Brazilian game sellers and their prices are starting to get on my nerves.

[thom_m]

First of all, if this thread is in the wrong forum, I apologize, and ask one of the admins to move it, please.

Well, it happened that I had to spend my whole sunday at work today. During a long period without anything concrete to do, I decide to check for some console and game prices ate Mercado Livre (our eBay), which is pretty much the only place you can find mopst of the older stuff. And what I saw there got on my nerves (All prices in brazilian Reais):

- Brazilians can't buy a NES/Genesis/SNES carts for less than 10 bucks - even bootleg ones;

- We can't buy a decent 2600 console for less than 100 bucks; Mega Drives go for at least 60 - and so do the SNESs.

- Wanna get yourslf a Dreamcast? Prepare yourself to spend at least 250 bucks; some guy wants 600 clams for a DC with for joysticks/VMUs and two pistols.

The list goes on and on. But what really pissed me off were the prices for hte original XBOX. WHY ON EARTH SHOULD I SPEND AN AVERAGE OF R$ 500 ON AN OLD CONSOLE?!? The cheapest one was 290, apparently with no joysticks or games; the most expensive one was going for ridiculous R$ 1.350, with 2 pads and an extra HD.

I'm seriously considering giving up collecting. There are no Salvation Armies or Goodwills here, and no especialized stores either. Almost every seller on Mercado Livre charges ridiculous prices for their stuff, and it's more usually than not in bad shape. Everything is "rare" - and, therefore, more expensive. I'm sick and tired of this shit.

Sorry for the rant, but I'm really pissed right now. I just wish people weren't so greedy 'round here. I've been trying to get myselgfa copy of Super Metroid for more than an year now, but everytime a loose cartridge shows up as "cheap" as 45 bucks, it's gone almost immediately. And I'm not gonna spend R$ 80 on one!

[Purkeynator]

What about pawn shops or garage sales? Any chance of scoring games there?

[MachineGex]

You need to start importing stuff. I know shipping is pretty bad to Brazil, but man, seems like you could clean up.

[thom_m]

What about pawn shops or garage sales? Any chance of scoring games there?

Not many chances. As far as I searched, there are rarely any gaming stuff in pawn shops here; and garage sales are not traditional in brazilian culture (which is too bad, because whenever I saw one on a movie or something I thought "what a good idea! Why do peole don't do this here?"). Everything ends up on those damn Mercado Livre seller's hands!

The thing is that videogames are not as present in brazilian culture as they are in the US or Japan; the only system that had actual cultural impact and is kindly remembered by generations is the Atari 2600. That, and videogames have always been too expensive for the average brazilian.

So, at the same time that original owners are not as emotionally connected to their gaming stuff and tend to abuse/throw it away eventually (specially kdis), the systems/carts that survive are sold for ridiculous amounts, "cause this things have always been expensive!". (i don't know If I've been clear; I'm really running out of my english trying to put my ideas together here!)


You need to start importing stuff. I know shipping is pretty bad to Brazil, but man, seems like you could clean up.

I've been considering that - especially for stuff considered "ultra rare" here, as the XBOX, model 2 NES and stuff like that. Last time I checked, shipping fees were really high, but with the prices I've seen lately, it might be a good option.

[tomaitheous]

Wow, I had no idea it has gotten that bad down in Brazil. I've always heard prices were really reasonable in Brazil for older stuff (I have two friends from there). And that really sucks you don't have any second hand stores or garage sales :/

[LaughingMAN.S9]

to put things in perspective, how much was an original xbox when it came out new???

[darkslime]

Shipping one game to Brazil is only like $5, so it would probably be pretty cheap to import something like a copy of super metroid.

[Guy Bramsworth]

Someone else knows about that site too then!

It's a fucking joke. I can't believe how overpriced every single game is, even if it's the most common thing ever(Sonic 2 for Genesis for $50 just cuz it's the US version?). There's a lot of neat things on there, but the prices make me wonder if the sellers are purposely trying to rip people off, or is it that the standards of what money is worth is different there or something wierd like that.

Can't wrap my head around it. There's a copy of Bugs Life for SNES that seems neat. I asked the seller about selling overseas. I get a response that pretty much says "it wouldn't be fair to people living in Brazil, sorry".

What an asswipe. The whole damn shitty website. Shit.

[Steve W]

I'm thinking that you need to save your money and go on vacation here in Texas. Sega Genesis games are fairly plentiful around here, so you can buy a load of them far cheaper than you could in Brazil. Consoles aren't that hard to find, either. Fill up a trunk with video game stuff, and take it back with you. Take a boat rather than a plane, so it'll be more acceptable to have a giant steamer trunk as luggage. Then when you get home, sell the games online as "super rare imported US games!" and make a nice profit. Maybe once or twice a year you can repeat the process and pick up all the games you could possibly want, then sell the rest to finance your next trip.

[ReBirFh]

Tip from a fellow Brazillian:

-Pay attention to the auctions starting at R$ 1,00 most game rarely
pass the R$ 20 mark and most of the rare ones dont reach R$ 40
(unless it is really rare like a (CIB) Duke Nukem 3D for Mega Drive
that ended at R$ 77 ($ 45).

-Dont rush for a game unless it is really uncommon, in 1 or 2 months you will end up seeing a cheaper copy and regreting your last acquisition.

-Dont pay for something that you think is too expensive, people that do this
are the cause of the inflationed prices, they hear about collectors paying
high amounts of money and end up elevating prices and flaging them as RARE or FOR COLLECTORS.

-And SEGA in the hands of TEC TOY made a great cultural impact here.

[GameDeals.ca]

I have a customer that buys wholesale (in Canada) and brings the games to Brazil (as personal property) avoiding the import duties (which apparently are where all the added price comes from). He explained to me that getting games into Brazil is VERY expensive, thus the inflated local market price. He also said that the postal system is corrupt and you've got a 50% chance of having an order shipped into Brazil going missing so dealers have to factor that into their pricing. Whether this is fact or not, I don't know, this is just what I've heard from a guy selling games in Brazil.

[Ryaan1234]

I'm thinking that you need to save your money and go on vacation here in Texas. Sega Genesis games are fairly plentiful around here, so you can buy a load of them far cheaper than you could in Brazil. Consoles aren't that hard to find, either. Fill up a trunk with video game stuff, and take it back with you. Take a boat rather than a plane, so it'll be more acceptable to have a giant steamer trunk as luggage. Then when you get home, sell the games online as "super rare imported US games!" and make a nice profit. Maybe once or twice a year you can repeat the process and pick up all the games you could possibly want, then sell the rest to finance your next trip.

Cough*TheMexicansarealreadydoingthis*cough.

Damn, I feel bad for you Thom_M, when your local video game prices are worse than those of the Mexican resalers at my local flea market, then there's big problem. To be fair the Mexican resalers at my flea market are reasonable on their prices, at least.

I second Steve's idea, though. Come up here to Texas where you can at least get some decent game stuff for decent prices. You were complaining about $10 NES games? You can get them here by the truckload at flea markets for $3-5 a piece. I've even gotten them as low as $0.50 over here.

[badinsults]

Hey, I know the deal in Brazil. I worked for Vale (which is a massive Brazilian mining company) earlier this year, and we were producing some geophysical equipment. It was cheaper for the company to fly someone to Brazil with the equipment as luggage, than it was to mail it there. Not only that, due to the customs delay, it would take half a year to send the stuff to Brazil (keep in mind, this equipment was manufactured by Vale). The company ended up selling the technology to a third party because it was easier to have them build it and export it to Brazil for some reason.

[MachineGex]

I see some weird NES pirate carts show up on ebay once in awhile. If you can find those cheap you could always do a trade with someone in the US. Send them those pirates and have them send you some NES 2 systems(or whatever is hot).

I had a freind who use to vacation in Brazil. It might be better to just fly down. I have 1/2 dozen top loaders and almost that many 2600 system, let me know when you are ready to pick me up at the airport Thom. :) I imagine it is nice in Brazil this time of year ... I am looking at 6 inches of snow.

[Kitsune Sniper]

Oh, it's exactly the same in Mexico. But the stores are worse, only here would you find a three year old PS2 game being sold for $90-$100 USD. I live in the border so I can just take a cab, walk across the border, buy something and not have to pay taxes if the total is less than $150, but it's still rather irritating.

[hellfire]

You need to import, get an xbox for like 50$+shipping from america

[Kitsune Sniper]

Shipping an XBox to Brazil would probably be $40, and then there's the import fees.

[badinsults]

Yeah, I envision the import fee would be on the order of 100% of the value of the item. Brazil is seriously the most protectionist country in the world.

[ACiD]

Thom, If I were you I would be pissed off too. But don't let it keep you from your hobby. I know this is probably frowned upon by some since it takes away from the real deal of a console experience, but have you considered emulation for older systems?

[Jorpho]

The thing is that videogames are not as present in brazilian culture as they are in the US or Japan; the only system that had actual cultural impact and is kindly remembered by generations is the Atari 2600. That, and videogames have always been too expensive for the average brazilian. What about that massive quantity of Brazilian-exclusive SMS stuff?

[ScourDX]

You should consider taking a trip to US and buy the games there and then bring it back to Brazil.

[kupomogli]

You could buy the games get it sent to someones house if someone would hold them for you in the US and then send them all to you marked as "gift." Or take a trip to that persons house and pick the games that have accumulated up.

[smork]

Geez, guys, it's not like flying to the US to go game shopping is the most economical idea ever. Visa fees + very high airfare + hotel + misc is really a chunk of change. And if Brazilian customs sees you coming in with a bunch of stuff you acquired overseas they are going to hit you with massive duties.

No, there's not much that can be done about it. When I used to live in Malaysia I would get stuff shipped from overseas and quite frequently I would get hit with duties. Sucks to cough up 30% on a package of retro games...

[ReBirFh]

Here in Brazil we pay 60% of the price of the product + price of shipping in importing fees.

So if a game costs $30 and the shipping costs $15, we need to pay $27.

[MachineGex]

Hey Kitsune Sniper -
Dont you have flea markets in Mexico with tons of bootlegs? I went to Guadalajara a few years back and hit a big flea market. They had tons of bootleg PSOne games and even saw Sonic on a SNES cart. I wish I woulda bought the Sonic game, it was only $6-7, but I had bought a bunch of PSOne games. Can anyone say "PepsiMan!".

Trade me some bootlegs and I will send you some NTSC carts! ;)

[thom_m]

Here in Brazil we pay 60% of the price of the product + price of shipping in importing fees.

So if a game costs $30 and the shipping costs $15, we need to pay $27.

Yeah, I guess that's it. Damn taxes...60% over the price of the product is just insane - specially when you want more than want item, which is pretty much always the case when you're buying games. And there are LOTS of good things I wish could import, not only games....t-shirts, and stuff like that (including a Digital Press baseball cap I saw somewhere..I guess Joe wears one).


Geez, guys, it's not like flying to the US to go game shopping is the most economical idea ever. Visa fees + very high airfare + hotel + misc is really a chunk of change. And if Brazilian customs sees you coming in with a bunch of stuff you acquired overseas they are going to hit you with massive duties.

No, there's not much that can be done about it. When I used to live in Malaysia I would get stuff shipped from overseas and quite frequently I would get hit with duties. Sucks to cough up 30% on a package of retro games...

Yeah, it's true. Unless we're going to a neighboring country like Argentina or Paraguay (where, as you must know, there's a heaven of eletronic bootlegs - I hate the fact I moved away from Paraná, my homestate, where the triple border - Brazil/Paraguay/Argentina - is), it's VERY expensive to leave the country. I plan on taking a trip to the US someday - and, off course, shopping for games is part of said plan; I might even frop by at the DP store, why not? But, as for now, it's not an option.

All that and, if we're talking about importing, you gotta pratically double the price in dollars to get the price in reais. "So you pay, like, 7 dollars for a SNES game there in Brazil? That's not much!", you might think. But remember: when buying locally, one real is one real for us - just as a dollar is a dollar for you guys.


Hey Kitsune Sniper -
Dont you have flea markets in Mexico with tons of bootlegs? I went to Guadalajara a few years back and hit a big flea market. They had tons of bootleg PSOne games and even saw Sonic on a SNES cart. I wish I woulda bought the Sonic game, it was only $6-7, but I had bought a bunch of PSOne games. Can anyone say "PepsiMan!".

Trade me some bootlegs and I will send you some NTSC carts! ;)

That's exactly what they have in Paraguay, and in lots of brazilian cities as well. And yeah, even in those, SNES carts - BOOTLEG CARTS!!! - go for at least 15 bucks (and Genesis carts are getting hard to find). In my hometown's market, I once saw a cart-only original copy of Zelda LTTP, but didn't have the R$ 40 they wanted for it. The Paraguayan markets are good to find chipped current-gen systems; you can buy a Wii for 500 clams - and believe me, that's cheap for brazilian standards.

And I played that Sonic SNES game. It sucks, stay away from it, MachineGex. As far as I know, it's a Smurfs game hack. And Sonic has to KICK the enemies to kill them. Yes, kick. Jump on an enemy, and you're history.


What about that massive quantity of Brazilian-exclusive SMS stuff?

Yeah, Sega put some faith in our market for quite some time - specially because no one else did, I guess. The SMS was huge here, but not quite as much as the 2600; neither was it estabilished enough to become a cultural icon as the Atari console did. I guess most brazilians tend to see videogames as just another toy; a very nice toy, as people on their late 20s, early 30s remember the 2600, but a toy nonetheless (did I use this word right? :)). Most of this exclusives, in fact, are Tec Toy's smart use of their license in the late late years of the SMS, that was getting eaten by the next-gen consoles - most of them, illegaly-ish imported from Paraguay, as brazilians do to this day.



Well, I guess that's it for now. Sorry for the long post, I'll try to avoid them. And thanks for all the feedback, I appreciate it.

[Kitsune Sniper]

Hey Kitsune Sniper -
Dont you have flea markets in Mexico with tons of bootlegs? I went to Guadalajara a few years back and hit a big flea market. They had tons of bootleg PSOne games and even saw Sonic on a SNES cart. I wish I woulda bought the Sonic game, it was only $6-7, but I had bought a bunch of PSOne games. Can anyone say "PepsiMan!".

Trade me some bootlegs and I will send you some NTSC carts! ;)

Heh, nope. I live in Mexicali, about 150 miles southeast of San Diego. Up here there's next to no bootleg carts around, but there are bootleg PS1 and PS2 games on CDRs all around. Even a single, disc only, beat up PS1 game can cost around $20 USD because "it's rare". I have found some HK Silver PS1 games a few times.

I've found Chinese bootleg carts, but only in the USA flea markets. And even then they were a weird find. (Heck, I find next to no NES games anymore...)

[mb7241]

I kinda figured that's why a certain Brazilian video game collector wanted me to trade him a Wii and a few games for a handful of decently hard-to-find NES games (I'd seen the Wii systems going for the equivalent of around $600 on MercadoLivre)... I did the trade, but I had him send first (there were 3 Flintstones: Surprise at Dinosaur Peak carts in the lot, 2 of which were Brazilian, and one of those was boxed, in addition to 3 Dynacom 6-in-1's and a few other odd carts). Everything managed to get there alright, but their post office declared the value of the package at something like $200 and made him pay import duties on that figure. Oh, well, though...it *still* came out cheaper for him :p .

[MeTmKnice]

If you are willing to pay shipping I probably have some stuff you want, or can get it for you.

[WanganRunner]

So what if someone shipped you a few grand worth of stuff marked as a "gift"? Would you still have to pay duty on it?

You should look into that, then resell it locally for a killing.

[Dark_Sol]

Brazil ... BAHHH!
Think about Russia!

[ScourDX]

Wow..Sony just announce PS2 for Brazil. They are selling it for $465USD. You got to be joking me Sony. This makes more and more people pirating the system.

Source (http://kotaku.com/5407941/today-in-brazil-sony-officially-launched-the-playstation2)

[badinsults]

Wow..Sony just announce PS2 for Brazil. They are selling it for $465USD. You got to be joking me Sony. This makes more and more people pirating the system.

Source (http://kotaku.com/5407941/today-in-brazil-sony-officially-launched-the-playstation2)

Horray protectionism. Basically anything foreign made has huge tariffs in Brazil and will be super expensive. Why do you think piracy is so rampant there?

[thom_m]

Wow..Sony just announce PS2 for Brazil. They are selling it for $465USD. You got to be joking me Sony. This makes more and more people pirating the system.

Source (http://kotaku.com/5407941/today-in-brazil-sony-officially-launched-the-playstation2)

See what I mean? It SUCKS to be a gamer here.


Horray protectionism. Basically anything foreign made has huge tariffs in Brazil and will be super expensive. Why do you think piracy is so rampant there?

It's true, but it's not only that. We got lots of other Sony products here, brazilian made I suppose, and that go for the ordinary price (TVs an stereos, for example).

Sony could probably make those damn PS2 here, if they wanted, and not just import those damn things and ask an arm and a leg for it. But videogames are seen as a "deluxe" item here, and if every damn importer makes a ton of money here based on that notion, why wouldn't Sony want to?

[nebrazca78]

90% of the time when I sell games on eBay someone from Brazil buys some. I usually put the wholesale value on the customs form not the actual price they paid. If you get the package sent via Priority Mail International instead of First Class International it is unlikely to get stolen. I have had a package that I sent to Brazil via First Class end up missing. The prices you will get buying from the U.S. are so much better you just need to find the right seller. Someone who reliably has low prices plus will combine shipping and keep the customs value low. Even if you have to pay 60% over the declared value it would still be much cheaper.

[Guy Bramsworth]

I've already messaged the OP and another guy in this topic that are in Brazil, but I'm just bumping this to ask if there's anyone that uses MercadoLivre who I can request to buy an item that I'll pay them to buy for me and they ship it to me in the USA. It's a bit to get into, but basically I asked the items seller and he wants to charge me R$145 for shipping alone, and it's jjust a boxed Genesis game. Obvious rip-off since I must be a rich foreigner or something.

If anyone can help out please message me for more details. I'll pay you a comission of course, around $10 I hope is fair. One guy wanted $60, which is just outrageous. And he was a brazillian reseller himself :/

[Kitsune Sniper]

I've already messaged the OP and another guy in this topic that are in Brazil, but I'm just bumping this to ask if there's anyone that uses MercadoLivre who I can request to buy an item that I'll pay them to buy for me and they ship it to me in the USA. It's a bit to get into, but basically I asked the items seller and he wants to charge me R$145 for shipping alone, and it's jjust a boxed Genesis game. Obvious rip-off since I must be a rich foreigner or something.

If anyone can help out please message me for more details. I'll pay you a comission of course, around $10 I hope is fair. One guy wanted $60, which is just outrageous. And he was a brazillian reseller himself :/

Jesus Farkin Christ, $78 bucks?!

[aaron7]

I used to buy lots of NES bootleg games from a guy in Brazil. Prices were reasonable... $2-10 each pending condition. I literally spent over a grand with this guy and all he had to do was scour flea markets for me.

Over time the prices went up. And up. Now he can't get me a game for less than $10 or so. I don't know if it was supply and demand or if he really isn't making much on them any more.

Regardless; I stopped buying them.