Have ALL flea marketers started smoking crack or just mine?

[camarotuner]

Like everyone else, your local area pawn shops, goodwills, flea markets, garage sales, are all havens for finding gaming goodies. In my local area (I go to Cowtown, Zerns, and Quakertown) the flea market sellers are now smoking crack on a regular basis. 75 dollars for a NES system loose, 5-15 dollars per Common NES game, all the prices got jacked up severely. There are still bargains to be found (got a box of about 25 complete in box Intellevision games for 20 bucks) but alot of the sellers now have some crazy ideas of the value of things. What's up? Is this happening in all areas or? Did the whole retro gaming thing get people thinking ANYTHING old is valuable in gaming now? Boy hope this reverses itself soon cause it's annoying.

[theshizzle3000]

You have Ebay to thank for this occurance my friend.

[Steven]

Dunno... I haven't gone to the flea market since like July of last year.

I know what you mean though, I had a vendor who wanted like $33 for Contra III. Unbelievable.

Ironically, I was able to trade him 4 VHS (SFII, MK, Toshinden, S. Shodown animations) for Aero Fighters =)

Hopefully for you, you'll have better luck soon

[jcalder8]

You have Ebay to thank for this occurance my friend.
Yup and after the market dropped last year you can often find better deals on there than at some flea markets.

[mr_nihilism]

Yup and after the market dropped last year you can often find better deals on there than at some flea markets.

So true. Not only that, but the games on eBay are often in better condition than what's found at the fleamarkets.

[Captain Wrong]

camarotuner, if this is just now happening at Flea Markets out your way, consider yourself lucky. For most of us, prices at the fleas jumped about the time of the first airing of the infamous Antiques Roadshow with videogames on it. Check through the archives for numerous threads about flea market prices being insane.

[Push Upstairs]

In my local area the flea market sellers are now smoking crack on a regular basis.

This is probably something you should take up with your local authorities. :p

[Iron Draggon]

sounds like you need to switch from buying from these sellers to selling to these sellers... if they're asking that much for what they have, then they should be offering quite a bit for what you have... if they aren't, then ask them where they're getting all those stellar crack rocks they're smoking...

[pseudonym]

They won't Iron Draggon. They might have a game like Final Fantasy or Contra for $20 but they will still only offer you $2 at most if you try to sell it to them. Trading can be worthwhile since a lot of them are clueless about these games beyond the well-known ones.

[MarioMania]

I havn't been to the San Jose Flea Market in like 15 years..I'm afrade to see something I like I find out it's like $30(Like a commen game)

[Cmosfm]

Other than needing the money really badley, this is also one of the main reasons that I decided to sell my collection, prices are high right now and people are paying a lot for games. Flea Market prices are insane sometimes though, because regular vendors have kids ask them all the time if they carry classic games. Demand does not equal gold mine though, it means people are willing to buy them, but not at super-high prices.

I plan to restart my collection when the market drops for good...like when I first started...when I could find boxes of NES games for 10.00.

[GrandAmChandler]

I plan to restart my collection when the market drops for good...like when I first started...when I could find boxes of NES games for 10.00.

We all are hoping for this day. The day of the great post-crash, crash.

[CosmicMonkey]

Yeah, but it's the same as Star Wars toys. Once-upon-a-time, people couldn't give them away. But over the last decade or so people have realised that SW = £. Now you go to any carboot and the Old Dear with the box of toys wants £20 for a dog chewed Vader that's missing it's left leg. You can stand there till you're blue in the face telling them it isn't worth anything, but in their eyes, it's SW so it must be worth mega bucks.

But it's also major retail stores that have jumped onto the whole retro thing. My local Gamestation will sell you a minty DC with about 3 - 4 games for £20. But a manky NES with SMB/DH will set you back £45! I shit you not. Obviously this is because 'retro is cool' and cool = £.

[MarioMania]

We all are hoping for this day. The day of the great post-crash, crash.

like in 2020 or so LOL..I don't think the Market going to Crash like in 1983

[snes_collector]

In my area noone has any games anymore, the flea market, goodwill, or anywhere. For me its not the price(stuff is rather cheap-if you can find it) its just FINDING it.

[Videogamerdaryll]

Oh,yea....Many of the vendors at my local flea market started smoking crack with their high prices....I practically write about it every week in the finds thread.http://www.digitpress.com/forum/images/icons/icon9.gif


The funny thing is:..I always use that term while at the flea market with my Dad..http://www.digitpress.com/forum/images/icons/icon10.gif.I'll go ask a price,It'll be high with no haggling......I'll walk back over to my Dad and say,Ohh he-she's smoking crack ..I got my Dad saying it now.
He sometimes says Pot though..

I even refer to some of the vendors as "the crack smoker"..(oh,F him he smokes crack)http://www.digitpress.com/forum/images/icons/icon10.gif
Last week I saw a Bezel for an Arcade machine,It was worn and could be had for a few bucks on Ebay..
As soon as I looked at the vendor I thought to myself..Oh,no this is the guy that smokes crack...It's the same old,living out of his van,garbage picking vendor.
He always tries to tell me that the games,systems(junk) he has for sale is the Rarest stuff.
I just had to ask him how much he wanted for the bezel.
.$50.00..WHAT!!!.Yea,man it's from this rare arcade machine/yet he didn't know the name of the arcade machine....He's seriously smokin crack.http://www.digitpress.com/forum/images/icons/icon8.gif

Thiers this couple that I call the re-wrappers..Everything they buy they put in clear wrap,using one of those portable machines.
They run around the flea market in the morning,buy up stuff,wrap it then quadruple the price to ridiculousness.
They have been sitting on the same dirty wrapped NES and Dirty wrapped SNES for Months.http://www.digitpress.com/forum/images/icons/icon9.gif.Sometimes they want $60.00 sometimes $70.00(all depends on how big the crowd is)
He states that the NES works(have you tested it?,No,but it works)
They are smoking crack something fierce.....
http://www.digitpress.com/forum/images/icons/icon10.gif

EDIT..
Shoot,I didn't have the Enhanced interface on...I must be smokin crack.

[Greg2600]

[QUOTE=CosmicMonkey;1121122]Yeah, but it's the same as Star Wars toys. Once-upon-a-time, people couldn't give them away. But over the last decade or so people have realised that SW = £. Now you go to any carboot and the Old Dear with the box of toys wants £20 for a dog chewed Vader that's missing it's left leg. You can stand there till you're blue in the face telling them it isn't worth anything, but in their eyes, it's SW so it must be worth mega bucks. [QUOTE]

The Star Wars stuff from the 70's and 80's I think, in really good condition, should be worth something. I mean, how many people kept their toys in the packages? Maybe I should not have asked that question.....

But the absurd 90's rush on the Star Wars figures was totally absurd. Those things were mass produced enormously, they aren't worth anything now and never will be for probably 20 years or more.

In terms of video games, I can understand the cut throat flea marketers, that's why I never go to them. I stopped 15 years ago, when I was collecting baseball cards, because they were all thieves with their prices. But the prices on ebay I find really crazy. Take NES games like Contra, why is every auction at least $15-20 for just the game? Contra was one of the highest selling titles, it is not rare in the least. I don't get it. I wish people would make a universal pact, don't bid Contra over $10, so I can buy it for $10. LOL. I refuse to pay more than $10 for a Nintendo game (I don't buy oddball games).

[DragonMaster Sam]

Yeah, flea market prices have been out of hand lately. This past summer, this one older couple was selling Ocarina of Time for $30. Bit of a high price, since a couple of years ago, I saw a Gamestop that had at least 10-12 copies for $9.99.

[Soviet Conscript]

sometimes you can still find decent deals. theres a big flea market where i live. snagged a complete and excellent condition suikoden for $5 from some old guy...probibly cause he never learned to use a computer

there is also a used game dealer up there that acually has reasonable prices. got a good condition NES with controllers hookups and zapper for $20.

[GameDeals.ca]

Our local flea market has always been a place where retro games sold for decent prices (at least in the last 3 years). I used to be one of them, asking $10-$15 for common NES titles, etc. etc. because the market would bear it. Over the last few years, the local market was flooded and in order to compete I had to drop my prices $5-$10 (might as well keep with the common NES scale). This worked for a while and I eventually opened my store. Now, due to a number of factors, the market has dropped again and almost all of my NES games are $4.95 (CDN) with a few good ones in the $10-$20 range. The "crash" is already happening except that it's a slow one. I like to blame emulation (whether pirated or paid for - Wii, etc.). The hassle and expense of finding an old console and the game(s) you want is far outweighed by the simplicity of just emulating it on a newer system at a decent price (or free), and MOST consumers don't share the same attachment to "the real thing" as we do. The more this happens, the more smaller game stores will go out of business, and the market will continue to be flooded with with cheaper and cheaper games. I bought some "rare" games this morning for a fair price, then looked them up on eBay and almost shit myself when I saw how cheap they had become in just the last 6 months. Needless to say, I'm going to focus more on buttons, T-shirts, plushies, and other (non-downloadable) collectables for a while.

[Push Upstairs]

Take NES games like Contra, why is every auction at least $15-20 for just the game? Contra was one of the highest selling titles, it is not rare in the least. I don't get it. I wish people would make a universal pact, don't bid Contra over $10, so I can buy it for $10. LOL. I refuse to pay more than $10 for a Nintendo game (I don't buy oddball games).

One of the game stores near me sells Contra, cart only for $20-25.

Why? I'll never know.

But i can't fault them for everything because I've gotten some sweet deals on good stuff (Saturn 4+1 cart for $15!).

That same store sells Mega Man 2 for $20, but i got a cart only copy with ripped label (like i care) on Ebay for $5 shipped. $5! Plays the same, and I saved some $$.

[dcescott]

I bought Contra for 4 dollas. The vendor was firm on that price I couldn't budge the guy. Of course I bought it!!
Depending on what flea market you hit, you will run into the crack smokin "50.00 bezel dudes"
The only Bezel I would pay 50 for is that sweet Death Race game, or if the cabinet came with it!
You gotta know which Flea market will give you good prices..

[kainemaxwell]

Like that at the flea market that runs in my town on Sundays...

[madman77]

The pickings are pretty slim usually around here (Chicago), but I've seen some decent flea market vendors. One guy had an SMS system w/gun, controllers and some games for like $10. But then again the other side of the flea is the guy with the $10 SMB/duckhunt games or the other vendor whose entire selection is common crap SNES/Genesis games that nobody would ever buy. I think that goes for any collectibles, though. I dabble in other collectibles and it's just as bad at fleas/antique shops. You gotta take the good with the bad and keep searching for those great deals.

[Kitsune Sniper]

Man, things get much worse if you live near the border with Mexico. I've seen people try to sell me NES commons for ten bucks, loose.

And let's not forget the guy that has had six copies of Super Mario / Duck Hunt at $15 each for the past year. The same guy that displays his games... right under direct sunlight. I swear, I've seen those games fade away over the past year, and it HURTS.

[MegaDrive20XX]

You have Ebay to thank for this occurance my friend.

I agree with that, everyone wants to be just like Ebay or feel that Ebay is some sort of price guide...

[rbudrick]

camarotuner, if this is just now happening at Flea Markets out your way, consider yourself lucky. For most of us, prices at the fleas jumped about the time of the first airing of the infamous Antiques Roadshow with videogames on it. Check through the archives for numerous threads about flea market prices being insane.

AR did a show on videogames? Really? What was it like? Who the hell were the experts?

-Rob

[mailman187666]

I agree with that, everyone wants to be just like Ebay or feel that Ebay is some sort of price guide...

I think E-bay can give you a pretty accurate range of how to price something, but you can't just go on ebay take the highest price and say thats what its worth. Some of these vendors don't relize that if the cost is over ebay prices, chances are it isn't going to sell. But if you take something like Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 on PS2 which goes for around $80 on ebay, and put it out for $50, its more likely to sell (since gamestop can get away with charging $70 for it). Some vendors just aren't sure what to price some games at, so they go as high as they can and try to have people barter with them to get it to what should be fair.

If I were a vendor at a flea market, I would use e-bay to get a general idea of what something goes for, but I'd try to go to the minimum amount that you can get that for on ebay and still be willing to barter on the price. But that also depends on how much it costs to set up the table and how much i originally bought the games for to begin with, cuz everybody needs to make money. Just think, the overpriced guys aren't going to be the ones that wind up succesful. Some vendors just never took the business classes to learn that for every $20 game they sell for $30, they could have sold 3 of the same thing if it was priced at $20, which ends up making you more money in the long run. But hey, what do I know

[XYXZYZ]

Right- there might be a guy on eBay who's willing to pay top dollar for Megaman in the original box, but that guy's not coming into your pawn shop.

What about Video Game Collector magazine, can a vendor set his prices according to it?

http://www.vgcollector.com/images/cvr_5_big.jpg

[BydoEmpire]

Flea World in Orlando is still pretty good, and I haven't noticed a huge change in the last year or so. NES prices are a little high for my taste (almost everything is $5 and up loose, with very few exceptions). Still, commons are pretty much stuck at $5 and more rare stuff seems to be in the $10-$20 range. I did notice that DK Classics went up from $10 to $20 in the last year. Sega CD games are pretty cheap, which is what I've been focusing on lately. Common CIB Genny games have been stuck at $5-10 for a year or two. SNES a few dollars more. I bring my copy of VGC and I always find a couple things significantly underpriced, even if commons are a few bucks more than they should be.

[camarotuner]

Is Video Game Collector magazine still being made? If so, how can I get it?

[GrandAmChandler]

Is Video Game Collector magazine still being made? If so, how can I get it?


A quick google search turned up this:

http://www.vgcollector.com/

-GAC-

[bangtango]

If it weren't for Video Game Collector magazine or Ebay, though, there are at least 2-3 people reading this very thread who would have gotten rid of a pretty sweet game for next to nothing in a trade or sale within the past couple of years.

[Simply Dave]

Right- there might be a guy on eBay who's willing to pay top dollar for Megaman in the original box, but that guy's not coming into your pawn shop.

What about Video Game Collector magazine, can a vendor set his prices according to it?

http://www.vgcollector.com/images/cvr_5_big.jpg

My local flea market video game guy prices all of his stuff by guides just like that, but is usually pretty fair about overpricing games, and will cut you a break on stuff so as not to charge the full value in the guide.

For example, I bought a Suikoden II off of him recently. The guide had it listed for 80 bucks, but he offered it to me for 50. Not a crazy deal, but still better then the going rate.

[67dash]

So, as a former avid fan of Antiques Roadshow, can someone link this show to me? I never seen the video game one.

If not, can someone tell me what is featured in it? Thanks.

[Mr.collection]

I have seen some insane stuff at the flea market. I hate it when they say they can sell it on ebay ofr a million so I ask why don't you have it on ebay then, the next saturday I ask again and keep going till they ask me what I will pay for it. Like this bexed NES I said $25 and he was asking $200 and he thought I was insane. I really have noticed it on craigslist like this $450 N64 with crappy games that has been relisted countless times.

I still have the local goodwill to count on, thank God!

[Bronty-2]

So, as a former avid fan of Antiques Roadshow, can someone link this show to me? I never seen the video game one.

If not, can someone tell me what is featured in it? Thanks.

I'd love to see that too :)

[Bronty-2]

I found a couple of links about it:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/roadshow/series/elias_interview.html

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/roadshow/appraiseit/game52/

looks like it just focussed on atari. I guess its the only system old enough to be interesting to a broad cross section of viewers... it is called the "antiques" roadshow so they'd probably feel silly showing ps1 rpgs.

[BocoDragon]

For the record, if Antiques Roadshow ever needed gaming appraisers again, they need to come here to find them.

Either they will get correct information from the uber-collectors here.... or the maverick will seed false information to keep gaming pure!

"Gold Nintendo World Championship cart? Not worth much. Just give it to a diehard fan for a couple bucks....."

[Captain Wrong]

I found a couple of links about it:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/roadshow/series/elias_interview.html

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/roadshow/appraiseit/game52/

looks like it just focussed on atari. I guess its the only system old enough to be interesting to a broad cross section of viewers... it is called the "antiques" roadshow so they'd probably feel silly showing ps1 rpgs.

Yep.

IIRC, the "expert" was quoting $15 prices for 2600 Pac Man and whatnot. It kind of went from there...but it seemed like anecdotally at least, there was a direct jump in "wild" pricing after that show aired.

[Griking]

Our local flea market has always been a place where retro games sold for decent prices (at least in the last 3 years). I used to be one of them, asking $10-$15 for common NES titles, etc. etc. because the market would bear it.

$10-$15 each for common NES games?? I hope this was years ago when the NES was still in stores.

[Anthony1]

The thing is, the people with these ridiculous prices, if they are so ridiculous, then nobody is going to buy them, and they are going to end up stuck with them, and eventually they will have to deal with reality and lower their price. So, eventually everything will even itself out. But it can take a long time and be very frustrating in the meanwhile.

[vintagegamecrazy]

Stuff has been pretty rough lately, lots of prices have gone up. I don't usually go to fleas because of prices and time contraints but I still find stuff at thrifts. Salvation Army has been cleaning up their stores lately and I have been finding more games now and I hope it keeps up.

[camarotuner]

It's not just the prices going up, the number of "collectors" seems to be soaring too. I remember when there was only really a handful of people aggressively collecting NES titles. Now it's common. Drove the price up. Plus the younger generations seem to be in on this too so it's not all nostalgia driven by old guys like me wanting their old toys back. So the competition is stores is epically larger than it was in years past.

Oh well, just like every other collectible field it'll build itself a nice bubble, then burst in horrible ways. Then the original collectors can reap the benefits of huge collections/stockpiles being flooded to the market at once. Patience is a virtue. I'll wait.

[dcescott]

I'm reading these entries and I don't run into these problems. I have a cycle of thrift stores and flea markets I hit and I find NES games for under 5, I find systems for 10-15 bucks. Heck I even told the guy I fix them and he dropped the price on me.
Sure I know exactly where the crack smokin high dollar areas are, I avoid them like the plague. But man oh man is it ever so great to find a gem in the wild at a great price.
Ebay? They drive themselves. Christmas shoppers paid for my Wii. I have a philosophy to buy what I want and sell to break even from flea market runs. The extra dough was nice when I missed some work.

[joshnickerson]

There is one guy at my dirt mall, he's there every weekend, with the same selection of games, asking $10 for NES titles, even more for 16-bit stuff, and $20 for a brick Gameboy that's missing the screen overlay and oh so cleverly has duct tape wrapped around where the battery compartment would be, and refuses to negotiate the price. But what really blows my mind, is that he never sells anything (he literally has the SAME stuff every time), yet the dirt mall charges eight bucks a pop to rent a table for the day. So basically this guy is forking over $16 a week to sit on his ass and not sell anything.

Really no point to this ranting, it just baffles me.