Quote Originally Posted by Rev. Link View Post
And I don't want to hear any complaints about "ripoff stores". Do you know what it takes to run a mom and pop game store and keep it profitable? I do, after being there with these guys while they got their store off the ground. Mom and pops like Game Insane might make $2-3 off of any new game sales. All their profit comes from used. They can't afford to give what people like us would consider "fair" trade value. And honestly, they shouldn't have to. Your only choices are to sell your games to Gamestop (who aren't gonna give you any better prices) or sell them yourself online or in a yard sale, both of which require time, and sometimes shipping and seller fees. Most people consider it to be worth the cost just to sell it to a game store and be done with it.
I too would like to have my main income come solely from selling used games, but most people won't buy the games I have for extreme amounts so I can't do that. Would I be able to start selling off loose NES commons for $20 each if I explained to people that I needed that much so I could live off of it? That would be kind of nice. IMO the best stores would need to have lots of traffic so stuff would always be selling and there would always be stuff traded in, and everything would be priced somewhat cheap. Instead of selling 3 games for $20 profit each, it would be better to sell 20 games for $5 profit each.

There's an independent game store near me, I haven't been there in several years as the owner is a jerk. Before I knew much about games I ended up buying a loose copy of Excite Bike for $40 that had a beat up label, as well as plenty of commons for $20 each or more(loose Elevator Action was also $40 "because that's a really rare game"). This was a few years ago(maybe 2001), not back when the console was still current. I never went to garage sales or thrift stores back then so I really didn't know any better. I've seen the owner knowingly buy stolen games from people and then denied buying the games when EB Games employees came in asking about them because they just had some games stolen from their store. This guy makes most of his money with newer games and rentals, but keeps the older games in stock for ridiculous amounts so his store has a big selection. I don't support all business owners just because they're independent.