Today's Trade-Ins [DP Store]

[digitalpress]

TO SEE THE MOST CURRENT POSTS IN THIS THREAD, BACK UP AND CLICK THAT LITTL E BLACK ARROW UNDER THE "LAST POST" COLUMN IN THE LIST OF CLASSIC GAMING FORUM POSTS!

This may be of interest to some, and of NO interest to many others, but I wanted to keep a log on the trade-ins of 2008. We get lots of cool stuff and thinking back I've often wished I'd kept a sort of journal on the very cool, very rare, or very weird stuff that has been taken in at our store. So I'm going to try to document this in some detail for 2008.

I'm a few days late so I'm going to summarize a bit of the first few days right now, but going forward I'll do my best to check in daily. If I don't post it means either I wasn't working that day and didn't get a good report from whoever was running the store, or I forgot, or I've lost interest in doing this altogether, sorry.

Let's start by catching up a bit on the first few days of 2008...

Wednesday, January 2nd:
32X Spider-Man Web of Fire (boxed, complete) - this came in on Wednesday. Raj was working, wasn't sure what it was worth. In this case, it's worth about 100 times more than what Raj paid for it. Nice early win for the store.

SNES Earthbound (loose) - this is the third one we've had traded in in three months, which is highly unusual.

Thursday, January 3rd:
PSOne w/LCD - not too many trade-ins on this day but one stand-out was a very nice practically new PSOne system with the LCD. To top it off, the guy had a PSOne carry case. It may take me awhile to figure out a good way to package this stuff. This was a guy about my age with kids, they've moved on to PS3 and this system had become obsolete in their home.

Friday, January 4th:
GBA 150-in-1 (loose) - I've seen these before but this was the first one traded into the store on Friday. What's cool about it is that 145 of the games are NES or Famicom games and as you scroll through the menu list the game loads in the background so you can see it before selecting it to play. This came from one of the urban teens who was trading in a white DS as well, didn't think I would want the game at all (went into my collection).

TODAY:

We had a huge trade-in today, two college-era guys with five gigantic boxes of stuff. The guy who owned the stuff mentioned that he had a Wii now and could download most of this stuff instead, which seemed more like wishful thinking after looking over the final lot. Most of it was common but good condition stuff, but there were a few interesting items in there. Always nice to get Mario All-Stars, Link to the Past, Super Smash Bros, etc. but most notably...

N64 Worms Armageddon (boxed) - I've never had this traded into the store before. No manual, unfortunately, and I didn't have an orphan manual either (went into my collection).

GBC Legend of Zelda Link's Awakening DX (boxed, complete) - nice condition.

Atari 2600 King Kong (loose) - It's not super rare but any $20 Atari cartridge is worth mentioning, and I've never had this traded into the store before. Ironically I sold two Atari 2600 system packages today.

ALSO

PS3 40gb system (loose, complete) - first time the 40 gig model was traded in. Wow, it really DOESN'T play PS2 games. Still, better chance I'll sell this used than new at this time. Sold by another of those urban teen types.

[Nirvana]

This is actually pretty interesting. You should note the kind of person that traded the game in. Do you ever start conversations with the customers regarding rarity and stuff like that? I'd assume you wouldn't, just because it might effect a deal. But I'm just curious.

SNES Earthbound loose? Third one in three months? WTF...I want one o_O

[Bratwurst]

I'm curious what the percentage is of trade-ins you keep for yourself instead of moving through the store. Judging from the few things you mention here I'm guessing they're probably unusual items you'd have a difficult time selling there anyway.

[Kid Ice]

I *love* this because I will know what to look for when I come to the store!

[digitalpress]

This is actually pretty interesting. You should note the kind of person that traded the game in.

I'll try to add that in future (and added above where I could recall). Incidentally if you or anyone else has other suggestions for how this might be more interesting, now is the time. I won't want to change the formula halfway or even a month into this!

Do you ever start conversations with the customers regarding rarity and stuff like that? I'd assume you wouldn't, just because it might effect a deal. But I'm just curious.

Sometimes. Often times, like in today's big early trade-in, I'm not even the person doing the transaction. Maryah never asks, she's all business. Mike or Raj ask from time to time. The way I teach my team is that from OUR perspective, EVERYTHING is junk and you're lucky you're getting anything from us, but that's just the business talking. Personally, I step away from that when I see a real collector turning their stuff in (and yes, it's very easy to tell).

SNES Earthbound loose? Third one in three months? WTF...I want one o_O

One of them was complete in the oversize strat guide box, too. Weird anomaly. I wouldn't be surprised if the game never turns up again in 2008. But that's what this thread is for!

I'm curious what the percentage is of trade-ins you keep for yourself instead of moving through the store. Judging from the few things you mention here I'm guessing they're probably unusual items you'd have a difficult time selling there anyway.

I think the percentage is very very low. "Rare" stuff I pretty much have covered already, so the only two other reasons I'd keep something for myself is either a) it's better condition than the one I have in which case it's sort of a trade to the store or b) it's unusual, something I don't normally collect like that GBA 150-in-1 cart above. I guess we'll see as the year progresses, I do intend to be bluntly honest here.

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

Personally, I step away from that when I see a real collector turning their stuff in (and yes, it's very easy to tell).

Has this sort of thing actually happened? That's a conversation for which I'd like to be a fly on the wall.

I can't believe someone unloaded a PSone with LCD; even though I have a PS2, and games for it, I would be lost without my PSone/LCD bundle. Pound for pound, the PS1 has more retro arcade compilations on it than any other machine that isn't a PC running emulation, and it's those games that get the LCD lovin' if I go on a decent trip somewhere. I can't even imagine giving mine away. Then again, I realize that my requirements are unique and, some might say, archaic.

[InsaneDavid]

GBA 150-in-1 (loose) - I've seen these before but this was the first one traded into the store on Friday. What's cool about it is that 145 of the games are NES or Famicom games and as you scroll through the menu list the game loads in the background so you can see it before selecting it to play. This came from one of the urban teens who was trading in a white DS as well, didn't think I would want the game at all (went into my collection).

Hit L and R at the same time, it'll bring up the system menu - it's running the Pocket NES emulator. I have one of these myself (a 22 in 1), it's a pirate hardcoded version of the Pocket NES emulator and some roms.

Great thread idea!

[sirhansirhan]

Yeah, I like the idea of this thread a lot. One thing I'd be interested in is a brief recap of the coolest stuff you've gotten in the, what, year and a half the store's been open?

I feel bad for whoever traded the Web of Fire in.

Anyway, it seems like this would be a lot more interesting than the monthly finds thread, which is too clogged with commons and magazines coming in the mail and nonsense like that.

[boatofcar]

Joe, I'm curious about how you work your trade ins. Do you have a flat fee per game depending on it's system, or do you do a percentage of what you'll turn around and resell it for? Or is it a trade secret that you don't want to discuss? (If so, it's totally cool).

[Hawksmoor]

Joe, fantastic idea for an ongoing thread. I'm curious though; when you get a trade in like that Web of Fire, do you ever have it sabotaged by other customers? I could easily see a scenario in which a trade-in transaction is about to be completed, and the store is getting a valuable game for a song, and another customer notices and warns the person doing the trade-in of the true value of what they're trading in. If that has happened, how did you handle it?

[gepeto]

Man the joys of owning your own store. I wish i was close enough to invade your store. That 145 in 1 sounds nice. How do you or set trade in value or price to obscure items like I wish I lived close enough to invade your store. I also really enjoyed the new video snippets of the store.

Will the dp store ever go online? or is it just too much trouble? Is there a way to request items or browse through rare system inventory. Up until now I have to stare hard at the pictures of the systems in glass enclosure Ha HA HA

[digitalpress]

Better today despite the short Sunday hours.

Crimson/Black "Brain Age" DS System (complete) - traded in with box, instructions, and in mint condition, lord knows why. This will most likely replace my white DS. Also in this trade-in, Geometry Wars, The Simpsons, and Call of Duty 4 (which I still find hilarious) for the DS.

[Apollo]

Lets see, the last thing that I traded in was pretty much all my Game Gear stuff (loose, btw). All my games, about 10 of them were fine, but apparently the Game Gear itself wasn't working anymore...

Ironic.

[digitalpress]

Today.

A Mega Man guy came along and traded in...

NES Mega Man (loose) - the first of the series. Rarely traded in, always in and out of here fast.

SNES Mega Man X3 (loose) - tough to find, this one goes in the display case. The last X3 we sold was in the display case for about 2 days.

[digitalpress]

Ack... we had to reject a 60GB PS3 because the seller wanted cash and at the time we simply didn't have the cash in the register, so that COULD be tomorrow's big trade-in, but tomorrow is NAVA, so one never knows. We did take in a 40GB PS3 earlier, which means we now have more PS3 used systems than PS2 used systems. Otherwise:

XBox 360 Burnout Paradise (complete) - the game just came out three days ago. I love when this happens because it means I get to try a new game out.

[digitalpress]

Oops, looks like I missed a few days here. NAVA will do that, let me catch up a little.

Vectrex 3D Minestorm (loose) - would have been nice if it were included in the original box with the 3D glasses, but this one's tough to find in any case. Traded in from someone at NAVA, I can't even remember who.

PS2 Futurama (complete) - in mint condition, one of those "I didn't know this was an uncommon" title.

Today practically nothing got traded in. A used pink DS Lite (in any other season than the month after Christmas, this is no big deal), SNES Donkey Kong Country 3 (loose), 2 copies of Super Smash Bros for N64 (always nice to have), but nothing really interesting to report.

[thetoxicone]

XBox 360 Burnout Paradise (complete) - the game just came out three days ago. I love when this happens because it means I get to try a new game out.

It amazes me how people trade in something that soon after it's released...unless of course it is stolen.

[GarrettCRW]

It amazes me how people trade in something that soon after it's released...unless of course it is stolen.

A reality made more possible the closer said game store is to one of the major chain stores.

[digitalpress]

Hmm, let's see. Today was just loads and loads of common stuff (hooray, there's no room left in my basement so off to the bargain bin it goes). One kinda interesting title:

GameCube ZOIDS (complete) - I didn't give this much thought at first, though I'd never seen it before. Ryan took the trade-in and since we didn't have any info on our register database looked it up on amazon.com. Seems this is one of those interesting uncommons. From the screen shots and description looks like an Armored Core type of game. Took it home to try out, may or may not stay in my collection. It IS in mint condition.

[JustRob]

I'm tempted to open a game store just to have a regular flow of shit flowing into my personal collection.