"Funko just admitted it might not survive another year."
(media.scored.co)
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While true, there also is the fact that they are outdated, often damaged, and generally not worth much in reality. NBA 2k9 should never be sold for more than a few dollars, for example. Sure something mega rare like Steel Battalion has earned its high price, but a random Pokemon game had tens of millions of copies made which is completely antithetical to the idea that its "limited quantity" is what makes it worth 250$ with no box or manual. Especially with most of them needing new batteries to even function.
They aren't really making retro consoles anymore, but I can still find the majority of mainstream ones in the same Used Games store for 150$ or less, which is below most of their original asking prices too.
I'm not saying you are wrong, but the market has been deliberately poisoned to a point where its completely unfeasible for the average person to even spend. When every single item is now graded and bought with its resale value in mind (and priced accordingly in turn), then it just becomes a game of circle jerking yourself up. And so now every store you go to that deals in Retro Games has shelves lined with games no one will ever buy because any rando who walks in will balk at the price even if they want it, and any collector will look at it and say its too damaged/dirty to justify said price.
You just took the long way round to described why there are limited quantities, though. Corps bought up mass amounts for "grading" so that those entities can boost the price, and many left in the open world are too damaged to be worth much for anyone to collect. This in turn leaves very few for everyone to fight over, thus the prices will continue to go up until all that's left in the used market are the damaged and graded copies.
The majority of the grading started with private collectors and Youtube content creators who basically pulled this entire market out of the ether, which is why it went from "the handful of amazing or cult games" as the big money things to basically everything. They are usually the same guys who bought dozens of copies of rare ones, artificially creating a scarcity to drive up prices. The Corps got into the game late, which is why most of them are failing ventures that rely on social media to boost them up and then shut down anyway.
I didn't disagree that they are limited, that's basic supply and demand. I am pointing out that being limited doesn't always correlate with the price, to a point where we had considerable amounts of time where that same limitation existed and the price went down for most. Them going up to the extreme prices now is an artificial bubble. That's why I used a random NBA game and Pokemon as examples. Pokemon is infinitely less limited in available copies, yet its one of the highest non-cult prices by a long shot. Whereas the NBA game is usually pennies on the dollar, and its a sign of a bad store when they even try to ask 20$ for it.
The supply being limited clearly isn't what is deciding the majority of the price, its the collector's market convincing everyone to treat it as investments instead of products. Much the same as what happened in the housing market.