It would only be artificial if it weren't factual. Only a certain amount of games are made, they are generally highly rated and wanted by many, so they are then collectables. How is that artificial? What happen in the market after a game is released has nothing to do with Nintendo, or any other company that makes games. The only difference is that they generally don't flood the market and they keep making quality games. Digital will have its impact on this though.

@Bolded What does that even mean? 

By artifical I meant Nintendo actively tries to keep the prices of their games up. They don't let the market decide prices naturally, they decide prices themselves, and they can do such because of the price inelasticity of demand on the end of retailers and consumers. This in turn affects the prices of the used market, because the new market is influenced by the price maker that is Nintendo. If the market were perfectly competitive then Nintendo would have no choice but to be a price taker. 

http://revisionworld.com/a2-level-level-revision/economics-level-revision/business-economics-distribution-income/concentrated-markets/price-makers-price-takers

"Price Takers

Because Ninty said so, if people want to play those games they need to pay.

It's a demake for sure, but certainly playable.

It means what I said.

As I said before, they only create/print a certain allotment of games based on their projected demand for the game. They generally don't make more games than that. That is why there always ends up with demand for the games as opposed to the market being saturated. I'm not sure if you noticed, but the price of Xenoblade dropped dramatically when the 3DS version released. It's because the demand for the game lowered, however there are still those that want the original version for the Wii which is why it's still a relatively high price. If there wasn't demand for the game it would be much lower. That is why this often happen with games that are more rare.

What you posted refers to is initial price points, not the used market. The used, or rare market more reflects that to the likes of cars. A Delorian goes for more than when they were brand new, and the price keep rising because less are on the roads. Same goes for certain records and tapes (more so vinyl records though). However there has to be demand for it. Nintendo games, ie Zelda, Smash, Mario, Metroid, Xenoblade or any others all release at the same price point as other games on their system, or new games on other systems. If it were artificially inflated then any of the aformentioned games would release at higher MSRP, but they aren't.

Instead of clarifying your statement you just let it be. Okeydokey. If what were "factual"?

I already explained Xenoblade and The Last Story through shortages ( that is what the graph shows.) Nintendo does more than just shortages though. They take advantage of retailer inelasticity of demand to make deals that keep the prices of said games high for longer than other games.

Nintendo games get much more shelf space and retailers keep them on their shelves longer than third party games. This is partly because of inelasticity of demand, but also because of the deals Nintendo makes and the perceived values of Nintendo games. Other games that NOA have been involved with also benefit, like Monster Hunter and Dragon Quest. Notice that when these games released for other systems their prices decreased much faster. This was because there were no bulk retail deals and third parties wanted to replace retail space with something else. You could still find games like metroid other m at these high prices not because there is high demand but because of Nintendo's predictions and retailer deals. Meanwhile stores that didnt have these deals put the game in the bargain bin because of low demand and they weren't restricted by Nintendo with regards to bulk purchases.

The used market is affected by the equilibrium price of the new market. Not entirely, but partly. If a game retails at $50 for two years then the equilibrium price in the used market is going to be higher than a game that only retailed at $50 then got a price drop after a year. 

Skyward Sword was very popular and Xenoblade Chronicles was extremely limited quantity

It isn't scalping though. Scalping is more about buying someting to flip quickly for a huge gain, generally concert tickets, stock market or preorder items.

The games you are talking about are several years old and are rare so the value just goes up over time and there is nothing wrong with it. can't blame somone for having better insite than you and getting it at a reasonable cost at launch. 

better pick up the wii games while you can especially the lower/mid priced ones that are actually good. I think the highest priced games won't go up nearly as much as the lower priced ones, collectors already saw the highest priced ones going up quite a while ago, the lower/mid priced games haven't yet. Xenoblade is one of those games it seems people knew it was gonna be expensive and wanted it to be expensive from the start almost like a self-fulfilling prophecy. People just don't want to give it up because they believe it's gonna keep going up, many people bought it for that reason.

Eyyy you should get Radiant Dawn for me then.

http://www.ebay.com/bhp/fire-emblem-radiant-dawn

Or even better, get me Path of Radiance.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=path+of+radiance&_sacat=0

I would trade my copy of Xenoblade Chronicles for either one of them :/