Moral Quandry...

[jdllama]

OK, I"m at work, and a couple of elderly women walk in, wanting to talk about the SNES and NES. Of course, I LOVE talking old school, and so does my boss; he's not as heavy a collector as me (and I'm not even a heavy collector :) ) So just as the two leave, I point out that we have a front loader NES, and one of the women says "Oh, that's not the one I have, I have one that loads into the top." My jaw hits the floor, and I immediately exclaim "KEEP THAT SYSTEM IN GOOD CONDITION!" I tell her how much it would be worth if she wanted to sell it, and she goes off very happy.

My boss then says to me "JD, you could have low balled her! You could have bought it from her for $100 and no one would have been the wiser! Hell, I was going to do it until you said how much it was worth."

So my quandry is, What Would You Do? Screw over the elderly woman, or let her ruin the machine?

[GENESISNES]

I was at a garage sale, and i was talking to these people about the atari, and they said that they had one, so i accidentally mentioned that the "heavy sixer" is worth a lot with the box. of course, they come out with one, and They say to me well you said that it was worth what I said + games. For FIFTY BUCKS. yeah right. they'res didn't even have the box!!! anyway, i was repeadidly kicking myself in the balls for that little doosey.

[Sega Hitman]

If you tell people what their stuff is worth ahead of time, you're not going to have many good finds. I don't think morals has anything to do with it. If they don't ask, don't tell.

For example, I found a rare NES six-shooter style gun that Camerica breifly made, sealed, at a video game store near my old house. Through the tens of hundreds of times I had been in the store, I had made pretty good friends with the owner. He wanted $20 for that gun. I knew nobody else was going to buy it, so I did some searching, and found a guy willing to buy it for $80. I had absolutely no problem buying the gun for $20, from a friend no less, and selling it for $80 to make a nice $60 profit. The reason, both parties were happy with the purchase. The store owner had paid around $5 in store credit for the gun, and the sick NES collector got his rare accesory that he probably wouldn't have found otherwise.

Don't be afraid to profit off of strangers or your friends. As long as they're happy, thats all that matters. The reason you knew that top-loader was rare was because of the countless hours of time you've sat online looking at this kind of stuff. You earned that top-loader. It's a good thing it wasn't an NWC cart, there will be other top-loader's, just next time be more wise with what you say. :wink:

-Hitman-

[christianscott27]

i dunno man i think if you paid the old lady $100 for the toploader you would have given above the going rate...last time i watched them on ebay anyways.

my wife put me thru this moral thing over my second vectrex minicade which i bought from a coin op dealer for $100 and sold for $750. my argument was that he as business man, who by the way had a PC connected to the net on his desk, should have known his wares worth. as it was the guy was happy to unload it, but in order to rebalence the karma and settle my wifes argument i went back to his warehouse and spent $150 of my profits on an arkanoid cocktail :)
________
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[Felixthegamer]

I don't discuss values of things from the people I buy. They set the prices they want. It is their choice. I have seen many games marked very low for their value and I have seen many games marked well over their value. When they have decent price games or are friendly, I go back and buy from them again and again as long as they keep getting games.
There is one guy at the local flea market who is a real not very nice guy. He is never friendly and his prices are pretty high. He has some nice games and for a few weeks I bought from him. He has never been nice and I know he has to recognize me. Anyway, I have not bought from him in a long time and unless I find an amazing deal, I won't buy from him. I guess my point is, if you are a nice guy(or girl, although there are no girls who sell games at my flea market or else where around here) you are going to get my business over and over. Some times you'll come out ahead when I over pay for common games. And there will be some times I come out ahead when I under pay for rare games. I think in the end we come out fairly even. I walk away happy and they are happy too.

[Masco73]

I think if you paid the lady $100 for a toploader, she would be the one screwing you. I would only pay $40 or less unless it was boxed then a little more.

[Tritoch]

I agree with most everyone else here. I usually find my "finds" on eBay (not enough time to rummage around town all day), but I don't mention anything about how much something is "worth" unless they specifically ask. Like when I found the 5 SNES RPGs (BoF, CT, SoM, two lesser ones) I simply asked him if he'd add a BIN price to the auction, and he responded that he had added one for $7.50. I purchased it, paid, and both of us left positive feedback and walked away happy. It's not my fault he didn't research their value a bit before posting the auction.

[tynstar]

Like everyone has said "If they don't ask don't tell". Never volunteer any info. If the seller asks you you a question then it is up to you. Just remember what comes around goes around.

[ashbourn]

I do not like to rip people off and I would tell them if they had something worth alot. But at a garage sale I would get it for the asking price and something try to get the price down a bit.

[geelw]

$100 for a top loader? where's your shop, lol! we sell them used for about that... :shock:

[Captain Wrong]

That's the key right there. There are enough people who think if it's old it's worth it's weight in gold so if someone wants to get rid of something for a reasonable price, to see it go to a good home, then that's good enough. Besides, there really aren't any hard fast rules for what things are "worth" anyway. It's all about what the seller is willing to take and what the buyer is willing to pay.

I've never flet bad about paying someone less for something than what it's "worth" (eBay prices or whatever else) because they came away happy and so did I.

[Raedon]

I think if you paid the lady $100 for a toploader, she would be the one screwing you. I would only pay $40 or less unless it was boxed then a little more.

good luck with that.

[geelw]

I think if you paid the lady $100 for a toploader, she would be the one screwing you. I would only pay $40 or less unless it was boxed then a little more.

good luck with that.

well, it depends on where you look. i got my second top-loader last year for $22 with one controller, bubble bobble, and mappyland at a salvation army shop...

[Raedon]

I think if you paid the lady $100 for a toploader, she would be the one screwing you. I would only pay $40 or less unless it was boxed then a little more.

good luck with that.

well, it depends on where you look. i got my second top-loader last year for $22 with one controller, bubble bobble, and mappyland at a salvation army shop...

I hear someone found a Neo-Geo AES at a goodwill once to, but the chances are stacked ageinst it for all of us. I've been collecting enough to know that these are pretty scarce. I've only seen 2 in the wild and both we being sold by people who wanted $80.00 because of "Ebay." But the stories of great finds like a $20 top-loader keep me going. :wink:

Game on you lucky bastards.. game on..

[Masco73]

I have been lucky with that. In fact I have found 2 top loaders in the wild both with games for $10 each. I have also sold one of them on ebay and got $50. To me that $100 price is way high. I can't see why anyone would pay that when you can buy a new pin for a front loader and have a semi new system for under $15. Just my thoughts on the subject.

[geelw]

best thing about top-loaders: they play imports with a converter no problem. some front-loaders are hissy-fitty when it comes to that sort of thing...=^P

[xertcev]

...

[scooterb23]

I guess I got lucky then when I got my top loader and 6 games in exchange for a 2 piece chicken dinner?? Total cost to me $3.69

[geelw]

I guess I got lucky then when I got my top loader and 6 games in exchange for a 2 piece chicken dinner?? Total cost to me $3.69

:roll: what is this, an episode of OZ, or something?...

[drumguy79]

Since everyone is posting their Top Loader finds I just thought I'd chime in with mine. Last year I was at a garage sale that had a 'FREE' box over in the corner. I looked in it, and you guessed it, NES Top Loader. It didn't have cords, but still... unless someone paid you to take their Top Loader, I'd say I got the best deal possible.

[mattpfeil]

erm, i got mine on ebay for 9.99 BIN
of course i hovered over the puter for 3 weeks (12-14hours a day) before that happened

yea, im a loser i know:P

[geelw]

before it comes to this, i'll end this topic (hopefully) with the folowing:

when my friend's mom was pregnant with twins, she ATE a top-loader, box and all. swallowed it whole, yup (those cravings are something else, i hear). anyway, when the twins were born, they were both clutching either end of the box, and it had to be surgically removed (thus reducing the resale value somewhat). to this day, they still fight over who grabbed the system first. tsk... :wink:

(it's not true, really!)...=^P