Video Game Prices

[Kevin H]

Hey All,

Me and my wife are considering starting a used video game store around us. We have been to a few stores like this and they all have some type of software to identify a buying cost for games. Anyone know of what softwares they might be using or any suggestions on how to tell a good price. I suscribe to Video Game collector, but that only gives prices they have sold for. So if any of you have any suggestions please let me know. Thanks.

[Promophile]

The small (non-EB or Gamestop) Video game store near us has printed out lists they use. I don't know of any easy way to determine prices. EBgames and Gamestop have whole departments set up just to determine used game prices I'm sure.

[Gapporin]

I'm sure you could use the DP Guide to determine a price for most stuff.

[neoroking]

It's not worth that much until you've sold it for that much. Some wise words I've heard in the past.

[Flack]

Hey All,

Me and my wife are considering starting a used video game store around us. We have been to a few stores like this and they all have some type of software to identify a buying cost for games. Anyone know of what softwares they might be using or any suggestions on how to tell a good price. I suscribe to Video Game collector, but that only gives prices they have sold for. So if any of you have any suggestions please let me know. Thanks.

Good question Kevin! Obviously you would want to have a database of some sort, with or without a custom front end. Then you need to populate that database with information. Each title is going to need several frields, including a purchase price, a sale price, an inventory count, and maybe some sales information (how many have you sold, average sold per month, etc).

To tell you the truth I don't know if there is already software for tracking software sales. If not, you might contact Joe from Digital Press and see if his database is for sale. Likewise, Video Game Collector might be willing to sell their database.

Whatever you end up with, I'm sure prices will have to be tweaked due to location and the cost of rent, etc.

Let us know how things progress! I'm sure the documenting of opening a videogame store would be interesting reading to a lot of people here.

[Kevin H]

I'll let you know what is going on. Right now I am trying to get finances together. I know I can get good wholesale prices off of ebay, but I am going to try to find other places to get games. Thanks for the help so far.

[goatdan]

Just a suggestion -- and this has NOTHING to do with any criticisms of the DP guide -- but if you plan on opening a real store you can't go by the DP guide for prices. You MUST go by the popularity of the game.

For a perfect example - Super Mario Brothers 3 for the NES is listed in the DP guide as being a rarity 1 worth $2.00. That's fair. I believe that it is still one of the best five selling games of all time. Regardless, SMB3 is a very sought after game for NES owners, and they will happily pay up to about $10.00 for it. Collectors may not, and they will hold out until they find a better deal - but the general public will.

You can't tailor a store to collectors unless you are attempting online, and even then it is tough. I agree with the DP guide about 90 percent of the time, but if you look at the prices at the GOAT Store, they are all way out of wack. We have games that are R5's priced at a few bucks, and games that are R1's priced over $10.

The biggest problem with a real store is that the profit margin on sales needs to be very high. Before we launched the GOAT Store, LLC as a full store, I met with an accountant who told us that we needed a 300-400% markup on our items if we wanted to make a profit that was enough to live on. Hopefully needless to say, we don't do that or we'd be selling games for a LOT more. In a brick and mortar store, you may need to do just that to sneak by.

You'll also have to have modern games, which is a whole 'nother ball of wax and the biggest reason why I would never want to take the GOAT Store to the real world -- the reward is much bigger, but so is the risk. If you can take the risk, it might just pay off though.

If you want to, feel free to PM me and I can provide a few more things that I recall from the meeting with that accountant. It probably cost us $250 (which is a LOT for a business that was literally started with parts of our collections) but it was worth it. No matter what, you will want to hire an account of your own. Go on word of mouth about good ones from people that you know and trust, and DO NOT just look for the cheapest. They are the cheapest for a reason. After that meeting, you should be able to get a lot more serious or decide to table the idea.

Or, if you're just a crazy collector, you can decide to ignore part of the ideas and just do your own thing like I did. But I'll tell you this much -- if you want to actually make money you shouldn't go that route

[v1rich]

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A good source for games is a trade in like EB games has. They rip off everybody who comes into the store with a trade in and resell the stuff for 3x the price.