Have ALL flea marketers started smoking crack or just mine?

[camarotuner]

Like everyone else, your local area pawn shops, goodwills, flea markets, garage sales, are all havens for finding gaming goodies. In my local area (I go to Cowtown, Zerns, and Quakertown) the flea market sellers are now smoking crack on a regular basis. 75 dollars for a NES system loose, 5-15 dollars per Common NES game, all the prices got jacked up severely. There are still bargains to be found (got a box of about 25 complete in box Intellevision games for 20 bucks) but alot of the sellers now have some crazy ideas of the value of things. What's up? Is this happening in all areas or? Did the whole retro gaming thing get people thinking ANYTHING old is valuable in gaming now? Boy hope this reverses itself soon cause it's annoying.

[theshizzle3000]

You have Ebay to thank for this occurance my friend.

[jcalder8]

You have Ebay to thank for this occurance my friend.

Yup and after the market dropped last year you can often find better deals on there than at some flea markets.

[mr_nihilism]

Yup and after the market dropped last year you can often find better deals on there than at some flea markets.

So true. Not only that, but the games on eBay are often in better condition than what's found at the fleamarkets.

[Captain Wrong]

camarotuner, if this is just now happening at Flea Markets out your way, consider yourself lucky. For most of us, prices at the fleas jumped about the time of the first airing of the infamous Antiques Roadshow with videogames on it. Check through the archives for numerous threads about flea market prices being insane.

[rbudrick]

camarotuner, if this is just now happening at Flea Markets out your way, consider yourself lucky. For most of us, prices at the fleas jumped about the time of the first airing of the infamous Antiques Roadshow with videogames on it. Check through the archives for numerous threads about flea market prices being insane.

AR did a show on videogames? Really? What was it like? Who the hell were the experts?

-Rob

[MegaDrive20XX]

You have Ebay to thank for this occurance my friend.

I agree with that, everyone wants to be just like Ebay or feel that Ebay is some sort of price guide...

[mailman187666]

I agree with that, everyone wants to be just like Ebay or feel that Ebay is some sort of price guide...

I think E-bay can give you a pretty accurate range of how to price something, but you can't just go on ebay take the highest price and say thats what its worth. Some of these vendors don't relize that if the cost is over ebay prices, chances are it isn't going to sell. But if you take something like Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 on PS2 which goes for around $80 on ebay, and put it out for $50, its more likely to sell (since gamestop can get away with charging $70 for it). Some vendors just aren't sure what to price some games at, so they go as high as they can and try to have people barter with them to get it to what should be fair.

If I were a vendor at a flea market, I would use e-bay to get a general idea of what something goes for, but I'd try to go to the minimum amount that you can get that for on ebay and still be willing to barter on the price. But that also depends on how much it costs to set up the table and how much i originally bought the games for to begin with, cuz everybody needs to make money. Just think, the overpriced guys aren't going to be the ones that wind up succesful. Some vendors just never took the business classes to learn that for every $20 game they sell for $30, they could have sold 3 of the same thing if it was priced at $20, which ends up making you more money in the long run. But hey, what do I know

[XYXZYZ]

Right- there might be a guy on eBay who's willing to pay top dollar for Megaman in the original box, but that guy's not coming into your pawn shop.

What about Video Game Collector magazine, can a vendor set his prices according to it?

[Simply Dave]

Right- there might be a guy on eBay who's willing to pay top dollar for Megaman in the original box, but that guy's not coming into your pawn shop.

What about Video Game Collector magazine, can a vendor set his prices according to it?

My local flea market video game guy prices all of his stuff by guides just like that, but is usually pretty fair about overpricing games, and will cut you a break on stuff so as not to charge the full value in the guide.

For example, I bought a Suikoden II off of him recently. The guide had it listed for 80 bucks, but he offered it to me for 50. Not a crazy deal, but still better then the going rate.

[Steven]

Dunno... I haven't gone to the flea market since like July of last year.

I know what you mean though, I had a vendor who wanted like $33 for Contra III. Unbelievable.

Ironically, I was able to trade him 4 VHS (SFII, MK, Toshinden, S. Shodown animations) for Aero Fighters =)

Hopefully for you, you'll have better luck soon

[Push Upstairs]

In my local area the flea market sellers are now smoking crack on a regular basis.

This is probably something you should take up with your local authorities.

[Iron Draggon]

sounds like you need to switch from buying from these sellers to selling to these sellers... if they're asking that much for what they have, then they should be offering quite a bit for what you have... if they aren't, then ask them where they're getting all those stellar crack rocks they're smoking...

[pseudonym]

They won't Iron Draggon. They might have a game like Final Fantasy or Contra for $20 but they will still only offer you $2 at most if you try to sell it to them. Trading can be worthwhile since a lot of them are clueless about these games beyond the well-known ones.

[MarioMania]

I havn't been to the San Jose Flea Market in like 15 years..I'm afrade to see something I like I find out it's like $30(Like a commen game)

[Cmosfm]

Other than needing the money really badley, this is also one of the main reasons that I decided to sell my collection, prices are high right now and people are paying a lot for games. Flea Market prices are insane sometimes though, because regular vendors have kids ask them all the time if they carry classic games. Demand does not equal gold mine though, it means people are willing to buy them, but not at super-high prices.

I plan to restart my collection when the market drops for good...like when I first started...when I could find boxes of NES games for 10.00.

[GrandAmChandler]

I plan to restart my collection when the market drops for good...like when I first started...when I could find boxes of NES games for 10.00.

We all are hoping for this day. The day of the great post-crash, crash.

[CosmicMonkey]

Yeah, but it's the same as Star Wars toys. Once-upon-a-time, people couldn't give them away. But over the last decade or so people have realised that SW = £. Now you go to any carboot and the Old Dear with the box of toys wants £20 for a dog chewed Vader that's missing it's left leg. You can stand there till you're blue in the face telling them it isn't worth anything, but in their eyes, it's SW so it must be worth mega bucks.

But it's also major retail stores that have jumped onto the whole retro thing. My local Gamestation will sell you a minty DC with about 3 - 4 games for £20. But a manky NES with SMB/DH will set you back £45! I shit you not. Obviously this is because 'retro is cool' and cool = £.

[Greg2600]

[QUOTE=CosmicMonkey;1121122]Yeah, but it's the same as Star Wars toys. Once-upon-a-time, people couldn't give them away. But over the last decade or so people have realised that SW = £. Now you go to any carboot and the Old Dear with the box of toys wants £20 for a dog chewed Vader that's missing it's left leg. You can stand there till you're blue in the face telling them it isn't worth anything, but in their eyes, it's SW so it must be worth mega bucks. [QUOTE]

The Star Wars stuff from the 70's and 80's I think, in really good condition, should be worth something. I mean, how many people kept their toys in the packages? Maybe I should not have asked that question.....

But the absurd 90's rush on the Star Wars figures was totally absurd. Those things were mass produced enormously, they aren't worth anything now and never will be for probably 20 years or more.

In terms of video games, I can understand the cut throat flea marketers, that's why I never go to them. I stopped 15 years ago, when I was collecting baseball cards, because they were all thieves with their prices. But the prices on ebay I find really crazy. Take NES games like Contra, why is every auction at least $15-20 for just the game? Contra was one of the highest selling titles, it is not rare in the least. I don't get it. I wish people would make a universal pact, don't bid Contra over $10, so I can buy it for $10. . I refuse to pay more than $10 for a Nintendo game (I don't buy oddball games).

[MarioMania]

We all are hoping for this day. The day of the great post-crash, crash.

like in 2020 or so ..I don't think the Market going to Crash like in 1983