Anyone with an interest in retro gaming lately has likely noticed that GameCube games have become increasingly more expensive as the years go by. The vast majority of GameCube games are trapped on the console, with Nintendo seemingly having no plans to bring the titles to modern systems as it did with the Virtual Console service for some of its older platforms, and this has helped fuel the rising prices. Buying some classic GameCube games is an especially expensive endeavor for fans, but those who want to try to get some lucky finds should check out their local garage sales.
TikTok user east.bay.picker recently shared a video of one of their garage sale finds. In the video, they claim to have found some of the most popular Nintendo GameCube games for sale, all in their box. The haul included Super Smash Bros. Melee, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, The Simpsons: Hit & Run, Super Mario Sunshine, and Mario Party 7, which cost the TikToker $1 a pop. For comparison, the minimum one can expect to find these games on sites like eBay is around $30, with some of them regularly going for $100 or more, as is the case with Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. Click here to see the video.
This garage sale was effectively a goldmine for anyone looking for Nintendo GameCube games, though it does highlight the need for Nintendo to make games from that era more readily accessibly. Nintendo has made titles from the NES, SNES, and Nintendo 64 libraries available through various Virtual Console services over the years, but it has never offered something similar for the GameCube.
There have been rumors that GameCube games could be coming to the Nintendo Switch, though nothing has been announced. One would think that Nintendo would work on bringing Nintendo 64 games to the Switch before it worried about any potential GameCube ports, but it hasn't announced any N64 plans either.
If Nintendo does bring Nintendo 64 or GameCube era games to the Switch, it will be interesting to see exactly how it's done. It's possible those games would be sold individually on the eShop, but it's also possible Nintendo could add them to its Nintendo Switch Online subscription service. For the uninitiated, $20 a year gets Nintendo Switch owners instant access to classic NES and SNES games, and so it's not unreasonable to think that service could eventually extend to N64 and GameCube games.
However, one has to imagine that Nintendo would boost the Switch Online price if it ever did that, or at least offer multiple tiers for subscribers. For now, anyone interested in playing classic GameCube games may want to start browsing their local garage sales.