The retro game collection scene is in a weird spot these days, with a whole lot of fans who just want to enjoy old games in peace getting very annoyed at the speculators and auctioneers slabbing and grading old games like Super Mario Bros, with multimillion dollar markups. 1994 might've been a simpler time for retro enthusiasts, but they were just as price consciousness back then.
Yes, 1994 had its own retro collectors, looking for deals on classic Atari carts in an era when Super NES and Sega Genesis/Mega Drive were the current hotness. That's illustrated by an article from the January 1994 issue of VideoGames: The Ultimate Gaming Magazine (recently highlighted by Chris Kohler on Bluesky) titled "Tired of the same old Street Fighter clones? Collect classic cartridges!"
