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Thread: Bizarre Pawn Shop Prices on Video Games

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    Default Bizarre Pawn Shop Prices on Video Games

    I'm not joking - I went to a pawn store today and these were their actual prices. They priced all games by their console (so for example, each DS game was the same price regardless of condition or completeness).

    3DS - $6 each
    DS - $6 each
    Atari 2600 - $4 each
    PSP - $5 each
    PS2 - $2 each
    NES - $2 each
    SNES - $2 each

    And for the record, they had no NES nor SNES games at the time.

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    Seems like you could score a good deal if you check back regularly. Most of the time, pawn shops go the opposite way and overprice a copy of SMB at $20 or something. That being said, I guess someone needs to be naive enough to sell to them in the first place.

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    I've seen pawn shops price like that, with maybe a few popular games pulled aside for higher price tags. I've managed to get a few decent deals with pricing models like that. Years ago, this one pawn shop I'd go to had GameCube games for $10 each, which was too expensive for most, but at that price I was able to grab complete copies of Skies of Arcadia Legends and Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes.

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    I'd be at that pawn shop all the time with those prices.

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    yeah good luck ever finding them there. no one in there right mind would trade in their video games at the prices that they'd need to charge in order to make a profit.

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    Well this is a rural pawn shop, so most of the games there are things like NFL, NBA, FPS, ATV, 4x4, and hunting games. And I assure you, some of the games they are selling are scratched even worse than GameStop's games are! I have literally found games there that were so scratched, there was no way that they'd ever be read by any console. And one of the Japanese fighting game's cases didn't contain a video game - it contained a scratched anime DVD and the shop hadn't even noticed! It was like a Street Fighter video DVD in an SNK game's case. They didn't have the matching case nor disc. Their solution? Throw away both the case and the DVD!

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    I'm just reminded more of Goodwill's pricing. $2.02, $3.03, $4.04, etc. Eventually they changed it, but for awhile it wasn't an even amount.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Bazoo View Post
    Seems like you could score a good deal if you check back regularly. Most of the time, pawn shops go the opposite way and overprice a copy of SMB at $20 or something. That being said, I guess someone needs to be naive enough to sell to them in the first place.
    Every copy of SMB/Duck Hunt I've seen in the wild in the last 10 years has been about $20. And that includes an actual dedicated games store.

    It's bonkers. Before that the highest I'd seen was like $6. In the 90s, you couldn't give them away.

    People been buyin' them up for repro shells or something?
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    Quote Originally Posted by The S View Post
    Every copy of SMB/Duck Hunt I've seen in the wild in the last 10 years has been about $20. And that includes an actual dedicated games store.

    It's bonkers. Before that the highest I'd seen was like $6. In the 90s, you couldn't give them away.

    People been buyin' them up for repro shells or something?
    For a while now, it's been $15 at the store I worked at. It's like Final Fantasy X in that even though millions were sold, and are common as dirt, it still commands a decent price.

    The repro thing, well I imagine there have been a lot more Bases Loadeds and Hoops hacked up and turned into worthless crap than anything with Mario on its label.

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    I was in a used book store a few weeks ago and saw a copy of Pitfall! for the 2600 with a price tag of $5.00 locked up in a case. It had the greasy/spotty looking label that was ready to peel off. Not exactly a hard to find rarity.
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    Quote Originally Posted by The S View Post
    Every copy of SMB/Duck Hunt I've seen in the wild in the last 10 years has been about $20. And that includes an actual dedicated games store.

    It's bonkers. Before that the highest I'd seen was like $6. In the 90s, you couldn't give them away.

    People been buyin' them up for repro shells or something?

    I can't remember who it was, but there was a guy that was buying up those carts, so he could make a throne out of them. I don't know if he ever finished that project.


    I still look at pawn shops for video games. When my SNES started having issues, I picked up a clean (no faded) SNES from my local pawn shop for $45. I'm thinking about picking up a Vader 2600 at another local shop that is selling it for $40.

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