Fed up with gaming greed?

[maxlords]

I'm really getting sick of how greedy people are when it comes to selling games. Sure, they're a "collectible" now. Sure, some are hard to find. But damn people...it seems everywhere I turn, everyone wants top dollar for everything. It's not as bad here on DP as it is someplaces *koff eBay koff* but it's really starting to get out of hand I think. I mean seriously...is shrink wrap worth an extra $100+ for a game that's normally worth much less? Do we really need to make as much money as quick as possible, flood the market, and leave people with the dregs? It seems like gaming is doing what baseball cards and comics have already done. I'm just waiting for the foil stamped, die cut, holographic limited editions that people start buying two of cause "they'll be worth something someday." It feels to me like we're heading towards that point. Does this bother anyone else??

[omnedon]

I voted that it bothers me somewhat, but I like to make money..


Look at it this way. I pick up a partially working Intellivision at a flea. $15bux. It's missing it's glamour cap. One controller is wonky. Through my flea (and game store) contacts I get various parts and bits. I restore this IntelliVision. It gets a glamour cap, it's controllers are 100%now. I spend $15, plus fuel, time running around getting parts, and my (somewhat skilled) time (at least 3 hours) on this IntelliVision.

I put it on Ebay with some loose commons, billed as fully restored, perfectly working, in detail. I get top dollar for it, in the vicinity of $90 to $100USD.

If I didn't get that kind of return, why should I bother to put so much effort into an IntelliVision, especially when I already have one?

Or in another way, without that return, what would have happened to that IntelliVision in the end? The trashbin likely. is that a good thing?

The only point I'm trying to make, is that it's not as simple as profit = bad. I know you didn't say that maxlords. It's become a cottage industry of sorts, and I'm not sure that's all bad.

When someone tries to get absolute top dollar fro me, I give them the honour of keeping their highly priced treasure. :-D

[nesman85]

things are only worth what people will pay for something. people charge top dollar because they know people will pay it. shrink wrap is not worth an extra $100, but instead an extra $300+(on some games). i don't sell stuff, but i buy a lot. i have no problem paying high amounts of money for a game if that's what it goes for. the only types of sellers that piss me off are ones that don't know anything about games and list a smbdh for $50.

[maxlords]

Well, there's a difference between honest profit and greed. You go out and get the machine and fix it and then sell it as restored. That's a lot different that some guy who goes out, buys the machine and sells it as is as a rare collectible. That's what makes me mad. Or those people who do stuff like go buy up games off of Yahoo Japan or someplace else for pennies and sell them for top top dollar (some may know of whom I speak). You're not going around scamming people, you're making an honest profit. Others go and sell a "factory sealed" game that may or may not be factory sealed, or they sell rare "Earthbound Zero" NES carts or custom made "proto" carts, or any number of other things. You'r enot taking advantage like so many do. It's the taking advantage greed that gets me. I sell my games on eBay when I need some extra $, but I don't mark them up like crazy. I pick a fair average price and start the bidding there with a BIN at the same price or very close. A lot of people are putting up EVERYTHING as RARE!!!! L@@K!!! I never mark my games as rare if they're not, and I never lie about the conditions. But many do, and that's where the problem lies.

[Bratwurst]

omnedon I think you make a good point in contrast to Maxlord's assertion. However, you only illustrate one facet of what I too feel is a problem.

Refurbishing items or simply nabbing a good find in the wild is great. I personally think it helps the market and certainly things like Ebay help provide people with the opportunity to grab stuff they might never come across on their own. Whether they elect to pay the higher cost is of their own volition, though the alternatives can be difficult or almost nonexistant.

My beef resides with the individuals who will bulk buy stock to the point of artificially rendering it rare, inflating demand and selling them off at a higher price. Sure, Castlevania SotN can be had for 15 bucks sealed, assuming everyone didn't snatch them up when they find them to pander on Ebay for twice as much, knowing with confidence it will sell.

Even I will admit that selling high demand items like NES top loaders irritates me though. There doesn't seem to be an end to them yet their price continues to jump up imo, and that just isn't healthy for the trade. I can only wait for the day when everyone suddenly realizes that most of the stuff ends up like their baseball card collections in the late 80's early 90's- that alot of it is out there and it really isn't worth that much. Any thoughts regarding market saturation?

[DREW]

I don't see why anyone would sell an item for less then they feel it is worth, but I don't let it bother me if I think it is to much I just don't buy it, if everyone else thinks its to much the item will not be sold.

Auctions on the other hand find there own level and sell for whatever an individual is willing to bid at that moment, but I would never tell a bidder you bid to much so only send me X amount of money. I guess what I am trying to say is its not the sellers fault if people want to pay more then an item is worth.

[Captain Wrong]

Ahh, I choose second from last. I don't lose sleep over it.

I'm sure you all are sick of me talking about my record collecting habits, but tough! :P In the so called deep funk and northern soul scene paying hundreds of dollars for one 7" is not unheard of. In fact for many of the more desirable releases, it's common. But here's the kicker, the music is usually obscure and unobainable in any other fashion. Unlike games where you can at least play the game through emulation or retro comps, many of these records are totally out of reach unless you have the cash. No reissues there.

At least with games, most of the stuff I'd like is still with in reach. Prices may be inflated, but if I really want a copy of say Radiant Silvergun, I can bite the bullet and get one with little difficulty. However, I'd love a copy of Frank Wilson's "Do I love You". Last one to change hands (one of 2 known to exist) went for over $24,000! That's kind of a spectacular example, but there's lots of these records that are 30+ years old and maybe only a couple hundred were pressed with far fewer surviving and the dealers take full advantage of it.

Believe me, there is no where near the greed in the gaming scene as there is in the record scene.

[jaydubnb]

eBay has truly been a blessing and a curse. Without it, i wouldve never had any of my PC Engine collection, but at the same time, i think we've all encountered a guy with whom we're trying to work out a gaming deal and he says "I could get $xx.xx for it on eBay!" Thats when I usually lose it. If one extremely rich or crazy bidder spends $6,000 on a sealed NES Zelda, then everyone's gonna start charging $6,000. It's a vicious trend that needs to die.

I wish that gaming companies would just release some of the more sought after titles for the GAMERS and screw over the eBay-mongers.

[punkoffgirl]

I don't see why anyone would sell an item for less then they feel it is worth, but I don't let it bother me if I think it is to much I just don't buy it, if everyone else thinks its to much the item will not be sold.


Indeed! And on the other side of it.. People are always EXTREMELY happy to find something priced "below" what they consider the value of it, and no one gets upset at them finding those deals. Why not the reverse? People wouldn't be willing to sell for those prices if they didn't think they could get it; wouldn't you?

[chocobokick]

Just like POG said :)
It's not always the sellers "ripping off" the newbies, buyers can be conniving too.
At our old game xchange this reaallly annoying guy worked there and one day he was saying how he collects saturn games and was almost finished with them. Brian likes to pretend innocence because usually these people #1 don't have nearly the games he does and #2 think they know everything about video games. So when this guy says he doesn't have PDS Brian tells him we've got three at home (which we did at the time) the guy says he could scrounge up $50 for one. LOL
So Brian didn't feel bad buying an extra Snatcher at the place a few weeks later from the guy. He said "you're lucky I had a copy of this one already or I would have bought it!". I think we traded it, but the Panzers we sold on ebay.
I see nothing wrong with collectors getting as much as possible for games, especially on ebay. For one thing, the money almost always goes back into more games. Also I would rather buy from a collector because they are usually better about descriptions and condition.

[Keir]

I picked the last one. There will always be cheap games. Maybe not the ones you want when you want them. Maybe you need to look a little harder. But they're there and they always will be.

[omnedon]

Market saturation. Well...sounds likea euphemism for 'market correction' to me. What if I found 52 intellivisions, repaired 'em all, and sold 'em one after the other for a year? The price would no doubt drop over the course of the year. Which would make perfect sense. All in all, it's likely a good thing.

The Ebay factor in that though, is the "newbie" effect. With my refurb auctions, I notice a lot of newbies bidding. REAL newbies, Zero feedbackers and the like. It's at the point now where I insist on newbs contacting me prior to bidding, or I will delete their bids. Then I delete their bids. (Too many NPB'ers) This newbie effect seems to drive the prices up up up. I sold a restored ColecoVision, with Atari expansion, 4 loose CV games, and 6 loose Atari games (all dirt common) for $200USD. No box, no docs, no rares, no SA controllers. A totally Vanilla set. The winner was a Zero feedbacker (he paid in full), and the runner up was a low feedbacker too. A newbie bidding war can easily distort the value of items, and it seems to happen a lot in the Video Game section of Ebay.

When I was a "new" collector, I paid more for stuff than I do now, by a long shot. As a matter of fact, I almost never buy on Ebay. I source locally. I've developed relationships with ALL of the local game stores that take trade-ins, and know the owners by name. I frequent the thrifts, and occasionally advertise for "old" systems in a local free classifieds Buy and Sell paper. My point is, I used to think some of this stuff was hard to find. Generally speaking, I was wrong. It's around, you just have to know where and how (and who!) to look. Those who don't know this, or don't want to go to the trouble to do this, drive the values up. However, this inflated value drives me to buy things in the wild I already have, waiting till I can make a nice set out of it, for Ebay. The real truth is, my hobby is profitable for me. My collection grows every week, but I never buy at Ebay value.

All of that said, it still chokes me to see broken third party NES controllers for $6.99, and Combats for $4.99 at a thrift. I of course leave those on the shelf. What scares the hell out of me, is when they are gone the next week. @_@

[Sniderman]

I do a *lot* of buying and selling on eBay. And, like most sellers, I'm not selling just to be magnanomous - I wish to turn a profit and the higher the better, of course. However, to keep the squeals of "profiteer! profiteer!" to a minimum, I have NEVER started any auction with an opening bid higher than $9.99 - nor have I EVER had a reserve auction. I truly feel that the buyers will set the price and, if it goes for much less than I'd like, so be it.

I also give away a lot of my own collection as prizes on AtariAge and here at DP, so I believe I "give" as much as I "get."