Any Luck Placing Classified Ads?

[briskbc]

I was wondering if anyone out these has had any luck with placing ads in the paper offering to buy games? I was thinking about trying this. Just wondering what sort of response others may have gotten.

[Duncan]

You know, I'd thought about doing that a while back, but then I figured people would end up trying to screw me...after all, I'm the "buyer", so they'll want to sell for as much as possible, right?

I also don't have the time to meet with people right now, though, so that doesn't help. If anyone has had good luck with this method, let me and Brisk know...

[jhd7]

Nearly every week, I run an ad in a freebie newsletter here. Over the past five years, I've had about 20 - 30 calls (none in the past several months). Of those, I made deals with about 15, if memory serves correctly. One of those deals was for ColecoVision, all the others for NES.

Don't pay to run an ad. I doubt potential sellers would be trying to rob you... after all, they're trying to clean out their closets. Paying for an ad just isn't cost efficient. Better to find a freebies newsletter to run an ad, then scan the ads in all other papers.

By "freebies newsletters," I mean rags that are stacked near the door in supermarkets and convenience stores. They're given away free and usually run small ads from readers for free. Around here, they have names like Bargain Sheet, Super Shopper, and Ad Bargain.

Jeff D

[chadtower]

I've had conversations with several people who do this but have never done it myself. They have all told me pretty consistent things about how it works. This is what I've managed to come up with, though I have not tried it myself yet.

1) Take out one well circulated ad. Don't take them out every week since you'll still get calls for about 4-5 weeks after the ad runs.

2) You'll get a lot of calls from people who don't actually want to sell but are just trying to find a way to price what they have. You'll get calls from people who want close to original retail. You'll get calls from people who will be more reasonable but these rarely have anything great.

3) Make sure you have a good amount of cash ready to go. There will be people looking to sell entire collections and not willing to piece things out, so if they have something good you may have to buy 400 items from them to get those 10 good ones.

Take it as you will, that's what I can come up with off the top of my head from many conversations with people who do take out ads.

[Kevin Listwan]

Many years ago when I had a paper route I put up flyers in apartment buildings, I had only one response for a bunch of atri 2600 stuff and he wanted to get around what he had paid o so many years ago for it. I just shrugged and walked out. Plus I later got yelled at because I did not live in the apartments and thus am not allowed to place flyers.

[Arcade Antics]

You know, I'd thought about doing that a while back, but then I figured people would end up trying to screw me...after all, I'm the "buyer", so they'll want to sell for as much as possible, right?

Wrong. :)

It's a buyer's market. You'll get flooded with calls from people who don't care if they pretty much *give* their stuff away. You've seen what happens at your local game outlets when people trade in their stuff - same deal. You'll make them a fair offer. If they don't like it, they can keep their games. Simple as that.

[Classicgamesdepot]

I've pretty much given up on this, there are already about 5 classified wanted ads from various video game stores in my area as well as collectors trying to do the same thing, I placed the ad once and got about 5 phone calls, all of people who wanted to dump their ps1 originals with 2-3 games

[Pantechnicon]

I've debated doing this myself, but I haven't yet because my chain of thought goes something like this: If they have a console, then they probably like technology. If they like technology, then they probably have a computer. If they have a computer, then they probably have internet access. If they have internet access, then they can probably get on Ebay and realize they can get a lot more their stuff that way than what I'd be offering :-(

But it could go the other way, too. Maybe if you put a caveat in your ad about you're only looking for, say, non-NES or PSX stuff then that might help eliminate some of the common stuff. Then again, you might as well hang a neon sign on your head that says "collector" at that point.

I have also tried to look at this in a certain socioeconomic light. And what occurs to me is that it might be worthwhile to put up flyers in older neighborhoods . The reasoning is that people in these neighborhoods might have consoles, but not necessarily computers. Who knows? Kids moved away back in 1987, Mom and Dad take that Intellivision and put it in the attic and manage to look it over for the last few garage sales. It's worth a shot.