Gametz? Yay or nay [Archive] - Retrogaming Roundtable

Sega Hitman

01-26-2005, 02:18 PM

I've used Gametz multiple times in the past, only to be left wondering why in God's name people use it. I'd get really dumb offers from 14 year old kids all day long. I felt like it wasn't worth my time, especially since they charge money for a subscription.

Fast forward to now. I've cut my collection down to the bare minimum, and don't really collect to collect anymore. Only collecting to sell. I make probably $100 a week on half.com and use ebay for any big ticket stuff. My half.com sales have slowed way down now since lots of good stuff has been sold. Today I had the thought "maybe if I go list a few hundred games on gametz, I can avoid the 15% fee of half.com, as well as charge reasonable shipping costs so I don't get screwed all the time". Am I out of my mind here?

Here are my concerns:
1.) Do people on Gametz actually have plenty of money to spend? (aka, not just kids)
2.) I am so above sending first to a 16 year old. 300+ positives on ebay will give me leverage right? Last time I used gametz, I didn't even accomplish one trade since I had 0 gametz feedback, and I didn't feel like sending out big money games to a mystery guy with 20 feedback.
3.) Does anyone here regularly make good money on there?
4.) I am about the most anti-paypal guy you'll ever meet. I'm still in limbo right now after they attempted to take me to colletions for a buyer of mine's "fraudulent funds". With me being this way, is anybody gonna go down the street and buy a damn money order. I make ebay people do it, I'm just curious if the gametz crowd will.

I don't want to waste a night posting stuff if it's gonna be for nothing. I know we've got a handful of gametz members here, let me know what you think. Be detailed, I want horror stories if there are any.

-Hitman-

Lemmy Kilmister

01-26-2005, 02:38 PM

I had a trail offer subscription to Gametz but I just let it expire. Which sould I spend money on there when I could be buying cheap games on ebay with it instead? With that being said, I i'm a member to TGN, but you'd have even worse luck trying to selling games off of there IMO (especially retro ones) because everyone broke and only cares about trendy new releases.

VinnyT

01-26-2005, 03:28 PM

I liked the place, but the whole subscription bullshit made me leave, especially when I was only able to make 3 trades. The best thing though was on the last day I could use the chat, I found out about this place. If I had become a smarter collecter soon, my trade history could have probably been more succesful.

autobotracing

01-26-2005, 03:38 PM

I hated the bs offers I would get from there . The sub thing completly made it crappy.

SoulBlazer

01-26-2005, 03:57 PM

In the old days when I used it (1998-2000) it was a wonderfull service. I got so many good trades from there -- the best one being Suikoden II and the guide for my old GBP.

I left when they started charging for it. Had'nt been that good for a few months before then anyway.

Aussie2B

01-26-2005, 04:01 PM

norkusa

01-26-2005, 04:01 PM

Muscelli

01-26-2005, 05:32 PM

TGN is horrid, i have been ripped off on there 3 times in a row.... the moderators live in their parents basement, and think theyre cool if they play halo 2 all day.... its a really suck place, i have never gotten a good offer on there. they ban u for stupid shit too, for a few months ive intentionally tried to get banned on there.... posting bad pictures, making fun of users, and such, dont get me started on the members... corzous thinks if people vote for bush, then they should be shot... he likes vampire girls, and he thinks hes the smartest person on the site, sad thing is... hes like 30 years old... Bah, TGN will probably go down pretty soon though coinsidering that most of their members have left the place... trust me, dont even waste ur time on there...

im so glad that u guys arent like those 12 year olds on there, if u wana take a good laugh, just look at their general forums, you will probably be laughing so hard at how pathetic the people are on there.... case in point, dont use it.

game tz is all right, not as good as digitpress though, you can get some sweet deals on newer games on GTZ, but Digitpress is defiently my fav... thank god for all the memebers on here, you rock! :D

video_game_addict

01-26-2005, 06:03 PM

I think it's okay. I've been there a few years, although I don't do many trades, well not often anymore. I've kept the account open though. I think it is good at what it does as far as trades are concerned. For selling you might as well go the ebay route. It's based on trades, most people list items they want to swap for something new, not to accept offers for cash. They might as well be posting on ebay themselves if that was what they wanted. I think the way it will match you up with other collectors is pretty cool & it does make working trades alot easier.

You post a trade list on this site, you get a couple hundred people look your lists over, well what if there was some interest in your items, but your wants listed weren't complete. You may get lookers who back right out of your thread & not think twice. You get a gametz page slap full of wants & haves, and even collections, then other users can really get a sense of what you have/want/need/might be interested in, more so than a single posting here in the busy message boards. And for every failed search I attempt, you can bet there are trade posts from a week, or two, or more that can't be found when some one was interested in selling/trading, and can not find your post. :/

Not like I'm coming down on the forums, but I think every little bit helps, if you are interested in trading, I think gametz is a worthwhile site. If you mainly buy/sell, then start a pre-ebay post in the marketplace, and then follow it up with a link to your auctions for what doesn't sell.

I also agree with norkusa, making it a pay site, does take away from the scammers & little kiddies who shouldn't be there in the first place. I don't think the price is that big a deal, if I use a few times a year, saves on the ebay fees, and better trades than a gamestop. ;)

Gapporin

01-26-2005, 06:10 PM

When I had a trial subscription, I only traded once (and that ended up being with norkusa, heh), but I liked how everything was set up. I never got any insane offers for anything that I had (mainly because I didn't have anything good, I was just trying to peddle off some things nobody else would take).

I thought about renewing my subscription, but I see it as unnecessary because everything I want to trade ends up here at DP. So, there's no reason to go anywhere else to try and trade it off.

DDCecil

01-26-2005, 06:12 PM

I started using it from 1999 when a member here named Overworld made a post in the Buying/Selling/Trading forum about it. I joined and did about 70 (or 100? I can't remember) trades from 1999-2002. Some good trades, and some in which the other person got the greatest deals of their life by my stupidity. Never had a sour trade, though. When the subscribtion thing started, I froze my account and never went back. I'd rather get stuff from DP's forums, where (just about) everyone is fair and friendly :D

Slipdeath

01-26-2005, 06:39 PM

Well when I was in GameTZ the people were really whiny, I have had better luck and trades on TGN.

Jorpho

01-26-2005, 07:41 PM

I never really had a problem with clueless people asking about my GameTZ items, but then, I've mostly stuck with PC games. I made some darn good deals back in the day, but I'm thinking it's not the best place to go if you're actually looking for cash.

(I thought Half.com was dead?)

Zing

01-26-2005, 08:21 PM

My experience with GameTZ is as follows:

Trade 1: I bought a SMB and SMB2 box from someone. Good trade.
Trade 2: I sent first, got ripped.
Trade 3: I sent first, got partially ripped. The game was supposed to be complete but it was missing the manual.

That was all I could take. I let my subscription run out and haven't went back since.

Steven

01-26-2005, 10:10 PM

I loved GameTZ. Emphasis on the past tense.

I joined around April of 2001. It was great back then IMHO. A nice sturdy userbase, with some very friendly gamers willing to trade anything that was on their AVAILABLE list.

Some of my best deals came from GameTZ... and some of the coolest gamers I've met off of GameTZ.

That having been said, sometime in early or mid 2003... for me it just went downhill. They added a subscription gig, and as Soulblazer mentioned even the couple months before they did, the site had already gone downhill.

It looked as if no one was interested in trading anymore... it became more of a social function and a "show my games off" kind of deal. All IMHO.

I keep my page open. I'm thinking of signing up one more time. Just to look around. But I remember the last time I signed up, I offered people VERY reasonable trades, yet I was all turned down. It's hard to make a trade there these days, so I left and that was it for me. But I might come back and check it out.

But it probably won't ever be like the old days again. In 2001 and 2002, GameTZ was a very happening place for me.

I have a lot of fond memories of GameTZ but my favorite was meeting this SAINT who sold his 2nd copy of Radiant Silvergun for just 65 dollars. He knew what the game went for (120+) but he told me "Eh, I'm here to help out nice gamers like yourself."

Thanks, wherever you are. :)

Iron Draggon

01-26-2005, 10:40 PM

I've always found the place rather annoying. It sucks when you find someone with something really hard to find, and they REFUSE to sell it. I rarely have much of anything to trade, especially not enough stuff or something valuable enough to get something really valuable in return. :/

I never have understood that either. Why the hell would anyone turn down CASH just because they wanna trade stuff? It's so STUPID! You don't want the damn game, but you'd rather hold onto it so you can hopefully TRADE it for something that you should be able to BUY if you had enough cash for it? I will never understand that. Cash is the best trade commodity in the world!

Jorpho

01-26-2005, 10:51 PM

I never have understood that either. Why the hell would anyone turn down CASH just because they wanna trade stuff? It's so STUPID! You don't want the damn game, but you'd rather hold onto it so you can hopefully TRADE it for something that you should be able to BUY if you had enough cash for it? I will never understand that. Cash is the best trade commodity in the world!

I for one dislike dealing in cash; it seems like no one is as satisfied in the end as they would be with a trade. The seller is left wondering if he might have gotten more for the same game somewhere later down the road. The buyer is left knowing the precise numerical value of the purchase, which may reflect on his enjoyment of the game.

Or maybe that's just me.

(By the way, that's one heck of an avatar, Mr. Draggon. A bit large sizewise, though.)

youruglyclone

01-26-2005, 10:56 PM

GameTZ used to be pretty lame, but I think it's gotten allot better since it went subscription. I know allot of people hated the subscription thing, but it definitely weeded-out most of the children & lame offers, so it's more tolerable now. Allot less rip-off's too. I'm up to almost 100 trades and haven't been ripped-off yet.

Yeah, I still get BS offers but it's only a fraction of the ones I used to get. I don't mind putting up with it because all the great deals I've made there make up for it.

ditto on that although I still get weird offers

7 months for MMX 7 (7 months is like about 12 bucks)

I decline

I get another message

30 weeks (which is basically 7 months and 2 weeks)

gee did he think that the 30 would make me reconsider

but yeah can't say I got the best stuff in my collection there but still it's useful periodically

forum crawling has become the only thing I do to scour for trades

Iron Draggon

01-27-2005, 12:57 AM

(By the way, that's one heck of an avatar, Mr. Draggon. A bit large sizewise, though.)

Thanks. Unfortunately it was too large though, so the mods deleted it for me.

Melf

01-27-2005, 01:22 AM

I used to use GTZ until I had a problem with posting feedback. I wanted to lower the grade I gave someone a single notch and was promptly accused of retaliation. I explained to the ass mods that I had no problem at all with my feedback, but that I had run to post for the other guy from work, before actually seeing the game he had sent. It wasn't as pristine as he had stated and I felt he deserved a "good" (or something like that) instead of what I gave him. They got all nasty and pompous without reason, so I told them to fuck off.

The site really has gone to shit in the last couple of years, and I find that I haven't missed it at all. Good riddance to bad rubbish. :shameful:

nildem

01-27-2005, 01:48 AM

Jorpho

01-27-2005, 02:03 AM

Thanks. Unfortunately it was too large though, so the mods deleted it for me.

Well, this one is nice too. Where's it from?

</threadjack>

Iron Draggon

01-27-2005, 02:54 AM

I'm not sure where I stole that one from. Some roller coaster or coaster sim site. I visit way too many of those way too often to keep track of them all.

CasualCoreGamer

01-27-2005, 01:54 PM

Before I say anything positive or negative about GameTZ, I have to state that I have a tremendous amount of respect for Bill, who runs the site/community. He puts a collossal amount of effort into running/maintaining that site. Now for the positive. I've encountered some really cool users and scored some great games I might not have gotten so easily had i went any other route (Ebay, the Wild, etc...). What turned me off, however was the glut of flamer bitches whose sole purpose of existence was to fuck with your day, no matter what. Add to that, a few Jr moderators who conducted themselves no better than the flamers they were supposedly moderating. What finally led me to abandon my account was Bad Trader Report that was leveled at me when, due to unforseen (and some forseen) events, I wasn't able to access the internet for a couple of weeks which delayed my payment to a fellow user in a transaction. I probably should have put some effort into exhonerating myself, but at the time, it seemed pointless. Since I had roughly 45 trades with an excellent user rating (not to mention the fact that I had waited considerably longer than two weeks for other users ends of trades/transactions to be completed), I became exasperated with the whole thing & let my account rot away. Admittedly, that wasn't the best way to deal with it but I'm fine with not having GameTZ in my life anymore. Well, that's my story anyway and once again, much respect to Bill & the users (the proven & honorable ones) of GameTZ

vincewy

01-28-2005, 12:30 AM

TGN is horrid, i have been ripped off on there 3 times in a row.... the moderators live in their parents basement, and think theyre cool if they play halo 2 all day.... its a really suck place, i have never gotten a good offer on there. they ban u for stupid shit too, for a few months ive intentionally tried to get banned on there.... posting bad pictures, making fun of users, and such, dont get me started on the members... corzous thinks if people vote for bush, then they should be shot... he likes vampire girls, and he thinks hes the smartest person on the site, sad thing is... hes like 30 years old... Bah, TGN will probably go down pretty soon though coinsidering that most of their members have left the place... trust me, dont even waste ur time on there...

Do you have URL of this site? I'd like to look at it just for some laughter.

Keep in mind that the same pathetic and stupid bunch of people can be seen at game stores, one reason I don't go to game stores anymore to shop unless I have to.

There're some pathetic souls who eat, breathe, and sleeps video games (..they htink nothing but games all their lives), and they think they're the coolest and smartest people, I witness those a lot of times at game store, it can be scary sometimes.

Slipdeath

01-28-2005, 12:40 AM

www.tradegamesnow.com

Ed Oscuro

01-28-2005, 03:58 AM

I recently let my GameTZ sub expire...I doubt I'll put more money in any time soon.

GameTZ has been good to me, personally. Anyone can read the horror stories about the few bad apples and make their own decision; I assume more scammers are to be found on GameTZ given the laid back atmosphere, but whether this is likely to be a problem...anybody's guess.

Shouldn't be such a problem for a seller though - buyers should be selling first.

calthaer

01-29-2005, 02:57 PM

I've made a few decent trades on GameTZ. I never really trade for very expensive or rare things (although I have Valkyrie Profile in my want list). Most of what I want / trade are decent PC games: I have a copy of Thief Gold, Thief II, and Freedom Force up and look for things like Syndicate Gold, Out of This World, Wing Commander, and some other oldies but goodies.

Haven't made any trades lately, though. People want the games I have available and then offer me dorky things that aren't on my list (like King's Quest V - I have King's Quest Collection on there, thank you, not V), so I have to decline. Give me something of equal value and I'll agree to a trade.

Problem is that there aren't a lot of people out there who can initiate. I never subscribed; just used the free offer system. Once that ran out, there wasn't a lot I could do, and only crappy offers came through.