Misclassified ebay auctions, good game deals to be had

[sloan]

Once in a while, I stumble upon a misclassified game on ebay, and the rewards can be nice.

Case in point: I was doing a search for some game I cannot remember and Tempest 2000 for Sega Saturn turned up in the results for no good reason that I could tell. I clicked on the auction link and looked it over and there was no mention whatsoever of my originally searched-for game, nor was the picture of that game. No, this was, indeed an auction for Tempest 2000 for Saturn, in mint condition I might add. I was happy to be the only bidder on this and won the auction for $15.95, far less than the lowest properly classified Saturn Tempest 2000, at $45.00 with case and manual. I used ebay search tool to search for "Saturn Tempest 2000" and this auction did not turn up in the results, so am guessing that most others interested in this game never saw the auction I won.

Has this happened to anyone else?

[djshok]

Yeah it happened to me with The Punisher for Genesis which I scored CIB for $20. Also you know what else is awesome, is when people misspell the name of their item and it doesn't show up on most searchers.

[sloan]

Y, but to find the misspelled games, don't you have to purposely misspell the name in your search field?

[jb143]

Y, but to find the misspelled games, don't you have to purposely misspell the name in your search field?

There are online programs where you can enter what you're searching for and it will find all the misspelled variation listings on eBay for you. But now with built in spell check so common, I'd think there'd be much fewer deals to be had than there used to be.

[SpaceFlea]

Yeah, I scored Champ Soccer '94 for Sega CD CIB on a $10 BIN when it was selling regularly for $90-100 because the guy had it listed under "Beyond the Limit." He had forgotten to change the title when he copied another auction listing, but had the inner details stating it was for the soccer game. I sent him a query about it, and he confirmed it was for the soccer game - I bought it immediately.

I also scored Final Fantasy for the MSX2 CIB for a very good price. The guy had it listed as "Final Fntasy."

[djshok]

Y, but to find the misspelled games, don't you have to purposely misspell the name in your search field?

Well if you're intentionally searching for them, yes you'd have to. But say you're just searching for a general thing like Sega Genesis games, and they spelled Sega and Genesis correctly but misspell the game title, then it'll show up, and you'll feel so lucky if you score some awesome deal this way. It's happened to me a few times. Once with Lunar for Sega CD which I got for $10, and another time with some other stupidly expensive game that sold for cheap because no one saw the listing.

[Zama]

A few years ago, while searching a Japanese copy of Star Ocean for the Super Famicom, I came across an auction that misspelled Ocean and I brought it complete for $10 including shipping :bday:

[sloan]

I sent him a query about it, and he confirmed it was for the soccer game - I bought it immediately.


I contacted the seller on a misclassified NES rarity once, I think it was S.C.A.T. listed for something really low like $5. I was confused because the auction description was for another game, but the heading and picture were for S.C.A.T. He replied, confirming it was indeed an auction for S.C.A.T., but also corrected the auction listing and description, alerting all the other searches for this game. After that, the bidding went like crazy on this game and I dropped out of the running. Since then, I never contact the sellers on these anymore. Just place my bid and hope for the best.

[Kiddo]

Not exactly a game, but I got the single for the (2nd?) TV ED for the "Super Mario Club" game show (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7zfeumd2Kc) on a search for "Famicom Disk". For only around $4. As far as I can tell, no one else owns this disk.

I also have a "All Night Nippon Super Mario Bros."/"Super Mario Bros. 2"(J) loose Famicom Disk which I somehow got for ten bucks. I don't know how I managed that. A few months back a similar disc with "Burger Time" instead of SMB2J was on eBay for around $300. o_O;

Also, a lot of potentially valuable Satellaview 8M Pack data is completely unlabeled or listed as "empty", although this isn't so much a typo thing.

[The 1 2 P]

I won a factory sealed copy of Conker's Bad Fur Day for the N64 for only $61 a few months ago because it was misscatergorized. Only me and one other person found it and he only bid the starting bid of $60. Over the years I've gotten quite a few games like this and have even come up with a few helpful tricks. I find most deals due to miscatergorized items and less due to misspellings.

[Orion Pimpdaddy]

I'm not sure what you guys mean by miscategorized and misclassified, but over the years, I've caught a few things that were misspelled.

I think the $15.95 you paid for Tempest 2000 was the actual value. I've seen it in the game store for less than that price and nobody has bought it yet. Also, there's not much activity on ebay that indicates people have been buying it for $45. (One person did buy it for around $50, but it looks like it was a fluke). One seller is trying to sell it as a Buy it Now for $45, but he's had to relist it four times and it still hasn't sold.

[sloan]

I'm not sure what you guys mean by miscategorized and misclassified, but over the years, I've caught a few things that were misspelled.

I think the $15.95 you paid for Tempest 2000 was the actual value. I've seen it in the game store for less than that price and nobody has bought it yet. Also, there's not much activity on ebay that indicates people have been buying it for $45. (One person did buy it for around $50, but it looks like it was a fluke). One seller is trying to sell it as a Buy it Now for $45, but he's had to relist it four times and it still hasn't sold.

Thanks for the update, Debbie Downer. All I know is at the time I won this auction, the other mint CIB games were starting at $45. There were a couple listed at starting prices of $19, but they were disc only.

[jb143]

I'm not sure what you guys mean by miscategorized and misclassified,.

An example might be someone accidentally listing a game in the chinaware and teapots category of ebay. A buyer using filters to find items they're interested in would never see it. I know I use the filters all the time since they are extremely useful to remove all the crap clogging up the search results, but I always keep in mind that it's going to possibly filter things out that I'm interested in as well.

And not eBay, but I've found deals on craigslist by searching for games in the electronics category before.

[sloan]

And not eBay, but I've found deals on craigslist by searching for games in the electronics category before.

Craigslist "computers" and "toys/games" sections are often rife for classic video gaming deals. I have even found Atari VCS and Astrocade stuff listed in the "collectables" section.

Similarly, whenever I visit GW and SA stores, I always peruse the puzzles and board games because I found a CIB Microvision and four CIB games for it in that section one time. Another time, I found CIB Genesis Lethal Enforcers in large box with the light gun, again in the puzzles and board games section. I also picked up CIB Acclaim Double Player wireless controller set for NES in the purse and luggage aisle at GW one time.

Pays to look around.

[Gameguy]

I contacted the seller on a misclassified NES rarity once, I think it was S.C.A.T. listed for something really low like $5. I was confused because the auction description was for another game, but the heading and picture were for S.C.A.T. He replied, confirming it was indeed an auction for S.C.A.T., but also corrected the auction listing and description, alerting all the other searches for this game. After that, the bidding went like crazy on this game and I dropped out of the running. Since then, I never contact the sellers on these anymore. Just place my bid and hope for the best.
Is S.C.A.T. actually worth something? I know I sold a loose copy for $5 a few years ago, as that's what it's listed at in the rarity guide here. I guess it's one more reason why I shouldn't bother using that guide anymore.


I won a factory sealed copy of Conker's Bad Fur Day for the N64 for only $61 a few months ago because it was misscatergorized. Only me and one other person found it and he only bid the starting bid of $60. Over the years I've gotten quite a few games like this and have even come up with a few helpful tricks. I find most deals due to miscatergorized items and less due to misspellings.
I remember finding several brand new copies being cleared out locally for $1 each, I sold most of them new for $15 each as I couldn't get $20 for them. Good times.


I do search for games in several different categories on the classified ad sites, not all games are put in the video game category for some reason. I don't really find that much worth buying in other categories though, anything in the collectibles section is way overpriced. Sometimes some stuff is listed in garage sale ads which are worth replying to.

[o.pwuaioc]

It actually almost burned me once. I don't know how many Street Fighter II Turbo games there are that are called Super Street Fighter II. So annoying.

[The 1 2 P]

And not eBay, but I've found deals on craigslist by searching for games in the electronics category before.


Craigslist "computers" and "toys/games" sections are often rife for classic video gaming deals. I have even found Atari VCS and Astrocade stuff listed in the "collectables" section.

Up until a few years ago there was no dedicated video game section on craigs list. Before that they were always mixed in with the toys section. And even though it's been about 3-5 years that video games have had their own section many people still list games in the toy section.


I remember finding several brand new copies being cleared out locally for $1 each, I sold most of them new for $15 each as I couldn't get $20 for them. Good times.

Had you had a little patience and actually used ebay to sell things(as opposed to only selling locally) you would have made a small fortune. And I can relate. I remember finding sealed copies of Castlevania: SOTN for PS1 clearanced at Sears for 97 cents each. I bought all four but seeing as this was before I was selling on ebay I just ended up opening the extras and trading them into Gamestop. If only I had waited:(

[Parodius Duh!]

I scored a copy of Hebereke for Famicom for 9.99 because some dolt had it listed as "Unknown N64 Title" Good Job buddy, Thank you!