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Thread: "The one that got away"

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    loves the Game Gear too much. recorderdude's Avatar
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    Default "The one that got away"

    Few things are more heartbreaking to a collector than discovering that deal you were chasing got snapped up by someone else the second before you could get to it. Let the heartaches begin and post the biggest steal you *didn't* get.

    As for me, that'd easily be a certain super nintendo games lot a local guy into collecting motorcycle parts wanted $75 for.

    I found the lot browsing craigslist late at night.

    This lot included:

    -Kirby's Dream Land 3
    -Super Mario RPG
    -Super Castlevania IV
    -Contra III
    -Mario world, All Stars, Yoshi's Island, etc
    -Super Metroid
    -DKC 1-3
    -Secret Of Mana
    -fucking EARTHBOUND

    and about 15 other games. There was a picture of the lot all lined up and I tineye'd it to be safe, it was legit.

    I sent the seller a message immediately.

    ...The next morning, the listing was gone.

    I guess the early bird really does get the worm. The REALLY early bird.
    Last edited by recorderdude; 01-26-2013 at 02:35 AM.

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    I don't really sweat getting beaten to a deal, but I do lament the stuff I willingly pass on that I wish I had bought. You may be bummed that you got beaten to that Earthbound, but I WILLINGLY passed on an Earthbound that was something like 20 or 25 bucks back around '02 or '03. Granted, that was the going rate back then, but I was *this* close to buying it but then considered that for even less I could get BOTH Illusion of Gaia and Arcana. I mean, getting two RPG/adventure games for SNES is better than one, right? ...right? Argh.

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    I missed a few deals locally over the years...

    Having no way to play it at the time (was new to Dreamcast and didn't know about converter discs), I passed on a great-looking complete EU Dreamcast Shenmue II @ $45. Thankfully, I was able to get it later on, trading Ikaruga (JP Dreamcast) for it.

    I also passed on Chiller CIB for the NES @ $15, knowing nothing about it. Apparently it's much more than that now online.

    There had been a Godzilla DVD collection traded in, and I could have had it for $20... but the store owner bought it.
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    Strawberry (Level 2) retroguy's Avatar
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    I could've had a PC Engine Duo RX with 20 or so games, all in excellent condition, for less than $100. Bidding had actually stayed reasonable for almost a week, but on the last day, within a few hours of the auction ending, some jerk swooped in and bid $300 and you just know he relisted each item individually. #@%&ing resellers. Why do they always have to do that?
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    Quote Originally Posted by retroguy View Post
    I could've had a PC Engine Duo RX with 20 or so games, all in excellent condition, for less than $100. Bidding had actually stayed reasonable for almost a week, but on the last day, within a few hours of the auction ending, some jerk swooped in and bid $300 and you just know he relisted each item individually. #@%&ing resellers. Why do they always have to do that?
    There's no way that would've stayed under $100 unless there was some massive fluke. $300 sounds like a pretty typical price for a lot like that, actually, so I wouldn't be surprised if that's just what a gamer/collector was willing to pay.

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    Strawberry (Level 2) retroguy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Aussie2B View Post
    There's no way that would've stayed under $100 unless there was some massive fluke.
    That's just it, though. As I was keeping an eye on it, I expected it to go out of my price range quickly. When it didn't, I thought it was a one-in-a-million fluke. That's why it annoyed me. Not so much that I was outbid, but by the fact that the bidding went from about $55 to $300 on the last day. Wouldn't you assume the high bidder was a reseller?
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    That's just how eBay goes. Most game collectors snipe in order to avoid bidding wars and hopefully get the best deal possible.

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    loves the Game Gear too much. recorderdude's Avatar
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    I personally snipe but never oversnipe. Sure, you'll win a lot more if you do, but you'll also end up paying more than you want to or even more than the item's worth half of the time.

    I agree that it's essentially a workaround to ebay's price-bumping system and pretty much reduces it back to "Whoever wants to realistically pay the most for it wins"

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    loves the Game Gear too much. recorderdude's Avatar
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    So I just had one of my own "Why did I pass this up" moments recently.

    gamestore I went to on sunday had a COMPLETE IN BOX 32x space harrier for $8. Didnt buy because I didnt' have a 32x, even though I knew it was worth more.

    If it's still there next time, I'm getting it for sure.

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    Little old lady beat me to a couple of boxes of Atari games a couple of years ago at a yard sale by literally seconds. Boxes were $5 each and probably had 30 games each in them judging by the size of them. Strangely she left the box with the actual 2600 behind with a few more games. Maybe she missed it. It was weird because she literally looked 90. Bought it for the grandkids? ebay,? Maybe grandma just loves her some Asteroids. That one hurt because the mind wanders and you wonder what rarities might have been in those boxes.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Atarileaf View Post
    Little old lady beat me to a couple of boxes of Atari games a couple of years ago at a yard sale by literally seconds. Boxes were $5 each and probably had 30 games each in them judging by the size of them. Strangely she left the box with the actual 2600 behind with a few more games. Maybe she missed it. It was weird because she literally looked 90. Bought it for the grandkids? ebay,? Maybe grandma just loves her some Asteroids. That one hurt because the mind wanders and you wonder what rarities might have been in those boxes.
    Could have been a copy of Air raid!!! Really makes you wonder

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    loves the Game Gear too much. recorderdude's Avatar
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    Could have been all combats, kabooms and E.Ts too :P you never know.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Atarileaf View Post
    Little old lady beat me to a couple of boxes of Atari games a couple of years ago at a yard sale by literally seconds. Boxes were $5 each and probably had 30 games each in them judging by the size of them. Strangely she left the box with the actual 2600 behind with a few more games. Maybe she missed it. It was weird because she literally looked 90. Bought it for the grandkids? ebay,? Maybe grandma just loves her some Asteroids. That one hurt because the mind wanders and you wonder what rarities might have been in those boxes.
    I had a similar experience with a box of SNES stuff. System and a ton of nice condition boxed games was $30 or so at a garage sale. I heard enough to learn that the grandma from next door was getting them for grandkids to visit. I was new enough to collecting that I don't know if there were any true rarities, but there were great games: Metroid, Castlevania, Marios, etc. Next to it was a bin of NES stuff, but no boxes. I got that as a consolation prize at least.

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    The only thing I have ever considered "the one that got away" was NES Snow Brothers I had the thing in my hands I offered to buy it I offered to trade a ton of stuff for it but the guy was dead set on giving the system and games to his son’s, girlfriend’s, child that was 4 years old, I can only imagine what that cart looks like today.

    A little backstory I was working at the local flea with a friend selling extras and doing small reparse so the guy only came to me to get the system cleaned and the pins replaced but he had all the games with it in a box and after he told me his plan for the stuff I had to try to save that game but no dice.

    The only other thing that I have mixed feelings about is a, NES copy of Bonk’s adventure for $70, but at the time it was only going for $40 so I don’t feel bad that I passed but looking back at it now I kind of wish I would have got it.
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    A couple weeks ago as I was walking into a local thrift, I walked past a guy that was at the register checking out. His purchase? A complete in box (with the outer sleeve) NES miracle piano with the NES cartridge. It was in BEAUTIFUL condition. He and his mom had a number of other items as well and I happened to hear the total for all of their purchases was a little over $40.

    The saddest part was that I had planned to head to this thrift earlier but had gotten sidetracked.

    For the amount of thrifting and garage sale-ing that I do, I guess I'm lucky this doesn't happen more often...but it was still tough to watch.

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    Here's one from my neck of the woods:

    There was some girl locally that was selling her ex boyfriend's Nintendo games after he skipped town and left her. Sucks for him, but she had an loose idea they were worth money but not too much. Her ex had about all the rare NES games you could imagine: Bubble Bobble 2, Action 52, Flintstones 2 some great stuff. Text only add so I was a bit leery but still went forward with plans to grab it.

    Eventually she started calling me Larry in the emails and I was a bit confused, then learned she had sold all this stuff to a guy named Larry and I was outta luck. Oh well, you win some you loose some.

    Fast forward to next week. It turns out that all the NES games were CIB as well, and they all looked like they were in really nice shape. How do I know what they look like if I couldn't grab them? They showed up on Craigslist the next week with nice photos and astronomical prices.

    Eventually I figured out what was going on after I crossed paths with this guy on some stuff he was selling. I discovered that Larry is just a reseller, not even a gamer. He trolls Craigslist, garage sales, thrifts, and such looking for good stuff and then just marks it up and sells it on ebay or locally if he can finds someone to bite.

    Still stings a bit, but I don't really collect Nintendo stuff so it's not that big of a deal. What gets me is it that it wasn't someone who was out to collect or play, just some dude who was trying to squeeze as much as he can out of retro gamers.

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    loves the Game Gear too much. recorderdude's Avatar
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    Yeah. I mean, I'll buy a game I don't want to resell it so I'll have more fundage for games I actually want, but I always try to make my prices as reasonable as possible. What most resellers don't realize is that the majority of their customers are looking for a deal. If you don't sell it for at least a tiny bit less than its worth, it's going to take MUCH longer to find a buyer. It's like when I picked up for 50 cents and then sold a CiB intelligent qube for $35 last year: It was a pretty good deal back then, and when I tried to list it for higher I got nothing. Now I'm kicking myself since the price seems to have gone up already.

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    Quote Originally Posted by understatement View Post
    The only other thing that I have mixed feelings about is a, NES copy of Bonk’s adventure for $70, but at the time it was only going for $40 so I don’t feel bad that I passed but looking back at it now I kind of wish I would have got it.
    About 5 or so years ago I saw a BIN copy of Bonk's Adventure for the NES for $30 shipped. It was probably about as cheap as I've seen it online around that time and I want to say like your example it was worth about $40 or so at the time. I was on the fence about spending that much since I have it for the TG-16 & GB and from what I remember it was gone shortly after that.

    It seems like a few times a year I'll just miss something of interest and see what I missed at the flea market or yardsales but the highlights are usually something common but popular (Mario, Zelda) The few things I would have liked to have had for myself was something not really valuable, a small NES lot that had a boxed or complete copy of Smash TV (NES), didn't have this at the time. Without getting deep into the details I once got a box of 2600 games all boxed or complete at a yardsale for 10 only to have the guy run after me and just about beg to get them back right after I put them in my car. Was not that big of a deal over all but I would have been happy to have Adventure & Barnstorming complete since they were a few of my personal favorites from way back when.

    I can relate to having an old lady hunting for old games for the grand kids who was very dedicated to doing so. Video games have been something on every average joe's radar to buy at yard sales, flea markets etc be it for resale, impulse buy from nostagia or for other family members since the influence of the internet became widespread enough and I fear the ones that don't know what they are doing more then the ones that do.

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    Quote Originally Posted by FOnewearl View Post
    I fear the ones that don't know what they are doing more then the ones that do.
    I don't know. It depends on who you run into. My first ebay purchase was a Model 1 Genesis and 9 games and I only paid $25 including shipping. The seller was getting rid of some of her son's old stuff and didn't know the value of anything. There weren't any rare games in the lot but it was still a great deal. I guess you just have to get lucky.
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    Quote Originally Posted by retroguy View Post
    I don't know. It depends on who you run into. My first ebay purchase was a Model 1 Genesis and 9 games and I only paid $25 including shipping. The seller was getting rid of some of her son's old stuff and didn't know the value of anything. There weren't any rare games in the lot but it was still a great deal. I guess you just have to get lucky.
    I think he was talking more about something like my situation where grandma buys a $200 game for $2 at a yard sale and gives it to the grand kids to use as a coloring book or a jumping pad. I just remember the pile of busted up VHS tapes that my step-brothers went through. I think I too would also prefer to see a reseller get a lot of cash and someone get a game they wanted over that scenario.
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