Impossible to find a deal anymore.

[Loganm187]

I have been collecting for a decade now and this past year it seems like every other person is some re-seller looking for games to flip and the days of finding people with boxes full of games at thrift stores and garage sells are just over. I managed a game crazy for 5 years until they closed up and I would score a box of snes and psone games for like 10 bucks that someone would bring in trying to get rid of. Now everyone is trying to get 20 bucks for freaking mario world.

And of course prices for old games have sky rocketed in the past year or so. Earthbound cart for 300? That game sold for like 70-90 bucks for like 10 years. My entire collection has been found in the wild and as many of you know that's over half the fun. Finding that super rare game for dirt cheap feels like finding treasure. I feel very lucky to have been a collector in a time where you could find so much super cheap in the wild and if you needed some cash you could sell it or duplicates online for a good profit, but I grew my collection never purchasing online and now I am watching ebay auctions to pick up the last 10 or so games I need to "complete" my collection." It's depressing now that many of the games I never found in the wild I could have picked up on ebay for 20-50 bucks and now are selling in the hundreds everyday. I'm torn and just need to rant.

Retro game collecting is bigger than ever and now it's just not even fun as I'm competing with people who only know the price of the game and have no such interest in the games themselves.

[sloan]

Hit Goodwill, Salvation Army, garage sales, flea markets, and Craigslist early and often. There are still many good deals to be had 'in the wild'.

[Loganm187]

Goodwill is the only place I ever find anything and that's VERY rare. All the pawn shops, thriftstores and yard sales here are full of nothing now that everyone knows prices. Years ago it was a different story. Found an old man at the thrift store with turtles n time for snes yesterday and he wanted 36 bucks for it...

[MachineGex]

Yeah, while it is more difficult, I do still find deals all the time. I just picked up a bunch of boxed SNES games. I also picked up a bunch of other cool stuff like a neat 8-track boombox, some 50s and 60's boxed board games, etc. from the flea market. It is always hit and miss, but I know if I keep looking, I always find treasures.

[Loganm187]

I feel like such a loser looking to buy demon's crest online to purchase... I have wanted that game for years and never found it in the wild. I did find a bust a groove complete and Power Blade 2 a lil' while ago at goodwill, but it's been dry since. Lots of wasted gas. Anyone have a good deal on a Demon's Crest?

[Rickstilwell1]

It is true though that if too many people in a small community are in the know, that area will dry up. You gotta hit up the big cities to find the most variety and largest quantities of things.

[Loganm187]

Yea i'm in a pretty small college town, but always found awesome deals all over. I am on either side of two large cities though. My area is dry as a bone and having 2 retro game shops doesn't help. I am a big part as to why it's so dry, but damn it's empty now lol

[The Adventurer]

Over the last 3 months I have spent about $200 for about $900s worth of games and consoles. There are still deals to be found out there.

[Gameguy]

It's more difficult now but some stuff turns up every now and then at thrift stores. It's best to own a game store, people bring games to sell there all the time. I just visited one near my home and saw a small pile of SNES games that were just brought in, I was told they paid $20 for the lot of them. There were maybe 6 games there but the titles I remember are Super Adventure Island II, Tecmo Secret of the Stars, and Secret of Mana. It's been ages since I've found any old games that good in a thrift store or craigslist but apparently people are still willing to sell them for cheap.

[The Adventurer]

You also need to acknowlege tha time continues to march ever onward. The PS1 era is nearly 20 years old now and everything prior to that is even older. Classic gaming artifacts are getting scarcer every day. And retro gaming is ever popular. Supply meet demand. It's just the way it's going to be going forward. You can't fight it. You can just be vigilant and patient.

[Sosage]

You also need to acknowlege tha time continues to march ever onward. The PS1 era is nearly 20 years old now and everything prior to that is even older. Classic gaming artifacts are getting scarcer every day. And retro gaming is ever popular. Supply meet demand. It's just the way it's going to be going forward. You can't fight it. You can just be vigilant and patient.

Every platform hits a stage where it exists in this weird "too old to be desirable, but not old enough for it to be nostalgic" limbo. One thing the OP might be experiencing is something you sort of skate towards: the stuff he/she is collecting isn't in that stage anymore where Joe Blow doesn't give a shit and just gives up a box of games for practically nothing.

What is in that stage right now? PS2/X-Box/Gamecube/GBA. If you loved the original X-Box, holy crap, you can get most of that library for a song. People are giving games away, but they come in green jewel cases.

PS-1/Saturn/N64 era stuff is due for hitting the nostalgia bubble (if it hasn't already) as kids who grew up with these platforms as their first console are going to start graduating/hitting their 20's. Just like where the 16-bit has been for the last couple of years...and where 8-bit was when this hobby really gained traction online.

There's possibly another issue, which I ran into recently when I decided to hit my local flea market (was on hiatus from going for 2 years!) -- I have almost every game that was there...that was ever there...that will likely ever be there. There were deals to be had and piles of games here and there...but I had all of it. There was nothing new. Nothing to get excited over. This hobby and the flea market specifically were fun when I had this tiny collection and I was digging for NES/Genesis/SNES carts for games. Some I remembered playing, some I had never heard of, which was even more exciting because it meant playing something new! Every weekend meant a new big ass heavy bag of cheap games to dig through.

The thrill is gone. I found maybe one NES cart I *might* not have, out of at least a total of 100 I saw there. I can easily say it feels like there is a lack of "good deals" like BITD, but a big part of that is because...hell...what's left to get a deal on in my picking grounds? Perhaps you've milked what unique opportunities there were for your local area?

[Casati]

The video game console prices at the local Goodwill as of late have become jacked up beyond what you'd pay for them on Ebay. At another thrift store, they tried to sell me a NES system jack, standard NES joystick plus Othello and a power supply for over $20. At another thrift store, I heard the owner talk about saving some items for sale on Ebay after researching the Ebay prices. On the other hand, I bought a loose NES Dragon Warrior IV for $25 at a retro video game store. I haven't found any video games for sale at garage sales, but I haven't spent a lot of time going to them.

[The Adventurer]

What is in that stage right now? PS2/X-Box/Gamecube/GBA.
Oh my god GBA games are so cheap right now.


PS-1/Saturn/N64 era stuff is due for hitting the nostalgia bubble (if it hasn't already) as kids who grew up with these platforms as their first console are going to start graduating/hitting their 20's. Just like where the 16-bit has been for the last couple of years...and where 8-bit was when this hobby really gained traction online.
That's pretty much where I am right now. N64 was a huge part of late teens, but I ignored pretty much all of the PS1 and Saturn libraries. So I'm eager to collect for all three systems right now.


There's possibly another issue, which I ran into recently when I decided to hit my local flea market (was on hiatus from going for 2 years!) -- I have almost every game that was there...that was ever there...that will likely ever be there. There were deals to be had and piles of games here and there...but I had all of it. There was nothing new. Nothing to get excited over. This hobby and the flea market specifically were fun when I had this tiny collection and I was digging for NES/Genesis/SNES carts for games. Some I remembered playing, some I had never heard of, which was even more exciting because it meant playing something new! Every weekend meant a new big ass heavy bag of cheap games to dig through.
Also where I am, my collection is pretty pathetically small right now, so I'm always running into stuff I've either never heard of or I have vague memories of reading about in magazines but never getting a chance to play. So much heart skipping excitement!

[Damaniel]

What is in that stage right now? PS2/X-Box/Gamecube/GBA. If you loved the original X-Box, holy crap, you can get most of that library for a song. People are giving games away, but they come in green jewel cases.


Yep - that's why I've started working on a complete US PS2 set (even though said set is unbelievably large). Not everything is cheap, but I already owned 100+ of the most valuable games in the set (especially the RPGs) when I started, which was nice.

As an example of what a PS2 buyer can expect, I walked into a local game store and bought 67 (complete) games for approximately $200. Most of the games (60 or so) only cost me $1 - $3 - and only about 20 percent of those were sports games. The other 7 games cost about $80, but were far less common games. I figure I can buy over half the complete set for less than $5 per game without even trying very hard, and 90 percent of the rest for $15 or less (most under $10). You can still buy them everywhere (even from Gamestop!), and nobody wants them.

I've given up on finishing any of my older sets. I *never* find any good stuff at the local thrift stores (I think one of the local game stores sends their lackeys out to pick up anything of value from thrift stores and garage sales, though I don't have definitive proof). I knew things were getting too rich for my blood when I sold three of my NES games (Little Samson, Action 52 and Fire n' Ice - with only the latter complete) for $650. I found all three of the those in the wild 5-7 years ago for less than $30 total, but there's no real chance of that happening anymore. As much as it pains me to do so, I'll have to leave the older systems to folks with more money than me.

[swlovinist]

Huge collector in the wild here. Yes finding deals is getting harder, but there still can be deals to be found. Broaden your base and hunt for stuff that you can trade for the stuff that you want to play. Are you a regular at the retro game stores in your town? What are they looking for? Are there any game conventions in driving distance? There are so many ways to still get some great deals, but it does take work. The days of walking into a goodwill and finding 39 cent games are over...however that does not mean there are not deals like others have said. Look at it this way...your games that you do have are worth more now.

This past year, I slowed down going for so much and have started to play alot more of what I own. Best decision ever.

[Steven]

Ha, coincidentally, I made this post below elsewhere not 30 minutes ago...

---

Man I remember the "last of the glory days" circa 2006... when most quality SNES games were available for literally $5-$10. It was a great time. Heck, in 2006, Earthbound cart only was fetching $40 on average. Most cart only SNES games were going for $40 on average or less. The ones that fetched over 40 cart only consistently I recall were NG Trilogy and Harvest Moon. Maybe EB and Dracula X were more in the $45 range, but with a bit of patience it was possible to snag 'em for $40 even.

I paid $40 MAX for all my SNES cart onlys in 2006 sans NG Trilogy and Harvest Moon (though HM I won with the manual which naturally upped its price a decent bit more)

[IHatedSega]

What is in that stage right now? PS2/X-Box/Gamecube/GBA. If you loved the original X-Box, holy crap, you can get most of that library for a song. People are giving games away, but they come in green jewel cases.

PS-1/Saturn/N64 era stuff is due for hitting the nostalgia bubble (if it hasn't already) as kids who grew up with these platforms as their first console are going to start graduating/hitting their 20's. Just like where the 16-bit has been for the last couple of years...and where 8-bit was when this hobby really gained traction online.


Right now is the the time to start buying PS2 and Xbox games. PS1 you can still get deals on great games, but some are really expensive like with great N64 games.


Also check out these videos Ive found of guys who find amazing deals on games. The first one is a doozy, and he bought a game for it later which works.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaB53wcRFC8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7FytzwnDcA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYoDoyMDc6g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H8A7Xst0wg

[snes_collector]

Another thing to consider is when your collection gets larger, you are going to find less things you need. If I even go to a retro store anymore I'll only walk out with one or two items. But I pretty much have to buy everything online anymore, as what is left that I want doesn't show up around here at all. It does suck to pay those prices, but what else can you do.

[The Adventurer]

Just walked into a local reseller (often over priced warez) and found a copy of Final Fight CD for Sega CD for $15 (albeit a loose copy). He also threw in a dirty Sega Saturn controller I needed for free.

Don't tell me, you can't find deals any more!

[Bubble_Man]

Yup, one of my very first posts as a member of these forums lamented what you describe. I check Goodwill's auction site sometimes, but never found a good deal on it. Games get bid up just as high -- if not higher -- as the games on ebay. Even more, they charge a handling fee by percentage and the shipping prices are horrific. The only good find I got recently was when a friend-of-a-friend got married and decided to sell his entire game collection from the NES era up until the Xbox 360.

[Edmond Dantes]

It wasn't that long ago that I found a copy of Lucienne's Quest for $10 (disc only and appears to need resurfacing--my PC reads it as just a blank CD and I can't get freeDo to work), and before that Phantasy Star, Ys, and Golvellius (all SMS) for $3 apiece.

Besides, would deals be deals if they weren't hard to find? Keep looking, and you will find something out there.

[SparTonberry]

You can still buy them everywhere (even from Gamestop!), and nobody wants them.
I just noticed the PS2 bin had silently disappeared from my local GameStop. I guess they gave up trying to sell the mountain of discs in paper sleeves.

[mailman187666]

I used to find deals all the time up until this past summer. Normally I would have gotten about 50+ games doing summer flea markets. This year I hardly got any because I didn't want to pay thier prices. Granted I did find a few this year luckily. The funny thing is that more and more tables had games for sale as the summer went on. Its probably just game collecting has just become more mainstream in the past couple years.

[starsoldier1]

The problem is more people know about the rarity of retro video games because of sites like youtube and digitpress here.

[Dave Farquhar]

One of the reasons is a small number of consultants who went on whirlwind tours, offering to teach organizations like Goodwill how to sell online. So now when they get a console and a bundle of games in, instead of selling the lot for $20 or $30, they sell it online.

I guess it was 3-4 years ago that they swept through our area, and in a matter of months Goodwill went from being fertile ground for finding a lot of different things (not just games) to being 90% defective/returned Target merchandise, sold for $5 off what Target sells but incomplete. They spent a lot of money on this consultant, and on implementing what he said, and they jacked their prices way up to pay for it.

Another problem is that I know some of the de-cluttering "experts" are writing that old game cartridges are worthless, and not even worth putting in a garage sale. I've seen that poor advice online at least a couple of times.

[IHatedSega]

My dad works at the Goodwill computer store in Austin and they used to get 360's all the freakin time, they kept them though since a tech guy I guess knew a kit for the RROD was in the works, they ended up selling them fixed for good prices, maybe I should have gotten one, but I didnt. They sell stuff for cheap, but last time I was in I only got an arcade stick for $2 with his employee discount.

They really dont spend the time still to price stuff correctly as I pointed out to him that they priced an official PS2 multi controller dock for 2 dollars less than a 3rd parties version. Ive bought Twisted Metal (in a TM2 case) and Final Fantasy 1&2 for ps1 for $5, and then FF8 BL with a ps2 memory card for $10 there. Everything in there last week game wise was knock off controllers, sports games of course, and 14 year old computer pads that are out of date, so I got the arcade stick so I could leave with something in my hands.

Stuff goes up and down though according to what is dropped off. Thats always the key, and when someone walks out of the back with a new cart filled with whatever was just priced.

[The Adventurer]

Speaking of Goodwill, I stumbled across a freaking Virtual Boy game in the wild at one today. Mario Clash.

Priced a $15 (and it wasn't 'Blue Stickers Half-Off Day' :() So yeah, that not so much a deal as a test of will not to buy it just because its the first VB game I found out in the wild.

[IHatedSega]

Jack Bros is the only VB game Id want, I am so fascinated by the Megami Tensei Series.

Honestly though Goodwill is the worst thrift store to buy pants from, so Id check for games like pants elsewhere 9/10 times. They dont even test to see if the controllers, games or anything work unless theyre in the auction case. The computer store checks to see if other electronics work, but not video games unless its in the auction case. $2 was a risk I was willing to take with this arcade stick, its not great, but $2, why not?

[Panzerfuzion]

Hit Goodwill, Salvation Army, garage sales, flea markets, and Craigslist early and often. There are still many good deals to be had 'in the wild'.

Goodwill is ruined they put almost all there games online now. Salvation Army rarely has anything and they overprice everything, flea markets are almost purely resellers, Craigslist has been ruined by smartphone and the CL app that alerts you when a keyword is posted.

I agree with the OP it's near impossible, the same places i go to now that i would go to 5 years ago always get raided. I rarely if ever saw people in "my" spots looking for vintage games. I can't tell you how man dudes in there early 20's I see at spots looking for games. It's obvious there not collectors and that there looking to just resell. Because of youtube there is this ridiculous retro craze. Only place i find deals is refreshing ebay Newly Listed BIN's. Even then you get back door bandits.

Finding stuff in the wild compared to even 2 years ago is mind blowing.

[sloan]

^
Its all about location, location, location. Where I live, there are still many sweet finds at Goodwill, Salvation Army, pawn shops, and yard sales.


I just noticed the PS2 bin had silently disappeared from my local GameStop. I guess they gave up trying to sell the mountain of discs in paper sleeves.

Just out of curiosity, I stopped in a Gamestop 20 minutes from my house last weekend. They had three boxes full of PS2 discs in paper sleeves. I was surprised in that condition to see prices from $8 on up.

[Querjek]

Two 360s, 5 Gamecubes, 3 PS2s, 4 N64s, and 3 Genesises cost me roughly $70 at a nearby Goodwill outlet. I had to get there early to catch the Xboxes. Controllers are pretty abundant and cheap but power supplies are few and far between. I've seen a few people with PS3s in their carts in the middle of the day.
Back then, the systems cost $5 each. Electronics were given and eyeballed amount. Nowadays, electronics are priced by weight. So much for fat PS3s :/

[SpaceHarrier]

I've never found anything at Goodwills around here. Swapmeets yield some good stuff though.

[Compute]

Probably the best thing to happen was when most of my collection was stolen. I had to re-evaluate what my collection meant to me. In the end, I found a reason to enjoy finding random stashes of games, simply because I didn't have them yet. If you're going for a complete collection, right now sucks. But I remember when finding stashes of games at the thrift was the ONLY way to get a game. If you wanted River Raid, and they didn't have it, you couldn't get River Raid. Nowadays if there's a game that I want and do not have, I can go online and find 200 copies. They may be overpriced, but if I don't want to pay that much I can always hold out.

Sure, I miss going to Goodwill and finding no less than 3 games I didn't already own, but that was also before I knew other people who liked classic video games. Before new homebrew development, conventions, and a million webpages devoted to our hobby. To me, that's more important than finding Secret of Mana for $2.

[Loganm187]

I agree with the OP it's near impossible, the same places i go to now that i would go to 5 years ago always get raided. I rarely if ever saw people in "my" spots looking for vintage games. I can't tell you how man dudes in there early 20's I see at spots looking for games. It's obvious there not collectors and that there looking to just resell. Because of youtube there is this ridiculous retro craze. Only place i find deals is refreshing ebay Newly Listed BIN's. Even then you get back door bandits.

Finding stuff in the wild compared to even 2 years ago is mind blowing.

It truly is. I started hardcore collecting when i was 16 and now am 26 so don't judge a someone by their age. But yea ,even two years ago I was goin to freaking pawn shops where all carts were 5 bucks and I would find all sort of amazing games for cheap. Now I just get depressed and waste my time and gas looking around the area. A part of me makes me wanna stop looking, but i know shit falls through the cracks and knowing some ass who has no interest in the titles just money irks me. I got ebay checked at a flea market the other day on a 6 dollar copy of robocop 3. I just turned around and walked out.

[Tokimemofan]

The video game console prices at the local Goodwill as of late have become jacked up beyond what you'd pay for them on Ebay. At another thrift store, they tried to sell me a NES system jack, standard NES joystick plus Othello and a power supply for over $20. At another thrift store, I heard the owner talk about saving some items for sale on Ebay after researching the Ebay prices. On the other hand, I bought a loose NES Dragon Warrior IV for $25 at a retro video game store. I haven't found any video games for sale at garage sales, but I haven't spent a lot of time going to them.

A short while back one near me had a $4 Super Metroid sitting on 2 very ugly $40 PlayStation 2s.

[Masco73]

You have to hit the pavement now to find anything. Smart phones and auto alerting apps has leveled the playing field for scores on CL. Goodwill and SA are lost causes around me anyway. My best stuff is found from hitting lots and lots of garage sales. The best is when you find a Wife selling her husband's stuff. They usually price it real cheap to get rid of it. My example would be a huge collection of Dreamcast stuff with official carry case, controllers, vmu's, fishing pole and about 50 games in original cases. I got it all for $30.
You can still find some stuff, but there are lots more people looking. The sad part is, many of the new people looking are just re-sellers who know retro games sell, not collectors. It has definitely changed a bunch in the last 5 years, but there are still finds to be had.

[philinchio]

Alaska's moniker as "The Last Frontier" holds up true for game hunting up here, as I've gotten some really nice stuff from thrifts, garage sales, and CL recently. There's very, very little competition up here for me, even with the occasional overpriced pawn shop or someone trying to hark crappy bundles for retail or more on Craigslist. The only real downside to this is the long winters and the fact that there's not as much stuff as there would be in the lower 48, but that's alright with me.

[Atarileaf]

Hit Goodwill, Salvation Army, garage sales, flea markets, and Craigslist early and often. There are still many good deals to be had 'in the wild'.

I used to be able to do that but like most, I have a demanding job that keeps me away from hunting much anymore and when I do I can always tell that a place has been picked over. The carcass is all too familiar - the scattered bones of crappy sports games.

[Atarileaf]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H8A7Xst0wg

Man, as an Atari nut, that last one made me blow my top. I subbed to him. Great great atari goodies in that video. Wow.

[sniperCCJVQ]

I I can always tell that a place has been picked over. The carcass is all too familiar - the scattered bones of crappy sports games.

Nice quote here :-) gotta note this one

[LimitedEditionMuseum]

[
I have never really believed when people say they never pay over $20-30 for a game but they have a shelf full of everything ever made from the 80s till now.
I think they are lying to justify such a huge collection. They always say " I found this eight thousand dollar game in a friends basement"

QUOTE=Panzerfuzion;1937232]Goodwill is ruined they put almost all there games online now. Salvation Army rarely has anything and they overprice everything, flea markets are almost purely resellers, Craigslist has been ruined by smartphone and the CL app that alerts you when a keyword is posted.

I agree with the OP it's near impossible, the same places i go to now that i would go to 5 years ago always get raided. I rarely if ever saw people in "my" spots looking for vintage games. I can't tell you how man dudes in there early 20's I see at spots looking for games. It's obvious there not collectors and that there looking to just resell. Because of youtube there is this ridiculous retro craze. Only place i find deals is refreshing ebay Newly Listed BIN's. Even then you get back door bandits.

Finding stuff in the wild compared to even 2 years ago is mind blowing.[/QUOTE]

[Dave Farquhar]

I have never really believed when people say they never pay over $20-30 for a game but they have a shelf full of everything ever made from the 80s till now.
I think they are lying to justify such a huge collection. They always say " I found this eight thousand dollar game in a friends basement"

It depends on how long they were at it. Someone who started in the '90s and continued over a long period of time might very well have accumulated a large collection cheaply by buying whatever was about 10 years old (and thus a generation or two out of vogue) at any given time. Then they may have acquired the desirable titles they weren't able to pick up cheaply by trading whatever rare or otherwise desirable titles they had managed to double up on.

I remember an Atari collector telling me in 1997, "There are people collecting Nintendo already, and I think they're nuts. Why would anyone pay $3 or $4 for a cartridge, just because they don't already have it?" I can remember him saying that like it was yesterday. At the time, the going rate for Atari carts was $.25-$2.00 and you could find pretty much any of them at that price if you were patient enough.

Even today, I probably could fill my car with PS2, Xbox and Gamecube games tomorrow if I were willing to pay $4 apiece for them and buy indiscriminately. I know there are a dozen PS2 titles at the thrift store nearest me (it's an independent, so sometimes you can still get decent stuff there). Someone who was doing that with NES carts 15 years ago probably has a nice collection now.

The same store had SMB/Duck Hunt for $1.91 this afternoon. I passed, of course.

[IHatedSega]

Now that Im thinking more about this, Ive had some dvds die to bit rot that a friend gave me. This stuff is going to just be display pieces in another decade or two.

I like the booklets and covers more, but Im glad I can have a 100 PS1 games on my computer. I guess Im a digital collector now.

[wiggyx]

I have been collecting for a decade now and this past year it seems like every other person is some re-seller looking for games to flip and the days of finding people with boxes full of games at thrift stores and garage sells are just over. I managed a game crazy for 5 years until they closed up and I would score a box of snes and psone games for like 10 bucks that someone would bring in trying to get rid of. Now everyone is trying to get 20 bucks for freaking mario world.

And of course prices for old games have sky rocketed in the past year or so. Earthbound cart for 300? That game sold for like 70-90 bucks for like 10 years. My entire collection has been found in the wild and as many of you know that's over half the fun. Finding that super rare game for dirt cheap feels like finding treasure. I feel very lucky to have been a collector in a time where you could find so much super cheap in the wild and if you needed some cash you could sell it or duplicates online for a good profit, but I grew my collection never purchasing online and now I am watching ebay auctions to pick up the last 10 or so games I need to "complete" my collection." It's depressing now that many of the games I never found in the wild I could have picked up on ebay for 20-50 bucks and now are selling in the hundreds everyday. I'm torn and just need to rant.

Retro game collecting is bigger than ever and now it's just not even fun as I'm competing with people who only know the price of the game and have no such interest in the games themselves.



I still hear lots of stories about great "in the wild" finds, but its all from folks online. In my area, I'm experiencing what you're describing. Finding those amazing lots at garage sales has nearly become a thing of the past. The Internet seems to have made experts of most everyone around here, ESPECIALLY at flea markets and such. Their stuff is often MORE expensive than eBay/online pricing :(

I sincerely think the market will settle down at some point. No collectible market can maintain a boom like we're seeing right now. Don't get me wrong, I don think we're gonna see $25 copies of Earthbound again, but I bet that we will see it dip back down to the 100-150 range at some point.

Either way, I'm with ya. The hunt is 90% of the fun for me at this point. Lets face it, none of us that are buying 10+ games a month are gonna ever play all of 'me through. I love playing games, but the older I get, the more I seriously enjoy the actual collecting part :)


The same store had SMB/Duck Hunt for $1.91 this afternoon. I passed, of course.

I remember working used retail in the mates 90' and early 00's. We literally had to throw away copies of this and Super Mario World. They would come in on trade all the time, and even when we started passing on them, people would just leave them in the store. Who wants the pack-in game for a system that they just traded in and literally retails for less that $1?

Also, I paid a lot less than $30 per cart for about 95% of my SNES collection. It's entirely possible, like you said. As I way saying, I worked used retail in the 90's. I had access to all the bestest games at a fraction of what they cost new, plus I paid our trade in cost, which was typically 35-50% of our retail prices.

[razeak]

Getting ebay checked is annoying. I wish they would just do it beforehand and price the shit. I hate taking an unmarked game up to a guy and then have to stand there while he checks the price. That's a lost sale immediately.

[wiggyx]

WTF?! Yeah, I would walk right out of a store if they pulled that shit. That's beyond weak.

[sparf]

The trouble I've had in the past was people who pretty much only ever played sports games.

I worked for [MAJOR GAME RETAILER] and I would, at least a few times a month, get people who would come in with years upon years worth of Madden or NBA or other old sports titles. Back in the genesis days this was especially bad because where I lived, the Sega folks were the hardcore sports gamers. THey'd have like, Sonic or Sonic 2, one or two other interesting games, and then a glut of sports titles. We barely gave any credit for them, and eventually stopped taking them all together. They got priced at a buck and never sold. Then at 50 cents.
These people would get angry with me. My favorite argument was "Well I paid 60 bucks for them games new!" ....and?

Fast forward to trying to find deals today, those gluts of sports games have sat around for so long that pawn shops won't deal in old video games as much because they have this massive inventory of games that didn't ever sell (even though they're trying to sell Madden '95 for Genesis for 20 bucks or something else insane). Or you go to flea markets and garage sales where these people have this whole box of Genesis sports games and they want some insane price for them.

Then there were the stores that had the problems way back then that I see people describing now, but for different reasons. Back then there was no collecting craze. Not really. So these pawn shops operated on whatever information they had and what they had said "Video game=$$$" so the prices were screwed up and way too high. Fast forward to today, now they KNOW that old games are $$$ and now overprice them even more, without any knowledge of the game's actual market value. A copy of Rescue: The EMbassy Mission is not worth 30 dollars, I don't care if it's still got the box and manual and the new-cartridge smell.


Of course then there are deals you don't know your'e getting until much later. I just discovered today by chance when I read someone's "wanted" list on another forum that my SegaCD copy of Lords of Thunder sells for a very high dollar amount compared to the $5 I bought it for out of a bin. (complete, case and manual and all)

So you luck out. But you have to be dilligent. It's like collecting Beanie Babies was years ago. You can find deals if you're willing to do the leg work and burn the time and gasoline necessary.