Reselling Games as a non-collector

[SoulBlazer]

As many of you know, I'm a gamer, not a collector. I hang out here becuase of the interesting talk and the (mostly) mature people. ;) But my time herehas opened my eyes to many things in the gaming and collecting world.

One thing I've learned that collectors hate are speculators -- people who hunt for rare games being sold cheap by someone and then sell it on EBay for a major profit, thus driving up prices on other copies and making it hard to complete a collection.

While at my local EB today putting in some pre-orders and looking at the PC game section (many good PC games still coming out, you just have to nitpick for them), I glanced over the PSX section briefly and was surprised by what I saw -- a new looking Suikoden II for $40.

I own this game and love it to death -- and it's probaly the one game that I own that might be worth something. I've seen copies go on Amazon and EBay for around $60-80.

The first thing that came to my mind was 'Damn! I could sell this online and make some money off this, use it to buy another game.' I did'nt think that was 'fair' to do, however, and put the game back.

Now I'm wondering about it. There's no promise that I'd make more then just a few bucks for it, but my gaming budget is really tight right now and even $10 would help. On the other hand, I've NEVER done anything like this before. I could offer it here first on the forums, but I almost know someone on Ebay or Amazon would offer more for it.

What do people think about situations like this one?

[hu6800]

I know how you feel, I came across a burried stack of old NES carts still in shrinkwrap and not crushed the other day.
Im gonna buy em all for $1 a piece and give them away to Quintracker...
I dont care what they are worth , i dont collect NES and Quintracker is always cool enough to say hi to me.

Funny you should bring up suikoden II though, i started a new game 4 days
ago .. i named my hero "DIVIDUAL"

[AB Positive]

well, I always try to offer to the forums first if I come across anything I don't collect for, then go to eBay. I usually snag up whatever I can find around here because there's no one in my immediate buying area (Kier to the nth Power comes close but our paths don't seem to cross). If I find some cool stuff and can pass it on to someone who will appreciate it, I feel better about it. If I make profit, I can afford the stuff I collect for that someone else found for cheap :D

-AG

[hydr0x]

to be honest, i do buy ANYTHING that's cheap enough to make profit on it if i don't want to keep it (i often enough keep it though). if i'd live in the U.S., i would perhaps feel guilty about it, but not where i live. i'm pretty sure there is only 1 or maybe 2 other collectors anywhere in my area, so i'm not harming anyone

and i do not sell them for top notch ebay price BIN or something like that, if i know a collector who can use them i sell the games to him for the amount i spend on them plus shipping, but if there's no collector i know of who needs/wants it then it's going on ebay, usually with 1.00 start and a moderate BIN

[maxlords]

I'm unemployed....that's how I make my money. I don't feel the least bit guilty about it. Think about it this way. If you KNOW it's worth money on eBay, the price has already been inflated by buyers paying high bids on an item. You're therefore selling at the going high market value and LOWERING the price by getting more copies out there, rather than trickling a bunch of copies out one at a time to keep prices low. I say make your money off it while you can cause it won't be that high forever.

[sisko]

I'm unemployed....that's how I make my money. I don't feel the least bit guilty about it. Think about it this way. If you KNOW it's worth money on eBay, the price has already been inflated by buyers paying high bids on an item. You're therefore selling at the going high market value and LOWERING the price by getting more copies out there, rather than trickling a bunch of copies out one at a time to keep prices low. I say make your money off it while you can cause it won't be that high forever.

Same here. Sometimes I keep a lot of the stuff I find, but often I sell it. I'm a real cheapass though, and rearely make an investment over $10. And even if it is less then $10, I usually won't buy it unless I am positive I can make at least double what I bought it for.

[ClubNinja]

The first thing that came to my mind was 'Damn! I could sell this online and make some money off this, use it to buy another game.'

I think that all the time - there's no shame in it. While I generally prefer to work out trades with the stuff I don't intend to keep, a little bling bling money never hurts. How do you think I support my MVS habit? I sell stuff that I never planned to keep in the first place. As often as I can.

[youruglyclone]

there's nothing wrong with it...I mean it's better that your hobby is self sustaining rather than infringing on your other expenses. so if you can get new games by selling games at an inflated price due to people who are willing to pay it then more power to you, everybody wins you get to buy more games and your buyer gets what he/she paid for

[Classicgamesdepot]

I believe this is how the majority of us finance our collections...GO BACK AND GRAB THAT SUCKER hehe..anyways.. how do you know some other guy who knows his e-bay won't pick it up and do the same thing.. also, what are the odds that some little kid will buy it and lose the case and manual in 2 days..don't feel guilty about this sort of thing.. be proud and brag about your finds in the forum

[Garry Silljo]

Actually you SHOULD buy that game and sell it on ebay. At the store it could go to ANYBODY who may or MAY NOT truly appreciate the title. On ebay, the person who bids enough to win the title is the person who will cherish and respect the game for what it's worth. Grab those rare gems and make sure one of us gets a hold of it before you let some five year old beg his/her mommy to get it for him and then have him not like it and or not take care of it properly, and then it's lost to us all. Find those rarities, and if you dont want them, find them the right home.

[NintendoMan]

Yeah, I know EXACTLY what you mean! But I think it is ok, because if the people are willing to pay high $ for it, and they need it in their collection, why not? What if they can't find the game anywhere, and you have found it, be it you found it easy or not, why not sell it if you don't want it.
I am a sealed collector as well as a gamer (I collect sealed snes and nes games) and the prices for some of those games go for around $300-$600 depending on the game. Know i know alot of you probably think sealed games are stupid to collect, but to me their great, and it's something else to collect and do.
Know on the high prices of sealed games, Sellers on ebay have told me straight up they found these on sale at K-mart, Wal-mart, whatever, for $2-10 dollars a piece, and have sold for 100-300 dollars for some. Now thats a profit. But I figure, hey you found something someelse has use for, and if it's high dollar then whatever. I haven't ever done this, I NEVER FIND ANYTHING IN THE WILD, but have paid high $ a few times for some of those games.

[PapaStu]

Its weird, ive done kinda the same thing. There have been a few times that ive stumbled into games (almost allways at GS) and wondered if i should turn a trick on them, and try and ebay them... Castlevania:SOTN, Tactics Ogre, Bust-A-Groove 1, just to name a few, and for the most part the prices that ive seen them going for, is within about 5 bucks of "ebay value".. ive gone so far as to call home and have mom do an ebay check a few times to see if i should be picking up the game, and ive yet to pick up one.... When it comes down to having collected 394 PSOne games, ive only picked up i think 3 extra games, which ive used in trade alone at my indy shop (and theyve ebay'ed those games), or to help a fellow gamer(who has an iffinity for sealed longbox games).
Ive had the desire to do it, to pick up that game and resell it to someone who really wants it, and to pick up a tidy profit in the meantime, but i just cant, because honestly i think that hey, i stumble into all these weird rare games in the store, and if some goof just shopped the stores for them, and turned tricks on them (like i know many people do) i'd have not found the cool weird rare games that i have, and been so extatic about them, so i leave them for that gamer who would hopefully find them and be so happy for having found them.

[omnedon]

Listening to some of you agonize in here, you'd think this was a socialist board. LOL

I spent 6 months (and countless hours) trial and erroring PS2's, Cubes, Xboxes and more, learning to fix the many problems they can have. The way some of you guys talk, I should be fixing these systems for free 'for the good of the hobby' or something.

Yikes. Lotta navel gazing in this thread.

I make money from the hobby, and I'm not ashamed of it.

[Flack]

This is certainly a 180 from the last thread we had about this, where anyone who went to an auction to buy things to resell was a creep. And damn all those people who bought $79 Wal-Mart Gamecubes only to sell them the next day on eBay.

Everything's for sale.

[SegaAges]

you gotta make that dollar somehow. hell, i had friends that used to sell marijuana for games. This guy had a buttload of games, but they all had to go when he got busted with a few pounds, and so I got a bunch of his games for free as a friend, and made around 500 bucks. I know this seems like a fake story, but if you don't believe me, I'll give you the number to the correctional facility, and you can confirm it yourself.

what does this little story have to do with anything: it is much better to sell games for your gaming habit then to sell marijuana.

[Kejoriv]

I'm unemployed....that's how I make my money. I don't feel the least bit guilty about it. Think about it this way. If you KNOW it's worth money on eBay, the price has already been inflated by buyers paying high bids on an item. You're therefore selling at the going high market value and LOWERING the price by getting more copies out there, rather than trickling a bunch of copies out one at a time to keep prices low. I say make your money off it while you can cause it won't be that high forever.

Exactly what I do and how I feel. Preach on. :-P

[Cmosfm]

Well, Im all for selling on eBay. First of all, us collectors know where to get stuff cheap at. We buy a bunch of games, keep what we don't have, and have a bunch left over...what to do...sell em on eBay, make your money back, and respend that over again!

Whether or not you sell on eBay...someone else always will...the games will always be available and if it's a legitamately honest way to make money then I'm all for it.

The only thing that really irks me is when people use eBay as there pricing source. People at yard sales selling Contra for 15.00 cause its the "going eBay price" need to learn the meaning of "yard sale"

[farfel]

I'm unemployed....that's how I make my money. I don't feel the least bit guilty about it. .
Ditto. didn't consider how puttingmore copies on ebay drives prices down but it makes snese!

[GamecubeFreek]

I have only done something like this once. I was at EB and saw a lone copy of Mario Tennes for Virtual Boy. It was only three dollars so i picked it up since I was going to another game store which is more expensive. I sold it there and made a two buck profit, which I put towards a mint copy of Mr. Bones (saturn) :D

[Darth Sensei]

I'm unemployed....that's how I make my money. I don't feel the least bit guilty about it. .
Ditto. didn't consider how puttingmore copies on ebay drives prices down but it makes snese!

Welcome to the boards farfel.

Did you get that name from Seinfeld?

D