As we watch the GameCube/PlayStation 2/Xbox generation of gaming fade into the sunset a lot of retail stores are marking down these "old" games and clearing their inventories in favor of games for the Wii/PlayStation 3/Xbox 360.  It's a great time to pick up some recent classics for low prices.  However, as some games become harder to find there's always the temptation to buy a bunch of about-to-be-rare games just because someday it'll be difficult to find a decent quality copy.  The gang at NeoGAF are discussing this phenomenon.

Right now I see stores everywhere getting rid of their products as fast as they can, and so I have the Fear. Not the MGS3 variety, but the fear that I won't be able to buy the last gen games that I haven't gotten around to yet, and that they'll simply disappear. I'm scared that in a few months I'm not going to be able to find them again, outside of maybe getting lucky at a flea market somewhere.

Is anyone else feeling the same thing? There aren't too many retailers that feel like keeping old stock around. EB and Gamestop are too small to be able to keep last gen stock , and larger stores like Best Buy don't seem to think there's any point in it. At this point, in my town, it's rare to find any Dreamcast games around and I would even say it's rare to find good PS1 games around. The gaming retailing industry has a bad habit of getting rid of their stock quick, and I feel like I lost out in the PS1/DC gen by not getting some of the games I wanted, and now they're seemingly impossible to find.

I'm slightly guilty of this.  Over the holidays I picked up a few critically acclaimed yet unpopular games at bargain prices just so I wouldn't have to deal with hunting down the games on eBay in five years for inflated prices.  Some are still sealed in plastic with the promise that I'll get around to them "someday".  How about you all out there?  Anyone buying up cheap games out of the fear they'll be hard to find later?