People who buy and sell for profit- Thoughts

[BWK900]

What do you guys think of people who buy classic video games from places like the flea market, pawn shops, thrift stores, etc....just to sell on ebay or to other collectors?
Do you guys feel it makes it easier to get that valuable game or do you feel that it is bad for the hobby because of the greedy people who sell it for an inflated price?
Let me know how you guys feel about that.

[Ed Oscuro]

I haven't found enough copies of really anything in the wild to start trying to sell them, plus when I do...disaster.

If you can sell games you find, that's alright.

The main thing to remember is that one person selling games does not make a difference for prices unless somehow your sale was incredibly high (in your favor) and made people think a certain game was much more expensive; the reality is usually that more gamers scouring the fleas = more games for us all and at better prices.

If classic gamers weren't selling around Tengen Tetris, everybody would still think it was incredibly rare, for example.

I think that a healthy market is everybody's responsibility, and we can't just leave it to the scalpers and folks going out of the hobby to sell.

Plus I don't see many people here who try to gouge their fellow forumers...prices here are good, and if anything helping to drive down the market. I've certainly paid less here than I would elsewhere.

[GizmoGC]

If I see something I want, I keep it. If I see something that I know I could sell or trade to someone else for something I want, I will buy it.

I have a huge collection and often go "I do need a couple hundred for bills...guess I can sell my GAME". Thats really the only reason I sell on ebay. Not because I want money, but because I need it for bills/rent etc.

[Roi]

I think you'r stupid if you don't, we all need money!

[Haoie]

I do that sometimes, but mostly because I need the moola for more games. Just 2 days ago I sold my Breath of Fire 3 for a small profit. I didn't like it anyway.

Normally I keep everything I buy, except with bad purchases. I occasionally go hunting in pawn stores for worthwhile resale items.

[ClubNinja]

Any game I see that I know I can make at least a 100% profit on, I will buy. That is, of course, unless I want to keep it for my own collection. The thing about it is that I will buy anything that I know I can make a reasonable profit on. It just so happens that I'm more aware of the worth of video games than I am about old books or stamps or whatever else a flea market/thrift store/etc might turn up.

Now, that cash tends to go straight into my own collection indirectly, meaning that I support most of my hobby with the very same hobby. I think it's a perfectly reasonable cycle, as well as an entirely smart one.

[Mattiekrome]

Well, I went to a flea market for the first time in several years this past weekend hoping to find some good deals on NES/SNES/SMS stuff. At the last flea market I went to (probably about 1998?), I remember seeing TONS of this stuff for fairly cheap. I wasn't too big into collecting, but I knew enough to remember seeing some older VG items. Well, that has all changed. Seems like all of a sudden, EVERY SINGLE NES GAME is super rare and worth unreasonable amounts of money! We all know its not that way, but some people just think that since they have an old nintendo game, they are sitting on a gold mine! Its been a LONG time since I have found a really good deal that I was truly excited about. Since my experience last week at the flea, I beleive I will stick to the thrifts/goodwill/and ebay.

I dont have anything against people who have a reasonable knowledge of what they have. I'm totally OK with other people selling off their bubble bath babes and hot slots for hundreds of dollars, but damnit STOP with the 5-10$ Super Mario/Duck Hunt carts already x_x

[kirin jensen]

Anyone doing a lot of buying and selling for profit has a good sense of the resale price. They deserve a profit as they went and made the effort to find the merchandise. If I don't like the price, I can buy elsewhere.

In general, I buy from DP members and it's been serving me well.

[Teo]

The ones that are faster than me at times I,

Pound keyboard with sidelong fists! Bang Bang!@

*wave fist*

To the ones that are too slow joe,

*so long suckas*

[dreamcaster]

I occasionally buy consoles from the Good Samaritan or Salvation Army stores. They often need a bit of restoration.

I take great joy in restoring a console as best I can. I then sell them on eBay for a small profit. I always list them at what I consider to be their actualy worth. If people want to pay more, then well....hooray for me.

I've sold quite a few NES, SNES and Mega Drive consoles. I list them for no more than $25.00 AU (sometimes less) and I usually get the starting bid, or maybe $10 more. The only freak sales I've had is a Mega Drive for $50 and a NES for just over $100.

[NESVIDIOT]

I spend a lot of time looking for video games and some people know that I find games, so I am always on the lookout for games for other people. While I don't gouge, I do make a small profit at it that I usually turn around and spend on more games. I do e-bay from time to time too and use the proceeds to buy more game stuff I want.

Profits from sales I make gets used by feeding the addiction.

[kevincure]

I have no problem with it. For most of the stuff I buy today, it's not easy to find locally, it's no cheaper if I find it locally, and I don't think it's very much fun to hunt through garage sales all day. I'm grateful that I can hop on ebay and buy the game I want.

[Slimedog]

Sometimes I can score at a flea market and grab a big box of goodies on the cheap. I keep whatever I don't have and Ebay the rest. Its pretty hard to make enough to make it worth while, and whenever I do end up with money in Paypal, I always spend it on more games anyway. I don't think it hurts anybody. Just something to do to get more games.

[Hornet70]

I used to not like it but nowadays it seems the flea markets and thrifts are getting high on the video game stuff. With the high price of gas, and spending hours wandering flea markets/garage sales and thrifts, I dont care if I pay a buck or two more on a game on Ebay from the comfort of my home.

[nik]

I don't mind if its a an amount of profit reflecting what they bought it for, and what it sells for on ebay.

Like if I bought FFIII for 10$, I might sell it for 20-25, for example, and I don't mind paying the same.

It also depends on the quality of the item, if its complete or not, like say my 52-in one for Genesis, I bought it for 10$, its value is 35$, but I would sell it for about 20-25, same idea.

Also, personal value is in it, as I would value FFIII, since this is my only copy, and I want to keep it, but I'm not a fool for the right price, I can always get another elsewhere.

my 52-in one however, I don't value that much, and although it is my only copy, I would trade it for a loose "Twisted tales of Spike McFang", even though it is valued at 10$, becasue thats a game I want.

It's the guys who get a game for 2$ and sell it for 30-35, that bother me, those people I just won't deal with, no matter the quality of the games they have.

[j_eits]

I go to 2-3 flea markets every Saturday and to find the good games the night ends at 6.30, than I drive to the markets, walk arround, buy a lot of stuff, carry it. When I'm at home I have to test it, clean it, make pictures, list it in ebay (which is not free). At the end of the auctions I have to pack it, write an email, bring the stuff to the post-office. An sometimes you make only 20 Euros out of a day of "work"...
I think it's just fair that it's more expensive to buy things from ebay than in the wild. In the best case you get more there: a clean and tested game.

What I don't like are the guys who sell video games at flea markets. They just buy the stuff cheap and sell it without testing or cleaning and have no idea about real prices.

For example Sega Master System games cost about 2,00 Euro in the wild, no matter if it's a Sonic or a Street Fighter II and no matter if they have instructions or not. The "professional" sellers usually buy them all and try to sell them all for the same price, for example 10 Euros.

Without them video games would be much cheaper.

[Cauterize]

I do buy and sell to fund each week i go out to buy...

However i dont sell to collectors nor take advatage of them, i take advantage of the game shop buy/sell values...

Gamestation usually offer around

£12 for a PsOne
£10 for a Megadrive II
£8 for a Megadrive 1
etc... etc.. etc..

therefore, when im out hunting i will buy consoles that i see under their trade in price to make sure i get my money back, and ill keep the games it was bundled with...

I call it "Working the system"

[Sylentwulf]

I wish I lived by some more or better flea markets. I usually go to one every sunday, but I don't think I've bought more than 3-4 games in the past year from it. It's ALWAYS "Playstation/SNES system with 5 games for $30" "I won't sell anything seperately"

Not worth it.

[bazariah]

my trade was a game trader, had my own shop similer to gamestation etc, so i personally have nothing against people who sell for profit... stioll to this day allthough i have changed proffessions i still look out for titles which i can make a few quid on, like i found 3 copies of tombi in GAME, i bought them all for something like £13 (one had scratches) got the scrathed one repaired and i put two of them on the bay at different times.. somebody bought one of them for £55 but knowing it can be hard for some people to find certain titles it was probably worth that much to them... i personally nearly paid forty pounds for bill and ted on the nes loose, just losing out on the auction at the last second, but if somebody has trouble finding something they want they are always prepared to pay top dollar for it, i know i am

[anagrama]

Gamestation usually offer around

£10 for a Megadrive II
£8 for a Megadrive 1

Heh, you're being done - I can get £14 for either at the Gamestation up here (or at least it was the last time I traded a couple in)