I think the fact you have only been exposed to the hobby for 2 years has given you a limited amount of data to draw your opinions from. I say exposed because you stated you were not in the hobby, even though you own 3 games.

The immediate drop in price for Stern NIB games has been occuring since 2000, with Tron being the exception. The normal cycle is Stern promotes the hell out of a game, people buy in without ever playing the game, they realize that they do not like the game, and 3 to 6 months later they want to sell. The problem is that NIB games are still available for the price they paid, and potential buyers want to pay $1,000 to $1,500 less for their HUO. Once other buyers see those lower sale prices, they begin to believe that is all the game is worth, and at least temporarily the value of the game has been depreciated.

The better Stern games like SM, LOTR and TSPP did recover and even appreciate, but many others including Striker Extreme, Sharkeys Shootout, Big Buck Hunter, Transformers and Avatar did not recover due to lack of demmand.

The point is taking an initial loss on a NIB Stern is nothing new, and supply and demmand always corrects the pricing in the long run. With the wild card being the Vault Editions.