The whole eBay thing
Just looking for some varied opinions on the eBay marketplace for retro games/consoles. I've been an avid eBay user now for 7 years, I now notice a hell of a lot of folks selling retro items that are simply overpriced. It seems people are jumping on the retro bandwagon, blind to prices (realistically).
Am I wrong?
If they're selling, they aren't overpriced. Many people are willing to pay more money for the convenience of "hey it takes me about 30 seconds to find the game I want and buy it, and I can do it all on my couch" than searching through dozens of marketplace forums like digitpress has or driving around to indie used game stores/pawn shops/goodwills etc.
Here's my feedback thread: http://www.digitpress.com/forum/show...ht=FantasiaWHT
With recent sales of Stadium Events and Air Raid making mainstream news I'd expect a number of people to jump onto the newest "gold rush". As for Ebay being overpriced.....if their items are selling and people are willing to pay what the sellers are asking, then the prices are right. If the items are not selling then they're overpriced and will lower the asking to better match demand.
I think you are right. For 6 months last year i went back and forth between a retro store in my area and ebay. I know i spent too much on ebay. A few months later i tried to sell most of what i bought on ebay and maybe got a 1/3 of what i paid.
The best advice i can give you is to look for auctions and garage sales in your area. Save ebay and retro stores for hard to find items that you really want. Good Luck.
Buy it Now is almost always overpriced. Some people will pay those outrageous prices, so for the most part, there's no reason not to overprice your games bit a small margin. Ebay has many more problems with item quality and descriptions rather than pricing.Originally Posted by osprey
Ebay is driven by complete and utter greed right now, like most of the world I suppose? There are a lot of over priced retro and current games on ebay, mostly at ridiculous buy it now prices. However you can still find some deals on there, it just depends what you're looking for?
I think you're right. Some of the Buy Now prices that people are asking today are straight outrageous.
Also, I think some things on Ebay are way over priced/bid, due to International bidding too. Some people in other countries are willing to pay more since certain items were never offered in their specific country. Plus the dollar is still relatively weak versus other currency.
I use Ebay as a last resort to find something.
This is what I'm getting at, the 'gold rush'. The overpriced items that aren't selling - and the sellers of those items that won't lower the prices. A collector knows exactly what they're looking for and what they should be paying. They're getting all they can out of it advantageously.
I think that for the most part, this is absolutely right. Rendering Ranger R2 for the Super Famicom used to show up on eBay for, oh, about $100 used. Now I've routinely seen it going for upwards of $350. However, I just now wanted to check Majuuou to illustrate this further, and I ended up bidding on a copy. :P It was $80 loose with shipping. Considering the same cart is tending to go for around $50 loose on Yahoo Japan Auctions and Amazon Japan, this ends up being pretty similar to what I would have paid going through a deputy service (which I intended to do in a few days anyway). The last time I saw it, granted, it was a CIB copy, but it was more than $200, IIRC.
But yeah, for the most part, prices are beyond ridiculous, and a lot of this seems to have happened over the past few months, perhaps in response to Air Raid mania, but I'm really not completely sure.
Timing is everything!
Cross-postin' and self-quotin'
Seriously. If a buy it now price is too high, move on and wait for an auction. If no auctions appear or the price on ebay NEVER gets to where you want it, welp, maybe the game is fairly priced then.
You can still find great deals by searching auctions. Almost 100% of my online game purchases are through ebay and I never pay anything close to what some sellers (myself included) ask for games.
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This is the case for anything on eBay. So... +1. View the completed listings for current prices of games. I price my games by current eBay prices (I actually have the prices lower so they'll sell) And it works well for me.
Austin
Atleast a third of the sellers throw stuff up there way overpriced. Not to mention the games are marked as "tested" only and $20-30 extra. At times it's $50+ extra on the more expensive titles.
If I'm going to spend $60 on Marvel vs Capcom 2 for the Xbox version, I'd like to see the game described as like new condition. Or Suikoden 2 and Valkyrie Profile for $180. Does this mean my mint condition Suikoden 2 and Valkyrie Profile are worth $200-300?
Not to mention that tested can just mean that the game plays and it comes in a jewel case only, scratched all to hell and rebuffed 100 times.
I never purchase games as over priced as these, but yeah. It's just stuff I don't like to see.
Last edited by kupomogli; 05-05-2010 at 01:49 PM.
Everything in the above post is opinion unless stated otherwise.
Things are only worth what somebody is willing to pay, no matter what you think it is worth. If someone is willing to pay $60 for a game, well then I guess it is worth $60.
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Overpriced items, retro or otherwise will only sell under certain conditions, and most likely under a combination of those conditions.
1.) Genuine, legitimate rarity/scarcity of said item (on eBay and elsewhere)
2.) High demand for said item
3.) Large number of users willing to pay a high price for said item and compete against other users for that high price
For the most part, ridiculously over-priced items simply will not sell unless there's a demand along the lines of "Sealed Staduim Events" or "Gold Nintendo World Championship" cart.
I've been a registered eBay user since 98 (which was pretty much the wild wild west in terms of crazy shit you'll never see again on eBay ... people selling burns, bootlegs, pirates, flash cards, mod chips, etc.)
Lately I've been doing a lot of Nintendo Game & Watch collecting ... coincidentally and totally unrelated there seems to be some renewed interest in those units (Nintendo has been releasing emulated versions via DSi Ware and the Japan Club Nintendo has the replica Ball Game & Watch #1 as a prize) and sellers who may have been sitting on some of the more rare/desirable ones have been listing quite a few lately, I assume to meet this new/renewed interest.
There's a huge "spread" in the auction and buy it now price range ... it's literally all over the damned map price-wise, some under $40 and some over $400 for similar condition/rarity units. The sellers don't seem to have a great indication of actual value, even going in-line with what other eBay sellers are listing items at.
It seems to me like some sellers, usually the ones with storefronts, don't have a problem listing an item as a WAY over priced buy it now because there's technically no big penalty for them to just sit on it at that price for months or years.
I've been patient and careful, and in the past month I've picked up a few Game & Watches for under $50 that are featured in multiple listings over $100 or more.
eBay is a tricky animal ... like others have said, things are "worth" what people are willing to pay for them. There may be some person out there willing to pay $999.99 for a tabletop Game & Watch arcade version of Popeye ... and when they do, the seller that's had that unit sitting in their eBay store for 5 years may find it worth the wait. But as a buyer, it just makes so much more sense to wait for an auction with a reasonable price to come around.
Patience is key.
"And the book says: 'We may be through with the past, but the past ain't through with us.'"
I love sellers (of anything) who describe virtually everything they have as rare or ultra rare - no matter how common.
Another phrase I love "it is in good condition for its age".
And then there are sellers who list an item as complete but it is missing things like maps, manuals or whatever.
When I come home from a long day in Hell, there's nothing I'd rather reach for than a fire-brewed bottle of Styx Beer. Made from the filthiest waters from our own River Styx. Styx Beer is a third more toxic than any other regular beer. The worst beer - the filthiest beer - the deadliest beer. It's Styx Beer!
you guys seem to be evaluating his use of "overpriced" in economical terms. if they're selling, then no, they're not overpriced.
but their price has increased due to artificial inflation. it's not what we, as collectors, believe they are really worth.
There are a lot of people these days who put stuff on eBay with ridiculous BIN's, and then wait for people to contact them and make them an offer. This way they can pick and choose what prices people are suggesting, and if some dumb shit takes the BIN and pays 10x what it's worth, then it's a huge win for the seller. This is a huge pet peeve of mine.
--Zero
The absurdly priced BIN people are simply wasting their time. No one is going to pay 99.99 for Castlevania III CIB or whatever. Same goes for the sealed game wackos.
In general, I've found the number of ebay auctions for classic games to have literally fallen off the map. I mean, there are hardly any compared to 2 years ago. For instance, search for something like a Colecovision system or Sega Master System. You might get 10 systems still active, whereas not long ago, it was 10 per day! Games, too, they've gotten less and less.
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I wish they wouldn't have auto deny on "or best offer" or at least required you allowed at least a 10% less offer to come in before you denied it. Being auto-denied for offering $125 on a $130 dollar item is just dumb.
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