Purchase Advice

[Griking]

Someone I know is offering to sell me about 32,000 SNES game boxes. They are all used and there are no manuals. He wants $2,000 for them all. This is a dime each. There's a huge assortment of games in the lot but mostly all of the RPG and Mario games have previously been sold off. Do you think it would be worth it to pick these up to resell the ones that I dont need?

[Drexel923]

Not sure why this is in Ebay Insanity...moving to main forum.

[Lemmy Kilmister]

Pshhhhhhh, yeah. Even if you sold them for a dollar apiece you'd still be making crazy amounts of money off them. I know you probably wouldn't be able to sell them all, but still.

[tholly]

do the have the white game trays in them, if yes, then yes, if no, the probably still yes, but think about it

also, if you were selling them at say $0.20 to $0.50 or even $1.00, id buy some of them off you, that's for sure

I'm sure others here would too

[suppafly]

I´d buy them if theres not more than 30% of sports games boxes...

[goatdan]

From a sellers standpoint...

Are you willing to spend at least five minutes with each game to make between $0.90 and $3.90 total? I assume that if, as you state, most of the RPG games have already been sold off, you'll be making an average of $1.90 per box. And that is only if they have the inserts and are in decent (non sun-faded, non-creased) condition. If not, maybe it would be even lower.

For each game you sell, you have to package it and send it. Writing out the names and taking it to the post office will take a while.

You'll also need some sort of packaging.

If I was working for a game collection, and I needed a relatively common box, I would probably be willing to pay between $2.00 and $5.00 for it. I think most of us would say that is fair. If you take that, and take off $0.50 for packaging and $1.00 for shipping (which would be via padded envelope, so gosh knows how it would actually arrive), you're making $.50 on the first or $3.50 on the second. Maybe there is an eBay listing fee too, if you have to go that route.

Me personally? I wouldn't do it. I don't see a decent return in a quick enough time. If you are interested in 1000 boxes from there yourself, I would say do it. Otherwise, look at your time and how much you want to spend doing boxes first. $2000.00 is a LOT of money, and the market isn't that huge.

[hydr0x]

if 2000 bucks don't ruin you and you personally also need a few boxes, go for it, but keep in mind that it is a LOT of work, but even if you only make 50 cent per box you have a win of ~14000 bucks which is insane

[Cauterize]

you must be rich to be considering that!

[hydr0x]

you must be rich to be considering that!

why? you might even get a credit from your bank for it as it is pretty safe he's at least going to make even

[Cauterize]

True... im just a naive poor student so id dream of $2,000

[Griking]

Well, the games do NOT have the inserts so that's a negative. While the RPG and Mario boxes were already sold there were some somewhat rare ones like 20+ Chavez II and Final Fantasy Guy boxes so this should bring the average up a bit. As for selling them all I suppose i'd hope to sell them in lots. I agree that I'd be old and grey if I were to resell all 32,000 of them one by one. I suppose I would hope that I'd be able to sell them about a dozen or so at a time for about $10 or so depending on what games they were for.

I appreciate all the input. I have a bit to think about.

[christianscott27]

i'm still wondering what the sheer size of 32000 boxes would be! lets consider a unit of measure, a milk crate could hold about 40 SNES boxes, so thats 800 milk crates! a milk crate is roughly a foot square so even if you stacked in a big pile 10x10x8 you'd still have a milk truck full. heck even sorting them into order would be a project. where did this guy get em all anyways?

[tholly]

i'm still wondering what the sheer size of 32000 boxes would be! lets consider a unit of measure, a milk crate could hold about 40 SNES boxes, so thats 800 milk crates! a milk crate is roughly a foot square so even if you stacked in a big pile 10x10x8 you'd still have a milk truck full. heck even sorting them into order would be a project. where did this guy get em all anyways?

well, if they dont have inserts, they were probably flattened....so you could probably fit a few hundred to maybe 1000 in a milk crat sized area

[WanganRunner]

Ok, let's take a realistic look at the global market for SNES game boxes here....

How much demand for these do you think there is? I'm sure that you could sell quite a few to people here on DP, but then how will you sell the rest? You can't very well do ebay listings, as you'll get murdered in listing fees unless it's a box for something desireable, like Chrono Trigger.

I'm not certain that you'll be able to sell through all of them, to be honest. Your best bet is to take the very best stuff and then pass the rest off to someone else who fancies themselves a reseller, when in reality that person will likely be buying something of little value that's impossible to sell.

And I agree with the guy above, if the white inserts aren't included, or available elsewhere, no one's going to want these.

[blissfulnoise]

I'd do it. Even if you sold them for $0.10 a piece via lot sized BINs on eBay you'd make a %35 profit even after paypal and eBay fees. SNES boxes would probably be some of the easiest to sell too.

Plus with gems like Final Fight Guy that could be all through there, you'd be set to make some good money if you spend a bit of time on it.

Heck, I'd be willing to go in with you depending on the circumstances.

[-hellvin-]

Depends...it's a lot of money to throw down. I can't even imagine that many snes boxes...I've got about 2000 and they are EVERYWHERE. You'd probably do best selling them in lots somehow and breaking them down or else you'll probably never sell a bunch of sports boxes, and I'd imagine there'd be a lot out of 32,000. If possible, see what he's got and if ya wanna drop 2000 bucks on it, go for it. You'll probably make up a large sum selling em.

[furor]

While the RPG and Mario boxes were already sold there were some somewhat rare ones like 20+ Chavez II and Final Fantasy Guy boxes so this should bring the average up a bit.

If you can get your hands on one of those Final Fantasy Guy (assuming you meant Final Fight Guy) boxes...I'd take one of those off your hands

[petewhitley]

Boxes without games are a niche market anyways, but the fact that they don't include manuals? Forget it. I think you'll find alot of people in the market for boxes are looking for the manual as well, if not the inserts/etc. IMO it's a terrible idea, particularly when you consider Dan's anaylsis of the associated costs. Too niche, too many, too expensive, even at that price.