My garage sale finds from this past weekend. The was the greatest score of my life regarding value versus what I actually paid.
I paid $44 total (2 bucks each).
WIN!!!!!
Wow!
That is a fabulous pickup! Very lucky!
Don't feel bad, Nintendont. Every time I go to yard sales in my area, I'm told that there are 2 or 3 different guys that come before everyone just for games. It's very frustrating, especially since I know one of them runs a pawn shop and touts his retro game collection for sale all the time, but he charges at or above ebay prices.
How can someone actually sell something ABOVE eBay prices?? that really baffles me. I refuse to buy any game if its over 25% less that eBay prices. (example: if a game is $10 on eBay, I won't pay more than $7.50 if I'm out hunting.) and I try to let people know when they are paying more than what the value actually is.
I see it ALL THE TIME. Typically the people buy at those prices are not collectors, but gamers who are looking for a specific game and are either too lazy to shop around, or just don't care. Or possibly because they simply don't realize that prices can vary so much, and therefore, they see a price and assume that's what it costs. Since the popularity of retro gaming has boomed within the last few years, there are a slew of new and uneducated buyers that are (unintentionaly) helping to drive the prices of retro games up even higher.
That is so true! Sometimes though, I do not mind paying just a bit over average ebay prices from somebody selling locally if the game is minty and that I can pickup minutes from my house. In the end, it may still cost me less than ebay since shipping here is abusive and I do not lose on the currency conversion... which is currently a 25% penalty for me.
Yeah, I understand that. I'm certainly not saying that anyone paying market value for a game is an idiot. Sometimes you really want a certain game, and you don't have time to wait to find it in the wild for super cheap. So I will occasionally pay market for something which is usually super clean and complete.
What I was referring to more than anything are these resellers who do not have storefronts. I know a local guy who buys up as much as he can and sells at flea markets for eBay prices or higher. Most of his stuff is in really bad shape or super dirty. I'm also not a fan of the guy because a while back he screwed me out of a nice N64 deal. The games were listed on a local Facebook resale page. The rules of the page are first come, first served. Someone listed a bunch of N64 games (big name titles too). I was first to respond. I offered about 90% of his asking price which he agreed to. We agreed to a time a place to meet for the exchange (which was same day). About an hour later he said that he had already sold the items to another member who offered him more money (which is against site rules). Later that evening the reseller I was talking about earlier listed his purchase on another Facebook collector page as his awesome pickup of the day. I made sure to comment on his post letting everyone else on the page know what he did, most of whom agreed was wrong. He only response was, "lol, I'll sell these to you if you still want them." The next day they were listed for sale at about 150% over what he paid for them.
