring. I've gotten something like 200 hours out of it. It may be the best value for a AAA game ever, in my book. (And I haven't yet played the expansion.)

I'm happy to wait for sales on everything else, including the secondary market for Nintendo games, but after their recent fuckery in multiple arenas, I'm not keen buying anything they produce. (Not that it matters. Their stuff will sell regardless.)

I've said this elsewhere before but video games are a commodity and an impulse buy. Very few people view the next video game as an essential purchase for themselves. So sure people can have them and haha about how much the cost of developing a video game has gone up till they're blue in the face but that is not going to change how the consumer will feel at the register buying the game. If the person at the register does not feel that the price is justified they're not going to pay it they're going to wait for a sale, borrow it from a friend if they can get access to physical media, or pirate it.

Generally, I don't buy games over $18 CAD. I've made exceptions (Temtem, Civ 6, Super Mega Baseball 3, My Time at Portia, Satisfactory, a couple of others) but never paid more than $40 unless it's a gift for someone I really like (I pre-ordered Fallout 4 for my ex for her birthday).

I will happily wait years for something to come down in price. I have 600+ games on Steam: I always have other options.