When you walk into a "retro" store with games in it ...What do you do?

[Graham Mitchell]

The problem is that these retro game stores have to raise there prices to compete with ebay and amazon. If I owned a game store and you brought in a copy of say, Shining Force II, which has recently finished auctions on eBay for ~$35 both complete and loose. Lets say I sell the complete copy for $30 to have my rates be lower than eBay, then you bring in your copy and I offer say $18 to you in trade credit, since I need to make my cut to pay my overhead, why would you sell your game to me when you could list it on Amazon or eBay, and even after fees, get nearly $20 or so more for your game? See the problem here? Unless I charge more to offer you more, cutting into my own bottom line, what incentive do you have to sell your game to me? Of course, on the flipside, if I start chairing more then no one buys from me, making it a very delicate situation.

Sadly, retro game stores are a niche and dying market because of this, most collectors are more than aware of what they have a would much rather sell their stuff themselves then sell to a game store since they can get more for it that way.

And that's a shame Because the hunt is half the fun.

I still utilize retro game stores because they're convenient, and a fun outing when I'm with a friend. But when I want something specific I tend to go eBay.

[recorderdude]

Lets say I sell the complete copy for $30 to have my rates be lower than eBay, then you bring in your copy and I offer say $18 to you in trade credit

Okay, that would NEVER happen. All the retro game stores I've gone to give you at MOST, a third of the game's value as trade-in credit, and even less as cash. If someone was seriously offering me nearly two-thirds of their sale price for *any* game I brought in, especially commons, I'd gladly do it for a fair few of the games I'd be looking to sell because it would save me the time and hassle of listing the item, writing a description, shipping it out and handling any customer complaints with little lost. It would be VERY hard to stay afloat as a business giving trade-in rates THAT high, though.

[Jack_Burton_BYOAC]

You mean this one?
http://www.amazon.com/PlayStation-Ps.../dp/B00005NGLA

I never really paid attention to variant colours before, I didn't think they were worth much more than regular versions.

No, this one:



The solid blue one that came with the earliest PlayStation debugger kits. Almost all are lost now. One has come up for auction in the last 3 years as far as I can tell.

The blue controllers are also incredibly difficult and expensive to acquire. A guy at assembler games offered $150 for one of them, there were no takers...

[black_towr]

You guys tend to forget that a business has employees to pay, utility bills and other expenses. So they price things slightly higher than market value so what. They offer a convenience to the customer. I think i'd rather pay $5 more for an item and walk out the door with it than have to wait a week for it to come in the mail. I like ebay but sometimes condition is important to me and sellers don't often take the best pics so it's a gamble at times. If i walk into a store i have the item in hand and can decide right there if the condition is fine with me. Don't underestimate the convenience factor.

[recorderdude]

You guys tend to forget that a business has employees to pay, utility bills and other expenses. So they price things slightly higher than market value so what. They offer a convenience to the customer. I think i'd rather pay $5 more for an item and walk out the door with it than have to wait a week for it to come in the mail. I like ebay but sometimes condition is important to me and sellers don't often take the best pics so it's a gamble at times. If i walk into a store i have the item in hand and can decide right there if the condition is fine with me. Don't underestimate the convenience factor.

You're forgetting the fact that you needed to pay money for gas to drive there, pay taxes on the games in most places and quite possibly wait MUCH longer for the store to have the game you're looking for in stock.

[Doonzmore]

This ^.

What annoys me the most are stores who don't put price stickers on anything so every time you ask how much they need they say "hang on I'll have to go check" and hit up ebay. Why should I waste my time shopping in your store if I can buy the same item at the same price online in the comfort of my own home?

[Sundowner]

^ I also really hate it when they don't put price stickers on things! The store near me is guilty of putting price labels on about half the genesis/snes/nintendo games. They are always on the label side, but they are stacked up behind a glass case! Unless it's something I really want I'll just say screw it. I'm not going to bother with asking an employee just to say no in the end. On the positive side, when they do put price tag stickers they are good quality and peel off easy without leaving any residue.

Anyways, first thing I do is look at the Saturn and Sega CD games only to find it's the same old sports titles they've been trying to sell for over 5 years now. I know, because they have the old price labels and they changed them years ago. Every once in GREAT while they have something new.

I also noticed the store near me has been selling less and less games. I guess it must be that more people are buying and not many bringing them in.

[ProjectCamaro]

This ^.

What annoys me the most are stores who don't put price stickers on anything so every time you ask how much they need they say "hang on I'll have to go check" and hit up ebay. Why should I waste my time shopping in your store if I can buy the same item at the same price online in the comfort of my own home?

Agreed, I don't care what kind of store it is. If they don't have their prices clearly posted I just turn around and leave, I simply do not have the time to be asking what everything costs.

[scaleworm]

Is that nannoos or Al's in the u district? They're a well known rip off merchant. They have a swans love will tear us apart cd single in their glass case for $100. It's been there for years. I got the same single on colored vinyl for $10.

Go to pink gorilla or pink Godzilla instead. They're a bit more reasonable and have some cool stuff sometimes.

Yep, Al's, and another one up on Broadway.
I do not mean anyone disrespect, and I am not a cheap-skate by any means, but when I see gullible folks (kids usually on an un thought out spastic purchase) getting bilked out of their $ (Al's by UW is a great "catch an ignorant college kid" store), then my spikes go up.

I am still stupid cheap when it come to game collecting, and with the philosophy that if I get more for less, I can buy even more then (I am a collector) then all is good in the word.

PG is fair, but they get most of their games from hapless folks trading in games, that they give folks very little money for (try it some time)...
I'll (and do) give them away before I "give" (do) a "trade" with PG.

BTW PG used to be a hella much cooler shop when first started, when they were not primate, but a giant irradiated lizard, based...

[scaleworm]

This ^.

What annoys me the most are stores who don't put price stickers on anything so every time you ask how much they need they say "hang on I'll have to go check" and hit up ebay. Why should I waste my time shopping in your store if I can buy the same item at the same price online in the comfort of my own home?

Stores like this should die a horrible death via empty shop syndrome.

[scaleworm]

BTW, y'all are too cool.
I love hangin' here with y'all, my Peeps, in crazy digitpress land...
Digitpress, WHAT WOULD WE DO without you?

[scaleworm]

The way I look at it is it's their business and they can charge whatever they want. Of course I can walk in, look at their prices and quickly turn around and walk out never to return again.

The stores that have good prices will continue to make sales and the places that ask stupid prices will not make any money and will either learn and lower their prices or will not survive. It's capitalism at its best.

Too civil, Too Suave....

[scaleworm]

Thrift stores are basically retro fasion stores without the hipsterdbag prices. But Ive gotten games at used bookstroes, and used cd or movie stores as well and done just as well with reliability of the games working as actual used game stores, and they were way cheaper.

If I Could, every day of my life, I would rummage through thrift stores.
I actually do HATE retail.

[Spartan]

I look around for anything that might be interesting/rare and see if they have a clue what they have. For instance, I've been looking for a SCPH-1010 PlayStation controller for a while. It looks almost identical to a regular digital ps1 pad, but is much rarer. Some day I might find one lumped in the pile of SCPH-1080s.

A blue ps1 memory card would be a grail find.

Would that be solid blue or translucent blue?

[Jack_Burton_BYOAC]

Would that be solid blue or translucent blue?

Solid.

[StealthLurker]

99.9% of the time, I just look around and come out with nothing. Brick'n mortars generally have nothing I'm looking for / interested in.... at least these days. Back in the 90s there actually were physical shops in my town that sold "retro" gaming goods I was interested in.

One in particular that I really dug... the owner was willing to wheel 'n deal and knew his customers well enough to let them know of new stock that they might be interested in. If I recall, I got a great deal on a PC-Engine Dracula X, JPN NeoGeo AES Sengoku 2 and some others from there. Those were the days...

.

[scaleworm]

99.9% of the time, I just look around and come out with nothing. Brick'n mortars generally have nothing I'm looking for / interested in.... at least these days. Back in the 90s there actually were physical shops in my town that sold "retro" gaming goods I was interested in.

Those were the days...

Indeed.
late 80s and 90s were the golden age of thrifting/vintage game hunting... then the web came along, and ebay.