To be fair, I don't see the point in buying an old game from eBay, it's not like the company that made the game will be getting the money anyways =P

I don't have a GameCube, so having the games on the Virtual Console would help a lot. Especially now that I'm switching to digital, so the less games I have cluttering up my house, the better.

In your case, you already have the consoles and the games to play and you emulate for convenience, and I get why buying the same games on the VC doesn't make sense to you. But for people like me, that do not have those consoles and aren't interested in buying them just to play an old game, it's way more convenient to just grab a digital version when available or emulate it on a PC.

Oh, nice 3DS mod btw!

If you can no longer buy it from a store, or eShop, I see it as being perfectly resonable.
Its not like they lose any potiential sales money from it.

I used to get Abandonware games for a while, until GOG showed up and actually released functional versions of these old gems (like Stone Prophet or Master of Magic). I have nothing against paying for ancient titles, the trouble was finding them in many cases before.

I usually only download stuff that I already own (i.e. Pokemon roms).

i take a pretty hardcore anti-pirating stance.

..but i will say that pirating a game that cannot be purchased is significantly less "evil" than pirating a game that can be purchased.

I don't really bother with pirating. The onyl time I would. Would be a rare game. Like Flinstones Dinosaur Peak. I have my consoles. It's fun, to me. To keep them maintained and working. And I have no issue swapping systems in and out. I currently have a PS2, PS3, PS4, Wii U, and AV Fami with FDS, connected to my TV right now.

I have always been of the opinion that games that are either 2 generations older than the current one, or 10-15 years old should be legal to emulate.There are several reasons for why I believe this:First is that games are also a form of art, and many times companies dont make their games available anymore through modern machines.The "only" way to actually play them would be to buy the original hardware and the original game.But this is not only completely incovinient to find and to setup, but also many times expensive.So for that, emulation is an excellent way to maintain the legacy and keep it available for everyone to enjoy.

Second is that I personally think that companies have more to gain with allowing emulation of said games than to banish it.It would not only potentially increase a franchise popularity, since people that play old games could potentially become fans of the modern titles of same said franchise, but also could improve the brand awareness of the company, since even though people would be playing old games, its old games of X company, and that could make people buy their recent games.

I only see a win-win situation with this.Oh and before someone says "But that would steal VC sales from Nintendo games", you need to remember the ones that are willing to play old games, games that are 20+ years old, are just hardcore gamers, and those same hardcore gamers are more than willing to double dip or triple dip in same said games just because we are passionate about it.I mean, I have played the original Golden Sun on the GBA, but I also got for the Wii U VC, so....

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Paper-Mario-Thousand-Year-GameCube/dp/B0002ILS1K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1468505089&sr=8-1&keywords=paper+mario+the+thousand-year+door

Fuck right off, Nintendo

It's a lot easier and aesthetically pleasing to play The Thousand Year Door in Dolphin on my laptop then it is to pay for a used Gamecube copy which might not work(which is exactly what happened to me).  

Final Fantasy 6 was never released in the UK at first, I played it on an emulator years ago before they released it as a re-release on PS1 in 2002 (I bought it then). Other then that, I've only really emulated games I already owned and just wanted to replay without digging out my SNES. Don't think I've don't anything like that for years though, I have money now, I work, so I buy games instead (even if I'm tight so buy on sale or used. )

I don't think it's too bad to pirate old games, especially if it's difficult to get a physical copy or if it's just not available in your region. I got Mother 3 because that was the only way I was going to play that. I used to get arcade games because I can't buy an arcade machine!